Thirsty…

Another one from last year’s Pica pica challenge, this time the word was “gulps”. Not much to say about it, except that I am at least semi-fond of it…

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Boiling water in Oxford

Last year I visited Oxford for work for a total of about a month. This week actually marks the one year anniversary of the first of the three visits. Time flies.

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Eudaemonious

In an attempt to force myself to do some writing, a friend and I started a challenge that we, based on a more or less random word or expression, should create something (not necessarily anything of semi-literary nature, but that’s what’s closest at hand for me) in a short allotted time frame (a couple of days).

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A book

(Go here to read the story first, if you prefer not being spoiled!)

A book, by Andreas Skyman

For longer now, than I care to count, most of my creative efforts have been oriented along the lines of creating a book for my brother. The idea was first born from an off-side remark by him, saying that he wanted to see something written by me in print. As I recall, it was said as a compliment for my christmas gift rhymes (one of the few traditions of that holiday that I can say without hesitation that I like), and — flattered — I decided this would make for a suitable birthday present, later christmas gift, later still birthday present, and so on… The book was finally finished in December last year, and though the stories stay with me, I must say that I am glad to finally be able to put the work behind me, as unfinished projects always tend to clog my creative pipes and give me a terribly bad conscience in the progress.

As per usual, I’m going write something about the creative process here; if you prefer reading without any imposed prejudice, I suggest you go here for downloads.

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The Portmanteau Adventures of Mr G. and Miss B. IV: “The Two Ice-Cream Parlours, Part 1”

It was a lovely morning in Launcelot: birds were chirping in the hedges, flowers were slowly exposing their gentler parts by unfolding dresses of near-infinite delicacy, and greengrocers were climbing down from their over-night trees to begin their daily toil. The sun had just risen in the East, and in the Northeast, another one had followed shortly afterwards, to the puzzlement of astronomers across town.

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Soluppgång över Änggårdsbergen

(Go here to read the story first, if you prefer not being spoiled!)

If “…vad som räddas kan” is the short story that has taken me the longest to research and finish, “Soluppgång över Änggårdsbergen” (“Sunrise over Änggårdsbergen”, yet another Swedish work I’m afraid…) is rather the opposite. From when the first images of a lone wander in orange street lights first came to me (probably during a train journey) to a finished first draft was no more than month. It is also unique in that it is the first work that I have written exclusively on a computer — normally I prefer making a my first draft by hand, preferably in a nice notebook using a pen with a good ink flow (I prefer V-pens for this reason).

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I’ve always liked the autumn rains…

(Go here to read the story first, if you prefer not being spoiled!)

When I was in primary school, I remember that I always used to go outside on breaks on rainy days. I must have been around the age of nine, since that was the age at which I started reading SF, and my young imagination turned my rain-clothes into a space suit and the school yard to the surface of distant planet of torrential, icy rain. I was an explorer, protected only by the thin outer skin of the suit, a foreigner on a foreign world. I would just stand there, letting the droplets fall on my rain-coat, enjoying the feeling of almost, but not quite, getting wet.

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The GogTales

I wrote some good night stories for my friend Janette once, and only recently found that I still had these stored. These were made up in real-time, over ICQ, with about one or two sentences per post (I have paragraphed what was originally a solid block of text into sections to reflect this, and the sections are reasonably close to how the posts would have been divided, except perhaps for the dialogues), so they’re not stellar quality, but may still be nice to read. Much has happened since then, but Jiji = Janette and Hoshi = me. I can’t remember if they were appreciated, but since there are three of them, I am assuming at least the first two were. The third one (not included here) is unfinished, and will be posted when it is finished (if I can ever be bothered to finish it…). I present the first two here with only minor edits, mainly in paragraphing, spelling and structure.

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Laas Anginas

Another one of the early FantasyBits stories, on the theme “Ancient Temple”, I believe. As usual, only small edits have been made compared to the original, which would have been written in 1998 or so. For instance, back then I had no clue how to use a semicolon, it seems…

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The Portmanteau Adventures of Mr. G and Miss B., Part 3 “The Competition”

“Are you content? Even satisfied? Perhaps to an inordinate degree? We can help you change all that, and now at a reduced price! Pay a visit to the Colonel McRapon Plant School and get some of our new Failure-aniums – now only 2 pounds each! – and just sit back and relax, as your complacent happiness and deluded ease withers away! Remember: Colonel McRapon Plant School, 17b East Wryless Road, Sommershade.”

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