Tanith Lee’s Nieces

I have four works in this beautiful anthology, including poems and short stories. Here’s the blurb:

In the footsteps of the High Priestess of Fantasy… Tanith Lee – 1947-2015 – was a huge influence on fantasy literature, and a towering inspiration to a generation of writers, who were captivated by her iconic, poetic prose, her deft use of language, her surreal visions and her ground-breaking ideas.

Many successful authors claim that discovering the work of Tanith Lee encouraged them to write in the first place. In particular, she was instrumental in giving women writers the confidence to break the staid moulds of the genre – to be evocative, sensual and daring in their work, to smash boundaries.

Its title inspired by Tanith’s Flat Earth sequence of books, (in particular Night’s Master), Night’s Nieces is a collection of stories by female writers, who not only counted Tanith Lee as a close friend, but also as a mentor, a teacher and an inspiration. Tanith, having no children herself, considered these younger women to be her ‘nieces’ and offered her support to their writing. While the ‘nieces’ included in this book do not encompass all of Tanith’s close writer friends – for she had many – it amply provides a sample of her legacy.

Each ‘niece’ has written a short story inspired by Tanith’s work, as well as an accompanying article describing how Tanith influenced her career and sharing fond memories of her friendship. The book also includes previously unpublished photographs from Tanith’s life, as well as artwork by the authors.

Contributors include Storm Constantine, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, Vera Nazarian, Sarah Singleton, Kari Sperring, Sam Stone, Freda Warrington and Liz Williams. With an introduction by John Kaiine.

In praise of a simple writing tool

Recently I read somewhere that “NASA spent millions to develop a pen that would write in space, whereas the Soviet cosmonauts used a pencil.” This turns out to be a myth, but it got me thinking about pencils – in particular pencils with a graphite core (commonly known as “lead pencils” (despite the fact there’s no lead in them).

Pencils
Pencils are simple, useful writing tools

In the trenches of The Somme during the First World War, my great-uncle wrote letters to his loved ones at home using a pencil. To this day, those poignant missives can still be easily read. This indicates that pencils have archival qualities. Presumably he simply sharpened the pencils with a pocket-knife whenever they wore down.

The Reidinger website lists the benefits of pencils:

  • pencils are cheap writing utensils.
  • there are various hardness degrees for different areas of use.
  • you can get pencils nearly everywhere.
  • different types and designs are available.
  • pencils are easy to handle.
  • they write perfectly at any temperature.
  • they write in any position or situation (overhead or in space!)
  • Made a mistake? No problem – simply erase the wrong parts
  • words written with a pencils have a high resistance to light
  • a writing length up to 50,000 metres!
  • the sound of writing on paper, and the sound of the pencil sharpener that sharpens a blunt pencil

Wikipedia’s article on pencils says, “Pencils create marks by physical abrasion, leaving a trail of solid core material that adheres to a sheet of paper or other surface. They are distinct from pens, which dispense liquid or gel ink onto the marked surface.

“Most pencil cores are made of graphite powder mixed with a clay binder. Graphite pencils (traditionally known as “lead pencils”) produce grey or black marks that are easily erased, but otherwise resistant to moisture, most chemicals, ultraviolet radiation and natural aging. “

I like to carry paper and a writing utensil with me wherever I go, in case inspiration strikes. I’ve given up carrying ballpoint pens. They seem to inconveniently dry up with no explanation. Pencils are more reliable, (unless you drop them and the internal core fractures in a million places along its length, prior to falling out in small, annoying fragments).

Metal Pens

These days, we can buy “metal pens”. Wired’s article Neither Pen Nor Pencil: Write Endlessly In Metal explains the principle: ” A tiny amount of metal alloy transfers from the pen to the page. Unlike pencil, it can’t be smudged with your hand, and unlike ink, it doesn’t need to dry. The amount of alloy for each stroke is so tiny that the pens are expected to last a lifetime without needing to be refilled or replaced. You can sharpen the tips for a finer point with a little sandpaper.”

The disadvantages? The alloy in some of these pens contains trace amounts of lead, so it’s not so good for kids, and the thought of lead in my writing is disconcerting.

Metal pens sound ultra-modern, but in fact they were invented hundreds of years ago. The National Galleries of Scotland website explains that they were used in the Middle Ages:

“Metalpoint is a traditional drawing technique in which a thin metal stylus, usually of silver, is used with paper that has been prepared with an abrasive coating traditionally made from powdered bone and gum-water. As the point is drawn along the surface, tiny traces of metal are left behind creating a delicate and very precise line.”

Artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer and Rembrandt all used metal styluses made of lead, tin or silver. The technique is called Silverpoint when the stylus is made of silver, and this was the most favoured metal.

The pencil I’m using right now

I’m currently using a Columbia Copperplate HB pencil to write down ideas. It’s also useful for drawing visual representations of your concepts, and even shading your pictures for a 3D effect.

How pencils are made

Finally, if you’re into watching videos on YouTube, try this one. It’s by Faber-Castell, and it’s called “How We Make Pencils”.

WRITING TIP #4: Read only the best.

Read only the Best

WRITING TIPS 4: Read only the best.This, for me, is an essential writing tip!

Zat Rana wrote, in an article for QUARTZ, published on 18 October, 2017:

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY: You “become” what you read.

“. . . I don’t think most of us internalize quite how much, and sometimes how subtly, what we read determines who we become.
Input shapes your output.

“Language is our primary tool of communication. It’s how we build and organize our knowledge, and it’s what allows us to interact with each other.

“Outside of direct experience, it’s also largely how we create our perception of reality. The information your senses absorb through your surroundings combine to create linguistic (and subconscious) models in your mind about how the world works and the best way to interact with it.

“One part of this occurs through verbal conversation, or listening to something in general, but for most knowledge workers and for the average person in developed countries a larger part of it is directly a result of what we consume [via reading].

You are what you read. The information that you input into your mind informs your thinking patterns, and it influences your output in the form of the decisions you make, the work you produce, and the interactions you have.

Reading a book

“That’s a huge incentive to prioritize a block of time to think about what and how you consume [read], and whether or not you read adequately relative to the progress you want to make. It’s a reason to maybe pause and consider if you can do anything to purposefully shape the direction of your mind.

“Naturally, input doesn’t necessarily mean quantity. The correlation between how much you read or consume and what you can do or who you become begins to even off after a certain point, and more isn’t always better.

“This is entirely about what the quality of your predominant sources of input [books] are, and the importance of those can’t be overstated.”

JRR Tolkien

Professor JRR Tolkien

Which authors have influenced my own writing over my lifetime?

Primarily, Professor JRR Tolkien and Tanith Lee, but also (in no particular order) –
Nicholas Stuart Gray, George MacDonald, John Keats,
William Shakespeare, Isaac Asimov, Eleanor Farjeon,
C.S. Lewis, Arthur C. Clarke, E. Nesbit,
Andre Norton, Ann McCaffrey, Charles Dickens,
George Eliot, Terry Pratchett, Jane Austen,
Ray Bradbury, Susannah Clark, Thomas Hardy,
Simon Winchester, Dianna Wynne-Jones, Douglas Adams,
Alan Garner, CS Lewis, Andrew Lang,
William Allingham, Hilda Lewis, Charles Kingsley,
Emily Brontë, Juliet Marillier, William Morris,
Ursula LeGuin, Jackie French, Walter de la Mare, and more.

Tanith Lee

Tanith Lee

All these writers and poets have strongly influenced my inner worlds and contributed, in their own way. to the creation of the Bitterbynde Trilogy. In addition to giving me inspiration, they have also given me joy, peace, excitement, wonderment and delight. They have increased my vocabulary and helped me to look at the world in new ways.