This website brings together two sides of my life that I love – music and fiction. Another writer with her feet in both worlds is Jacey Bedford, novelist and singer with folk trio Artisan. Despite “hanging up [her] tonsils” ten years ago, she’s never managed to keep away from the music scene, running her own tour management agency and giving the odd tour herself on the side. The return of Artisan in 2015 promises to be something special, as anyone who witnessed her impromptu a capella turn at Fantasycon 2014 will agree.
Not that she’s been resting on her laurels in the other side of her life either. Empire of Dust, Jacey’s debut novel, is a space opera set in a universe where large corporations and their telepathic, implant-addicted psi-tech agents are locked in a battle for resources across the galaxy. With Empire of Dust due out on 4th November through DAW, here’s Jacey’s take on the similarities between music performance and writing – and what she’s learned from each…
There’s just over a week to go until Worldcon hits the UK – Loncon 3 will be at London’s ExCeL arena over 14th – 18th August. More than 5,000 people will be descending on London for the first UK Worldcon since 1965. So I’m ridiculously excited to announce I’ll be joining a couple of panels in the music stream over the weekend.
Here’s what my Loncon schedule looks like so far:
FRIDAY 15th AUG – “Massively Multiplayer” The Music of Genre Video-games
Capital Suite 5 (ExCeL), 4:30pm – 6pm
w/ Melinda Snodgrass, Jeremy Zerfoss, Isabella van Elferen and Helena Nash.
“Now a larger industry than films worldwide, with the biggest titles inspired by SF&F themes, video games are driving a lot of successful music composition, both classical and modern. Panellists discuss the landscape so far and look to future trends.”
MONDAY 18TH AUG – Worldbuilding to Music
Capital Suite 9 (ExCeL), 11am – 12pm
w/ Bill Sutton, Nicolle Lamerichs and, once again, the amazing Melinda Snodgrass.
“Panellists explore how music inspires imagination and worldbuilding, with examples from current professional and fan works and from classics such as the works of Marianne L’Engle, H. Beam Piper, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien and others.”
You may have seen the Writing Process Blog Tour that’s been doing the rounds recently. I’ve been tagged by Neil Williamson, who in turn was tagged by Liz Williams, and Claire Weaver before her. However, I also recommend checking out Nick Harkaway‘s one on this, and Libby McGuigan‘s, and Jacey Bedford‘s – or, indeed, any of the other Writing Process blogs that have been cropping up, as they’re really quite interesting.
While my answers are mostly about fiction writing, the last part also has a little something about my process when it comes to music and non-fiction work. While it fits here, there seemed to be little point in doing this for the other questions – “because I was commissioned to do it” seems somewhat churlish an answer. I’ve also tagged three folks who I’m hoping will provide three very different insights into their own media… But first things first.
