In this blog post, we are both time-travelling and staying in the present. We’re not afraid of a paradox here, no sir. Those mad few of you who keep up with my shenanigans might remember a post I made last year, gushing about the moon. During my many months of “No”, I not only received my contributor copies of what might be the single most beautiful book I have ever been lucky enough to appear in (yes, the one pictured above, the one with all the foiling), but I was also asked by the lovely people of Flame Tree if they could feature my flash fiction in their brand new, shiny-shiny podcast Myth & Fiction.
I love—no, I adore hearing my work read aloud. Naturally, I said yes!
I have made my love for Punchdrunk’s Viola’s Room no secret. I have mentioned it at every available opportunity. Imagine my excitement, then, when I discovered that my story, “Shattered Moon, Hungry Sea”, would be appearing in an episode alongside Barry Pain’s “The Moon-Slave”—the story that inspired Viola’s Room, and therefore the reason it exists.
I’ve mentioned before that this anthology, my submitting to it and my being accepted, feels like fate. This solidifies that feeling. The lovely folks in charge of curating the Myth & Fiction podcast had no way of knowing that I am deeply, utterly, and completely in love and obsessed with anything Viola’s Room and Viola’s Room-adjacent. They had no way of knowing that that show changed me as a person—and yet. Here it is, that story alongside mine.
This may be my favourite publication.
Yesterday, my episode of Myth & Fiction went live. I love how my story sounds, Olivia, the narrator, did such an excellent job. I’m so pleased.
If you’d like to have a listen, it’s available on all the usual podcasting platforms, or, you can listen to it on the handy player below!
We love a multi-update entry. Two exciting things falling on one day is almost too much excitement for my decrepit little heart to take. Almost, but not quite. I lost my monthly streak. Last month, I had nothing in the way of news, but I think this being a double-whammy makes up for it. I hope it makes up for it, anyway. Before we get to the aforementioned double-whammy, however, another update: I am officially querying the novel. It’s real. It’s out there. It’s terrifying.
I sent my first query on 29th August and received a partial request for it yesterday—I am thrilled and scared and feeling absolutely everything. If nothing else, I’m very happy to have had a positive response to my very first query. Eeee!
While the Dream book is being queried I, in my usual chaotic, non-chronological, goblin way, am working on: its sequel, which I shall dub the Witch book for the purposes of … discussing it in a public place; a standalone YA novel, which I am referring to as the House book; and a standalone adult fairy tale retelling, which I am referring to as the Crow book. That and my normal host of short stories, and a novella, which we’ll nickname… the Fruit book?
I just love telling stories. I don’t know what to tell you.
This is a special update. This is one of those updates that I am going to hold in my heart for a good long while. I’ve been wanting to talk about this for over a year, but I’ve held my tongue like a good little author—but now I don’t have to!
Back in May 2023, I received an email from the lovely Todd Sanders at Air and Nothingness Press inviting me to write for a very special anthology. Fathoms in the Earth invites its authors to reimagine the archetypal characters of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. I’m convinced Todd might be a mind-reader. The Tempest is arguably my favourite Shakespeare play (followed very closely by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, then Hamlet, then Macbeth, if you wondered), and he’d already come up with an earlier anthology concept that was so very me and that I was lucky enough to appear in (Spirit Machine will always be one of my favourite publications). I’m 100% up for anything Air and Nothingness Press might throw at me, quite honestly.
The anthology, inventively, uses titles of books that appear in the 1991 film, Prospero’s Books, to title its stories. (Serendipitously, 1991 happens to be the year I was born!) Each of us was assigned a title and then let loose to create as we saw fit.
My story, “A Book of Mythologies”, is from the perspective of Ariel and seeks to ‘correct’ its own mythology—that is to say, the plot of The Tempest. I had a lot of fun writing it, and it contains some of my favourite sentences in any of my writing to date. I enjoy it, and I hope you will too!
If there is a choice to be made, I am the one to choose. If I am the one to choose, I will shape the world.
Or break it.
—ELOU CARROLL, “A BOOK OF MYTHOLOGIES”, FATHOMS IN THE EARTH
Today also saw the release of a wonderful podcast! The excellent folks at Lunatics Radio Hour are hosting a little library of spooky sea-faring stories across two episodes, and I am so pleased to have one appearing in their number. My story appears with stories by writing friends, Warren Benedetto and Marisca Pichette, and new-to-me writers in the form of Mathew Gostelow and Alex Grehy. Each story is different and great and it’s a pleasure to be featured alongside them
Heading up the episode, “Lorelee” was originally published in Seaborne Magazine, a venue that seems to have disappeared (alas). It’s lovely to be able to resurrect in audio form, read by the brilliant Tessa McKnight, who brings the story to life so wonderfully—I’ve listened to it more than once and I will listen to it again!
You can listen in the player below, or on any of the usual podcasting places.
She is on the beach again, hair tangled with salt and sand. Fingers gritty and bloodied, she digs and digs and pulls up each shell in turn, holds them close to her ear and casts them away. With every empty carapace she howls and screams until her voice breaks like a wave on the shore.
Today is an exciting day. Today is the first time I have had two publications drop at the same time. My insides are fizzing, I’m so excited. I’m like a shaken bottle of Pepsi, open me and I will explode. (In place of my organs, you will find only glitter and ghosts.)
The first is Ghostlore: An audio fiction anthology. Part Two: Hauntings, edited by Lyndsey Croal for the Alternative Stories and Fake Realities podcast. This episode is all about hauntings and spooks and is altogether a very eerie listening experience. I love it. My own story, “We Cower in a Ruined Castle and Hope Not to Hear a Ghost”, is narrated by the absolutely fantastic Sally Walker Taylor and features a local ghost—the Drummer Boy from Dudley Castle.
I cannot express how much I adore this production. You can listen below or via all the usual podcast channels.
My second publication of the day is issue two of Hexagon SF Magazine’s MYRIAD zines: Ironwood, edited by Anna Madden (who I had the great joy of appearing alongside in Hexagon Issue #4 in 2021).
“The Curse Uncursing” is a story about a witch and the importance of specificity when it comes to bargaining with faerie folk—or ‘unfolk’, as I call them.
This publication is doubly exciting as Ironwood also features a story by Lyndsey Croal, editor of Ghostlore!
It all feels a little bit like fate—if you believe in that sort of thing.
I did something scary last week: I recorded my first ever podcast interview with the lovely Antony Frost of TERRIFY ME! With Antony Frost. I’ve really been enjoying TERRIFY ME! since its launch earlier this year and it very much has a spot on my regular rotation. It’s a great little podcast if you’re interested in all things spooky and folkloric, which, naturally, I am.
Having never been very good at public speaking, I’d day-dreamed about potential spoken interviews, and how they would go and what I would say, while being almost entirely certain they would never happen—who hasn’t pretended they were part of an interview while standing under a steaming shower head? No? Just me?
Well, sometimes you surprise yourself. Not only was I thrilled to be invited but I was excited to take part, even if I was nervous! (And I was very nervous.)
The episode is now live, ready and waiting to be streamed. Antony and I chat about all things ghostly, gothic and Crow & Cross Keys—there may be some sneaky submission tips tucked in there too. I have included the episode below for your delectation and delight. TERRIFY ME! With Antony Frost is available on Anchor FM, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. (Antony has also interviewed the brilliant Alex Woodroe in a previous episode, which is well worth the listen!)
We cannot guarantee that episode 8 is not haunted. I hope you love it!
This post makes me giddy. Giddy, I tell you. (I have been using this word everywhere today and I regret nothing.) I have been sitting on this for about a week, which doesn’t sound like long in the grand publishing scheme of things but it felt like a long time. When I submitted to Alternative Stories & Fake Realities’ new audio fiction anthology, Ghostlore—edited by Lyndsey Croal—I tried to convince myself that I didn’t mind if it wasn’t accepted. That was a complete lie. I really wanted this acceptance and luckily for me Lyndsey and the Alternative Stories team loved my little story just as much as I do.
For the first time in my publishing journey, my writing is going to be featured on a podcast—complete with background effects—and I absolutely cannot contain my excitement. I’ve never heard my writing professionally produced and I can’t wait.
“We Cower in a Ruined Castle and Hope Not to Hear a Ghost” is a story about superstition and one of the ghosts that loiters around Dudley castle. It will be featured in Ghostlore Episode 2, Hauntings (trailer and release date to come).
There are several familiar names that I’m thrilled to be sharing a contents list with, the complete line-up sounds incredible. Not to mention that episode 1 features an author whose book is sitting on my shelf right now. A book I adore. (Do I have to keep telling myself to Be Cool, Elou? Yes. Yes, I do.) I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit starstruck.
I can’t wait to share more as and when I can!
The second bit of incredibly exciting news I have to share is that Spirit Machine: Tales of Séance Ficton is fully funded and has been sent off to the printers! Air and Nothingness Press books are always so beautifully produced—and I will say this every time I mention them for the rest of forever. I can’t wait to hold it in my hands.
elou carroll 