Helloooo!

Last week I reviewed Eclectic Dreams - The Milford Anthology edited by J W Anderson, Pete W Sutton and Liz Williams a really interesting short story anthology helping the good cause of the Milford Writing Workshops (more information below). This has tales that writers used when starting out including a young twenty-something guy called Neil Gaiman. Wonder what happened to him. I had a chance to ask a couple of the editors Jim and Pete about the book and a little more information on Milford itself. The book is out 7/4 and available via all the usual places. I highly recommend it!

How would you booktempt people to read Eclectic Dreams – The Milford Anthology?

Jim - Beyond the unpublished Neil Gaiman short story, this is more than just a collection of stories. Each author has provided some commentary about how the story (and author) weathered the slings and arrows of reasoned criticism, and that’s not something it’s easy to get.

Pete – Every story in the book, apart from Neil’s, was previously published, some decades ago, some recently. We’ve tried to create a blend, like a good whisky, that will reward re-readings. Each of the authors has also said a little about their experience of Milford and critique in general which is something that adds extra depth to the anthology.

How did this book come about?

Jim - The members of the Milford committee were looking for sources of funding for the Milford bursary (information available on the Milford website), and the idea of an anthology was one that was kicked around and stuck. And stuck hard. And then we did it.

Pete – I was at Milford, there was a discussion about doing an anthology, I volunteered to get it off the ground. I couldn’t have done it without the support of the committee and especially my co-editors but it seems like serendipity that an anthology editor walked into the room at the right time. I’ve edited a dozen other anthologies and although each one is different they all take some energy to see through to completion. The Milford committee work in the background mainly, but they gave us that energy in spades.

Can you explain what the Milford SF Writer’s Workshop is?

Jim - A group of people, all who have at least one professional genre publication, get together for a week. We get to know each other, we critique each others’ stories, we play games (Bananagram is a past favorite), we discuss the problems of the world over wine in the library. We also have the writer’s retreat, a week of unadulterated writing in pleasant surroundings.

Pete – A week in pleasant company, in pleasant surroundings and with everyone working to help you write better.

 

What was your experience with Milford’s Workshops?

Jim - It is one of the highlights of the me time I have in a year. I’ve made a good group of friends, I’ve had good critiques and I’ve had stories that have had more mixed responses. But the critiquing is always with the aim of improving the story and the people are awesome.

Pete – I’ve only been able to afford to go once, so far, but it’d be lovely if I had the time and cash to go every year. I signed up at an EasterCon iirc and then Covid happened and it looked like I wouldn’t be able to go, and yet it all came out in the wash. It was a tiring but very fun week. There’s generally 15 authors and they bring up to 10k of stories along and therefore you end up reading the equivalent of a long novel in a short space of time (you get the work a couple of weeks in advance) and have to be on the ball every day to offer constructive criticism and feedback. And take on board fourteen other writer’s opinions on your own work when your time rolls around. I learnt a lot, made some new friendships and renewed some existing – it was a very enriching experience, and I would recommend it.

How did you and the other editors go about the process of gathering and selecting stories?

Jim -The short answer is that we wrote to those who had passed through Milford, asked for their stories that had been through Milford and had then found a publication home. We then had the difficult task of choosing the stories from those sent through, and that involved some discussion.

Pete – A call went out to the Milford alumni (and there’s quite a lot of them: https://www.milfordsf.co.uk/history.htm) asking for stories that had been through the Milford method and had then gone on to publication. We had a great response and battled to winnow it down, but with an eye to maybe having a second edition at some point. We went for great stories, of course, but also stories that worked well together. Putting together an anthology is a bit like putting songs together to make an album – you want there to be variety in length, in tone and, in this case, in genre. I think it works well – there was surprisingly little argument between the editors either as to which stories to put in or the order.

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As a writer and editor how valuable is feedback as a process? Has this anthology made you look at this in a different way?

Jim - Absolutely critical; it’s far easier for me to persuade myself that something I’ve written is a great piece of writing than it is for me to persuade others, particularly when it seems some work. The anthology has provided nuance to that, in the commentaries that the authors wrote about their experience and their stories.

Pete – No-one can write without input of another pair of eyes – be it a spouse or partner, a writing group, an agent or an editor. This anthology reminded me that even well-published and long-published writers also need that feedback.

 

Where can we find out more about Milford?

It can all be found at https://www.milfordsf.co.uk/ including the blog, application information, bursary information, everything that a body might want.

 

What great books have you read recently?

Jim - I've recently binged the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, which were awesome. Looking forward to number 8 coming out later this year

Pete – to tempt the tempter? I’m on a bit of a Graphic Novel kick recently and just finished The Highest House by Mike Carey & Peter Gross, I love Mike’s work and am very excited to see that the final Felix Castor book is coming soon. I also read 2120 by George Wylesol in January which is just brilliant, a Choose Your Own Adventure in Graphic Novel Format that is full of existential horror? Yes please. I’d also recommend Flake by Matthew Dooley which is about warring ice cream men in the north of England; sublimely idiosyncratic.

In prose I note that one of my books of last year is Queen of Clouds by Neil Williamson and, coming very late to it, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien was a very cool Christmas gift that I inhaled. Also for the writers reading this I loved the concept of Memoirs of my Writers Block by Jake Chapman – I picked this up secondhand not knowing who Jake Chapman was (of the outré artists: The Chapman Brothers). It’s the story of a story, about a gentle Chinese giant, told by several ghost-writers employed by a wannabe author. The wannabe author corresponds with the ghost-writers in between their tellings of the story. It has a hint of Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style and is also about the craft of writing.