12 Authors Answer the Question How Do You Write in Tough Times? tor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In May 1962 the London-based literary agent John Johnson received news that Michael Dillon, one of his clients, had died unexpectedly in a hospital in India. Dillon had been brought to a hospital in Dalhousie, in the north of India, after collapsing on a mountain pass while travelling to Kashmir. Shortly after receiving news of this clientâs untimely passing, Johnson was surprised to receive a parcel Dillon had sent to London days before his death.
The parcel contained Dillonâs memoir. Out of the Ordinary, as the manuscript was titled, remains a remarkable document. It records the life of an Anglo-Irish transgender man whose journey took him from an aristocratic upbringing, through education at Oxford and Trinity College Dublin and, finally, to India, where he was ordained a Buddhist monk. The act of writing it with the intent of publication was, as Dillonâs first biographer, Liz Hodgkinson, noted, âa kind of victoryâ for Dillon. When Dillon posted the m
Colonial Holiday: Of Pagans, Cons, Tightrope Walkers, and Deer Pooping in the Banana Kingdom
Victoria Day fell on the actual 24th, between KeyCon and my COVID shot. To celebrate, I went on a quest to find heaven, and instead found tightrope walkers and defecating deer.
Let s start with the convention.
My publisher noted that the small Winnipeg con would be running online, and their schedule had many empty spaces. Some of us signed on for a reading and a discussion of world-building in science fiction and fantasy. I also found a place on a panel discussing the creation of credible aliens, something I ve contributed to a few times before at larger events.