I’m finally losing it. I’ve spent so long searching for clues
Jo Jo the Dog Faced boy and the bearded lady
that I’m starting to make things up in my head. Why did it
have to happen? I think for the millionth time, tears pricking
at the corner of my eyes. I hurry back to my cold apartment,
where I dig into my coat pocket to find the keys. My fingers
rub against a scrap of paper and I pull it out. The paper
is thick and brown, the letters gilded: Invite to the Feast of
Fools. There’s no address. It’ll be some stupid street act, I
think, stuffing the paper back into my pocket and drawing
out the keys.
I sleep badly, disturbed by strange sounds. Someone outside
must be having a party. The noises seem to seep into the
room. They slide about the walls, scuttling into my ears and
around my brain.
I wake feeling fuzzy and dry-mouthed – the hint of a
hangover – and with a nagging thought: what if there was
something more to that grey figure? What if she was trying
to tell me something… about Stella? Come on, Tom, I scold
myself. She was just some crazy peddler.
Rosalie wound her way along the deserted path, passing tent
after tent of midnight blue outlined in broad strokes of silver.
It was near midnight, and the Carnival had begun winding
down. Lights began to flicker out one by one, restoring the
brightly illuminated fairgrounds to a darker, quieter gloom.
Rapunzel, looking out from her window at the Carnival’s
northern end, had started keeping her hair, pulling her
blonde braid laboriously up the three floors of her tower,
singing a wistful tune while she was at it. It wouldn’t be long
till she was at Jack’s Pub, downing the pints with Jill and Red
Riding Hood.
Yesterday was Edge.Lit two and although I missed it last year I have enough experience of Alex Davis’s events that Fox Spirit booked a launch in full confidence that this was the right kind of event for us to bring the Carnival to.
Jo Jo the Dog Faced boy and the bearded lady
There were some twenty five or more of the skulk in attendance on the day and in addition to being a fantastic event as can be expected from Alex, it was also incredible for me on a personal level to see so many of the writers and people involved in Fox Spirit (including our tireless copy editor Daz) in one place and to meet some of them face to face for the first time as well as catching up with old friends. I could not wish to work with a more fun, passionate and inspiring bunch of people.
The Skulk, taken by Geri who should have been in it
So enough of me being all proud den mother, and onto the shennanigans as the Prof would say.
We had the lunch time launch time spot and we had brought Spacewitch in on it with us, so for around 50 minutes Fox Spirit and Spacewitch had control of the horizontal and the vertical in Cinema One. A fact we abused roundly. Things kicked off with a very sensible powerpoint from Del Lakin-Smith about what Spacewitch is trying to achieve. It’s a fantastic concept, the idea of enhancing the experience without interrupting the book. Here are the books, the core stories and here is the world we built around them, the DVD extras if you will for you to return to afterwards to extend the experience, or explore while you contemplate getting the book. The whole site will be a semi organic living thing, full of hidden treasures and opportunities for exploration. It’s a portal for storytelling not just books and it’s going to grow!
But enough of that. K.A Laity ‘Noir Carnival’s’ editor ushered him of stage to allow the carnival to begin, drawing the audience in and creating a fantastic fun mood. We then had short readings by James Bennett and Chloe Yates who did a marvellous job, before I finally allowed everyone to head up on stage with us for wine and cupcakes by the talented MutherFudger which went down a storm.
Charlie Fox and the MutherFudger cakes
I’m not sure it’s usual to mention the book so little at a launch but the cover image was up and that and the readings spoke for themselves I think. At any rate everyone seemed to have a fun time, the atmosphere was great and we sold a respectable number of books. Huge thanks and well done to everyone involved with a special mention to the redshirts and Quad staff who silently make things work on the day.
Other than that I spent the day talking, enjoying the sunshine and eating in fantastic company. All in all I’m not sure it could have been much more perfect.
The Prof, the Rev and the Captain with Charlie Fox.
Niall arrived last, watching the team’s six. He
stacked right, facing away from the door.
‘Breach and clear,’ Rynn ordered.
Jan swung around the frame in a low crouch, turning
left into the room. Lara was a breath behind him,
plasrifle turning over the top of Jan in a tight arc,
before paring right and moving in.
Rynn followed, turning into the room and moving
straight forward, shotgun raised at head height and
pointing directly into the body of the room.
‘Clear left.’
‘Clear right.’
‘Clear front.’
Niall stepped backwards, still pointing out and away
from the team, and reversed into the room, before
grabbing the door and swinging it around to secure the
room. Only then did he lower his weapon and turn.
‘Well… that escalated quickly,’ Niall said, voice in a
dead-pan as he looked at what the rest of the crew was
already moving towards.
When the altimeter read 600 feet, Jo levelled out
their ascent. The countryside sailed along below them,
summer-glossy trees patched with green and gold
fields, threads of stream, ribbons of road. The horizon
lay ahead, a smudge of blue hills against white clouds.
Her heart felt as though it was pumped full of steam
like the envelope above her. No, not steam: hydrogen
like the big airships used. If she weren’t holding the
control sticks, she might bob up into the sky like an
untethered balloon. She couldn’t stop smiling.
She’d almost forgotten about the tall woman, until
she said, ‘How far will this thing go before we have to
land?’
‘Stopper your ears!’ Ellie yelled. She scanned the sea,
searching for further sign of their enemy, then something
moved under the water nearby, something large
which rocked the boat as it passed under, and as she
shifted her balance she gripped the hilt of her favourite
blade and made ready to make her cuts count.
And there, just off astern, a silver-grey leviathan rose
out of the depths with a deep grumbling hoot and she
barely had time to notice the Selkin on its back when
more of the thrice bedamned creatures leapt up over
the rails on all sides and attacked. Leaping harpies of
the deep that they were, the dead-eyed creatures never
considered giving quarter, just went straight for the
kill, all wicked talons and teeth and misshapen knives
that she could only think they’d stolen off some sunken
wreck once upon a long ago.
‘Some are in such a rush to die, they grab hold of
death even as they push it away.’ He looked at Safe
again, his dark eyes twinkling with a smile. A man
behind him on the floor groaned and stirred. Bill
moved closer, and Safe wondered why he wasn’t covered
in blood and shit, or tied up on the floor. ‘Every
hour Harlik will take one of you to the open deck,
hang you upside down and flay you.’ Safe’s skin froze.
‘When twelve hours are gone he’s going to give the rest
of you to the sea.’
‘You’re not making me feel better.’Said Safe. Bill
ignored him.
‘Make sure you’re not one of the twelve, you want
him to throw you overboard.’
‘Sounds preferable.’
‘Clever boy.’
‘You’re forgetting something old man. I can’t swim
tied up like this.’
from ‘Plunder’ by Francesca Terminiello
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