Gaze not into the abyss lest you accidentally write a book

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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

5 Comments

  1. Dylan
    December 3, 2016 @ 7:53 am

    This is dynamite. With the fuse lit.

    Is this a weekly or, are you releasing it more casually? Either way, I can hardly wait until the next part.

    Reply

    • Elizabeth Sandifer
      December 3, 2016 @ 2:39 pm

      Weekly through all eight parts is the plan. I’m deep in part four now writing-wise, which will probably be the hardest one to write.

      Reply

  2. Austin Loomis
    December 3, 2016 @ 2:09 pm

    starting with The Wind From Nowhere, in which the world is destroyed by constant hurricane-force winds, and subsequently The Drowned World, The Burning World, and The Crystal World, which feature flood, drought, and weird crystalline growths appearing on everything.

    So air, water, fire (or at least water’s opposite) and earth (or at least stone). Did he do that on purpose, I wonder, or did some Purpose do it through him?

    Reply

  3. Alexander Hayden James Smith
    December 4, 2016 @ 6:01 pm

    Worth noting, perhaps, that Ballard himself effectively ‘disowned’ The Wind From Nowhere, considering The Drowned World to be his first novel. Reportedly, Wind… was knocked out during a few weeks holiday from his job purely so he could get a novel out there.

    It’s an interesting read in light of his later work; all the ingredients for a Ballard book are there but it feels half-formed, almost like he’s rushing through a checklist of his own tropes and quirks. It reads almost like a Ballard pastiche.

    Apparently, Ballard’s method of writing a novel* was to write a long, detailed synopsis, which he would then go back into to flesh out. Wind… reads almost like he didn’t get around to that last part. However, it’s definitely worth a look as part of his canon.

    *He also said, when asked how he writes: “Actually, there’s no secret. One simply pulls the cork out of the bottle, waits three minutes, and two thousand or more years of Scottish craftsmanship does the rest.”

    Reply

  4. Alan Moore
    December 5, 2016 @ 5:55 pm

    Actually, The Wind From Nowhere was a two-part serialized story. It was revised a minimal amount and put out as a novel(la), so not, strictly speaking, knocked out.

    Of course, another Ballard book was created this way and not disowned; Vermillion Sands was a collection of short stories written over 14 years, all set in the same resort and later compiled into a book.

    The four elements idea is somewhat tenuous: The Wind From Nowhere could be Air, The Drowned World is obviously Water, The Drought (a.k.a. The Burning World) isn’t really Fire, and I don’t think that the crystalline growth represents Earth; it’s actually about time.

    Reply

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