Session number 11, 08/11/2023

Posted on: 5 December 2023 by Marta Zanucco in Creative Writing group

With six people attending, our November session was an intimate one; yet the incredibly high quality of the texts that were presented and the lively discussion that followed each reading made it as stimulating and exciting as ever. Offering us shelter from the chilly weather and early-descending darkness was our usual room in the Belvedere.

To start, David Tierney read a chapter from his sci-fi novel in progress Ark, set in a near-future Ireland. In this excerpt, we are presented with a family scene from the past of one of the narrators, Robyn, looking back at a time when her family farm still existed and her father was still alive. A new element has recently been introduced into Robyn’s family: Patrick, named after the patron saint of Ireland, is a humanoid robot acquired by Robyn’s father to help him take care of the farm. As the scene progresses, following the interactions between Robyn, her parents, their robot dog Shredder, and the newcomer Patrick, we are given insights into Robyn’s reluctancy to carry on her parents’ work and her relief at her dad’s choice of Patrick as his new ‘business partner’. It is a cosy and intimate section; yet social unrest, environmental disaster and imminent change loom large. David’s sharp ear for dialogue and his interest in the relationship not only between the human and the non-human but also between different kinds of non-human beings – animals, humanoid robots, and robot animals – contribute to creating an immersive, highly original, and emotionally charged chapter.

Another text exploring humanity and empathy with the non-human was Bernadette McBride’s short story ‘Turkey neck’. Loosely inspired by the film Death Becomes Her, which provides the epigraph, this story is a deep dive into an unnamed woman’s preoccupation with ageing as she researches the titular condition. Proceeding by mental associations and propelled by exhilarating run-on sentences, ‘Turkey neck’ offers a vivid, tender, and subtly humorous rendition of the woman’s interiority as her self-diagnosing attempts are constantly interrupted by digressions on a variety of subjects, including the mass slaughter of turkeys occurring every Christmas. Bernadette’s excellent mastery of interior focalisation, together with her attention to our everyday experience of the internet, results in a quirky yet relatable – and skilfully controlled – representation of a mind with too many tabs open.

Paddy Brennan was next with the first part of his new short story ‘Murmuration’, following a young woman as she rides her rickety bike through a wintery Belfast on a windy day. Stranded in her hometown while all her school friends have moved to other cities to start university, she reflects on how things and people have changed around her while she has stayed put, amid the familiar architecture and landscape. As she cycles on, her thoughts are punctuated by the noises made by her old bike. Then, in an epiphanic moment, a murmuration of starlings suddenly appears in the sky. Through a rich yet always precise prose, Paddy’s story is a celebration of the beauty and small revelations to be found in the everyday, in familiar routines, and even in the ordinary inconvenience of things falling apart.

We ended the session with another sci-fi novel, Ellie McAdam’s Rising Smog. Starting in medias res, the first chapter of this work in progress, titled ‘S3N4.1’, introduces us to the android Sena as she nervously waits to be interviewed by a human man named Red, a Hokoda Industries technician – or technicus, since many terms in this future world are borrowed from Latin – following a mysterious Incident. A variety of questions are left open in these first few pages: who or what has caused the explosion at the PVC Polymeriser that Red and his colleague Dax are enquiring about? Why are they trying to find a scapegoat in one of the various environmentalist and religious groups that oppose the operations of the Hokoda Industries? Who is Sena, what is she hiding, and why do the technici know so little about her? Through excellent world-building skills, Ellie transports us into a world where humans and androids – or artificialis – coexist, and which we gradually learn to understand as we follow Sena’s thoughts and observations, ultimately revealing her to be more similar to humans than she might at first appear.

After such an inspiring session, we can only look forward to our December creative writing meet-up, which will be taking place once again at our favourite location, the Belvedere.