What Jay & Selina have been up to the last few years…

Jay

Jay has done a detailed post about what he’s been up to, including explaining The Forgotten Lives projects.


The Other Side, Forgotten Lives, Obverse Books (2020)

Cover art by Paul Hanley. Cover design by Cody Schell.

Borrowed Time, Forgotten Lives 2, Obverse Books (2022)

Cover art by John Pearson. Cover design by Cody Schell.

The Other Side & Borrowed Time (reprinted), Forgotten Lives Omnibus HC, Obverse Books (2023)


Who Needs Enemies, Forgotten Lives 3, Obverse Books (2023)

Cover art by Paul Hanley. Cover design by Cody Schell.

Selina

Selina has been struggling to write for a variety of reasons, she is halfway through writing a long overdue novella for Obverse Books. She has been procrastinating by making cards, junk journals and indulging in other crafting. She did manage to get a couple of short stories published:


Diary of Jane Birch (Maid Servant), Other Lives in Samuel Pepys’s Diary: A Collection of Creative Writing inspired by Pepys’s journal of the 1660s, University of Leicester (2022) – Free to Read.

This story came out of a “creative writing workshop run by the ‘Reimagining the Restoration’ project. The workshop introduced members of the public to new research on Pepys’s diary, with a focus on figures from groups that are under-represented in standard historical sources.”

It was an excellent online workshop which inspired me to write this story about Pepys’s maid servant Jane Birch, based on one of the anecdotes in his diary.

Live readings of the stories took place as part of an online event and the writers agreed that the tales should also be made available as a free to read ebook.


Inert, Alight, Dreamland: Other Stories, Black Shuck Books (2021).

Dreamland: Other Stories was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Society Best Anthology Award in 2022.

I was very pleased to have a story in this fabulously weird anthology, alongside some of the best horror/surrealist/sff female-identifying writers around. My story was inspired by a photo I saw of a neon salesman’s sample case circa 1935.