Nova Scotia Vol 2 anthology, edited by Neil Williamson and Andrew J. Wilson, is now available to order! It celebrates the depth and breadth of Scotland's dazzling science fiction and fantasy landscape from its haunted islands to its transformed cities and everything in between. Jenni Coutts created the gorgeous cover art.
You can order the book on its own, or buy the bundle anthology deal - both from the Luna store.
Today we'd like to introduce you to Eris Young and the story "Broderie Écossaise".
About the author:
Eris Young is a queer, transgender writer of speculative fiction. Their work has appeared in Escape Pod, GigaNotoSaurus, Small Wonders, and the Immigrant Sci Fi Short Stories anthology from Flame Tree Press, among others. They are the fiction editor at Shoreline of Infinity, Scotland's science fiction magazine.
Eris on the story:
This was one of those rare stories that seems to write itself. The idea for it came about during the pandemic, the first time I'd ever really had time for hand crafts, at which point I became fascinated with embroidery, and all the different things it's meant to different people. I remember waking up way too early from a bad night of sleep and feverishly sitting at my window with the sky slowly lightening, scribbling the first notes for this story, and the plot coming out fully formed. Unlike most of my "brainstorming while very tired" stories, this one actually became something! Most of the stories I'd written up to that point had been science fiction or "no magic" fantasy stories, so I wanted to try my hand at writing a story where a character actually casts spells. I'm a big fan of sympathetic magic, that is, magic cast by creating an image or miniature representation of something, and embroidery has such symbolic power, especially in Scotland, that it seemed like a natural choice. Embroidery has historically been a way for women to express themselves and speak their minds at times when there were few other avenues to do so, so it made sense for the story to centre around forbidden or secret knowledge, power, and desire. I wanted to explore the parallels between women's sexuality, and magic, which was also forbidden and feared at that time. Fionnula is naive, desiring, dangerous and fearful of harming the object of her desire, which made her a fun protagonist to write.
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