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Allyson Shaw, Writer of Tales

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feminist fantasy

Author Interview at Luna Station Quarterly

February 27, 2020March 14, 2021 | Allyson Shaw


My author interview with the Luna Station Quarterly Editors is up at the LSQ website. You can read it here. My story “Gald” about a fictional Pictish potion was published in their 10 year anniversary issue.

⚫️🌕🌅🫀🛖🩻🌄To this day no peat is cut from the far end of the loch, where the summer hut lay in ruins on the mountain pass, crouched in perpetual darkness. Only on the brightest, longest day does the the sun flit through the chasm, lighting the stones. The winds from the facing cliff seethe like the cries of a woman gone mad with hunger. If you hear these cries you are, as they say, already a dead woman…” Paula Rego- RIP. I love her visceral work which has been hugely important to me. This painting embodies reparative history and the work of the psychopomp. I had this image- Angel— over my desk as I wrote Ashes & Stones. (Thank you to @midnightcowslip_rosehipwitch who let me know had died). I just read that Elspeth Barker died last month, and I’m still recovering from the perfection of her only novel, O Caledonia. Heartbreaking and hilarious—why had no one ever told me about it before? I recognise Janet, the ill-fated protagonist, as myself. I see vividly in this book the enchanted, cursed landscape of Northeast Scotland and the steely, unforgiving nature of this place.  I have never read a book that was written with the delicious precision of language—words with the power to summon a place and time as if the reader is living it beside the writer and the people, animals and land of the book. This is no hyperbole—Barker was a sorceress. [portrait of Elspeth Barker by Jane Brown]#bookstagram #bookrecommendations 🧟🧌🦇🐺🌫🐍🧜🏻‍♀️🧙🏻‍♂️🔮💀Family portrait of last night’s amazing Reclaiming Our Monsters workshop- I can’t think of a better way to spend Beltane Eve, or a better posse to spend it with! Thank you all for showing up with the dispossessed, the othered, and alienated and channeling their voices in such fascinating ways! Please tag yourself if I don’t know your IG handle! 🕸🌚🕸🧌🕸🐺🕸A last minute place has opened up for my Reclaiming Our Monsters workshop tonight! What else are you doing on this most auspicious Walpurgisnacht New Moon? Join us for some summoning, dice rolling and writing! Link in bio! Stalker Castle, an island castle off the tidal waters of Loch Linnhe. I was in the Highlands for a few days collecting myself, finding new places, new stories. I’m so excited about my workshop this weekend. I can wait to see what we summon up. It’s almost time for my next writing workshop, Reclaiming Our Monsters. There is *room for one more* (cue sinister laughter). This Saturday, online, 7pm British Summer Time. Link in my bio. It’s International Monuments and Sites Day. It’s true there is a day for everything, but when you’ve spent the last four years exploring and recording neglected or missing monuments, this moment seems significant. The theme for 2022 is ‘Heritage and Climate.’ My Etsy shop allows me to write books. I’ve made a living on the site for over ten years, but their treatment of sellers has become increasingly exploitative. They are not the cuddly brand they claim to be. I am on strike with thousands of other makers. My Etsy shop is closed this week protesting Etsy’s exorbitantfee hikes on top of their other forced opt-ins like offsite ads. You can still shop at feralstrumpet.com— my indy shop. Support Striking shops by signing the coworker.org petition and not shopping on Etsy from the 11-18th of April

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