Today’s guest post is from Hannah Spencer, whose Cracked Eye Double Feature, ‘Voices of the past/ Who is She?’, is out today.
In Voltaire’s Candide, it was the humble farmer who was able to share with Candide and his companions the philosophy and interpretation of life which finally brought their long journey to an end, succeeding where the various philosophers, sages and scholars had all failed.
Working on a farm by day, and evening, and night, and writing the rest of the time, I think I can see why. The farming life is deeply entwined with both the miracle of life and the harsh blow of death, the two fundamental factors which forge the reality of our world. To be wholly reconciled with these would be to understand everything about existence.
It is probably no accident that when my career path switched from a microbiology laboratory to a dairy sheep farm, I also started writing stories, because writing is also about reality. Not just understanding it, but using that understanding to form and shape it. An existing reality or a new reality. Controversial or mundane. The only limit is the power of the creator’s mind. A writer creates people and places and makes them real for the duration of the story. In some cases they survive long after the last page is turned.
Spending long hours in the milking parlour with my woolly companions is perfect for contemplation and creation. People, places and conversations are constantly streaming though my mind. I compose stories to the accompaniment of the chortled greetings of friendly sheep, the swish of milk through the milking clusters, a dozen sets of teeth on the cud, soft noses and inquisitive teeth on my ears, and many deliberate hooves on my toes.
Unusual? Yes. Unique? Quite possibly. Influential? Most definitely.
Voices Of The Past and Who Is She? A spine-chilling double bill from Hannah Spencer :
Voices Of The Past
“Osteo-archaeology could discover so much… She always found it poignant to hear the voices of the past begin to speak. What would this lost soul have to tell her? “
When osteo-archeologist Lorna is asked by a museum to examine the 250 year old skeleton of a woman who was once called a witch, she feels a compelling call from the past. Could there be a connection between the long dead woman and the young scientist? Is the woman’s ghost speaking to her? Can Lorna bring her peace at last?
Who Is She?
“If I replay in my mind the last time… then maybe I’ll understand what’s going on here.” Can our past life reach out to us? Drawn to a place she has never been before a young woman encounters a terrible and chilling sequence of events – but are the horrors she sees a vision, a dream or her own past life?
Get the stories for 99p in the UK, or 99c in the US.
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