After today’s concrete-block laying, my arms feel like jelly, so I think I’ll feed them some. Doctor Ratcliffe’s restorative pork jelly of course, not the peanut-butter and jelly that confused me do so many years as young readers. Jelly – as a non-American, was a kind of brightly colored sweet dessert made with gelatine and fruit-flavoring. (?Jello, in the US) Usually, trembling blocks of the stuff served with ice-cream to small children… so my mental image of US was one of extreme trepidation. I had actually tried our ‘jelly’ with peanut-butter in case I was missing out on some rare treat. I think… along with the boarding-school legendry midnight feast of tinned sardines and condensed milk, it is something everyone should try at least once.

They say that what doesn’t kill, makes you stronger (another statement open to doubt. Don’t try that one). But that was rather the way I felt about editing a collection of short stories – Now out Raconteur Press – MAD SCIENCE.

Look, I am a writer, and a reader. Any writer starts to critique what he reads. It’s unavoidable, really. And the truth is you don’t have to be better at writing than someone whose work you’re reading to see problems and flaws. It is written: even a fool can ask a question the wise man cannot answer. And even a fool can see problems in other people’s work. Sometimes to the complete blindness of that problem in your own writing (Misty telling me I use too much passive voice – I am actually on the bottom edge of passive usage… her work runs at about 4 times mine.) Anyway, I expected to find this very hard going.

I am always pleased to find myself quite right… even if it was for the wrong reason. I was lucky in that the first story was just so entertaining… I actually forgot to critique – as I was swept away by the tide of ideas, pace of the story. I had to read several of the stories twice to see if the writing stood up to the story. The collection theme was a humorous look at science, and the typical mad-scientist trope. It certainly offered some writers a great chance to let the borders of sanity wander – especially the floating volcano. I have questions. Mere mind transference to a Holstein is child ‘s play by comparison.

Anyway, the collection is out. If you’re looking for stories that even distracted me beyond editing, and made me laugh – that’s the place to look.