Somewhere Else, or Even Here

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AA: Thanks, Adnan. The collection is made up of 14 stories, most of which were written during my Master’s degree in Writing at Sheffield Hallam University. The stories are quite diverse but there are certain themes which run throughout a lot of them, for instance loss and hope as well as more obvious themes such as astronomy. They’re quite dark, but there’s light in there too – the yin and yang of life. I suppose I’m happy with how the collection has turned out although I’m not sure creative people are ever fully satisfied with what they’ve produced! We’re always striving after some kind of perfect, unattainable creation. That’s what keeps us writing. The Red Queen shook her head, `You may call it "nonsense" if you like,' she said, ` but I'VE heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!' It's time for you to answer now,' the Queen said, looking at her watch: `open your mouth a LITTLE wider when you speak, and always say "your Majesty."' A slow sort of country!' said the Queen. `Now, HERE, you see, it takes all the running YOU can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!'

But that's not YOUR fault,' the Rose added kindly: `you're beginning to fade, you know -- and then one can't help one's petals getting a little untidy.' This collection seems to be about that gravitational pull. The lengths people go to when that pull is broken, a lover or relative has died, or left or not yet arrived and is hoped for. So one of the things I did in that video that I was a little bit wary that I did is I refer to the wonderful motor the ATP synthase. This is one of the most amazing little machines that bacteria have, for generating energy by pumping protons across membranes. And they basically have a molecular motor that rotates it, I don’t know, a thousand r.p.m. or something. Well, NASA has been supporting us. Maria Zuber—who’s a card-carrying planetary scientist, she’s a real space person—and I have been working on this together for almost twenty years, and NASA has supported it. It’s a high-risk endeavor that they’re willing to throw some dough at, but they have not approved it for flight yet.I talk to author A.J. Ashworth about her short story collection Somewhere Else, or Even Here which won the Scott Prize. Alice curtseyed again, as she was afraid from the Queen's tone that she was a LITTLE offended: and they walked on in silence till they got to the top of the little hill.

AA: They were all written over about three years so were produced quite close together. The writing of some of them may have overlapped – it’s hard to remember. Sometimes I’ve had an idea for a story and have written a few sentences but it didn’t feel the right time to write it, so I might have left it for a while and returned to it later. I have lots of first sentences and paragraphs on my computer – many of which will never be looked at again – but I think it’s important to at least have them written somewhere just in case. As for the effect on the finished pieces, I’m sure that similar interests and concerns will emerge especially if they’ve been written over a fairly short space of time. I was just starting to get more interested in astronomy when I began writing the stories in the collection and I can definitely see that shining through a lot of the pieces. AA: When I was writing the stories, I wasn’t really aware of how much loss was in them. I only realized it once people started reading them and telling me what they thought of them. But themes often emerge naturally without the writer necessarily being aware of them, so loss – and the potential of finding some kind of happiness after loss – is obviously a concern of mine. It’s hard to explain how I’ve dealt with themes like that because it’s not something I’m really conscious of. I’m a very intuitive writer and I just follow what feels right. I don’t feel I can be too analytical about how I write. I just follow my nose. Paper Lanterns — 4.5 stars [sad...about a couple losing their 8-year-old son...it was well written, and I didn’t think it was over the top]

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For almost seven years, NASA’s Curiosity rover has been exploring the terrain of Mars. Two weeks ago, it made a stunning discovery: relatively large concentrations of methane gas. The rover also found methane in 2013, but the readings recorded this month—approximately twenty-one parts per billion—were about three times as concentrated. The reason this news registered among scientists is that methane is often a sign of life; although the gas can be produced by various chemical reactions, most of it comes from animate beings. Does this mean that we are on the verge of discovering life on Mars, and, if so, what kind of life is it likely to be? Is she like me?' Alice asked eagerly, for the thought crossed her mind, `There's another little girl in the garden, somewhere!'