The Rushford Times - A weekly newsletter from Jodi Taylor

Sent on Wednesdays to paid subscribers and Fridays to free subscribers

This week we have:

• Jodi Taylor has just blown up the toaster

• A David Sands Writing Competition entry: By Proxi And Error by Joy Wright

• NEW! The David Sands Short Story Collection in paperback and eBook

• This week in history: The Sinking of the White Ship and the Origins of The Anarchy

• The St Mary’s Short Stories Christmas Reading Challenge - Story Eight in the Read all the St Mary’s Christmas Short Stories before Christmas Day Challenge is The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

• November - Book of the Month: The Nothing Girl and Little Donkey

  There’s plenty to read this week and you can see everything new on the blog too. CLICK HERE for the blog.

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I’ve just blown up the toaster. That’s the sort of day I’m having. Trying as usual to do 100 things all at the same time and doing none of them very well.

I can’t understand it. They’re always telling me women are supposed to be able to multitask but I suspect I missed the memo. It wouldn’t be so bad if – because I obviously have to confine myself to just one activity at a time – I could do that one activity well, but that’s just not happening.

I’ve run out of food because I was so busy over the weekend that I forgot to go shopping.

I was sorting out some of the stuff under the bed. I’ve got one of those beds that lifts up to reveal the storage area underneath – which seemed a good idea at the time but has turned out to be anything but. And unfortunately, I forgot and leaned on it and it came down like a blunt guillotine and I nearly lost an arm.

I pressed the wrong button on my hopelessly over-engineered hoover and the dust collector thing-thingy emptied itself all over the floor. I had to hoover it all back up again and then go and empty it properly.

And now the toaster has gone phut – twice, actually, because I shoved the tea cake back in again and tried to have another go. I now have a kitchen full of smoke and a semi-toasted tea cake. And I can’t use the grill because all my hydroponics stuff is stored in the oven.

I might go to bed early. When I’ve put the bed back together again, obviously.

Jodi x

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By Proxi And Error by Joy Wright

I must stress, before we go any further, that I was not supposed to be there.
Not in the Capsule. Not on Earth. Certainly not in Edinburgh in the year 1822.

I originate from Proxi, short for Proxima Centauri b. Essentially two doors down from Alpha Centauri A and B. The slightly scruffier end of the galaxy but it keeps us alive.
It is not the easiest of worlds. The stellar flares can knock out your communications without warning; the surface storms regularly rearrange an entire settlement block; and the ground itself has the unnerving habit of humming under your feet when the magnetics spike. It causes havoc with static on the chair. But it is home.

That morning, my involvement was minimal. A tray of tea. That was all. A tray of tea rolled across the bay while the Chrono-Capsule was prepared for a routine local hop.

Then Mandy X got involved.
She always does.

“Only a smidge,” she said, adjusting the settings with her habitual disregard for procedure. “This will shave a fraction off the power curve.”

Mandy X is a Chrono-Capsule Operator charged with the dubious responsibility of locating a new home for us for one hundred-or-so years whilst Proxi has a close brush with a black hole. She spends her time wandering the planets and time lines, creating data logs and research. She feeds all these back to Director Stowe. He’s the Director of the Institute of Applied Chronology and Stellar Cartography. His intention is to relocate us, temporarily, until we are less likely to be slurped off the planet like a milkshake through a very long interstellar straw. In theory, it’s a measured, carefully audited operation; in practice, it means Mandy X joyrides the continuum while I file the reports, pack the biscuits, and pray the new address comes with rails.

A Chrono-Capsule operator with imagination is a dangerous thing. Particularly when Proxi’s magnetic field is already playing skittles with precision. A Chrono-Capsule operator who is slightly clumsy and scatterbrained and hasn’t picked up the chronodriver she dropped earlier is even more dangerous. Possibly lethal.

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We’re delighted to announce the publication in paperback and ebook of all the published stories from the David Sands competition.

Channelling the inventive spirit of David Sands, this collection showcases outstanding sci-fi stories from fans of Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St Mary’s series. Witty, surprising and wonderfully unpredictable, each tale echoes the bold, mischievous heart of St Mary’s.

Profits from the sale of this book will be donated to Scope, a charity that campaigns to transform attitudes towards disability, tackle injustice, and inspire action. Scope is a registered charity in England and Wales (208231), Scotland (SC053490)

CLICK HERE to buy directly from the publishers - more profit for the charity. Printed in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia

CLICK HERE to buy from Amazon

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This Week in History: The Sinking of the White Ship and the Origins of The Anarchy

On the night of 25 November 1120, one of the most consequential maritime disasters in medieval Europe unfolded in the cold waters of the English Channel. The loss of the White Ship, a newly built and lavishly appointed vessel intended to carry members of the English royal household from Barfleur to England, resulted not merely in the deaths of more than three hundred passengers but in a crisis of dynastic legitimacy that shaped the political landscape of twelfth-century England. At the centre of the catastrophe was William Adelin, only legitimate son and designated heir of King Henry I, whose drowning precipitated a prolonged period of instability later known as The Anarchy.

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The St Mary’s Short Stories Christmas Reading Challenge

Story Eight in the Read all the St Mary’s Christmas Short Stories before Christmas Day Challenge

Who’s up for joining in the St Mary’s Christmas Reading Challenge? You simply need to read the 11 St Mary’s Christmas stories and leave a comment below each story as you finish them. We will feature one story a week up to Christmas

This week’s book is The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

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November - Book of the Month: The Nothing Girl and Little Donkey

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