As part of our special seventh celebration on Moonbase Central, I am pleased to be able to introduce a very special guest on the extended Swordcast, a real Doctor dealing in space, time and fantasy realms!
Two years ago, after taking redundancy from the NHS, I embarked upon a three year degree course at
Edge Hill University, to study Creative Writing. Initially, the course remit was to cover fiction, poetry and scriptwriting which I found would be the ideal channel for my creativity. However, when I began the course and looked at the specific modules in detail, I was amazed to find the 'Beyond Books' module, which examined the nature of narrative and story creation across all media, included lectures on Star Wars, Watchmen, Blade Runner and many other science fiction and fantasy concepts.
The designer of the course was one Dr Peter Wright, Reader in Speculative Fictions and expert in film studies, creative writing, fantasy, horror and role playing games. As a fifty-something mature student in a class of bright young things, finding a subject which resonated deeply with my own interests and experiences was extremely comforting and encouraging and I settled in to enjoy the course.
Shortly after, I discovered Peter had written a book about the work of my favourite author, Gene Wolfe, who's tetralogy 'The Book of the New Sun' had engrossed and confused me for the previous decade. After bombarding Peter with endless questions about the books and his experience as a house guest of Wolfe, as part of his researches, we became firm friends.
Now as I enter my final year, I look forward to working with Peter on two new modules, Writing Digital Adventure Games and Building the World, both of which promise to be fascinating and involved subjects which will increase my appreciation of the sci fi and fantasy genres considerably. During the
SWORDCAST, I'll be chatting to Peter about his work and influences. Hope you can join us!
