That's right!' said the Tiger-lily. `The daisies are worst of all. When one speaks, they all begin together, and it's enough to make one wither to hear the way they go on!'

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. So the other people, the people who think differently about this than you, think, No, our version of life started here, and there may be other types of life on other planets, which we would still get from methane or something like that? And so we should look for things like methane, because we might just see totally different types of life. That's right,' said the Queen, patting her on the head, which Alice didn't like at all, `though, when you say "garden," -- I'VE seen gardens, compare with which this would be a wilderness.' Alice looked round her in great surprise. `Why, I do believe we've been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!'

Somewhere Else’s tracks

AA: I love astronomy so I love to use ideas and metaphors related to it if I can. ‘Tattoo’ is the story of a woman who meets someone during a meteor shower and goes on to have a relationship with this person. Rather than just write a straight ‘break up’ story though, I wanted to bring in bigger ideas from astronomy. So, as the story is about the death of love, I wanted to also place that alongside ideas about the death of the universe – the story then creates a link between the macrocosm of the universe and the microcosm of the woman’s life. What I also wanted to explore is that, even when you’re in what you think is the darkest place in your life, there is always hope – so, even if something dies (love or a star or even a universe) there is the hope of rebirth (new love or a new star created from the elements of the dead one). The collection was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize. She is the recipient of Arts Council England funding as well as a K. Blundell Trust Award and Authors' Foundation Grant from The Society of Authors. She is the editor of 'Red Room: New Short Stories Inspired by the Brontes' and is currently working on a novel as part of a PhD in creative writing. urn:oclc:record:1132393622 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier somewhereelseore0000ashw Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s2vm30k7853 Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781844718801

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.' Alice didn't dare to argue the point, but went on: `-- and I thought I'd try and find my way to the top of that hill -- ' So I sent you a link, or I told you to search for the video? [ Ruvkun had suggested that I watch a YouTube video of his views on “life away from earth.”] Well, she has the same awkward shape as you,' the Rose said, `but she's redder -- and her petals are shorter, I think.' It succeeded beautifully. She had not been walking a minute before she found herself face to face with the Red Queen, and full in sight of the hill she had been so long aiming at.

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A. J. Ashworth's first collection of short stories displays impressive versatility. She treats each of her characters to their own narrative timbre - and the stories do not progress so much as accrue, collecting incidental detail that enriches the scenarios without pointing towards their resolution.' TLS. All of the above, plus I also like them to be quite enigmatic. One of the things I love about Raymond Carver’s stories is that I don’t instantly understand what they’re about. I have to think about them and turn them over in my mind to try and make sense of them. To continue with the jigsaw analogy, I find stories more engaging if some of the pieces are missing too because I then have to use my imagination to fill in the gaps. Tell us about the collection. Over what span of time did you write the stories that ultimately formed Somewhere Else, or Even Here?