Published stories:
# The Jet Set
# The Urbane Fox
# Mirror Mirror
# Baron Boscov's Bastard
# The Jewel of Locaria
# Aunt Agatha's Agency
# Empire of Dust - complete, submitted to publisher
# Sea Witch and Rowan-Kind - first draft complete, now revising
# The Ballad of Tom Ling - complete
# The Outsiders - early work, kinda complete, needs a little more revision.
Unpublished Stories
I don't write all that many short stories. You can read a sample.
Jacey Bedford - Writer
You can contact me at jacey at jaceybedford dot co dot uk.
This is me, Jacey Bedford, writer, familyperson and for twenty years a member of international vocal harmony trio, Artisan. I'm firmly rooted in Northern England. I live on the edge of the Yorkshire Pennines, in a tiny village, near Huddersfield with my husband, recording studio engineer and song writer, Brian Bedford. The kids have grown and flown, and now I work in the music business, get involved in my local community... and I write.
I write fiction, mostly fantasy and SF. I've completed three novels, two of which are currently doing the rounds of publishers' slushpiles - one in the UK and one in the USA. The other is completed to first draft stage and now undergoing revision ... oh and there are two more, a pair of follow-on fantasy novels... my first efforts that might make a publishable trilogy with a little work.
As light relief I write the occasional short story, and so far have sold six of those - one to a magazine and five to anthologies. The latest is not yet published, but the most recent in the bookshops is in the anthology from DAW (in the USA) entitled "Mystery Date."
Some of my stories are available to buy at www.anthologybuilder.com as part of very affordable customised anthologies. You can customise your own anthology or buy the one I customised with four of my stories plus stories from other writer friends I know you'll love. 'Jewels of the Universe Stories by Milford Writers'.
Click on the left for details of and extracts from my stories
And synopses of my unpublished novels
The Jet Set
A future fantasy featuring morris men and the culture police, soon to appear in the upcoming anthology 'Fabulous Whitby' edited by Liz Williams and Sue Thomason. Due in 2008. Ask yourself what might happen if the UK's new licensing laws were taken to extremes and singing and dancing without a licence was an offence likely to lead to people being 'disappeared.'
The Urbane Fox
In the anthology "Mystery Date",
edited by Denise Little, published by DAW, 2008
A fantasy about sewing, shape-changing and romance.
When John Reynard orders a special outfit from costume designer Izzy, she doesn't realise that she'll be putting blood and soul into the making of it or that she'll be putting her life on the line when he invites her to the midsummer party where he'll be wearing it.
Extract:
By late Friday it was almost finished. With the natural light fading fast, she turned the work to fasten the final thread on the back, but as she did so the needle slipped and stabbed into the side of her ring finger. She jerked her hand away and a drop of bright blood dripped on to the fabric.
"Oh, hell!"
She sucked her finger, jumped up and found a paper hanky, but the thirsty cloth had swallowed the blood as if it had never been. Even when she got a fresh tea-towel from the kitchen and dabbed the place with clean cold water, she couldn't sponge any blood out of the fabric. Luckily, when she turned it back to the right side, there wasn't a mark. A narrow escape, girl, she thought, least said, soonest mended. There wasn't enough fabric or enough thread to remake the tabard - even if she'd had time. She finished the last stitch and put it away, falling into bed, deeply tired, to dream of dark earthen burrows lined with leafmould and rabbit fur.
Mirror, Mirror
A new angle on Snow White's wicked queen by Jacey Bedford
from "Rotten Relations"
Edited by Denise Little.
Published by DAW, USA, 2005
And also available in 'Jewels of the Universe Stories by Milford Writers'.
Extract
I examined my reflection. Another mirror might have shown my skin fairer, might have masked my blemishes with its own imperfections, might have favoured my figure by showing me more slender, but this mirror, precision engineered in the Eastern Islands, showed me as I really was. It helped me to find my flaws and cover them up, quickly, before Henri saw them.
I put the pewter flask of black hair dye back into its secret drawer in my table and stared into the mirror to make sure I'd completely covered the grey wisps at my temples. How cruel to begin to grey before the age of forty, especially as the whole plan to save Alba and my own survival, depended on my beauty. My face was still beautiful - though there were the makings of fine lines at the corner of my eyes. Laughter lines or crow's feet, it was all the same. Whatever you called them, they were wrinkles, and though Henri had plenty of wrinkles himself, he liked his women young and beautiful. I'd been queen of the pack for fourteen years - longer than any of the others - but I could feel the younger bitches snapping at my heels. It was a battle to the death and time was my only weapon.
If I could just hold on a few more years... At sixty-eight Henri was an old man, gout-ridden and mean-tempered, his prowess as a hunter, a sportsman and a lover long past. Unkindly, age had bled him dry of his youthful attributes and had not replaced them with wisdom, so he ruled Alba now with an iron hand, unthinking and not mellowed by kindness. Daily, I saw him make decisions which showed his willingness to surrender long term stability for short term gain. Decisions I would not have taken, and decisions that I would make damn sure his daughter did not take when she stepped into her father's shoes. For Blanche was the future of Alba.
"A lighthearted retelling of the Cinderella story with a differen t Happily Ever After than the one I expected." - Nancy Fulda, www.anthologybuilder.com
(Four Stars)
"The other tale I really liked was Jacey Bedford's 'Baron Boscov's Bastard' which was a Cinderella tale of sorts, only without all the cutting off of heels..." - www.klishis.com
Baron Boscov's Bastard
A Cinderella story by Jacey Bedford
from "Twice
upon a Time"
Edited by Denise Little
Published by DAW, USA, 1999
And also available in 'Jewels of the Universe Stories by Milford Writers'.
Extract
There, in the warm corner of the kitchen, near the fireplace, stood the oddest human being either of them had ever seen. Ella looked again. Maybe human being was debatable terminology. She looked something like a cross between a market researcher and a washer-woman, but she had an eerie incandescent sort of glow to her. She had an old felt hat jammed down tight over coarse grey curls. Her spectacles, taped together clumsily at the bridge, had dropped half way down her beaky noseand she wore a baglady raincoat and carried a document case and a clipboard with a messy, almost organic, sheaf of papers sprouting from it.
"Who are you?" Ella asked..
Jimmy doubled up. At first Ella thought he was in pain or having some kind of attack, but then she heard his stifled laughter. .
"She's your good fairy," he finally managed.
"There's no need to be like that, young man." The Good Fairy said. "I may not be one of the flashy, spangles and magic dust kind, but I am qualified. The department's a bit short staffed at the moment and I'm filling in for Esmerelda. We can't afford a regular substitute. Down- sizing you know. There's just not enough in the annual budget to keep a department like ours running smoothly."
"What do you mean?"
"Look, it says here. 'Ella has to have a magic spell to send her to the ball when left behind by her ugly sister.'"
"It says what... Here let me look." Jimmy went and peered over the Fairy's shoulder at the clipboard.
"Ella, she's right, it does say so." He read, "Ella goes to the ball and the Prince, stunned by her beauty, dances with her all night. On the stroke of midnight, knowing the magic spell must end, Ella runs from the palace, leaving behind only a shoe. The Prince searches for Ella in vain and eventually decrees that whoever the shoe fits will be his bride. Ella's ugly sister keeps her below stairs when the Prince comes to call, but the Prince's faithful manservant finds her and takes her to the Prince. The shoe fits and Ella becomes the Prince's new bride."
"Given the game away, now, young man." The Good Fairy snatched the clipboard back from him, only half angry.
"But my sister's not ugly." Ella said.
"That's just her outside." The Fairy replied, "It's what's inside that counts."
"That's what Jimmy said."
"Did he indeed? Then this young man has a sensible head on his shoulders." She raised her spectacles and looked under them at Jimmy Buttons, staring down into the depths of his eyes until Jimmy blinked and turned away. "Hrrmph," she said, sounding like one of Jimmy's horses. "You'll do."
"Fun sword and sorcery-type stuff. I especially enjoyed the fact that the princess wasn't magically able to weild a sword and ride into battle with no training, and yet managed to prove herself clever and gutsy anyway." - Mystery Girl at www.anthologybuilder.com (Four stars)
The Jewel of Locaria
by Jacey Bedford
from: "Warrior Princesses"
edited by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Published by DAW, USA, 1998
And also available in 'Jewels of the Universe Stories by Milford Writers'.
Extract
Euven was waiting for her as she'd commanded. He had with him a small training sword made of wood.
"Forget that," she told him, "I haven't got time to learn anything for real. Teach me how to hold a sword without looking like I'm carrying a bouquet of flowers, and show me how to whirl it round and look impressive without cutting off my own head. If there's time you can try and teach me to do something useful with it, but I guess we don't have much time left. I hear Tixar is getting very close now."
#
"Alenza, what are you doing?" Two hours later, the King's voice cut in to her sword swirling practice.
"I'm--learning--how--to--look--like--I--might--know-- what--I'm--doing," she said, without breaking the rhythm of swing and thrust.
The king was holding on to Eradice's guiding arm. The Queen whispered something to her husband.
"Child, no-one expects you to go into battle," Ahm'shiraz said, more gently than he had ever said anything to her in his life before.
"If you are truly Ahm'shiraz the Far-Sighted, then you will know I have no choice. Tixar is breathing down our throats. Ohenzee and Locaria stand together, but the rest of the Ten Kingdoms are sitting on their brains and waiting. You can't expect our men to go into battle without a figurehead. I think they might fight for me." She saw the tears leaking from his blind eyes. She wanted to rush into his arms like she had as a child, but her childhood suddenly seemed a long way behind her.
She hardened herself. If I had been second-born he would have cut out my heart, she thought.
Aunt Agatha's Agency
by Jacey Bedford
from: "Scheherezade #23 " (2002)
The magazine of fantasy, science fiction & gothic romance
edited by Elizabeth Counihan
Published in the UK
And also available in 'Jewels of the Universe Stories by Milford Writers'.
The wild tale of a bunch of warrior princesses let loose from the agency where they work and allowed a day off in Blackpool circa 1955.
Extract:
"And then he stands there, exposing himself and expecting me to be grateful." Tharay told Scitana over a pint of Guinness in the crowded pub. Her spun-gold hair curled softly down her back now that she'd had chance to spend half an hour in the shower and blow it dry.
"I hope you gave him a good thumping." Sesseri, a new recruit leaned forward into the conversation.
"No. You can't damage the goods. Agatha would have our teeth for buttons." Scitana said. "You'll learn."
"I slipped him a whiff of the old Milk of Amnesia and got creative with a porridge pot." Tharay's voice dropped low and about half a dozen off-duty warrior princesses leaned in to catch the punchline. They exploded in great gales of mucky laughter and Scitana said, "That deserves another pint. Landlord!"
Jimly, the dwarf, bounded forward with a pitcher to refill their glasses. "Ladies." He bowed formally and caught Scitana's eye.
She winked at him. "Tonight," she mouthed. His eyes flashed to the staircase and she nodded imperceptibly.
The princesses began to quaff their ale. Despite, or perhaps because of, their royal origins, they were all pretty good quaffers.
The outer door opened, blowing a chill wind through their easy camaraderie."Girls! Girls! It's way past your bed-time. Back to the dorm, now."
"But Aunt Agatha we've not been here more than a couple of hours," Sesseri protested.
"I promised your parents I'd look after you while you're in my care. Line up now."
The diminutive Miss Agatha Upchurch stood ramrod straight. Her grey hair--gunmetal streaked with silver--was pulled tightly back into a French pleat and her no-nonsense tweed suit covered her from shoulders to mid-calf. She was the sort of woman who wore sensible shoes and always carried her own supply of toilet paper for emergencies.
She clapped her hands and a dozen or so warrior princesses immediately left half-finished glasses of beer and came meekly to her call. To a woman, the warrior princesses were all at least a foot taller than Aunt Agatha, but not one would dare to disobey the iron lady herself.
Live Journal
I blog. This is nothing momentous and it's not intended for mass public consumption, but it's a great way of keeping in touch with friends who are interested in writing. My friend list is small. What do I blog about? Writing, family, friends, local history, my family history, reminiscences, things that interest me on a local or global scale. What don't I blog about? I don't use my blog as therapy and I don't give away intimate personal details of my life.
Milford
I'm a graduate (or should that be, survivor) of the Milford SF writer's conference in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007. It's a week-long event for published SF writers in the UK. And I've already booked to go to the next Milford week in September 08. Here are some of my Milford photos and some information. And here's the offical Milford homepage.