Mirri Glasson-Darling
When did you begin writing?
My first ever short story I wrote when I was 7. It was 31 hand-written pages long, full of amazing spelling errors and called The Great Adventure. I believe it was about pirates. I was on a long road trip and demanded my dad tell me a story until he finally got irritated, gave me a notebook and told me to write myself a story. I would love to say the quality got consistently better after that but if that was the case I would surly be better than I am now given the wealth of practice I’ve had.
Tell us about your Call of the Isles story.
I have done a lot of walking and wild camping on Isle of Rùm. There’s a river there several folk have died in. There is also a big stone dead in the centre of the glen below the Rùm Cuillins, though I don’t know how long ago it was placed there or by whom. I have been thinking a lot lately about landscape and sense of belonging and it all kind of got wrapped up into one.
Do you prefer writing short stories or longer pieces of fiction?
I prefer longer fiction, but in that lies a lot of morale complications. Flash is a delight to me, so it is a close second. Something in the structural puzzle of flash always feels almost physical, like trying to make your way up a route in rock climbing.
What is your favourite novel or short story that has an island setting?
Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. I suppose that’s cheating a little because it takes place on several different islands. It’s a book that’s been with me since I was a child so I’m a little too protective of it to go into it much more than that and therefore I feel the need to apologise, but I also could never in good consciousness try to sidestep the question by saying a different novel. That is the book.
What do you dislike about being a writer?
People who do not write or read really having opinions about what it means to write and what a writer should look like. I don’t mean writers who have long dry spells or wrote only bad poetry, I mean people who never actually never tried — trying takes courage. It’s odd to me that there are people who seem to mean they are a writer in terms of the aesthetic namely, as if their thoughts in their head were the whole of writing and the declaration makes them shared. It’s fine to be on an identity quest/crisis, but dishonesty on such a ground-floor-level is just uncomfortable.
What is your favourite under-appreciated novel or short story?
Bitterhall by Helen McClory. It’s a queer gothic tryptic ghost story with a cool structure. What’s there not to love? I don’t understand why more people didn’t recognise the heart it has.
What are you currently reading?
Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro (its great but hard to find because it’s in translation and was a gift so I can’t tell you where to get it) and Centrefolding by Kirsty Dunlop from sincere corkscrew press (also great, really clever and you should buy it!)
What are you currently working on?
Right now I’m in the last 2,000 words of the ending of a queer Weird Fiction/ecological horror novel. I’ve been really enjoying it, so I’ve been putting off finishing. The basic set up is that while the main character, is in a private rehab and recovery program for an eating disorder, she receives news that her ex-girlfriend has disappeared from a remote work site. To avoid returning to her old life, she takes a lone-working opportunity reporting data about bioluminescent algae in Dumfriesshire, but it quickly becomes clear that there is something sinister going on with the loch. I am also compiling a poetry pamphlet, god help me.
What is the best piece of writing advice you have come across?
It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but a teacher of mine back in uni once told me that it is important to ‘stay hungry.’ I’ve been quite isolated as a writer for most of my life as until Glasgow I always lived in rural places: Alaska, the Arctic, Appalachia etc. I think being a writer is a pretty lonely, hungry thing though wherever you are. Because I’ve learned to be okay with that and even value it, I’m pretty self-sufficient morale-wise and motivation-wise. I love and crave literary community and comradery, but I also do fine when it is not available to me. And it is genuinely not available some places. People in cities and towns sometimes forget this. Please do feed each other and support each other when you can (feed the writers!) but it is also important to be able to be comfortable with being hungry.
Where can readers connect with you and your writing?
I have a website, www.mirriglasson-darling.com which serves as the hub of my writing life. I am on BlueSky as @mirrigd, which I use more than Instagram. On Instagram (@mirri888) I do put up info about writing things, but usually overly self-indulgent pictures of hillwalking/mountains overshadows everything.
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You can read The Island of the Kelpies in Call of the Isles.