Contributors (short story)

Contributors
Release details
Genre:	Science fiction
Part of:	Burning with Optimism's Flames
Release date:	31 January 2013
Format:	Short story
Faction Paradox
← Previous	De Umbris Idearum
Next →	Playing for Time

Contributors was the final part of Burning with Optimism's Flames, comprising of fictional, in-universe biographies of the authors of the anthology.

Summary

Elizabeth Evershed

Elizabeth Evershed spends her time travelling between the 16th century Paris, 21st century London, and the 25th century. When she's not travelling or writing, she lectures at Scott College, Antarctica.

Alan Taylor

Alan Taylor has done a lot in his life, travelling across the globe and meeting many celebrities.

Cate Gardner

Cate Gardner is an author who lives with her pet raven Time. One of her readers fell into a local river while clutching her novella, who then froze and was preserved as a ice sculpture at her local gallery.

Daniel Ribot

Daniel Ribot has recently written a Soviet vampire-hunting novel.

Kelly Hale

Kelly Hale lives in Stumptown, where she manages a gentlemen's club, but has an ambition to write for Faction Paradox as her full-time career.

Stephen Marley

Stephen Marley came it existence fully formed from the head of Zeus in Walsall in 1813. He was one of the founders of the Rapscallion Club, but after he was found to be connected to the Scarlet Bloomers in 1851 he was transported to Van Diemen's Land. Years later, he became an inventor, and he moved to New York in 1921. There is no photographic evidence of him, and the rumours that he wrote All the Fun of the Fear is apparently false as it appears a thirteen year old girl Gladys Trubshaw wrote it.

Helen Angove

Helen Angove went through several careers including an electrical engineer, and pricing analyst, and a priest in the Church of England. She lives with her family in California, and now pursues a career in writing which many do not consider viable. Many believe Helen to be a Jane Austen fanatic, however Helen is actually the reincarnation of Fanny Knight, Austen's niece.

James Worrad

to be added

Juliet Kemp

to be added

Simon Bucher-Jones

to be added

Jonathan Dennis

to be added

'Aditya Bidikar'

to be added

Sarah Hadley

to be added

Philip Purser-Hallard

to be added

Jay Eales

Jay Eales used to be a stage magician, sales representative for the Airzone Corporation, as well as writing comics, a mangaka, journalist. He fought four Doctor Whos and in past lives, he had been Duncan the Shining, a god of the Protoverse, as well as a "saggy-arsed Cyberman". According to a perhaps-not-so-reputable source, he had been the cause of the cancellation of Doctor Who in 1989 after he fiendishly edited a charity fanthology, Walking in Eternity, in 2000.

Characters

• Elizabeth Evershed
• Alan Taylor
• Alan Taylor's grandmother
• Cate Gardner
• Time
• Fan
• Daniel Ribot
• Kelly Hale
• Stephen Marley
• Gladys Trubshaw
• Helen Angove
• Helen Angove's family
• Jane Austen
• Fanny Knight
• James Worrad
• Juliet Kemp
• Simon Bucher-Jones
• Jonathan Dennis
• 'Aditya Bidikar'
• Sarah Hadley
• Philip Purser-Hallard
• Jay Eales
• Mitchell
• Webb
• Tim Bisley
• Daisy Steiner
• Kurt "Nightcrawler" Wagner
• Alan Moore
• Al Davison
• Duncan the Shining
• American correspondent

Worldbuilding

Elizabeth Evershed

• Elizabeth claims to be a descendant of Walter Raleigh and the last person to discover America.
• She's just finished her first novel, and her story The Socratic Problem was published in Obverse Quarterly's Tales of the City.
• Elizabeth lectures focus around Elizabethan Factionalism.
• She founded the college's penguin exchange program, Books for Birds. Several members include Marcel Proust and Anatole France.

Alan Taylor

• Alan has swum with dolphins.
• He has presented awards at a football stadium in Vietnam.
• Millionaires have tried to marry him, and celebrities have tried to preposition him.
• He works in an office.
• He has drunk Cuba Libres in Havana, and cocktails in Hong Kong Harbour.
• Alan has met Scarlett Johansson.
• He can make lasagne.

Cate Gardner

• Cate lives in a flat above a costume shop.
• She wrote a novella, Theatre of Curious Acts, whose fans sent Cate Barbed Wire Hearts.

Daniel Ribot

• Daniel is a construct of wetwear, Mexican wrestling masks, New Zealand Paua shells, Catalan caganers, and mud.
• Frog Island is in Leicester.
• His novel is published by Omnium Gatherum Press.
• Daniel is a member of The Speculators writing group.

Kelly Hale

• Stumptown's streets are paved with espresso beans, and the rubbish recycles itself.
• The gentlemen's club Kelly works in is called The Pitiful Princess.
• She makes artisanal breads from bones, and creates skin care products from locally sourced virgin's blood.
• She co-authored a TV tie-in novel from Doctor Who, Erasing Sherlock, a play, several short stories, and a novella.
  • Erasing Sherlock is available on Amazon Kindle.

Stephen Marley

• Stephen died in 1967.
• The Rapscallion Club is located in Upper Gadding in Dorset.
• He invented the steam-powered wristwatch and the backward-flying rocket.
• Stephen lived in a log cabin on Madison Avenue.
• In 1954, the Madame Sosostris Circle of Higher Being claimed to have taken an ectoplasmic photograph of Stephen's animal soul.
• Gladys is a schoolgirl who lives in Grimsby.

Helen Angove

• Helen began her career as an electrical engineer on the south coast of England.

James Worrad

to be added

Juliet Kemp

to be added

Simon Bucher-Jones

to be added

Jonathan Dennis

to be added

'Aditya Bidikar'

to be added

Sarah Hadley

to be added

Philip Purser-Hallard

to be added

Jay Eales

• As a magician, Jay rivalled Mitchell and Webb.
• Jay once ate dinner with Tim Bisley and Daisy Steiner.
• He fought four Doctor Whos with help from Kurt "Nightcrawler" Wagner.
• Jay was once a head in a jar, but he recovered.
• He co-wrote comics with Alan Moore and Al Davison. He also wrote comics for American Splendor.
• The claim that Jay was responsible for the cancellation of Doctor Who in 1989 was from an American correspondent.
• Jay had been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award twice. He is also the recipient of the Adamtine Badge for Extreme Clever-Cloggery.
• He works for MiniJust.

Notes

• to be added

Continuity

Jay later attended Brenda Soobie's party in Las Vegas with Lawrence. (PROSE: Party Fears Two)

External links

• Contributors at the Faction Paradox wiki