Rylan John Cavell is Utterly Bewildered

Extract from my contribution to FAMBLES  2020 : THE YEAR OF THE ZOOM!      Fambles, the zoom era.      May you live in interesting times, someone once said to me. I thought they meant it as a kindness.      Interesting Times, these are indeed, but not the jolly japes and mischief-filled escapades I had imagined the word ‘interesting’ referred to. There has a been a tsunami of change sweep across the world, and I have been finding it hard to keep treading water, when the media is a awash with great tides of social movement, cultural upheaval, public disapproval, and malicious political buffoonery.      Keeping up to date on the latest developments is a task unto itself!      Fambles began as a way for writers to come together, talk openly, discuss contentious topics, offer support, and give creative drive to other writers.      A vital connection, when we often write in isolation, shut away fro...

    Where do ideas come from? Where do they go if not caught hold of, and pinned down like a beautiful moth in a museum collection? Do they flutter away into some other head, to be caught hold of by some other collector? Or do they simply fade away, unused, unappreciated, as if they never were?     I can not let any idea pass me by. I snatch a hold of every single one that flashes its brilliant wings in front of my eyes. I have notebooks of doodles and sketches and story ideas and poems and odd  phases, that I one day might do something with. Then again I might not.     But from these ideas I have been able to cobble together universes in which my creations and characters can connect, enjoy a fuller and more realised existence, and explore. One story leads indirectly to another, and characters that I have enjoyed writing might soon find themselves on their own daring adventures, or engaging in mysterious shenanigans.     Having a va...

    Let's rewind 100 years.     The "roaring 20's" had just begun, and we see that decade now as a time of freedom and expression akin to the 1960's. There was a new liberation in attitudes and an artistic awakening occurring, which has been the setting for many a murder-mystery and ripping yarn of playboys and bounders and cads and flappers.     I wanted to write a story that was not quite so set amongst the glitz and glamour of our perception of that period. And so Violence and Lavender came into being. My usual method of writing has always been to plant the seeds and let the garden grow. But on this occasion I planned my beds well in advance, I lay down turf, and weeded, and pruned the trees and sculpted what grew into a shape and vibrancy I had carefully planned. This was a new way of writing for me, and it was a very interesting exercise.     Two years, it took to write this story, with a big gap at the half-way point to concentrate on o...

    My brain is full of possible story ideas. Constantly. Endlessly.     I had a dark retelling of Mary Poppins planned for a great long while. Many years, in fact. Originally written as a musical, all blues and jazz. But I never found the time to write the songs or work with anyone to bring it to life below a proscenium arch. Poor Mary. Or as I renamed her; Sally Rattles.     I also had a dark retelling of Peter Pan planned. This would be a rock opera, in the style of Tommy, told from Captain Hook's perspective. The script for this only ever had one scene written.     I looked at these two tales I had sat there, awaiting the spark of life, and wondered what other tales I might like to rework in my own special way. I have read lots of the Grimm's fairy tales. I love the stories of Hans Andersen, and I adore the camp gothic stylings of the Hammer Horror films. And so I decided to create a compilation. A collection. A book for au...

     The story of Professor Calamity started off as a series of doodles and notes for a TV series I'd love to make. It was a blend of Doctor Who, Farscape, Blake's 7, Star Trek, Star Wars, The Avengers and so much more! The series was a pastiche, an homage, a fusion of all the elements I held most dear about each of those shows. It was my love letter to science fiction through the ages.      Over the years Professor Calamity almost became a radio drama twice, but I never quite managed to get it together enough to complete it. Something about the scripts I had written wasn't quite right. It was used as the backdrop to my play Rehearsal Space , set behind the scenes of a low-budget sic-fi show in the 60s.      In the spring of 2020 I was asked to contribute a short story for a compilation. I picked a freestanding Calamity episode idea, reworking it to fit the characters and the brief, and to a very tight word count.      Insp...