It is story day! My science fiction story “And You Shall Sing to Me a Deeper Song” is in Interzone #280.
I am thrilled that this story has found such a good home. The title, as some might already know, is from The Prophet, a poem by Kahlil Gibran. A fuller context for the line:
If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.
And if our hands should meet in another dream, we shall build another tower in the sky.
I had written the story before I settled on the title. I’m notoriously crap at titles, and for this story, I wanted something powerful. I went searching through some of the poetry collections I like, looking for something about songs (songs are very important in this story) and when I found this line, it was exactly right. It echoes so many of the sentiments of the story.
So what’s the story about? It’s about Nysha, a woman scarred by the past. It’s about people with implants being shunned by society. It’s about the aftermath of a war. And though it isn’t really a western, I did have westerns on my mind when I wrote it. It’s about robots and strange riding mounts, and children being used in war. It’s about love and, maybe, redemption. Nysha is one of my favourite characters that I’ve ever created, and I like her so much I have considered writing more stories with her.
If you want to read a story that has some of the ideas that went into “And You Shall Sing to Me a Deeper Song”, you can read my flash fiction piece “A Song For Hugo“. It is not a sequel or prequel, but I play around with some of the themes and ideas that eventually went into this Interzone story.
Martin Hanford’s illustration that goes with my story in Interzone is freaking brilliant (check out more of his work). I love it to bits, and I’m so excited to finally share this story with everyone. Huge thanks to Andy Cox and the rest of the Interzone team for giving this story a wonderful home.
Maria Haskins 