- Published in:
- Writers of the Future Vol. XXIII
- Publication date:
- Aug. 2007
Background
“By the Waters of the Ganga” is set in one of the Hindu’s most sacred cities: Benares, India. It tells the tale of a man who awakens on the steps of a temple with memories, not of a human past, but an alien one. As he struggles with his new life, he discovers the mythology of the place: that Benares is Shiva’s eternal home, and any Hindu who dies in this holy city is guaranteed moksha–liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth.
My inspiration for the story came from two sources. Firstly, I visited Benares (or Varanasi as it also known) in 2003, and came away astounded. The city is such a clash of commerce, religion, history, and poverty that it provides a rich setting for any story, especially a speculative one. With the riverside cremations, the stone ghats, the freely wandering cows, and much else, I knew I had to set a tale here. A second, independent line-of-thought had me asking the question: what if you woke up one day and had only alien memories? How would you feel? Who would you be? When I realised the strong connection between the two elements through the touchstone of reincarnation, I knew there was a story to be told.
Getting the story down was another matter. Personally, I don’t like to plot too heavily at the outset–especially when it comes to character’s motivations. If I do, I find my characters are flat, unrealistic, and constantly telegraphing the later action. Instead, my best work comes when I throw a character into a situation and feel my way forward. This can lead to elliptical stories, but, for me, these are the most interesting. This was certainly the technique I used with this piece, with the ending I originally imagined being discarded as I slowly discovered what the heart of the story really was.
In late December 2005, after workshopping the story with Critters, I entered it into the Writers of the Future contest. By May 2006, with no word on results, I contacted the contest administrators in the hope that it might be in the “Finalists” pile (WOTF has two judging rounds each quarter: first K. D. Wentworth selects eight “Finalists” from the hundreds of entries; second a panel of five or six distinguished writers such as Larry Niven, Anne McCaffery, Robert Silverberg then select the three winning stories). It was. Furthermore, the Finalists had already been judged and my piece was not amongst the winning three. Mixed emotions, for sure. I was ecstatic to have been placed in the Finalists–and glad I’d been spared the weeks of torture wondering if I’d make the winning three–but disappointed I hadn’t made the book.
However, there was still an outside chance of publication in the anthology. At the end of each judging year, depending on space, there is usually room for one or two “Published Finalists”–stories that didn’t place in the top three in their respective quarters. Since I was a Q1 finalist I had a long wait on my hands before I’d find out if slipped in the backdoor. I forgot about the contest, concentrated on new fiction, and got on with my life.
Almost a year later an innocuous looking email popped into my inbox. To paraphrase, it said “Would you like to be published, flown to the States for a workshop taught by Tim Powers and K. D. Wentworth, paid royalties, take part in a glitzy awards ceremony, and generally treated like a VIP?” Not a difficult decision. Six months later I was in Pasadena for a crazy, inspiring week of living the rock-and-roll writer’s life. I hung out with Jeff Carlson, Aliette de Bodard, and all the other winners, attended book signings and art unveilings, rode stretch limos, visited the Jet Propulsion Lab, and ate a lot of tacos. (Full details on my old blog). For a first sale it wasn’t bad.
Reviews
Black Gate, Adventures in Fantasy Literature: Best of the Year list
“Gaskell very competently handles the narrative, the back story, and structures the story well. Closer to an Asimov’s story than many in the volume.”
- Mark Watson, Best SF, Dec 2007“A more metaphorical science fiction work, this one might not appeal to fans of harder science fiction, but it is an interesting translation nevertheless.”
- Michele Lee, The Fix, Oct 2007“. . . a story of an alien who must actually become human in order to be part of a religion is unique in my experience. This idea deserves further exploration.”
- D. G. D. Davidson, The Sci Fi Catholic, Oct 2007“All in all, this is a very fine showcase for some promising work by some promising new writers.”
– Richard Horton, LOCUS Magazine“. . . 13 quality stories by relative newcomers touched with imagination and inventive plotting.”
- Publisher’s Weekly