Elfwood is the worlds largest SciFi & Fantasy community.
  - 149212 members, 2 online now.
  - 14564 site visitors the last 24 hours.
  - 500966 SciFi & Fantasy Pictures, 37412 Stories.
  - 3873685 comments written.

Jess Hyslop

Hello and welcome to my stories page! So glad you could make it to my neck of the woods; I hope you enjoy your stay here. Scroll down the page for more about me, my news, and a list of my Elfwood stories by (sub)genre. And thank you for visiting!

I'm an English and Cultural Studies graduate living in Hampshire (UK). I'm delighted to say that I've recently been signed up by a literary agent, and am working on my first novel. I also have a blog where I review SFF books, and I'm also on Twitter (@JinxedJester). I love to chat about writing and SFF, so please do leave comments here or on my blog, or say hello on Twitter!

I love (in no particular order) reading, writing, theatre, film, Neil Gaiman, coffee, muesli, Catherynne M. Valente, dragons, my friends, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, the Venice carnival, manga, Studio Ghibli anime, Punchdrunk theatrical experiences, Virginia Woolf, Robin Hobb, waistcoats, angels, Stephen King’s Dark Tower, bittersweet music, HBO series (many of them, anyway), Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper... and many more wondrous and scrumptious things.

Constructive criticism is very much appreciated - be as harsh as you like, as long as you’re fair in explaining your reasons and giving me things to improve on. I'm afraid that I'm not around on Elfwood as often as I'd like, but I do try to return comments whenever I can.

At long last, Bump! (Part 17) is up! It is, however, probably the last chapter of Bump! that will be posted on Elfwood. There are good reasons, the most pertinent one being that I've been working hard and editing the story, which means that the later chapters now don't entirely make sense unless you've read my edited versions of the earlier ones... So it would entail me replacing all the chapters posted so far... and the chapter numbers no longer correlate... and I would lose all of your lovely comments... and basically it would be CHAOS. SO, instead of updating/continuing Bump! on Elfwood, I will leave it as it stands, but let those who've been reading it when I'm ready with a more updated version. Then people can request to read it (if they so desire), and I can send them the new and improved Bump! 

In a nutshell: I'll let you know about Bump! when it's ready!

Counting Stars is now available to read over at Abandoned Towers e-zine.

And in other news... I've had a good year with short story submissions, and a number of my works are now available to read/listen to/buy online. Here is a link to the relevant page on my blog, where you'll find further links to all of my other online fiction. 

Fantasy: High

• Signy: A Soliloquy - A piece in which I experiment with narrative voice, somewhat like We Are Cain but not really... (informative, I know). Also like We Are Cain, this is inspired by ancient literature: this time, the Old Icelandic Volsung Saga.</li></li>
• Prince of Stones - First part is posted. The story is not yet completed, but I wanted to see if people think it's good/interesting enough to be finished. Let me know!</li></li>
• We Are Cain - Inspired by Beowulf, this is the story of the monsters who live in Grendel's mother's the lake, and of their ancient curse...</li></li>
• October - My first submitted story. A tale of the bridging of our world and the realm of faery...</li></li></li>
• Sacrifice - Written after researching the Mayan civilization for an art project. Can Xato snatch his wife back from the hands of the Gods?</li></li></li>
• Honour Of The Flame - For Elijah Marquez, based on his picture, standard bearer.</li></li></li>
• Teeth of Iachon - A sea-churnin’ adventure, complete with a monster of the Deep!</li></li></li>
• Sol - A tale of magic, gallantry, and prejudice, set in the Wild West.</li></li></li>
• The Hermit - A companion-piece to The Hunter. See the main story description for more info. </li></li></li>

Fantasy: Modern

• Cards and Shards - A conceptual snippet, in which there is a  doomed card game and too many mirrors for comfort.</li></li></li>
• The Crystal Ball - A loosely allegorical exploration of childhood abuse and power. Style inspired by Joseph Heller's Catch 22.</li></li></li>
• True Dreams - Where does the boundary between reality and dreams fall? And just how fallible is that boundary?</li></li></li>
• Looking For Heaven - Could I have possibly written something weirder than The Hunter? I think this may be the one… </li></li></li>

Science Fiction

• Bolt’s World - Mod's choice Dec 3rd 2004. Inspired by Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake - I used her technique of switching between past and present tense to build the story... Fun!</li></li></li>
• Yes, Sir - This is pretty long. But, I will say this now and it is repeated in the description: Please don't scroll down to see how long it is and take a peek at the end before you start! Just read it, OK? From the beginning... Mod's choice July 26th.</li></li></li>

Other

• Black Eyes (previously Cages) – Dark. Fans of The Hunter may enjoy this one.</li></li></li>
• Dreamer’s Cottage - More of a character/setting study than an actual story. Quite cute. The setting is from a dream I had, incidentally. It was a nice dream...</li></li></li>
• Beautiful Sky - Had some lovely comments posted before I took it down to enter into a competition. *sniff* I miss those comments! Can I have some new ones? *bats eyelids*  Pretty please?</li></li></li>
• The Hunter - Twisted. Mod's choice September 27th, 2005.</li></li></li>
• Tabby - Another odd one. Not my best, but give it a read if you have time and are curious.</li></li></li>
• Two Down - Depressing. Just a short concept piece for an idea that's been blundering around my head for quite a while.</li></li></li>

Poems

• The Bard's Plea - A short, humorous poem dealing with a desperate bard and and a grumpy dragon.</li></li></li>
• The Fall of the Starlight Prince – A narrative poem which I had a lot of fun writing. Some parts may be a little clumsy, as I was working hard on the rhyme... any comments/suggestions welcome! </li></li></li>

Guestbook for Jinxedjester2

Date Name Comment   17 Apr 2011 Farissi Frisky Fauzi Loading... you must be kidding, bump is sixty thousands word right now, when i tried to change it into pdf (for my own use only) i got 240 pages long of book!! i am sure it’s long enough to become one book, and beat twillight for vampire genre (i dont like those romance story) nana, well i hope some editor will see your bump! and then telling you he would like to publish it!! Jess Hyslop replies: "The story must go on, though! There’s a lot more of the plot still to go... I’ve just been really slow at writing it recently! Thanks so much for your enthusiasm " 18 Apr 2011 Farissi Frisky Fauzi Loading... your welcome, and alright i will post some of my story, i will tell you when it’s done. "when i said done, of course i mean translate it as good as i could do it! hehe" Jess Hyslop replies: "Let me know when you have something posted!" 18 May 2011 Ethan Childress Loading... OK, so I have read your stuff and I just have to say. I really like it. You are really good. You establish tone very well and have fun and engaging plots. It bothers me that you have written a story about vampires that I actually want to read. Before now I could actually say that the subject bored me. But such is life I suppose. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing with the site. You have a gift. Ethan Childress PS I agree with Farissi, I’d way rather have all the vampire groupies reading this than Twitight (cringe). Jess Hyslop replies: "Aw, thanks, Ethan! Hah, yeah... Twilight... Ugh. (Not that I’ve read it, but that’s very deliberate.) It bothers *me* that Twilight came into being years after I started Bump!, so now it looks like I’m just jumping on the vampire bandwagon... Not to say that there wasn’t a bandwagon before, but at least it was a less irritating one... Apologies to anyone out there who likes Twilight. Please don’t flame me...! I’m not really willing to discuss it, anyway. Lol. I really, really have to get on and write more of Bump!... *motivation*" 10 Oct 2011 Lindsay Verde Loading... Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Jess! Jess Hyslop replies: "Hehe, thanks! And to you, Lindsay!" 11 Nov 2011 Meagan iamthepixiechick Michelle Loading... There is no Bump! Part 17. Am I correct? Am I missing something? PLEASE, this story cannot remain unfinished! Jess Hyslop replies: "Part 17 is waiting to be moderated -- but it’s been waiting a while now, though, so I have no idea when it will finally go through... Hopefully soon! I’m afraid it may end up being the last part I will post on Elfwood, but there will be an opportunity for those who’ve been following the story to read more. Will let you know in due course (if you’re interested, that is!)" 25 Dec 2011 Lindsay Verde Loading... Merry Christmas Jess! Jess Hyslop replies: "A very Merry Christmas to you too! i hope you had a magical day! " 22 Feb 2012 Elijah Marquez Loading... I see that your represented now, that is awesome! Obviously its been awhile. Belated congratulations! Jess Hyslop replies: "Thank you! Yep, that’s right - it’s very exciting! (It’s clearly been a while since I’ve replied to comments here too... Sorry for the tardy reply!)" 22 Apr 2012 HappyOne Loading... hey! I LOVE yoyr work!! Big fan of your writing so keep it up!! Where’s Bump! part 17? Please post soon!!! *coughs awkwardly* not to seem to crazed.... Jess Hyslop replies: "Thank you for your comment and enthusiasm! I’m sorry that there isn’t any more to read at present. I’ve just explained the situation in another comment, so I hope you don’t mind me copying and pasting it here: Basically, I’m at a bit of a loss about how to organise Bump! at the moment. I have written more (it totals abut 100k words now!) but I’ve also edited the earlier parts quite a lot, so the later parts now require people to have read the *edited* earlier ones... Add to that the fact that I now have a literary agent (*big grin*) and so I cannot post the new parts on a public forum (well, perhaps the first three chapters, but that’s all). So I need to decide how to proceed before I send people any more to read..." 30 May 2012 Nica Tawnya Hoffman Loading... Hey there, Jess. You’re doing an awesome job with Bump!. Hope to see Part 17 soon! 30 May 2012 Nica Tawnya Hoffman Loading... Hmm... I posted the above before I found Part 17. Now I’m wondering where I can find the rest of the story... Jess Hyslop replies: "Wow, thank you so much for reading Bump! It’s such an encouragement when people take the time to read and comment Re. Bump!, I’ve just explained the situation in another comment, so I hope you don’t mind me copying and pasting it here: Basically, I’m at a bit of a loss about how to organise Bump! at the moment. I have written more (it totals abut 100k words now!) but I’ve also edited the earlier parts quite a lot, so the later parts now require people to have read the *edited* earlier ones... Add to that the fact that I now have a literary agent (*big grin*) and so I cannot post the new parts on a public forum (well, perhaps the first three chapters, but that’s all). So I need to decide how to proceed before I send people any more to read... I will not forget the Elfwoodians in all this, though! I’m hoping to eventually set up some kind of mailing list so I can send new chapters through to those who’ve been following the story here. I will let you know when I’ve got my act together and organised this!" Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Not signed in, Add an anonymous comment to this guestbook...     Your Name: Your Mail: B I U URL ? Click here to write something! Post Message!    Private message? (Info)

Jess Hyslop