Victoria Stewart is the author of ‘Cups and Rings’ in our anthology of folklore-inspired fiction, Oaths and Offerings. Victoria’s fiction has been published by Reflex and LISP, and in Ellipsis Zine and the Bath Flash Fiction Award anthology. Her stories have been awarded prizes by the Bedford Short Story Competition and the ChipLit Festival Short Story Prize. Victoria lives on Merseyside and works as a researcher. We spoke to Victoria about her inspiration, influences for her story, and more!
Could you give us some insights into how you approached the theme of folklore through your story?
Victoria Stewart: The idea for ‘Cups and Rings’ came during a holiday to Dumfries and Galloway when I had the chance to see some stones with cup and ring marks. I’d visited standing stones and stone circles previously, but had never heard of these strange markings before, and was I intrigued by the fact that no one really knows what their purpose might have been. I liked the idea of using them as a jumping-off point but leaving open the question of what power they actually have.
During that visit, I was looking across the farmer’s field where the stones are located and saw one of the friends I was with a little way in the distance. He was wearing a tweed suit (ideal for April in Scotland!) and for a moment, against the landscape, he could have been mistaken for someone from a much earlier era. This got me thinking about including a time-slip element in the story.
Were there particular folk histories, traditions or stories you drew from?
The notion of objects with uncanny powers is an interesting one to me – I’m thinking of MR James’s engraved whistle, or WW Jacobs’s monkey’s paw. More specifically, the idea that standing stones have particular significance is an enduring one, but I like authors who find interesting ways to make this type of narrative relevant to their own time: Eleanor Scott’s ‘Randalls Round’ comes to mind, or even Children of the Stones, the kids’ TV drama from the seventies.
What advice would you share with budding short story writers?
When you find a story really affecting or powerful, it can feel a bit cold-blooded to try to take a step back and figure out how that was achieved by the author. But thinking about the choices that have been made – relating, for instance, to narrative voice, shifts in perspective, or how the timescale is either slowed down or speeded up – can open doors for your own practice.
Could you tell us about your favourite Northern bookshop?
News from Nowhere on Liverpool’s Bold Street is a real institution – which is maybe a paradoxical way to describe a shop that’s run by a women’s collective and champions oppositional and radical authors. But it’s been a vital part of the city’s cultural and intellectual life for more than fifty years.
Finally, do you have a favourite piece of folklore you’d like to share?
Not sure about favourite, but some years ago I went to the Straw Bear Festival in Whittlesey, near Peterborough. Watching a man dressed up in a costume made of bundles of straw being led around a small market town on a freezing January day to the sound of a slowly tolling church bell was certainly one of my most memorable folklore-related experiences.
