British Fantasy Awards

Stunned, not to say delighted, this morning to discover that The Moon King has been shortlisted for the 2015 British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel. It’s in wonderful company, and from past experience I reckon the jury have a very interesting discussion ahead of them. I’m now going to Not Think About It until […]

A Not So Brief History Of Murnie

Out of the blue last week a picture appeared on facebook of my old band (80s hard rock, mullets and power ballads – you get the picture) and in addition to the predictable surge of horror/nostalgia, I realised that being in a band – having a bunch of people that you bond with musically, that […]

Black Static Stamps

My story, The Secret Language of Stamps, is out this week in Black Static magazine. My first supernatural story in a long time, it is set in a post-war English port town and touches on themes of xenophobia, travel and loss in what I hope is a fairly creepy way. As always, if you’re a fan of […]

A Sudden Sprinkle of de Saw & Finkle

I know what you’ve been thinking. You’ve been thinking: it’s been aaaaages since I saw Markee & Bert. You know, with the singing and the stories and saw? Yeah. So, you’ll no doubt be beside yourself to learn that over the next month we’ll be All Over The Shop (technically, just Glasgow and Edinburgh but it feels like […]

Stag & Dagger: the Personality Edition

The 2015 Stag & Dagger Presents Live At Glasgow** was a belter. We’d done the Spotify playlist, we’d made the Spreadsheet and for once the gods of scheduling smiled on us. All our top picks lined up nicely, with nae rushing around. All right we weren’t going to get dinner, but you’ve got to make sacrifices. […]

The Stag Is Set

This weekend sees the return of the Stag & Dagger festival to Glasgow (or Stag & Dagger presents Live at Glasgow, as it’s now known. Always enjoy the day itself, but I love the build-up too. For the last couple of months we’ve building a spotify playlist as the bill has been announced and listening […]

Scifi-Fantasy Network, and a competition!

During Eastercon a few weeks ago I was interviewed for Scifi-Fantasy Network by Rob Malan. Rob asked me about how The Moon King came to be, about being shortlisted for the BSFA award, about the importance of independent publishers like NewCon Press and about the new book, Queen Of Clouds. And, honestly, I did enjoy the […]

Everyone’s A Winner

Just got back from Dysprosium, the 2015 Eastercon, having had a fantastic time. There are always tons of things to do at Eastercon, but mostly I spend the time taking to friends. Friends I’ve known for years, friends I mostly know via social media, and friends I’ve barely met before, but suddenly find a common […]

Dysprosium Approach

Eastercon’s outdone itself this year. Even the title sounds like a big budget sci-fi flick** And I’ll be down there as usual, and if you’re looking for me on the programme: Saturday 1pm-2pm Room 15 I’ll be talking to Nina Allan, Dave Hutchinson and Ian Whates about “That Tricky First, Second, Third, or Fourth Novel” Sunday 3pm-4pm […]

How writers write

Every writer has their own unique approach to getting from Idea to Finished Thing. A few weeks I was asked by the SF novelist Tony Ballantyne to describe how I tackle the writing process for a regular feature on his website. If you’re interested in that sort of thing (and you should certainly read Keith Brooke’s […]