Working music

There are two types of writer: those who find it difficult to write with music on, and those who find it difficult to write without it. From the former group, the most common complaint is that music is a distraction: that it disrupts their ability to concentrate on the rhythm of the prose, that they need […]

Dead Darlings

When I began the project I’m editing at the moment, there was one scene that for me summed up perfectly what I wanted the story to be about. It was the heart and the touchstone. It was the workings of the whole thing in microcosm. And it was literally the first thing I wrote when […]

Conventional Travel

In a little over two weeks this year’s Fantasycon will be underway, once again in Brighton. I’ll be there from Friday morning until Sunday evening and, as always, I’m looking forward to it. In terms of “doing stuff” I’m forgoing a reading this year (although willing to provide a service for insomniacs, contact me privately […]

Turn, and look again

One of the best pieces of writing advice I know is to give yourself perspective on anything you write. Once it is finished, stick it away in a box for a week, a month, however long, and then go back and read it again with new eyes; as a reader would. This is wonderful advice […]

What is This?

One of the fun things about the internet has always been watching fads in online language arise from nowhere, enjoy a brief flurry of currency, then vanish again. Thanks to smart phones we now see a lot less of the cu l8r stuff and, with the exception of the occasional ironic kitteh, the childish pseudo leet […]

In praise of Tessa Kum, Freelance Editor

I’m in the middle of doing some editing work on a novel project which involves sorting out some plot issues and reducing down the overall wordage and I decided to get some outside feedback. Normally I’d be more than happy to put projects like this before the membership of GSFWC, but on this occasion I […]

August reading

August was Fringe month, which meant that next to no writing got done, and any reading was going to be…bitty. Having said that I did manage a fair amount, and much of it was good. Some of it was better than good, though. Way better. A while back I enjoyed Amal El Mohtar’s short story, […]

Couple of new stories out in the wild

Some new publications out in the wild for your eager consumption: Killing Me Softly has just been published in issue 3 of Ian Hunter’s Unspoken Water magazine. If karaoke terrifies you, then this will be right up your alley. Also includes swearing in Polish. And the Wee Fictions blog have been having a Fringe Month celebration of […]

On yer bike

One of my favourite indie mags is the awesome Electric Velocipede. They’ve been publishing great fiction for years (check out this great new story by Aliette de Bodard), and marrying it up with Thom Davidsohn’s icon artwork. In recent years have been going through some changes in terms of the way they do things, and […]

Well I certainly didn’t expect to see that

The last week of the Fringe managed to deliver a few genuine surprises, even to my jaded eye. I like this. It’s one of the things I expect from the Fringe, and had felt somewhat lacking this year. Even burlesque delivered something I’ve never seen before. Briefly, and in no particular order: A tap dancing penguin, […]