Looking forward to Stag & Dagger

This weekend sees the return of Stag & Dagger, an inner city multi-venue indie music festival that is dear to my heart. I went last year, although I seem to have completely neglected to blog about it at the time (for the record it was very similar to my experience of Hinterland the year before). […]

Hal Duncan: awesome awardiness!

Great to hear that Hal Duncan’s amazing story,”The Behold Of The Eye” has won this year’s Gaylactic award for short fiction. Yay for Hal!

Maxwell: master of imagination

Nice piece in the Scotsman noting that it’s 150 years since physicist, James Clerk Maxwell took the world’s first colour photograph. Maxwell was a hero of mine during my student days for being the guy that came up with the equations that neatly explain how electric and magnetic fields work. Like PJ Moore, noted in […]

Signal boostage : the Vandermeers uncovering Finland

When I was in Warsaw with Jeff Vandermeer I got interested in European (specifically Polish) genre fiction, and during that weekend Jeff told me that he and his wife Ann would be spending some time in Finland the following week. Finland, he told me, has the most amazing SF community. You should definitely go to […]

Scrabble Grrrl!

As a habitual player of Scrabble (or unsanctioned Facebook equivalent) it’s always interesting to hear what new words are included in the latest edition of the official book. This year’s selection includes some useful looking additions to the arsenal. I’m liking “webzine” and “vlog” (seven letter words are almost as useful as creative ways to […]

Gary Gibson teaching SF

Just a note to boost the signal that SF writer Gary Gibson is going to be teaching a couple of courses on understanding and writing Science Fiction as part of Strathclyde University’s summer learning programme. Gary’s a great writer with a lot of experience in the SF field, so if you fancy taking up SF […]

April’s reading

This month’s report feels a bit on the paltry side, but that’s mainly down to struggling through one long book. Ah well. More diversity next time, promise. Novels Kraken by China Mieville – I don’t seem to engage well with Mieville’s prose. There was lots to enjoy in this novel – the love of the […]

Great Gatsby

Really looking forward to the launch this coming Friday of The Gatsby Club, a 1920’s themed club night featuring a great variety line-up that will include the return of Markee de Saw and Bert Finkle. Really looking forward to it. Well, it’s either that or watch the reruns of the royal wedding again.

Interview, with Polish Curtains

While I was travelling to Eastercon, SF Signal posted an interview That Jeff Vandermeer did with me while we were in Poland. I talk quite a lot of nonsense, but the curtains are nice I think.

Back from the land of laughs

I’m always a little suspicious of people who make very detailed reports of what they got up to at conventions (seriously do you take continuous notes?), because when I get home the memories are already smeared and indistinct. What day did I talk to this person, or hear that author read, or discover that book […]