In with the New/Ain’t no lie

Conventions. I love them. They come at just the right times to wrench you out of the workaday and let you just hang out with your friends in a bar, for three or four days. Usually, I do two a year. Eastercon at, well, Easter, and Fantasycon in September. Occasionally, if I’m feeling flush I […]

It’s a Farrago, I tell you

In the world of online fiction zines, Farrago’s Wainscot has established itself as among the most chic, oblique and unique. Their regular selection of literary short stories is always worth dipping into, and if that weren’t enough they have this little bundle of extras that goes by the name of Behind The Wainscot. In the […]

A moment of praise…

…for Keith Brooke’s Infinity Plus. Over the last ten years Keith has grown IP into a colossal repository for great, free, short genre fiction, and that’s not counting the fine selection of reviews, interviews and other bits and bobs. Sadly, the site has become too much work to keep going now, so Keith’s calling it […]

And the winner is…

Having been fortunate enough to have both of my books shortlisted for awards, I’d have to say that I’m generally in favour of them. Sales aside, it’s nice to know that people thought well enough of your work to want to mark it as worthy in some way. It’s not only gratifying, it gives a […]

Word, Dog

A date for yer diary, should you be interested in this sort of thing.Wednesday 24th January, 8.30pm 13th Note, King Street, Glasgow Word Dogs : Cry Havoc! An explosive evening of high-octane fiction readings on the subject of conflict, war, ruckuses, barneys and gentlemen’s boxing brought to you by Word Dogs, the exhibitionist arm of […]

Pirate Memory Games

Warning: this post contains half-baked and undigested ideas. Feel free to argue with or ignore as you will. So, it seems the whole world is writing Pirate stories. I know of at least five GSFWC members who claim to have signed up for passage (Mr Duncan has of course already completed his, plus landed a […]

Munchies

This week I allowed myself to read fiction. Just a little bit, cos even though I’m on the wagon for the duration of the nov, the urge is sometimes too much. Just a short story, maybe a magazine, but nothing stronger. Nae books or nuthin‘, gov. You know what’s the ideal size for the fiction […]

Submission Angst

Something has always puzzled me about the business of writing short stories. It’s a phenomenon that seems mostly to strike newer writers, but it seems that more experienced authors aren’t immune either from the way it has consumed enormous amounts of energy on writing related blogs, forums and discussion boards ever since writers discovered the […]

Painting!

Weekends are the bane of my life, so they are. It’s that yawning, inviting gap of blank space that smiles so invitingly at you all week long. You make grand plans for filling it – in my case with The End Of The Novel – and then it’s gone in a frittering of interruptions and […]

Ghosts

Lately, I’ve been thinking about ghosts. Two reasons. The first? Well, Mr Wilson and I are in discussions about a proposed editorial project that might well involve spooks, spectres and other supernatural occurrences. We both love the traditional ghost stories of MR James and his ilk, all dread and gaslight, lonely academics, cursed landscapes and […]