Pyser returns (hopefully)

Seem to be in the mood for reminiscence today. So, here’s one for you. Exactly sixteen years and one week ago I went to a gig that I can honestly say changed my life. Ben Folds Five at King Tut’s. It changed my life because it made me want to join a band, write songs, […]

Charlie says…hands off!

One of the risks of being the kind of writer who has more ideas than they can focus on at any one time (and that pretty much is *all* writers, right?) is that sooner or later one of your really good back burner ideas will get picked up and used by someone else. Their treatment […]

A dawning sense of idee fixe

While researching the WFC panel I’ve come to the realisation that I tend to write about music quite a lot myself. My last publication was a piece about competition karaoke and sirens, and my next is near-future SF about music-sharing. I’ve written about well tempering a misbehaving child (rather than the piano she refuses to […]

Canada countdown 2

The latter part of our trip to Toronto involves camping out at the World Fantasy Convention for a few days. This will be my fourth WFC. My first was Minneapolis in 2002, and I’ve managed back every three or four years since then, calling in at Austin and San Jose on the way (next years, […]

Too cabaret!

When was the last time a Gary Barlow song made you laugh? Or made you cry? Or made you laugh and cry, and think at the same time. When was the last time Gary–or indeed anything that represents the mainstream chart pop industry in the last twenty years–gave you anything remotely resembling a good time? I […]

Ignoring the music

Even when he has one big, must-be-done thing to concentrate on, the writer’s brain always seems to find time work away quietly at any number of various other ideas. Which is fine until it has an unexpected and ill-timed eureka moment. Mine happened at 5.31 this morning, and concerns my Musical stories. Long term readers (are […]

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 […]

My Sweet Lord

Last time I felt like this was a little over ten and a half years ago. Some friends and I went to see Masters Of Reality at the Garage in Glasgow and, before the band came on, Chris Goss opened the set with a solo acoustic rendition of My Sweet Lord. Because George Harrison had […]

Words and Music

Found myself in Edinburgh last night for a bit of a special books and music event in neat little bookshop that was new to me called Pulp Fiction. The shop itself, carrying a well chosen selection of crime and SF/Fantasy books, is well worth a visit. Its high-stacked shelves remind me of the old Murder […]

Stag & Dagger as a stream of consciousness, because that’s how it felt (in a good way)

So, there’s a plan, and the plan sees me and SiMurnie in the basement of The Captain’s (what no “Rest” now?) at 2pm of the first sunny afternoon since nineteen canteen but it doesn’t matter because Stag & Dagger festival openers, Michael Anguish, kick things off with a grit-and-diesely set with closer, The Rope, crawling around our […]