Absolute Zero

If you’re suffering from the summer swelter, you might like me be slightly guiltily looking forward to the winter. Well, I have good news. Absolute Zero, a new anthology of cold-themed horror fiction is just around the corner, and I have grim little story in there called The Cold Case. The Cold Case is set […]

Remains

If you’ve visited this blog before, you might remember that I’ve been writing a bunch of weird short stories on the theme of bequests and inheritances. I wrote about it back in 2023 while the idea was still coalescing and since then it’s turned into a pretty fertile source of inspiration. The stories have done […]

Coming soon…

2024 has been a pretty good year for publishing short fiction, and keeping the momentum going, I’ve a few more lined up for 2025 already. Boreal, an anthology of taiga/forest-focused horror stories is due out from Strange Wilds Press in February. My contribution, a gentle folk horror piece set in the ancient Caledonian Forest in […]

Gallus

The Glasgow SF Writers’ Circle has a new book out. GALLUS is a celebration of Glaswegian writing published to coincide with the World Science Fiction Convention which begins here in Glasgow this week. I’ve been a member of GSFWC since I started writing way back in the 1990s. It’s an amazing, supportive community, and an […]

Nova Scotia vol 2

As the 2024 edition of the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow approaches, there’s been a lot going on to welcome our global visitors and wave the flag for the science fiction, fantasy and horror we produce here in Scotland. One of the things I’ve been involved with is Nova Scotia vol 2: New Speculative […]

2023 ROUNDUP

This year ended up being a productive one, all things considered. I definitely feel like I’ve rediscovered the ability to get into a regular creative routine again. Partly that’s due to returning to working in the office two days a week, reclaiming the potential for cafe writing that’s lost when I work from home. It […]

Keepsakes and Hand-me-downs

Over the last few months I’ve been writing a bunch of new short stories. All are loosely in the horror or weird fiction genres, but that’s not the only link between them. Each tale also includes a bequest or inheritance. I’ve been thinking a lot about the things that are passed down through the generations. […]

BSFA award 2023 shortlist

Unbelievably proud to discover that my story, A Moment Of Zugzwang, has been voted on to the British Science Fiction Association award shortlist for 2023. It’s a massive priviledge to share the nomination with four other hugely talented authors. A Moment Of Zugzwang is one of my near future surveillance bees stories (a series that […]

2022 Roundup

Well, 2022 is almost done. In some ways, I suppose, it’s been a more hopeful year, though at the same time it’s managed to find new challenges to throw our way too. It feels at least like the world is moving again. Likewise, creatively, I feel like this has been a year of scraping off […]

back in black static

Just heard from Andy Cox that my story, The Salted Bones, is going to be in issue 82/83 of Black Static. I’m especially pleased about this because Andy has been kind enough to publish my stories since issue 2 of The Third Alternative (the precursor to Black Static), and this final issue marks his publishing […]