The Year of Living Industriously

After all the exciting business of novels and the like last year, 2015 might look like it was a year of not very much happening, but I doubt I’ve ever had such a productive one. Musically, we got the band back on the road and Markee and Bert managed to get themselves on a US […]

The boy who loved The Boy Who Loved Death

This is an unashamed advert for The Boy Who Love Death: a book I know I’m going to adore, and I’m pretty sure that anyone else who enjoys scalpel-sharp stories written with unbelievably lyrical precision will too. I loved Hal Duncan’s last collection, Scruffians!, because it assembled most of the tales in his wonderful Scruffians cycle in […]

Fantastyka

The new issue of Polish SF & F magazine, Fantastyka, contains a reprint of my story, The Euonymist. There’s something other-worldly about seeing your own words printed in a different language; a language you can’t even read. You can sense the shape of the story, perhaps spot a few phrases and make a guess at which bits […]

Einstein A-go-go

This month sees the publication of a new anthology that celebrates the centenary of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. In I Am Because You Are editors Pippa Goldschmidt and Tania Hershman have assembled an exceptional array of contributions from fiction authors and science writers who explore the profound extents to which the ramifications of Albie’s […]

Been a long time since rock and roll…

We could probably sit down and work it out, but it’s been at least five, probably more than six, years since Murnie last played live. It’s been so long since our misfit band of brothers last got up on a stage and played pop songs too loud that it was conceivable that we’d forget how. But, […]

Britannia Panopticon Book Fair

If anyone happens to be in Glasgow’s Merchant City next Saturday afternoon (perhaps taking in the entertainment and foodie delights of the Merchant City Festival), you might be interested in the Britannia Panopticon Book Fair. A selection of local and international authors will be selling books and giving readings in the historic surroundings of the […]

British Fantasy Awards

Stunned, not to say delighted, this morning to discover that The Moon King has been shortlisted for the 2015 British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel. It’s in wonderful company, and from past experience I reckon the jury have a very interesting discussion ahead of them. I’m now going to Not Think About It until […]

A Not So Brief History Of Murnie

Out of the blue last week a picture appeared on facebook of my old band (80s hard rock, mullets and power ballads – you get the picture) and in addition to the predictable surge of horror/nostalgia, I realised that being in a band – having a bunch of people that you bond with musically, that […]

Black Static Stamps

My story, The Secret Language of Stamps, is out this week in Black Static magazine. My first supernatural story in a long time, it is set in a post-war English port town and touches on themes of xenophobia, travel and loss in what I hope is a fairly creepy way. As always, if you’re a fan of […]

A Sudden Sprinkle of de Saw & Finkle

I know what you’ve been thinking. You’ve been thinking: it’s been aaaaages since I saw Markee & Bert. You know, with the singing and the stories and saw? Yeah. So, you’ll no doubt be beside yourself to learn that over the next month we’ll be All Over The Shop (technically, just Glasgow and Edinburgh but it feels like […]