Stag & Dagger: the Personality Edition

The 2015 Stag & Dagger Presents Live At Glasgow** was a belter. We’d done the Spotify playlist, we’d made the Spreadsheet and for once the gods of scheduling smiled on us. All our top picks lined up nicely, with nae rushing around. All right we weren’t going to get dinner, but you’ve got to make sacrifices. […]

The Stag Is Set

This weekend sees the return of the Stag & Dagger festival to Glasgow (or Stag & Dagger presents Live at Glasgow, as it’s now known. Always enjoy the day itself, but I love the build-up too. For the last couple of months we’ve building a spotify playlist as the bill has been announced and listening […]

Scifi-Fantasy Network, and a competition!

During Eastercon a few weeks ago I was interviewed for Scifi-Fantasy Network by Rob Malan. Rob asked me about how The Moon King came to be, about being shortlisted for the BSFA award, about the importance of independent publishers like NewCon Press and about the new book, Queen Of Clouds. And, honestly, I did enjoy the […]

Everyone’s A Winner

Just got back from Dysprosium, the 2015 Eastercon, having had a fantastic time. There are always tons of things to do at Eastercon, but mostly I spend the time taking to friends. Friends I’ve known for years, friends I mostly know via social media, and friends I’ve barely met before, but suddenly find a common […]

Dysprosium Approach

Eastercon’s outdone itself this year. Even the title sounds like a big budget sci-fi flick** And I’ll be down there as usual, and if you’re looking for me on the programme: Saturday 1pm-2pm Room 15 I’ll be talking to Nina Allan, Dave Hutchinson and Ian Whates about “That Tricky First, Second, Third, or Fourth Novel” Sunday 3pm-4pm […]

How writers write

Every writer has their own unique approach to getting from Idea to Finished Thing. A few weeks I was asked by the SF novelist Tony Ballantyne to describe how I tackle the writing process for a regular feature on his website. If you’re interested in that sort of thing (and you should certainly read Keith Brooke’s […]

The 3D Effect

So last night murnie had our first in-a-proper-rehearsal-room band rehearsal for a while. I say a while, we worked out that the last time was just before Simon’s eldest kid–who just turned five–was born. We’ve not been entirely idle in that time of course: there’s been recordings and the occasional songwriting session, but getting all […]

Introducing: The DIY Listening Group

Introducing a new group dedicated to the discussion of the indiest of indy music: the Bandcampistas, the Soundcloud collective, the DIY stuff recorded in kitchens and backrooms, the Low Fi recordings that don’t get distribution or airplay or any kind of love–or even notice–at all, but might, just might, contain a gem of a song, a […]

The Pop Group

Just read an excellent article by indie music net label, Eardrums Pop, which nails the key difficulty faced by indie/home/DIY bands and music producers. That of getting feedback on your music. Any kind, at all. From likes and retweets to comments, mentions and honest to god reviews, every single piece of feedback is more greatly valued […]

Obliques

Over the last few weeks I’ve been enjoying the slow reanimation of wur band. It’s been packed away up in the creative attic for a while (because..life) but now we’ve been working on some new songs and are well on the road I hope to getting them into a shape for recording and playing live. I say new […]