2016 Roundup

So, it’s December again. A time when people traditionally look back on the year, but considering what 2016 has dealt us…in general terms at least, let’s not. More specifically, December is the time when many authors look back on their year’s output, and actually, by any standards, mine has been pretty successful. June saw the […]

Archaeology

A few months ago, during an attempt to tame the depths of the Big Cupboard In The Hall, I unearthed a box of last century media – floppies, minidisks, zip drives. And on one of the zip drives I was chuffed as ninepence to find a dump of files from one of my old PCs, […]

Thirty Years of Rain

Last night I sat for a couple of hours in a small room with 17 other people taking turns critiquing a piece fiction. The chat was good, the vibe lighthearted, the critique uniformly honest and forensically accurate and the author stoic. And then we went to the pub.A regular night at the Glasgow SF Writers’ […]

Myriad Lands

Just received contributor copies of a wonderful new two-volume anthology from Guardbridge Books. Myriad Lands‘ remit was to collect stories set in non-traditional settings, and Volume 2 features a story set in the world of The Moon King. It’s based around a deleted scene from the book which features a cabaret club that happens somewhere […]

In celebration of the indies

Just got back from a trip to London where many of the great and the good of British genre publishing gathered to celebrate the tenth anniversary of powerhouse indie publisher, NewCon Press. NewCon’s owner/publisher/editor, Ian Whates has done a lot for me personally in publishing both The Moon King and Secret Language, and I owe […]

Albedo One

Really pleased last week to receive a copy of this book. Albedo One is an Irish institution and many years ago they published one of my earliest stories, The Bone Farmer. It was my first sale to an overseas magazine, and I was thrilled to be published in those venerable pages. This anthology, the first […]

Papertrail Podcast

A couple of months back I was invited to take part in an excellent new thing, the Papertrail Podcast. Host Alex Blott got in touch and explained that the premise was to have a conversation with writers about the books that have left an impression on them. So, I went away and thought about it […]

Secret Language Competition

We have our winners! Congratulations to Rich Dodgin, Andrew Hedgecock and Georgina Bruce who all successfully took on the challenge and win a copy of the book. I’ll leave this post up in case anyone still wants to have a go. ****** Hey, does anyone want to win a copy of Secret Language? Does you? […]

They grow up so fast

Incredibly, unbelievably, NewCon Press celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Over the last decade, publisher and editor, Ian Whates, has grown his press from producing a supposed one-shot anthology into a cast iron pillar of the UK genre community. Publishing novels, novellas, collections and anthologies that grace awards shortlists every year, their trademark is bringing […]

Abigail Goudy

With just two weeks to go until Secret Language is published** I want to introduce the four brand new stories that I’ve written for the book. With very little time these days to write all the stories I want to, I’ve been stockpiling ideas and half-begun things for years in the hope of finding the […]