Oh, The Horror!

Don’t know if I mentioned this or not, but I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about contemporary horror. The following is an attempt to work out why, and – being a rummage around inside my brain – may well be doomed to being malformed and half-baked. So, apologies in advance. I think it started […]

BSFA Awards shortlist

So, the extended voting period has passed and I hope a few more votes snuck in. The result is really interesting shortlists in all the categories. In the two fiction categories, I’ve read two of the novels and two of the short stories, so I have a bit of reading to do to be in a […]

52 songs, 52 stories

Ace short story writer, Iain Rowan, has begun a new blog. Every week in 2012 he’s posting a song and a new story inspired by it. 52 songs, 52 stories. Simple but brilliant. Generally, if you like short stories, you should be checking out Iain’s work anyway. Yes, you should.

Tom and Holly, Story and Song

Over on her site, Holly Phillips is discussing influences on her writing. She has a few things to say on the subject, but the main focus of her thinking on this occasion is Tom Waits’s amazing ability to draw the strange out of the everyday and overlooked. In other words, he does what the magic realists […]

Straw Poll on the subject of: Browsers

Hi folks – just a quick one on the subject of browsers. I’d really appreciate it if folks could comment in this thread with a note to say which internet browser they’re using. For a while for me it’s been a toss up between Chrome and Firefox, but are people migrating back towards internet explorer. […]

BSFA Awards

I always enjoy the BSFA awards. They usually can be relied on to reward very good work, and the decisions they come to usually have the feeling of being the nod of approval of a collective, cohesive community. You can often read a book and know that it’s a BSFA award contender. And that’s how […]

2012 Goals part 2 – The Creative Side

Okay, do you remember last year when I talked about my balls? Yes? No? Well, I’m using the new year to kind of stock take and push on from that position. I actually managed to tick a few things off the original list, but here’s what remains. The novel. For various reasons (mainly to do […]

2012 Goals part 1 – Re The Reading Thing

Yeah, so it’s good to have goals. Especially at this time of the year, and I’m going to give mine to you in two parts. Part 1 is about reading. This time last year I set myself the goal of reading more. It was a good thing to do because it allowed me to rediscover […]

Dark Currents

Before Christmas I mentioned a story sale, and I’m now pleased to be able to announce that my sheep-in-space effort, “Lost Sheep” will be appearing in NewCon Press‘s next anthology, Dark Currents. I’m really pleased about this. It’s got a wonderful cover by Ben Baldwin (I’ll link to it once it’s finalised), and it’s got […]

The last of the reading

This time last year I made a sort of resolution to do one simple thing: to read more for enjoyment. Mostly I carried it through and I read a lot of good books and stories, and a few poor ones too. Towards the end of the year, though, I got sidetracked by reading a few […]