Record Store Day 2011

No NAF this Friday because I’m saving my pennies for Record Store Day tomorrow. For those that don’t know about it, Record Store Day is a chance celebrate your local indie record shops. The little places who sell new and second hand music at proper reasonable prices, that stock the really cool stuff you can’t […]

Book delivered

Completed the work on the new edition of The Ephemera yesterday and delivered it to Keith Brooke at Infinity Plus. With a favouring wind it will be available to buy in various ebook formats very soon. I’ll post more details about it next week, but for now I can tell you that it contains all […]

Eastercon programme activities

If anyone’s interested, involved in a couple of programme items at Eastercon. “Looking outward vs Looking inward” : a discussion about whether SF still retains its spirit of exploration or whether it has become too introspective, is on Friday at 7.30pm. And immediately following that at 9.00pm: “How to run a writing group” : a […]

Rocket Science

Over at his blog, Ian Sales announces that he is going to edit an anthology of science fiction and fact called Rocket Science. To be published by Mutation Press in 2012, the unique selling point of this anthology is to be its focus on Hard SF (defined in another blog post by Ian as – and […]

NAF : KASSIDY / Hope St

One of the problems with coming to a new album with expectations is that sometimes they are confounded. That sounds like a pretty negative start, but it’s not meant to be. I first came across Kassidy via their Rubbergum Ep (the first in a series of three, although I missed the subsequent ones). I really […]

Polish fiction : recommendations please

One of the great things about hanging out in the Paradox Cafe in Warsaw over the weekend, was being surrounded by books in an entirely – and I mean ENTIRELY – differently language. I loved the look of Polish on the page (and the sound of it to the ear too, although most folks were […]

Jack Deighton on the BSFA shortlist

Over on his blog, Fife-based SF novelist, Jack Deighton has been looking at the BSFA award nominees. Jack’s opinions are always thoughtful and I won’t comment on what he’s written here (except to say that I disagree with his appreciation of the Allan story). But if you’re thinking about voting in the BSFA awards this […]

Show of hands : Eastercon?

All of a sudden it’s that time of year again. Eastercon is in two weeks time. It’s a convention I always enjoy because I get to see lots of friends from various parts of the country (and the world). So, who’s going to be in Birmingham this year then?

Warsaw

So that was Warsaw. There and back again in sixty hours, give or take. But, Wow! Did we ever pack a lot in? The purpose of the trip was to take the opportunity to catch up with Jeff Vandermeer, a great friend who I’ve not seen for a couple of years. Jeff was there to […]

Moments of readable goodness from March

No shorts this time, mostly because I was on a novel binge, but also because not many of the shorts I did manage to read made much of an impression. Disappointed not to get to the new Interzone, but delighted to be 3/5 of the way through the BSFA shortlist and all are worth a […]