FINCH

One of the things I was looking forward to most about WFC was picking up a copy of Jeff Vandermeer‘s new novel, Finch. Like many people interested in the development of fantastical fiction over the last ten years or so I have followed the unfolding story of the creepy, decaying fabled city of Ambergris, consumed […]

Judgement by Fergus Bannon

Being An Recommendation: At the beginning of this year I was privileged to read a novel called Judgement by GSFWC member Fergus Bannon. Now Fergus hasn’t written much in recent years and the book was actually written a few years ago, but some work has been done to bring it up to date (by Gary […]

San Jose

You know, I find that I don’t have a terrible lot to say on the subject of World Fantasy Convention 2009. I mean, I had a fantastic time, but I didn’t really do much that would make really interesting reading. Sure, I went to one or two programme items – of which the highlight was […]

And suddenly it’s…

…three days til I fly out to San Jose for WFC. I cannot…CANNOT…believe it’s come up so fast. There’s been so much to do over the last few weeks (and so much still to do before I leave), but here it is. And I’m suddenly really looking forward to it. Looking forward to the LDBH […]

New Books

Found myself in the pub last night with various writery types discussing the rise of e-books and our fears for the diminishment of traditional publishing. The subject came up because one of our number has decided to open up an independent book shop and another is to run it for him, and they were tossing […]

Support Our Zines Day

October 1st = Support Our Zines Day, an initiative…um, initiated…by Damien G Walter, and one of which I wholeheartedly approve. I love fiction zines. I fell in love with Interzone in the mid-late 80s and used to read tons of the UK small press mags that flourished during the 90s, but I while still keep […]

Direct Marketing

Two or three interesting blog entries in the last 24 hrs on the subject of connecting creative types directly with their audience. The first, from Amanda Palmer, is a stand-making shout out to the effect that she is pioneering a new model, combining her effervescent web presence with paypal to make money that goes directly […]

No NAF but Pomplamoose

No NAF today, cos I didn’t get out at lunchtime. But that’s okay because it allows me to drop in quick plug for a band I discovered via Chris Roberson’s twitter feed. They’re called Pomplamoose, they’re from California and when I get home I’m going to buy everything they’ve recorded for $9. It’s not just […]

Last Drink Bird Head

Question What do Peter Straub, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Brian Evenson, Henry Kaiser, Gene Wolfe, Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Rikki Ducornet, Holly Phillips, Stephen R. Donaldson, K.J. Bishop, Michael Swanwick, Ellen Kushner, Daniel Abraham, Jay Lake, Liz Williams, Tanith Lee, Sarah Monette, Conrad Williams, Marly Youmans and sixty odd other contributors have in common? Answer They […]

A Word About Stories

It occurred to me this morning, in a dull flash of latent stupidity, that I’ve not done a terrible amount to point visitors to stories of mine that can be found lying around the web. These were all fanfared when they were first posted, of course, but time has seen the links trampled into the […]