See amateur historians?

They don’t half come up with some odd notions. Maybe it’s the persuasive power of the way a character like Merlin is portrayed in the fantasy tradition, but Merlin as an auld geezer stoatin around Partick. It just doesn’t compute, y’know?

Recommendations

Saturday night was spent in the most marvelous celebration of the music of Mr Joe Kane. A grand night out, featuring the magic of Kevin Price, the glamorous fun of Miss Leggy Pee and the rambunctious music of The Plimptons all leading up to a cracking performance by Joe’s band, Idiots Against Time, showcasing the […]

A moment of praise…

…for Keith Brooke’s Infinity Plus. Over the last ten years Keith has grown IP into a colossal repository for great, free, short genre fiction, and that’s not counting the fine selection of reviews, interviews and other bits and bobs. Sadly, the site has become too much work to keep going now, so Keith’s calling it […]

Off my definitively unturtlenecked chest…

As in, I’m going to have unload, before I explode. So, please be aware this is a (very rare for me) rant, pure and simple. It’s about Macs. I don’t like them. Or rather I don’t like the idea of owning one of them, or being associated with the company that makes them. I’m sure, […]

And the winner is…

Having been fortunate enough to have both of my books shortlisted for awards, I’d have to say that I’m generally in favour of them. Sales aside, it’s nice to know that people thought well enough of your work to want to mark it as worthy in some way. It’s not only gratifying, it gives a […]

The slow, creeping approach of Black Static

It’s finally, almost, here. TTA Press’s Black Static, the magazine that takes over where The Third Alternative left off for lovers of darkly fantastic short fiction is at the printers. We’ll see it in September. Can’t wait.

Shriek (If ya wanna go faster)

Fans of Jeff Vandermeer’s astonishing 2006 novel “Shriek: An Afterword” (out now in paperback in the UK) will know all about the city of Ambergris and its facility for spilling/creeping/oozing out of the confining pages of mere books and into other media. In probably its most audacious attempt yet to cross-infect humanity there now exists […]

Injuns, Honest

One of the joys of being into music and living in a town like Glasgow is that it’s perfectly possible to have a new favourite band on almost a weekly basis. For me, my New Favourite Bands Of The Week have recently included: The Yellow Bentines (at Maggie May’s) The Decemberists (played on Pulse FM […]

Stop Press!

Just heard that The Ephemera has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award. It’ll be presented at Fantasycon in September. I’ve already signed up, but I’m not holding my breath – the competition looks fierce!

Recommendations (2)

“Strange Sensation” by Maxi Geil! and Playcolt Last Tuesday saw the return of Club Tromolo at the Classic Grand, hosted as usual by A Band Called Quinn, and featuring the (un)usual selection of off-beat variety acts as well as guest sets by a couple of international acts: Etno-Klassic from Kosovo and New York’s own Maxi […]