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 […]

Recommendations (1)

“Brasyl” by Ian McDonald Following on from 2005’s superb take on India-around-the-corner, “River Of Gods”, McDonald’s take on the glorious technicolour society of Brazil is as lush as the Amazon and as slick as the 21st century TV executives featured in one of its three strands. It’s wildly imaginative and it’s filled with truth. It […]

A fresh face

So, I’ve gone and combined the blog and the website. Sort of. I’ll probably tinker with it forever now, expect changes, but slow changes, but it’s basically done. Hoorah! Please come here in future for your one-stop-Neilly-shop.

Upcoming

I’ve got bored of having a website and a blog, so I’m looking into combining the two. Expect changes in the near future.

Done, and Done

I don’t really talk about the writing and such very often on here, but sometimes it’s worth noting certain milestones. So, I finished the novel. And I think…cautiously…that it’s okay. The interesting thing is the routine I managed to settle into in order to get the last of it done. I’d wake up, get out […]

Performance/Face

So, I’ve been thinking about performance lately. Specifically I feel the indie circuit too often misses out on the theatricality and mystique that sometimes goes hand in hand with music. Don’t get me wrong I like going to see music for music’s sake, and I prefer to watch musicians without pretensions – it’s never good […]