Nooks and Crannies

In the spirit of Expanding the Web Presence I’ve set myself up with a myspace. I doubt whether much will happen there that doesn’t happen here, or on the site, or on the message boards, but you never know.I’ve been using myspace for yonks* with the band, and found it a brilliant networking tool. And […]

Talking of Mr Duncan

On returning home from work tonight I was delighted to find that the postie had delivered Hal’s Sonnets For Orpheus. This is a gorgeous little volume, a beautiful artefact in its own right, and for Vellum fans the thought provoking contents echo in sonnet form one of the main concerns of the novel – the […]

Written On The Skin : Context For Vellum

“Written on the skin Tattooed with a pin In ink as black as sin The future flows.” You can’t have read much genre fiction in recent months and not heard of Hal Duncan’s “Vellum”. It was published just a smirch over a year ago on a wave of strong publisher backing and word of mouth […]

Submission Angst

Something has always puzzled me about the business of writing short stories. It’s a phenomenon that seems mostly to strike newer writers, but it seems that more experienced authors aren’t immune either from the way it has consumed enormous amounts of energy on writing related blogs, forums and discussion boards ever since writers discovered the […]

Our Paris in a top-ten meme kinda fashion

So, we had a classic time in Paris. By the time we were there less than a day, we knew we could live there given the opportunity. Since we got back I’ve been trying to work up the energy to blogalise it, but to be honest I just don’t the time or the inclination. Anyone […]

Painting!

Weekends are the bane of my life, so they are. It’s that yawning, inviting gap of blank space that smiles so invitingly at you all week long. You make grand plans for filling it – in my case with The End Of The Novel – and then it’s gone in a frittering of interruptions and […]

Something Unexpected

Nova Scotia has been short listed for this year’s World Fantasy Award.I’m gobsmacked. If I hadn’t already made plans to go to World Fantasy in Austin, I’d be booking my tickets right now!

This Happens

I’m as guilty as the next person for taking things for granted. We all do it. When something provides us with consistent high quality we forget to be amazed, or even grateful. We just register that it happens, and we expect it to keep on happening. Take, for example, Interzone, Britain’s longest running professional SF […]

The Chap

I have never disguised my admiration for the esteemed gentlemen who perpetuate that organ of “proper” living: The Chap. I wonder if they also hold regional events like this. I know a number of gentlemen, and ladies too, in this fair city who would give the Martini Mixing event a serious go.

Ghosts

Lately, I’ve been thinking about ghosts. Two reasons. The first? Well, Mr Wilson and I are in discussions about a proposed editorial project that might well involve spooks, spectres and other supernatural occurrences. We both love the traditional ghost stories of MR James and his ilk, all dread and gaslight, lonely academics, cursed landscapes and […]