Munchies

This week I allowed myself to read fiction. Just a little bit, cos even though I’m on the wagon for the duration of the nov, the urge is sometimes too much. Just a short story, maybe a magazine, but nothing stronger. Nae books or nuthin‘, gov. You know what’s the ideal size for the fiction […]

Sparks of Genius

Last week was a bit of a gig fest. Wednesday saw us tripping along to Juliette and The Licks And Friday saw me hanging around in Edinburgh after the last day of a training course to catch our friend Cornelius and his new band, The Rohypsters, who turned out, as stated in their manifesto, to […]

Tribalism

Sometimes the best of things give you cause to examine your attitudes to certain aspects of life. I love being Scottish, but I’ve never been the sort who gets misty-eyed when I hear bagpipes or see a bloke in a kilt or receive postcards from the Highlands. I like a dram, sure, and love to […]

A Very Happy Convention

Just returned in more or less one piece from an exceptionally good FantasyCon in Nottingham. And – with the exception of the tense, slow, torrential drive down – it was a spankingly good weekend. Mr Duncan, Mr Cobley and myself motored south during an increasingly wild Friday, the end result of which, when we finally […]

This Is Music

In a musical frame this week. Not only did the band play last night (for the first time in months!), but the new issue of is this music? is out this week too. For those of you who don’t know it, itm? is a magazine that focuses on Scotland’s multifarious local music output. And to […]

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 […]