A good thing

So, 2012’s Eastercon has been and gone, and left me feeling (with a nod of gratitude to Jim Marshall) like a fan in front Nigel Tufnell’s stack in Tap’s heyday. It was a good thing, there was a lot of it and I possibly indulged a little too much. It had started so simply. No […]

Those odd subjects of conversation

One of the things I look forward to about a convention weekend is the bar chat. Basically, the bar chat you get at a convention is the conversational equivalent of taking a bunch of regularly exercised, but well trained, puppies to the park and letting them off the lead. After feeding them amphetamines. For four […]

March reading

Concentrated on novels during March to give myself a chance of making a properly informed vote before the BSFA awards.* Embassytown by China Mieville (Pan Macmillan): for 100 pages or so I thought this was going to be it, the-Mieville-that-I-loved, but it ended up being the-Mieville-that-I-was-initially-intellectually-stimulated-by, moved on to the-Mieville-that-started-to-outstay-its-welcome, and lastly the-Mieville-that-bored-me-so-much-I-had-to-skim-the-last-bit-just-to-call-it-done-even-though-admittedly-that-last-bit-actually-had-some-action. As usual […]

BSFA Awards shortlist

So, the extended voting period has passed and I hope a few more votes snuck in. The result is really interesting shortlists in all the categories. In the two fiction categories, I’ve read two of the novels and two of the short stories, so I have a bit of reading to do to be in a […]

Dark Currents

Before Christmas I mentioned a story sale, and I’m now pleased to be able to announce that my sheep-in-space effort, “Lost Sheep” will be appearing in NewCon Press‘s next anthology, Dark Currents. I’m really pleased about this. It’s got a wonderful cover by Ben Baldwin (I’ll link to it once it’s finalised), and it’s got […]

June’s reading

Two novels this month: Infernal Devices by KW Jeter – okay so this was meant to be the start of my attempt to take on Steampunk fiction. As a result of my earlier post I had a few suggestions about what I should be reading and I thought I’d start with one of the classics. […]

May’s reading

Chunky style reading this month. No shorts, but the new Interzone only just arrived so hopefully something from that will make June’s list. Odalisque by Fiona McIntosh – been quite a while since I read a genuine THE* Fantasy novel, and it’s always good to keep up with what’s happening. This one was actually published […]