I wish it would rain

Queen of Clouds is inching closer and closer to becoming an actual thing out in the actual world. In the last few days I’ve seen the finalized cover, received the signing sheets for the limited edition hardback, seen a couple of early reviews, and started finalising the details of launch events. It’s all really exciting, […]

Introducing : Queen of Clouds

My new fantasy novel, Queen of Clouds, is available to pre-order and, all being well, will be launched at Eastercon 2022 in London. It’s been a long journey to get to this point because, well, publishing can be a slow business, but I’m utterly thrilled that the time to share this book with the world […]

ParSec Magazine

Good news for fans of science fiction and fantasy comes with the announcement of a new fiction magazine, ParSec. A powerhouse combination of the energies and talents of two of our most esteemed indie publishers, ParSec will be published by Pete Crowther’s PS Publishing and edited by NewCon’s Ian Whates and the magazine, which will […]

GSFWC charity anthology

The venerable Glasgow SF Writers’ Circle has assembled an anthology of short stories to raise funds to support charities helping those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The charities include: The Trussell Trust (Foodbanks UK wide) Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) Simon Community Scotland (Homelessness in Scotland) Edited by EM Faulds and featuring art by […]

Talking speculatively

One area of the book world that I’ve not spent enough time investigating is the burgeoning microcosm we call podcasts. The reason for this is pretty simple, I don’t get a lot of dedicated time to listen to things and what I do have is given over to music or audio books. Which is frustrating, […]

Some upcoming events

There follows a short round up of some stuff I’m really pleased to be doing over the next month or so: Feb 5th : In the guise of Bert Finkle, with my criminal accomplice Markee de Saw, I’m going to be performing at Spangled Cabaret’s 10th birthday show. Spangled has been a main artery of […]

The Moon King Trivia #4 : What genre is it meant to be?

#4 : What Genre Is The Moon King meant to be? Q: At times The Moon King reads like a science fiction novel and at other times it reads like Fantasy. WTAF! Dude, what genre is it meant to be? A: Can’t you have machines in fantasy? Can’t you have supernatural elements in science fiction? Who says […]

How did I get to be here (and where exactly is here anyway)?

It’s funny how a bunch of isolated points of interest can coalesce into something you didn’t realise was concerning you. Take this past week for example, in which: The Clarke Award shortlist was announced and duly both praised and criticised for being “safe” and “core genre” A meme did the rounds of writer acquaintances (like […]