Science Fiction and other things

sold a short story to Perihelion Science Fiction yesterday - very happy. Will post a link when it actually gets published. This week I'm hoping to finish the first draft of my novel but a streaming head cold is getting in the way of any kind of sensible thinking (so I may not actually manage too many proper joined up sentences). Watched the first two episodes of the new SyFy series Helix last night - don't they have any proper scientists advising them? Still, that's just details. Deadly pathogen loose n the arctic in a base with guys with scary eyes? What's not to like.

Brief update from me now - more later hopefully. Two sales since the last post - Stupefying Stories and Nebula Rift - will post when published. Loads of short stories out with various markets trying to find good homes. Last year I spent most of my time in Africa (Malawi and Zimbabwe) working with a charity ( Pump Aid ) which helps poor rural communities with clean water. That didn't leave much time for writing (though I feel a Malawi based SF story brewing nicely in my head), though I did manage to do NANOWRIMO. I now have three almost completed novels and this year I'm going to finish them (honest). Also managed a couple of short stories which I took to the Milford workshop in September. I know, not much. But I got distracted, for instance by taking up the editorship of Mensa UK's Creative Writing group magazine, Folio, and doing reviews for the SF Concatenation webzine. Lots to unpick there - will do that in later posts.

Since my last post I have: been to (and through) the Odyssey workshop in Manchester, New Hampshire where I met loads of great writers and may even have learned something (though the proof will be in the publications); completed (and now, it seems, been awarded) my MA in Creative Writing from Brunel University in West London where I met loads more great writers (both on and off the teaching staff) and may well have learned something more (though, y'know, I don't think Brunel was quite as obsessed with commas as the Odyssey folk); picked up another Writers of the Future Honourable Mention; Joined the CODEX writers group; submitted very little to anywhere (and that has to stop. Or start. Whatever.); been globetrotting. Just back from Zimbabwe via Malawi. Lots of story material there. Now I have to finish the novel I started for my MA dissertation. I'm about 50,000 words in, which is around half the novel, but I've had to put it down for a few weeks to concentrat...

I scared myself recently by adding up all the words I need to write to even halfway reach my writing goals this summer. It's a big number. And just to make life difficult for myself, I can't seem to get started on any of them. Not quite true, but it feels that way. One of the things I've committed to is an online workshop run by the British Science Fiction Association  called 'Orbiter' which means I'm supposed to give four other novelists 15,000 words of my work in progress every two months for critique. I say 'supposed' because I missed the last slot and I'm 22 days late with this round's. It shouldn't be that difficult - it's a fully outlined novel, I'm only 3,000 words or so shy of what I need to send and everyone in the group is friendly and helpful, but there's always something else which needs doing. Today is tricky tax and insurance issues, plus a book to read (for a book group), an evening out (to discuss the book), a ca...

Oh dear, oh dear. Where did it all go wrong? Disney's John Carter is currently bombing at the box office - nine days after release it's taken just under $180 million worldwide against a production budget of $250 million. For a film which reputedly needs to make $700 million just to break even John Carter is looking like a flop of epic proportions. And for Disney, this is the second Mars related disaster in two years: 2011's Mars Needs Moms is currently nursing a net loss of $139 million. Reports suggest Disney itself may be projecting a $200m loss for John Carter. What is going on? First things first. What's the movie actually like? Well the BBC 's film critic Mark Kermode said : "The story telling is incomprehensible, the characterisation is ludicrous, the story is two and a quarter hours long and it's a boring, boring, boring two and a quarter hours long." and that seems to be the popular consensus. Director Andrew Stanton's previous experienc...

My story 'The Barber Shop' appeared yesterday in Every Day Fiction.  http://www.everydayfiction.com/the-barber-shop-by-mark-bilsborough/  . After the first day, the stories start to scroll down the page until they end up in the archive section, but this link is a permanent tag. This site seems to get more traffic than Ray Gun Revival (though the story has less chance for prominent positioning) and looks like a good (but scary) place to get some reader reaction. The star rating system is already bringing out the competitor in me though, which is not good. I thought it would be ok just to be published!

My short story, Hunter, was published today by Ray Gun Revival:  http://www.raygunrevival.com/hunter-mark-bilsborough/