Science Fiction and other things

New book reviews up at SF Concatenation . This time around I looked at The Gradual by Christopher Priest, The Divine Madness of Philip K Dick and Dominion by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard. Not just my stuff up there - plenty of news, reviews and other things. Check it out!

I've a short story in a new anthology out soonish called One Step Beyond. Available online in most places including Amazon for an introductory 99c I've also got numerous reviews up on SF Concatenation  such as this one on the rather splendid Long Dark Dusk by JP Smythe and this one on Kazuaki Takani's Extinction. I'll be posting a few new short stories around the web in the next few weeks.

 I've got short story in a new anthology 'One Step Beyond' available pretty much everywhere and certainly at Amazon

Since my last post back in the age of steam driven PCs I've been writing (got an MA in Creative Writing, went to a cool US six week workshop called Odyssey and learned loads) publishing some (eg in Nebula Rift and at Perihelion SF I've also been working in Africa working with a fantastic bunch of people at Pump Aid who help disadvantaged rural communities in Malawi with clean water. I've also been running a lot - Paris Marathon next week (hopefully - fingers crossed). Joined a running club and everything! Now I ache ALL the time!

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...