The early summer is shaping up to be very busy, writing-wise. One consequence of this is that my posts here may be rather infrequent. Another is that I won’t be going to a couple of upcoming events I had hoped to attend: the first of these is The Write Fantastic in Cambridge, which I recommend […]
I’ve got another story seeing print soon, in the long-awaited End of an Aeon anthology. My contribution, ‘Twilight at the Change House’, is a new story, and could best be described as fey slipstream, although it also includes romance and some dodgy drug references. In other news, I’ve just started checking the page proofs for […]
Although working on Queen of Nowhere has meant I’ve been neglecting my short fiction recently, I’m delighted to have two of my previously published stories ‘reprinted’ this week. ‘The Prettiest Star’ appears in a new and packed anthology from Adventure Books of Seattle, consisting of forty-eight stories originally published in ‘Escape Velocity’ magazine. My small […]
It’s been a somewhat crazy week, what with Eastercon (overall verdict: better than expected, but must get more sleep next time) and then the Clarke Awards last night (too many people, too little time to talk to them all!). I do, however, have one formal announcement, which is that I have now changed agents, and […]
The current plan is to arrive at the con on Friday afternoon, at which point I’ll install myself in the dealers’ room if ‘Team Witchcraft’ need me or the cheapest bar if not. This pattern is likely to hold as a default for Saturday and Sunday. I won’t be around on Monday. I’ve been in […]
My Eastercon schedule has been somewhat, ahem, fluid, but as far as I know I’ll be getting to the con on Friday, and leaving first thing on Monday. During daylight hours I will mainly be in the dealer’s room as part of the Marvellous Ms Williams’ ‘Team Witchcraft’. Once the sun is far enough over […]
Like a lot of writers, I’ve been know to whinge sometimes. I complain about how inspiration eludes me, how my characters won’t cooperate, how deadlines scare me, how reviewers hate me (OK, not that one, because unlike some people* I am a professional). However, these complaints are just venting: when it comes down it, I […]
A book-a-year schedule means I can’t devote much time to my short stories, so I was particularly pleased to make a sale to Dark Fiction this week. The story in question is not a new one, but a reprint which originally appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine back in 2004. Although ‘Paying for Rain’ isn’t […]
If you’re writing to a deadline (self-imposed or external), you need to set yourself goals. Currently, as I’m in ‘novel first-draft mode’, my goal is 10K of new words per week. Now, even without real-world distractions (day-job, sleep, family, re-roofing the garden shed etc) this is an unrealistic goal. I find that ideas take a […]
Work on the first draft of Queen of Nowhere continues apace, if somewhat interrupted by other stuff such as the day-job, my social life, uncharacteristic bouts of exercise, and sleep. Our hero has just sealed herself in a (non airtight and padded) box for reasons that make perfect sense to her. I may also have […]
The copy-edited manuscript for Bringer of Light is now back with my editor. This means it’s time to return to the first draft of Queen of Nowhere. Given my feelings on first drafts, I’ve been in search of writing avoidance today, which is good news for the state of my house and garden, if not […]