The new issue of Writing Magazine is out. As well as my usual news and market reports I have a lengthy article Fact For Fiction – considering when it is important to get the facts right, and when they can be manipulated to a writer’s advantage. Here’s a preview. To enjoy the full thing you’ll have to buy the magazine, or stand in the newsagent and read it, or beg, borrow or steal it. Details at: https://www.writers-online.co.uk/Writing-Magazine/
Lisa Tuttle has long been one of the masters of the deeply unsettling tale. Last year her short story Objects in Dreams may be Closer than they Appear opened Jonathan Oliver’s excellent anthology, House of Fear, a collection of haunted and otherwise strange homes. That was one of my favourite books of the year, and that Tuttle’s tale was chosen to open a volume containing new work by such writers as Chaz Brenchley, Eric Brown, Christopher Fowler, Garry Kilworth, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon and Christopher Priest says something of the quality of the tale. It is no surprise therefore to find Objects in [...]
This review of two novels by Kathleen Ann Goonan, In War Times and that book’s sequel, This Shared Dream, originally appeared in slightly different form on the Los Angeles Review of Books. Kathleen Ann Goonan’s In War Times, originally published in 2007, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel and the ALA’s Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year. A complex exploration of the political implications of alternative history, In War Times begins in 1941, with Sam Dance being given documents that lead to the opening of a parallel world in which Dance’s brother, Keenan, survived the [...]
Every so often the SF news magazine Locus runs a top ten poll. The most recent poll closed at the end of November. It focused on the 20th and 21st centuries, with separate categories for SF and Fantasy novels and combined rankings for SF/Fantasy novellas, novelettes, and short stories. These were ‘write-in’ polls, so nothing was excluded. For the 20th century each poll offered 10 places, for the 21st century, five. To fill it all in conscientiously required a lot of reflection and recollection. Suffice to say by the time I got around to broaching the online form it was [...]
As previously mentioned, the world’s first Science Fiction magazine, Amazing Stories is coming back, and I will be writing for it. After three weeks in beta testing, today sees the official launch of the website, and here is a link to my first post, talking about some of my favourite books. Meanwhile here is the official press release: Amazing Stories, the world’s first science fiction magazine, is now open to the public. Social Magazine Website Offers Nearly Sixty Writers and Social Networking For Fans! Experimenter Publishing Company, Hillsboro, NH, January 21, 2013 AMAZING STORIES are just one click away!TM The Experimenter [...]
Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Space 1999 creator Gerry Anderson died today. Some years ago I had the honour and pleasure of interviewing Mr Anderson for Amazon. You can read the interview here.
Amazing Stories, the world’s first science fiction magazine, opens for Beta Testing of Phase 1 on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013. Fifty+ Writers Sign On to provide genre-related content! Experimenter Publishing Company Hillsboro, NH December 20, 2012 AMAZING STORIES are just one click away!TM The Experimenter Publishing Company is pleased to announce the reintroduction of the world’s most recognizable science fiction magazine – AMAZING STORIES! Set to relaunch with a Beta Test of its new Social Magazine Platform, Amazing Stories will feature content from 50+ bloggers, covering an enormous array of subjects of interest to genre fans. “We’ve got authors and [...]
BlogINK, part of Harlequin UK, is offering a 12 month paid contract as MIRA Ink’s book-reviewing blogger. The winning blogger will be paid £250 a month for four posts and also receive a new laptop or iPad. The competition is open to UK and Republic of Ireland citizens only. Round one is now open for entries. Here’s what you need to do: Write a blog – there are only two rules; it needs to be about books and no longer than 500 words. Tip: Your blog doesn’t have to be a straightforward review… It can take any form you like, [...]
Yesterday I read three articles worth considering for anyone serious about writing fiction. The first was The Widening Gyre: 2012 Best of the Year Anthologies by Paul Kincaid, written for the LA Review of Books. This piece looked at Gardner Dozois’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction : Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection, Richard Horton’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy : 2012 Edition and the Nebula Awards Showcase 2012. Kincaid begins his lengthy and extremely well-argued article thus: ‘The overwhelming sense one gets, working through so many stories that are presented as the very best that science fiction and fantasy have [...]
I’m delighted to say my first review for the Los Angeles Review of Books is now online. The review covers Kathleen Ann Goonan’s two most recent novels, In War Times, and the new sequel, This Shared Dream.