Well, back in the land of the blogging, sorry for the gap. My main excuse is that I've been too busy writing to update here. Seriously, it has been quite crazy. I've had a buttload (1) of short story opportunities to follow up, some of which gave me rather more trouble than I was expecting. I've had the new series rattling along (halfway through the first book, working title The Tiger and the Wolf.) I've had my episodes for Spiderlight, my Aethernet serial (episode 2 out now!), and I've recently had a Super Secret Project Zeta that I've just burned through in the last handful of days (codename: "Die In Flames" because it's so unlikely to go anywhee, but hey…)

So, er, Eastercon… Bit late for a blow by blow, although I encourage you to check out Emma Newman's review in the current SFX, if only because it has a big old picture of me and the Aethernet crew there. However, what I was going to start on, like, the minute I got back from the con, was a series of posts based on the panels I did there and what came out of it.

Taking the last man first, then, revolutionary fantasy.

This followed some of the lines in my Tor blog post here: monarchies and fantasy, how inseparable are they, why do we keep coming back to them?

I've done my fourpence-worth in the above blog, and anyone whose read Shadows of the Apt knows I'm no blind monarchist. Juliet McKenna, who was moderator, is another staunch revolutionary, with a full scale people's revolution in her fantasy series. And perhaps we'd like to think that nobody is really doing the "company of princes" fantasy, where every member of the adventuring party is quite literally royalty. Or almost everyone. After all, whilst each worthy from dwarf up in the Fellowship of the Ring is an actual honest to Maia prince, except for Aragorn, who's, y'know, the actual king, at least the hobbits are proletariat. Or, OK, no, maybe three of them are gadabout dilettante gentry, but, come on, Sam is a prole, and he's a whole one ninth of the Fellowship. If you don't count Bill the Pony (2). But Tolkien was playing off the old romances and myth cycles where, yes, basically if you were a hero, you were probably a prince, because apparently princes simply had nothing else to do but go on quests and the like. Of course, those old romances had a select and blue-blooded audience who needed to be properly buttered if the author was to get his bread. Tolkien, old Dr T the scholar's scholar, was following a form. A lot of other people then trampled madly down the same track.

The implications are actually offensive, when you think about it. It absolutely does tie into the Divine Right of Kings and all that horrible, horrible feudal stuff. The majority of heroes are princes (not even nobles, often, but actual heirs to the throne of Spoonfedia) because there is inherent in a prince the makings of a hero, whereas the vast majority of the common herd lack this seed of greatness, and can only be victims, to be butchered by the black hats or protected by the white. They have no agency in the story. The peasantry as a whole is the close cousin of that miserable trope, the damsel in distress: a thing to be fought over and won.

The other prince plot, of course, is the winning of the inheritance, where the stable boy turns out to be the rightful heir. Again, it's divine right. Usually things have gone to wrack and ruin because the wrong person is sitting on the throne. Because there is a "right" person, ordained by bloodline — a happenstance of genetics — and it matters. OK, yes, the wrong person is usually also evil, and the right person is virtuous, but I'd submit to the court, your honour, that in such circumstances the evil and the illegitimacy are inseparable, as are the right to rule and the goodness. And, for the love of reason, just look at any history book not manifestly written by the winners, and tell me what percentage of actual monarchs were in any way good people. Even the best of them did terrible, terrible things just because they could — just because they were the king. That's the automatic territory that comes with princedom — not heroism, but a sociopathic heedlessness for those outside your little circle of nobs.

But we've put it behind us, haven't we? That lapdog slavish need for our heroes to be born with a gold crown in their mouths? Look at Abercrombie, who gives us a feudal nation ruled by a king, and takes us behind the scenes to show us what a sham it all is, and how the strings are being pulled by everyone from wizards to bank managers. Erikson's Malazan series deals with hierarchies far vaster than any mortal bloodline, and seldom gives a damn about divine right, save where the right-holder is actually divine. Gemmel never cared much about heredity — his strong-man heroes were almost always the low who fought their way to note or to notoriety. And yet…

A Song of Ice and Fire was mentioned approvingly in the panel as something else that put the monarchs in their place. After all,here's a series (like Abercrombie's) shorn of many overly virtuous characters, and we see that every lord, every would-be king, is deeply flawed. A perfect example. Except… afterwards, thinking back, is it? Or is Games of Thrones actually a very clever and detailed handling of exactly that "divine right" plotline. Because (and spoilers for book 1 from hereon in, by the way) the land is going to crap, and at the same time the king on the throne, Joffrey the Rightfully Detested, is not the rightful king — he's illegitimate and the product of incest. There's no suggestion that the long winter wasn't coming anyway, but the ruin that the Seven Kingdoms have fallen into — reminiscent of the Mort d'Arthur endgame from Mallory — is inextricably linked with the rightness of the arse on the throne (3). In that series, though, Martin is doing what the traditional tale wouldn't: showing us his working — the machinations, ambitions, rivalries and petty intrigues that actually turn the personal tragedy of a bad king into the global tragedy of a very bad period of history.

(1) I think you'll find this is the proper collective noun.

(2) Who is probably a prince among ponies.

(3) in both senses.

Friday 29th at 7-8pm is the fantasy Genre Get-Together which is your best opportunity to get books signed, meet fantasy authors etc. The author list is here and I'd assume most of them will pitch up when their genre gets poked.

On Saturday 30th at 11-12am I'm on the panel "The Stories in Games" discussing what it says on the tin with Mike Cule, Ian McKenna, Emma Newman and Marcus Rowland.

Same day at 8-9pm I'm on a rather technical panel "Law and New Technology". I'm not an IP specialist, alas, but hopefully I'll have something to contribute on the legal side. I'm sharing this one with Jennifer Delaney, Simon Bradshaw, Caroline Gomez-Lagerlof and Sarah Groenewegen.

Finally, on Sunday at 5–6 my personal favourite "Revolutionary Fantasy", discussing politics and fantasy fiction, a personal axe of mine (as per recent post on the Tor UK blog). This one is with Juliet McKenna, Kate Keen, Francis Knight and Gaie Sebold.

In other news, I am interviewed by Ethel, the genius loci of Aethernet Magazine, here.

Hope to see you there.

Also, the regular paperback sized Air War is out and to mark it, my usual blogging has been somewhat diverted to the Tor UK site. Therefore, there's a double dose of bloggery goodness, and I invite you to:

Epic Steam — Shadows of the Apt and Steampunk.

The Politics of Insects — fantasy, conservatism, feudal systems and a little David Brin thrown in for good measure.

I am currently working through the final proofs of War Master's Gate, always the most gruelling part of the business. Necessary, though, as I suspect Seda wouldn't appreciate being described as the "Emopress". Speaking of War Master's Gate, Alan Brooks' superb cover has at least been unveiled, at last giving Stenwold his place in the sun (or, in this case, fireball).

I have it in mind to do a sciency post next, but that's going to take some time to work up to, given current commitments. But serious bloggation is likely to be perpetrated soon.

And finally: my next engagement, Eastercon in Bradford. If you're there, please don't hesitate to grab me for a chat, to sign books, buy me drinks, whatever.

Aethernet, the return of serialised science fiction and fantasy.

Serialised genre fiction has been pretty much confined to the fossil record for a while, but what with all the changes going on in publishing — and especially e-publishing — it's something that's been talked about as a possible Next Big Thing. The rise of e-books has all sorts of intriguing possibilities for short stories, and especially for episodic stories where — like the physical magazines of old — the reader buys the next issue because theywant to know what happens next.

The name to conjure with for the Aethernet magazine is Tony Ballantyne, whose  unique and superbly written Penrose novels are some of my favourite SF. Aethernet is currently planned to run for 12 episodes and you can get a year's subscription for £20 from the link above. Even if I weren't in it, I'd be exhorting you to go take a look (1). However, Tony has lined up a remarkable stable of writers for the first year, including:

- Juliet E. McKenna, most recently published with the Hadrumal Crisis series, and a past master at epic and political fantasy.

- Chris Beckett, whose Dark Eden I have rhapsodised about, and who is gifting Aethernet with a sequel to that work.

- Ian Whates, a man with a foot in both fantasy (City of 100 Rows) and science fiction (Noise series)

- Eric Brown, author of a truly astonishing number of books including Satan's Reach and The Serene Invasion

- Philip Palmer, novellist and writer for radio, author of Artemis and more.

Together with yours truly and Tony himself.

As for what I'm contributing, I shall be debuting an all-new novella/short novel by the title of Spiderlight. This is a completely new epic fantasy, humorous in places, deadly serious in others, that serves as something of a deconstruction of the traditional prophecy-journey-dark lord narrative. A band of five heroes who should be immediately recognisable to any habitual RPGer or fantasy reader are on a quest, following the lead of ancient divination. Except that the words of the prophet back them into a corner where their only way to their goal is to take on an unwelcome sixth companion, a Mirkwood-style giant spider. I'm having great fun writing it, and hopefully the same, or more, can be had from reading it.

So, think of this as a bonus novel, slipped into the usual release schedule and brought out in instalments. I shall be in 10 of the 12 issues of Aethernet this year, and if it's a hit I hope to be involved in later years as well. Please do hop over to the Aethernet site and take a look, and if your purse can stretch, please do subscribe. You could be at the very forefront of the genre literature of tomorrow.

(1) Maybe not quite so enthusiastically, but…

Also, in the lead-up to the release of the paperback (or anyways smaller paperback) of The Air War, there's a mini-interview up on the Tor site here.

Sorry for nothing more substantive, but I currently have mad quantities of short stories with deadlines looming, plus the first of the new series just hitting the 1/3 way point, so time is currently tight.

16th February 2013 — Fantasy February, Derbyshire (writing weekend, doing a section on world building with a Q&A)

1st to 3rd March 2013 — Science Fiction Weekender, Wales — UPDATE — won't be at this one, sorry.

29th March to 3rd April 2013 — EightConSquared (Eastercon 2013)

14th July 2013 — Edge Lit, Derby — may or may not be doing it this year as I've not been specifically tapped for it.

10th to 11th August 2013 - Nine Worlds Geekfest, London — this is a new one, just starting up this year. From the website it's in Kickstarter mode at the moment.

October 31st to November 3rd 2013 — the big one — the World Fantasy Convention is coming to the UK, Brighton to be precise.

And, somewhat more advance warning: 14th to 18th August 2014 is LonCon3, a.k.a. the World Science Fiction Convention, which is also landing in the UK, London this time.

On a separate tack, and mostly for reasons of personal vanity, I have at last got around to producing a bibliography that lists the various short stories I've had published, which can be found here.

Novels

Shadows of the Apt (Tor UK)

Empire in Black and Gold (2008)

Dragonfly Falling (2009)

Blood of the Mantis (2009)

Salute the Dark (2010)

The Scarab Path (2010)

The Sea Watch (2011)

Heirs of the Blade (2011)

The Air War (2012)

War Master's Gate (upcoming, 2013)

Seal of the Worm (upcoming, 2014)

Short Stories

2011

The Dissipation Club (Dead But Dreaming 2, Miskatonic River Press) — Walther Cohen mystery

Pipework (Vivisepulture, Anarchy Books) — Walther Cohen mystery

Season of Sacrifice and Resurrection (Horror for the Holidays, Miskatonic River Press)

The Indecipherables (What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been, Immanion Press — also includes the article "Can I Keep Him")

2012

The Fall of Lady Sealight (Dark Currents, Newcon Press)

21st Century Girl (Nature magazine, v486 no.7403 21/6)

Not a Cat Person (Hauntings, Newcon Press)

Good Taste (Now I Lay Me Down To Reap, Siren's Call)

Saint George and Saint Giles (Tales ofthe Nun and Dragon, Fox Spirit)

Bones (The Alchemy Press Book of Ancient Wonders, Alchemy Press) — Shadows of the Apt story

The Mouse Ran Down (Carnage: After the End, volume 2, Siren's Call)

Lost Soldiers (The 13 Ghosts of Christmas, Spectral Press) — Walther Cohen Mystery

Feast and Famine (Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction, Solaris) — March 2013

New anthology news (1) is that I have a proper SF piece in Solaris Rising 2, a rather nice-looking anthology whose pages I share with such luminaries as Paul Cornell and Nick Harkaway, out in March.

Proper post soon, hopefully.

(1) New news? Ah yes, the elegant touch of the wordcrafter.

Firstly, I am in some shockingly good company in the anthology Triumph Over Tragedy, now available on Amazon. This contains my story Spoils of War, originally debuted on this site, and I am joined by the remarkable ensemble cast of: Elizabeth Bear, Mark Lawrence, Robert Silverberg, Tobias Buckell, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Philip Athans, Michael Stackpole, Timothy Zahn, Bradley P. Beaulieu, Michael James Sullivan, Alex Bledsoe, Tim Marquitz,  Jean Rabe, Ari Marmell, Erik Scott de Bie, Rick Novy, R.T. Kaelin, Donald J. Bingle, Alex Shvartsman, Maxwell Alexander Drake, SM Blooding, Jaym Gates, T.L. Gray, C.S. Marks, Marian Allen, Bryan Young, Vicki Johnson-Steger, Sarah Hans, Janine Spendlove, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, C.J. Henderson, Steven Saus, Addie King, Doris Stever, Matt Bone, Elisabeth Waters, Rob Rogers, Tracy Chowdhury, and Gregory Wilson, which is a pretty all star line-up. The important thing about this anthology is that it's for the benefit of the victims of Hurricane Sandy, so its a genuine good cause that all of these writers are contributing to — hence you should definitely click the link and partake.

I should also note that my story Fallen Heroes has been included in Newcom Press's sampler along with the work of Nina Allan, Tony Ballantyne, Chris Beckett, Gary McMahon, Mercurio D. Rivera and Lisa Tuttle. Newcon publishes some of the best new SF and fantasy, and I've found them a joy to work with, and so if you fancy a good read for the princely sum of 77 pence, I can heartily recommend this introduction to Newcon's wares.