In around 2004, and having amassed enough rejection slips to auto da fe a dozen heretics, I decided to start work on a Grand Project. I was feeling strongly as though I was running out of chances with this writing lark, and very much as though, if the next manuscript bit the dust like the last few (1) then I should probably give the business up as a bad job. In order to make that Grand Project a good one, therefore, I ransacked my past for an idea that had been with me a while, and grown and developed, and still held its appeal. There were actually a few other contenders, but what got resurrected was the insect-kinden and their world. I set to writing Empire in Black and Gold and, rather than submit that as soon as it was done, I didn't stop until I'd got Salute the Dark down because I knew that I'd not finish it otherwise, if Empire got knocked back.

It was my extreme good fortune that, amongst my submissions I sent the first few chapters of Empire to Mic Cheetham & Co, and a certain Simon Kavanagh who, thereafter, mercilessly badgered the publishing industry on my behalf until he convinced the then-editor of Tor, Peter Lavery, to take me on. The selling point that swung things was that four books were already in the bag and so Tor could turn them out at whatever rate of knots they liked. As they did. Empire hit the shelves in 2008.

I have, this evening, put down the last words of the first draft of Seal of the Worm, the tenth and final volume of Shadows of the Apt.

It has been a long and joyous run. There's still work to do — I need to go read the damn thing now and see whether or not it's turned into unreadable tosh since I wrote it, and it won't see the light of day until around 2014, but even so. Standing at the end of that road, looking back over all of those words, all of those battles and betrayals, twists of fate, all the many characters of the insect-kinden (2), it's a strange feeling.

And yes, I will go back to them. The plan's already there. But for now, who knows? Fresh fields and pastures new.

And yes, this does mean that if I suddenly drop dead now, you still get to finish the series.

(1) /several/all

(2) albeit that, owing to my particular machine-gun approach there are now not nearly so many of them.

However:

This is phenomenal :

This is the work of Rene Sears from her Nerdbroidery blog, and I love it beyond words.

More blog stuff soon.

So, aside from finishing one chapter and starting another (just past the 2/3 mark on the first draft now), and also writing about 1,000 words on Super Secret Unpublishable Project Force (2) I went to see Cabin in the Woods, a film that has been Wowed beyond Wow by reviews that are maddeningly unable to talk about the Wow without spoiling the film for you. So, yes, Wow. And I myself am now not going to spoil the Wow, save to say that, as I am not a habitual horror moviegoer, the stuff that scared the bejeezled crap out of me probably wasn't actually all that, on a scale of one to Cannibal Holocaust. The ideas and the thought behind the film, as well as the crazygonuts fantastic third act, make it a definite must see if you've got the nerve though.

Although… and this is a weirdness… I wrote part of that film in a weird and totally non-litigious way. Not actually the part that is the point of why the film is so very interesting, but there is a point where Cabin runs on parallel tracks for just a tiny bit with my own story The Dissipation Club, which I had out in Miskatonic River's Dead But Dreaming 2. So, great minds, y'know (4).

(1) Tad Williams and GRRM have both produced (very good) volumes long enough that they had to be split up for the paperback release. I am waiting for some wit to write something so long that the ppb is in itself a trilogy. That will mark some sort of Mayan Apocalypse of fantasy novel memes, I think.

(2) It's like Mighty Morphing Power Rangers except nobody cares (3)

(3) Sorry, it's like Mighty Morphing Power Rangers except even fewer people care.

(4) Please don't sue, Joss.

Did a couple of decent panels — the first was "not another f*cking elf" where the four of us had no moderator whatsoever, and ran everything quite satisfactorily as a socialist commune. This explored a lot of good ground on fantasy tropes, and especially the different way that elves and other races are used — we got onto orcs, too. I contended that there was little ground between Tolkien's "orcs" and the lower class "oiks" but Paul Cornell stuck up for Professor T on that one. There was also a suggestion that orcs have now migrated to the noble savage archetype and everyone wants to show how lovely and misunderstood they are, which does seem to be a think with orcs.

Sunday's panel was diversity in fantasy — we managed to cover gender, sexuality and race under the able helming of Mark Charan Newton. As someone pointed out after, we didn't look at disability, which was true and a shame. Still, much was said, and the general conclusion is that the genre is at least having a go at broadening its demographic — both in terms of characters, authors and hopefully readership.

Also got to see some other fun stuff — nice SF panel — "is SF dead", which as was pointed out contrasted nicely with last year's "has SF taken over the world". Next year: "SF has risen from the grave."

On the subject of SF, I would like to think that I have in some small way diversified myself into that sister-genre by getting a (very) short story accepted for the Nature magazine Futures section — this prints brief stories dealing with a speculative treatment of real science, and I'm very chuffed to have something accepted (hint — it wasn't the first time I tried it). No idea what issue it'll be in, but the story is called "21st Century Girl" and more details as and when. I've submitted a few other stories to various anthologies that have been on the hunt, and so crossed fingers for some more shorts news in upcoming months.

Last up: I have now registered formally as an author on Goodreads. This appears to have a kind of forum-like thing in its Q&A sessions, and so I will probably set something like that up. For now I'm busy giving good ratings to all my books. Yes, even that one.

At 2, after a rather hurried and mostly liquid lunch, we had the Fantasy Clarke Awards. Now these weren't really the Clarke Awards, or not yet. Readers will be aware of those rather august accolades for science fiction, and this panel was a sort of trial run, in which Niall Harrison moderated(/manhandled) judges Nic Clarke, David Hebblethwaite, Erin Horakova, Edward James and Juliett E McKenna (for real this time), as they considered five fantasy works with the same high standard of critical eye that the Clarkes are noted for. Up for grabs were Grimwood's The Fallen Blade, Abercrombie's The Heroes, Oyeyemi's Mr Fox, Elliott's Cold Fire, Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and, to my great delight, Frances Hardinge's Twilight Robbery — a particular favourite of mine. Analysis was erudite, and all the books had their champions, with Joe inching out the rest by a hair to claim the prize. The judges were aware that a single hour's panel was insufficient to do the works justice, but the exercise is hopefully due to be repeated next year (crossed fingers for The Air War maybe?)  and the chief message I carried away is that a wide variety of fantasy books can be considered side by side and given a full and fair consideration.

Next Panel was "You got your robot elf sex in my SF" on the topic of romance in Sci-fi and genre generally (Tanya Brown moderating Gail Carriger, Francis Knight, Adam Roberts and Justina Robson) For pure usefulness in my own writing, this was a cracking panel and it's simply not a topic I've seen discussed and dissected in this sort of detail before. After that I caught Adam Christopher reading a segment from his upcoming Seven Wonders, and then ended up in the bar again. By this time I was starting to come a bit unstuck with two mostly sleepless nights and no natural light for something like 48 hours, and everything was going kind of Fear and Loathing in las Vegas(3), with a distinct feeling of unreality to the entire proceedings. The BSFA awards were particularly surreal, for reasons that other sites have already trodden, but suffice to say that Paul Cornell won the short fiction with his Copenhagen Interpretation, I got to see David Langford (4) when he accepted the non-fiction award for the SF Encyclopaedia with Graham Sleight, and Christopher Priest gave a very elegant acceptance speech after The Islanders won long fiction, which I think to some extent defused the Priest/Clarke contretemps that had been mentioned on a number of panels up to that point.  Nic Clarke then managed to rescue me and got me out of the hotel for a mass Chinese meal.

So far, the closest I had got to achieving goal [3] (the titular Talk with George) had been on Saturday night, when I gave him directions on how to find his own fan party (5). On Sunday evening, though, feeling detached from time and space and quite sozzled, I did at last manage a very pleasant and convivial chat with Mr Martin and his wife on a variety of subjects, some of which I can even remember. I was also bold enough to press on him a copy of Empire in Black and Gold, which he took in good spirits. I will say that, for someone who is arguably the most successful fantasy writer currently on the go, and with the TV business as well, he is a man still very much in touch with his fans and his readers.

OK, wrapping up, Monday was Paul Cornell day, or mostly. I caught some of his interview, but then had to head off for my own panel, "Epic legends of the Hierarchs" on writing big ol' fantasy series — Nic Clarke (6) moderating me, Mr Martin, Sophia McDougall and editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden. Some interesting talk on logistical problems, maps, plots and the like, and I acquitted myself passably well. After that I did catch Paul C again reading excerpts from his upcoming London Falling (former working title Cops and Monsters) which frankly sounds fantastic — but decidedly a step further into horror territory than I'd thought. Last up before Justina and I got the hell out of Dodge was the closing ceremony, which was mostly given over to thanking the host of people who had made the con happen — and I am quite in awe of the programming, logistics and technical organisation that went into what is essentially an "amateur" event — everything was just about flawless in execution so hats off to the lot of them. Also at the closing ceremony, and something that must be seen to be believed, was this, which I leave to speak for itself.

And we're done, finished the write up just in time to naff orff to Alt Fiction in Leicester on Saturday, so possibly see you there.

(1) Among other things — and though is but new entered into our tale, believe ye me, she hath verily her role to play, before ye ende, to get onto the language in fantasy panel a bit early.

(2) And for some reason I am also thinking Juliet McKenna, although it's surely impossible that she was also here. Sunday was when the precise borders of reality started fraying a bit, although it seems unreasonable that I was seeing phantom Juliet E McKennas where McKennas there were not.

(3) But without the lizards, which was a shame.

(4) David's review column, Critical Hits, in the old White Dwarf magazine, was a huge guide to me in recommended reading when I was younger.

(5) Anyone who knows my sense of direction is welcome to gasp in horror now. He did get there, though, so I must have been having a good day.

(6) If anyone is playing the veteran level Cornell/McKenna/Clarke drinking game you probably want your liver looking at by now.

Up bright and early to the sort of cooked breakfast that seemed mostly made by people to whom cooking isn't their first language, save for the mushrooms, which were so remarkably good that I can only assume there was one ancient Zen mushroom savant on the kitchen staff. Panel at 10am — "Sufficiently advanced magic" (Marcus Gipps of Gollancz moderating Stephen Deas, Juliet E McKenna, Chris Wooding, Shana Worthing and me) — lots of different viewpoints from people whose worlds had more or less tech, and very different types of magic. Mention of David Brin's The Practice Effect and Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn. Juliett and I are both going similar places with our fiction — she's just finished a cycle of books involving social revolution and the overthrow of a feudal/monarchic system, for example. This clashed with what sounded like a very interesting panel on AI chaired by Paul Cornell.

After that, caught "How Pseudo do you like your Medieval" (Anne C Perry, Jacey Bedford, Anne Lyle, Juliet McKenna (1) and George RR Martin), discussing history and fantasy, followed by another (with, for bonus points, Juliet McKenna and Paul Cornell) on gender parity in convention panels. After that I was able to badger Bella Pagan of Tor into springing for lunch. I made the Wild Cards panel, with Mr Martin introducing two of the newest writers to be invited into the world's longest-running shared world (David Anthony Durham and Paul Cornell) and eventually ended up signing some books, some programmes and an enormous polystyrene monkey.  That evening was the fan party of the Brotherhood Without Banners, Mr M's followers, into which I snuck alongside Joe Abercrombie, Sarah Pinborough and David Durham, and at which a third instance of general [3] fail (see last post) occurred. I did draw some raffle tickets though.

(1) Who was giving Paul Cornell a run for his money in the ubiquity stakes.

Arrived lunchish Friday in the company of Justina Robson, fellow Leeds-based writer, and was treated to sumptuous lunch by my agent at MacDonalds (3) where we discussed The Plan. He and his minion have both read the draft of War Master's Gate, and they are in favour, which is just as well. I didn't make the fight demonstration (fail on [2]) but did squeak into "Pushing the Boundaries of Genre" (Gillian Redfearn of Gollancz moderating Paul Cornell, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Sophia McDougall and Robert Reddick.) This was my first sight of Paul at the con, who was not only one of four guests of honour, but was also giving awards, nominated for awards, and filling in  as a volunteer setting up and taking down and generally being sufficiently indispensable that it was a wonder they didn't it COrNell and just have done.

Missed the "Archery on screen" (fail [2]) but did at least tick [1] by making the launch of Newcon Press' Dark Currents anthology, for which I contributed a story, and got to meet Ian Watson in the flesh, a writer whose own short fiction has had a big influence on me.  From that I got to the genre "Just a Minute" (Justina Robson, Tricia Sullivan, Jo Walton and Donna Scott, chaired by Paul Cornell (4)) which was just as good (5) as the SFX version, and is apparently now a regular feature of the con circuit.

There was a picture circulating on Facebook a while back of "people you see wandering about conventions" and it's quite true, hence, at some late hour, the man himself does wander on into the bar and I do get as far as buying him a drink before the awestruck fanboy social inadequate part of me ensures that I then fail to make any impression or say anything of any use, so that's the first (of several) fails on [3]. By that time, after hooking up with Sophia McDougall and David Anthony Durham (both of whom I met at previous conventions) and a host of others  — and FYI, the cliché is true, and late on in the bar is absolutely the place to hang around if you wish to meet an author, editor, agent or similar — I make the call to go to bed at around 1pm, because I've a panel first thing on Saturday.

I am reliably informed that, presumably about 5 minutes after I've headed off, George turns up and spends until the small hours generally passing the time with whoever remains in the bar at that point. So that's fail number 2.

To be continued…

(1) Bonus points for spotting the Jonathan Coulton title I'm shamelessly stealing.

(2) Or, let's be honest, writer to Writer.

(3) You see how we celebrities live?

(4) It's like a drinking game

(5) I think I entered some kind of contract with Sarah Pinborough and Joe Abercrombie about using other comparative terms.

You should expressly not read this if you haven't actually read Heirs as that would be both a serious spoiler and very confusing.

And for those who saw this before the correction, no, I have no idea what a "Tog blog" is either.

My own appearances at the con are:

Friday 6th — 5pm — room 12 — I'll be at the launch party for Newcon Press's Dark Currents anthology, which includes my story "The Fall of Lady Sealight" and a whole lot else by a great many very talented writers.

Saturday 7th — 10am — Royal B&C (1) — panel: Sufficiently advanced magic, with me, Stephen Deas, Juliet E Mckenna, Chris Wooding and Shana Worthen, moderated by Marcus Gipps

Saturday 7th — 9pm — Room 41 — Great big mass author signings, at which I shall be somewhere. Bring your own books or buy them from whoever is there that sells books (Forbidden Planet should hopefully have some).

Monday 9th — 1pm — Royal B&C — Panel: Epic Legends of the Hierarchs, with me, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Sophia McDougall and George RR Martin, moderated by Nic Clarke.

.

.

Other items that grabbed my attention include:

Friday 6th — 1pm — Room 38 — fight demonstration with Jo Playford (2)

- 3pm — Commonwealth (3) — Archery in fantasy TV and film (hopefully with special mention of Hawke the Slayer) with Mike Shevdon

- 6.30pm — Commonwealth — Just a Minute moderated by Paul Cornell, with Pat Cadigan, Donna Scott, Tricia Sullivan and Jo Walton.

Saturday 7th — 4pm — toss up between Fantastic Landscape panel or a talk on Unsolvable Problems in Mathematics. Seriously — that is actually useful research for me, for a story idea I'm kicking about.

- 5pm — Commonwealth — Wild Cards panel, hosted by George RR Martin

Sunday 8th — 11am — toss up between Meet the New King panel, or The Fantasy of William Shakespeare panel (4)

- 2pm — Room 41 — A Fantasy Clarke Award panel, which should be particularly interesting following recent media developments.

- 3pm — Commonwealth — You got your Robot Elf Sex in my SF panel, with Justina Robson and Adam Roberts, among others

- 4.30pm — Royal B&C — Adam Christopher reading

- 5pm — Commonwealth — The Nature of Heroism panel, with GRRM (5) and Joe Abercrombie, among others

- 8pm — Room 38 — The Death of the Author. Either a panel or a thrilling game of Russian Roulette, not sure which.

And basically a whole lot more. I've highlighted all the items I want to see, and basically my schedule is at least 60% highlighter. And need to find time for schmoozing and drinking also. Going to be a good weekend, I hope.

(1) The name of the room, apparently.

(2) May not be in time to make this one, sadly, see how I go. Also — I sincerely hope that "room 38" is not just, y'know, hotel room 38, cos that is likely to run out of space real quick.

(3) Also, hopefully, the name of the room.

(4) Presumably not focusing solely on that one with the three nuns and Will Kempe dressed as the queen.

(5) I can call him that, right?