Shadows of the Apt

Essentially my second Big Big Con, the first being SFX Weekender 1 last year. I am still in awe of Tor's continued hospitality, in putting its writer contingent (1) up in a very civilized little cottage by the sea (2). Official duties came down to a mass Tor signing for which the Forbidden Planet people had to entirely remodel […]

The next few months have suddenly turned busy, as a number of threatened signings and events have materialised. So, here's the social calendar: 4^th-5^th February — SFX Weekender convention at Camber Sands. 11^th February — signing stock for Forbidden Planet and Blackwells bookshop in London — not an actual signing but there will be signed books […]

Somewhat late, but here we are. Again, if you haven't read the book yet, moderate to high spoiler warnings. Track 1 — Uctebri has the Shadow Box (The Daleks, from Dr Who series 1 by Murray Gold) Track 2 — The Merchant Companies depart (Farewells, the Storm, from Rome by Jeff Beal) Track 3 — The Flower […]

Another very brief post, but some odd and welcome flowers of end 2010/start 2011: Michael Moorcock has written a Dr Who novel. Not only that but the jacket text of The Coming of the Terraphiles suggests that it involves both LRP(/re-enactment) and the Eternal Champion (Arrow of Law, a certain Captain Cornelius…). Haven't read it yet but […]

This is about as rough as things get, and may be only inside my own head, but: 1^st weekend of February, 4–6^th, is the SFX Weekender, so I'll be there doing stuff, and probably also signing. 2^nd weekend, 12–13^th should see me in Reading or Oxford or both, or something like that, probably on the Saturday, […]

Not in any way festive, and thereby able to offend all denominations at once, my compliments of the season are to be found here with apologies to all concerned. Be warned, it's somewhat of a large pdf.

Just behold, that's all. Courtesy of the very talented Mr Sullivan.

Recommended reading today is a column from the Escapist where Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, best known for his acerbic game reviews in Zero Punctuation, has some interesting things to say about drama and action sequences. I agree wholeheartedly with his take — far more so for films than for games, but then I run into the issue in […]

John Vandenbrooks of Arizona U, you are the hyperoxygenated wind beneath my enormous wings. As you all know, way back in the Carboniferous the dragonflies, and various other insects, were enormous, as the fossil record records. The assumption has been for a long time that the atmosphere back then was more highly oxygenated, and therefore that […]

I appear to have Stuff On already for the next few months, and so: 1. I will be asking pertinent questions of Iain M Banks at the Morley Literature Festival on the 15^th October (next week). All a bit short notice and the actual event was fully booked out before I was even signed up, and given Mr B's portfolio, […]