Shadows of the Apt

Or, time for a brief glance backwards. It's been a mixedsort of year. A lot of people I know have had a rough time of it for various reasons — illness, personal problems and the vicissitudes of the writing game amongst them. The industry has lost a lot of people. It has been something of a subdued year all told. On the plus […]

"Everyone in fantasy books is always resorting to the "old magic". Why isn't the new magic better? That's what I want to know," said Obi-Jon (@jonthepo0le) on Twitter, possibly not expecting to get taken up seriously on it. My knee-jerk answer was "because then it would be science-fiction." (1) Wouldn't it? Okay, let me expand briefly […]

Another long hiatus. I am, I kid you not, on the last chapter of the first draft of The Tiger and the Wolf, the first of me new series. This has taken about 10 months to put together, a lot longer than my usual six, partly because it's the first in this setting, hence there's a lot of build […]

Wow, er… Eastercon was over a month ago, eh? 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 […]

I confidently expect the final proofs of War Master's Gate to land on my doorstep any day now, which is always the most rushed and least fun part of the whole publishing circus. However, that will be my last farewell to the book until it hits shelves in August this year. It should be a good […]

…does not sound any better than the original. Anyway: Five Things that  they haven't filmed yet, but should Not necessarily Things from this year, admittedly, and my heart has been gladdened by news that Lauren Beukes' Zoo City is actually getting attention in this way, as is Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (and supposedly the rights […]

Actually that sounds entirely wrong now I think about it. Anyway, it's that season when we look back on the year with a sense of vague unease and disappointment and then Tezcatlipoca buries us under a mound of flaming jaguars (1). So: enough of me, but I thought it was would be worth looking at some other books that have […]

This post bounces off the edits on War Master's Gate (book 9) that I'm currently going through. When you get this late in a series, the amount of baggage you're inevitably trawling with you becomes quite considerable, despite my best efforts to kill everyone off on a regular basis. Regular readers will have noticed that the amount […]

Firstly, Edge Lit was a great weekend, and particularly thanks to my full house of workshop-goers (workshoppers? workshoplifters?) and the people who came to hear me and MD Lachlan read. All credit to Alex Davis and his team for organizing the event. Secondly, however, it's New Contract Time! Specifically, and thanks to the tireless efforts of my […]

So, something of a news update in brief, but: I have been asked to make a showing at Nerd East, the Larp fair at Durham on 9^th June 2012. There may be some manner of speechifying. The speech may include recycled elements from my Picocon speech. See how green I am? I'm constantly trying to reduce my inspiration […]