I’m hoping anyone reading this will agree with the above sentiment on principle, but if you want to make the sentiment practical, and you live in the West Country, then I invite you to come down to Clevedon Community Bookshop, Clevedon, Somerset, on July 7th. Actually, just visit anyway – they’ve got rooms and rooms […]

Every year for the last two decades, I’ve spent a week in another world. Specifically in a town-sized folly/ersatz Italianate village/prison for secret agents/luxury hotel, located in another dimension/the 1960s/North Wales. Portmeirion was built by the early twentieth century eccentric Clough Williams-Ellis, who referred to his life’s work as ‘a home for fallen buildings’. And […]

Eastercon was good, if exhausting. Hullo to everyone I met there, old friends and new. As usual I remembered what I meant to say on the panels I was on ten minutes after they were over. In other news, the most excellent Philip Palmer has been running a guest feature on his blog on SFF […]

I’ll be arriving on Saturday morning, after which my schedule is: Saturday 4pm, Royal B+C ‘The Fantastic Landscape’ with Nina Allan, Niall Harrison and Paul McAuley. Exploring the part of place and setting in SFF; should be fun. Sunday 12 noon, Royal B+C ‘Wench! Fetch Yon Tankard Here’ with Joe Abercrombie, Bella Pagan and David […]

Please note that I do not: a) habitually buy flowers or b) celebrate any Hindu festivals (I know, I know: there’s no sentience behind this latest spate of spam. But it is perplexing in its irrelevance.)

Having just got the ‘Are you happy being on with these programme items?’ email from the Eastercon committee, and replied that I am, thank you, I can confirm that I intend to be at the con from Saturday morning until Monday lunchtime. They’ve asked me to participate in three panels, all of which look very […]

This post is dedicated to any readers of this blog working hard to see their stories in print …There’s a box of books on my landing which will, when I get round to it, go up into t’garret. They’re books I wrote, specifically twenty paperback copies of Principles of Angels, purchased at ‘author rates’ from […]

Whilst I owe my blog a more considered post, this is not it, due to a number of factors, not least of which is a surfeit of sugar. Instead I’d like to share a random thought that I had as a reader. It’s also something that, as a writer, I aspire to: When we read […]

… then this weekend, after having spent a fine time with good friends, I’d go back and do the weekend again, this time attending Picocon, where I’d see more friends, hear some great talks, drink cheaply and comprehensively in a student bar, do an SFF pub quiz and quite possibly watch grown men fighting a […]

So, you ask, how was the SFX Weekender? Well, it was a bit like Las Vegas meets Stalingrad, with irony, and geeks. Did I enjoy it? Despite a few small reservations, shit yeah. I spent the first few hours resisting the urge to talk to people I thought I knew (and, there being no name […]