I enjoyed my Cornish break, containing as it did many fine ingredients, including scenic walks, cream teas, storm-lashed seas breaking over rocks (visible from our cottage, even), scrumpy and (most surprisingly of all) sunshine.  My original plan of a week of long lie-ins fell prey to some early-morning bouts of inspiration, but that gave us […]

Authors often speak of the satisfaction of finding the right word. What we’re less interesting in discussing is the corresponding sense of frustration when the right word eludes us. I’m not sure whether this search is any harder for me than for anyone else, as it’s not exactly easy to test. I do know it […]

Where do you get your ideas from? (check one or more – well you could if this blog editor let me do check boxes) 1) New Scientist 2) Tesco’s 3) My partner 4) The bits of my brain not being used for anything else 5) Everywhere 6) ‘Every night I leave milk and cookies out, […]

It’s pretty light this year, owing to not getting myself put down as a program participant when I registered (not deliberately – I had a hangover). Friday 7pm, Winchester Room – ‘Gender in Space Opera’ Saturday noon, hotel lobby – part of massed author signing (‘will sign (some) body-parts for beer!’) Sunday 5pm, Winchester Room […]

That was quite a week. The Orion party was as glam as ever, though also as hectic as ever with lots of ‘hullo, must chat later’ moments. My talk at PSiFA was well-received and led to interesting discussions, although being back at my old Uni after all this time was a bit surreal: everything was […]

… a picture. Specifically the cover for Guardians of Paradise This also serves as a way of testing whether I can drive the new and improved blog editor, and it seems I can. More pictures may follow. In other news, I’m now half way through a packed week. I’ve already drunk my weight in champagne […]

A good question to ask, I always think. In fact, I once embroidered a sampler of those very words for a fellow writer as her NaNoWriMo ‘prize’. King’s ‘On writing’ isn’t a book I actually own but it’s one I would recommend. It isn’t a ‘how to’ book so much as a collection of memoires […]

After some months with no news on the short story front, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve got some short stories coming out in the next few months. The first one is in the March edition of the critically acclaimed US magazine Aoife’s Kiss. ‘King of Pain’ is actually – shock horror! – a fantasy […]

In a couple of weeks I’ve got my first two proper speaking engagements. I am, if truth be told, a bit apprehensive. Whilst I can hold forth at length over a glass or two of merlot, talking to a room full of strangers is rather more scary. The first is on Thursday 25th, when I’m […]

No, not my characters. Spammers. I’m pleased to report that turning the ‘comments’ facility on has resulted in actual comments, and almost no spam. However, this blog also allowed ‘trackbacks’, and this has led, over the last few weeks, to an ever-increasing volume of notifications of trackbacks regarding the efficacy of dodgy pharmaceuticals. As with […]