Department of Positive News: I’ve discovered that the mass-market paperback of Principles of Angels will be getting another print run. This should make the first editions, with their data-rich cover-copy, valuable collectors’ items … (!)  Department of Proper Education: Liz Williams, author of some damn fine SF, as well as the spiffing Inspector Chen series, […]

As I’ve said before (with apologies to Peter Cook) I coulda been an ‘ard SF writer, but I never ‘ad the maths. I love a good analogy, but equations just seem to slide off my brain. How much of this tendency is down to my mild dyscalculia (if the condition can be said to apply […]

Well firstly I’m bad because I did no writing whatsoever over the weekend. Instead I went to a beach-themed BBQ, took part in a medieval re-enactment show, attended a party and wandered round the local zoo in the sunshine. Actually I did sort of do some work at the zoo, as while we were trying […]

I admit I’ve been sidling up to my editor’s requested rewrites on Guardians of Paradise. It’s not that I don’t want to do the work, as I am that rare beast, a writer who enjoys rewrites. It’s just taking me a while to get back into work mode. Plus, going on past performance there will […]

I’ve survived my festival summer. It was good, if occasionally damp: I’ve heard some great bands, met some interesting people, drunk far too much cider and generally had fun. Nearly everything I own got muddy at some point. On the last day of the last festival I also met up with my editor for tea. […]

Even when I’m not gallivanting around the country attending festivals I can be tardy in my responses to other people’s blogs. By the time I read this post from Karen Mahoney she, and her responders, had pretty much covered the topic. But it got me thinking, albeit at a slight tangent. (Warning – this is […]

We’re now into festival season and I’m finding the prospect of a month of four day working weeks curiously liberating. The timing helps – I wouldn’t be so sanguine about being prised out of my garret if I had a book delivery date looming. But now I’m into the post-delivery wait it’s actually good to […]

… in a while. Unfortunately I brought back an unexpected guest from last week’s event, in the form of an impressive and unpleasant flu virus (not the piggy sort, fortunately). As a result this week’s main achievement has been catching up on some reading, as I’ve not been good for much else. I’m just glad […]

Actually I don’t find maths hot. I find it, truth be told, somewhat intimidating. My equation-phobia was the only minor concern I had about the ‘Physics for Fiction’ seminar held on Monday and Tuesday of this week at Imperial College, but I needn’t have worried; the level of this largely astronomy-based set of talks and […]

I’ve now applied the last few changes to the ending of Guardians of Paradise (see further ‘blowing more sh*t up now’). Some of the final tweaks had to be done in the back of an SUV being driven round the M25, but it was either that or cancel my weekend plans and I do still […]