So far, this is shaping up to be a fairly good week. I’ve seen the final proof for the cover of Consorts of Heaven, and it is a most handsome thing. There is also a valid reason for limited writing avoidance this week, in the form of the BBC Radio SF season, of which more […]

I’ve still not seen any reviews of Consorts of Heaven. With a mixture of egoism and paranoia that I’m none to proud of, I did Google for it, in case there were reviews out there, but they were so awful that my publicist decided not to draw my attention to them. I didn’t find any, […]

This week, I’ve mainly been doing ‘secondary research’. Primary research for a story is the stuff I need to swot up on in order to write the first draft. With a short story, this often comes down to finding out if the really great idea I’ve had is actually viable, and it’s often just a […]

These days it’s not enough to finish and polish your book, then win through in the (not insignificant) battle to get published. You have to promote your product. The fact that this website exists tells you that I’m not entirely averse to shameless self-promotion. However, part of me (the English part, I suspect) feels slightly […]

I’d like to be able to say that the reason I’ve not posted anything here for a while is that I’ve been busy writing, but that would be a lie. In the last week I’ve done a bit of revision of old stories, though not as much as I’d hoped. I wonder if perhaps too […]

These days, I don’t get as much time to read as I’d like, and sometimes I take up to two weeks to finish a book. About two thirds of what I read is SF, the rest being a mixture of mystery fiction, thrillers, fantasy and non fiction (mainly historical, anthropological or popular science). As a […]

A couple of bits to start the week… Firstly, before the reviews for Consorts of Heaven, here’s a last one for Principles of Angels from SF Site. I like the reviewer’s choice of quote from the book; discovering what does (and doesn’t) appeal to other people about my stuff has been a source of fascination […]

I’ve just got the bound proof of Consorts of Heaven. (Actually it arrived yesterday but I was busy discovering new forms of Tupperware-based life in my one-day mission to clear out the mother-in-law’s kitchen.)  This proof doesn’t have a full-colour glossy cover, but that’s fine, as it also doesn’t have any obvious mistakes (the title’s […]

I’ve done no writing since Monday, which feels a bit odd. Actually, I haven’t exactly done nothing; I’ve read through some of my overdue-for-rewriting short stories, and tinkered with another one which I’ve now sent out. More of that next week I think. And I’ve done a little light critiquing. I’ve also managed to clean […]

The first draft of Guardians of Paradise is finally complete. Time to get on with all those other things I should have been doing this month: revising short stories, revisiting Epiphany Night and in (what we laughingly call) the real world Project House De-Clutter. I should probably be more pleased than I am, but at […]