Normal service will be resumed …

… 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 […]

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Hot maths

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 […]

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Done and dusted (until the edits)

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 […]

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A week today

That’s the delivery date for Guardians of Paradise: 30th June. I’m pretty good at getting my homework in early, and I was looking set for another delivery before deadline, in time for a busy weekend, and an interesting science event early next week (of which more later perhaps). All that was left was the final […]

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Reading as a writer

I’ve now finished The Prefect, and it gets a definite thumbs up. This verdict pleased Beloved, who couldn’t understand my failure to enjoy Alistair Reynolds’ earlier stuff. Beloved and I have similar but not identical tastes, which leads to some interesting discussions and the occasional minor book-based Domestic (particularly during The Great Annual Book Cull). […]

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Further reading

Last weekend I did no work at all, despite being at home, as it was our wedding anniversary, and Beloved and I wanted to spend some time together for once. He did succumb to the lure of motorsport at various points, bless ‘im, though this gave me a chance read a bit more of the […]

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Happy Book Birthday to me!

Consorts of Heaven came out officially today. I haven’t really celebrated (unless you count coming down from t’garret while it’s still light to drink a pint of cider and watch Krod Mandoon), but I think I’ve had a good few weeks of celebratory events so I don’t feel I’ve missed out. The book has also […]

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Reading matters

Unless I spot something my beta-readers have missed, all that remains before I deliver Guardians of Paradise to my editor is the final read-aloud-and-tinker stage. So, with the writing pressure slackening off for a while, I’m turning my attention to my teetering ‘to read’ pile. I was already reading two books at once, sort of: […]

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Another reason not to give up the day job …

… is because I definitely wouldn’t make it as a comedian. However, that didn’t stop me trying to tell a joke at last Saturday’s Forbidden Planet signing. What I didn’t realise was that Neil, the man with the cam, was filming it. The distressing results can be found by following this link. (Warning: may contain […]

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Media, more media

I’ve now got links to photos from last Saturday’s Forbidden Planet signing (at which I decided to dress even more inappropriately than usual). These are from the lovely Danie, who made it all happen, and this set is from my new friend Neil. All those comments about wasabi peas should now make sense. The beautiful […]

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