I love Freecycle. Over the last few years we’ve used it to give away a number of items that were of no further use to us, but might be useful to someone else. This week, for the first time, I had cause to ask for something. Specifically, for a means to warm my garret until […]
As garrets go mine is pretty luxurious, being carpeted, well lit and heated. Usually. The radiator has packed up, just in time for winter, leaving it sufficiently cold up there that I’ve taken to typing with fingerless gloves on, like a proper struggling artist. In the short term I think I’ll be moving downstairs to […]
… I attended the One Step Beyond writers’ workshop in Torquay, a one-off event for would-be SF writers. I think it was actually early October 1998, but can’t quite remember the date, though some details of that week are still crystal clear: the initial sense of panic when our tutor, writer and teacher Liz Holliday, […]
… I was en route to Peru, for the start of my Big Trip. The three-and-a-half month round-the-world holiday took in bits of South America and most of New Zealand, not to mention short stays on Easter Island, Singapore and Indonesia. I wrote the whole thing up as I went along (sometimes from less than […]
Newcon was good, although the fish market was slightly chilly at night and provided occasional surreal moments. For example, it was only when the dealers’ room was packing up that I realised the booksellers had not, as I thought, brought big sloping tables to display their wares on; they were in fact using the marble […]
I’m off to Newcon 4 later today, an SF convention being held (much to my editor’s amusement) in a converted fish-market in Northampton. Actually, despite the inauspicious setting, it looks like it’s going to be a pretty good little con. I’m doing a reading (I still haven’t decided exactly of what) and I’m on a […]
After my return from Milford my intermittent neck and upper back complaint flared up again, getting so bad that last night I shelled out for an osteopath (good job I got that tax rebate last month; I’d been planning to spend it on something nice … actually, not being in pain is nice, just not […]
As usual, Milford has left me both energised and exhausted. This year there were twelve of us – half people I knew, half new faces – and everyone brought (at least) two pieces to be critted, so we had a heavy workload. It felt a bit odd to be the only ‘filthy rotten pro’ aside […]
Damn, I’m busy, so this’ll be short. This Friday, I’m off to the Milford SF Writer’s workshop, for a week of critiquing, being critiqued, scenery and no net access. Today I’ve met the two writing deadlines I had to hit before Milford, the first being getting out my piece for the next meeting of the […]
Though I finished the requested re-writes on Consorts of Heaven during my week away at the beginning of the month, I told my editor I’d get them to her for the end of the month. There are two reasons for this. The first is because I wanted to leave enough time (and hence distance from […]
Today I’ve been doing more signing, this time for the upcoming ‘Subterfuge’ anthology which is being produced by Ian Whates. I’m sharing the billing with such luminaries as Tanith Lee and Storm Constantine, which makes me most chuffed. The story, Collateral Damage, is a prequel to Principles of Angels, as it’s about Taro’s mother, Malia. […]