This time tomorrow I should be at Eastercon, on one of my first panels as a ‘pro’. I’m a bit ambivalent about this, for a number of reasons. Firstly, though I (or rather my hard-drinking, role-playing, costume-wearing alter ego JW) went to a lot of cons back in the mists of the last century, I’ve […]
Though the recent weather here has turned the local countryside into something of a trackless waste, or perhaps a scene reminiscent of the Somme, the wastes that are occupying my mind at the moment are the fictional, slightly Welsh, and possibly rather wordy ones in ‘Consorts of Heaven’. I am, technically, a third of the […]
M the Uber-geek has done his magic and put a PDF of the interview I did recently up on the site. You can find it under ‘Links’. where he’ s created a new section called ‘Interviews’, as there may be more to come. If you do check it out, I must apologise for the pun. […]
I’m about a quarter of the way into the rewrites for Consorts, and it’s rather taken over my life. Because I am that rare beast, a writer who prefers rewriting to first draft, I don’t mind too much (though I’m aware that I’m shamefully neglecting Beloved, who is currently laid up after a knee op). […]
Last Sunday I signed my first copy of Principles of Angels (a proof copy, or, as they’re now known, a "typo-rich collectors’ edtion"). It was for one of the people who helped me get it written, so I didn’t have to try and be all cool and casual about it. (I aspire to be as […]
I’m easing myself slowly into the rewrites for Consorts of Heaven. As well as adding background and character detail, tightening up the narrative and sorting a couple of plot issues pointed out by my crit group, I need to do some more in-depth research, the sort requiring actual books. Unfortunately, the subjects I’m interested in […]
I got the initial bound proof copy of ‘Principles of Angels’ today. There it is, my story, in a proper book (albeit with typos – but that’s OK, it’s a proof). Weird. In a good way. I’ve taken to picking it up, looking at it, and putting it down. This makes me smile. Part of […]
January’s been a bit of a break from my usual routine. Overall I’ve done less writing, as I’ve been working my way through a list of more mundane tasks, many of them DIY related, a lot of them involving paint, which I now have speckled in various hard to reach places about my house and […]
In the interests of recycling (and shameless self-promotion), I’ve recently put a couple of my reprint stories up on a site called AnthologyBuilder. The URL (which may or may not be a link once it’s been through my blog editor), is http://www.anthologybuilder.com/index.php The theory is that authors put previously published work up on the site […]
I’m most of the way through the first short story I’ve written for about six months. More importantly, it’s the first short story I’ve written since completing the 125,000 word first draft of ‘Consorts of Heaven’ over a rather busy five months. I was surprised, though I probably shouldn’t have been, to find myself working […]
The process of becoming a published novelist has given me a chance for a number of new and interesting experiences. One of these is dealing with my work at later stages than I’ve been used to; when I’ve had short stories published my contact with the story ends either with signature on contract, or, if […]