Look, I don’t mean to give you a big head here, but if you’re reading this then you’re probably a pretty smart cookie. Statistical research suggests that people who stop by this way tend to be avid readers, and probably writers as well. Clever clogs like us get used to each others company, and its… [Read more…]
November 1, 2011
Things have been happening and I have been remiss in linking to them here. My Weird Things column in The Guardian continues with thoughts on Todd Grimson, author of Stainless and possibly one of our greatest and most neglected horror writers. At the SF Signal blog we discuss mainstream authors stepping across to genre fiction.… [Read more…]
October 25, 2011
Being in a foreign city alone is faintly terrifying. It’s the fourth time I’ve done this now, although on the third of those I stayed with a friend, which held its own terrors. Between times I look back on the last trip with a rose tinted desire for freedom. It’s only on the plane, once… [Read more…]
October 18, 2011
This is being attributed to George Takei, now by far my favourite Trek survivor.
October 15, 2011
I think of science fiction, including my own, as very much a paraliterary genre. The fact that it lives – and has lived – on the margin is important to its history. If you remove it from that margin, you remove it from its historical context; I don’t think that’s such a good thing. Genre boundaries… [Read more…]
October 15, 2011
The second in a short series of posts accompanying workshops being taught for the Certificate in Creative Writing at Vaughan College. This post is on narrative, and why it is both a simple and deliciously complicated idea. In Reading Like a Writer, novelist Francine Prose says that the true problem with narration is not who… [Read more…]
October 13, 2011
Occupy Wall Street has seemed genuinely hopeful and constructive to me since its first emergence. I hadn’t been able to identify why, so thanks to Lawrence Lessig for stepping up and putting his finger on it: In brief, Lessig believes that Occupy Wall Street has the potential to become something more than a Left leaning… [Read more…]
October 11, 2011
Lavie Tidhars novel Osama makes me wonder why we can’t all just get along. No, really, why the fuck can’t we? One common problem for all science fiction writers is reconciling the wondrous world we could have with the one we have negligently stumbled into. At this exact moment in time, in an alternate reality… [Read more…]
October 9, 2011
Term has begun at the Certificate in Creative Writing at Vaughan College, University of Leicester, of which I am very proud to be course director. We have 20 new keen creative writing students this year, of all ages and backgrounds. As part of this year’s course, I am going to open a general discussion following… [Read more…]
October 7, 2011
So. We’re facing the worst financial crisis ever. Don’t believe it for a second. This isn’t a crisis. It’s a collapse. The final and overdue collapse of a system that has been in a constant state of crisis, with brief periods of remission, for at least the last few decades. The really sad, and I… [Read more…]
October 6, 2011
The United Kingdom has one credible award for speculative fiction. It’s called the Clarke Award, and it is decided by a panel of experts each year. In addition we have a splintered field of popular voted awards including those organised by the British Fantasy Society and British Science Fiction Association. These awards carry little weight… [Read more…]
October 3, 2011
Something I want to remember… Jack Kerouacs essentials for prose: Accept loss forever Be submissive to everything, open, listening No fear or shame in the dignity of your experience, language, and knowledge Be in love with your life
November 28, 2011
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