2012 has been a year of transition for science fiction and fantasy literature. SF’s reputation as home of the Bearded White Male hides a more interesting story. SF is the literature of geeks, and today, geeks run the world. Geek culture isn’t infiltrating the mainstream: it is the mainstream. And geeks come in all ages, [...]
The genres of SF, Fantasy, Horror and other styles of the fantastic have changed a lot in recent years. Those changes, to my mind, have been hugely positive. And if I can identify one cause at the heart of those changes it is this: diversity. To use the Hugo and Nebula awards as a benchmarks, [...]
***UPDATE: SUPPORT OUR ‘ZINES DAY now 1ST OCTOBER*** Last week I put a call out for suggestions of magazines that as an SF fan I should be reading. My subscriptions have lapsed recently (its been a busy year) so this week I wanted to renew some subscriptions and start a few new ones. I wanted [...]
The Hugo nominations are out and my two of my favourite magazines, Interzone and Weird Tales, have been nominated! Both receive a nod in the semi-pro zine category. Good luck to Andy Cox and Ann Vandermeer both. Electric Velocipede also scoops a nomination for best fanzine, so good luck to John Klima. The John W [...]
With the new year upon us, I thought I would give all you lucky people a glimpse inside my head, or at least the parts of it that like things, and post a run down of all that was good about 2008 from my perspective. I don’t claim to be at the cutting edge of [...]
The first weeks after the Xmas break have been so intensely busy for me that my feet have barely touched the ground. Constructively busy however, which is good. I wrote my first professional blog post last week for Guardian Unlimited. Following the tremendous response to Sam Jordison’s look at the Hugo Award’s, I pitched a [...]
I’ve been meaning to post this for a few days now but kept forgetting in the snowstorm of otherness. Bufo Rex by Erik Amundsen over on the Weird Tales blog. I want to hear this narrated by Buck 65.
Two rejections today. One from Fantasy magazine saying no to ‘Rings’, after a re-write and retitle to ‘My Lovesick Zombie Boyband’. I like the re-write however so it was worth doing. Horizon was also rejected for Nemonymous 8, which makes rejection number ten for that story. I maintain faith in it though even after some [...]
