How to Support Our ‘Zines

SUPPORT OUR ‘ZINES DAY – OCTOBER 1st 2009 What are ‘zines? The short answer is that ‘zines are where we go to find good, new short fiction. Magazines like Asimov’s or Weird Tales. Fanzines like Electric Velocipede or Shimmer. Webzines like Clarkesworld or Strange Horizons. Podcasts like Escape Pod and The Drabblecast. There are hundredsContinue reading “How to Support Our ‘Zines”

We need a ‘Support our ‘Zines Day’

***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 wantedContinue reading “We need a ‘Support our ‘Zines Day’”

How to find your digital readership

Dear world, I am giving two talks for Writing School Leicester on the 26th October and 23rd November on the genuinely exciting topics of Finding Your Digital Readership and The Entrepreneurial Writer. They are part of a series of five talks also titled New Ways With Writing involving Ross Bradshaw, Will Buckingham and Farhana Shaikh.Continue reading “How to find your digital readership”

Mieville Nominated for Not the Booker

China Mieville’s The City and the City is one of forty-six titles nominated for the Not the Booker prize organised by the wonderful people at the Guardian. Also on the list are Spirit by Gwyneth Jones, The Quiet War by Paul Mcauley and Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. You can read the full listContinue reading “Mieville Nominated for Not the Booker”

The myth-making genius of Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman has just won this year’s Hugo award for best novel, for The Graveyard Book – and I can’t be the only one who isn’t surprised by the news. I knew Gaiman was more than just a great writer when I read the comic mini-series Death: The High Cost of Living in 1993. I’dContinue reading “The myth-making genius of Neil Gaiman”

Not World Con 1

The programme for Not World Con 1 is starting to take shape thanks to contributions from around the world! The programme is very much still open, so please add your suggestions! Check back regularly for programme updates. GoH / Reading List Boneshop by Tim Pratt Richard Morgan’s Thirteen Anything by Neil Gaiman Talks & Panel DiscussionsContinue reading “Not World Con 1”

The Booker longlist is ignorant and bigoted

The long list for the Booker prize has been announced today, and has dashed my hopes that following the victory of Interzone’s Chris Beckett in the National Short Award, The Booker would foil its many critics (myself included) and include some of the great works of speculative fiction published this year. In previous years IContinue reading “The Booker longlist is ignorant and bigoted”

Why do we write this SF stuff?

Today I bought a table. Its the final piece of furniture for my new home. Which is the first real home I have had since I was eighteen. Thats my own damn fault, for taking thirteen years to realise that a home is made, not found. The table is important, because it is where IContinue reading “Why do we write this SF stuff?”