Category Archives: Writing & Publishing

It’s remarkable how many science-fiction fans hate Star Wars. To those who like their SF grounded in science, Star Wars is reprehensible “skiffy” in the pejorative sense, a flight of fantasy cloaked in science-fiction’s clothes. For most under-40s, Star Wars is where their love of sci-fi began, but for those who remember the genre’s goldenContinue reading “The sci-fi books that inspired Star Wars”

I write a regular column on sci-fi & fantasy books for The Guardian. About this time every year I sit down and think what the year ahead in sci-fi publishing has to offer. And right now, I’d love you to help me with that. It’s a big field, and while I do keep a burningContinue reading “Fans! Writers! Publicists! Tell me about the best sci-fi in 2016”

Reading back through the first draft of a story, I noticed that I’d slipped into first person for a couple of paragraphs. Not big problem, right? Most of my first drafts are handwritten, and I can easily fix the point-of-view when typing up. But to judge by the proto-fascist attitude to POV I see expressedContinue reading “Point-Of-View matters, but it doesn’t matter that much”

Some years ago I had a friend who didn’t believe recipes had any place in the kitchen. He would start cooking a meat pie, then decide it needed some fruit. Too sweet? Add some paprika. Maybe it’s not a pie after all. Now it’s a desert. Cover it in honey! I’m not joking. My friend valuedContinue reading “Yes stories are formulaic. No that’s not a bad thing.”

Jennifer Brozek’s new YA series, the Melissa Allen trilogy, features a young female protagonist who carries a baseball bat when she’s fighting monsters. In this special guest post, Jennifer explains why Melissa named it Mister Bat, and how it became a repeating factor in all three books. While most people might think a baseball batContinue reading “When it comes to fighting monsters…why the bat?”

The Sad Puppies are, once again, frolicking in my twitter feed after WIRED magazine’s take on the 2015 Hugo awards was republished in an extended form. It’s a good read, followed by the usual tail of comments with members of the Mad Harpies “movement” publicly humiliating themselves by repeating the same old tired excuses forContinue reading “Gus. A case study in Sad Puppy ignorance.”

As some of you will know, I took a week week long sabbatical from social media last week. I’ve done this four times this year, each time for one to three weeks. For reasons I’ll come to, I find it essential. I love social media. Twitter is my favourite platform, it connects me with hundredsContinue reading “Open Thread : How can writers protect themselves from social media?”

Will the world end in fire? In ice? Or grey goop? A review of The End of All Our Labours by Potassium Cockburn. I am, on the issue of humankind’s near future, an optimist. As humans we have a historic tendency to predict the worst, and yet our history has been one of steady progress.Continue reading “REVIEW – The End of All Our Labours”

This was originally published as part of my regular newsletter, which you can sign up for here. Over the last 4 months I’ve built up my Patreon account from $18 to $176 and with luck it’ll carry on growing ;) Here are three lessons I’ve learned. 1. Getting new backers is hard! But worth it.Continue reading “Three hard earned lessons on building a Patreon”