Review of 2013

I thought I'd put together a summary of my writing landmarks in 2013, as much for my own benefit as for anything else. Sometimes it's useful to take stock.

The year started well with three successive publications:

January: The Third Attractor appeared in Abyss and Apex

February: Ship of Fools appeared in Kasma SF, a Canadian market. The story was beautifully illustrated by Jose Baetas.

Then in March Dagan Books' Fish anthology was released, and included my story The Last Fisherman of Habitat 57.

June saw The Photograph in Lamplight, a quarterly online anthology that was compiled, a couple of months later, into Lamplight Volume 1, a handsome print anthology comprising the four preceding online issues. The Photograph was a horror/paranormal story, my third sale in this genre.

A short flash story, The Biggest Pumpkin in the World was the featured story on Short-Story.me in November, then, in December, Ship of Fools made a second appearance in the year, in the print anthology of humorous SF, Cosmic Vegetable, from Dreamscape Press.

2013 was a good year for conventions. Eastercon was in Bradford, almost local for me, and there was an excellent week in October that started out with Bristolcon, then headed south and east to Brighton for World Fantasy. To cut costs we stayed at a camp site about three miles along the prom. It rained, it was windy, we got wet. But it was wonderful. I met a lot of people I already knew online but hadn't met in person before. They know me, now, as some rugged, dishevelled, wild-man from the north. 

So what about 2014?

Two stories are already in the can. The Abolitionist will appear in issue 8 of the Kindle magazine, Kzine, soon this month. It's a mixed genre story that has found a good home in a magazine that offers stories of diverse styles, and avoids any genre categorisation, allowing the reader to make up their own mind as to what kind of story it is. I'm yet to decide what genre this particular story falls into.

In May I have another double venue, when my spoof fantasy, Bring Me My Broadsword and My Spreadsheets of Fire is set to appear in both the e-zine, Sourcerous Signals, and in the print anthology, Mystic Signals.

Then there's Loncon3, my first Worldcon, and it's in London. I won't be camping out for this one, I promise. I have a reputation to bury.

And that's all. Except that 2014 might also see Elton D Philpotts: Deep Space Accountant hit the Kindle shop. This will be the first in a series of Sphere of Influence novels. Watch this space.

The Biggest Pumpkin in the World

My flash fiction story, The Biggest Pumpkin in the World, has been published on Short-Story.me as one of their featured stories. This one came about as the subject of my local writing group, Wirral Writers', annual flash challenge. So hey, thanks guys!

here's the link: http://short-story.me/featured-stories/601-the-biggest-pumpkin-in-the-world.html

I'm delighted to be up on Short-Story.me once more. My last story with them was Call Me Murph, back in August 2011.
It's a nice venue for flash fiction, and now there is also a sister site www.Short-Stories.me 

Well worth checking out.

World Fantasy - do awards matter?

This was an interesting panel. ( Big guns, again: Elizabeth Bear, Tricia Sullivan, Melanie Tem, Ellen Datlow) Those who have had the awards; Hugos, Nebulas, Clarkes, etc; feel they do not help a career in any way, that they do not increase income, but are happy enough, in terms of validation, to receive them. Those of us who have never recieved the glittering heights of even a nomination (and I'm assuming my WOTF and Baen are a little too lowly to count in this company) would, I'm sure, be happy to give it a try, anyway, and see for ourselves.

But then we got onto how to get noticed. Is it right to list all one's eligible stories in an effort to make sure that those with a vote are aware of what the writers have recently published that are eligible. A good point was made, from the floor, that there is a big cultural difference between Brits and Americans as regards to what individuals are comfortable doing. This is a good point. I am very wary about the whole self promotion thing. Here's the British way: (and I'm cringing with every keystroke)

I was excited to find this frdge magnet, on the publicity table, as one of the giveaways, and I grabbed it. It's for issue 7 of Kzine, out now. This is a nice magazine, professionaly put together and well worth a look. Issue 7 has stories from Sarah L Byrne, Louise Hughes, Mike Phillips, Forrest Roy Johnson, Simon Kewin, Steve Conoboy, and Edward McDermott. Ryan Sciduna of Malta Comics Con said "...I would hugely recommend you pick up an issue of Kzine..."

There, done. Hopefully people will be drawn to buy issue 7. I hope so. I hope they enjoy it enough to then then go out and buy issue 8, in January. Issue 8 will include a story called The Abolitionist. Guess who wrote it.

Reflections on World Fantasy 2013 in Brighton

Arriving at World Fantasy had me feeling like a Vegan's dog being set loose in a sausage factory. I didn't expect this.  The scale of the thing. I have been to plenty of Eastercons and Bristolcons and Fantasycons, so I am no stranger to the genre convention process, but the buzz and the throngs of overseas participants; a dealer's room the size of an aircraft hangar; an art show with hundreds of exhibits.... I am blown away. And all this while lugging round three bags of free book giveaways. Wide eyed does not begin to describe my feelings.

This was the first panel I went to. It's hard to see from the photo, but up there, left to right, we had Maura McHugh, Mike Carey, Mike Chinn, Christopher Golden, Joe Hill and Neil Gaiman. Big, big guns. They were talking about getting into comics, and this is something, from a reading perspective, I'm more and more drawn to (pun not intended, but I'm leaving it in anyway) probably through having a wife who is an artist and spends each panel absently drawing blood spattered suerheroes in her sketch book.

And then, in the corridor, I bumped into Tim Powers, who recognised me from four years back, and said, hi. So that left me all tongue-tied and fan-boy jelly-legged.

This is great! I should be able to articulate this better, I know, but I don't have a tail to wag - the doggy answer to running out of superlatives.

The Next Publishing Revolution

As if it's not enough that we've had the e-book revolution in publishing, it seems that the next big thing is just around the corner. Bitcoin is coming. Already available for some US bank accounts, Bitcoin allows micropayment for some online products. It's been touted as the way we will pay for internet, a minute at a time, or for news, one article at a time. The sticking point has always been the merchant's fee that puts a flat transaction charge on every payment, but economic pressure is bound to change this model. 

So, imagine if you could sell your book one page at a time, at say 0.01 pence per page. Readers could decide how long to stick with your book without having to commit to any full, up-front payment. One penny is not a big risk for 10 pages or so. There are advantages to the writer: it presents a way of easing into the market without having to give away books for free as a loss leader. But what it also might mean is that the writer can no longer afford to have any dull sections. Every page must crackle. At the moment a reader may stay with a slow section because he has already made an investment and does not want to waste the sum he has paid already through giving up too soon. With Micropayment there is no risk, no waste. The reader will pay only up until he/she is no longer being entertained.

This is a scary thought. I sometimes enjoy reading a slow burner. It is often good to ease into a story and get to know the characters and setting before any major conflict comes along. As a reader, will I still be given that choice? Is this the end of the slow-burner? Will writers live in terror of the cultural change that will end the cash inflow at the precise moment when their story begins to slow?

We are still at a time when the industry is trying to come to terms with massive change, and yet here comes more. I guess only time will tell if we make the most of these layers of change stacked upon change, as opportunities for new expression. Or will we simply find ourselves with an endless succession of fast-paced high-octane thrillers and little else?

Space Race - the British Qualifying Heats

This is High Down, on the Isle of Wight, the site of the British foray into the space race. It is the rocket testing site, now just concrete and ghosts. It's an evocative place, managed, today,  by the National Trust. You have to use a bit of imagination to picture the gantries and bunkers and the smell of kerosine rocket fuel. This is a place with a short history. The Black Arrow rockets were built in East Cowes before being brought here for testing, then transported all the way Australia, to Woomera, for firing. The fourth launch placed the satellite, Prospero, into orbit. It was the first and only British satellite launched on a British rocket. Just days after the successful flight the British government, with remarkable economic savvy still much in evidence to this day, pulled the plug, there being "no commercial value" in launching satellites into orbit.

The Age of Portable Computing

Right now my laptop battery is on the fritz, so I have devised this handy and lightweight solution. Battery life is good (about 200 hrs) but I'm yet to build the motorised trolly that will give me the mobility I seek. But it helps me to keep writing when out and about.