Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Honourable Mention

Aphelion's 100th issue is out this month and also includes the 'Best of 2005' selection. Only 6 out of 88 stories last year were chosen, not including any of my 3, which I try not to be too dissapointed about. Today I was looking through their lettercol and spotted this post from their short story editor:

There were many other stories also worthy of a 'Best of' designation (by the two Gareths, Bill Wolfe, Frank Byrns, Nate the K., etc., etc., etc.), but I had to stop somewhere.


So I did get a mention after all! The two Gareths refers to me and Gareth Lyn Powell. I've put a link to his blog Adventures in the SF Trade in my links section.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

What's in a Name?

One of the things I really enjoy while writing is coming up with suitable names for all the characters. Sometimes I think of a name as I'm typing, like Commander Mulholland in Data Dump, other times I really have to think about it. Others are drawn from real life.

I wanted my archaelogist in Artefact Nouveau to sound scientific. The first person I though of was Lord Kelvin, so I ended up with Stanley Kelvington.

Two other characters in my Star Trek stories, Titus Grey and Bronwyn Davies, were names we had shortlisted but rejected for our children.

In upcoming stories there are characters named after our hamster, people from work and names of magazine editors that seemed to fit nicely. In fact just about anyone I meet has a chance of being immortalised in one of my stories!

Friday, February 10, 2006

Quarter Century

I realised today that I've been writing science fiction for 25 years! Ever since I was about 7 my stories at school always began something like:

'Me and my friends jumped into our home-made rocket and took off...'

There was never much of a plot in those days, but hopefully things have improved somewhat.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Not as Soon as I Thought

I've just discovered the Scifantastic forum, which I missed on previous visits to their webpage. It seems the next issue, containing my story (hopefully), is not out until the end of March.

Meanwhile I have eight other stories out there looking for a good home. I'll let you know when I hear anything...