Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Serbian Story

The Serbian translation of Travel by Numbers appears on the webzine Antares today. This is a new language for me, and the first translated story to appear on Antares.

This is also the first time I've had two stories published in one day!

Travel by Numbers first appeared in Nature magazine last year.

The Ironic Man



Superhero anthology Pow!erful Tales is out now from Peryton publishing - 200 pages of heroic stories including my flash fiction piece The Ironic Man.

Monday, March 30, 2009

A New Story

I wrote the first 1,200 words of a new short story over the weekend, entitled Planet of Myths for now. I'm not overly happy with the title, but I have to have something at the top of the paper before I start writing. It should be about 7000 words. People sometimes ask me how I know how long a story will be. I'm not sure. I just do.

I also spent a bit of time consolidating the separate sections of Roadmaker into one manuscript and tidying it up bit. I've yet to do any actual editing on it though.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

More Roadmaker News

The launch date for issue #1 of Catalan magazine Catarsi has been set for April 23rd and the cover art has now been revealed:





This is the second magazine that I’ve made it into issue #1, the other being Murky Depths. It makes me feel particularly close to both mags, being there at the start.

Friday, March 27, 2009

On the Road Again

I’ve had confirmation that Dog’s Best Friend will be appearing in the April issue of Jupiter magazine, my sixth appearance in that magazine. It’s set in the world of the Roadmaker and revolves around one of the minor characters from that series.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

So much to read…

I started reading Eclipse Two last night and enjoyed the first story immensely. Apparently this volume has more SF than the first so I’m looking forward to reading the rest.

Meanwhile I’m getting a very short novel called Genesis and the last of Alan Dean Foster’s Pip & Flinx books to review. The latter is the sequel to Quofum that I read recently. I was also persuaded to take two earlier books from the series that hadn’t been reviewed so all four books should turn up this week.

Then Interzone arrived, with a brilliant cover again.

The latest BSFA mailing arrived in the same post. This includes Matrix and the special issue of Focus that includes the BSFA short story competition winners. Plus a special booklet reproducing the BSFA Award nominated short stories. I need to read that pretty quick so I can get my vote in. Plus a special PostScripts taster with 100 pages of fiction from some very well known names. All five of these magazines arrived 10 minutes before I had to leave for work this morning, just giving me time to open them and flick feverishly through, vowing to read each one straight away.

If only I didn’t need to sleep at some point.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Now what?

After a year of writing Roadmaker I momentarily wondered what to do next. But not for long. I still have to send off the final section to my writing group, then edit and amend the entire novel. That’ll keep me busy for quite a while I would think.

Meanwhile, I have at least 4 short story ideas that have been waiting patiently to be written. I should now have some spare brain power to get on with at least one of them.

A fortnight ago, with the end of Roadmaker in sight, I began to think about my long-abandoned, half-written novel Galaxy’s Game, currently languishing around 45,000 words. I started it about 4 years ago and I’ve learned a lot since then so I think it’s time to pull it out, dust it off and see what I can do with it. To that end I’ve joined a second Orbiter writing group and sent them part 1.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

'tis done

I wrote the final paragraph of Roadmaker months ago and I've been heading towards it ever since.

Last night, with great ceremony, I cut and pasted it onto the end of my manuscript.

Then, in a surprisingly emotional act, I wrote two words:

The End

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Ante-Penultimate

I have arrived at the ante-penultimate subsection of Roadmaker. Great excitement and not a small amount of trepidation awaits...

Monday, March 16, 2009

My First Comic

I was impressed with the power of the short comics in Murky Depths right from when I read issue #o. They're like the best flash fiction - packing a lot of power into few words. It wasn't until issue #7 when I read the article on how a comic strip was created that it occured to me that I could have a go myself.

So I have.

I can't draw very well, mind you, so I've written the script and directions for the artist. I sent it off to Murky Depths - and it's been accepted.

I'm really looking forward now to seeing how the artist interprets my ideas. I'm sure it's going to look great.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Friday, March 13, 2009

Friday Flash Fiction: Navita

I was disappointed to discover that there doesn’t seem to be a website publishing short stories in Latin. Please let me know if there is one, but I couldn’t find any.

So, here is the latest incarnation of The Gondolier, in Latin:


Navita

Prora nigra cannae meae per placidam aquas canalium leniter secat. Linter laetum me bene multos annos iuverat, id vectores per canales urbis sub manus derigentes etatum progentorium mea gessit.

Ocasus solis super urbe antiqua erat et aqua atricolor taenia despostus inter lota aedificia facta arenario lapide. Frigidam vesperitam aura profunde spiravi.

Estne locum plucherius quam hoc urbe canalium? Linter in copulam lenivit et allocutione in fuscanta caelos Martis aspicere conmoratus sum.


Translated by Kris Tomaine

Thursday, March 12, 2009

50 Stories

After updating my Grand Submissions Spreadsheet to include the Welsh translation of The Last Adam and the reprint of the original English version in E-Bych, I have arrived at the stunning conclusion that I now have 50 publication credits to my name!

This includes 25 original stories, 12 translations, 8 reprints, 4 reprinted translations and 1 podcast.

I have another 15 lined up for this year, lots of them translations, plus one non-fiction article.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Fleet of Gondolas

Since my last update on the subject, I've received translations of The Gondolier in Welsh, French, Hebrew, Basque, Hindi and Latin and translations are underway in Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch and Scots. I've also submitted it to Estonian and Urdu magazines.

Let me know if you can translate it into any other language.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Welsh At Last

My shortest story The Last Adam appears on Welsh literary website Y-Bych today, translated as Yr Adda Olaf.

I’m particularly pleased with this as it was my search for a Welsh translation that led me to my multi-lingual translation of The Gondolier. It’s ironic that I had stories translated into every other celtic language first, but now I’ve found Y-Bych I have a couple more to send them.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

90% Complete

Roadmaker should finish up at just abouy 80,000 words. According to my calculations this means I've reached the 90% mark.

Hurrah!

I have high hopes of being finished by the end of March.

Friday, March 06, 2009

New Anthology Imminent


The Peryton Publishing site now has some more information about the Pow!erful Tales anthology, which is due to be printed by the end of the month.

I also heard from the editor that they have decided to illustrate all the stories in the end, so even my very short story The Ironic Man will have an illustration. This will be my first anthology appearance and I’m really looking forward to seeing it.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Book Review: Subtle Edens edited by Allen Ashley


I’ve read some slipstream stories from time to time, and read other stories that are probably slipstream without realising it. It’s been described as ‘the genre that is not a genre’ and as such I didn’t really know what to expect from ‘Subtle Edens’. Now I’ve read the anthology I realise that some of my own flash fiction could best be described as slipstream. There are 21 stories in this volume, so I’ll tell you about a few of my favourites.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Magazine Review: Murky Depths #7


Yet again I’m immediately struck by the impressive artwork on the cover – a biplane flying into the clutches of a giant carnivorous plant; or maybe a mouth or a volcano. Whatever it is, it looks fabulous. Throughout the magazine there is a wide variety of art to accompany the stories. Sometimes it’s quite obscure and for other pieces the connection to the prose is immediately obvious.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley


I’ve read several articles and comments in recent years bemoaning the lack of cultural diversity in SF so it was refreshing in this book to find colonists from a diversity of cultural backgrounds as the main characters. They are all portrayed in a natural way that doesn’t make them stereotypes or thinly-disguised Americans with foreign names.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Monday, March 02, 2009

And the Winner Is...

Well, typically, it looks like visitor 10,000 was a bot.

Amazing considering that all but one other visitor in the last four days have been real people from France, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Italy, USA, UK, Japan, Greece, Serbia, Canada, and Croatia.

So, Huw Langridge can feel suitably smug at having claimed the 9999th spot.