Thursday, December 30, 2010

A Year in Writing 2010

Looking through my writing spreadsheet, I seem to have accomplished a fair amount of writing this year. At the beginning of the year I finished the novelette that I was co-writing with Jonathan C Gillespie, and since then I’ve written 5 more short stories, amounting to less than 4,000 words. Since April, when I returned to writing my second novel Gap Years after a hiatus of several months, I have written another 70,000 words, and the end is in sight.

I had 13 stories published this year, only 2 of them new but one of those was my fourth pro sale, to Nature magazine. My stories appeared in 7 languages this year, 3 of which were new for me: Bengali, Italian and Frisian. Eight more stories have been accepted and are awaiting publication, including my first novelette and my first comic.

On top of the fiction, I had 37 reviews published on SF Crowsnest, averaging 500 words each.

What about 2011? Let me see what I have lined up…

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Gondolier in Swedish

I found four Swedish SF zines. One replied that The Gondolier was too short, another closed down and two more didn't reply. So, after almost two years, here is the Swedish translation of The Gondolier.





Gondoljären
Av Gareth D Jones

Gondolens svarta förstäv skar mjukt genom kanalens lugna vatten. Den eleganta farkosten hade tjänat mig väl i många år och hade fört passagerare runt stadens vattenvägar under ledning av flera generationer av mina förfäder.

Solen höll på att gå ner över den gamla staden och förvandlade vattnet till ett bläcksvart band mellan eleganta sandstensbyggnader. Jag tog ett djupt andetag av den svala kvällsbrisen.

Fanns det någon vackrare plats än denna underbara kanalernas stad? När båten gled in i sina förtöjningar stannade jag och skådade med tillfredställelse upp emot Mars mörknande himmel.

Slut


Translated by Gustav Sjöblom.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Favourite Stories of 2010

It's time to look back over a year's worth of reviews and a collection of other magazines I read during the year to see which were my favourite stories of the year. Here's the result, in alphabetical order:

A Clown in Apus – Gary Budgen – Jupiter XXVIII
Agents of Repair – Rosie Oliver – Jupiter XXIX
Alternate Girl’s Expatriate Life - Rochita Luenen-Ruiz – Interzone 229
Frogs on my Doorstep - Annette Reader - Albedo One 39
Ishin – Madelin Ashby – Shine
Over Water – Jon Ingold – Interzone 228
Plague Birds – Jason Sanford – Interzone 228
Served - Rauri MacInnes – Murky Depths 11
Spare Change – Jay Eales - Murky Depths 12
The Bottle Garden – Mike Wood – Jupiter XXIX
The Cloth from which she is Cut – Gareth Owens – Fun with Rainbows
The Shipmaker – Aliette De Bodard – Interzone 231
The Shoe Factory - Matthew Cook – Interzone 231
The Story of Andrew Haddock, Part 2 - Dave Barnett – Murky Depths 11

Friday, December 17, 2010

Steampunk TOC Coming Soon

The Immersion Book of Steampunk is approaching completion. Stories are being proofread, biographies gathered, contracts signed and artwork is under way.

The final TOC will be anounced in the new year.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Post-Apocalyptic Comic

The artwork for my 1 page post-apocalyptic comic Frozen has been completed by Mick Trimble, and it looks awesome. It's pretty amazing seeing my first script brough to life anyway, but Mick has brilliantly captured the mood and feel of the piece just the way I imagined. It's also illustrated in the style I would have drawn it, if I could draw.

I can't wait to see it in print in Murky Depths #15.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Book Review: Up the Bright River by Philip José Farmer


Like many people, I read Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld saga many years ago, but I don’t recall ever having come across any of his short fiction. Subterranean Press have pulled together the first posthumous collection of his stories, edited by Gary K.Wolfe and containing 16 stories written over the course of forty years between 1953 and 1993.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Graphic Novel Review: The Broadcast by Eric Hobbs & Noel Tuazon


It’s a well-known tale that when Orson Welles broadcast his radio adaptation of H.G.Wells’ The War of the Worlds, many Americans thought it was true and believed they were being invaded by Martians. The story is told again in The Broadcast through the eyes of several characters in a small rural town, cut off by a storm, not knowing that the play has ended and the rest of the world knows it was only fiction.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Magazine Review: Interzone #231


Over the past couple of years, Jason Stanford’s stories in Interzone have proven very popular, and have been among my favourite. He receives his own special issues this time, with three stories and an in-depth interview.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Graphic Novel Review: Air: Flying Machine by G.Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker


Flying Machine is the second volume collecting together the comics from the series Air, a fantastic and complex story from G.Willow Wilson that combines adventure, surrealism, steampunk, SF, romance, espionage and thrills in a non-stop tale that travels the globe.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Monday, December 06, 2010

Book Review: The Best of Larry Niven


Subterranean Press have put together another impressive looking volume in The Best Of Larry Niven, a six hundred page book that collects twenty seven stories from over three decades of writing by one of the best known names in science fiction. Each story is prefaced by a brief comment from the author, a feature that I like in anthologies. It would be a very long review if I commented on every story in the book. Many of them have won accolades in their own right and all were published in the top magazines, so I shall just mention a few of the highlights that I found along the way.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Friday, December 03, 2010

New Critters Comics Workshop

Long-running on-line critiquing workshop Critters has recently expanded to cover all genres and all kinds of creative media. I've joined the comics group, and this week I am priveleged to have the first piece of work up for critique in this workshop.

This is only my 3rd comic script, so I'm hoping that other members will join and provide some feedback. From my experiences in the original Critters, I can recommend it to anyone.

Thursday, December 02, 2010

End of Part 7

I've finished Part 7 of Gap Years, at 77,500 words. I'm only a couple of thousand words short of Roadmaker, and with parts 8 & 9 to write I still have 18,000 words to go.

Should be finished by the end of January.