Monday, September 29, 2014

Hiking in My Head in Polish

The Polish translation of Hiking in My Head is now on line at Szortal. This was the story published at Daily Science Fiction that confused many readers. Maybe the translation will make more sense?













Thursday, September 25, 2014

Gareth D Jones Interviews Gareth P Jones

At WorldCon I was mistaken for Gareth P Jones, which makes a change as usually I'm mistaken for Gareth L Powell. There are a few other Gareths and even some more Gareth Joneses with writing credits to ther name, so I thought I'd track some of them down and ask a few questions about writing and being a Gareth.

First off, Gareth P Jones, author of numerous children's novels.




What do you enjoy about writing for children?

The freedom. Authors who write for adult readers very often end up writing one type of book, but I have written science fiction, gothic, thrillers, funny books and mixtures of all these things. I’ve written about dragon detectives, ninja meerkats, Steampunk pirates, ghosts, werewolves. I love the variety of my job.
 

What books did you enjoy reading when you were young?

Again, I was never very consistent in terms of genre or loyal in terms of author. I have great affection for fantasy books such as Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea books but I also remember with great fondness the sheer wonderful silliness of The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. And then there were all the books that were read to me including Watership Down and Mrs Fisby and the Rats of Nimn.
 

What do you enjoy reading now?

Recently I’ve made a conscious effort to read books aimed at the same age group as the novels I write and I’ve very much enjoyed Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell and Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead.
 

As you mentioned, you write in a variety of genres. Do you have a favourite?

Not really, but I do like making myself laugh.
 

What's your writing schedule like?

In terms of deadlines this year is pretty hectic. In terms of my working day, it’s very flexible. I have no set time of day I work better, no set place to write. I set myself weekly targets and work the hours necessary to meet them.
 

Have you ever been mistaken for another author, or another Gareth?

No. I chose to insert the P into my writing name so that I wouldn’t be mistaken for any of the many other Gareth Joneses. Since getting published in 2007 though, another Gareth P Jones has started writing kids books, which just shows you how common this name of ours is. I blame our parents. I have brought this up with my mother but she claims she didn’t know I wanted to be an author when she named me.
 
 
Fin.


Friday, September 19, 2014

Crowd Control Comment

I spotted a nice review of / comment on Crowd Control on the blog of Hungarian author Haralambi Markov whos says of the story:

“Crowd Control” by Gareth D. Jones, Aliette De Bodard, Nancy Fulda, Deborah Walker, John Murphy, and Sylvia Spruck Wrigley: It’s a short story experiment with six authors writing a segment following the minimal of guidelines and then stitching all fragments into a whole narratives. It’s clean, tight and explores science fiction through a relaxed plot lens. The plot threads come together seamlessly in the last segment. The whole story is a brilliant example of the virtues of collaborations and experimentation. I feel very satisfied having read this.

I'm glad the story came across so well.

I was once published in Hungarian magazine Galaktika, which os one of the best-looking magazines I've seen.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

In Which I Rediscover My Blog

You may have noticed a resurgence in blog activity recently. After a dearth of posts for a couple of years, I suddenly had 4 story sales to report, and realised there were other things I could have posted too. I have plans for more features to come...

Friday, September 12, 2014

Crowd Control at Perihilion SF

My multi-author collaborative story Crowd Control is on line today at Perihilion SF.

See if you can spot the joints!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

A Fellow Reader

For the first time ever, somebody said to me "I'm reading that book too!"

Except at SF conventions, I've rarely met anyone who's read any of the same books as me, never mind at the same time. I was reading the Jonathan Strahan anthology Edge of Infinity on the flight from Dublin when the stewardess checking we were all strapped in saw the book and made the comment.


I think everyone else on the flight was reading various volumes of Game of Thrones!

Saturday, September 06, 2014

The End of Barsoom

I really enjoyed the film John Carter when I saw it a year ago, unlike the critics who didn't like it at all apparently. I didn't realise until I watched it that it was based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series, and in fact I was only vaguely aware of the books. I enjoyed the film so much that I got the entire 11 book series in omnibus edition.

 
I started them in December, reading each book individually with other books in between, and finished yesterday, 2500 pages later. I enjoyed all of them immensely, even though the plots started to become predictable. They have barely aged at all, despite being started 100 years ago. Barsoom is a fabulous place, and even though we now know nobody lives on Mars, it doesn't matter. I'm quite sad to have come to the end.

At WorldCon I picked p the omnibus edition of the first 3 volumes of Burroughs' Pellucidar series. I'm hoping they will be just as enjoyable.

Thursday, September 04, 2014

New Collaboration

My six-author collaborative story Crowd Control should be on-line in a week or so, but selling the story has inspired me to start work on another collaborative story that I started thinking about a long time ago. This time I have 12 other authors joining me! Should be fun!