Frozen in Argentina

The Spanish translation of my flash fiction story Frozen now appears in Argentina-based ezine Sinergia.  It's edited by Sergio Gaut vel Hartman, who published several of my stories in Spanish a number of years ago. In fact, as a lesson in patience to my fellow authors, Sergio had actually accepted this story for one of his previous ezines before it went on hiatus. It has now finally been published fifteen years after being accepted.

This is the first translation of this story. It has been published in English, and was the first story I converted into comic strip script, which was then illustrated and published in Murky Depths magazine.

It's my fifteenth story published in Spanish.

The Future is Murky

Terry Martin of Murky Depths has given his first post-MD interview, in which he discusses the future of The House of Murky Depths now that the magazine itself has come to an end. The long-planned Best of Murky Depths is still on the cards along with several other projects. In fact, I have another possible project I discussed with Terry a while back; must give that some thought...

Demise of Murky Depths

As reported at the blog of editor Terry Martin. Depressing, but unsurprising I guess.

I've appeared twice in Murky Depths: Looking In, Looking Out in issue #1 and my first ever comic Frozen in #15. I'd since had another comic and a non-prose story accepted and another comic under submission. It's going to be tough finding another market anything like Murky Depths.

Indefinable Story Sale

My indefinable non-prose story Expenses Claim for Snowdonia 'Bigfoot' Expedition has been accepted by the incomparable Murky Depths magazine.

This will be my fourth, or third, appearance in Murky Depths. My flash fiction Looking In, Looking Out appeared in issue #1, and my 1 page comic Frozen was in issue #15. My 5 page comic Plugged In has already been accepted, and now Snowdonia too. I have another 2 page comic under submission there, so I'm hoping to make 5.

Magazine Review: Murky Depths #16

Issue 16 of Murky Depths may well be the darkest yet, with death and depravity forming an atmospheric backdrop to many of the stories. As usual the quality of the magazine shines through in terms of glossiness, paper and artwork; it just feels like a great product. What though of the contents?

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Latest Magazines

I have a small collection of paper magazines to look forward to reading over the next couple of weeks:

Jupiter XXXII
Interzone 233
Murky Depths #16

All three generaly contain stories that I enjoy and I've been reading them for quite a few issues now.

Meanwhile, in other UK based genre 'zine news:

AltHist #2 is in the works, with stories also accepted for #3.
CossMass Infinities is up to podcast #11, but that was put on line in November.
Dark Fiction Magazine podcast #7 is available. I don't know if it's just my computer, but I can barely read the light blue font. :o(
Spectra magazine is on issue #2, but is now on hiatus due to some technicality that I don't understand.
Singularity will be available for download 'in the coming weeks'.
Midnight Street #14 has been available for a while, now in electronic format.
The Winter 2010 edition of Estronomicon is still available to download.
Hub magazine is up to issue #139, rather impressively.

That should be enough short fiction for anyone.

Comic Sale

I've sold my new 5-page comic script, the title of which is under debate, to Murky Depths magazine. This will be my second comic and third appearance in Murky Depths. I can't wait to see my ideas turned into pictures.

Frozen Review

Murky Depths #15 is reviewed on Michelle Lee's Booklove site, and my debut comic Frozen is given brief but favourable mention.

Frozen

My contributor copy of Murky Depths #15 has arrived, containing my first comic, the one page post-apocalyptic story Frozen.

As usual, the magazine is packed with other great fiction and comics. You should by it - and not just for my piece.

Sea Monster from the Murky Depths

The cover of Murky Depths #15 is up on their website, and looks pretty awesome. My name has made the cover too, along with some rather more well known authors.

Magazine Review: Murky Depths #12

The cover of this issue of Murky Depths is a lovingly rendered steampunk image from Nancy Farmer, who has supplied some wonderfully atmospheric interior artwork in the past. The illustration accompanies Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s Glory Of The Empire in which a disillusioned young man launches himself on a rickety manned kite to attack the emperor aboard his grandiose airship.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

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

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.

The Best of Murky Depths

One of the people I met up with at BristolCon was Murky Depth editor Terry Martin. As revealed on his blog, we are working on The Best of Murky Depths, an anthology containing my selection of the best graphic and prose stories from the first 10 issues.

The selection has already been made, I've written a few words about each of my choices and permissions are currently being sought from artists and authors. The anthology will go out in PDF format, giving readers a chance to sample what Murky Depths has to offer.

It will look pretty awesome.

Saturday at BristolCon

BristolCon is a relatively small con in its second year, and I made the 2 1/2 hour trip down to Bristol for the weekend and attended the event on Saturday. It may be small, but it was very relaxed and friendly.

Two minor things I thought were good ideas and worth noting were:

• Name badges were printed on both sides. At previous cons, people's badges tended to flap over so you couln't see their name. This neatly solved that problem.
• There was a constant supply of free tea and coffee. Admittedly, that would probably be impracticaly at a much larger con.

This was a single-stream con, and I attended about half of the programme items, spending the rest of the time in the dealers' room, art show and bar (drinking tea), or lurking round the lobby.

I met up with a few people I've met before, others I've interacted with on the web, others whose work I've read, and saw several others whose names I knew but embarresingly hadn't read anything by them. I don't feel too bad introducing myself to fantasy authors whom I've not read as I don't read any fantasy, but it's a bit more awkward when it's a well-known SF author and I've not read any of their work. :o/

Anyway, I got to chat with authors Kim Lakin-Smith, Colin Harvey, Gareth L Powell and his wife Becky, Neil Beynon, John Meaney and his wife Yvonne, Mike Wood, Paul Cornell, Adam Colston, artist Andy Bigwood, Terry Martin of Murky Depths, Steve Upham of Screaming Dreams / Estronomicon, Del Lakin-Smith of Dark Fiction, and several others whose names I didn't note. Sorry.

It's especially nice to be able to chat to fellow authors about the trials and joys of writing.

I'm looking forward to my next con.

Frozen Depths

My first comic script, a single page story entitled Frozen, was accepted by Murky Depths magazine some time back. Its appearance has now been confirmed for issue #15 and the artwork will be by Mick Trimble.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how my script is translated into pictures. It's always a thrill to see an illustration drawn to accompany one of my prose stories, but this time the whole thing will be somebody else's interpretation of my vision.

Meanwhile I've submitted a 2-page script and I'm still tinkering with a 6-page script that I wrote up a while ago.

Graphic Novels

Having been converted to appreciation of the graphic story form by Murky Depths magazine, I have acquired 2 graphic novels to review for SF Crowsnest. These will be the first I've read since TinTin and Asterix!

Murky Congratulations

The fabulous Murky Depths magazine has deservedly won the British Fantasy Society award for Best Magazine, on its third anniversary. Of course, the magazine got off to a great start by including a story of mine in issue #1...

Magazine Review: Murky Depths #11

From issue #10, ‘Murky Depths’ has been made available as a PDF download as well as the original print edition. In fact, editor terry Martin has just made a PDF of #1 available too. (You should buy this – it includes a story by me!) So for issue #11 I have obtained the PDF version for the first time instead of the print copy.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Screenwriting

As I may have mentioned at some point in the past, I recently spent some time learning about screenwriting. Last night, I completed the first draft of my first screenplay!

Soon after Artefact Nouveau was published at the end of 2005, I received an email from an independant film maker and screenwriter in North America who was interested in turning it into a screenplay for a possible future project. He said it was a suitable story as it contained lots of action and dialogue. He also siad that if I could turn it into a screenplay myself it would be more valuable. Of course at the time I had no idea how to do that, and the idea came to nothing.

Then, last year, after learning to appreciate comics courtesy of Murky Depths, I decided to have a go at creating a comic script. I used one of my own very short stories as a basis and found it a fascinating discipline to distill my own prose into scenes and dialogue.

At the end of last year I read Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, the new edition that included two screenplays that he wrote based on the stories. It suddenly ocured to me that writing a screenplay is very like writing a comic script - converting your story to scenes, action and dialogue.

I dug out Artefact Nouveau and had a go at the first page or so. It's very slow work. Then I decided to look up some information on how to write a screenplay and found some very helpful websites. I discovered that thet Bradbury script is what they call a 'shooting script' - with camera angles, transitions and all kinds of detail. What I needed to write is a 'spec script' - with just the bare bones that a director can play with as he sees fit.

So I started again. According to my calculations, the finished story would make a 45 minute drama - perfect for the BBC. Yes, I know, somewhat optimistic for a first screenplay.

What I need now is to find some friendly screenplay critiquing people to tell me where I've gone wrong.

It's been a fun and interesting experience.