Authorial Activities in 2019

My writing and publishing has slowed down over the past few years, but 2019 was not a bad year for both. I wrote six flash fiction stories at the beginning of the year, co-wrote a novelette with Alex and Haydn during the summer and then wrote another short story in November.

In terms of stories published this year, I had two stories podcast in English, stories published in Estonian, Galician, Hungarian and Romanian, a short story published in English and a reprint of a novelette. I also had a story accepted for a Slovenian magazine, and I was expecting the publication of Putting the Science in Fiction in Korean, so that's at least two lined up for 2020.

Third Story Sale to Perihelion

I've sold my flash fiction story The Heat of the Night to Perihelion magazine. It will be on line on September 12th and will be my third story to appear there, following on from Rose Coloured Tentacles last year and Crowd Control the year before.

Cancelled Story

Sadly, the Electronic Encyclopaedia of Experimental Literature has ceased publication, which means they won't be publishing Expenses Claim for Snowdonia Bigfoot Expedition after all. This story seems doomed never to see the light of day.

Five New Stories

This week I finished my fifth story in a month, which is a surprising amount for me, and started a sixth. Four of them are now under submission, the other I'm still not quite happy with the final editing. The new story has started well, and joins two other partially-written stories from last year. They're mostly pretty short stories, but the advantage of that is getting a feeling of accomplishment from getting something finished. It's almost as good as getting something accepted for publication!

101 Stories

This week I finished writing my 101st story. That's enough to make a fur coat!

Constructing a Short Story

My short stories tend to hang around in my head for months or even years waiting to be written. They bubble to the surface occasionally, get turned over, and sink back into the depths to cook a bit longer. There are five of them there now. The reason for this is that stories rarely come fully-formed.

My stories start life as one of several things:

• A concept – maybe a location or piece of technology
• A character – perhaps an alien or someone with an unusual trait
• A plot – but without any detail
• A title – something that sounds good but has nothing to go with it
• A snippet of prose – normally an introduction or a conclusion

Over time, hopefully these seeds will accrete the other parts necessary to make a whole tale. It’s not until I have a plot, with an interesting concept behind it, at least one definite character, a title, an introduction and fairly-well defined conclusion, that I start writing. That way I can write from beginning to end, normally in several sittings, and get a complete draft. The plot in the middle may change along the way, the character, concept or location may transform into something else and the title may change, but at least I don’t waste the limited writing time I have available.

It’s the cooking that counts. Excuse me while I go and stir a few ideas again.

2011 Writing Plans

We’re well into the first month of the year – time to start thinking about my plans for the year in terms of writing.

I’ve been saying this for a couple of weeks now, but I’m exceedingly close to completing Gap Years, which should end up around 94,000 words. I’ve written little else since April last year, so I’m looking forward to the relief of finishing the first draft and having time for other things. Editing and re-drafting will keep me busy for a while, but there’s less self-imposed pressure.

I have ideas for 5 short stories, some of which I have been harbouring for years. One is a piece of flash fiction that I’ll probably do first to achieve a swift sense of accomplishment.

I plan to work on a screenplay after that. Following last year’s experiment I have a much better idea of what I’m doing. I have grand plans to develop it in all kinds of directions, but one thing at a time.

I have a 6 page comic script completed, so I need to take a final look at that before sending it off. I also have vague plans for a graphic novelette, but being so new to the form I have no idea if or when I'll develop it.

After that, a new novel, Promised Land, about a lost colony ship. This is another idea that has been shaping up for years. I’m in no great hurry to start it yet. I want to work on the smaller projects first.

Linked Stories

Several of my stories are set against the same backgrounds, though it’s not always obvious that they do. I never intended to do that, although there is a certain appeal in returning to a familiar setting.


The orbital habitat Astropolis is the setting for:

The Blind Collaborators - Aphelion
Travel by Numbers – Nature
Up to my Neck in it – Hypersonic Tales
Three AM – Golden Visions (Forthcoming)


The European Hadron Laboratory, based loosely on CERN, is the setting or background for:

Absolute Zero - Ennea
Fluctuations – Bewildering Stories
Turning Over a New Leaf – Aphelion

Turning Over a New Leaf was also set in Dan Hollifield’s Mare Inebrium universe, for Aphelion, along with Ten Years at the Bar.


My abandoned novel Galaxy’s Game, which sadly will never see the light of day, also shares a background with some of my stories, and obscure references to some of them were built into the storyline. I tried to resuscitate Galaxy’s Game recently, but it needs too much work to get it up to scratch. At least I know my writing has improved over the past five years. The stories that share it’s background are:

A Feast of Eyes – Static Movement
Blue Men - Friday Flash Fiction
The Alliterati – Illuminations


Finally, Rufus Balikind, the Galaxy’s greatest big-game hunter appears in three stories:

Shooting Stars – Big Pulp (Forthcoming)
Now You See Me - Friday Flash Fiction
Stone Quarry - Friday Flash Fiction

The latter is also a sequel to Delayed Reaction – Illuminations, to be reprinted in Cat Tales.


My other 54 stories have nothing in common.

Coming Up...

I have a few publications due to appear in the near future. The Spanish translation of A Few Good Men is due in La Idea Fija in the spring, which is fast drawing to a close. In July I’m expecting my non-fiction article What Does An Editor Want Out Of Life? in the BSFA’s Focus, my first twitter fiction Falling in Jetse De Vries’ OutShine and a reprint of my flash fiction White Out in Golden Visions. The Greek translation of The Gondolier is also due to appear in EF-ZIN some time during the summer.

As for the rest, for the most part I don’t have definite dates, but altogether I currently have a total of 14 stories accepted and awaiting their appearance.

Enjoyable Tales

In the past week I’ve read the Fiction Special issue of Focus that included the winning stories from the BSFA short story competition. I particularly enjoyed Andrew West’s Rescue Stories.

I also finished Jupiter XXIV and found Andrew Knighton’s Our Man in Herrje especially entertaining.

Is it just a coincidence that both authors are called Andrew?

I’ve also just about finished Bernard Beckett’s Genesis, the shortest novel I think I’ve ever seen published, which makes a refreshing change. I’ll be writing a review of this, to go with my reviews of Eclipse Two and Interzone #221 in next month’s SF Crowsnest.

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.

Favourite Stories of 2008

I enjoyed a lot of stories this year, so much so that I have a top 16 instead of a top ten. This list is only of stories first published during 2008 - I also read some excellent stories in collections and anthologies. I've listed them in alphabetical order.

An Empty Kind of Love by Adam Colston – Escape Velocity #2
Arches by Gareth L Powell – The Last Reef and Other Stories
Are You Lonesome Tonight? by Alan James Rolls – Murky Depths #6
Automatic Swan, Fusion Heart by James Targett – Hub #68
Best in Class by Jonathan C Gillespie – Murky Depths #6
Butterfly, Falling at Dawn by Aliette De Bodard – Interzone #219
By The River by David Towsey – Jupiter XIX
Endra – From Memory by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro – Interzone #216
The Factory by James Johnson & Leonardo M Giron – Murky Depths #6
Greenland by Chris Beckett – Interzone #218
Jerie by Adam Roberts – Celebration: A Taster
Living With the Dead by Molly Brown – Celebration
Pseudo Tokyo by Jennifer Linneae – Interzone #214
The Scent of Their Arrival by Mercurio D Rivera – Interzone #214
The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain by Jason Sanford – Interzone #217
The Thursday Night League by James Hartley – Concept SciFi #1

Writer's Glut

Writer’s Glut. It’s the opposite of Writer’s Block and is well explained in Doug Smith’s answer to the perennial question ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’:

Actually, from a writer's perspective, the experience is more like this: "Arrgghhh!!! Not another idea! When the @%$#^*! am I ever going to have time to write all these stories?"

I’m experiencing that crisis right now. The Roadmaker novel is crawling along slowly, holding up work on five other story ideas:


• The complex society that has developed on a malfunctioning colony ship. I’ve had this one waiting in the background for years and now have a whole host of information to go with it.
• A mystery story involving bio-augmentation. This one has all the basic ingredients ready to go.
• A lost colony world inhabited by a variety of human-descended races. Ideas still in progress.
• A story that may be set in a Roadmaker-style post industrial future, or possibly a Victorian steampunk past. Just a concept with no plot at the moment.
• A brand new idea, only a couple of weeks old, for a tale set on a planet gravitationally locked with the same face always to its sun. That’s not the main feature of the story, but I don’t want to give away the fun part!



Meanwhile, via the Velcro City Tourist Board’s fabulous list of writing advice, I read an article by Tobias Buckell on trunking stories. I have a couple that I thought might have to go that way, and after reading Tobias’ advice they are definitely heading to the metaphorical trunk. Sniff.

Two of Each

In a brief flurry of activity I sent off 4 submissions today - 2 to magazines and 2 to anthologies. One is an original anthology and the other accepts reprints, so I thought I'd give them a shot. I get the impression that anthologies are harder to sell to. I don't really know if that's true, but being one-off publications they probably get far too many subs, even more than a magazine would. I've selected stories that fit in with their themes though, so I'll just sit back and wait as usual.

50 Stories

After writing this week's flash fiction story ready for Friday, I added it to my Great Spreadsheet of Fiction and came to the remarkable conclusion that I have now written fifty stories. That's twenty flash fiction and thirty longer short stories. I can hardly believe it myself!

Favourite Stories of 2007

I've read around 400 short stories this year, about half of them new, but every now and then a story particularly stood out to me. Not all of them were perfect, but enjoyable, thought provoking or above all, memorable. I've finaly ended up with a list of my ten favourites published during 2007, listed here in chronological order:



A Pocket Full of Posies - Michele Dutcher – Aphelion #112
I've always liked sky elevators, and this one seems to be well-thought out. The whole story was well told and the ending had the air of a classic SF novel. The passage about the mysterious old lady added an extra dimension of realism and the whole story could easily have lasted much longer.

Passing the Test - Anna Feruglio Dal Dan – Farthing #5
This story remained with me for a long time after I finished it. It deals with a refugee’s attempts to return to Earth from one of the colonies, a very topical subject in the UK, and the test of humanity that he is obliged to take. The man’s desperation to bring himself and his daughter to safety really involve you in the story and his struggle against the seemingly indifferent authorities grips the emotions to the end

The Blue Parallel - Jessica Reissman – Hub #11
A cleverly inventive story that explores a world where reality is not solid and precautions are necessary against the chaotic work of ‘patterners’. It’s one of those stories that could be SF or fantasy, but it doesn’t actually matter as you are caught up in her marvellously crafted world.

City of Flesh - Russ Jackson – Fiction #2
The longest and most riveting story of the issue. It’s a classic ‘aliens walk among us’ conspiracy, and the various protagonists offer different slices of insight into what’s happening. The Day of the Triffids came to mind among other things, and I was gripped to the end.

The Gate – Rhian Chapman – Fiction #2
The emotive story of a star ship pilot who uses wormhole-type gates to transport cargo across the galaxy. The transit is beautifully described and the emotional highs and lows of the life of a pilot are truly involving.

Young Love on the Drowned Side of the City – William D McIntosh – Darker Matter #5
A post-apocalyptic tale of youngsters left to fend for themselves in a ruined city while the adults struggle to cope with their own trauma. The society is well realised and the relationships between the characters make it a troubling but heart warming tale.

Paston, Kentucky – Jonathan C Gillespie – Murky Depths #1
Small self-replicating machines are stripping the land of metal, leaving behind a ruined society. The different aspects of that society are well-thought out and the mission to destroy the machines is both gritty and gripping.

Spin-Off Merchandise – Roz Southey – Midnight Street #9
A story set in a future that reminded me of Blade Runner. It’s a society where celebrity and conformity have both gained such importance that almost everyone has gone under cosmetic surgery in order to imitate their favourite star. The few who don’t conform are fiercely persecuted and the mission of one woman to make her way unnoticed through the city streets was both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Audience of One – John Hickman – Aphelion #116
A fabulous story. I loved the irony and the way the frustration of being stranded on Titan came across. The alien(s) were great too. In fact, everything was great.

The Redoubt – Gareth L Powell – Aphelion #117
There was real emotional depth here as a young couple are offered the chance to send a digital copy of themselves on a universe-spanning voyage to the end of time. The scope of the concept and the agonising debate made it just perfect.


P.S. I couldn't find links for a few of the authors. If you have a link for any of them, please let me know!

What Did I Do in 2007?

It's time once more to think back on what I've accomplished in the writing field over the past year.

One of the highlights has to be my first professional publication, in Cosmos magazine. I was also very proud to appear in issue #1 of Murky Depths. My story Looking In,Looking out received many favourable comments and the artwork that accompanied it was phenomenal. I also had my first semi-professional sale, only just before the Cosmos sale, this one to Hub magazine.

Altogther I had 14 stories published last year, including reprints and translations. My first paid translation came in September when Absolute Zero was published in Ennea, a Greek magazine with an astounding circulation of 200,000. I added German and Spanish to my repertoir this year too.

I've written quite a selection of reviews as well, most recently on the well-respected Whispers of Wickedness site.

I also must mention the Friday Flash Fictioneers. Not only have I written loads of very short stories, but got to know several other authors along the way, most of whom I shall get to meet in the flesh finally at Eastercon this year.

So, onwards into 2008 for more of the same...

Friday Flash Fiction - The Stories So Far

Inspired by Neil Beynon, I thought I'd take a look at the flash fiction I've posted since joining the Flash Fictioneers what seems like a very long time ago. I was surpised to discover a list of 19 stories; not quite every week due to various circumstances, but almost.

My favourites, I think, are:

The Gondolier - my first entry, and also my first drabble.

Delayed Reaction - received several nice comments and I was pleased with the subtlety I managed to evoke.

Frozen - short, and not very sweet. A new style of writing for me.

All of them have been fun, enabling me to experiment with content, style, form, tense and viewpoint in a way that I would never have done with full length stories. I'm looking forward to continuing next year in the build up to the Flash Fiction Workshop at Eastercon.

Market News

News on three short fiction markets this week:

UK magazine Fiction is having a major re-think and plans to return next year. The first two issues were in print, followed by three PDF issues, never quite managing their ultimate goal of becoming monthly. The fiction they've published so far has been of good quality, and fresh presentation made it fun to read. Let's hope they do manage a come-back next year.

Meanwhile I found two new markets of note on Duotropes:

Transmitter is the on-line magazine of Illusion TV, a US digital cable SF channel. It pays pro rates and could possibly be a replacement for the SciFi channel's own on-line zine that disappeared last year.

Wrong World appears to be an entirely new idea, as far as I can see. They plan to publish fiction exclusively on DVD, with each story given its own Twilight Zone style intro and conclusion voice over. The DVDs can be bought or rented and they're paying pro rates plus royalties to authors. It's a brave new idea and will be interesting to see how it develops.

Post-Apocalyptic Musings

Friday’s story X Factory was what’s often called post-Apocalyptic fiction. You may have noticed though that there’s no mention in my little tale of why the remnants of humanity are forced to live in underground caves. They’re circulating air from somewhere, so there’s presumably not radioactive or biological contamination to worry about. There’s also a low level of technology, so presumably there wasn’t time to set up much infrastructure.

The fact is, I don’t know what happened, and for this story it doesn’t really matter. In flash fiction there’s only time to make one point. This week’s story will also be post-Apocalyptic, by coincidence. This time the world is frozen and there’s mention of a dust-laden atmosphere. Was that caused by nuclear fallout? Meteor impact? Volcanic eruption? Again, that’s not the point of the story so it doesn’t really matter.

I’ve read a couple of short stories in recent months where the author likes to go into detail about how man ravaged the environment and brought disaster on himself. Global warming, extinct animals, atmospheric pollution, general gloom and doom. The problem is, it’s often irrelevant to the plot and I can watch the news if I want to be depressed. I like my fiction to be a diversion. If your story is based around the melting of the arctic ice caps, I don’t need a moralistic lecture thrown in too.

The Postman is one of my favourite novels. I’m pretty sure David Brin does explain what led to the post-apocalyptic setting of the story, but in a novel you’ve got plenty of room to do that without making it too blatant. Interestingly though, I don’t remember what the explanation was. I just remember what a brilliant story it was. The exploits of the Postman didn’t depend on why it had happened, he was just coping with the consequences.

I may try some apocalyptic fiction next. They’re the stories where you get to describe and explain the end of the world. I just need to think of some totally bizarre way of destroying the Earth…