First Steampunk Contributor Anounced

I'm pleased to be able to reveal the first of the contributors to The Immersion Book of Steampunk: prolific short story author Paul Di Filipo.

We're pretty excited to have Paul on board. You can read the full anouncement at Immersion Press.

Other stories have arrived or are expected soon. Further anouncements will be forthcoming and the TOC will be confirmed in December.

Magazine Review: AltHist #1

It’s always a pleasure to see a new UK-based genre magazine being launched. AltHist is, as the name suggests, a magazine specialising in alternate history and historical fiction. There are very few markets that deal specifically with this subgenre, so it will be interesting to see how the magazine fares: are there enough people writing this kind of story and are there enough people reading it? I would think the answer to both is yes.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Graphic Novel Review: Air: Letters from Lost Countries

Before I start I should point out that I’m not an expert on graphic novels. In fact, I haven’t read one since TinTin and Asterix when I was a lad. I’ve been converted to an appreciation of the more mature version over the past couple of years by the fabulous Murky Depths magazine. So much so that I’ve written a couple of my own comic scripts and the first has been accepted for publication. Anyway, enough about me, this is about Air, a series written by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by M. K. Perker.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: The Nemesis List by R.J. Frith

The Nemesis List is the debut novel by R J Frith, the winning author of the ‘War of the Worlds’ competition run by SFX magazine. On discovering this fact my thoughts were that it could turn out to be a brilliant book by a previously undiscovered author, or a rather dire effort that was the best of a bad lot.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

One Week to BristolCon

Next weekend I'll be attending the second BristolCon, a small convention held in Bristol. I enjoyed EasterCon so much this year that I didn't want to wait until next Easter to get together with the other authors, artists, publishers and others who you can meet at cons.

I'm looking forward to another enjoyable day.

Half the Moons of Jupiter

I've been reading the latest issue of Jupiter magazine this week, entitled Hermippe after Jupiter's 30th moon. In his editorial, Ian Redman makes the point that when he started publishing the magazine, he thought 63 moons will be plenty. Now he's half way through them and the last dozen or so still haven't been named! Thirty issues is an impressive number for a small press magazine and I still enjoy reading each issue.

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.

Nature Proof

The galley proofs have arrived of World Wire Web, my story that is due to appear in Nature magazine. There's a fantastic illustration of a steampunk gadget to go with it. If the scheduling is the same as it was for my last story in Nature, then it should be appearing in the next couple of months.

Quantum Anthology

The anthology Quantum Genre on the Planet of Arts is to be published as an e-book by Paraphilia Books in the near future. The original publishers closed down last year some time, so although I'm disappointed not to be getting a physical copy of the book, I'm please that my story Fluctuations will be getting a second airing. This is a revised version of one of my earliest published stories and one that I've always been particularly proud of.

The Gondolier in Welsh

This is one of the first translations of The Gondolier that was done. It was under submission for a long time. I never heard back and it was overlooked until now, although I have included it in the Celtic polyglot version. So here it is, The Gondolier in the language of my relatives.

Y Gondolïwr


Torodd trwyn du fy ngondola yn esmwyth trwy ddŵr llonydd y gamlas. Roedd y llong lefn wedi fy ngwasanaethu’n dda am lawer blwyddyn, yn cludo teithwyr trwy ddyfrffyrdd y ddinas, dan ofal cenedlaethau o’m cyndadau.
Roedd yr haul yn machlud dros yr hen ddinas, yn troi’r dŵr yn ruban inciog rhwng yr adeiladau tywodfaen. Cymerais anadl ddofn o awel oeraidd yr hwyrnos.
Oes yna harddach le na’r ddinas ryfeddol yma yn llawn camlesi? Wrth i’r bad orffwys i’w hangor, syllais lan yn fodlon i wybren dduog Mawrth.

Y Diwedd



Translated by Lili Fach