Story Sale: Rose Coloured Tentacles

My flash fiction story Rose Coloured Tentacles has been bought by Perihilion, the second story they've taken from me. They published my multi-author collaboration Crowd Control last year.

This is my 6th acceptance of the year, which I'm very pleased with, following second-time sales to Domain SF and Daily SF, as well as translations into German and Afrikaans. I still have quite a few stories out there looking for homes though.

Writing, With Children

Today my guest post about writing with children (after all, I have 5) is up on the blog of fellow author Spencer Ellsworth .

Take a look and see what you think.

Science Fiction in Translation

It’s generally recognised that far more English SF is translated and published in other countries than SF written in other languages is translated and published in English. I’ve now been published in 26 languages, and at the same time I’ve been on the lookout for translated science fiction.



There are occasional translated stories in some magazines, and there are equally rare anthology. Two years ago I reviewed The Anthology of European SF for SF Crowsnest, in which I discovered that, although written by authors from several countries, there was nothing startlingly different from what I usually read. To be fair, one story from each country doesn’t really give me a basis to judge an entire culture.



There are a few anthologies available from particular countries and I’m currently reading The Best  Japanese SF. There are also some novels in translation, notably the recent translation of the hugely popular Three Body Problem trilogy from China, which I’ve added to my ‘to read’ list. I’m planning to get hold of as much translated work as I can, and I’ll be interested to see how SF from around the world compares and whether geographical culture outweighs SF culture enough to be recognisable.



 

 
 

Ten Years Ago In Fiction

Ten years ago, I'd just had my 2nd, 3rd and 4th stories published - all accepted by the first markets I subbed to, a trend that lulled me into a false sense of security, but inspired me with confidence to carry on writing. Both were non-paying exposure markets, and both are still going strong today: Aphelion and Bewildering Stories.



Fluctuations, in BWS #139 in March 2005 remains one of my favourite stories. It was reprinted in one of their 'Best of' summary issues in July 2005, my first reprint. A revised version was published in the anthology Quantum Genre on the Planet of Arts in November 2010, and earned me a footnote in Wikipedia in the article on quantum genre.


Devotion was my second story in BWS in April 2005.



The Grey Hole, in Aphelion #91 in April 2005, was the first of 8 appearances I made in that webzine, and one of a very few attempted 'hard SF' stories. It was a wonderfully friendly place, the first on-line forum I joined, and I remain in touch with some of the regulars still. The Grey Void was the first sequel I wrote and appeared in Aphelion #102 the following year.

The Final Continent

I've been published in Europe, Australia, Asia, North and South America, and finally one of my stories has been published in Africa: the Afrikaans translation of The Gondolier, on the wezine Afrifiksie.

Only Antarctica remans unconquered...

EasterCon Report 2015

It's 8 years since my first EasterCon in Chester, and I noticed this time that there's been a big change in demographics during that time. I met up with another first-timer at Chester and we seemed to be the only men who weren't middle-aged, bushy-bearded, pony tailed and sporting a waistcoat. Nowadays there are much more younger people of all different backgrounds and it seems much less insular than when I first attended.



I met up with several people I know from real-life or on-line, most of whom I only ever see at cons, and some of whom I met for the first time:



Gareth L Powell, who I first met on-line almost 10 years ago, Aliette de Bodard, Mike and Sarah Wood, Neil and Gemma Beynon, Ian Whates, Ian Watson, whom I overtook in a corridor, Chris Priest, Nina Allen, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and his wife whose name I didn't catch but I stood next to at the bar buying a sandwich, Daniel Benson and Guido Eekhart whose name badges I saw in passing and by the time their names had registered I'd lost sight of them, Kim Lakin-Smith, and plenty of others I saw in the distance.



Best presentation I attended was entitled 'Unfortunate Incidents Involving Balloons and Parachutes', which was a highly entertaining history of heroic accidents and tragedies. I'm hoping the same talk will be on again next year.

Daily Science Fiction Sale

I'm rather pleased to have sold a second story to Daily Science Fiction - my 9th pro sale altogether. I'm not sure when it will be scheduled to appear yet, but should be within a few months. It's a 1500 word story entitled Englebert that I wrote in January.

EasterCon Approaches

One week to go. I've had a look at the programme and found a few interesting items to attend, partially arranged to meet some fellow authors, and vaguely planned my route...

One Thousand Posts

Shockingly, this is my 1000th post on the blog. Over 9 years worth of waffle.  My rate of posting has diminished significantly over the past few years as the focus of my writing has changed, but I still find time to add the odd item here occasionally.

Naked Mole Rats Are Cool

I was standing at the sink washing some dishes one day, thinking of obscure titles for stories, and I came up with one that sounded awesome: The Righteous Indignation of the Naked Mole Rat.

It took a few days, but I came up with a story to go with the title and wrote it in 3000 words. You can now read it on line at Domain SF.