Accountability Accepted

My short story Accountability - a kind of literary / science fiction / urban fantasy tale - has been accepted by Hybrid Fiction and is scheduled to be published in April.


This story started out as an attempt to write something Claire-Northesque after reading Claire North's astounding novels The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, 84K, Touch and The Sudden Appearance of Hope.

Book Review: The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham

When I decided to jot down my initial impressions of John Birmingham’s ‘The Cruel Stars’, I was surprised to find myself half-way through the 480 page book already. This was not because I had been reading particularly fast but because I didn’t feel like much had yet happened.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Observed Again

Following on from the wonderfully-read versions of Escapades in Time and The Righteous Indignation of the Naked Mole Rat, I'm thrilled that Observers is also to receive the Podcast treatment at Tall Tale TV.

Observers was first published at Emerging Worlds and has appeared in Galician at Nova Fantasia. This new audio version will be available in June.

Three Occitan Tales

Rather excitingly, three of my stories have been accepted for publication by Diu Negre, a website of science fiction, fantasy and horror in  Occitan.




The three stories to be translated are The Gondolier, Englebert and The Righteous Indignation of the Naked Mole Rat.




Occitan will be my 28th published language.


The Gondolier, being the shortest, is up first and you can read it here.

Neon Yeti

Long-running UK literary magazine Neon has accepted my non-prose story Expenses Claim for Snowdonia Bigfoot Expedition. I'm really excited to see how this will look in print as it's a decidedly unusual format.

Galician Observers

My short story Observers, recently published in Emerging Worlds, has been accepted by Galician webzine Nova Fantasia - my fourth story in Galician. They work pretty quickly at Nova Fantasia, so you can read it here already!

Magazines Review: Visions #2: Visions of Humanity

The second issue of Visions magazine landed on the doormat with a solid thud: a chunky, serious-looking magazine of 256 pages in red, black and white with monochrome illustrations, innovative fonts and unconventional layout. I had been very impressed with the first single-themed issue when it came out earlier in the year, so I was intrigued to see what this second volume would bring under the title Visions Of Humanity.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

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.

Book Review: Radicalized by Cory Doctorow

Don’t you hate it when technology tells you what to do? My car keeps telling me what gear to change into. It’s so annoying! If I wanted my car to tell me what gear to change into I’d have bought an automatic! I know how to drive a car without being told what gear to change into!

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

The Gondolier Reprint: Ligurian

The Ligurian, or Genovese, translation of The Gondolier appeared on the website Genoves a few years back, but the website has since vanished. Here's the translation again.

O Gondolê

A neigra proa da mæ gondola a se fava stradda spedia tra e carme ægoe di canæ. A luxente barca a l'aveiva filòu pe tanti anni, pe portâ i pasagê atraverso i corsci d'ægoa da çitæ, goidâ da-e man de generaçioin di mæ antighi.

O sô o calava in sciâ çitæ vegia, e o rendeiva l'ægoa 'n frexetto d'inciòstro desteizo tramezo a-i eleganti palaççi de pria. Ò respiòu profondamente a fresca brixa da seia.

Gh'ea miga 'n pòsto ciù bèllo che questa mâvegiôza çitæ di canæ? Mentre a barca a s'avixinava a l'òrmézzo, me son fermòu a amiâ de d'ato, sodisfæto, o fâ da seia in scî çê de Marte.

  

Translated by Alan Gazzano