Wed, 02 June 2010 Stop
To quote Ferris from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (written by the late, great John Hughes): “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. ”
Today I stopped long enough to capture the above picture of the Burren Mountains in Co. Clare, as seen from Kinvara in Co. Galway.
The good weather is supposed to hold for at least a week. I hope my friends in Ireland enjoy the forthcoming holiday weekend with bonus summer sunshine (enjoy it while we have it!).
Black Static, issue 17, has been sent to the printers, and you can expect to see it around June 11th. The cover is by Ben Baldwin.
The first group of ten winners from the Campaign for Real Fear will be published in this issue:
As well as the following stories:
- ‘Faces in Walls’ by John Shirley, illustrated by Ben Baldwin
- ‘Zombie Cabana Boy’ by Suzanne Palmer, illustrated by Dave Senecal
- ‘Three-Legged Bird’ by Vylar Kaftan, illustrated by Ben Baldwin
- ‘The Lady in the Tigris’ by Daniel Kaysen, illustrated by Rik Rawling
The issue will also contain feedback and analysis by Chris Fowler and myself about the Campaign, plus columns by Pete Tennant, Stephen Volk and Tony Lee.
Make sure you subscribe or order your copy early!
I’ve been working on the web site redevelopment of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild for a long time. I do a lot of web-related work for the Guild, including managing all of its social media outlets, which every organisation needs to maintain these days. A big job like a web site overhaul requires large periods of allocated concentration, and that’s been problematic in regards to divvying up my few resources. Working with advocacy organisations means you’re always scraping the pan for those last scraps of funding, and this year the Guild absorbed several funding cuts: there is nothing lurking at the bottom of that pot now.
Still, I’m glad the major part of the work is done now, and I’m pleased with what I accomplished.
Over the past few weeks I’ve felt like that moment when you’re standing in the ocean, up to your neck, and you see a big wave racing at you. You know it’s going to lift you off your feet, so you can only hope to embrace it, perhaps enjoy it a little, and hope that there will be less chop afterwards. This particular wave has been moving toward me for a long, relentless period. I’m tired, but relieved it has passed – although I’m still churning a little in its wake. I have a lot of personal projects that need my attention now, and I hope to clear the time during the summer to focus on them.
And maybe splash about in the shallows if I can.
I’m not great at taking time off. I’m always thinking about the next project, the unwritten story, the household chores that now need attention, etc. I seem to believe that free time is just an opportunity to tackle another task that’s in the queue. There is nothing wrong with having a good work ethic, but there’s nothing wrong with relaxing on occasion.
I’m a fan of the ambient Psychedelic trance music group Shpongle. One of their songs on their last album is called “Nothing is Something Worth Doing”. I may have to crank that song up to 11 and blast it on repeat until I learn not to feel guilty about downtime.
I thought I’d finish by mentioning a workshop in Dublin that I thought some of my readers might be interested in taking. One of the things I do is monitor the screen/play/writing industry for competitions and courses that Guild members might find useful. As a result I trip across other items, such as the “Brave New Worlds” speculative fiction writing workshop that’s being facilitated by the Big Smoke Writing Factory this Sunday, 30 May.
It costs €120 for the full day, and features the following teachers:
- Writer Conor Kostick on Sci-fi Themes Vs Characters
- Writer A.J. Healy on World-Building
- Writer Sarah Rees Brennan on Urban fantasy
- Critic Sorcha Ni Fhlainn on Horror and the gothic
- Writer and editor John Kenny on the Business of Getting Published
I’m familiar with most of the tutors, either personally or via their work, and I suspect this would be a useful workshop for anyone who is interested in writing science fiction, fantasy or horror.
This weekend the Bristol International Comic & Small Press Expo is taking place and I can’t attend, alas.
Luckily, my compatriots in crime, Rob Curley and Stephen Daly, will be at Bristol, giving away preview issues of Róisín Dubh. Drop by the Atomic Diner stand, say hello to them and claim your copy!
As long as the Icelandic Ash Miasma doesn’t change direction of course. It’s like a fickle supervillian who specialises in ruining holidays. “Ha! You are grounded! Fear my engine-clogging abilities! Cry over your unsigned collectible art!”
I’m inundated with work at the moment, and tomorrow I have to attend the AGM of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild, so it’s impossible for me to spare the time. Hopefully next year I’ll be able to go.
Last week screenwriter, author, comic book writer and cricket fanatic, Paul Cornell, gave Róisin a shout-out on his blog. I forced a copy of the preview issue on Paul at World Horror Convention in Brighton. His first comment as he flipped through it was to congratulate me on the lack of too much writing (in the form of story captions and dialogue) on the page.
I certainly took that as a compliment because one of my goals on later drafts of the scripts was to eliminate unnecessary dialogue or captions, and to ensure what remained delivered the right punch. Plus, once I started seeing Stephen’s gorgeous artwork I hated the idea of covering it up behind too many speech balloons. Still, it’s a balance. Sometimes what is “spoken” is critical.
I’m still in good form after yesterday’s news, and thanks to everyone who congratulated me. There are so many rejections, dismissals and difficult disappointments in this business that’s it’s brilliant to know that one of my stories resonated with others. Now, back to work!
Horror editor Paula Guran has announced the Table of Contents for the Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010, which is being published by Prime Books in October.
I’m delighted to confirm that my short story “Vic” has been selected for the anthology.
“Vic” was first published in Black Static, issue 10, so a big thank you to editor Andy Cox for taking a chance with the story.
It’s a thrill to see my story listed in the company of so many writers whose work I admire.
The anthology will be 500+ pages featuring 38 stories (about 250,000 words) so there will be plenty to read. Quite appropriately the volume will be dedicated to Ellen Datlow.
The cover has not been finalised yet, but this is the current image.
CZP has announced the winner of its Cities of Night photograph contest: the evocative “Dark Passenger” by Ania Bibulowicz. The image was shot in Queens, New York City.
My photo “Soho Ghost” was selected as one of the three runners-up, so I’ll still get a trade paperback of the book.
Plus, author Philip Nutman liked all the images so much he wrote a a piece of flash fiction for each of the top ten entries.
This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day in Ireland. Free Comic Book Day started in the USA in 2002, and as the name implies, is a day when participating retailers hand out copies of comic books to their customers for free.
Here is the list of shops involved in Irish Free Comic Book Day:
There will be five titles available:
Each person can get one copy of the free titles available – on a first-come first-served basis of course! So drop into one of these fine establishment this Saturday and find out what’s happening in the Irish comic book scene.
I finished the final draft of the last chapter of Róisin Dubh this week, and while I’m sure I’ll be doing some further polishing, it was kind of sad to come of the end of the first volume. I’ve had a lot of fun with the project. Hopefully I’ll be taking Róisín on more adventures in the future.
I can now mention that my photograph, entitled “Soho Ghost”, is a top ten finalist in the Cities of Night contest, being run by ChiZine Publications.
The contest was created to celebrate the release of Philip Nutman’s short story collection Cities of Night, and the brief was to supply a subtle, creepy, evocative photo of a city at night.
Since May 6 CZP began announcing the finalists, one per day, and my photo “Soho Ghost” went up last night. The overall winner will be announced on May 15, Cities of Night’s official launch date.
The winner receives:
- A free, signed, limited edition hardcover copy of Cities of Night
- Twenty-five postcards with their photo on one side and on the other a flash fiction story specifically written for the photo by Philip Nutman
- Their photo and story on the CZP website
I’m genuinely pleased to get into the top ten, and since the competition is tough I’ve no expectations of my image being picked as the overall winner.
I took the photo in the Café Nero in Soho in London that stays open until the wee hours of the night. I consider it a mark of civilisation if a city has coffee shops that are open after midnight, and it’s a rare phenomenon in Ireland and the UK. I love to go to cafés late, drink a naughty coffee and watch people come and go. Because of its location in Soho there is never a shortage of interesting sights to behold.
Martin and I sat by the window, and I put my camera on the counter and took photos using a long exposure through the glass. When I got home I saw this ghostly image of a man striding out of the crossroads. All I did was change the contrast and add a sepia tone. Otherwise there’s not much photoshoppery going on.
When I heard about the competition I immediately thought about this photograph, and on a whim I decided to submit it. I’m glad I did!
A year and a half ago I started a project to migrate my blog onto Wordpress. This past week I got a tiny gap between projects that allowed me to turn my attention back to it, and the results are now live. I didn’t have much time to dedicate to the re-design, but I’m pleased with the results.
As usual I owe a debt of gratitude to my husband Martin, who tackled the the most difficult job: the importing of six years of posts and comments from my old content management system, Bblog. He also added a couple of tweaks that will be entirely uninteresting to most people, but are very important to me. Buddha is in the details after all.
I’ve been working with Wordpress installations for a number of years now, so it’s been a drag not to be able to use it on my own site. It’s been a factor in my lack of blogging, since Bblog is feature-poor at this point.
The re-fit has also prompted me to Spring clean the web site and ensure it contains more up-to-date information on what I’m doing. Most importantly, it’s easier for me to maintain. I’m also testing the cross-posting facility for LiveJournal. Feel free to continue to post comments on LJ if that’s what you prefer.
It’s gorgeous in Ireland today. The blossom petals are blowing like confetti on the country roads and I’m off to a friend’s house for dinner. I’m bringing cake and a bottle of Cava. Might as well celebrate. 
Christopher Fowler and I have announced the winning stories in the Campaign for Real Fear. It’s been a great deal of work, but we were determined to select the winners in a timely fashion.
Due to the large number of entries, and the high calibre of the final group of submissions, Chris and I have decided to select twenty winning stories.
You will be able to read the first batch of ten stories in the June issue (#17) of Black Static followed by the second batch of ten stories in the August issue (#18), and they will be podcast by Action Audio.
Top Twenty
- ‘Copy Degradation’ by Gemma Files; Canada
- ‘In The Night Supermarket’ by James Burt; UK
- ‘Nice One, Truly’ by Alan Morgan; UK
- ‘On The Beaten Path’ by Janos Honkonen; Finland
- ‘Sanctuary’ by Katherine Hughes; UK
- ‘The Price’ by Jennifer Williams; UK
- ‘The Rude Little Girl’ by Kaaron Warren; Australia
- ‘This Is Mung’ by Christine Emmett; South Africa
- ‘The Flinchfield Dance’ by Mary Elizabeth Burroughs; Australia
- ‘Shades of Blue’ by Catherine MacLeod; Canada
- ‘Infected With Death’ by John Fagan; UK
- ‘The Exchange’ by Eileen Chao; USA
- ‘Under The Microscope’ by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt; USA
- ‘See You Later’ by M. M. De Voe; USA
- ‘Showtime’ by James Carroll; Australia
- ‘Hounded’ by Christina Koh; UK
- ‘Big Brother, Little Sister’ by Sam Fleming; UK
- ‘Cuckoo’ by Lorraine Slater; UK
- ‘Dreadless’ by Anna Rogala; UK
- ‘Give Me More Eyes for Nakedness’ by Paul Synnott; UK
Honourable Mentions
Congratulations to the winners for writing such memorable stories!
We’re saddened we couldn’t take more, which is why we listed seven honourable mentions. There were several other strong contenders we had to put aside with a great deal of regret.
We received a range of work from first-time writers through to seasoned professionals. Our final group represents a spectrum of experience as well as showcasing the variety of talent writing modern horror fiction.
Our feedback and analysis of the competition will appear in the June issue of Black Static, and afterwards we will publish it on our blogs.
