catching up

The past three weeks have been hectic, and my weekly Thursday Twitterfic lapsed during this period, but as it happens a bunch of my twitter stories hit the web so here are links to them:

There are two stories, here and here, on Thaumatrope, and a pico story on Outshine.

During Easter my poem “Exchange” went live on the fabulous Goblin Fruit.

Finally, issue 10 of British horror magazine Black Static is now on sale, and it contains my short story “Vic”.

I had a brilliant time at Eastercon in Bradford. I thoroughly enjoyed all the panels I was on, and moderated tightly for the two I shepherded. Generally, I enjoyed the other panels I attended, but they highlighted to me that a sharp moderator is an essential component to their success.

Much of Eastercon is about socialising: meeting old friends and forging new relationships. So much of my daily interactions are online that it’s common for me to know people in a virtual fashion long before I meet them in person. At Eastercon I managed to connect with a number of people I’ve only known previously via email and web sites. One of my personal highlights was catching up with Ian MacLeod, one of my instructors at Clarion West.

It’s also a timely mention since I’ve just heard that Ian won the Arthur C. Clarke Award this evening for his novel Song of Time. Congratulations Ian!

I also got to see one of Ireland’s best-selling – and most under-recognised – writers in action: Eoin Colfer. He’s writing a new book in the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, titled And Another Thing….

Since the Adams’ books are much beloved by fans I suspect Colfer anticipated a grilling at the convention. Except, Colfer was so charming – in an unassuming, witty, and honest fashion – that it was impossible to imagine he was part of some conspiracy to plunder the Hitchhiker world. At this point I plan on obtaining the new book, so I can see what Colfer brings to the series.

The following weekend I was in Dublin for events themed around Dracula, as part of Dublin City Council’s One Book, One City celebrations. A long time ago I examined Bram Stoker’s Dracula as part of my M.A. thesis, so I’m pretty familiar with the novel. Much to my delight I received a gift of The New Annotated Dracula, edited by Leslie S. Klinger, while I was in Dublin. It’s a fantastic – if weighty – text, and a must-buy for any Dracula devotee.

I attended a lively and fascinating talk hosted by Leah Moore and John Reppion about their forthcoming comic book adaptation, The Complete Dracula. I’ve already ordered this from my local comics shop, but after listening to the process involved in adapting the book to a graphic format I’m even more eager to read the final product.

The following day I was in conversation with Kim Newman in front of a public audience at the IFI regarding film adaptations of Dracula, as part of its weekend season of Dracula and vampire films. I enjoyed the dialogue very much, partly because it prompted me to do a lot of advance research (my favourite kind of chore), and also because I learned a great deal from the exchange.

Since then I’ve been trying to catch up with my work. These breaks are wonderful, but also exhausting, and always there is a backlog to tackle upon my return.