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alien earth
There are lots of lifeforms on the planet which have that touch of the weird and alien about them. The ocean and the insect world are teeming with them. But among the plant world there are plenty of odd specimen, and as regular readers of my blog know I love to photograph fungi. We’re past the mushroom season, alas so I’ll have to wait until August/September before I can capture their odd glory again, but in the meantime there are always lichens! Here’s a lovely duo I photographed recently. Due to all the storms we’ve experienced lately there are tons of branches and trees knocked down in the woods I…
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picture palace
Here’s a photo I took on Saturday in Galway of the newly-constructed Picture Palace in the city centre. It’s a three-screen art cinema, that will also have a café, bar, film/art book and dvd shop, and an online film archive facility. This has been a long, much-anticipated project, and is the perfect fit for a bohemian city that has a university and a technical institute that both teach a variety of film courses. Of course, as a film buff I’m delighted at the prospect of getting a better variety of screenings of foreign and indie films in Galway. I don’t know when the cinema will open this year, but I…
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magnificent skies
Winter and early Spring can feel like a grim sentence in Ireland, especially as we ride out an exceptionally wet couple of months. Yet, on occasion the slow change of the season makes itself felt with a longer, dry day and beautiful skies. The one thing about being on the edge of the Atlantic is we get amazing cloudscapes at times and wonderful sunsets. And even when storms threaten, the view can be both awe-inspiring and scary. Nature can be a terrible beast, but sometimes she kisses you gently after your mauling.
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tea for one
I had lunch on my own recently (a regular occurrence, sometimes I’m even good company) in Ard Bia in Galway. It’s a popular eatery so it can be difficult to get a table there, but I arrived at the end of the lunch rush and secured a spot. The water for my tea arrived piping hot, so I took a couple of shots with my camera to capture the steam wafting off the china cup. One of the things I like about Ard Bia is its eclectic decorations, and the fact that it uses a mix of crockery. It’s always lovely to have a teapot of loose tea, a strainer,…
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love you x 4
Odious, cynical commercial enterprise, or lovely appreciation for the loved ones in your life… opinions are divided about St. Valentine’s Day. I’ve never been one for fluffy hearts and twee poems, but I do believe in acknowledging the people in my life who buoy me up in good and bad times. Back in the day the Greeks described four distinct categories for love: agape, eros, philia, and storge. Agape: a purer, spiritual love that can be applied in the abstract to humanity or divinities. Eros: denotes passionate, intense desire, from which springs the word erotic (Greek erotikos). Philia: it entails a fondness and appreciation of friends, loyalties to family, and…
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La Femme Noir
I’m pleased to announce that my short story ‘Valerie’ has been accepted by Ian Whates at NewCon Press to be part of the forthcoming anthology titled La Femme. It’s being launched at Eastercon in Glasgow, at 6.00 pm on 18 April, along with its paired anthology, Noir. There will be a paperback and hardback edition of both books. There are twenty five stories across the two volumes, and it’s wonderful to be in such good company (I’ll leave it to Ian to announce the ToC officially before I name names). The anthologies should be available to pre-order shortly.
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water analysed
In Black Static #21 my flash story ‘Water’ was published – you can read it online on my web site. A short time later writer Ray Cluley wrote me a very kind email telling me how much he enjoyed the story. It was the type of helpful message that keeps a writer going during the rough patches. Today on This is Horror Ray has written a column about the story, and he invited me to add a few words about writing it. My thanks to Ray for spotlighting the tale, and for his thoughtful exegesis.
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Women Can Jump
I’m not particularly into winter sports, but today I discovered a fact that will have me tuning into today’s Women’s Ski Jump at the Sochi Olympics. This is the first Olympics where women are allowed to compete in the Ski Jump competition. Let’s just consider that, shall we. It was only in 2011 that the Olympics committee gave women the right to participate in a sport that men have been competing in since 1924. Of course, nothing changed until 15 female jumpers from five countries sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the right to compete in the 2010 Winter Games. Which failed because the Canadian court decided it couldn’t impose…
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Jennifer Wilde short story
Last night Rob Curley at Atomic Diner officially announced that he’s doing an anthology of short comic book stories from within his shared universe of characters, which will be hosted online. They should be going up during this summer. I’ve written the Jennifer Wilde story, and I’m very pleased to be working with Leeann Hamiliton, an Irish artist whose work I’ve admired for some time. The best thing about these online stories is that they will be in full colour. What I’ve seen of Leeann’s work already looks fantastic. The above picture is a panel in which Jennifer is looking a little sceptical. This story takes place between her adventure…
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roiling
The sun will be engulfed. But it continues to shine behind the interposing veil.
