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end of summer round-up
I’ve never had such a long gap between blog posts before, I guess that means I’ve been busy. Time to herd some news stories across the prairies. I sold my sf-horror story, “Empty Mind Came Back With the Pearl”, to M-Brane SF a while ago. It will appear in issue 9. I’m delighted this story will get to an audience. I wrote it at Clarion West, during the week Nalo Hopkinson was our teacher. She described it as the love child of Clive Barker and Brian Aldiss I believe. I’m co-writing a three-issue comic book, called Róisín Dubh, with Rob Curley of Atomic Diner publications, and the fabulous Sub City…
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a weekend of speculation
My weekend was spent in the company of funny, intelligent people who like to discuss speculative fiction. Best of all my Clarion West classmate, Julie McGalliard, and her husband Paul Carpentier turned up for two evenings. I’d met them in Galway on Thursday and guided them on a brief tour of the more interesting parts of the medieval city. They managed to squeeze in loads more sightseeing in their remaining days in Ireland, and make time to hang out with friends at Octocon. The lacklustre organisation of the convention didn’t impinge upon me very much because I wasn’t involved in the running of the event, and from my past experiences…
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books to read and TV to watch
While at Octocon at the weekend I had the chance to catch up with friends, and participate on several panel discussions. It was an enjoyable convention: relaxed, friendly, and with a good buzz. I bought the latest book by the supremely talented Michael Carroll, one of the guests of the convention. It’s the second novel in his New Heroes trilogy, and it’s called Sakkara. Attentive readers might remember me praising the first book, The Quantum Prophecy, back in the mists of time known as January. I’m going to be away for a number of days of intensive writing, and all I’m bringing with me are my laptop, sketchpad, and Sakkara…
