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Irish Comics News Awards 2014
The 4th Annual Irish Comic News Awards has opened for voting, and I’ve been nominated in two categories: Best Irish Writer Published Outside of Ireland Best Irish Creator Comic Published Outside of Ireland Both of these nominations are for my work on Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland, which I co-wrote with Kim Newman, with art by Tyler Crook, coloured by Dave Stewart, covers by Julian Totino Tedesco, lettered by Clem Robins, and edited by Scott Allie. All set in the Hellboy universe created by Mike Mignola, and published by Dark Horse Comics. Creating comics is a collaborative activity, and of course I’m deeply indebted to everyone on the team for making such a terrific comic book. Voting…
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Think of a City collaboration
Think of a City is a very cool on-going mass storytelling project told page by page by artists and writers from around the world. It’s essentially an exquisite corpse project that’s the brainchild of Alison Sampson and Ian MacEwan. Here’s a description: Our project is an opportunity for creators to bring the background to the forefront, and to delve into ideas of setting, place, design, geography, politics, architecture, materiality, mise-en-scène and much more besides, within storytelling. It will take time. Comics provide linear stories, but the urban environment is something different: non linear, multi-layered, complex, communal. We’d like to prove that cities are so much more than cityscapes. Every place…
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D.I.C.E. 2014
This weekend the third Dublin International Comics Expo (D.I.C.E) is taking place in Pembroke Square, Dundrum Town Centre, Co. Dublin, and I’m delighted to be attending as a guest. It’s the first time I’ve been able to go to D.I.C.E – I was out of the country for both previous events – so I’m looking forward to checking it out. The convention is featuring a ton of fantastic guests from Ireland, the UK, and the USA, including talent scouts from Marvel, DC, and 2000AD who will be conducting portfolio reviews. Plus, there will be panel discussions at the Screen 2 of Movies@Dundrum on a variety of topics. Here’s my schedule:…
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dangling
One of the aspects of being a writer that you have to come to terms with eventually is waiting. You send off a story to a magazine, and then you wait to find out if they will take it. You send in your edits and then you wait to hear if they are acceptable. You pitch a project, and then you wait to hear if they liked it. You enter a competition, or apply for a grant, and then you wait to find out if you’ll get it. And there is a definite correlation between long much you want something and how long you’ll have to wait to hear if…
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Journey Planet 15
The latest edition of the fanzine, Journey Planet, is online (issue 15). It’s edited by Hugo-Award-Winners Christopher J Garcia and James Bacon per usual, but half the issue is guest-edited by writer Lynda E. Rucker, and is termed ‘The Write Stuff’. That section is devoted to conversations with writers about the ins and outs of their profession, and includes people like Mike Carey, Lauren Beukes, Gail Carriger, Robin Hobb, and Seanan McGuire answering questions about some of their high and low points. I have a short piece in it called ‘From Fan to Con-runner to Writer – different experiences of conventions.’ Lynda asked me to write specifically on this subject,…
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Clarion West Write-a-thon 2012
In 2006 I attended the residential writing workshop called Clarion West, and can attest to it being a force for good as well as instrumental in my progression as a writer. This year’s workshop is now taking place in Seattle, and many of the CW alumni and teachers are setting writing goals for this period, and asking for sponsorship. We call this fund-raising drive the Clarion West Write-a-thon. All money from the fund-raiser goes to Clarion West – a non-profit educational organisation – so they can continue their excellent work. My goal during this period is to write ten short stories. I’m already writing story one. If you have the…
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2011 Shirley Jackson Awards Short-list
For the past six months I’ve been serving on the jury of the Shirley Jackson Awards. It’s been time-consuming and far more work than I anticipated, but it’s also been richly rewarding. I’ve enjoyed reading extensively across the fields of dark fantasy and horror, I’ve discovered new authors, and developed a deeper appreciation for firm favourites. At last, the 2011 Shirley Jackson Awards Nominees has been announced: NOVEL The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock (Doubleday) The Dracula Papers, Reggie Oliver (Chômu Press) The Great Lover, Michael Cisco (Chômu Press) Knock Knock, S. P. Miskowski (Omnium Gatherum Media) The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan (Canongate Books, Ltd.) Witches on the Road…
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but women don’t want to write superhero comics…
I attended the British Fantasy Society‘s annual conference, FantasyCon, in Brighton at the beginning of the month. The weather was glorious and everyone was in good form. Being able to eat outside every evening, like I was holidaying in Spain or Italy, added to my enjoyment of the event. Brighton is a cool city, and it’s a wonderful location for an convention like this (roll on World Fantasy Con in Brighton in 2013 I say!). The event ended on a bit of sour note, alas, due to a controversy over the administration of the BFS Awards at the end of the conference. The BFS has since posted an official statement…
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The Shirley Jackson Awards 2011
I’m pleased to be able to announce that I’ve been asked to be a member of the jury for The Shirley Jackson Awards 2011. The Shirley Jackson Awards were established in 2007 to recognise outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic. Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) wrote such classic novels as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as well as one of the most famous short stories in the English language, “The Lottery.” My fellow jurors this year are: Laird Barron, Matthew Cheney, Kaaron Warren and Gary K. Wolfe. The administrator of the Awards is JoAnn Cox. The rules…
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Womanthology
I’m sure many of you reading this blog have heard about the Womanthology project: it’s the brainchild of artist Renae De Liz, and is an all-woman anthology comic book that will be published by IDW Publishing this December, with all proceeds going to the charity, Global Giving Foundation. You can read a long interview at Bleeding Cool with Renae about the project and its evolution. With the aim of raising $25,000 Renae set up a Kickstarter campaign for the project, and by the end of the first day that goal had been achieved. Now, with just five days to go until the campaign ends, the amount of money pledged stands…
