It’s December! I’ve already done one Christmas party, and one Christmas Chocolate Wreath Workshop (at the fabulous Cocoa Amore in Leicester). My Secret Santa gift is bought, and I am looking at the rest of my Christmas budget and thanking the stars I have an empty diary after New Year’s Day until Sci-Fi Weekender next year. I do have a bit of news for my fellow writers and a personal ask, but I’ll stick those at the end of this blog.
In the last couple of months, we’ve had such a brilliant time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to Fantasycon because I had the tail end of Covid – again – but I was so happy to make Bristolcon, and my uni friend, Yuki, looked after us in her home city!
At Bristolcon, I did three panels, but alas no photos! It was smashing to see all my pals and spend more time in Bristol – one of my favourite cities!
As well as Bristolcon, our travels have taken us to Manchester to see Deep Purple, supported by Reef, Nottingham Rock City to see They Might Be Giants, and the exotic land of Milton Keynes to see Crash Test Dummies, supported by Duke Spirit. And then I had to travel to Glasgow for something else – honestly, Christmas is going to be relatively relaxing in comparison. Okay, yes we have gigs with Tony Wright and Space booked in, but they’re down our local – we can at least stagger there and back!
As well as music, I also went to Milton Keynes for a bookish event last month – the launch of What We Leave Behind by Paul Eccentric – the latest in the Periwrinkle Perspective series by Paul Eccentric. Yet another fab night, topped off with entertainment by The Anti-Poet!
The comedy hiatus is still ongoing, though I did do a gig last week as a favour to a friend, and had so many members of the audience coming up to me to say how much they loved my set that I was positively floating home with my big balloon head, and wondering why I don’t just book a few more gigs in… and NO, stop encouraging me! I am BUSY. This month is planned down to the ‘nth’ detail already and I really can’t fit in anything else. Next year, maybe, maybe, maybe…
I’ve had a run of a few editing jobs, and I’m currently finishing up a substantive edit for the third book in an epic fantasy trilogy just as stories are starting to pour in for Vivid Worlds, the next science-fiction anthology that The Slab Press is publishing. So all my free time is going to be taken up with my bookish life in between doing all the Christmas things, gigs, and meeting friends and family. If you are a writer, and you have any solar punk or folk horror ambitions, please do check out our calls for submission page.
We will be launching Vivid Worlds at Eastercon in Belfast next year, but we have elected against running a stall at the convention.
And, it being that most wonderful time of the year, this is the time that lots of societies are asking for longlist recommendations for their awards, so my final ask to you is to remember the publications that I have been involved with, and please do nominate them if you have liked them.
Firstly, I would like to mention this wonderful anthology from Newcon Press, To the Stars and Back: Stories in Honour of Eric Brown. Lots of lovely stories in this one, some inspired by the man himself, others by his wonderful creations, such as the Kéthani. My story in this one is called “A Sea Change”, and it is original to this anthology, as are all the stories.
There will sadly be no Best of British Science Fiction 2024 next year, as we are taking a year off, but Best of British Science Fiction 2023 was published this year – it’s a reprint anthology of course, hence a few of the stories contained therein turned out to be award winners this year, such as Tim Major’s “The Brazen Head of Westinghouse” – but it remains eligible for some anthology/collection lists.
And finally, the big one for me because it’s from The Slab, is probably this one: Laughs in Space – an anthology of humorous science fiction. A new review has just appeared in ParSec #12, as it happens, in which Jack Deighton declares “Laughs in Space has more than enough hits to satisfy the jaundiced reviewer” and has especial praise for “Sundog4” by Alice Dryden from the anthology: “Very enjoyable. One might even say FAB.” Available from all good book stores, and even as Kindle Unlimited! If you like the artwork and wish to nominate that also, it is by Paul Alex Condie. I know many of you have found joy with this book – if you have, please do consider nominating it!
More writing is definitely happening next year. Currently replotting a historical fantasy-mystery, with hot calligraphy action! Well, maybe not…
