News in Brief

Matters both personal and professional have kept me away from the Computerbank for the last while (and from most other things, come to think of it). But rest assured that normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

But here is the news in brief:

I have a few short stories slated for publication later on this year - Beneath the Arch of Knives is due in Arcane at some stage, Forged in Heaven, Tempered in Hell should be appearing in the Ricasso Press anthology Through Blood and Iron and And Other Such Delights will be included in the upcoming best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

The Great Writing Experiment is continuing on, albeit at a somewhat reduced pace, and I'm learning a lot about how to construct a long story (I hesitate to use the word novel just yet) by making a lot of mistakes and doing a lot - and I mean a lot - of rewriting.

And that's all the news that's fit to print for now.

RIP Fiction Blog

After debating the pro and cons of it, I've decided to get rid of my fiction blog. The reasons for this are fairly straightforward - firstly, it's been a while since I've had any new material to put onto the blog and, secondly, I've decided to publish a small e-collection of my work and am going to include some of these older stories.

The collection is more by way of an experiment in e-publishing than anything else, just to see if I can do it. Links to my other online fiction can still be found to the right.

And Other Such Delights for Best of BSC

Just recieved word from Scott Andrews at Beneath Ceaseless Skies that And Other Such Delights, which appeared in BSC last year, has been selected for inclusion in The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies: Year Two.

The e-anthology should be available in the autumn.

To say that I am rather pleased would be an understatement of sorts.

Getting Unlocked

The Great(ish) Fiction Experiment continues on apace, with my still as yet unnamed story up to 15,000 words, making it the longest piece of fiction that I have written so far (there's an unfinished novella that comes close though).

The mission statement for this has been fairly straightforward - to write 1,000 words of fiction every day regardless of its quality - and although real-life work sort of got in the way this week I've managed to stick fairly closely to the rules.
One of the things it has taught me - or rather retaught me - is how much fun writing can be when you just let yourself go. It's also helped to get my creativity flowing again, and I've been making loads of notes for new stories as well as thinking very strongly about how I can make the current untitled piece actually work as a decent piece of fiction (a lot of editing and rewriting is the relatively straight-forward answer).

But its also helped to focus a few thoughts that had hitherto been rather scattered if not downright fragmentary, mostly to do with the setting of the story which, currently, tales place in Thule Before The Ice - and will continue to do so - that until now was just a phrase in a notebook that kept coming back to haunt me.

I'm not entirely sure that I've completely gotten over my bout of writers' block, but I at least feel that I'm getting there.

Roll on the next 1,000 words.

The Great(ish) Fiction Experiment: Week 2

The second week of my attempt to write my way out of my recent bout of writers' block has begun.

So far I've managed to stick to the self-imposed rules of my Great(ish) Writing Experiment, producing no less than 1,000 words a day (except Sunday, when I decided I needed a break). In truth, I have written some terrible rubbish in the last week, but the rules dictate quantity over quality and hopefully some odd phrases have managed to glitter among the dreck.

For those who want to keep count I have written just over seven and a half thousand words of this still-as-yet unnamed tale about the warrior Xlaxas Duv and his quest to find Death.

One of the strange things about it is that the story started off as one thing and has morphed itself into another. Initially, the whole thing was vaguely patterned after Clark Ashton Smith's The Seven Geases but has started to become a little more Moorcockian as it has progressed (Xlaxas Duv has acquired a piratical sidekick who is a sort of Moonglum to his Elric, for instance) possibly because I've just finished reading Stormbringer once again.

It's also become clear that what I thought was going to be a short story has begun to change itself into something much longer if not necessarily more complex.

Thankfully, this is not intended for publication of any sort but rather is to help me get to grips once again with the mechanics of writing and - maybe more importantly - the habit of writing.

I've found myself actually looking forward to sitting down at the keyboard again and even starting to connect with the characters (cardboard cutouts though they are) in a way that hasn't happened for a while.

I still don't know what will happen next, or even if this literary experiment will help to get my creative flow back on course, but so far its been a blast.

And I can't wait to find out what happens next.

The Great(ish) Fiction Experiment: Day 3

On Monday I decided to try and cure my writer's block by employing the relatively straightforward method of writing any old crap that came into my head for the next week. The only rule for this experiment is that I have to write 1,000 words a day - I can write more if the mood and muse take me, but certainly no less.

On Tuesday morning I sat down and wrote the following words:

"Alvannah is gone, and with her any reason I may have left for remaining in Salmu Alu, the Black City. Gone, too, is any reason for continuing to live - for what is life without her? - but I am determined to sell my life as dearly as poss ible, among the abominations of the Flint Wastes and Rippling Mountains and in the embrace of death I may know peace and in oblivion may find once again my beloved Alvannah"
So wrote the warrior Xlaxas Duv, champion of Salmu Alu, before his departure from that great city."

So far I have written nearly 3,900 words of this nameless and somewhat rambling tale, making stuff up as I go along and doing my level headed best not to worry too much about literary quality, strained metaphors or overly complex character motivation.

I have been having a ball doing it.

So far, Xlaxas Duv has faced three sorcerors (one good, one bad and the other fairly indifferent) a group of shape-shifting warbeasts and is currently on his way to the First City of Calgorum in order to confront the Golden Breed. He has discovered that Alvannah awaits him on the other side of the Veil of Life but that if he dies before fulfilling certain mystical criteria then he will be doomed to wander through limbo forever and never find her again.

Oh, and he has also broken two of his weapons and gained the magical heart of an Atlantean sorceror named Keritos.

What will happen next? Who or what are the Golden Breed and why is someone or something trying to prevent Xlaxas Duv from joining his beloved in the afterlife?

Damned if I know but I'm going to enjoy finding out.

My Plan to Get Going

I've been going through one of my periodic creative droughts of late. They come along every once in a while and cause me no end of tribulation.

But, for once, I've decided to take the bull by the horns this. I recently read a good piece of advice about writers' block and how to eliminate it... and that piece of advice was simply this 'don't be afraid to write crap'.

Very often, writers have the expectation that every word they write needs to be golden - I suffer from this delusion all too often and when it turns out that not every word I write is perfect it causes me to slow down and sometimes come to a grinding halt.

So I have made the decision to spend the next seven days writing anything that comes into my head - or to the tips of my fingers - as long as I write no less than 1,000 words per day.

I don't expect any of it to be usable (and fully expect most of it to be derivative at best), but hopefully it might help to pull me out of this latest creative mire.

Here goes....

Some Days... But Then

There are some days, beyond the shadow of a doubt, when you wonder why you bother to write. You have crafted and chosen, played with form and structure, created (hopefully) believable characters and placed them in an imaginary world that has a good internal logic and a sense of wonder all its own.

You send the story out... wait a bit... and it comes winging back to you with a 'thanks but no thanks' attached to it.

Rejection is, unfortunately, part and parcel of any writer's life and I have experienced my fair share of rejection letters over the years and been crushed by every single one. It never really seems to get any easier and I think I know why.

Regardless of its actual worth, I am always of the belief that the story (or stories) that I am working on are the best that I can do at that particular point. I send them off with a metaphorical kiss on the forehead and am crushed when others do not seem to realize exactly how wonderful my work is (of course this is not to say that I haven't written some stinkers in my time, but that only really comes with hindsight).

In some ways, though, that sinking feeling you get when reading a rejection letter is a good thing because it means that you actually care about your own work.

As they say about horse riding, the only thing to do is to get back on again or, if you're a writer, to dust the story down (bearing in mind that some editorial comment are useful) wipe that look of shame off its face and send it out into the world again certain in the knowledge that next time the editor will love your story just as much as you do.

Some days are difficult... But then there's always tomorrow.

Joanna Russ

The noted American sf author Joanna Russ passed away on 29 April 2011.

Influential not only as one of the most pre-eminent writers of science fiction with a feminist slant, her contribution to science fiction criticism helped to shape modern sf and fantasy, and her best known work, The Female Man, broke down many of the pre-concieved barriers with regard to gender in speculative writing.

On The Other Side of the Mirror at An Electric Tragedy

My short story On The Other Side of the Mirror is currently online at An Electric Tragedy (a new ezine of speculative fiction).

The story is something of a variant on an old theme... to say more might give the game away entirely (but let me point out that I've been reading a lot of Angela Carter and the Brothers Grimm of late, so there may be an influence or two there).

You can find it here:

http://anelectrictragedy.com/stories.html

Update at With Many Shades

My other blog, With Many Shades, has had a bit of an update with new listings for Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Absent Willow Review, Hub and Lacuna.

Some good readin' there, I reckon.

Elizabeth Sladen 1946 - 2011

The British actor Elizabeth Sladen passed away on 19 April.

Best known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in Dr Who, she appeared alongside numerous incarnations of the Doctor including Matt Smith's Doctor in The Sarah Jane Adventures,.

Her other Dr Who related work included the aforemention Sarah Jane Adventures, K-9 and Company and numerous audio productions set in the Dr Who universe. Other appearances included the film Silver Dream Racer and the television series Peak Practise.

Acceptance at An Electric Tragedy

I've just received word from An Electric Tragedy that they want to use my short story On The Other Side of the Mirror for their June issue (wheeee!)

The story is a direct result of having read a whole load of fairy tales recently and is a take on a certain well known tale involving magic mirrors, ghosts, iron shoes and a (hopefully) dark and somewhat gothic outlook.

You can find the magazine here:

http://www.anelectrictragedy.com/

Accepted at Arcane

Just got news from Nathan Shumate at Arcane that he's accepted my short story Beneath the Arch of Knives for an upcoming issue.

It's another in my Shining Cities sequence, taking place in the city of PameMurias, and concerns the rivalry between two gentlemen of that particular place - Ossoro Volonte and Churel Lobishomen.

I'm particularly pleased about this not least of all because of Arcane's wonderful subtitle of 'penny dreadfuls for the 21st century' and the fact that the team of Nathan Shumate and publisher Sandy Petersen (he of Call of Cthulhu fame) have a real love of and respect for the old pulp tales.

You can find out more about Arcane here: http://www.arcanemagazine.com/

Bride of the Water at Lacuna

Breaking something of a dry season, my short story Bride of the Water, is currently online at Megan Arkenberg's splendid e-zine of historical fiction, Lacuna.

Set in Renaissance Venice, it's the latest of the Lovecraftain style tales I've been working on recently. More than that I may not say.

You can find it here: http://lacunajournal.blogspot.com/2011/04/bride-of-water.html