Back at the end of 2010 I interviewed David Rain for the British Science Fiction Association’s Focus (no.54, 2011) – a magazine for writers. David was programme leader for the MA in Creative Writing at Middlesex University, which was at that time unique in having a science fiction thread to its teaching, and I was a […]
From issue 59 of Focus the fourth of my pieces of flash fiction “inspired” by the common writing errors and bad habits catalogued in The Turkey City Lexicon. This time, it’s all about pressing buttons with clichés. Words used to evoke a cheap emotional response without engaging the intellect or the critical faculties. Commonly found […]
From issue 58 of Focus the third of my pieces of flash fiction “inspired” by the common writing errors and bad habits catalogued in The Turkey City Lexicon. This time I go toe-to-toe with a “burly detective”: This useful term is taken from SF’s cousin-genre, the detective-pulp. The hack writers of the Mike Shayne series […]
Since issue 58 of Focus is now off to the printer, I thought I’d put up this from issue 57 – the second in what appears to be an ongoing series of flash fiction pieces inspired by common writerly errors indentified by The Turkey City Lexicon. This is a slightly longer version than the one […]
A bumper mailing includes: BSFA AWARDS BOOKLET 2011 Featuring all the shortlisted short stories… The Silver Wind by Nina Allan The Copenhagen Interpretation by Paul Cornell Afterbirth by Kameron Hurley Covehithe by China Miéville Of Dawn by Al Robertson
Since the new Focus is almost ready to go, I thought I’d put my editorial from issue 56 online (this is a slightly longer version than the one that appeared in the magazine)… I always seek out reviews of the stuff I get published. I know there are people who say they never look at […]
The latest issue of Focus is almost ready to go to the printers (along with another bumper Vector – hopefully they will be with members by the end of the month – barring delays and disasters. Copies are available to BSFA members – if you’d like to read Focus, Vector and all the other cool […]