This is the kind of news that warms the cockles of an old curmudgeon’s heart.

Charlie Brooker (consistently the funniest newspaper columnist to put ink on paper, grouchy old so and so, creator of Screenwipe (the episode he did on how news programmes work was a better dissection of the workings of television than anything I found in a four year media degree course), an “out” geek and promoter of quality sf to the masses) is to write a horror show for Channel 4 (well, he’s calling it horror, the head of C4 is calling it a thriller) called Dead Set.

As one of only three people in the world who loved Nathan Barley (which Brooker co-wrote), I’m officially excited.

And a further example of the way genre material is penetrating UK TV production.

Posted April 14, 2008 Comments(1)

My review of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 2, (edited by Jonathan Strahan) is now online over at The Fix for those of you with yearning to read 5,500 words that were dragged like healthy teeth from the gums of someone with very strong gums (god, sometimes my mastery of the English language is terrifying, isn’t it).

And actually that’s not true, the words came out really easily - not writing 15,000 words was the hard part.

Other stuff I’ve recently written is up at the BSFA’s spiffy new Matrix Online website - including a longish article comparing the relatively few ups and not inconsiderable number of downs in the cinematic histories of comic book giants Marvel and DC, and reviews of Southland Tales, Battlestar Galactica: Razor, In the Shadow of the Moon and Jumper. Sadly you’ll have to be a member of the BSFA to read all that - but if you aren’t, why the hell not?

Hopefully I’ll get some more reviews up over at Matrix soon. I just need an hour or two to sit down and write them up.

Posted April 9, 2008 Comments(0)

ISBN 978-0-9558662-0-3

ILLUMINATIONS is a new anthology from small press Odd Two Out Publishing showcasing original, cutting edge short fiction from eight up-and-coming young British writers.

When British author Gareth L Powell started adding short weekly pieces of flash fiction to his website back in July 2007, he didn’t expect anyone else to take much notice.

But soon there were seven other writers doing likewise - Paul Graham Raven, Gareth D Jones, Martin McGrath, Dan Pawley, Justin Pickard, Neil Beynon, and Shaun C Green. Together, they have become known as the Friday Flash Fictioneers.

Flash fiction stories are complete short stories told in fewer than 1,000 words. Quoting from his introduction to the anthology, Gareth L Powell says:

“Adhering to this restricted format can be a valuable exercise for a writer. It’s often a lot trickier than it looks. You have to make every word count. Every thing in the story has to be doing something because there just isn’t room for extraneous waffle.”

The Friday Flash Fictioneers come from diverse walks of life – musicians, office workers, freelance journalists, students, magazine editors – and this new anthology collects together the best of their weekly output.

Edited by Paul Graham Raven, the pieces range from mainstream literature to far-out speculation; from horror to humour; from outright fantasy to straight-faced space opera.

All the stories in ILLUMINATIONS are published under a Creative Commons licence that permits them to be reproduced in the public domain as long as no profit is made in the process.

Copies of ILLUMINATIONS: The Flash Fiction Anthology will be available to order for £6.99 from Odd Two Out Publishing, or from the authors themselves.

All profits from the sale of ILLUMINATIONS will be donated to the NSPCC.

Alternatively, The Fictioneers will be running a flash fiction workshop as part of Orbital 2008, the British Science Fiction convention held at the Raddisson Hotel, Heathrow over the Easter weekend. Convention-goers are invited to come along to quiz the team and have a go at writing their own extremely short fiction.

{So this is mostly why things have been quiet around here for the last few weeks. The big secret is out! And I now have the seed of my own publishing empire. Much, much more than this in the days to come - for now, just buy a copy, ya cheapskate!}

Posted March 14, 2008 Comments(0)

The Coen Bros are to direct The Yiddish Policeman’s Union!

The very thought sent a little shiver of excitement and anticipation down my spine. 

The Coens and Michael Chabon together in one project.

And the Coens back in the snow for the first time since Fargo!

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2255888,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Posted February 12, 2008 Comments(1)

So - finally I get back to the blog.

My old PC is dead and gone and I’m currently running a cheap pile of junk until I can save up enough pocket money to properly upgrade… I’m gradually working my way back through recovered email - if I haven’t got back to you, I’m getting there. Still enough of my problems.

Or not.

I clicked on Forgotten Worlds website today, just to check whether anything was going on and to get the email address to chase up when they intended to publish “Be Aware” - a story of mine they’d promised to buy and print. And the message there read: Read more »

Posted February 10, 2008 Comments(0)

You can read my review of The Maker’s Mark: Remnants now at The Fix.

If nothing else, it’s marginally shorter than having to read the whole book.

Posted December 5, 2007 Comments(1)

So, two good pieces of news for those who like Joss Whedon’s work (and hey, if you don’t, I don’t want to hear it).

First, I picked up the first collection of Buffy season 8 today from Forbidden Planet (one of the advantages of my job is working around the corner from the UK’s greatest comic shop and Forbidden Planet isn’t far away either). It collects issues 1-5 of the Dark Horse series and it’s really rather good.

Then I get home and find out that Fox (yes, Fox!) have commissioned not just a pilot but seven episodes of a new Whedon TV show - Dollhouse - that will star Elisha (Faith from Buffy) Dushku. When we’ll get to see it - given that not only is the US film & TV industry facing a writers’ strike, but the Directors’ Guild and the actors’ union also have big negotiations coming up that could lead to a perfect storm with all three unions out either consecutively or all at the same time - is still up in the air. But on the whole this is good news.

Posted November 2, 2007 Comments(0)

So Blade Runner is getting re-released in a very shiny new print and redone director’s cut on DVD (which is great, but you know for those of of us old enough, surely the original cut will always be the finest so thanks for that at last Ridley on DVD) but, even more exciting, it’s going to get released in cinemas - from 23 November.

Read more »

Posted October 27, 2007 Comments(5)

One of the wonderful thing about the Internet is the way that random blogging leads you first to the insane and then to the utterly sublime.

Take today, I discovered the “Interrobang” through Digg. Which might be one of the most awful ideas I’ve ever seen.

 But then, through the wonders of Wiki, I discover that there’s a whole world of alternative punctuation out there. And then I discover the “Irony Mark” which, in this email age, might have saved me causing offence to dozens, perhaps thousands of people. Why isn’t this in every font?

And I don’t want anyone suggesting it’s because the Americans would never work out how to use it, understand?

Posted October 26, 2007 Comments(0)

Well I’ve got a new review up at The Fix of the CrossTIME Science Fiction Anthology Vol. VI in which I am probably unnecessarily rude about the stories of a bunch of non-professional writers who’ve done nothing more to deserve a kicking than enter a competition and hope their stories were good enough to win.

On the other hand, people as high and mighty as Warren Ellis have been offering their thoughts about how we can “save” the SF short fiction scene. I think Ellis is absolutely right, by the way, about magazines as objects of desire. I lust for well designed magazines. I will buy magazines on subjects I’m not interested in if they look good. I also think he’s right about the dreadful presentation of American magazines being a reflection of their fundamental conservatism.

Read more »

Posted October 24, 2007 Comments(2)