I’ve finally had the chance to sit down and read the latest issue of comedy magazine Mustard, and I just thought I’d point it out to anyone who happened to be passing.

I first picked up Mustard in some comic shop and laughed throughout my train journey home (to the point where someone complained to the conductor! Well I was sitting in first class… and everyone knows that no one in first class has a sense of humour).

Anyway the latest issue is the first of a relaunch - featuring some new content (including a lengthy piece with Father Ted, The IT Crowd genius Graham Linehan) and a sort of “best of” collection of pieces from the magazine’s earlier incarnation. The new version is more professionally designed and has big splashes of colour. Nice.

There’s a lot of very funny and very clever stuff in here as well as some very funny, very stupid, stuff as well, which, obviously, are the bits that appeal most to me. There’s a couple of good superhero spoofs, I particularly liked “Middle Man”, and a general cross over between geekdom and comedy.

It’s not expensive, it’s small press publishing, and it’s funny.

Click here to buy Mustard…

Posted October 28, 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.

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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)

I have no idea where this came from…

THE UNEXPECTEDLY EXISTENTIAL LIFE OF MARGARET TOME

The existentialist philosophers Heidegger and Satre argue that we have been thrown into this universe unprepared and abandoned in a universe that imposes fundamental limitations on what we might become.

They call this notion facticity. 

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Posted October 26, 2007 Comments(5)

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.

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Posted October 24, 2007 Comments(2)

THE FIGHTER

Something small and fast danced on my right, just on the edge of my peripheral vision. My eyes flicked to track the target and my shoulders twitched, turning. It was a reflex, almost irresistible, and I knew at once that it was a mistake.

Something slower and heavier hit me square on the left side of the head.

A blinding light flashed. I staggered sideways, my legs suddenly betraying me. Then came the pain, a paralysing splash of golds and reds. I dropped to one knee, instinctively raising my arms to protect my head.

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Posted October 20, 2007 Comments(2)

A little while ago I recommended Nina Allan’s superb short story collection, well I’m pleased to note that my excellent taste has been confirmed by Ian Watson and all the other folk involved in the Aeon Awards, who have announced that her story “Angelus” has won this year’s prize (and 1000 euro).

Nina’s story will be in the next issue of Albedo One (no. 33 just dropped through my door this week, more on that soon) but really, you shouldn’t wait that long. Buy her book. It’s really good.

Congratulations Nina.

Posted October 17, 2007 Comments(0)

The Fix is back! TTA’s short fiction review magazine has made the (sadly inevitable) switch online and is finally up an running - thanks in no small part to the significant injection of enthusiasm,  organisation and determination of new editor Eugie Foster

It looks like things are going to update regularly and I’m excited, not just because I’m reviewing stuff on the site (see below) and that means someone else is sending me free stuff, but because I think that what short sf needs is a vibrant place where people are willing to talk about the stuff they’re reading and make critical demands of the stories that are getting published. There are too few places taking short sf seriously on the web - The Fix looks like being a very welcome addition to the sf scene.

You can find my paltry contribution to the relaunch in my review of November’s Analog .

Posted October 15, 2007 Comments(0)

Hookay, so here’s what happened this time… I started writing this kind of cool story with aliens in it and it turned out that, despite what it had claimed when it was inside my head, it wasn’t actually a flash fiction idea, but a story that could only possibly be told as a proper short story. So I didn’t have anything for last Friday. But I’m not giving up. So here’s another “not quite” entry and I will get back on schedule this Friday. BY CROM I SWEAR IT! Another idea inspired by the fff’s hyperspace suggestion.

ANOTHER FUNNY THING HAPPENED IN HYPERSPACE

“Captain, there are two Cholian battlecruiser decloaking aft,” Lieutenant Ch’aaan’s leftmost speaking tube announced in its thin, warbling voice. The lieutenant paused, rechecking their instruments. Then its central speaking tube boomed. “They’re powering up weapons systems.”

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Posted October 10, 2007 Comments(2)

Another catch up on the Friday Flash - this is something unusual for me, normally I stick to narrative, but this is what my subconscious dragged up this time. I apologise to those who are not parents (and many who are) for whom this will be sickly to the point of nausea. Bear with me, the next story will have aliens.

Some thoughts on watching my daughter sleep

My daughter’s sleep does not come gently, it is an enemy to be resisted, a great snake to be wrestled back and forth until its coils envelop her and she slips away with a final, knowing, smile.

My daughter sleeps with her arms raised high, as though she has surrendered to her foe but her fists remain clenched tight, proof that she has not yet given up this struggle.

My daughter’s sleep is seldom still, she gives her nemesis no respite. The duvet is vanquished and contemptuously cast aside, her pillow is battered and soft toys scattered. Even pyjamas are torn off and discarded.

My daughter sleeps with her jaw set firm, her eyebrows drawn in a gentle frown, sleeping is a serious matter and she is determined to get it right. Her long eyelashes flick away bothersome dreams.

My daughter’s sleep is deeper now, I lean closer to check for signs of breath or life, half afraid, half amazed by this unlikely stillness, then she rises with a shuddering gasp and turns away, back to the battle.

Posted October 4, 2007 Comments(0)