I’ll be at the Trafford Centre Waterstones on Saturday August 15th 1-4pm signing copies of science fiction mystery, Exit, Pursued by a Bee and humorous thriller, Escaping Reality.
It would be good see any local readers there. Come, laugh, point at me and have a natter even if you don’t buy a book.
Adventure Books of Seattle have released the science fiction anthology with stories from me and Robert Blevins. There are two new stories in there in addition to re-edited versions from the first edition.
I have a new job, and the press release about to buzz is as follows:
BeWrite Books is delighted to break the exiting news that a new keeper will be tending the buzzing beehive when BB publisher Cait Myers leaves the company after ten years at the end of July for new adventures in far-flung places.
Geoff Nelder – based in Chester, England – is already working along with
Cait as she helps smooth the transition to be sure that BeWrite Books doesn’t falter in its established commitment to stability and reliability. And she’ll remain informally on call for several months to help keep the house in order while Geoff gets into his stride.
But Geoff – an award-winning author in his own right – is already well versed in many of the considerable duties Cait so expertly covered over the years. Qualified to handle accountancy and admin and with a firm grasp of modern technology and publishing practice, Geoff is also dynamic and innovative in the promotion and marketing of books, and a top-notch networker at important publishing events.
He accepted early retirement from his lifetime job as a senior educator recently so is now free to dedicate to his new position the time and energy it requires.
Geoff said: “I’m thrilled to be taking over – It’s a challenge to become the new Cait Myers. I’ve been involved with, and have closely watched BeWrite’s development over the past ten years. Cait’s input and expertise has been impressive … and so modestly behind-the-scenes.
“We’re all old friends now. In fact, Editor Neil Marr is my daily online Scrabble opponent (it’s our coffee break from work). And, no, he doesn’t always win … he generously allows me success now and then.
“My first job, of course, is – with Cait’s kind help – to make sure there’s solid continuity so that the internal change-over at BB doesn’t adversely affect anyone, especially authors and readers. Later, when my learning curve levels, I’m sure I’ll brainstorm with the others and we’ll talk over new ideas to enhance the house. Maybe trying short-run, maybe opening the door to new genres and imprints. We’ll see.
“For now, I’m just happy to be here. BeWrite has always seemed more like a nuclear family than a business, so I feel a bit like I’ve been adopted. Others in the extended family are the authors and readers. I’ll try hard to be as welcoming to them as Cait has always been. She laid out the red carpet to them; I just have to keep it swept.”
BeWrite Books Editor, Neil Marr, said: “Sad as I am that Cait is moving on, I’m tickled pink to now be working with Geoff at the helm. We’ve been friends for years and – not only because he often beats me in online Scrabble – I have unbounded confidence in him as a wordsmith and administrator. Cait is leaving the house she helped create in capable hands.
“We’ll share an interesting future. And I know our warm stable of authors and editors will very quickly take Geoff to heart. Apart from being so darned efficient that it’s frightening, he’s one of the nicest chaps on this third rock from the sun.”
Cait, who is leaving her BB Munich desk for new, international adventures, said: “It’s sad to be leaving BeWrite Books after all this time, it has really felt like a family. I wish everyone the best of luck with their projects and look forward to reading lots more excellent books from BeWrite.”
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF GEOFF NELDER
Geoff Nelder lives in the ancient and quaint English city of Chester. Born in Germany to British parents, he has lived all but four years of his life in England.
A former high school teacher of geography and information technology, Geoff has had non-fiction books on microclimates in the UK published along with several articles in academic journals such as Weather, Geographical Magazine and the Times Educational Supplement. Geoff is a part-time journalist contributing humorous travel accounts to Cycling World.
His love of teaching and the environment is reflected in his Bachelor of Education degree and Master of Science for climatology, research for which he was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Meteorological Society. More important to him is his family. His physicist wife is invaluable for her love but also helps in the technical aspects of Geoff’s science fiction writing. They have two grown children, whose intelligence and warmth go beyond Geoff’s expectations. Now they’ve started to collect grandchildren, too.
Geoff has had many short stories widely published and won a commendation for a story in the Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Competition. Besides his 2005 released humour novel, Escaping Reality, published by Brambling Books, he won a Prix d’Argent in 2007 and the Prix d’Or in 2009 for mystery thriller, Hot Air, to be published by a Dutch Arts Academy in 2009, and a Science Fiction novel, Left Luggage, is in the hands of an agent. Double Dragon Publishing published Geoff’s Exit, Pursued by a Bee science fiction mystery in 2008.
Geoff is a co-editor for Adventure Books of Seattle, working mainly on Escape Velocity, a print and ezine magazine of science fact and fiction. He has been a freelance editor of novels and short stories for several years. He is also the 2009 short-fiction judge for the Whittaker Prize.
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Kind Cait is holding my hand for a few weeks while she teaches me the administrative techniques. Incredibly looking forward to being with BeWrite after extolling their marvelous books for so many years – just pop along to http://www.bewrite.net to see what I mean. I’m also eager to represent BeWrite Books at Book Fairs in Frankfurt, London, the US, Wigan & Leigh and at the SF conventions I attend for Adventure Books of Seattle.
It seems the power unit is faulty on my new PC from Arbico. When I took delivery of dozens of new computers years ago at Queens Park High School, we’d find a few DOA (dead on arrival) machines even though they were thoroughly tested if from Research Machines. So I don’t blame Arbico, in fact they are keen to sort the problem out. I could have agreed to have a new power unit sent to me and me fit it, but I declined. For one thing it might not be the power unit itself but the connections or switches so I’d be back to a no-go computer again. I am patient and luckily this Sony Vaio laptop keeps chugging on. Burns through my knees though. And although the Vaio is quiet at first, I only have to work on some long documents and it starts to whine. Roll on the new machine, Arbico.
Aaarrggh, my brand new Antec Sonata III computer arrived yesterday from Arbico Computers Ltd. See post two below here to see why I ordered it especially after researching for a very quiet computer. The trouble is that this one is too quiet – it doesn’t come on at all! Out of the box I found the ON/OFF rocker switch wouldn’t go off – then when I moved the computer to its resting place in my lounge, the switch did operate properly. However, although the speaker clicks every second, the computer won’t stir and nothing on the monitor. No document arrived either, except for some of the software and the motherboard. So I am having to guess what the buttons and recesses are for. I googled Antec and found a case mechanical drawing so I know which slots in the front are USB and discovered the third is an eSATA for an external hard drive. I have one of those but no leads until a Maplin visit later. I found two round buttons on the front. Because it is all black I have to lie on the floor and peer close up. The large button has a power symbol but pressing it doesn’t do anything. The small button is marked above by a triangle but I’m no wiser what it does – perhaps a reset?
Basically this is a DOA – dead on arrival. Arbico tech support are supposed to phone me after 10am today. Hope not too long a wait as I intended to cycle to Mold for a haircut in readiness for my dad’s (RIP) life celebration in Cheltenham this weekend.
Come on, Arbico, you have a good reputation for making silent computers and I need this beauty to help me master all the accounting, manuscript preparation and web mastering I need to do for my new publishing job.
The Year’s Best Science Fiction By Gardner Dozois
is a standard annual reference and for the 2008 issue I’ve been told our Escape Velocity magazine of Science Fact and Fiction is given a favourable mention – wheee.
EV can be downloaded as free pdf files for 2008 issues and really cheap for the one 2009 issue so far from
http://www.escapevelocitymagazine.com/
Print mag version also available from that site and now from Amazon too.
I haven’t looked to see if my Exit, Pursued by a Bee scifi mystery is in the Dozois 625 pages book. Then the poor man can’t read everything 
Maybe we shouldn’t but my wife and I use our computers in the lounge, often while the TV is on. For instance the marvelous World’s Greatest Musical prodigies are on in their infant cleverness while I type this and my wife works on her Masters, or organizes her uni tuition work. Sometimes the TV or radio is silenced, and in those precious hours our brains don’t want rattling by computer CPU fans. I thought I’d cracked the noisy computer problem when I bought a Dell Dimension 5000 a few years ago. Cunning airflow design and only one fan certainly made it quieter than any I had before. However, on warm evenings using large applications or working on long novels, that fan struggled. “It’s whining,” I’d get in one ear while the other pretended all was well.
So I thought Dell might have improved on the Dimension 5000 and last week visited several computer shops and although I couldn’t hear most of them above the background noises, I picked another Dell. I was tempted by smaller machines like Advent but you could have cooked eggs on them. Last thing I wanted during hot summer nights was to be saunaed. The Dell was a Studio 540 – neat and simple to set up. Then I heard its noise. Aaarrggh, much louder and more annoying than anything the Dimension threw at me. So, the store manager said I was the first customer who’d brought back a new machine complaining of its noise. Another first. Googling the company – Currys – I’d discovered they have a reputation for denying responsibility. That maybe unfair so to make sure they knew who they were dealing with I put on my best shoes and wore a tie. And so it was, Curry’s refunded with no quibble at all. All that revising of the Sales of Goods Act (1979) ammended 2003, wasn’t necessary, what a waste.
I toyed with the notion of an iMac but found even some of those reported noisy fans and hums. After more rigorous research I ordered an Arbico Silent Intel Core 2 Duo. So come on, Arbico Computers Limited, build me a good ‘un, I’ve Xaghra’s Revenge to finish writing.
1926 – 2009
Dad and mum were my inspiration for reading and writing science fiction. Mum registered me for the Children’s science fiction book club when I was four, and dad was a scifi mag cover artist – as I mention with an illustration in the previous post.
Seems weird that last week after moving to Peebles, dad only complained of his left leg swelling. Their carpet fitter used his van as an ambulance to take them to Hay Lodge Hospital and then a real ambulance to Borders General in Melrose. While he slipped in and out of consciousness I read to him his favourite Omar Khayyam verses along with For A That by Robbie Burns. Sadly, his renal cancer, which we thought was radiotreated from him last year had returned along with a minor heart attack. He died peacefully on the 8th June – two days ago.
I present the last photo to be taken of him – the day he moved in to Peebles just over a week ago. And one of him and mum taken whebefore they sparked my existence.
My mother died in 1983 but dad married again to Rosemary, who remains in Peebles and hopefully coping well and making new friends. I have a sister, Linda, living in Cheltenham, where the family were brought up after a spell in post-war Germany.
If only my dad enjoyed the internet then he could see the cover art sent to me by email today that dad drew 51 years ago. Sideral was one of the first science fiction magazines and led onto Vector, which is still going for the BSFA (British Science Fiction Association). Sideral was based in Cheltenham in the street in which I lived. I often helped Eric Jones print the fanzines and flyers on a manual Gestetner printer. My dad was the artist. I thought every dad did cover art for science fiction mags, which every street printed!
If you look at the cover art below the feet of the left boy, you’ll see my dad’s name – Bill.
Funny now that you’ll have seen it before I have a chance to take it to him.
My wife and I flew to Amsterdam for a combination chilling out and travelling by train to Groningen in the north of Holland for my book launch. Hot Air is a thriller I dashed out several years ago and became entered in an international Arts Academy competition run by WUACADEMIA. With unclear knowledge of how winners were selected I found that Hot Air came second with silver for the best unpublished novel category. First, with the critical two votes advantage, came Gustavo Florentin with his ‘In the Talons of the Condor.’ The Award Ceremony in late 2007 was well organised and the venue was the prestigious University of Groningen Arts Theatre. The place bulged with up to 200 spectators and competitors. The latter regaled us with readings and performances the most memorable and loud being the dancing African drums – amazing.
The ceremony this Saturday was to launch our books and again an arts festival. Sadly, the university arts theatre was being refurbished so Jean-Marcel had to secure a new venue. It was Silo in a small street behind the railway station. We didn’t know this until nearly too late since the only announcement was on the wuacademia website. Luckily I was able to play around with hotel and flight bookings. We arrived a day early to do a dry run in finding the new venue and I’m glad we did. Local people including the curator of the nearby Grafisch museum in Achter Weg, either didn’t know of a Silo nearby or directed us a mile away where a converted grain silo is now a restaurant. Luckily, a waitress there did know of another Silo where local arts functions are held. An unassuming building looking like Huckleberry Finn’s falling down shack held exciting music and a handful of poets, novelists, sculptors and painters.
The organiser, Jean-Marcel Bikouta Nkaoulou, is friendly, though his command of English isn’t as proficient as his ability to rack up a blood-shivering beat on his powerful drums. My Silver and Special Awards in 2007 were for my thriller, Hot Air. It seems there were only nominated awards for 2008 and Hot Air received another – this time my adventure won the Prix D’Or (Golden Prize). To be fair, I wrote Hot Air fairly lightly, with a feisty female protagonist, some literary feel on Mallorca and in France, but largely it is a murder mystery spread over Europe. Maybe that is what attracted it to this European competition. I read out a short sample and was afterwards expecting to be presented with the first print copy. Sadly, the printing went awry so both Gustavo and I were disappointed to be told the actual launch is delayed. On the other hand we were told a film company may be interested to convert our words to film! It wouldn’t surprise me too much because the Arts Festival is part funded by Stichting arts foundation. The festival had a great international atmosphere. I was also presented with a small African figurine. It is deep in thought, the African Rodin’s The Thinker?
Our books will be published later, and there’s talk of films being made from them, so from what was a nearly ‘throw away book’ and written from the crazy notion of shooting down a hot air balloon, to publication and film – who knows?
What I do know is the infection of positive vibes from the African dancing, drums and the passion of participants even in this year’s small venue and smaller attendance. I hope Gustavo keeps in touch and that he wasn’t too disappointed with the not-quite-Hollywood scale of the event.
And what about my wife? She came along to support me, to enjoy a break from her university and school-visit-mentoring work and to glimpse an insight into the rather esoteric world we writers and artists inhabit. I’m doubtful she was convinced that the scene is for her, but that I am imbibed with exuberance at them. She is sure I shouldn’t be alone in Amsterdam’s redlight district on my own – mainly because there are shops too, and my natural navigation system fails in retail environments.
Geoff reading an excerpt from Hot Air
The room was dark, candlelit, so my camera struggled to capture me. Also Gustavo Florentin, who had travelled from the US for the Festival.
Gustavo Florentin
I enjoyed the trip - no book launch – but exhilarating all the same.
Although the Wuacademia festival and (nearly) book launch was in Groningen, we’d spent two days wandering the streets of Amsterdam. If I’d known Andrea from UKAuthors lived there I’d liked us to have met up! Mind you we’d have had to navigate away from the higgedly-piggedly lanes inhabited by the many ‘brown’ coffee shops. We didn’t enter them – you didn’t have to. The aromatic smoke pervaded the street so that after half an hour pedestrians like us were so much more relaxed than when we started!
