Of course I immensely enjoyed this year’s family events – a new granddaughter over in Nottingham and delightful playtimes with grandon in Urmston. Also family hols in the Lake District, and Mallorca. But this blog entry is about scribbling.
2010 – A writer’s mixed fortunes
My initial reactions to this year is that as far as my writing is concerned nothing much has happened. I was paid for editing one person’s novel, and have had a small number of short stories published but my biggies – the SF Left Luggage trilogy and Fantasy Xaghra’s Revenge remain with Rebecca Pratt, my agent in the USA, being sent to publishers, who often take up to a year to respond. Nevertheless, I travelled to two conventions, spent a week at a UK Away writers’ week in Carmarthenshire and enjoyed supporting other writers in various forums and groups. Principle among the latter are the fabulous writerly friends at Café Doom and in the BSFA Orbiters. I thought I’d list the writing related activity I’ve achieved this year. I am surprised how much one can do with so little monetary yet great personal feedback. Above all I am indebted to my diet and writing buddy, Bec Zugor. Bec has a great blog here.
Although Left Luggage is yet to be published, the opening scene won an honourable mention in Gary Ponzo’s Strong Scenes competition, May 2010. More kudos came from the magazine, Fright Site, when it decided my horror story, In Absentia, deserved a best story award in Twice The Terror anthology, edited by Horrorzine’s Jeani Rector.
Fiction publications:
Screaming Dreams’ Christmas special – anthology to publish humour alt history tale, Patent NonScience in Dec 2009 crept into 2010
Horrorzine – Jan 2010 – short story, In Absentia – it’s the Editor’s Pick. Jan 2010 – print antho in 2010
The Write to Fight – anthology to support Kent Karate – Reflective Sparrow – flash story 2010
The Monster Alphabet Book – Ed by John Prescott. Short story Goliath 2010
The Sixty – Fine SFF Art book by Andy Bigwood has accepted my flash story matching one of his pictures – Winter Hunt.
A Monk Punk story, Don’t Bite My Finger, has been accepted for an anthology.
Hot Air – my thriller novel was published by Wuacademia in August 2010.
Auditory Crescendo to be published in Escape Velocity: The Anthology in January 2011
UK Away Chapbook 2010 – a surreal SF story.
Escaping Reality, my humorous thriller, was published in 2005 and is still available. In 2010 it became downloadable at Smashwords for $1.99 – bargain!
Exit, Pursued by a Bee my science fiction novel was published by DDP in 2008 and still available there and as a Kindle download. In 2010 it was serialized for free monthly reads at Kalkion.com
Non-fiction publications:
Article: Hiding the Truth on UFOs published in Kalkion February 2010
Article: Illusions, Coincidences, and the Moon, Kalkion Spring 2010
Article: The Lure of Bridges published in Kalkion June 2010
Article: When Not To Write Science Fiction – in Kalkion July 2010
Reviews published in 2010
By Professor D. Harlan-Wilson: Collection of amusing bizarre stories entitled: They Had Goat Heads, a novel: Codenamed Prague.
M, John Harrison: Climbers, and The City & The City
Liz Williams: Banner of Souls
Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale.
Ira Nayman: Alternate Reality books: Alternate Reality Ain’t What It Used To Be and What Were Once Miracles Are Now Children’s Toys
Martin Amis, Time’s Arrow
Christopher Priest: Inverted Worlds
Mark Haddon: A Spot of Bother
William Gibson: Virtual Light
John Farris: The Ransome Women
Derek Muk: The Occult Files of Albert Taylor
Casting Shadows Joleen Kuyper, E.J. Tett and Jo Robertson: A collection of dark tales and poems
Jeani Rector: And Now The Nightmare Begins
Mitzi Szereto: In Sleeping Beauty’s Bed
Short stories completed looking for publication: Dopplegangster, The Future and Up One, Indefinite Article (revised), several others in progress.
Works I have professionally edited that have been published in 2010 include
Into The Blast: written by Skipp Porteous and Robert Blevins (that was the first edition, the second edition, taking into account the involvement of filming by the History Channel Decoders series is to be published in January 2011)
The Last Olympian by John Goodwin
The Zargothian Tales by Aiden Lucid
In addition to those I have kept up my blog, updated my website and wrote numerous responses in forums, letters and emails. Phew!
My biggest literary let down of the year has been the mixed blessing of having my horror story, Goliath, published in the Monster Alphabet Book published by John Prescott as M is for Monster. Although he loved my story – Goliath’s story from his point of view as a misunderstood youth – John had sent it to Serenity Banks for editing. Without consulting me she changed many British words for inappropriate Americanisms eg jerk instead of jolt and completely changed the ending by deleting a significant few sentences. I feel like disowning it. If anyone wants the original story please contact me.
An exciting writing event was the UKAway week in Carmarthenshire, especially the fun of cycling there and back and meeting such inspiring writers.
All in all a busy even if pecuniary year. As it ends I continue to contribute to new works and today edited with Robert Blevins, the final touches to Escape Velocity: The Anthology due out in January 2011.
