Thought for the Day

“Sometimes there are just too many words filling up space and not enough emptiness left for thinking. I keep a little emptiness inside for when I need it.”

~ Sarah Pinborough, The Language of Dying

The British Fantasy Society Christmas Open Night

Was last Friday, and I went along to catch up with the likes of World Fantasy Award Winner Lavie Tidhar, British Fantasy Society Award Winner Sarah Pinborough, Hellraiser Cenobites Barbie Wilde and Nick Vince, FantasyCon stalwarts Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan, and not forgetting writers Benedict J Jones and Sandra Norval.

Sandra Norval, Benedict J Jones and World Fantasy Award Winner Lavie Tidhar. 

All the people in this photo have been published by Mr Dean M Drinkel, dontcha know?

A good night was had by all, new friends were made - Hi, Jason - much gossip was gossiped and a fair bit of booze was imbibed. Some of the less incriminating photographs from the evening can be seen on Facebook here.

Forthcoming Events

I shall be attending Dragonmeet this Saturday 1 December, and generally hanging out with the Tin Man and the Warlock at the Fighting Fantasy stand. Also in attendance will be Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone, Ralph Horsley, Sarah Newton, and the guys from Cubicle 7 (who are actually organising everything). If you see me on Saturday, do come and say "Hi!"

I shall also be a guest at next year's Sci-Fi Weekender - 1-3 March 2013 - where I shall hosting at least one panel, taking part in a signing session or two, and hopefully selling some of my books. Gav Thorpe is also going, and the two of us have been cooking up some ideas for the weekend - but more on that another time. The doyenne of crime-horror Sarah Pinborough herself shall also be in attendance.

And that's your lot for now. Until next time...

The Next Big Thing - Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow

Last week, both Steven Savile and Sarah Pinborough tagged me on blog posts of theirs as part of an ongoing chain of book/author recommendations called The Next Big Thing. So today it's my turn to answer the ten questions originated by Paul Magrs, then pass the reins on to five other writers who will be doing the same on their own blogs in a week's time. So, here goes...


1) What is the working title of your next book?

Pax Britannia: Time's Arrow, my eighth steampunk novel set within that particular universe.


2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

A combination of things really, as is the case with any book. There's a bit of King Kong in there, but Donkey Kong too, and Van Helsing, as well as the Hunchback of Notre Dame... But the driving force behind the plot for this book was the need to get the hero Ulysses Quicksilver back to Blighty having been away for the best part of three books!

I originally intended to go further, tying up elements that first appeared as far back as book 6, Dark Side, but then I realised I was trying too hard and decided to focus on telling a simpler story well, rather than a more complex one badly.


3) What genre does your book fall under?

Mostly definitely Steampunk. That said, anyone who's heard me speak on the subject before will know that I consider Steampunk a flavour as much as a genre, so you could also say that Time's Arrow is a sci-fi-crime-thriller-action-adventure story, with added French people.


4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Hmm... Tricky...

In my mind, Ulysses Quicksilver looks like Ulysses Quicksilver, and nobody else. That said, I could see someone like Julian Rhind-Tutt or Paul Bettany playing him on the big screen - or at least I could hear one of them playing him.

Maybe a young Sophie Marceau for the part of Cadence Bettencourt, or perhaps Louise Bourgoin.


5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Arriving at a murder scene, having travelled forward in time from the past, Ulysses Quicksilver is forced to go on the run through Paris, so that he might track down the real killer, clear his name, and save the woman he's loves from a most ill-advised trip to the moon - all befoer a terrorist known only as 'Le Papillon' brings the city to its knees.

(That's quite a long sentence, isn't it?)


6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It's published by Abaddon Books, who have published all my other Pax Britannia novels to date.


7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Now that's a hard one! The book was written in three distinct parts at three distinct times, over the course of about a year. But I suppose in total it took three months to write, which is pretty much how long any novel takes me to write.


8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

My other Pax Britannia books. ;-)

But seriously, I don't read particularly widely within the Steampunk genre for fear of subconsciously copying someone else's ideas. I've read George Mann's The Affinity Bridge, and Lavie Tidhar's The Bookman, but it's nothing like either of those.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Ulysses Quicksilver and his ongoing adventures, and the fans of the Pax Britannia series who had been so nice about my previous titles.


10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

As far as I am aware it is the first of its kind. Because it was written and published in three parts, after parts one and two became available, in each case fans were able to go online and vote for how they would like the story to continue. Their choices completely influenced the course of the adventure.

The challenge was making such a story seem like it had been written in one go when it was published in novel form. Of course, the only way to judge if I succeeded with this is to read the book yourself.


So that's me done. I'm now had to tag five other authors to take their turn at answering the questions for The Next Big Thing. As a result, next week you can read about the books coming out from John Craven's ghostwriter Cav Scott, literary mercenary Josh Reynolds, master of monsters C L Werner, World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar, and rising Black Library star Sarah Cawkwell.

The Next Big Thing - Sarah Pinborough

If there is such a thing as 'The Next Big Thing', then Sarah Pinborough is it! If you've not heard of her already, it can surely only be a matter of time before you do so.

Harridan of Horror and Mistress of Crime, she is the author of the Dog-Faced Gods trilogy and has written for television as well. And she's gorgeous.

We both had stories in Jonathan Oliver's House of Fear anthology and have since become firm friends due to a joint love of swanky awards ceremonies and dodgy discos. (There is photographic evidence of this on my Facebook page.)

Sarah is taking part in The Next Big Thing round robin blog and you can read about her forthcoming novel Mayhem here. As you will see she's also tagged me for next week.

So, see you in seven...

Writers Round-up

That's right, it's time for another round-up of what other writers have been saying lately on the Internetz.

Here's my editor Jon Oliver on choosing the right story.

Here's Sarah Pinborough on happiness.

Here's Graham McNeill on where he gets his ideas from.

Here's Rob Sanders on Jabberwocky - my own inspiration for White Rabbit.

Here's Nik Vincent on people who write too much.

And finally, here's Dan Abnett on the benefits of looking out a window.

Writers on writing

To continue my semi-regular series of posts, here's a round up of writerly-type posts I've come across over the last couple of days...

In this piece, novelist Polly Courtney explains why she has dropped her publisher HarperCollins in frustration at having her books presented as chick lit.

This link will take you to a video in which author/comedian Charlie Higson talks about writing for children and young adults.

Here's an interesting piece on the growing trend of aspiring writers not being keen readers.

Sarah Pinborough talks about 'the Blur', that place where all writers dwell, on her blog.

Anyone who's ever said they want to write, but has never actually finished anything, needs to read this post by m'colleague James Swallow.

Not exactly a writer talking about writing, but out of interest the list of books for World Book Night 2012 has been published. There are a fair few genre fiction titles on the list. Let's just hope the programming schedule for the night doesn't ignore SF/F and Horror again, like last year.

If you follow the Floor to Ceiling Books blog you'll already know that Magemanda is away on holiday. Having had her trip planned for some time, she asked her friends to write guest posts for her blog. Well she's now posted the list on her blog and my guest post 'On the Stigma of Being a Tie-In Novelist' will appear, appropriately enough, on 25 September - Games Day!

To continue the theme, William King talks about how he goes about writing a tie-in novel here.

And then, just to finish things off, here's Adelie High's latest video in which Dan Abnett talks about the very process of Writing.

House of Fear - Foyles launch

You know how I mentioned I've contributed a story to Solaris Books' House of Fear (edited by Jonathan Oliver and out this October)? Well the official Foyles launch has been announced.

It's taking place on 27th September 2011, 6:30pm - 7:30pm, at the Charing Cross Road store. You'll get a taste of the book's collection of new and original fiction and be able to join in the discussion of the ideas behind the writing of said stories with Sarah Pinborough, Christopher Priest, Paul Meloy and others.

Tickets are free but have to be booked via the Foyles website here.

Maybe I'll see you there...

Writers on... well, writing.

More writers with interesting things to say about the experience of writing.

1) Weston Ochse talks about short stories.

2) Then we have William King discussing the idea of writing 'when the mood takes you'.

3) And here, William King is very honest about how much actual writing gets done during a writer's week.

4) Sarah Pinborough is an awesome writer, as she demonstrates here in a seemingly simple blog post about haunted houses.*

5) Roz Morris has something to say on the subject of chapter breaks...

6) ... while Rob Sanders writes about soundtracks to write to.

* Sarah and I are appearing together in Solaris Books' forthcoming horror anthology House of Fear. I'll give you three guesses what the stories it contains are about...