Category Archives: Uncategorized

This year I’ll be at 9 Worlds once again – I’m not on any programming so I’ll be mostly hanging around the bar or in the audience. Then I’ll be flying off to Finland for WorldCon I’ll be on two panels  – Thursday Aug 10   10:00 AM to 11:00 AM (1 hour) Where:  Messukeskus – 101c Tags: fantasy literature history HistoricalContinue reading “Convention news”

Part one is here Pick up pretty much any ‘How To Write’ book and they’ll tell you that in order to be a proper writer you should write every day.  Some suggest getting up an hour earlier than you need to and write for an hour. Get out of bed a whole hour earlier thanContinue reading “Doing it wrong part two: On writing every day”

A Tiding of Magpies has been shortlisted for the BFS Awards this year. I am stunned and very happy! It has some very stiff competition – Best collection The Parts We Play – Stephen Volk Secret Language – Neil Williamson Sharp Ends – Joe Abercrombie Some Will Not Sleep – Adam Nevill A Tiding ofContinue reading “British Fantasy Awards 2017”

Just a quick update post. “Doing Things Wrong Part 2” will be coming soon (for a given value of soon) and will be on the subject of writing every day. I’m working on Infinite Dysmorphia as editor (with Sammy Smith as co-editor) and that’s been keeping me busy. I’m also editing another anthology which is forContinue reading “Briefly popping in”

OK so that’s a long title! As per my blog post “Writing books and the Writer” you’ll have seen that I read a lot of writing books. Of the “How To” variety, as well as ones on language and from writers on writing. I feel moved to write a series of “Doing it Wrong” because IContinue reading “Doing it wrong (according to the ‘How to’ books) Part 1 – Keeping a Journal”

At the moment I’m planning out a novella and a novel whilst waiting for my edit to come back on Seven Deadly Swords. I’ve also got a couple of short story deadlines. But oddly I’ve got that ‘end of term’ feeling and finding it very hard to knuckle down to work. The North Bristol Writers areContinue reading “Holding pattern”

Earlier this week I sent the manuscript of Seven Deadly Swords to my editor at Grimbold. This is after a fairly hefty restructure and rewrite after the structural/developmental edit. It’s been to beta readers and they all had good comments but it seems like after extensive electronic scissors and pots of glue, moving chapters around,Continue reading “Structures and Developments”

Thirty Years of Rain – Edited by Elaine Gallagher, Cameron Johnston & Neil Williamson Published by Taverna Press (20 Sept. 2016) This is a collection of stories and poetry from members of the Glasgow science fiction writers group. When the North Bristol writers group created its first anthology North by Southwest one criticism, that we attemptedContinue reading “Some reviews”

Today’s guest post comes from Titus Chalk who has written a history of Magic: The Gathering called Generation Decks I’ve spent plenty of time playing this game but, unlike many of my friends, never got caught up in the collecting aspect of it. I saw some people spend thousands of pounds on collecting cards andContinue reading “Guest post by Titus Chalk – A lesson from Bristol”