Talking of Pre-Ordering...

My pal Jacey Bedford's debut Sf novel, Empire of Dust, comes out today, from Daw.

Repeat: Empire of Dust. Jacey Bedford. From DAW?

If you haven't heard anything about it but you like fast action, far future soft - ie character-driven - SF and b***** good writing, then do check it out. The official blurb will be enough to make you look further.
 There, now you have to check, don't you?

And yes, I did pre-order my copy, so as with Undercity I'm afraid I'm ahead of you again. :)

But you can easily catch up on this one.

Review: Undercity, by Catherine Asaro - 5* :)

Undercity, by Catherone Asaro, from Baen Books.


[Please note: This comes out Dec 2nd, so if it sounds like your sort of book - it was certainly mine - you might have to make a note on your calendar. Or pre-order?


Bhaajan, former major in the Skolian Space Command, is now a civilian, hard-bitten PI who has deliberately put her past behind her. but the kidnapping of a prince drags her back to the past - the undercity of her home planet. only there can she find the clues to solve this crime, and a lot more.

Despite her pedigree I'm embarrassed to own I didn't know this writer. Maybe the publishers should target the UK next? either way, I'm hooked, both on her writing and her Skolian universe.

Basically, this book had everything I wanted; strong characters, a new and unique world, and a plot that isn't as simple as it first appears.

Wish I'd written it. [Sigh.]

I read this book almost in one gulp and already have another loaded to read. What better compliment can one pay?

Bristolcon 2014, Worth Going South For. :)

So, Bristolcon. Friends kept telling me it was good and I should try it, but for a couple of years things just got in the way, so it was part curiosity and maybe part guilt that got me there this time. I'm really glad I did.

The con is officially one day, Saturday, but a surprising number of people arrived Friday, as I did, so as not to miss anything, and there was a writers' equivalent of a folk evening that night in the bar - a very nice idea, though I could wish it had been in a separate room.

The day itself was busy and very well organised, even though I'm told one of the usual organisers had to be absent. The programme had three rooms almost constantly busy with panels, talks and workshops, plus a dealers' room, plus a con room. I managed to get invited onto three programme irems, which was a surprise; a panel on writing problems, moderating a talk on why YA fiction appeals, and running a writers' challenge, open to anyone who fancied having a go.

This was great fun, and especially pleasing, as some of us overran the time by half and I went a bit mad and read a short story that had grown out of such a workshop. It earned me some applause, and a big laugh at the end, which was reward enough, but then there was cake there for us as well - lots of cake - from the nice organisers, in case we needed extra inspiration!

What else? Well, I guess I should say that the hotel was a good choice, convenient from the train station with a big bar area plus a separate con room that even stocked free tea and coffee on a help yourself basis. And a dealer's room better than some I've seen, which hooked me into a bracelet, though I managed to resist more books because I somehow ended up with several freebies anyway and couldn't carry any more!

I met friends, as one does, but my overall impression was of how relaxed and successful everything was from start to finish - and the finish segued into what was promised to be a "truly terrible" film which con-goers had free entry to, so it was a very full use of that one day definition.

Me, I'll certainly be back for another go. This time I'll even remember to check the ticket in my programme to see if I win in the raffle . Definitely slipped up there, as one prize was a free next year's  membership.

review: 4 * Sorrow, by John Lawson.

This one is tagged as adult but I think a lot of YA readers might like it too.

Faina, ward - or hostage - to a noble house - dances dreamily through the days, and fails to fit into her current life.

Sorrow, the almost invisible assassin, kills but then weeps black tears over the corpses.

Lord Ash, right hand of the king, adviser, investigator and if need be also assassin, comes to solve a spate of recent noble killings, a breath of very cold air among the wealthy and well born.

This is a story that's going to stick in my mind, so I'm passing it along to yours. The plot is suitably twisted, the ending not perhaps what you will expect, and the characters strong and fairly unique. And the writing, or the overall impression, was... haunting.

Try it and see if you agree?

Sorrow, from Dragonwell Publishing, came out in September. 

Late again.

Ouch, has it really been that long since I was here last?

What can I say, real life got interesting. I never planned to live online. Though it sometimes feels like it. The Orbit groups are rearranging a bit, which means lots of emails flying hither and thither for the last week or so. Happily I think we're almost done there, and hopefully everyone will eventually be happy in their new nest.

Between times, there seem to be a lot of emails anyway, and a few facebook messages, half of which I confess I read but probably don't comment on - who needs my comment anyway.

Between these there were scripts to crit for Orbit, which I'm almost there on, and now more scripts for the upcoming NorthwriteSF meetup, including making sure my own piece for that was as decent as I could make it before they tear it apart again for me.

Then I's also decided to put a rough draft into printable form, which meant facing up to 300-plus pages of very rough scribble and trying to translate it all into neat typescript. I am, at this point, past the halfway mark, which is maybe why I'm allowing myself to look around and see what I haven't done.
Setting a story on the page at this point in its life is daunting, if only because that also means I know my next task will be to revise it, but at least I know now how it all ends which makes more sense of the revisions. Maybe for some of you that isn't a problem; maybe you plot before you write? If so I envy you; I would if I could, but when I attempt it the story slithers away and dies on me. For me, apparently, writing is all about finding out what happens next. If I already know, I can't write it. Strange? Yes. Part of the fun? That too.

So I'm officially a 'pantster' - I write by the seat of. If I hadn't been sure already Jaine Fenn confirmed it during her recent writing challenge. [If you come across one on offer in the future, sign up at once!] Faced with the two options, I managed to shift both of them into my method, even though they weren't to start with. Hey ho.

If you are going to Bristolcon in a couple of weeks, maybe you'll fancy my  writing challenge. 45 minutes of it available for a small group. Or one of the panels I'm sitting in on. Feel free to come and say hello anyway. That's part of the fun too.

Life in an English Village

I walked down into my village today to hit the post office and have a coffee at my local bakery, to find that not one but six different groups of morris dancers and clog dancers had come to visit, choosing a spot dead centre, next to the lower dam, where the ducks would get as good a view as the humans. If you haven't come across these before they are a leftover from medieval times, and often still mix dance with a story element.

So as well as coffee - yes and cake, this was the baker's - I got treated to a free dance concert across the way; a whole crowd of them, mainly men, in lots of different historic costumes; painted faces, knee breeches, sashes, ribbons, bells, sticks, kerchiefs, flowered hats, ostrich feathers, you name it. A great sight. And then there were their various musicians. I spotted drums, a guitar, and a collection of accordians from large to small. Small wonder a crowd gathered, and applause was the order of the day.

After that the groups were apparently heading on to a local stately home - that's what we Brits call our old, historic mansions etc - to perform there. Nice to know we're on a par with the best!

Why us? Good question. I live in a village almost in the middle of England called Lymm. It's just south of Manchester, but nowhere near as famous! Though we have a website if you're curious.

It has an ancient cross on cobblestones in the centre, and it being summer here there are hanging baskets along the main streets [all two of them]. A canal goes right through it, regularly stocked with ducks, swans and canal boats - you might call them barges - and other craft taking advantage of the 48 hour moorings to stop and walk off their decks straight into the village pubs, shops etc. And yes, I guess the place is friendly as well as picturesque. So I suppose it is a good place for the Morris Men to choose.

I don't suppose, and certainly don't suggest, that all English villages are like this, but a few lucky ones have managed to deal with modernity and stay essentially community-minded, and to a fair extent mine has done both.
Explains why I'm reluctant to move, huh?
[Luckily, maybe, not many people here know too much about my involvement in SF, or my upcoming novel. :-) ]

PS_ I'll try to remember to add more 'village life' from time to time as things occur here, for anyone who finds it interesting, or maybe a little different from their own localities, wherever you are.

Predators, or Preditors? Heard the quote; "Money flows to the Writer"?

I've just been chatting, online of course, to a writer in the UK who feels let down by her publisher. During our exchange I realised that she had been scammed into paying for her first 2 books to be 'published' before working out it was a con.

As many of us know, this happens, and sometimes the cost of knowing better can be very high, both in cash and trust and disillusion. So I'm repeating the warning I once got from more experienced writers, because it never hurts to pass it along.

And so, a cautionary tale...
Not so long ago another writer told me about meeting with an agent, who bought an expensive lunch, offered to represent the writer and asked for a modest 'stationery costs' subsidy to get things rolling. Since the agent had just spent more than that, on lunch, the writer agreed.

Over the next few weeks, then months, the agent kept the writer informed by email as to which publisher had taken a look and declined, then that one major publisher was very interested, and finally that one of their editors had made an offer. Wonderful!

At which point the writer contacted said editor to say thanks - and discovered she had never heard of him, and never read the manuscript.

Worse, when the writer started spreading the word it transpired they were by no means the only victim, there were a while bunch of them out there. Worse still, while our writer had previous publishing credit, most of the rest had none, and to put it bluntly, had been encouraged to believe their manuscripts were a great deal more likely to find publishers than they actually were, being at best first draft standard.

But weren't they entitled, inexperienced or not, to think otherwise, if an agent bought them lunch...?

To cut a long story short, in the case of my more recent exchange, I mentioned checking out Preditors and Editors before taking the plunge, assuming this writer would know of them.
 They didn't. But they checked them out straight away, because they emailed me right back, to say how cheered they were to discover the publisher they'd fallen foul of was already blacklisted there.

Not quite a happy ending, but it's something, I guess, that she knows a place to look next time?

As I said to her, trust isn't always enough. Always check things out, anywhere you possibly can.
 And never pay them, unless you know that's what you intended.

 "Money flows to the writer."
Not the other way round.