Coming in December …
Hanging out with HP Lovecraft and Ramsey Campbell, amongst others …
Tag: writing
You should read the Sean Duffy books if you aren’t already, OK?*
I was saving Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy series of Belfast noir novels for a longer post. However. Fighting sleep. Must do something. Just spent 31 hours airport to airport Sydney to Amsterdam. Had #4 in the series, Gun Street Girl with me. The only complaint was that I finished it before Hong Kong. There’s a […]
Read it for sex, and not the other thing
There’s sex and too much religion. This one is hard to judge as it’s hard to “get”. Thank you ABC Australia for your ever so incisive assessment of Emily Fridlund’s “History of Wolves”*. There’s “sex”, is there? That’s unusual. Some “sex” in a modern novel, hmmm. But not too much, apparently. Nor not enough. Just “sex”. […]
His “Dutch” Period
In centuries to come, when literary experts comment upon my oeuvre, as they no doubt shall, they will remark of my Dutch period that my characters spend much of their time climbing up or down stairs, and complaining about aches in their legs. In the words of Dr Zachary Smith, the pain, the pain … […]
Fly like a Vogel …
Great news – At the Edge, a wonderful anthology of speculative fiction by New Zealand (New Zealandian?) and Australian writers, won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collected Work. And you will immediately see my self interest at work when I congratulate editors Lee Murray and Dan Rabarts for their win, and thank them […]
Well played, straight bat and a fine century
Aurealis, a much loved and very entertaining science fiction and fantasy magazine that also happens to be Australian*, has released its 100th edition. In the world of genre periodicals, this is an excellent achievement. Congratulations to all involved, well played! *And just happened once upon a time, way back in edition #68, to include […]
Bangs and whimpers
Surprise Cancer too is a prize You don’t have to queue at the newsagent’s to buy a ticket They slip it in with the teddy bear, the beatrix potter china setting, the first photograph album, unnoticed. The final draw may be foreshadowed in the missed stitch in the booties grandma made put aside, only used […]
Comfortable Man
My daughter, reading an internet quiz to me: “What super power would you like to have?” I responded, “The power to turn red into green at traffic lights”. The next day, walking to the bus stop, thinking about work, it came to me. My secret desire. What I have wanted my whole life. To be […]
Presumption
My good friend Stephen suffered a great loss recently, and there is little I can do for him, other than let him know that I am thinking of him. It is not my place to share that loss. I have written a bit here about my dear friend, and how much he shapes what is […]
Grappling with 2017
The coming soon is coming sooner. Long awaited, the second volume of the Grapple Annual is, I hear, coming this way. If not just around the corner, then surely it is just down the street and couple of blocks to the left. Some rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Canberra to […]
Nobody is looking 