By way of an experiment, I’ve been trying to get in the habit of writing an occasional, actual newsletter, as opposed to just some once or twice a year blast of I HAVE BOOK OUT BUY IT NOW sent to the poor, unfortunate souls who subscribe to my mailing list. By way of a further experiment, I thought I'd tweak it a little and also post it up on my official writerly-type Facebook page, and now here it is, at last, on my actual blog. This got emailed out a good few weeks ago, so if you want to hear from me sooner, sign up to my mailing list.
Before I get to the news part, the ebook of SCIENCEVILLE AND OTHER LOST WORLDS is now available on most non-Amazon ebook sites, including iBooks, Kobo, Barnes & Noble etc (I'm still working on a few others, such as Google Play). So if you prefer getting your ebooks from places other than Amazon, click the following link and choose your preferred store: books2read.com/u/bP58lj
In the next couple of days, I'll be workshopping DOOMSDAY GAME, a sequel to EXTINCTION GAME and SURVIVAL GAME with some fellow writers here in Taipei. If you bought my short fiction collection SCIENCEVILLE AND OTHER LOST WORLDS, one of the stories, THE LONG FALL, is in fact drawn from it.
I've actually been serialising DOOMSDAY GAME on my Patreon for a while now: about two thirds of the book has been posted so far. There’s other stuff in there, like deleted chapters from SURVIVAL GAME and other bits and pieces. I post new chapters from DOOMSDAY GAME roughly every two weeks.
I don’t yet have a set publication date for DOOMSDAY GAME. When it comes out depends on a lot of things being sorted out first. When I have some idea, I’ll let you know. But right now, the only way to read it is to join my Patreon which, for your information, would cost you a quid a month. That's all.
Otherwise, I have a novella doing the rounds of publishers. One has expressed interest, but traditional publishing being very, very slow, I don't yet know if that's going to lead to something.
Right now, I'm working on a novelette called WARSUIT. It will surely gladden the heart of many of you that it’s a return to the kind of far-future hard sf I’m best known for.
Why novellas and short stories and not full novels? Mainly because while I was writing novels, I had ideas for other stories that didn’t necessarily need a full novel to tell, and now I have the opportunity to write them.
Curiously, many books now sold as novellas aren't much different in length from what would have been considered a full-length ‘novel’ up to, I think, the late 70s. It's a great way to tell a story at exactly the length it needs to be, which has the advantage of letting you tell more stories with the same amount of effort.
I’ve otherwise been planning out a separate series of linked novellas, starting, hopefully, with MOON MAN, set in the 19th Century. It's about gunmen, P.T. Barnum, and something otherworldly. A second will be in the 1980s and a third in the 2050s. NEW WRITERS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
I just finished reading OCTOBER SONG by a new writer from Scotland, RU Pringle, at the suggestion of our mutual agent JOHN JARROLD. The novel is a gripping, almost Banksian thriller set in a near-future Scotland. It's currently on pre-order, and I should be telling you more about that very shortly.
MURDERBOT
Probably the reading surprise of the year for me so far has been Martha Wells' novella ALL SYSTEMS RED. It’s a far-future story of a security android who is both more and less than human. If you’re looking for a quick read that’ll stay with you, I can’t think of anything better.
ON CHILDREN
Of all the things I didn’t expect to come across, a Taiwanese version of Black Mirror would be pretty high on the list (if you weren’t aware, I live in Taipei, in the Far East). It’s on Netflix, so if you’re subscribed to that service there’s a pretty good chance you have it too, wherever you are. I’ve only started watching it, but it does seem to me to nail some aspects of Taiwanese culture pretty firmly. Worth checking out.
CURRENTLY BINGEING:
Elementary. How can this be so good? I’m already a third of the way through the fourth season.
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