Egad, and there I went and forgot to mention Fantasycon, to which I hied myself a coupla weeks ago in the princely and redoubtable company of Neil Williamson and Al Duncan - yes, indeedy, it was....an experience, and a half. Well, the hotel gave me this room, see, which must have been sited right above a sauna or somesuch since the temperature was definitely in the high 20's, add to which the sound of some kind of machinery running continuously outside my window. I`m a light sleeper, for my sins, and when it got to 5.45 I realised that sleep was impossible so I lay back and listened to some music on the mp3 player (new Massive Attack, and Red Giant `Devil Child Blues`). Thankfully the hotel gave me another room for the Saturday night, but Saturday itself was a struggle, nay, a personal experiment in sleep deprivation!
Some good stuff during the con, tho - Raymond Feists interview was a good one, and gave me a pointer with regard to dialogue (that effective dialogue should do 3 things, something intentional, something gratuitous, and something habitual); later on was Clive Barker's interview which was utterly fascinating - I once met the man ages ago when he was doing a signing tour for Weaveworld (it was on the 7th September at the Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow - I had a friend who was assistant manageress at a book store on Byres Rd and she got me the intro)(I mean he signed my copy and did a Clivedoodle as well - whaddaguy!) - so his talk/interview was excellent and provoked thoughts in me about what fantasy and SF does and what it means....and I think I`ve figured out a semi-definition, which also happens to be a riposte to those who try to denigrate our field. And it goes like this -
Yes, sure, reading sf and fantasy and horror IS escapism, but it's an escape into meaning not away from it.
Well, what do ya think?.....huh, well same to you, buster!
On the Saturday night we held a gathering in remembrance of David Gemmell who died just a few weeks ago - I never got to meet the man but his writing affected me profoundly; his concise prose and sharply delineated characters will always stand as a salutary lesson for fantasy writers everywhere.
And on Saturday night myself, Neil and Al went on the obligatory nosh-hunt, ending up at a terrific Thai place in Nottingham town centre - the food was outstanding, as was the company!
The journey back included a stopoff at a Burgerking - hey, we were hungry - at which I was treated to an astonishing wee tub of luscious icecream. Beat the hell out of the rest of the stuff we ate.
So, next convention is probably going to be Eastercon in Liverpool next year (altho I`d like to get to Novacon, but that depends on the ol` cashflow - I`ve a couple of pressing matters that need attending to) but we`ll see.
And do I need to point out that we are governed by self-seeking, self-deluded fools whose spines turn to jelly whenever the Americans blow their nose? Of course I don`t.
Funny thing, writing. It's like a well that refills itself, usually when you're not looking. Which is a good thing when other sources in life run dry. As you'll know, my Shadowkings trilogy has reached its culmination with book 3, Shadowmasque, published in mass-market edition early August. I had hoped that Simon & Schuster would support it by reprinting additional copies of book one, Shadowkings, but sadly this is not to be. Such that now if you go to the likes of Amazon UK you`ll see that the massmarket edition of Shadowkings is no longer available, nor are there any 2nd hand copies for sale, but look at the trade paperback edition and you`ll see that, as of today, there are 3 copies for resale priced 18.07, 23.03, and 30.53 respectively.
I`m not quite sure what to make of this. In fact, when you take a look at Amazon US there are 3 sellers selling at 8.95, 20, and 21.40, and thats in dollars. On AbeBooks prices begin at £9 and go up to £18.75, while on Ebay UK there is a copy going for £2.50 (+2.50 p&p). I provide this data purely as a public information service. Hmm - mebbe I should put one of my remaining copies on Ebay and make some of the money that might otherwise go to the publisher (heh heh!)
Anyway, enough whingeing - onwards and upwards! My contract with Orbit/Little Brown is confirmed and my next story will be a galaxy-spanning epic going under the rubric of Humanity's Fire; book one is entitled `Seeds of Earth` and is scheduled for publication in - wait for it - late spring 2008. But worry not, for tasters and excerpts in various forms shall emerge into the public's eye before then, enough to tempt and generate a soupcon of anticipation!
Stay tuned for more updates.
