Alt Fiction 2008

Ach, have been struck down by Ebola. Or maybe Man Flu. Or certainly something highly toxic to the human organism (that's organism right?!). So the upshot is I won't be attending. But then, I wasn't doing anything, so it doesn't matter. Yeah? And Stross talks enough for 10, nay, 20 SF writers. So that's OK then. :-)

REM of the DEAD

Andy Remic, after a recent infusion of NANOBOTS. See what vanity can do to you? See? See!? I leave you to make your own comments...

GHOSTS.

In recent years I've been a big fan of Nine Inch Nails. Like every other musician with which I engage, I go through phases, and sadly, my NIN phase was killed when I saw them live. £20 to see a stage of dry-ice for 90 minutes is not my idea of fun. However.......

My nephew directed me back to NIN's website recently. Trent Reznor has released a 4-album instrumental work, and you can dowload the first 9 tracks free. Yes! FREE! Cheap as chips!! Then, the next 27 tracks are only $5. Cheaper than a pint of Wife-Beater, my friend.

And... GHOSTS is absolutely ace!! Not some cast-off crap sub-B side recording; but pure genius, and very good to write to (which is unusual for me).

Anyway, check out http://www.nin.com/, and click on GHOSTS.

'Nine Inch Nails presents Ghosts I - IV, a brand new 36 track instrumental collection available right now. Almost two hours of new music composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I - IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.
Trent Reznor explains, "I've been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I'm very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of Ghosts.'

Hope you enjoy!!

Another Good War Machine Review

Got a friendly email from my mate Ian Watson [author of Orgasmachine and Mockymen, amongst many, many others] telling me about another great review of War Machine, this time in Prism, The Newsletter of the British Fantasy Society, March 2008 http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/. This makes about the eleventh or twelth good review of my book (the only bad one being Saxon Bullock's SFX diatribe), so this made me feel happy in a warm, gooey kind of way. It uses phrases like "The whole is inventive and original, particularly the final showdown" and "Definitely one for fans of Warhammer type stuff, but with more brains (in the writing, not on the floor!".

Thank you very much, Mr Steve Dean!!

Donnie Darko.

Yes yes, I know, I'm late getting round to seeing this movie. But wow, it was worth it. An incredible film, complex, intelligent, beautifuly shot, and with a superb series of twists. Did Donnie really travel the path of his own future and then decide to travel a portal back, thus righting the wrongs he had unintentionally created, whilst at the same time causing those who suffered to glimpse the possibility of their own futures and thus adapt their lifestyles because of this? Or was he simply mad as a silver-headed rabbit? Was Sparrow checking her mail box for Donnie's letter, having seen this in her own future episode? Did she stand in the road continually because she knew she was the catalyst which would cause Donnie's girlfriend's death, and thus send him on a path of redemption, seeking to alter his own past with self-sacrifice and thus spare those around him? Or was he simply an alien-infused human operating at a completely different level to the human shells surrounding him? And what of God? And we have the corruption of our time/space construct by an object from the future which needs to be returned to the future to stop the present ending! Wow wow. What an ace film!!

In contrast, I'm spending quite a bit of time with my mom, who's been released after a 6 month stint in the hospital. Unfortunately, this also meant I had to sit through an episode of Coronation Street yesterday. I haven't seen this crap for about 10 years and- guess what? It has got, if you can believe this, even worse. Never have I seen such appaling acting outside a Big Brother event. Never have I seen such badly concocted dialogue. And the acting! Did I mention the acting? Baboons in wigs would have done better.

So, when offered the gift of laying something memorable down on film, the genius Richard Kelly offers Donnie Darko and.... some muppets waste precious seconds of my life with Coronation Street. Never again, y'hear? Never!!

The Snow Queen Cometh.

I picked up my new Suzuki SV (I'm a sucker for v-twins) yesterday. Need to do 600 miles before I can hammer the f*** out of it to that 11000 redline. Yeah, I thought, I'll stick down a few hundred miles on Sunday... then, WTF! Snow! You're joking! It's damn April... I'm sure our year is out by a few hours. Every year, winter seems to shuffle forward a bit. I'll have to wait till the kids are in school next week now before I put down some mileage- I can feel a trip to Glasgow coming on. What an ace city.

Chronicles of the Necromancer.

I've been invited to do a podcast chat with Gail Z. Martin, author of The Summoner and The Blood King. It's on the subject of censorship, which should be interesting because the stuff I write is subversive and horrific and (in the words of Christian Dunn, sick sick sick), and yet when I was an English teacher I was active in stopping the kiddies writing anything subversive and horrific and sick sick sick... we'll see what happens, anyway. It's also interesting to note that I was recently censored (sob!) in my latest novel BIOHELL, which is currently "in-edit". They took out my zombie sex scene. The heathens! What's the matter with you people? Can't you handle some funky human on zombie action??

Gail's website is at http://www.chroniclesofthenecromancer.com/page/page/3827767.htm and the podcast should be published there shortly after Tuesday 8th April.

Blue Monday.

I’ve been reading Jeffrey Thomas’ Blue War recently, and I’m very impressed. Tightly written, intricately plotted, and moodily evocative with brooding blue jungle and the expanding threat of the cloned city, I’m enjoying this fine piece of SF thoroughly. Jeremy Stake is as gritty and tough as usual, and a fine character with which to empathise/ sympathise (although, bizarrely, he reminds me of ol’ rubber face himself, Rowan Atkinson). I’ll give you my full verdict when I’ve finished the text, but I’m a slow reader (I like to absorb, baby, absorb!!).

I’d also like to point out that I’m not a critic, and certainly not arrogant enough to presume my point of view is worthwhile in the public domain. Hey, I leave that to the professional critics. And I only highlight works I’ve enjoyed; after all, and plagiarising the words of Stephen King, if there’s something I don’t like then my mamma gave me the good grace to keep my damn mouth shut.

But… if you haven’t yet, then check out Blue War. Recommended!!