Helvellyn.

Climbed my favourite mountain in the Lake District again on Friday- the superbly beautiful Helvellyn. What was crazy (and always makes for interesting climbing and endurance, because you need to carry full winter kit) was the weather. Sunny as hell at the foot of the mountain, and ice and snow at the top - but warm enough pretty much to reach the summit in a t-shirt. Really crazy weather. Me and my mate took ice axes, and ended up helping out a few people descending Swirrel Edge over the ice. We cooked some German pork sausages on the summit with the view on the photo above... and those few other climbers out were extremely jealous of our full-fat lunch, eating, as they were, cold cheese sandwiches and crappy pasta salads. Long live the sausage!!

I also took my collie dog on the climb (now just over a year old) and she caused me some problems on the ridge descent down Swirrel. I had to drag her down a few precipices, but once she got her canine brain around it she was galloping all over the rocks and jumps like a goat-possessed.

Anybody fancying a climb, just let me know :-)

Doomdark's Revenge...

What an ace game!!

Download a Spectrum emulator right NOW!! and play it.

And look at that artwork!!

Meet Andy at Manchester Waterstones.

Just a note to say I'm doing a signing for BIOHELL at Waterstones, Deansgate, Manchester, on Saturday 21st Marchh 2009 at 2.00PM...

Meet Andy Remic Biohell
WATERSTONE'S MANCHESTER DEANSGATE
Saturday, 21 March 2009, 2:00PM
Come and meet the cult author of thrillers, science fiction and military science fiction when he signs his latest novel instore. No ticket required.
Further details: 0161 837 3000

Also check:
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=200002

Cheers

REM.
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Top 5 Spectrum Games of All Time...

OK, this is the way it works. I'm getting some WTF questions on my decision to write a Spectrum 48K game of my current novel BIOHELL. Well, this is how it goes...

Got a Spectrum when I was 13. October 1984 to be precise. I was (and am) a Spectrum-junkie game-head. Even though I was "a kid" I wrote some admittedly not-very-good-by-industry-standards games, but hell it was just fun to be a little fish in the big pond of the Speccy games industry at the time. I revelled in it. I started writing in BASIC when I was 13, and ended coding in Z80a assembly (well, at least most of my routines; sometimes they were still cobbled together by compiled code). Occasionally I would use GAC to put down ideas for an adventure game - I think this was the budding storyteller in me which eventually transmogrified into an SF/fantasy novelist. Anyway!!...

A few months back I was playing STARQUAKE by Steven Crow, my all-time fave Spec game. And I thought, shit, wouldn't it be retro-cool to write another game? I pitched the idea to my Solaris editor Dunny, who said "Go for it!" and here we are. Anyway, for the purposes of this blog I thought it might be fun for people to list their top five Spectrum games. Mine are:

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1] Starquake by Steve Crow.

2] Heavy on the Magick by Carter Follis/ Gargoyle

3] Sabre Wulf by Ultimate/ ACG.

4] Manic Miner by Matt Smith.

5] Exolon by Raf Cecco.

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(although I could go on, and on, and on/// I always said if I was to go on Mastermind against Iain Banks, then my specialist subject would by the ZX Spectrum, haha, and I'd kick his ass).

Anyway, here's an invitation to post your top 5 games here....... I'd love to hear from all you retro-Speccyphiles out there ;-)

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It's Coming ... BIOHELL for the 48K ZX Spectrum!!

And So It Begins ........

So It Begins
A Sciene Fiction Anthology

I was asked to pen a short story for this anthology, and came up with a Combat K adventure entitled "Junked", starring my favourite character triumvirate Keenan, Pippa and Franco Haggis.

Available now, in the US. Below is the official press release:

greenfirephoenix@aol.com
DARK QUEST BOOKS SIGNS AWARD-WINNING SERIES!
So It Begins Contributors Some of the Biggest Names in Military Science Fiction

HOWELL, NJ Local publisher Neal Levin and editor Mike McPhail have joined forces to produce the anthology So It Begins. This book has a lot to live up to. As the second in the Defending the Future anthology series, it follows Breach the Hull which was the winner of the 2007 Dream Realm Award for Best Anthology and a finalist for the 2007 Dream Realm Award for Cover Art. So It Begins will release in Spring 2009, though the official launch of the book will take place in Hunt Valley, Maryland on May 24th as a part of the programming of Balticon, one of the longest running science fiction convention on the East Coast.

"[Breach the Hull] kicks down the doors in a way that allows anyone access to the genre[...]it
read like a bunch of soldiers sitting around swapping stories of the wars," says Jonathan
Maberry, multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author.

Those who read science fiction, military and otherwise, will recognize such names as Jack
Campbell (“The Lost Fleet”), David Sherman (“Demon Tech”, “Jedi Trial”, “Star Fist”), John C.
Wright (“Chronicles of Chaos”), Bud Sparhawk (3 time Nebula Finalist), Charles E. Gannon (“Traveller”), and Andy Remic (“Combat K”). Added to their ranks are some very promising newcomers to the genre: Jonathan Maberry (“The Deep Pines Trilogy”), CJ Henderson (“Teddy
London”,”Jack Hagee”), Jeffrey Lyman, James Chambers, Mike McPhail, Tony Ruggiero (“Team of Darkness”, Patrick Thomas (“Murphy’s Lore”), James Daniel Ross (“Radiation Angels”), and Danielle Ackley-McPhail (“The Eternal Cycle”). With such an array of talent
participating, So It Begins is more than ready and able to carry on as the first book began.
"So It Begins has been over a year in the making,” says Mike McPhail. “We faced both old and new challenges in order to bring these original works of some of the leading (and up and coming) military science fiction authors to press. I'm honored that they have once again put their faith in us."