Story news from me this week as the Glasgow SF Writers’ Circle launch their Flotation Device, a new charity anthology, plus some disappointing news about an upcoming event.
Tag: Hal Duncan
This weekend, the debut run of Scotland’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival, CYMERA, kicks off in Edinburgh. If you’re planning on heading up, down, or over, here’s where you can catch me.
Readings, a workshop and more – here are my official plans for March and April.
March 15th – BFS Open Night (Waterstones Argyle Street, 6:30pm)
My next reading will be part of the British Fantasy Society’s Glasgow Open Night on 15th March. Joining host Shona Kinsella (Ashael Rising, Mirnya’s Oath), Neil Williamson (The Moon King, Secret Language), and I (other stuff) will be R. J. Barker, author of Age of Assassins, and we’ll all be reading and chatting about fantastic things for your entertainment. The night kicks off at 6:30pm on 15th March at Waterstones Argyle Street, Glasgow. For more details, see the Waterstones event page or Facebook event page.
If you can’t make this, I’ll also be doing a warm-up reading as part of the MLitt in Fantasy Reading Party on 7th March at DRAM! If you’re interested in attending this, please let me know and I’ll pass on the details.
March 30th – April 1st – Eastercon: Follycon (Harrogate)
More on this soon! Click here for details of my full schedule!
April 5th – From Glasgow to Saturn: Issue 40 Launch (The Raven, 6pm)
From Glasgow to Saturn will be holding a launch party for issue 40 at The Raven in Glasgow on 5th April. We’ll be hosting readings from some of this issue’s authors and poets, plus music, an open mic, and the infamous FGTS raffle. This is the first issue for which I’ve been an editor, so I’d love to see you there.
Update: Click here for the facebook event page!
April 7th – Workshop at Edinburgh International Science Festival (Summerhall, 2pm)
Edinburgh area writers, I’ll be joining Oliver Langmead (Dark Star, Metronome) for ‘Discovering New Worlds Through Writing: A Creative Writing Workshop’ as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival on 7th April. We’ll be taking you through exercises on exploring the galaxy, new worlds, and what it takes to get there – and this will be the first workshop I’ve given! Be warned this event will be limited availability, so best pick your ticket up sooner rather than later. The workshop runs from 2pm – 4pm on 7th April at the Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Summerhall. Click here to buy tickets.
April 26th – 27th – GIFCon 2018 (University of Glasgow)
Finally, GIFCon 2018 takes place over 26th – 27th April at the University of Glasgow. If you’ve submitted an abstract to the event, you should be hearing from us soon, but in the meantime, please keep an eye on our twitter, facebook, and instagram accounts, and on our website for announcements of details of how to register.
Hope to see you at one of these!
In the meantime, Shoreline of Infinity have uploaded video footage from February’s Event Horizon — where Hal Duncan, Neil Williamson and I staged a GSFWC invasion — to their facebook page. You’ll find us starting at about 1 hour 13 minutes in.
2018 already has a bunch of events in the works, and the first is in Edinburgh on Thursday 8th February.
Event Horizon will feature a showcase of writers from the GSFWC, including magnificent speculative and slipstream author Hal Duncan, the masterful “Laureate of Loss” Neil Williamson and, well, me. It’ll be another splendid night from the folks at Shoreline of Infinity, and you can find the full line-up in the image below – or by clicking here. The night kicks off at 7:30pm on Thursday 8th February at Frankenstein Edinburgh.
In the meantime, my Horror flash piece ‘The Anniversary’ has had some very kind comments as part of reviews of Black Static 61. So, if you need a little incentive to come out to Edinburgh next month, here are a few of them so far:
TANGENT ONLINE
“Beautifully written, it is elegant, timeless, and deeply painful in all its tragedy… It is the high note within this issue.”
https://www.tangentonline.com/print–bi-monthly-reviewsmenu-260/219-black-static/3703-black-static-61-novemberdecember-2017
GRIM READER REVIEWS
“A work of poetic yet ugly storytelling and one that will stay with you for some time after.”
https://beavisthebookhead.com/2017/12/10/magazine-review-black-static-61/
And possibly the most poetic review I’ve ever had:
DES LEWIS’ GESTALT REAL-TIME REVIEWS
“A tantalising pearl of fiction as love’s requital – a pearl to scry, to smile or to gurn?”
https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2017/11/17/black-static-61/#comments
Thank you to Seraph, Adrian, and Des for your kind comments.
So, see you in Edinburgh next month, then?
Categories
Thirty Years of Rain
During the near two years I tried and failed to move to Glasgow, two things anchored me to my goal: firstly, my good friends who live and work in the city. Secondly, the thought of the passionate, creative community I would be joining when I moved here. At the point I’d begun to wonder if I’d ever make it up, the folks of the Glasgow SF Writers Circle invited me to make good on the handful of meetings I’d made as a visitor, and join as a full member. It was the foothold I needed in the city. From that moment, I didn’t look back.
A year on from that day, I’m proud to say a poem of mine has found its way into Thirty Years of Rain, the new anthology celebrating the 30th anniversary of the celebrated crit group. It’s fitting that while this book features many of the Circle’s most famous alumni, it also showcases some startlingly original work from up-and-coming writers too: Louise Welsh, Hal Duncan, Gary Gibson, Neil Williamson, Amal El-Mohtar, TW Moses, Heather Valentine, Eliza Chan, Peter Morrison, and many more besides. Thirty Years of Rain is not just a taste of the myriad fall from the group, but hopefully a foreshadowing of bigger things to come.
Edited by Neil Williamson, Elaine Gallagher and Cameron Johnston, and with layout by Hal Duncan and photography by Andrea Heins, Thirty Years of Rain is available now in paperback (Amazon/Lulu) and ebook (Kindle/Other Formats).
Alternatively, if you’re in the Glasgow area, why not join us this Friday 30th September (anyone would think we’d planned it that way, eh?) at Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street? We’ll be launching the book at 7pm, with readings, chat and more, plus the biggest gathering of contributors we can muster.
Here’s the official facebook page (ignore the bit about reservations – you can just turn up). Hope to see you there!