Bad Blood has been longlisted for the 2009 Manchester Book Awards. The shortlist will be decided by the young people of Manchester in November and there will be an award ceremony at the City of Manchester Stadium, Wed March 11, 2009, for the shortlisted authors.
August 12, 2008
10 SF titles
Sara W asked me to recommend some science-fiction titles to her. An insto-list of good SF follows. I’m limiting myself to ten titles or I’ll be here all day.
- A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge
- Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
- Drinking Sapphire Wine, Tanith Lee
- Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (short stories), James Tiptree Jr
- Palace, Katherine Kerr and Mark Kreighbaum
- Permutation City, Greg Egan
- Snow Queen, Joan D. Vinge
- Steel Beach, John Varley
- The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin
- Xenogenesis trilogy, Octavia Butler
June 15, 2008
Arthur C. Clarke award judge
I’ve been invited to be a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke award.
I’ll be one of two Science Fiction Foundation nominated judges for the 2008/2009 period. I’m still grinning from ear to ear about it. As well as the prestige, fifty science-fiction novels will be winging their way to me. I don’t dare buy another book this year!
May 23, 2008
Leeds Book Award ceremony
I was a short-listed author for the Leeds Book Award and attended the award ceremony in Leeds where the winner was announced. The books are selected by Leeds students and each school did a presentation on their favourite book. The star of the event was the poet Craig Bradley, acting as Master of Ceremonies, who got everyone “rhyming it” in hip-hop style.
Unfortunately I didn’t win, the prize went to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne.
After the ceremony I signed books and talked to students and took photos with them.
Visit the events photos page to see more images from this and other events I’ve attended.
April 6, 2008
Snow
This morning I woke up to see thick white snow – in April! While probably the effect of the dreaded global warming and therefore not a good thing in planetary terms, theres something wonderful and magical about snow. All the more so when you can see blossom trees and grape hyacinths beneath it.
I went for a walk up and down the local streets and through the little Church and cemetery. For pictures of my walk, click the photo below and visit my Snow in April album on Flickr.
January 1, 2008
Night Maze by Annie Dalton
[recommended reading]
After growing up in foster homes Gerald Noone discovers that he has a family after all. The Noones live in Owlcote, a fantastic stately home, and seem to have everything.
But Gerald discovers that the family is bitterly unhappy. His adopted cousin Harriet wears gloves and claims that everything she touches is poisoned. His other cousins have allergies that threaten their lives, his aunts and uncles are also broken and his grandmother rules the house with an iron rod. Forbidden to enter the house’s maze, Gerald enters regardless but during the day time it is a simple structure of hedges and paths. Only at night does it become magical and mysterious – surrounding the riddle of what has cursed the Noone family.
I’d consider this book suitable for readers aged 12+.
August 15, 2007
Ghost
Last week my beautiful silver tabby cat Ghost was killed by a car. I had her for nine years and it’s still difficult to believe she’s gone. She will be very much missed.
My black cat Shadow, Ghost’s sister, is still with me and we are comforting each other. Anyone who has ever been owned by a cat will know how I’m feeling right now.
August 3, 2007
Bad Blood has been published
The 2nd of August was the official publication date of Bad Blood, my new horror novel. I’m really excited about this book because I think it’s my best work to date. In this novel I accomplished almost all I set out to do. (I say almost only because it’s hard for an author to achieve the platonic ideal of the book we originally conceive of writing.)
Anyway, Bad Blood is a novel about books and names, about family feuds and twsited relationships, set in a sinister landscape of imagination run wild and dangerous. Unlike my fiction to date it counts as horror but psychological horror with a quasi-magical flavour.
I don’t want to say too much and spoil the story but once people have read it we can have a discussion on the fan forums and I’ll be happy to answer any questions people have about it. There are also some brief answers to questins about it in the author area of my site.
Next week is the official launch party and I’ll be posting photos from that at some point. Meanwhile, I’m crossing my fingers and hoping everyone likes the book as much as I do.
July 21, 2007
Bad Blood – coming soon
Although the official release date isn’t until the 2nd of August, Bad Blood is already shipping from Amazon. Amid all the latest Harry Potter embargo kerfuffle it seems foolish to complain about early release when it’s a stated fact so I shall instead simply be charmed that its ‘perfect partner’ on Amazon is Frances Hardinge’s Verdigris Deep.
Friends and relations are calling with praise for the book as well and I’m still thrilled about the cover quote from Celia Rees. You can read Celia’s comments in full on the Bad Blood page.
I’ve much more to say about this book and how pleased I am with it but I shall leave my own comments for the official launch date!
July 18, 2007
Roundabout published in paperback
Roundabout was published in paperback on 7 July 2007.
Visit the Roundabout pages on my website for more information about this contempory young adult novel.