So the very first thing I have to talk about today is, wonderfully, this. My novelette, ‘The Copenhagen Interpretation’, has been nominated for a Locus Award. Since I’m up against Peter Beagle (one of my wife’s favourite authors, so she’s been strangely quiet about the whole thing), Kelly Link, Geoff Ryman and the SF Squeecast’s own Cat Valente, I doubt I’ll get any further, but in such company it’s a joy to even be nominated. Good luck to so many friends among all the categories.
Having said that, a bigger thrill was that today I heard our baby’s heartbeat for the first time. It went thumpthumpthumpthump. It seems hearts start beating very fast and get slower as they get bigger. Probably the best way to do it. I find this impending parenthood lark has me smiling stupidly a lot of the time.
Demon Knights #9 is out on Wednesday, and is a splendid jumping on point for new readers, starting as it does a new series of adventures for the medieval anti-heroes. You can see a preview here.
This week I’ve been writing the (so far untitled) sequel to London Falling, and checking the copy edits on the former book. It’s also been a packed social whirl, which isn’t over yet. On Tuesday evening I went to the opening of the Sci-Fi London film festival, and met some lovely folk. I’m one of the judges of their 48 Hour Film Challenge, more about which later on, but right now I should say that I found the ten films on the short list to be of a very high standard, speaking well for the future of British direction, editing and special effects. (I was told a brilliant story that evening, which you’ll hear about later in the blog.)
Then, on Wednesday, I was first interviewed for a forthcoming classic series Doctor Who DVD, then wandered over to the Clarke Awards, where I gave myself the task of tweeting the fashions on the ‘red carpet’. (It’s always good, I feel, to have something to do.) Here are a few of the folk I captured for posterity…
Lou Morgan in Zara and with shiny shoes.
Organiser Tom Hunter in bespoke Italian silk.
Danie Ware and Sarah Anne Langton of Forbidden Planet in ‘the full Bet Lynch’.
David Monteith of Geek Syndicate in ‘a dream of Victoriana where the world is predominantly black’.
Orbit’s Jenni Hill with a Transmetropolitan necklace.
And I think it was Danie who grabbed my phone and got her own back (there’s organiser Louis Savy behind me).
And several of my better photos got used on the Tor blog, where you can also see video of Jeff Noon announcing that Jane Rogers had won with The Testament of Jessie Lamb. All in all, it was a splendid ceremony, well organised, serious, fun and informative. The Clarkes continue to present perhaps the best public face of British SF. The original bequest of money from the Clarke estate has now run out, so for the first time this year, we were asked to pay to attend, and various successful efforts have been made to raise money to provide the prize for the winner. The newest initiative in support of the Clarkes is Pandemonium, an anthology of stories based on the work of the painter John Martin. Some of the proceeds will go to the Clarkes, and the book is well worth your time.
This week I also want to mention three equally good causes: May is ME Awareness Month, and the Let’s Do it for ME charity have lots of suggestions for how you can help in the fight against this terrible condition. This is a very personal cause for me, an ex of mine being a sufferer, and it’s also something close to the hearts of everyone who works on the Bernice Summerfield series. Please do whatever you can to help.
The Locus Archive Project is an attempt by Locus magazine to digitize and curate their enormous archive of photos, recorded interviews and other ephemera covering the history of SF. They’ve had a vastly successful Kickstarter campaign, and in the last couple of days they’ve set themselves a new target. There are some wonderful backer rewards to be had.
And finally, on a sillier note, SF-friendly comedian Joe Scrimshaw, a friend of mine from the Convergence convention, and someone who’s done his part in turning Just A Minute into a comedy circuit favourite in Minnesota, is using Kickstarter to (again, successfully) fund a book, Comedy of Doom which, as you’ll see in his video, covers such topics as Doctor Who and Star Wars. There are again some great rewards. I promise you a good time. He promised me drinks.
So, as I said above, loads of people have been working on getting short films together for the Sci-Fi London challenge, including the Guerrier brothers, Simon and Tom, the latter of whom was working the camera on that Doctor Who interview I mentioned above, both of them being well known to that fandom. They didn’t make the deadline for submitting their entry, as the detail in a very interesting blog post about how they approached the contest. The blog also features this finished piece, Revealing Diary. These two have already won awards with their film work, and, along with many of the talented directors and editors uncovered by the contest, I think they’re creators to watch out for in the future.
And on that same subject, I’ve decided to start featuring new fiction by upcoming SFF writers on the blog. I hope to present a new story every week, and today we begin Fiction Fridays with ‘Robbers’, a short, tough, city fantasy story by Fran Terminiello. Do let her know what you think.
Now, this is that anecdote I was told at Sci-Fi London, which I think is pretty damn romantic, in the most geeky way possible. The person who told it to me did so because she’d just realised who I was, and found having met me to be a bit of a coincidence to say the least. Take it away Kate Dickson…
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