I'm pleased to say that I'm one of the Guests of Honour at Andromeda One, a new one day SF convention in Birmingham with a feminist outlook. The other GoH is the great Jaine Fenn, and there are loads of other guests, including Marie O'Regan and Ian Whates. I really like the feel of what this lot are trying to do, and the idea of a group ticket (five people get in for the price of four) sounds excellent. I hope to see you there.
And similarly fun, on November 6th, Dark Horse will be releasing a hardcover collection of the first five issues of Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover's wonderful e-comic Bandette, with an introduction by me!
I love Bandette, and it's an honour to have been asked to talk about it.
Okay, back to the keyboard I go. Well, actually, at the moment it's back to cooking veg for Tom, but you know what I mean. Cheerio!
Just popped in to note that I've written a new X-Position blog, answering questions from readers about the Wolverine run so far and where we'll be going in the future. And there's a reveal of Alan Davis' lovely cover for #9, featuring a rather surprising villain. Cheerio!
Sorry it's been such a long time since the last post. I've been looking after Tom a bit more this week, because various job things took Caroline away. But the list of things to tell you about has now got too long to ignore.
First up, tomorrow is of course new comics day, and Wolverine #4 will be in your comics shops (and in your digital stores from sometime in the afternoon). You can see the first four pages of lovely Alan Davis art (and our two variant covers this issue, from Salvador Larroca and a 'through the ages' one) here. This issue marks the end of our first story arc, 'Hunting Season', and leads in to the story in #5 and #6, 'Drowning Logan', which is basically 'Die Hard on a SHIELD helicarrier at the bottom of the ocean'. Which ends with... a major change to the status quo.
In other news, I'm pleased to say that my story 'The Ghosts of Christmas' will be appearing in editor David Hartwell's Year's Best SF 18, which is out in December. It's a great honour to have something featured alongside such folk as Gene Wolfe, Elizabeth Bear and Ken Liu.
And my wife Caroline Symcox has an article about the geek/faith experience in the new edition of Apex Magazine.
I must return to the keyboard and the nappies, so until next time I see you, Cheerio!
I'm very pleased to announce that my new Wild Cards story is now online. 'The Elephant in the Room' is the second story featuring my heroine, Abigail Baker, a British drama student in New York, whose super power is that she picks up and takes on other people's super powers like wi-fi. (The first appeared in the Wild Cards collection Fort Freak.)
The Wild Cards universe is George R.R. Martin's shared world super hero project, a story of Aces and Jokers, those afflicted for good or ill by the release of the Wild Card virus in 1946. It's been going, the characters aging in real time, since 1987, and has featured stories from such luminaries as Cherie Priest, Pat Cadigan, John J. Miller, Melinda Snodgrass and Roger Zelazny, whose character Croyd Crenson, the Sleeper, is, I'm proud to say, Abigail's love interest.
I do hope you enjoy it. I put a lot of love into Abigail's adventures, and I've started to really like using her voice. If Bernice Summerfield commentates in an ironic and domestic manner on science fiction, Abigail does much the same for super heroes.
And while I'm here, just to let you know, my wife Caroline Symcox is appearing at this Saturday's British Science Fiction Association AGM and Mini-Con, on a panel at 10am, with Ben Aaronovitch, Simon Guerrier, Una McCormack and Graham Sleight, on the subject of 'writing for Doctor Who'. Entry is free (I think), and you get to see the BSFA in action, as well as many other panels. Well worth going to if you're within range of London.
I'm delighted to be a guest on the latest Tea and Jeopardy Podcast, hosted by Emma Newman. We talked about cricket, China Mieville, and why I never look backwards, among other things. It's a very fun format, and worth half an hour of your time. Cheerio!
Tom's a bit ill at the moment, full of phlegm, but at least he's gone back to sleeping through the night, the poor little guy. We are both also therefore suffering from what should be called Baby Lag, waking and sleeping at mad hours, and trying to work in the gaps.
And part of today's obligations for me is to mention a few things that have slipped past me in the last couple of days. First up, there's a great new Wild Cards story, this time by Cherie Priest, up at the Tor website, 'The Button Man and the Murder Tree'. And it's illustrated by John Picacio. I think my new WC story is probably the next in line. I'll yell when it appears.
Secondly, the 2013 Hugo Voter Packet has arrived. It contains DRM-free e-book versions of all five of this year's Hugo Award-nominated novels, all the Graphic Story entries (including the complete first volume of Saucer Country), all the short fiction, all the Related Works (including two Chicks Dig titles) and a whole bunch of fanzines, art, podcast links, etc. A supporting membership to this year's Worldcon gets you all that, and Hugo voting rights, for just $60. It's never been a better time to get involved with the Hugos. Especially since this time I'm hosting them.
Thirdly, a number of friends of mine involved with the forthcoming Queers Dig Time Lords are interviewed on the latest Two Minute Time Lord podcast (it's longer than two minutes!) It's long past time for this book, and the team are fun to listen to.
And talking of podcasts, Emma Newman has just launched the fabulous Tea and Jeopardy, where an author is interviewed in terrifying circumstances over a cuppa. The latest episode features Sarah Pinborough and my own scary encounter should appear on Friday.
Oh, and here's the wonderful Alan Davis art for Wolverine #8, the first issue of the 'Killable' arc. Which features Logan involved in a rather awkward encounter with the Black Panther... and Storm.
I'm now on Tumblr, which is still a work in process, but there are a few nice images already posted. Do check it out.
At that's that for now. I may see you when I'm wandering about the MCM Expo this weekend. Until then, Cheerio!
Those of you who follow my SF stories concerning Jonathan Hamilton (who, in a world where certain historical moments went very differently, works out of uniform for the British government), may be pleased to hear that I have a new novella concerning him soon to be published, entitled 'A Better Way to Die'.
It's in a very prestigious anthology too, Rogues, edited by Gardner Dozois and George R.R. Martin, and I'm in the company of such people as Neil Gaiman, Connie Willis, Cherie Priest and Patrick Rothfuss. You can see the full table of contents at George's site. He's not sure yet when the book is due out, but it should be sometime this year. I'm very flattered to be included.
And for those of you who'd like to catch up, here's where you can find the three previous Hamilton stories:
'Catherine Drewe' (originally published in Fast Forward 2) is available for free online.
'One of our Bastards is Missing' (originally published in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction #3) can be downloaded as a PDF file. That one got the series its first Hugo Award nomination.
And 'The Copenhagen Interpretation' (also Hugo nominated, and originally published in the July 2011 issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine), can also be PDF downloaded, here.
On the matter of books, Tor UK are currently holding a contest to win a bundle of their books, including London Falling.
And there's a new Bernice Summerfield novel due out, a tie-in with the New Frontiers box set, entitled Filthy Lucre.
I was very disappointed to hear that Demon Knights will be ending with #23. I thought Robert Venditti was doing a wonderful job, and I'm pleased to hear that he'll be going on to helm Green Lantern. Much deserved. I hope one day the DC Universe will see those characters again, and thanks to everyone who's expressed their support to both of us writers on the title.
In other comics news, here's a sample of the Augmented Reality video that plays when you use the Marvel AR app with your paper copy of Wolverine #3. This is me talking about how I've started to identify with Wolverine. (It does sound scary, put like that.)
SFX Magazine has a poll concerning the greatest super hero of all time, in which they've been kind enough to single out Captain Midlands and a few more of the Captain Britain and MI-13 characters for possible votes. (You could always use the fill-in box for Faiza!)
And speaking of those characters, Faiza, Dane and Brian show up in the rather wonderful new issue (#15AU) of Avengers Assemble, written by Al Ewing.
And that's it for an update I left far too long. Hope you enjoy the Hamiltons, and I'll let you know when the new anthology is coming out! Cheerio!
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