Posts
With Great Power, from Montreal to Chicago
Right, first up, a really satisfying announcement. I have a short story in a superhero-themed short story anthology, edited by Lou Anders, coming out next year. It's called With Great Power, and as you can see from the list of authors -
I'm in really good company, with the best SF writers mingling with the best comics writers, and a number of folk who do both: Ian McDonald; Stephen Baxter; Mike Carey; Bill Willingham; Gail Simone! It's time for this anthology, I think, which seeks to be a serious collection of modern superhero prose, a bit of a first, I think. And I'm also very proud of my own story, 'Secret Identity', about the masked magical hero of Canal Street in Manchester.
So it's perhaps for the best that I'm off to Worldcon in Montreal on Wednesday. Then back for a week, then off on holiday, completely out of contact, doing no work, just walking through a lot of forests and possibly falling asleep every now and then. Yes, even in daytime. I'm hugely looking forward to Montreal. Many old friends, great conversation, that sense of being part of a continuing tradition. I have all my dinners sorted (including a night out with my Wild Cards comrades), and I'm looking forward to a juicy list of panels. Only one of them looks like a fight in waiting (the one about whether genre TV promotes 'dangerous old-fashioned ideas', while of course SF prose is the most liberal genre, and who's judging all this anyway?) But even that will probably turn out to be populated by nice people. The highlight for me is my presentation on Kate Bush as a fantasy author. Researching it has meant going back into Kate's canon, especially reading lyrics, and it's given me yet another new appreciation of her. (I'll post some version of it here after I get back.) And of course, I get to present a Hugo Award, bilingually this time. I did wonder if it would be funny to go 'and the nominations are... ma grandmere est dans le fenetre avec le singe...' like I'd been given a rubbish translation, but I suspect that might not go down so well on the night. And I'm hosting Just A Minute again! (And, it turns out, at FenCon. It's becoming something I do.) I intend to blog and tweet about the convention as much as possible, but I suspect there will also be times when I'm just enjoying being in a dinner jacket with the Anders/Roberson/Picacio's rat pack.
Would anyone like to buy a flat? Gorgeous small town Oxfordshire lifestyle attached. Relaxing churchyard view. The best friends anyone could have. An incredible music scene for a town so small. And we're leaving all of it behind shortly. Apart from Caroline popping back every week (and me with her) to rehearse with Boogie Me, the rhythm and blues orchestra she plays with. It was our last Fifteen Minute Club (our town's regular talent night at the Crown coaching inn) last night. I read from the novel. Caroline played bass and sang as part of the duo Both Feet Forward. The pub was packed to the rafters, and a great many of the local bands and singers who've made this place what it is performed excellently, energised by the crowd. I'm really going to miss that.
I'm told there's going to be an exciting comics announcement concerning me at this weekend's Wizard World convention in Chicago. Obviously, I'll be blogging that when it happens.
And there's a new interview, concerning the end of Captain Britain and other current comics projects, here:
If you're going to be in Montreal, do say hello. Until then, Cheerio!
Labels:
Captain Britain,
Comics,
Fifteen Minute Club,
Kate Bush,
Music in Faringdon,
With Great Power,
Wizard World Chicago,
Worldcon
|
Just noticed that it says 'Convention Appearences' (sic) on the side of your blog...
Cheers,
Ed
Have a great time in Montreal, Paul! Your mention of a Canal Street superhero unfortunately conjured up an image of RTD in mask, cape, and tights. And whenever I think of Kate Bush these days her theme for GLC pops into my head, for some reason.
- Rob Hansen
Thanks for posting the link to your comics bulletin interview. It was a nice farewell to CB&MI:13 and a thoughtful comment on the state of comics. Excalibur in its glory days was terrific reading (so was Davis' short-lived Clandestine!), and it's sad to think there is no place for that kind of title in today's market.
As for CB&MI:13, I guess I am the lone person who began reading the title after Secret Invasion, and Hell Comes to Birmingham remains my favorite arc of the series. Every time I reread it, I will be forever grateful that this story was not a "Secret Invasion of Infinite Earths" or "Final, Final Invasion" tie-in. It's brilliant.
That said, I am really enjoying the Young Avengers mini-series, and the whole "Reign of the Blackest Dark Knights" backdrop didn't intrude on issue #3's really smart musings about what it means for a new generation to take up the superhero mantle. I am excited to see this story unfold. (Just promise me that the cover of issue #4 isn't intended to suggest that Wiccan's sexual identity is the next casualty to the current comics market. That would be too much to take.)
Mmm... "Waking the Witch".
Well, have a lovely time in Montreal, Paul, you lucky devil. And remember: La Hugo de ma tante est sur le bureau de David Langford. Assuming nobody else beats you to it.
Right, a presentation on Kate at Worldcon and you still insist you're not actually in Plokta's dream corridor. You think things like that happen in real life?
Well, best of luck with it -- retroactively, if you don't see this until afterwards -- and I hope you remembered to mention Stranded at the Moonbase...
Thanks, all. Cheers, Ed, it doesn't now. Rob: and now for me, too. (Kate, I mean.) Dean: I wouldn't normally say such things before the story's out there, but... you don't need to worry. And thanks. John: actually, I'm putting forward a whole new dorky fan theory about The Ninth Wave. RAB: thanks for such perspective. From where I am, it still feels like I'm trying to catch up with something.
Congrats on the novel! We wouldn't mind buying a flat, but we'd need jobs (to pay for said flat) and visas. Other than that...
Montreal's a pretty city. I grew up northwest of Chicago. Decent jazz scene, great classical music. Didn't have much for a new music scene, but I haven't been back there since 1995.
Darn! I wish I weren't so swamped with work.... AND that I didn't have this damn flu. I would have loved to run over to Montreal to say "Hi".
Oh well. There will be other cons.
Hope you have a lovely trip. Try a little poutine while you're there. It's guaranteed to raise your cholesterol level by 300% with just one bite. :)
-- LJK
Garpu: I'm really enjoying it. Leonard: it would have been lovely to see you. I've heard about poutine now, and I'm not sure I want to approach it.
Hi Paul - My name IS ACTUALLY Catherine Drewe...REALLY!
I did a double-take when I came across your BLOG - was doing a self-search (as vain as that may be) and found info. on your novels.
Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I am really out here (usually in Sydney but am o/seas at the moment) and would love to find out the history of your choice of name for your lead character ; )
Hello, Catherine Drewe! Sorry I've taken so long to reply: in the wilds of Scotland, far from wi-fi! I just wanted to use that ancient trope of naming a story after a character, and needed an Irish name, with an aristocratic edge to it, and added an E to the end so nobody would think it was a verb. That's it, I'm afraid. Come along to Worldcon in Melbourne and I'll point you out in a panel! Cheers.
I would be honoured but am unsure if I would be mobbed!
I think a collective nod or appreciation from the audience is the most that'll happen!