The news just keeps on coming.  I'll be signing Wolverine #1 at London's Forbidden Planet from 6pm on release day, Wednesday 13th March.  Copies will also be available with a variant cover, by Salvador Larroca, that's exclusive to FP.  Here it is...


(Deadpool appears on the cover, but not in the issue, before you ask.)  You can see all the details, and order the issue with the variant cover by post if you can't be there, via the link here.

Meanwhile, the first three parts of my week-long interview about Wolverine on Marvel's own website are all now up, dealing with his powers, villains, and allies. All of which come with new Alan Davis art from the comic.  Here's the cover to #3...


Right, that's you up to date with Wolverine news, now back to packing for the Weekender!  Cheerio!

It's always the way: you finish a blog, and then loads of other stuff arrives that urgently needs blogging about!

The first in a series of interviews with me, purely about the forthcoming Wolverine series is up on Marvel's website.  The interviews will continue all week, each one about a specific part of the title character's life.  This one features a couple of preview pages of gorgeous Alan Davis art from the first issue...


Goldtiger is a really terrific-looking Kickstarter project put together by my friends Guy Adams and Jimmy Broxton...



I love the retro look of it, an iconic Sixties comic strip that never was, the bonuses are great, and the idea of those two working together fills me with glee.  There ought to be more Broxton design in the world, and soon there will be!


I pop on the latest episode of the Stacey's Pop Culture Parlour podcast, their first anniversary edition, mainly talking about comics, and joined by a whole bunch of other creators.  Stacey makes a great host.  Do check it out.

March 26th is the release date of Solaris Rising 2, the original SF anthology edited by Ian Whates.  As the table of contents shows, I'm in there with greats like Nancy Kress, Nick Harkaway and Robert Reed, and I'm opening the batting!  There'll be a couple of launch events for the anthology, but more about those nearer the time.

And speaking of short stories, Aethernet magazine is a new ebook SF/F journal that will run for 12 issues, and feature stories entirely in serial form, including work by Juliet E. McKenna, Chris Beckett and Adrian Tchaikovsky.  The serial is the thing in SF right now, considering how well John Scalzi is doing with The Human Division, and I think this is a welcome development.

Okay, so now I can get back to finishing up everything I have to do before the Sci Fi Weekender.  Cheerio!

It was Tom's Christening on Sunday, which meant the house was full of godparents and family and toddlers who wanted to pile him up with soft toys.  Caroline performed the service herself, and everyone seemed to have a good time (and it was great to see them all), but it was all a bit stressful and exhausting, though not for the little man, who proved himself to be highly sociable.

This week is an extraordinary blur of meetings.  So I'm trying to fit in as much work as possible, and as many long walks with Tom as possible before I'm off for the latter.  Said convention is the Sci Fi Weekender, which I'm really looking forward to.  You can see a full timetable here, but my bits are:

Friday, 3pm: I'm running Just A Minute in the Main Void, with guests Christopher Brookmyre, Stacia Kane, Emma Newman and Gareth L. Powell.  (And a female timekeeper, yet to be found.)

Friday, 4pm: then immediately afterwards I'll be signing at the Forbidden Planet stall, alongside Chris.

Saturday, 3pm: I'll be on the Fantasy Worlds panel in the Spaceport area, with Peter V. Brett, Raven Dane, Stacia Kane, Emma Newman and Danie Ware.

The Weekender has taken onboard my request for Panel Parity (that is to say, at least 50% female panelists), which is pleasing (not that I'll let them off the hook about getting parity in the amount of flesh displayed by their male and female dancers).  This will mark the end of the twelve month period of me attending conventions during which I only accepted full Parity, as per my original announcement.  I've thought long and hard about what to do next, and I've decided that from now on my policy is going to be 'I don't do all-male panels' and that I'm going to keep that going permanently.  I hope this more moderate approach might achieve some better results, and that some conventions which decided not to invite me rather than engage might be tempted to leap a lower hurdle.  If the situation doesn't improve in a couple of years, I'm willing to move back to 50/50.  Let's see how it goes.

At the Weekender I'll be selling off, with all monies going to help with Peter David's medical bills, a pile of DC comics collections, all brand new.  You'll find them at the Angry Robot table.  There'll also be recent free comics distributed to the Just A Minute audience.

Those of you in the USA who've been waiting for London Falling (out over there on April 16th) have a chance to read it early, if you've signed up with Goodreads.  Check out this contest to win an Advanced Reading Copy, entry deadline March 20th.

My recent appearance as guest at the BSFA's monthly pub meetings has been made into a podcast, which can be found here, along with another, featuring fellow author Dave Hutchinson.  It's a record of a really good time.  I'm interview by Roz Kaveney, and talk about London Falling, the comics, all sorts of stuff.

I'm interviewed about Wolverine in the new issue (#17) of Comic Heroes magazine...


And talking of Wolverine, one of the variant covers for the first issue will be by the excellent Skottie Young, as part of the line-wide 'L'il Marvel' range.  Of course, this cover doesn't reflect the content or tone of the comic itself...

I hope to see some of you in Wales.  Until then, Cheerio!

I'm still getting to the end of the second novel.  The trouble with it being a bit of a whodunnit is that whenever I realise something isn't working, I need to untangle piles of if/then loops as clues and false leads have to be rearranged.  The most important thing of all is that my heroes use all the information available to them and do the smartest possible thing every time, otherwise the reader will start yelling at them.  I keep realising that I've artificially stopped something happening when it would and held it back to when it suits me to reveal it.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll get rid of the last of those.  It's getting better every time, and will be delivered soon (I hope) in a pretty sorted state.

Tom continues to be a delight.  He's now making lots of syllable sounds, lots of drool and lots of attempts to grab anything in sight and gum down on it.   He's sleeping in a big cot now, which took a few nights to get used to.  He also now has his little baby passport, the photo of which has him doing the eyebrow thing at the camera, like he's in The Usual Suspects.

As many of you will know, my friend, comic writer and author Peter David recently suffered a stroke, and while he's recovering well, help with medical bills will be needed.  (US readers: the National Health Service in the UK means this is the sort of stuff I will never have to worry about.)  There's a blog about what you can do to help in general, and a donate button here. But in particular, I'd like to draw your attention to this auction of original comic art, in which can be found some glorious pieces, like this iconic Hulk cover by Liam Sharp...


Those of you outside the US: it's easy enough, if you're not registered with US eBay to bid for the pieces.  Just search for their descriptions on your local version of eBay and you'll find them easily, with the prices translated into your currency.  Myself, I have my eye on that Man Thing.  (Oh hush.)  Beautiful stuff, and for a great cause.

For Valentine's Day this week, Tor books got a bunch of us authors and their editors to talk about what we love about the genre, myself included.  There's lots of thoughtful stuff there.

I did an interview with the West Ham FC fanzine Blowing Bubbles about London Falling.  It's been great hearing from so many West Ham fans on Twitter.  They seem to like the book.  Or at least, not to mind it.

On April 8th, my first ever comics work gets reprinted!  It's a Doctor Who strip called 'Stairway to Heaven', and it features in Doctor Who Magazine's latest compilation, Nemesis of the Daleks...


And the latest edition of The SF Squeecast is out, with guest Amber Benson, on which I talk about the BBC's Ghost Stories for Christmas. 

That Kickstarter I mentioned in the last blog, for the innovative new convention Nine Worlds is now three quarters of the way there, by the way, with two weeks left to go.  I think they'll get the economic foundation they're after.

Anyhow, that's the state of play tonight.  Until next time, Cheerio!

Just popping in with a few announcements.  Today, Saucer Country #12 appears in your comic shops.  It's the start of the final arc of our 'first season', which we call 'President's Day'.  And I think it actually makes a good jumping-on point, in that you'll see us at our best.  Take a look at this preview of the first five pages.

Secondly, as we speak there are only hours left in the Jay Lake Sequence a Science Fiction Writer campaign, and they're still just a couple of thou away from their most enormous stretch goal. I, for one, would like to see that cookbook. Dig deep, and let's get there for Jay.

I'm going to be going along to the Nine Worlds convention near Heathrow on 9-11 August.  I like the look of what they're doing.  I think it's the way forward.  They have a Kickstarter too.

 

I hope to see some of you there.  Buy a ticket early and get a discount for what looks like a tremendous beginning for a non-profit event.

Until next time, Cheerio!

It's been a packed week.  On Wednesday I went to a wine-tasting evening at Pan Macmillan, where authors from their various imprints (I was representing Tor), each talked about their work, and had Helen McGinn, the author of The Knackered Mother's Wine Club recommend a wine that spoke of their book.  (I asked for something with the word 'copper' in the name, but the closest they could get was something a bit like Copper Mountain.)  I had a lovely time and met new thriller writer Seth Patrick...


(Photo by Julie Crisp.)

On Thursday, a gathering of UK comickers coincided with a party after a launch at Forbidden Planet (for Laura Lam's Pantomime) in a wonderful cross-media collision.  And on Friday I recorded a video interview for something forthcoming and met the charming Anthony Read. And also there were three separate attempts to get Tom his first UK passport, which finally worked out yesterday.  All that, plus a load of comics and novel work, including a phone meeting with my excellent Wolverine editor Jeanine Schaefer that left me dancing around the room with excitement at how well everything's working on that title.  I've decided that I'll be blogging a writer's commentary on the day each issue is released, starting with #1, which is out on March 13th...


I am, as usual, exhausted.

However, there are exciting things to tell you, starting with the news that on September 16th, BBC Worldwide will be releasing my Richard E.Grant/Sir Derek Jacobi -starring animated Doctor Who serial from 2003, 'The Scream of the Shalka'.  It'll be a stand alone release, with lots of extras.  I'm really pleased I can finally tell people about that!

I can also now tell you that I'm attending two more events this year: Chicago's C2E2 from 26-28 April, and on 28-29 September, I'll be at the Dublin International Comic Expo.

I was very pleased that my novelette 'The Ghosts of Christmas' made it onto the Locus Magazine 2012 Recommended Reading List. Thank you, Locus.

And my article 'Writing Across the Mediums' got reprinted on the Tor board.  (And yes, I'm assured that 'mediums' is correct.)

Talking of Tor, my new Wild Cards story, 'The Elephant in the Room', will soon be appearing there, and  John Picacio has provided this gorgeous artwork for it...


There are two new interviews with me out there, this one on audio, conducted by the mighty Mur Lafferty, and this one at Comicosity, dealing with my upcoming run on Wolverine.

And it was great to see that run mentioned on Pornokitsch, in a Friday Five by Jenni Hill, comics you should be reading.

I don't normally link to reviews of my work, but this one of London Falling, by Joanne Hall, popped up at Fantasy Faction, a website I always enjoy, and that was a great pleasure.

And finally, I'd like to endorse the attempt of my friend Theresa Derwin to win this year's Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and thus fly to the USA for Worldcon. Go, Theresa.

So, loads of conventions this year.  I hope to see some of you at one of them.  Until next time, Cheerio!