Shadow Plays Anthology - Upcoming Release

...a shadow may cast a man as often as a man casts a shadow...

The Shadow Plays anthology now has a new website (http://elidan.site.net.au/index.html) to coincide with its upcoming release on 21st April.

Described by editor Elise Bunter as twelve original stories that "cover the spectrum of darkness and light, fear and wonder, intrigue and adventure", Shadow Plays looks like it has turned into exactly the sort of anthology I'd want my first published story to appear in... and it does!

First, look at that marvellous Les Petersen cover! It is very different to any of Les' work I've seen before, and I love it!

And then, there is the author listing:

• Ashley Arnold - The River Man's Spirits
• Brendan D. Carson - The Omensetter and Hu Lijing
• Sarah Drummond - The Red Curtains
• D.H. Duperouzel - Of Wind and City
• Richard Harland - Musgrave
• E.J. Hayes - Crystal and Iron
• Ren Holton - Bab and Anusha
• George Ivanoff - Nigella and the Clockwork Man
• Penelope Love - Whitey
• Andrew J. McKiernan - Calliope: A Steam Romance
• Robert J. Santa - A Jury of Peers
• Nigel Stones - When the Black Crow Flies

It all looks like Elise has done an excellent job of bringing this anthology together and I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on it. I hope you are too :)

Shadow Plays will begin shipping April 21st, but you can pre-order direct from the website now:

Shadow Plays Website
Order Shadow Plays Anthology

Site: http://elidan.site.net.au/index.html
Source: Elise Bunter

Shards: Forty Short Sharp Tales

I was pretty excited to notice that Ticonderoga Publications have announced the publication in October 2007 of "Shards: Forty Short Sharp Tales" - Shane Jiraiya Cummings' first short story collection, and my first collection of illustrations!

As the title so obviously suggests, "Shards" will contain 40 of Shane's stories reprinted from publications such as Shadowed Realms, Dark Wisdom, Andromeda Spaceways, Apex Digest, Borderlands, and Shadow Box, including those that have been honourably mentioned in the Aurealis Awards and in Ellen Datlow's Year's Best Fantasy & Horror anthology, as well as a swathe of material original to the collection.

Each of the 40 stories has its own black and white full-page illustration, by me.

I think that this book - with its combination of brilliant short, dark tales and dark, moody images - will be something quite different to what everyone else is producing for the adult horror/dark-fiction market at this time.

Ticonderoga Publications will be publishing a limited edition trade paperback and a signed 30-copy numbered edition of Shards. Pre-ordering is available now at the Ticonderoga.

ISBN: 978-0-9803531-0-5

Numbered Edition tpb (30 signed copies): Aus$49.50 / US$40

Limited Edition tpb (500 numbered copies): Aus$24.95 / US$20

Of course, now I'm going to urge you all to rush over to Ticonderoga and pre-order yourself a copy! Support poor starving Andrew, Shane and Russell (and Australian small press in general) and head on over to: http://ticonderogaonline.org/publications/shards.html. Your nightmares will love you for it.

Kephra Announcement: New Workforce Retention website

Kephra Design are proud to announce the completion of the brand new website of our client Workforce Retention (www.workforceretention.com.au).

Workforce Retention specialises in helping organisations to manage retention through effective diagnostic tools, workshops and consulting.

Their website is a PHP and MySQL driven portal with Content and Page Management, Client Login areas and a comprehensive Survey creation and reporting tool developed by Kephra Design specifically for this project.

Wahoo! An acceptance.

I've just heard that my story "All the Clowns in Clowntown" has been accepted for publication in the anthology Macabre: A New Era in Australian Horror.

From the website:

Macabre, edited by Angela Challis and Marty Young, with the endorsement of the Australian Horror Writers Association, is expected to be a landmark anthology for dark fiction in Australia. It will feature many of the greatest Australian horror stories ever written, alongside the best of the current generation.

Check out the current contributor list - Terry Dowling, Sean Williams, Richard Harland, Kaaron Warren (amongst others). I can't quite believe my name will be on that list too.

I've been looking forward to Macabre pretty much since it was first announced. I'm looking forward to it even more now.

Thanks to all those here who critted this story when I first wrote it. They were immensely helpful in whipping it into shape!

The Anthology Debate

Author and editor Shane Jiraiya Cummings has had his stick out to stir the hornet's nest over at his Smoke and Mirrors blog.

His post, regarding the number of 'themed' anthologies in the Australian small press at the moment, has gathered the usual amount of disagreeing comments that such posts attract. It is not an noxious post, and the replies (even though most are in total disagreement with Shane's arguments) are intelligent and totally lacking the usual vitriol that can sometimes accompany them.

It is interested then to see that the post has made it to ABC's Articulate blog.

I see the essence of Shane's post as encapsulated by the following statements;

• "...we appear to have a slew of anthologies that boast fairly uninspiring work."


• "...when I see one or two mid-list names as the top drawcards in an anthology, it really does make me question the inherent quality of that project"


• "Also, when we're getting into such specific and specifically bizarre themes for anthologies [...], can such topics support a full anthology's worth of quality writing?"


• "...the most successful themed anthologies are the ones with broad themes that can allow for lattitude."


• "...commercially, unless there is a strong contingent of 'knowns' [known authors in the table of contents], the theme better be damn good to sell books."

I can't really disagree with some of what he is saying as both a reader and a writer.

As a Reader:
I know I base my purchases on whether the table of contents contains authors that I know and have enjoyed. Although I am VERY glad they exist, I can't afford every anthology out there, and so I must have some selection criteria;

Firstly, does the 'Theme' interest me? (If it is a themed anthology)

Second, if so does the table of contents include authors I know I'm likely to enjoy? If not, is the theme interesting enough for me to want to take a chance?

Third, is the editor/publisher known for their professionalism and enthusiasm for Australian Spec Fic? (This only if I'm still left with a number of books to choose from after winnowing them down in the previous two steps). If the editor/publisher have good reputations I'm more likely to buy. If I know an anthology is by an editor who will really cares about the stories, about presentation and readability, I'm more likely to buy.

If I'm still left with too many books to choose from then I might start to get really superficial and resort to deciding based on cover art and/or internal illustrations. I'm a graphic designer and illustrator - it is not unusual for me to buy a book based solely on the cover. In fact, I bought "Outcast" because I love Brian Smith's illos!

So yes, as a reader, some of Shane's comments definitely do apply to me and how I do my anthology buying.

As a Writer:
I don't write for any specific themes. I write whatever comes out the end of the pen. Generally, I have a story to tell and I don't give a damn if it has a genre or a theme or whether it will fit some market or other. I just write the story that I have to tell.

When the story is finished, I try and find a market for it. I don't think many of my longer stories are very conventional, and thus they can be hard to place. If a story fits a 'Themed Anthology' great! If not, will it fit a more general anthology market such as Agog or Shadow Plays or Macabre?

If it doesn't fit any of the anthologies I'll try ASIM, Aurealis or Dark Animus.

So, as a writer... the more anthologies there are out there the better it is for me. Sure, I'd rather submit to something that has some great names already committed to it - being in auguste company is one of the joys of being published - but the story will go to where it is most likely to find a home regardless of much else. If the story doesn't fit the submission guidelines it doesn't matter one little bit who's in it, or who's editing it... well, it does, we all try to avoid the dodgy markets but I don't think any Australian small press could be classed that way at this point in time. All we have is a lot of quality outlets for Australian Spec Fic writers and that can only be an excellent thing for introducing and nurturing new talent.

Conclusion:
I guess I'm just saying that, if we all separate our 'Reader' and 'Writer' hats, we will probably get a much more objective view of what Shane seems to have been trying to say.

From a purely commercial point of view he's right! But do Small Presses in Australia expect to make a fortune from publishing an anthology? I doubt it. Nobody in their right mind would do this for commercial gain - 'commercial loss' is the norm in the industry - but we all do it anyway.

For readers on limited budgets, he's right! We have to choose somehow and all the things he mentions generally come into the equation.

But for writers, the quality and committment to small press anthologies in Australia is a great thing. I don't care how many there are. Bring 'em on! The more markets there are to submit to, the more chance I have of getting my stories in front of some sympathetic reader. As a writer, that's all I want.

Conflux Artshow - Shortlist voting done!

I have just finished, in the very nick of time, my voting commitments for this year's Conflux Artshow shortlist. All I can say is - Wow!

There was an absolutely amazing bunch of art submitted this year. The categories - Student, Comic, Manga, Digital and the overarching Australia and International - were packed with entries. It was extremely difficult to allocate the votes we were given.

It will be really interesting to see how the voting tally's with the other judges' votes. I'm looking forward to walking around the artshow when I get to Canberra. I can assure you that this is going to be a real visual feast!

The Rain Never Came

Well, three days since I returned from Conjure and I still haven't blogged the weekend! I will, tonight, but for now I thought I'd post this poem... as I can't think of anyone else who'd want it :)

The rain never came.
They said it would,
and day after day,
we waited.

A change was expected,
late in the evening, they said.

We sat up late,
breathing in the heat.
Even the cicadas
sounded parched.

Tomorrow, they said.
Surely, it will come tomorrow.

Day after day
the sun beats down
and grasses turn
to straw

The earth turns too,
slowly, cracking, drying.

Time here is measured
by the ever rising count
of corpses
in the paddock.

A Sale! - Shadowplays line-up announced

Well, I've definitely been pretty slack on the updates. A month and a half without a post!

The author line-up for the Shadowplays anthology (http://elidan.site.net.au/) has just been announced and I'm very happy to say they have accepted my steampunk story "Calliope: A Steam Romance" for publication! Wahoo!

This is really great as it is my first acceptance, and the first publication I sent Cally out to. I've only ever sent out 4 of my stories and 3 have come back with rejections - not bad ones mind you, but nevertheless. So to have Calliope snatched up on first submission (and I never do much editing after the first draft either!) is really encouraging.

The full author line-up for Shadowplays is as follows:

• Ashley Arnold
• Brendan Carson
• Sarah Drummond
• D.H. Duperouzel
• Richard Harland
• E.J. Hayes
• Ren Holton
• George Ivanoff
• Penelope Love
• Andrew McKiernan
• Robert J. Santa
• Nigel Stones

Publication of Shadowplays is expected in August/September of this year, so keep your eye on the website for updates:

Shadowplays (http://elidan.site.net.au/)

A Blast from the Past - Emily's Child

Happy Summer Solstice everyone!

Back in the very early 90s I was in a band called Emily's Child.

We had fun, played around the inner-city pubs (when the Sydney music scene was still vibrant and not yet invaded by poker machines), recorded a few songs... and then, after 4yrs, I left. Numerous were the reasons but; I left, the band stuck together for a few months, and then that was it.

The strange thing was:

The day I announced I was leaving at rehearsal I left in my car and drove home. I was a bit sad but it was something I had to do. The rest of the band understood and said they'd try and keep going for a while. On my way home what should TripleJ decided to play but one of our songs!

They played a songs called Umbrella Dreaming from the Streetwise compilation album. I'd never heard one of our songs on the radio! I was shocked, amazed, excited and, ummm.... no longer in the band! I almost turned around right there and then, to beg to be let back in, but I didn't the time was over :(

We had GREAT fun though :)

Anyway, to get to the crux of this post.

The other day I was looking through some old boxes and found

a) a copy of the Streetwise compilation CD with two of our songs on it (from 1992), and

b) an old demo tape we recorded with three songs that were even older (about 1990, I think).

So, I turned them into MP3s and decided to post them. I'm not sure if any of the other guys are still around. If they are, and they want me to take these files down, that's fine... just get in contact and let me know! Would be great to have a beer with you guys again.

The recordings aren't exactly great, but I still enjoy listening to the songs. I think, considering they're almost 15 yrs old, they hold up pretty well.

Oh, and that's me playing all the guitars (at least 2 on each track, but not at once!). So here they are, for your listening pleasure. Happy Solstice!

Emily's Child 1990 demo tape [mp3 format]

• Suit of Skin - (Inglis, Cadogan, McKiernan, McDonald)


• Rhyme - (Inglis, Cadogan, McKiernan, McDonald)


• Warehouse - (Inglis, Cadogan, McKiernan, McDonald)

Emily's Child (from Streetwise Compilation 1992) [mp3 format]

• Umbrella Dreaming - (Inglis, Cadogan, McKiernan, McDonald, Morey)


• Forever Fields - (Inglis, Cadogan, McKiernan, McDonald, Morey)

More Cobweb

Click on an image for a larger view

Cobweb Arrives at Forever

Meet Cobweb.

She arrived last night in a box my wife had carried on a train all the way from Paddington.

She was pretty scared when she arrived at our house, especially with two wild and excited boys running around the place, but she seems to be settling in quite well already. She slept in the drawer of Kylie's wardrobe last night, despite having a beautiful basket of her own. She has spent most of today curled up in my lap, asleep, while I work. She's very warm, and her claws are very sharp. 

A Nice Rejection

Aurealis passed on my short story The Memory of Water today. I thought the reader's comments in the rejection were okay though;

"A nice urban fantasy with a mythic feel. I think the description is overdone in places and it has more of a literary edge - perhaps not quite fantastic enough for us?"

Apart from the "overdone description" (which I, Mr.Purple prose, would never do) this is a pretty heartening rejection. Urban Fantasy, mythic feel, a literary edge! I'm happy with that.

I think I just need to find the right market for this one. So I'm gonna get rid of some of the description and send it out again... but to where? I have no idea as yet.

Calliope: A Steam Romance, one of my other recently completed short stories, is a steampunk story set in Sydney circa an alternate 1910. It seems that in this case my purple prose has come in handy. These comments recently came from a writer's group I'm part of:

"Where did you find the energy to write in this style? It suits the period of the piece perfectly, but it must have been like trying to write in Shakespearean English. Any longer and I would have been too exhausted just reading it. How many times did you have to read Martin Eden to master it?"

Well, I have no idea who Martin Eden is, and the story is supposed to be exhausting... it is for the narrator at least, so I'm happy with that too :)

A Quick Update

Been too busy to post lately, with multiple stimulating and creative projects occupying my time. Thought I'd pop in and post a quick update, just so everyone knows I'm still kickin'.

1. I resigned from my position with a web design agency [whom I will not name] due to too many differences in opinion on; Project Scoping, Technical Specs, getting a client to sign off before starting work on a project, and continually changing a project once it started. Whew!
2. I'm now freelancing web development, graphic design and illustration through my own business Kephra Design, and having a bit of success at it too :)
3. Issue #36 of Aurealis is finally done and on its way to the printers! It is a damn good issue too. New editors Robert Hoge and Ben Payne have done an excellent job with the stories and the illustrators came through with some of the best artwork I've seen in an issue of Aurealis. Shane Parker's cover is great, a real old-style Analog/Asimov type cover... exactly what I wanted! Hopefully I can get an image of the new cover up in a day or two.
4. I'm now an Associate Editor over at HorrorScope, the new Australian Horror and Dark Fantasy news and reviews site, founded by Shane Jiraiya Cummings. This is a great gig, working with some really astute reviewers. My job is to review Ticonderoga Online, when each issue is released (I've already reviewed two issues), as well as any HarperCollins Voyager releases that fit into the Dark Fantasy area.
5. I interviewed Karen Miller, author of Innocent Mage the other week for HorrorScope and have just finished transcribing the interview (Geez we can talk!). I hope to have it edited into a readable form by the beginning of next week. I'll let you know when the interview, and my review of Innocent Mage, is posted. It's a really great book too :)
6. I'm doing some illustrations for Jonathan Maberry's new book on monsters on mythology. Jonathan is the author of the highly successful Vampire Slayer's Field Guide to the Undead. So far he's accepted a black and white version of my Gryphon, and I've got a Goblin, an Ogre, a lake-monster, a Yeti and a were-spider still to finish off.
7. I finished "Henrietta the Tropical Dragon", a mascot for Tropical Dragon Editing & Proof-reading Services. You can see Henrietta here or, seen here relaxing under a palm tree.
8. I've just completed reworking the website of Digital Experience Solutions to be HTML compliant. This should be the first step on getting them noticed by Google, who couldn't read the site at all previously because of its reliance on Frames and JavaScript.
9. I've been doing some work for the wonderful Fiona over at Speculate. This has included some web development work, but more exciting is that there is also some design work to be had. The first piece was a simple banner for author Jennifer Fallon's new webstore. Nothing much, but it is good to be designing something again :)

On top of all this my Muse has seen fit to return! Why does she always feel the need to visit when I've got lots of work on but never during the dull periods?

I haven't completed any of the stories I was writing previously but three brand new stories popped out of the blue! Each was inspired by "Story Challenge" posts on the the Voyageronline site.

1st came "Sealed With a Kiss": A 2,800 word horror story. I'd had the idea for many years, all it needed was a little push from the PurpleZone Challenge! I've sent it off to Dark Animus, but it has been a couple of months now and I've yet to hear anything. James is normally quick with rejections, so I'm not sure if that's a good sign or a bad one.

Next, the most interesting one. The challenge was to write a Steampunk story, no other restrictions. I had one idea and was just about to start... when another idea popped into my head. And thus "Calliope: A Steam Romance" was born. At almost 10,000 words it is a whopper, but I'm really happy with how it came out. Maybe it doesn't have to be that long, but it works the way it is (even after multiple edits) and I'm happy to leave it. I'm thinking of sending this one off to Shadowplays first and see how it goes. If it doesn't pass muster there I think Cat Sparks' Agog! Ripping Reads anthology might be a logical place... or maybe Borderlands, who knows.

The latest was inspired by a "Fractured Fairy Tale" challenge. It's still in progress so I won't say much about it except the title; "Trip, Trap". So far having fun :)

So, that's it. Lot's of things happening, so I'd better get back to it! Bye'd Bye!

HL2 Game Addiction

I finally bought a new PC! It has been a long time coming and the old beast (an AMD K6-2 400 Mhz) had certainly given more than it was originally worth. But, because my old PC was so slow, I hadn't been able to play any games for a couple of years.

This was both a blessing and a curse. A curse: because I used to like gaming on my PC; Doom and Quake hold especially fond memories. A blessing: because I couldn't spend hours in game-land and I actually had a few years of getting some work done!

But now... AMD Athlon XP 3000+ with 1GB of RAM, there isn't really a game out there I can't play!

And so, I went out and picked up a copy of Half Life 2, because I remember really enjoying the first one; very immersive.

Well, I'm now addicted! What an amazing game. I barely saw the light of day for a week whilst I played that thing (which is why this blog hasn't been updated in ages).

The graphics are damn good, but it is really the Half Life world and engine itself that makes the game so impressive. You can interact with almost anything in the game; pick up rubbish and throw it around... or put it in the trash - throw and smash tables and chairs - drive vehicles and operate machinery. The physics are great and everything looks and moves the way it should.

The storyline is pretty good too and the whole experience is more like a block-buster movie than a game. It is fast-paced, atmospheric and very scary!

So, that's where I have been for the last couple of weeks... saving the earth! And all I've got to show for it is a bad case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Lots of new images at Kephra Design

I've added a batch of new images to the galleries of the Kephra Design website.

Firstly, there are some images of a Gryphon I've been working on for a canvas and acrylic painting. The Gryphon was hand-drawn with pencil on paper. I then scanned it in and the resulting images and started playing around in Photoshop.

One image is an attempt to create something that looked like an old manuscript drawing.

The other is the beginning of the composition for the painting (just trying to get some idea of colours and shading).

You can view the Gryphon images in the Illustration Gallery.

I have also added a new section to the Kephra Design Gallery entitled Maps.

There I have placed a selection of maps I am working on for a fantasy novel. The map is of an entire planet that is around 36,000 kilometers diameter at the equator. There is a detail version, one showing ocean currents, and one showing my rather unscientific Plate Tectonics for the world. I've still got a lot of work to do with these maps.

Much thanks is due to "Maestro Mapboy" Russell Kirkpatrick, who has helped me an immense amount with this map. If it wasn't for Russell's assistance rivers would be running backwards, mountain ranges would be all over the place, and this map would be nowhere near as 'plausible' as it is (except the tectonics, that is).

Back from Conflux

Wow! What a great time I had in Canberra!

When I first arrived on Friday night for the opening, and the launch of Kaaron Warren's excellent The Grinding House the hotel conference rooms were packed. I'm not a great one for socialising in crowds, I'm more of a one-on-one conversation guy, and it was all very overwhelming at first. There were so many people chatting and laughing, and I knew none of them! Well, that's not true, I did know quite a few of them, but only through the internet. I had never met any of them in person. Nevertheless, I became a wallflower, retreating to the darkest corner and trying to become invisible to all.

Luckily my psychic-invisibility spell did not work and the wonderful Donna Hanson (Chair of Conflux 2005, editor, and owner of the Australian Speculative Fiction website) found me and starting introducing me to those I knew but had never met.

Ella, Mel, Mirren and Emma all looked after me from the start, and I owe them lots of thanks for making me feel so welcome. I had lots of time to talk with Richard Harland, Keith Stevenson and Cat Sparks (all of whom I have worked with for Aurealis magazine) and had a good chat with Zara Baxter of the Andromeda Spaceways Co-Op.

But mainly I hung out with the Purple Zone (www.voyageronline.com.au) crowd - Ella, Mel, Mirren, Emma, Jenny Fallon, Trudi Canavan, and Russell Kirkpatrick. I've been a member of the Voyager Online message board for the past 4years and it is a wonderful online community. It was really good to put faces to the names of people I have been chatting with for so long.

From that point on, I had a blast! The discussion panels were great, and most of them topically interesting and useful for up-and-coming authors. The Trade Room was a great place to hang out and chat with just about anyone who's anyone in Australian speculative fiction.

One night I found myself standing at the bar (as you do at Cons) waiting, and waiting, and waiting to be served. The guy beside me seemed to be getting just as annoyed as I was and so, a conversation on the lack of service ensued. We made our introductions only to discover I was talking to author and editor Shane Jiraiya Cummings, whose story "Sobek's Tears" I had illustrated for Aurealis #33-35. I think it was a bit strange for both of us, but we seemed to get on really well. I had some great conversations with Shane and Angela Challis, who both edit the excellent Shadowed Realms (http://www.shadowedrealms.com.au/) online Flash fiction magazine.

Angela was even able to use her persuasive powers to coax me out onto the Dancefloor, an event unheard of for almost a decade! Me! Dancing! Shane attempted to take some photos to immortalise the moment but, alas, the light was dim, it was an unfamilar camera, and the results all show me in horribly distorted poses that are rumoured to resemble Dancing only according to some previously unknown definition of the word. Hence, you will not be seeing those photos anytime soon!

All-in-all, I discovered that Australia has a very talented and extremely friendly Speculative Fiction community that I am really happy to be a part of. Although this was my first Con I have a feeling that it definitely won't be my last.

Off to Conflux!

Well, the family and I are off to Conflux 2 in Canberra. My first Con! Should be lots of fun! :)

The Defensive Fantasist

I posted a link to the article by Charlie Stross on "Five rules for cold-bloodedly designing a fantasy series" (see previous post) to a Message Board I have been a member for a number of years. The Message Board is a busy one, and primarily frequented by readers and writers of Fantasy fiction.

I thought that posting the link might be useful to many of the aspiring writers on the list.

Instead, it seemed to be taken a totally different way!

There were comments such as:

...[I am] disturbed by someone writing fantasy who doesn't like it...

What a cynical person!...And how can you be so cold-blooded about Fantasy?

My god, a fantasy writer who doesn't like fantasy.... Now there’s a concept to restore one's faith in the genre.

My gut feeling is that it's a mistake to write in a genre that you have no personal enthusiasm for.

I don't believe he should be writing fantasy if he actually does not enjoy the genre.

if I was an agent I wouldn't go near something if the author presented himself to be unenthusiastic and just doing it because he believes he can - whether it's good fantasy or not.

Wow, I had no idea they would get so defensive! I personally think they took the article the wrong way, which leads me to a few observations:

1. Charlie Stross never says that he doesn't like fantasy. In fact in a number of other posts on his blog he mentions his first fiction love being Fantasy and that all he ever read as a teenager was SF and Fantasy.
2. He states "I've read a lot of extruded fantasy product in my time -- and I don't much like it" and "While there's nothing intrinsically wrong with Fantasy, the marketing mechanism applied to it tends to promote those aspects of it that I really don't like".
3. He just finished the 'fantasy' novel he speaks of (The Family Trade) and it is getting some amazing reviews. Apparently it is great, original, and people are already looking forward to the sequels. Do you think you could write a novel at all if you were not enthusiastic about it?

To me, this also highlights a difference I have noticed between readers of Fantasy and readers of Science Fiction (and please take this as a gross generalisation of the circles I move in, not a caveat against all fantasy readers):

Go up to someone reading a Science Fiction book and say "I think Science Fiction is childish crap with little literary merit" and they are most likely to answer: "yeah, well, so what, I enjoy it".

Say the same thing about Fantasy reader and you will probably get an answer that is a lot more defensive of the genre (see the comments above).

I've seen lots of mentions (on the internet in blogs and message boards, at talks, and panels, and cons) that "Fantasy is a Dying Genre", despite the fact that our bookshop shelves are teeming with new titles and new authors.

"Fantasy is a Dying Genre" is probably a really bad way to put it because that is not what they really mean. They mean that it is dying because it is collapsing under its own marketing weight! There are so many generic-Tolkien-clone-multi-series-fantasy-epics (what Stross calls "extruded fantasy") filling the shelves that it is becoming tough to find something new, original AND well-written.

The fantasy genre has become like fast food - you know what it is going to taste like; you know it has the same ingredients no matter where you go; it is safe, comfort food. But who can eat McDonald's every night of the week without getting bored (or even sick) from it eventually?

That, I think, is the true fear of those who take the "Fantasy is dying" line.

For sure, there are some really amazing new fantasy authors out there really pushing the envelope and showing us that you don't need elves, dwarves and dragons to make a good Fantasy: China Miéville, KJ Bishop, Jeff Vandermeer, Steven Erikson to name but a few. But to find the gold amongst the dross can be a daunting, and off-putting task. It is a shame that many become disillusioned with the genre before they find these authors.

I turned off Fantasy when the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms tie-ins started flooding the shelves. It took me a long time to get back into it again but the above authors all restored my faith in the originality of the fantastic.

Why then do Fantasy readers often seem so defensive about this line of reasoning? Why do they cry foul about this when in almost the same breath they can whinge about the time it is taking Robert Jordon to finish a series that should have ended volumes ago? I have no idea. It baffles me. If anyone has thoughts on this feel free to let me know (as I am sure you will).

Charlie's Fantasy Rules

Charles Stross, author of the excellent "Singularity Sky" and "The Atrocity Archives" recently posted an article on his diary entitled: Five rules for cold-bloodedly designing a fantasy series.

He goes into the details of the process he went through to plot and plan his next work (a fantasy, not SF). I was quite fascinated by this as I have recently gone through a similar process just before reading his blog. His process is almost identical to the one I used.

I have almost finished a 200,000 word SF-Space Opera novel. It has taken me over 5 years to write and I'm quite happy with the results. Will it ever get published? Maybe, but given the ratio of fantasy to SF being published, probably not.

So, I thought: I'd have more chance getting published if I wrote a decent fantasy.

Normally I don't write fantasy (as such), I write SF and Horror and possibly Dark-Fantasy and Magic Realism. I never thought I would ever attempt to write a "fantasy" novel because I don't like much of what is currently on the shelf and I have drifted away from it.

For my process I thought:

a) What sort of fantasy do I enjoy? And I love old style "Sword and Sorcery" stuff, of which there is not much of these days. I would write an old-style swashbuckling Sword and Sorcery adventure. I also love "Dying Earth" type stories (Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith etc) that are set on thousands of years in the future: the sun is dying, earth is a barren wasteland reverted to barbarism and filled with remnants of Strange Science largely indistinguishable from Magick.

b) What authors do I like who wrote this stuff? And yes, they were all already dead:

• Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan, John Carter of Mars
• Robert E Howard - creator of Conan, amongst others
• Clark Ashton Smith - Lovecraftian horror and fantasy, although I feel Smith is far superior to Lovecraft.
• William Hope Hodgeson - The Night Lands, House on the Borderlands

I would use all these guys as influences. Combine all the above, shake them, stir them, and see what comes out.

In the end I am really enthusiastic about what I came up with and found the sort of fantasy story that I'd not only want to read, but want to write too! No elves, no dwarves (or dwarfs if you are that way inclined). No dragons. Instead: anthropomorphs, flying machines, automata.

In the end, I'm writing something I never thought I would write - a fantasy! And I'm loving it!

The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife - by Audrey Niffenegger (A Mini Review).

Beautiful, heartbreaking, wonderful, uplifting. If you have a soul that is not numb to this world you will cherish this book. If your soul is numb to the world, this book will wake you up, revitalise you, and show you that Love is an amazing thing worth holding and keeping in your heart.

I shouldn't have read the end on the train this morning without a kleenex handy though. Everyone was staring at the grown man weeping in his seat.