Yesterday, the postman delivered a parcel containing a rather spiffing pair of black flying goggles. Unfortunately, I have no idea who sent them. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times on Twitter and Facebook, but so far no-one’s come forward and admitted to this act of generosity.

If it was you, many thanks.

“Science fiction is a big muscular horny creature, with a mass of bristling antennae and proprioceptors on its skull. It has a small sister, a gentle creature with red lips and a dash of stardust in her hair. Her name is Space Opera.”

Rick Novy is the editor of the forthcoming 2020 Visions anthology. As part of the build-up to publication, he’s been posting profiles of the authors included in the book. Today, it was my turn.

Here’s what he wrote:

2020 Visions Author #13 – Gareth L. Powell

By Rick Novy

Although we are both members of the Codex writers group, I know Gareth L. Powell mainly by reputation.   In addition to being a fiction writer, he is a freelance copywriter and PR consultant, and is a former software marketer.  His fiction has appeared in Interzone and in the Shine anthology from Solaris (2010).  His story Ack-Ack Macaque won the 2007 Interzone Reader’s poll for best short story.  Gareth also has a regular interview and review gig with a music magazine out of the UK called Acoustic.

Continue reading “2020 Visions Profile”

I’ve just seen the preliminary sketches that artist Neil Roberts has done for the cover of my forthcoming novel, The Recollection. He’s produced three views of the story’s main spaceship in flight, and they look excellent.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s a strange and gratifying experience to see an artist render something that has hitherto existed only in your imagination.

I still have 30k words of the novel to write, and these pictures have certainly given me a boost.

Last year, Jason Sanford identified a new trend in science fiction, which he dubbed “SciFi Strange”. Since then he’s apparently been compiling a list of SciFi Strange stories, including my own Ack-Ack Macaque, which he’s now compiled into the Online SciFi Strange Anthology.

He lists some fascinating stories by some great writers. If you need something to read, why not go and take a look?

STOP PRESS 20/08/2010: Jason’s post has been picked up by i09. Click here for the article.

The WordPunk website asks genre writers and editors which technologies they use in their day to day writing and/or editing lives. My personal response (quoted in the article) is as follows:

“At university, I used a secondhand manual typewriter. This was the early nineties. I used to balance the machine on the end of my bed, by the window overlooking the river, and sit cross-legged, battering out essays and stories. It was a beast. It weighed a tonne and the clatter of its keys could be heard throughout the house.

“These days, I use MS Word 2007. I use it in page view, so it feels like I’m typing on pieces of A4. I can’t write in Outline or Draft view. They just feel wrong. It’s almost as if I need that primal connection between keys and paper, even if it is only an illusion on a screen.

“I also tend to write stories straight through, from beginning to end, rather than jump around within the narrative. This could be a hangover from writing on a manual typewriter, where there was no choice but to write stories in sequence.

“The advantage Word has over a manual typewriter is the ability to edit on-the-fly. But this can be something of a mixed blessing, as it can lead me to spend all my time tinkering with one sentence instead of pressing ahead with the rest of the story.

“I have looked at other programs, but Word seems to suit me. I am comfortable with it. I write everything in either Times New Roman or Courier New, and so there aren’t too many distracting settings with which to play.”

Read the full article here.

From my notebooks:

1. Being an adult means taking responsibility for the safety of yourself, your family, and if needs be, your entire race.
2. As we experience different emotions, so we also feel time pass at different rates.
3. There are two kinds of courage. There’s the kind you get from knowing that what you’re doing is right. And there’s the kind you get from knowing its hopeless and wrong, and just not giving a damn.
4. Over long enough timescales, everything flows like water, even rock.
5. Punctuality is simply good manners.
6. A blank piece of paper has almost limitless potential.
7. All suffering is caused by denial – denial of basic human rights; denial of food; of love; of loved ones; of security; of health; of shelter; of money; of peace; of clean water; of justice.
8. All out myths are attempts to address three fundamental questions: 1) Where did we come from? 2) How do we behave now we’re here? 3) Where are we going?
9. Writing a novel is like building a dry stone wall across a windswept moor, one stone at a time.
10. Sometimes it is good to yodel like a crazy monkey person.
11. The only thing more terrifying than beginning to write is not to write at all.
12. People who are cynical about absolutely everything are often very dull company.
13. Stress results when there is a disconnection between the person we are and the person we want to be.
14. If you want people to read what you write, write about people.
15. You will be remembered for your actions, not your inactions.
16. There are no joys purer or sorrows keener than those felt by a child.
17. Writing is a constant struggle between inspiration and housework.
18. Everything in the universe came from gas and dust, and to gas and dust it will return.
19. Children are fearless because they haven’t experienced consequences. As we age, we become more fearful.
20. When writing, you have to confront the possibility of failure. You have to push beyond your comfort zone.
21. Some people live their lives as a perpetual sigh; others as a joyful whoop.
22. Life is short, and books take a long time to write.
23. Often, when someone says they want to talk about politics, what they really mean is that they want to talk about themselves.
24. Some dreams leave you upon waking with an incalculable sense of loss.
25. Few things are as contemptible as wilful ignorance.
26. Just as you climb a mountain one step at a time, so you have to keep following one word with another if you want to write a book.
27. A society civilised enough to have free speech should also be civilised enough to know when to use restraint.
28. Sometimes editing is like sculpting: you have to painstakingly chip away what isn’t needed in order to find the shape of the piece.
29. Some people don’t work well under pressure; others can’t work without it.
30. Future shock is a by-product of age. The young do not suffer from it.

“It is better to write a bad first draft than to write no first draft at all.”

- Will Shetterly

At around 4.30pm this afternoon, The Recollection‘s word count total cruised past that of my first novel, Silversands, to make this new novel the longest single work I have yet written – and there’s still at least another 30k to go.

Hot on the heels of the 2020 Visions announcement, comes confirmation that I’ve sold a story called ENTROPIC ANGEL to an anthology with the title of Dark Spires. This anthology is a sequel-of-sorts to last year’s Future Bristol, only this time the scope has widened to include the whole of the West Country.