Following my recent experiment in online short story selling, I am now in a position to offer you a PDF copy of my first short story collection, The Last Reef And Other Stories.

The Last Reef was originally published in hardback and paperback by Elastic Press in August 2008. It contains 15 short stories, and received glowing reviews from Interzone, Prism, Sci-fi Online, and The Fix.

In order to get a PDF copy of the book emailed directly to you from me, simply click on the big yellow button on the right (you may need to scroll up or down a bit).

This will take you to PayPal. All you have to do then is enter your payment details and decide how much you’d like to pay.

Yes, I’m putting the ball in your court. You decide what you think is a fair price for a 60,000 word book, pay me, and I’ll email you a copy.

It’s that simple.

I put a lot of work into this collection and I’m glad to now have the opportunity to make it available to a wider audience.

And as a special bonus, when you order a copy of The Last Reef, I’ll throw in a PDF copy of my short story “What Would Nicolas Cage Have Done?”, which isn’t normally included in the book.

So when placing your order, please remember to include your email address and state whether you’d like me to send you the PDF versions of the book, the short story, or both.

Many thanks!

Jason Sanford has some words of advice for writers thinking of submitting work to online magazines:

“For writers, online genre magazines are not only a great way to build readership and name recognition, they also tend to be more accessible than many print magazines, with most accepting electronic submissions, featuring rapid acceptance to publication turn-around times, and a willingness to work with new writers. However, all online magazines are not equal in the exposure they bring to a writer’s story.”

He even includes an up-to-date list of well-read online markets, which you can read here.

Speaking as someone who had stories published online before graduating to printed magazines, I think it’s worth a read.

Those interested in the event I spoke at last weekend can now download a recording of the speeches and subsequent discussion by visiting this page and clicking on the approriate link:

www.situations.org.uk/commissions_heatherivanmorison_events_october10thforum.htm

Good science fiction should blow a reader’s socks off. It should take that whole cupboard of toys and use it to tell stories that just can’t be told within the confines of mainstream literature. And in an increasingly bizarre world, maybe SF is the only literature capable of addressing the things we see on the news every night: cyber terrorism; stem cell therapy; cloning; urban decay; 24 hour surveillance; global pandemics; etc. Which could be why more and more “mainstream” writers are finding themselves having to borrow from SFs toy cupboard in order to tell their stories. But more than all that,It should show readers something they’ve never seen before. It should entertain and stretch their minds, and open them to new possibilities. It should combat prejudice and ignorance. It should  educate and provoke and ask the questions no one else is asking, and it should have something to say about what it means to be human in an increasingly baffling world.

This morning I took part as a speaker in an event called “How To Prosper In The Coming Bad Years“, set in this fantastic open-air venue in Victoria Park, Bristol:

The structure is called The Black Cloud, designed by artists Heather and Ivan Morison, who also hosted the event, which brought together a number of guests to discuss the future. As well as myself, the speakers included Jon Turney, science writer and author of the forthcoming Rough Guide to the Future, Richard Sandford, learning researcher at Futurelab, Lisa Morgans from Greenpeace, and Thomas F. Thornton, a lecturer from the Environmental Change Institute in Oxford.

Continue reading “Talking About The Apocalypse”

Ian at NewCon Press has sent through the table of contents for the Conflicts anthology, due to be launched at Eastercon in April:

• Psi.Copath – Andy Remic
• The Maker’s Mark – Michael Cobley
• Sussed – Keith Brooke
• The Cuisinart Effect – Neal Asher
• Harmony in My Head – Rosanne Rabinowitz
• Our Land – Chris Beckett
• Fallout – Gareth L. Powell
• Proper Little Soldier – Martin McGrath
• War Without End – Una McCormack
• Dissimulation Procedure – Eric Brown
• In the Long Run – David L. Clements
• Last Orders – Jim Mortimore
• Songbirds – Martin Sketchley

It looks like a damn good line-up and I’m pleased to be a part of it. I’m certainly looking forward to reading the other stories.

I will be giving the following speech at this event in Bristol tomorrow morning:

The Role Of Science Fiction In Our Understanding Of The Future.
By Gareth L Powell

Good morning.

My name is Gareth Powell. I’m a science fiction writer and I’ve been asked here today to talk to you about the role science fiction plays in our understanding of what the future might hold.

Continue reading “The Role Of Science Fiction”

My BristolCon review is now live on the BSFA website, with accompanying photographs by Gemma Morgan.

Since my post about making a living from art, I’ve decided to follow the example of Scottish writer Hal Duncan, and make one of my short stories available in PDF format in return for donations.

I will send a copy of the 5100 word story by email to anyone who makes a donation using the “Buy” tab above. There is no set amount: if you’d like me to send you a copy of the story, simply pay whatever you think is a fair price.

The story is called ‘What Would Nicolas Cage Have Done?’.

It received a good response when it appeared in the Future Bristol anthology from Swimming Kangaroo Books, and now the time has come to open it up to a wider audience.

The story starts with a young man meeting a beautiful shop assistant while playing truant from his office job, and ends up somewhere far weirder and stranger than he could possibly have imagined…

Click the “Buy” tab and not only will you have the chance to get a copy of this story for whatever you think it’s worth, you’ll also have the satisfaction of supporting a writer trying to make an honest living through his work.

How are artists, musicians and writers supposed to support themselves when everything they do can be distributed and downloaded for free? No-one’s figured it out yet, but Amanda Palmer has some passionate words on the subject: Why I’m Not Afraid To Take Your Money.

Scottish author Hal Duncan is trying a brave experiment, distributing copies of one of his short stories directly to fans via his website in return for donations: Scruffians Stamp.*

It seems to me that the music, art, photography, journalism, and fiction industries are all (to a greater or lesser extent) facing the same crisis — a crisis the game industry will probably also run up against in a couple of years. Our dominant means of reaching audiences (teh intartube) favours free distribution, yet artists  have a right to be paid for their efforts.

I have a feeling that the next five or ten years are going to prove very interesting…

*Thanks to Futurismic for the link