To read an excerpt from The Church Of Accelerated Redemption, the story I co-wrote with Aliette de Bodard for the Shine anthology, head over to the Daybreak magazine website: click here for link.

I have just received an email from Online Colleges and Universities, an education database for students. They recently published a new article, 30 Finest Creative Writing Blogs of 2009 – and this website is listed at #17 !

It seems like a fairly arbitrary selection (and I’m not 100% certain that it isn’t some kind of advertising scam), but if you’re interested, you can read the list and check out the other blogs included at: www.onlinecollegesanduniversities.com.

(Scroll down past the school profiles to see the list).

At the moment, my schedule for this year’s Eastercon appears thus:

• Friday 6pm -  Conflicts anthology book launch (NewCon Press)
• Saturday 12pm – Autograph session
• Saturday 6pm – Shine anthology book launch (Solaris)

I have stories in both the Conflicts and Shine anthologies, and at the autograph session (which will feature several authors besides myself), I will be signing copies of my short story collection The Last Reef and my new novel, Silversands, which is being officially released to coincide with the event.

If you are planning to attend Eastercon this year, make sure you come up and say hello.

Issue 109 of Hub magazine is now available, featuring my short story “Gonzo Laptop”.

Click here for free download options.

When I first saw trailers for James Cameron’s Avatar, I was worried. Big blue CGI aliens? It didn’t sound promising. But then yesterday, I saw Avatar on a big screen, in 3D, and it blew me away. I loved every minute of it.

Yes, the plot’s predictable – a conflicted and otherworldly outsider joins the tribe, falls in love with the chief’s daughter, beats the tribe’s most skilled warrior, and leads the tribe to salvation – but so what? It’s an archetypal plot, one that our ancestors have probably been recycling since the dawn of campfire storytelling. It’s the hero’s journey. It’s a basic story of primate tribe dynamics, and it runs through our myths, from the Greek legend of Prometheus, through early sci-fi, to films such as Dances With Wolves, and Pocahontas. To complain about its unoriginality is to miss the point, as Cameron isn’t crafting something entirely new: instead, he’s reinterpreting the myth for our times, incorporating contemporary elements such as “shock and awe” bombing and commercial environmental exploitation.

Continue reading “Avatar: Film Review”

And so the promotional campaign for Silversands rolls forward…

The press release for Silversands has generated some local press interest, and so Becky and I have been taking promotional shots to accompany the articles.

Information from the press release also appeared on James Bloomer’s website Big Dumb Object yesterday: click for link.

Here’s the press release for my novel, Silversands:

MAESTEG, 10/01/2010 – Pendragon Press proudly announces the forthcoming release of Silversands, the hotly anticipated debut novel from rising British SF star Gareth L Powell.

Set 200 years in the future, Silversands tells the story of Avril Bradley, a reluctant astronaut thrown headlong into a world of political intrigue, espionage and subterfuge; a world where retired cops, digital ghosts and corporate assassins battle for possession of a hidden computer file that may just hold the key to humanity’s future.

Continue reading “Silversands Press Release”

There is a Facebook page for my forthcoming novel, Silversands, which will feature updates and information as we approach the launch date (April 10th).

Click here for link.

I am pleased to announce that my 4800 word short story “Gonzo Laptop” will appear in a forthcoming issue of Hub Magazine.

Here’s a brief snippet:

Her eyes were green and her lips red. When she moved, her pendant caught the light.

I walked with her to the door and unlocked it. As I pulled it open, she said: “Listen, I’m on my lunch break right now, but do you fancy meeting up later, for a drink or something?”

I glanced nervously up and down the corridor. I didn’t want to be seen. If we lost this place, we’d have to find somewhere else with privacy and free 24 hour Wi-Fi. I looked down at her. She was standing very close and her blue hair smelled of peppermint. Her black pendant hung in the cleavage of her low-cut top.

“S-sure,” I said, suddenly stuttering.

I’ll post a link and an update when the story’s published.

The publisher has just sent through the full wrap-around cover art and a PDF file containing the typeset galley proof of my forthcoming novel, Silversands.

It looks good.

Vincent Chong has done a marvellous job with the cover picture and design, and the text looks good laid out and ready to print.

The novel will be launched in hardback in April, with the first 100 copies signed and numbered.

More information.

Plus, on a tangentially related note, the organisers of Odyssey 2010 have been in contact to ask if they can include my picture and bio on the “Also Attending” page of their website, along with the other authors, artists, editors, and critics scheduled to appear at the convention – so look out for that in the next few days.