Happy New Year to you all.

2010 looks to be another busy year. First off, my debut novel Silversands will be launched by Pendragon in April, at the annual convention of the British Science Fiction Association. Hopefully the event will also see the launch of two anthologies, each containing a new short story of mine: The Shine anthology from Solaris, which features “The Church of Accelerated Redemption”, a story I co-wrote with Aliette de Bodard; and Conflicts, an anthology from NewCon press, featuring a short story I wrote called “Fallout”.

In addition to the above, I’m making good progress with my second novel, and writing further short stories, which I hope will one day comprise a second short story collection, following on from 2008′s The Last Reef and Other Stories.

In February 2009, my short story “Memory Dust” appeared in Interzone. It was intended to be a full-throttle retro space romp, but somehow failed to attract the same enthusiastic reviews as my two previous stories in the magazine, and looking back now with the benefit of hindsight, I can see areas where it could have been improved. Niall Harrison probably judged it about right in his review on Torque Control.

Obviously, I was disappointed that I’d shot slightly wide of the mark, but took it as a lesson: not every story will be an unqualified success, and just because an editor likes it enough to include it in a magazine, it doesn’t mean the readers will feel the same way. Nevertheless, I enjoyed writing “Memory Dust”, and I had especial fun with passages like this:

The Red Shark was a tough, streamlined wedge with a thick heat shield, and paint scoured to ash by the pitiless fires of hyperspace. He walked up the cargo ramp into her belly without looking back. He’d been stuck on this worthless planet for three long years, growing old and tired and soft. He could hardly wait to get airborne again, to open the throttle and feel the kick of the exhaust, the giddy freedom of the up-and-out.

It may not have been to everyone’s taste, but at least it’s made Blue Tyson’s list of Best New Stories of 2009, and I’ve already submitted new and better stories to Interzone (among other places), which when they appear, I’m sure will get a better reception.