“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

- Ray Bradbury

“We are all post-Ballard now: it’s not that we’ve gotten beyond him but rather that we remain ineluctably defined by him..”

- China Miéville

For the full article, click here.

Thanks to Chris Teague at Pendragon Press, I now have an A3 poster and a stack of limited-edition promotional postcards for Silversands, featuring Vincent Chong’s excellent cover design. They arrived in the post this morning, and they’re very pretty.

The postcards will used to promote the novel at Eastercon.

Eastercon is the official convention of the British Science Fiction Association. It is a four day event held over the Easter bank holiday weekend, and has been held annually for over sixty years. This year’s event is called Odyssey, and it’s being held at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, Heathrow. It will be the fourth consecutive Eastercon I’ve attended.

As well as listing its special guests, the Odyssey website also has a list of authors attending Odyssey 2010, on which you’ll find my picture and a brief bio. If you’re at the event, come up and say hello. I’ll be signing copies of my new novel from 12.00pm on the Saturday, as well as taking part in the Shine and Conflicts anthology launches.

Click here for my schedule.

• Tokyo
• New York
• South Pole
• Valles Marineris

I’ve been involved in a discussion on LinkedIn, concerning the marketing value of Twitter. Many of the professional marketers in the discussion seem hung-up on the number of followers they have, with one boasting that he has 700 followers, yet only follows 15 people himself. Others are seemingly prepared to dismiss Twitter altogether because they have too many spam followers, and have not thought to block them.

Continue reading “Twitter For Business”

I have started adding background notes to the individual stories listed in my publication history here.

The following article appears in the new issue of Focus, the BSFA’s magazine for writers:

What I Learned From My First Book Launch
By Gareth L Powell

Elastic Press published my first short story collection, The Last Reef, in August 2008. Now, a year and a half later, I’m looking back at the process of releasing the book, and the lessons it taught me.
Continue reading “What I Learned From My First Book Launch”

1. Being published
2. Being paid
3. Being read
4. Being drunk

As a result of last week’s Mind Meld on SF Signal, I had a nice suprise in the post this morning. Because I mentioned that I really wanted to read Moxyland by Lauren Beukes,  those lovely people at Angry Robot Books have sent me a copy, plus an advance proof copy of King Maker by Maurice Broaddus.

Both books look good. The first is a “politically charged urban speculative thriller”, and the second a retelling of the Arthurian myth, set amongst the drug dealers and gangs on the streets of downtown Indianapolis.

When I’ve read them, I’ll post a review.