Two paperback copies of the Shine anthology have just been delivered to my door, direct from the publisher. And they look great.

Shine is an anthology of “optimistic” near-future  science fiction edited by the formidable Jetse de Vries, and featuring a cover by the award-winning artist, Vincent Chong (who also designed the cover for my novel, Silversands).

Shine is a book of short stories with an upbeat outlook on the future, a book that says no matter how bad things get, there’s always the possibility of hope. It contains 16 stories, including a 10,000 word story that I co-wrote with Aliette de Bodard, called The Church Of Accelerated Redemption.

It also contains stories by Alastair Reynolds, Kay Kenyon, Jason Stoddard, Holly Phillips, and others.

Shine is published by Solaris Books.

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”

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

Click here for free download options.

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”

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.

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.

I finished the first draft of another new short story today, the second I’ve produced in the space of a couple of weeks. The first was called “Fault” and it clocked in at 1300 words. This one’s just shy of 5000 words; it’s called “The New Ships”; and it’s a sequel to “Flotsam”, the story I sold to Ian Whates for his Conflicts anthology (due April 2010 from NewCon Press). The action takes place in a near-future England, where much of the South West has been rendered uninhabitable by a nuclear explosion over the Severn Estuary. I’ll polish it up over the next few days, and submit it to market before Christmas, in the hope that it’ll appear in print shortly after the anthology.