Filed under Events • 27-09-2009 •
For a small event organised in a short amount of time and with no budget, Bristolcon went amazingly well. The panels were interesting and the guest of honour talks fascinating. And it was great to meet up with so many friends and colleagues for a few beers and a bit of a chat.
Next on the agenda is the upcoming event How to Prosper during the Coming Bad Years to be held in a remarkable new pavillion, The Black Cloud, in Victoria Park, Bristol. The work and its accompanying programme of events has been commissioned by Situations at the University of the West of England, and emerges from a month-long residency as part of the RSA Arts and Ecology programme in Bristol in 2007.
From the blurb:
“The Black Cloud is a new temporary public sculpture designed as a shelter for the park in readiness for a hostile and inhospitable future, to screen people from an unforgiving environment and create a place that community can coalesce in difficult times. The Black Cloud is informed by vernacular architecture built to withstand extreme environmental conditions, with the Yakisugi treatment of the timbers creating a scorched protective shield, the irregular oval form closely referencing the shabono, and the triangular structuring and ethos of the building technique echoing Drop City. Its function as a communal focal point has been modelled upon The Range in Slab City, and the future landscape envisioned for the work is based on the bleak elemental extremes of J.G. Ballard’s catastrophe series.”
How to Prosper during the Coming Bad Years will be held on Saturday 10 October from 10.30 – 1pm. It is intended as a forum between people of diverse disciplines to explore the future through the differing mindsets of conservation versus preparedness; a theme that dominates the thinking behind The Black Cloud.
I will be attending as a key speaker to deliver a 10 to 15 minute talk about the use of science fiction as a means of debating and modelling the future, and to take questions.
Everyone is welcome at this event, and because of the passionate opinions it has stirred locally, it promises to be a very lively event.
Filed under Events • General • 27-07-2009 •
I appear to have accidentally volunteered myself to be the media liaison for Bristolcon.
Bristolcon is a one-day science fiction convention being held in conjunction with the British Browncoat Ceilidh on 26 September, organised by Kumara Conventions at the Mercure Holland House Hotel & Spa in Bristol. There will be discussion panels, trade stands, book signings, live music and a bar. The guest of honour will be Alistair Reynolds and profits from both events will be donated to the charity Equality Now.
All media enquiries should be directed to me at: media “at” bristolcon.org
Tickets can be bought here: http://www.bristolcon.org
Filed under Events • 21-06-2009 •
I will be appearing on a number of panels at this event.
Further information from: www.hierath.co.uk
Filed under Friday Flash Fiction • My Writing • 24-04-2009 •
This is a sneak preview of a story that will appear in the forthcoming anthology Conflicts from NewCon Press. The full story is around 5,000 words long. This is the opening scene:
FALLOUT
By Gareth L Powell
Despite what was to come, the day started well. An hour before sunrise they landed the rented jet at a decommissioned RAF base in Wiltshire, near Swindon. It was a cold morning and frost glittered on the grass at the edge of the runway.
Continue reading “Friday Fiction”
Filed under My Writing • 17-01-2009 •
Editor Colin Harvey has created a new website for his “Future Bristol” anthology, where you can read extracts from the stories, including the opening section of my 5,100 word short: What Would Nicolas Cage Have Done?
Click here to visit the site: Future Bristol
From the blurb:
Nine short stories by leading (local) British authors including BSFA and Philip K. Dick Award-nominee Liz Williams, Interzone Poll-winner Gareth L Powell, Stephanie Burgis, Jim Mortimore, Joanne Hall, Nick Walters and Christina Lake. All wrapped in a gorgeous cover by BSFA Award winning artist Andy Bigwood.
Filed under General • 16-01-2009 •
As I leave the house with briefcase in hand, the Moon’s still low and bright and there’s frost on the grass. I’m wearing a scarf and gloves. Overhead, a jet crawls eastwards through the clear, empty vault of the sky, its fuselage glowing like a coal in the orange light of the unrisen sun.
When the bus arrives, it’s running late, caught behind a street sweeper. It’s a single-decker instead of a double, so everyone’s packed and crowded and I have to stand in the aisle, earphones wedged in, listening to music downloads on my mobile headset.
When I get off, a cold wind’s blowing through the city centre and the traders are setting up their stalls on Corn Street, sharpening the air with the mixed smells of coffee and ice and fresh fish. The shops are opening their blinds; yesterday’s confetti blows around the Registry Office steps; a Spanish girl stops me to ask directions; the church clock strikes; and up ahead, my office tower squats, the sun catching the steam venting from the ducts in its side and roof, making it look like a missile that’s about to hurl itself at the morning sky.
Filed under My Writing • 07-01-2009 •
Andy Bigwood’s cover art for the forthcoming Future Bristol short story anthology is now online at his site: http://www.deviantart.com/print/4885642/.
The anthology will be published in April by Swimming Kangaroo books, and features the following stories and writers:
> Isambard’s Kingdom by Liz Williams
> The Guerilla Infrastructure HOWTO by John Hawkes-Reed
> After The Change by Stephanie Burgis
> A Tale of Two Cities by Christina Lake
> Trespassers by Nick Walters
> Pirates of the Cumberland Basin by Joanne Hall
> Thermoclines by Colin Harvey
> What Would Nicolas Cage Have Done? By Gareth L Powell
> The Sun In The Bone House by Jim Mortimore
Filed under My Writing • 25-05-2007 •
The following article appears in today’s edition of the Bristol Evening Post (along with a photograph, that I’m not allowed to post for reasons of copyright):
North Somerset writer Gareth Powell is celebrating after signing two book deals this month.
Although the 36-year-old sci-fi specialist has lived all his life in Bristol, his work has been published as far afield as the United States, Europe and the Middle East and it has been translated into several languages, including Polish, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish and Portuguese. Critics have described his stories as “dark”, “gritty”, “profound” and “unforgettable”.
Gareth, an assistant marketing manager for a software company, will have his first short story collection, called The Last Reef, published by independent publisher Elastic Press in August next year.
At the same time, he has also revealed that his debut novel, Silversands, will be published by Pendragon Press, based in Wales, a few months later.
Gareth, who is married with two children, said: “Some people want to climb Everest, swim with sharks, or bungee off a flyover in Australia.”For me, having these two books accepted by publishers is an ambition fulfilled.”
Andrew Hook, of Elastic Press, said the characters in Gareth’s short stories “made connections with today’s world, whilst also nodding to the future”.
Christopher Teague, of Pendragon Press, said the novel was “a damn thrilling tale of planetary politics, espionage and subterfuge”
Filed under Uncategorized • 23-05-2007 •
I had my picture taken last night by an Evening Post photographer. It will accompany a short “local author signs double book deal” piece about me in tomorrow’s edition of the paper.
I then met up with three other SF&F writers from the local area: Colin Harvey, Mark Leyland, and Jo Hall. We had a relaxed evening in the White Hart, talking about the ups and downs of SF&F writing, and aim to get together again in June.
Filed under Uncategorized • 17-02-2007 •
I got to the BBC Bristol studios at 8 am, and went on air at 8.40 am…
And three short minutes later, it was all over.
My fellow interviewee, Liz Williams says on her blog that I sounded cogent – but I didn’t feel very cogent at the time. It all went past in a bit of a blur, to be honest, and I didn’t get a chance to make half the points I wanted to… But I think we did okay.
