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.
Filed under Uncategorized • 28-12-2006 •
There was a pond in the field up by the bypass, behind the school playing field. A small pond in a ploughed field, with a few trees, like an oasis. We were about ten years old. We were up there looking for somewhere to build a den. And we found a sheep. It had been dead for a long time. A mess of bones and straggly wool. I picked up its skull. It was yellow – lighter than I expected – and as I turned it, green liquid slopped out onto my trousers.
Filed under Uncategorized • 15-12-2006 •
Waiting for a taxi after midnight last night, standing on a street corner in Clifton. The wind spins leaves down the empty street. The air smells of rain. I’ve got a song stuck in my head and I want to get home.
Filed under Uncategorized • 29-09-2006 •
Becky and I spent the evening on the SS Great Britain. At the time of her launch in 1843 she was by far the largest ship in the world – not to mention probably the largest metal object in the world – and the first screw-propelled, ocean-going, wrought iron ship. She was the fastest way to cross the Atlantic – the Concorde of her day.
I also printed out the first draft of my new story ‘A Hundred Thousand Billion Years’ – the tale of a doomed holiday romance in a doomed universe.
