If you missed the printed version, you can read my short story “Ack-Ack Macaque” by purchasing an electronic copy of Interzone 212 from Fictionwise.

I’m very proud and pleased to say that my short story “Ack-Ack Macaque” has been nominated for a British Science Fiction Association award for best short story of 2007. This is the second consecutive year that one of my stories has been nominated for this prestigious award.

The new issue of Focus arrived this morning, containing five poems from my recent collection, Los Muertos. Focus is a magazine for writers, published by the British Science Fiction Association. The titles of the featured poems are:

• Diaspora
• Ragnarok
• Nevada
• Olympus Mons
• Year Zero

On his blog, editor Martin McGrath writes: “I was going to stop publishing poetry in Focus, but “Ragnarok” convinced me to let it stay.”

Nominations are now open for this year’s BSFA awards. All current members of the BSFA are eligible to nominate and vote for the awards, which will be presented at next year’s British national science fiction convention (Eastercon). Members of the Eastercon will also be eligible to vote for the awards.

According to the editor, the new issue of Focus will feature a number of poems from my newly released collection.

This evening I returned home from a bruising day’s paintball to find the new issue of Vector had arrived. Vector is the critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association – and on page 17, Interzone reviews editor Paul Raven writes:

“… I’m also a bit of a sucker for the high-tech branch of the genre, and there’s been no sign of the Vingean technological singularity becoming a passé theme, at least when well treated. Gareth L. Powell’s “The Last Reef” (Interzone 202) manages to use the trope without falling prey to the uber-geek techno-worship that often comes as part and parcel of it. While there’s more than a hint of gritty post-apocalyptic cyberpunk scenery, Powell’s characters are drawn with the believable motives and real human flaws that stories of this ilk often lack… Transcendence is certainly not what Powell’s protagonists are seeking, but it is thrust upon them by circumstance, allowing the narrative to cross the plausibility barrier and leap into the realm of sensawunda without leaving the reader behind. While I feel there’s still plenty of room for the more playful material that Stross and Doctrow have made their trademark, stories like “The Last Reef” bring a welcome breeze of empathy to the proceedings by humanising the technological experience instead of technologising the human experience.”

I’ve just booked my place at ‘Orbital 2008′ – next year’s Eastercon. See http://www.orbital2008.org/ for further details.

I’m writing this at home after the long drive back from Chester. I’m tired and I haven’t slept much – but this year’s Eastercon was a great success, and I had a great time.

I got to meet and spend time with all the people I was hoping to – people who I’ve only previously communicated with via email, such as:

• Jetse de Vries
• Gareth D Jones
• Andrew Hook
• Paul Raven (aka Armchair Anarchist)
• Neil Williamson
• Liz Williams
• Martin McGrath
• Roy Grey
• Ian Hocking
• Niall Harrison
• Shaun C Green
• And many more…

Paul’s already posting reports and photos on his Velcro City Tourist Board site. I was intending to have some pictures of my own to put up, but my camera was misbehaving and all I’ve got are some uninspiring shots of the hotel’s exterior…

The highlights of the weekend for me were:

1) Seeing one of the manga-style illustrations SMS has done to accompany my story ‘Ack-Ack Macaque’ when it appears in Interzone.

2) Debating the future of British science fiction with Jetse over a late night dinner in a local restaurant.

3) Hanging out in the hotel bar having freewheeling, lager-fuelled conversations with the people listed above.

4) Sitting next to Charles Stross at the BSFA Awards ceremony – especially interesting for me, as my short story ‘The Last Reef’ was nominated in the Best Short Fiction category but didn’t make the final short list.

5) Participating in a discussion panel this morning – and managing to get though it without saying anything inflammatory or stupid.

6) Hearing from Focus editor Martin McGrath that he’s going to publish three of my poems in the next issue of the magazine.

My BSFA membership arrived in the post this morning – including the latest issues of their magazines Vector and Matrix. (You may remember that my novelette ‘The Last Reef’ was nominated in the short fiction category of the BSFA awards for 2006).