I was recently interviewed by Stuart Clark for the Eclectic Authors blog. Here’s an excerpt:

Are your first drafts as streamlined as the novels appear to be or does a lot end up on the “cutting room floor” so to speak?

“I edit as I go along. Each time I sit down to write, I start at the beginning and read through to where I finished at the end of the last section, making changes as I go. This means that by the time the first draft is completed, it’s actually been edited many times. That said, I did cut 20,000 words from Silversands.”

Following on from that, can you talk us through your self-editing process?

“A piece of writing – whether it’s a sentence, a paragraph or a whole page – has to have some sort of rhythm and flow to it. This is doubly true for lines of dialogue. I go back through and try to find that rhythm. I cut out unnecessary words and exposition; ditch adverbs; and replace everyday words with phrases that are more direct and striking.”

You can read the whole thing here, and read Stuart’s review of The Recollection, here.

If you follow the link below and click on over to Dolly Garland’s blog, you’ll see that I’ve answered a few questions for her about the books that have meant a lot to me over the years.

Link.

I’m very pleased to note that The Recollection appears at number 6 in Forbidden Planet’s list of favourite books.

The Best Books of 2011

I am delighted to have signed contracts with Anarchy Books for the publication of my first two books in electronic formats.

Anarchy Books Press Release >..

It is with great pleasure Anarchy Books would like to announce the acquisition of digital rights to not one, but TWO works of SF by the wonderfully talented Gareth L. Powell, author of fabulous SF novel THE RECOLLECTION (published by Solaris Books), Guest of Honour at 2012’s BristolCon and regular contributor to a host of anthologies including Shine, Conflicts, Further Conflicts, 2020 Visions, Future Bristol, Dark Spires, Illuminations and The Sixty.

First we have an incredible collection of SF short stories entitled The
Last Reef containing everything from alien insect invasions to high-octane roller-coaster rides packing enough concepts and inventions to make any lesser SF author weep!

Second, we have Silversands, set in an age when interstellar travel is dangerous and unpredictable, and communications officer Avril Bradley is sent to re-contact lost souls… After an explosion, she is left stranded in a world of retired cops, political intrigue, digital ghosts and corporate assassins, fighting for possession of computer data that will allow them to reach out towards the stars…

Both novels will be available to download from Anarchy Books in PDF, MOBI and EPUB formats during Q1 of 2012 for just £2.49.

Visit www.anarchy-books.com and www.garethlpowell.com for updates.

Message ends >>.

All three of my books now appear on Google Books. Click  below for links.

• The Recollection
• Silversands
• The Last Reef

Because it’s Friday and I’m feeling generous, I’ve decided to make one of my short stories available for you to read as a free pdf.

Click on the following link to download:

The Bigger The Star The Faster It Burns by Gareth L Powell

You are most welcome to save a copy of this story for your own enjoyment, to share it with with your friends, and to link to it from Facebook or wherever — just as long as you don’t alter the text, don’t take my name off it, and don’t use it for commercial purposes.

I hope you enjoy it!

The Bigger The Star, The Faster It Burns by Gareth L. Powell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

I have written a guest post for Keith Brooke’s InfinityPlus blog. The article, which goes under the title In Search of the Archetypal Spacer, examines my personal fascination with the recurring figure of the lone space trader in science fiction, from Han Solo to Mal Reynolds.

Read the full article here: In Search of the Archetypal Spacer

I recently re-discovered my 2000AD annual from 1979. I must have read that book a hundred times as a child. Even now, more than thirty years later, I still remember most of the stories word-for-word.

Reading it back then, the year 2000 seemed unimaginably distant. The threat of the Cold War still hung over Europe, and most of the stories in the annual were set in post-apocalyptic wastelands.

I could never have imagined that thirty-two years later, the back cover of the September 2011 issue of the comic would feature a full-page ad for a novel that I had written. The thought would have blown my young mind.

In a good way.

The Recollection is now available for Kindle readers.

• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.com

Ten freshly printed paperback copies of my novel The Recollection have just been delivered by courier. They have that new book smell. The covers and interior look great, and just the way I’d hoped they would. The designers and editors at Solaris Books have done a cracking job.

I will be signing copies of the book at the Forbidden Planet Megastore in Bristol on 25th August, from 6pm.