As part of my ongoing experiment in earning a living as a writer, I’ve created some exclusive merchandise at: www.zazzle.co.uk/garethlpowell.

The t-shirts and mugs feature quotes from some of my most popular stories: “Ack-Ack Macaque”, “The Last Reef”, and “Six Lights Off Green Scar”.

They could make good stocking fillers, now Christmas is just around the corner.

Click on over and see what you think. Am I barking up the wrong tree or are these kind of cool?

Over the past 24 hours, I’ve pulled together and submitted a 30,000 word book manuscript. It’s a collection of articles (mainly advice for budding authors), interviews and other pieces of writing, some of which first appeared on this website. It’s rough at the moment and probably needs the attention of an editor, but I’m still proud that I’ve managed to pull it together in such a short time – and I’ll post further developments as they happen.

Here’s a snippet of an interview I gave yesterday to Ann Wilkes at Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys:

“I grew up at a time when the Cold War seemed likely to turn hot at any moment. We were shown “Protect and Survive” films at school, and I remember that the local doctor’s surgery had leaflets about nuclear fallout and guidelines for the disposal of relatives who’d succumbed to radiation sickness. As a teenager, it was a scary time. It was hard enough dealing with all the emotional stuff teenagers have to go through normally, without the added worry that the world was about to end. I guess a lot of that fear worked its way into my psyche. Part of me still expects society to fall apart at any given moment, and so those stories are to a certain extent an exploration and exorcism of that fear – a way of confronting my personal demons.”

You can read the full interview here: Interview with Gareth L Powell

The Future Bristol anthology is now available to download as an e-book from the Fictionwise site.

“A bargain at $3.49, the book contains nine short stories by leading (local) British authors including BSFA and Philip K. Dick Award-nominee Liz Williams, Interzone Poll-winner Gareth L Powell, novelist and editor Colin Harvey, Stephanie Burgis, Jim Mortimore, Joanne Hall, Nick Walters, John Hawkes-Reed and Christina Lake.”

http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook87221.htm?cache

According to Andrew Hook, Elastic Press have only around thirty paperback copies of my short story collection left in stock. If you want to get hold of one, you’d better act now. Once these last few copies are gone, that’s it. Elastic Press are closing down, so there won’t be a reprint.

You can order direct from Elastic Press or via Amazon.

The Future Bristol anthology is now available to order from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. It contains the following stories:

1. Liz Williams ~ Isambard’s Kingdom
2. John Hawkes-Reed ~ The Guerilla Infrastructure HOWTO
3. Stephanie Burgis ~ After The Change
4. Joanne Hall ~ Pirates of the Cumberland Basin
5. Nick Walters ~ Trespassers
6. Christina Lake ~ A Tale of Two Cities
7. Colin Harvey ~ Thermoclines
8. Gareth L Powell ~ What Would Nicolas Cage Have Done?
9. Jim Mortimore ~ The Sun In The Bone House

See here for a review of the book: Link to The Fix

If you’re a member of any of the following book-related websites, you might like to know that I now have a profile on each of them:

• Book Army
• Good Reads
• Library Thing
• Red Room
• Shelfari

Morpheus Tales is a printed magazine of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Its fourth issue will be published on 1st April and will contain, in addition to some short stories and articles, an interview with me.

The topics I discuss in the interview include:

• Breaking into the short story market
• Finding inspiration
• Turning ideas into stories
• Finding time to write

The interview came about after the magazine reviewed my short story collection back in November last year, calling it: “… one of the finest collections of SF short stories I have had the privilege of reading.”

Copies of Morpheus Tales IV can be ordered online via the magazine’s website: www.morpheustales.com

This is an extract from a short story called “The Winding Curve” which I co-wrote with Robert Starr, author of Creek Water and The Apple Lady. The full story appears in Rob’s 2008 collection Sophistry By Degrees.

A year after his wife’s death, Mike finds himself on the old coast road south of town, with his daughter in the back seat. They’ve lingered too long at the cemetery, and now they’re driving around because he can’t face taking her home to an empty house.
Continue reading “Friday Fiction”

I’ve just received an email informing me that my short story “Arches” has been nominated for The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short science fiction of 2008.