I just received the following email from Christopher Teague of Pendragon Press, confirming that my novel Silversands will now not be published in April next year, as previously planned.

2009 will see no planned publications from Pendragon Press… This decision hasn’t been easy, and is far from being a reflection on the current state of publishing, but more a reflection on my own level of energy and enthusiasm

Needless to say, I’m extremely disappointed by this turn of events, as I know a lot of people were looking forward to reading the book. I’m currently investigating alternate arrangements and will post updates as soon as I have any definite news.

Alert readers have spotted that many of my short stories appear to be set against a common background. To clarify matters, I have prepared this list, which groups together the linked stories in “chronological” order, according to the sequence of events they describe. 

Continue reading “Notes on future history”

Things have been a bit quiet on the writing front since the release of The Last Reef, so I thought I’d better give you an update as to what’s in the pipeline:

1. I’m working on a “secret project” with another author, and I’m very excited about it - details to be announced shortly…
2. I’m a 1000 words into writing a new short story about stock trading, skateboards, and shopping malls
3. I have a 5000 word story called Memory Dust pending publication in Interzone
4. There’s another short of the same length called What Would Nicolas Cage Have Done? due to appear next year in an anthology of “Future Bristol” stories from Swimming Kangaroo Books
5. And of course, my novel’s due to appear from Pendragon Press in April
6. Plus, I’m working on stories for two other anthologies - details to be announced shortly…

Gary Reynolds of Concept Sci-fi interviewed me recently regarding my forthcoming novel, Silversands. We discussed the process of novel writing, the lessons I learned from writing mine, and the possibility that books will become shorter in the future to better compete with other forms of entertainment.

The full interview is now online here.

As a special welcome to this new website, I have a pdf file of the first two chapters of my forthcoming novel, SILVERSANDS for you to read. The file’s taken from the Pendragon Press giveaway mentioned in the post below and will give you a taste of what to expect when the full novel’s released in April. If you aren’t attending Fantasycon and you’d like me to email you a copy get in touch via the “Contact” tab.

If you’re attending Fantasycon this weekend, keep an eye out for the Pendragon Press stall, where you may be able to pick up a free sampler CD featuring - among other things - an excerpt from my forthcoming novel, SILVERSANDS.

The cover art and blurb for my novel SILVERSANDS is now online at the Pendragon Press website. As mentioned before, the cover has been designed by the award-winning genre artist Vincent Chong, and the book itself will be launched in April at the 2009 Eastercon in Bradford.

The back cover blurb reads:

In an age where interstellar travel is dangerous and unpredictable, and no-one knows exactly where they’ll end up, Avril Bradley is a Communications Officer aboard a ship sent to re-contact as many lost souls as possible.

But a mysterious explosion strands her in a world of political intrigue, espionage and subterfuge; a world of retired cops, digital ghosts and corporate assassins - all fighting for possession of vital computer data that has lain hidden for almost a century. . .

Full story here: http://www.pendragonpress.net/2008/07/06/new-cover-silversands/

In his latest newsletter, Christopher Teague of Pendragon Press writes:

“Talking of covers, Vincent Chong is hard at work on the design for Gareth L Powell’s debut novel Silversands, which is due for launch at next year’s Eastercon. I’ve seen a simple sketching and I’m just salivating at the prospect of seeing the finished version…”