On a Cold Martian Night – My first published magazine short fiction

starburst

I’m excited to announced that first commercially published short fiction is now out on the newsstand, inside issue 405 of Starburst – the world’s longest running magazine of cult media.

“On a Cold Martian Night” is a sharp little story of the dangers of future colonisation, especially the danger humans bring along with them. Thanks to Rylan Cavell for his moody artwork.

One of the magazine’s requirements is that submitted stories be no more than 2000 words, and it was quite a challenge to hone my original draft of 3000+ words! However I think the painful editing process created a much stronger piece. If you do read it I’d love to know what you think?

Also in this issue is coverage of The Walking Dead, an interview with George R R Martin, a look at Seventies grindhouse cinema, and plenty more about what is going on in the worlds of cinema, books, television and games.

Starburst #405 is available online from http://www.starburstmagazine.com , and also W H Smith, newsagents and specialist SF shops like Forbidden Planet.

Brand new Mercy Thompson comicbook

MercyHopcross01-Cov-Garcia2

My good friend and fellow writer Rik Hoskin (creator of the Agents of Psyence, whose audio series I produced) has just told me about his latest project. He’s scripting the Mercy Thompson horror comic for Dynamite Publishing, working alongside author/creator Patricia Briggs.  Mercy Thompson is the heroine of a series of popular urban fantasy novels. A young Native American woman who can shapeshift into a coyote, and who’s life inevitably brings her into touch with mysteries and dangers within Washington’s hidden supernatural community

You can view some excellent preview art here:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/07/31/exclusive-first-look-at-patricia-briggs-mercy-thompson-1/

Issue 1 (of 6) can be ordered now and will be out in October.  A full listing of Dynamite’s October titles is here: http://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/previews.html

Rik’s been an inspiration to me as a someone who’s made that transition from part-time amateur to full-time professional writer. He’s done it by not only being very good at writing, but by his versatility, working on many children’s comic titles, horror short stories and SF novels, sometimes under pseudonyms.

And someday I will return to the Agents of Pysence audio series. Yes, someday…

About Face

I originally wrote this short piece for my page on the neo:artists website. Originally I had intended it to be the center of a piece of art, full of imaginary sketches from God’s heavenly scribble pad.  As I’m no longer a member it has been taken down but I quite like this one, so I thought I would give it another airing on this blog. I hope you enjoy it too.

From:      God

To:          Uriel

Date:      Sixth Day

Subject:  Re: About the Face

Greetings. Thank you for your update, lots of big ideas there, really thinking outside of the mantle which I like. Frankly I think it’s too late to be making any major changes to Man’s body at this stage, though I agree that the monkeys do find prehensile tails useful. They would be handy for opening doors when Man’s hands are full. Did put a prototype together but ultimately I think a tail spoils the symmetry.

    Now I want you and your team to concentrate on finalising Man’s face. I appreciate that making Man in My image is bit vague when you are trying to map My multi-dimensional infinite measurements on to a three dimensional model, but looking at your designs so far I do not think you are quite there yet.

    Four eyes is excessive, if not paranoid. Don’t forget I’m giving Man FIVE senses including hearing and instinct.  Plenty enough for security. For similar reasons I think the nostrils need a more prominent structure. In some of your drawings Man looks too much like the snake and you know my feelings on THAT matter.

    However let me emphasise the many elements I have been pleased to behold. Firstly I like the variety. By readjusting the spaces between the components, it is surprising how many different versions can be created. And that’s before I get a look into changing the colour, size and thickness of the components. This might be a big statement, but potentially Man has an infinite range of appearances. Every one of My people can be a unique individual, a face that has never been seen before and never will be again. This reflects their souls, each one of which will be a one-off. If Man realises this, it should make him look after his brothers and sisters, and treat them well.

    Secondly these faces will also change in interesting ways over the life of Man too. With animals it often hard to read their stories in their faces. Perhaps a bit of greying in fur or scars, but otherwise once they are adults they’ll have to rely on other senses to read how old others of their kind are. Man however will have a face that will constantly change, and I feel become more personable as time passes. Good work there, I hope Man appreciates it.

    Yes keep the forehead uncluttered. Move the ears to either side and you get an interesting stereoscopic effect that is very handy for determining the location of a sound.

   Send me some revised sketches and I shall finalise the design. Hold on to that one with the eyes on either side of a spade-shaped head. Not very appropriate for Man but I’ve got a shark that’s missing something and I think that shape could be a good fit.

    Not long now till rest day!

Taken my first step

Hello. This is my first post to my first WordPress page. I’ve heard a lot about this site and its been recommend to me by friends. Essentially it is going to be here partly as an online creative CV for my work and partly as a place for new writing and oddments that perhaps wouldn’t fit in my usual online haunts. This page may well alter a bit as I work out how to customise it in the early days.

A little bit about me, for any readers who might find this page out of curiosity, I am a writer and producer who has been responsible for both amateur and professional productions. I have worked in short stories, non-fiction, video and radio.

More on all of that – soon.