Judgement by Fergus Bannon

Being An Recommendation:

At the beginning of this year I was privileged to read a novel called Judgement by GSFWC member Fergus Bannon. Now Fergus hasn’t written much in recent years and the book was actually written a few years ago, but some work has been done to bring it up to date (by Gary Gibson), and it’s now available as an e-book for the miserly sum of just $2.

Here’s the blurb:

It started with a few isolated incidents. A mob shootout in Las Vegas, a firefight in the Central American jungles – one apparently unconnected event after the other, hinting at a worldwide conspiracy of unprecedented proportions. But before long CIA computer expert Bob Leith realises it’s something much more than mere globalised terrorism, something literally not of this world …

 

For people that like Bournesque thrillers and science fiction that shifts scale at a dizzying pace.

New Books

Found myself in the pub last night with various writery types discussing the rise of e-books and our fears for the diminishment of traditional publishing. The subject came up because one of our number has decided to open up an independent book shop and another is to run it for him, and they were tossing around the rather progressive idea of  selling e-books on site as well as traditional stock. Smart thinking, but we all agreed that the traditional stock was paramount, and not the chain/supermarket bestseller stuff either. They want to sell good books, unusual books, well-made and lovely books. The kind of books that demand that you pick them up. The kind of books you get from independent publishers like Eibonvale Press.

For, in fact, the reason we were in the pub in the first place was on account of having attended the launch of two new books from Eibonvale: “Once And Future Cities” by Allen Ashely and “Ultrameta” by Douglas Thompson. Both authors – Allen, who’d travelled from London and Douglas, a Glasgow native – read intriguing and entertaining excerpts from their books, and were good for a chat afterwards (and Allen’s story may now be among my favourites from this year), and the books themselves are lovely artefacts too, with covers and interiors beautifully designed by enthusiastic Eibonvale supremo, David Rix.

Electronic books may be an inevitability, but it’s a real pleasure to see new independent presses producing books by great writers, and putting so much love into the physicality of the book as an artefact.

Last Drink Bird Head

Question What do Peter Straub, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Brian Evenson, Henry Kaiser, Gene Wolfe, Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Rikki Ducornet, Holly Phillips, Stephen R. Donaldson, K.J. Bishop, Michael Swanwick, Ellen Kushner, Daniel Abraham, Jay Lake, Liz Williams, Tanith Lee, Sarah Monette, Conrad Williams,  Marly Youmans and sixty odd other contributors have in common?

Answer They were all asked the following question: What is Last Drink Bird Head?

Each of these writers considered this question in mandatory seclusion and, after literally many minutes of  thought, wrote down their answer in 500 words or less.

If you’re thinking: this sounds like the sort of crackpot scheme that Jeff and Ann Vandermeer would cook up, you’d be spot on. And you’d also be right in supposing that they’d enlist the talents of their regular artistic comrades – Scott Eagle, Eric Schaller and John Coulthart – to turn their crackpot scheme into a stunning looking artefact (that also functions as a flip book!). And while you’re riding the Supposition Express, let’s take it to the terminus of logical conlusion. Given only the tiny germ of those four words to work with, every single writer has come up with something unique. These stories are surprising and powerful and entertaining and funny and…well, yes, short. And best of all – it’s all been done in support of an excellent literacy charity.

Last Drink Bird Head is being launched at the World Fantasy Convention on October 29th, and I’ll be picking up my own copy of what is certain to become a hugely collectible item there. If you’re going, I’ll no doubt see you there, but if you can’t make it you can pre-order the book direct from the publishers at a $5 discount.

You want a sneaky peak to see what I’m talking about? Check out this Last Drink Bird Head action, right here for Astounding! Images! and Tantalising! Excerpts!

What’s that? What was my answer to the question? Well, I’m flattered you should ask, but all I can say is it surprised me as much as anyone. Here’s a taster, but you gotta buy the book to find out what it means.

Margueritte reties her cloak, clutches the flask, and climbs. The steps are slick, but the tread is deadened by gravel and ash, supplemented by ropes of wrack, screes of shells and delicate bird bones.

Her steps crunch only softly. Buoyed, she runs, reckless of the wind, but as she ascends she gains gravity. Wrack pops, shells crack, bones snap. A gust billows the cloak into a sail, but she’s still too heavy. Margueritte’s instinct is split: to control the cloak or to let it flap and drink from the flask. Safety wins, and only once she is secure does she heft the flask.

Just a drop and save what remains.

A Grand Weekend, And A Well-timed Shot In The Arm

I’ve been going to conventions a long time now, certainly long enough to have the occasional bum one. The event that you turn up to feeling out of sorts and where you never manage to engage with the event. Where you linger on the periphery while everyone else is having a ball or trawl the dealers tables too many times just for something to do or sit through a programme item you have no interest in or stay in your hotel room until the biscuits run out or spend hours out exploring the environs of some dismal district of a town you would never otherwise have chosen to visit. I’ve not had many conventions like that, but they do happen. And sometimes you ask yourself why you go to them at all.

Well, it’s the people, obviously. The old social networkings is brilliant for keeping up to date with friends, but nothing beats the Saturday night conversations that encompass everything (yes, I went to Fantasycon and had excellent conversations about football and songwriting, bite me!) and swallow the hours. Nothing beats seeing one friend win an award and then hearing that another has sold their first story, and being equally pleased about both. Nothing beats HAVING to break your own limit on how many books you were going to buy because there are so many beautiful, intriguing ones there and the people selling them are so persuasive. Nothing beats those truly original  thoughts that spark out of those long conversations:

SOUND EFFECT: A long, lazy, snuggly, underwater  yawn.

VO: “And when Cthulhu wakes up, all his friends wake up. Hastur, the rag doll. Blind Azathoth, the carved wooden bookend in the shape of an abomination. And all of Shug-Nigurath’s thousand young on the mouse organ wake up too.”

Everyone looks at the found “thing” that has been placed before Bagpu… Cthulhu. The “thing” screams in unimaginable, mind-shattering terror.

But there’s more. It’s the creative boost too. The recharging of the writing cells, the topping up of the story tanks. And there’s the occasional shot of nitrous to the mix too, the belt that sends you home fizzing with ideas, with the knowledge how to fix this story, how to complete that one, and the germs of five or six more.

At FantasyCon this year, my nitrous came afterwards, when I read a story from Patrick O’Leary’s new collection from PS, The Black Heart. I love O’Leary’s work but he is published so disparately that I miss a lot of his stories when they come out, so this was a must-have for me. And on the homeward journey it was my first choice for inflight reading. Spurred by James Morrow’s introduction, I picked a beautiful, gentle story called “The Dreaming Bird”, that would have enchanted me enough on its own even without the *incredible* four-page paragraph at its heart that encompasses much of the tragedy of modern living in one gorgeous feat of writing skill. After I finished the story, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the simple act of thinking about what I’d read.

And I stepped off the plane with such renewed ambition you wouldn’t believe. And that’s why I go to conventions. They heal the writer’s soul.

Catch up

A general newsy catchy-upy sorta thing (sorry, Jim):

Had a braw time at the Glasgow Cabaret Festival in June. Fabulous acts, great company, wonderful nights out.

Had a just-as-braw-but-in-a-different-way time holidaying in North Ireland a couple of weeks ago. First few days were spent in a charming converted station halt up on the North Coast. Lots of paths to be walked, scenery to be seen,  old shit to be ogled at. Then we followed that up with a slightly more interactive weekend visiting friends in Belfast. We had Craic, and it was, of course, good.

And suddenly, there’s stuff coming up too:

Music stuff – if you’re a fan of The Smiths you might be interested in this night coming up tomorrow at King Tuts. I’ll be joining San Fran And The Siscos once more for a few songs. Should be good fun.

Spoken word – if you’re spending more of your time in Edinburgh than Glasgow at the moment, I can recommend making your post-dinner entertainment pick Underword spoken word night. We were royally entertained by Andrew C Ferguson on our visit last week, and the remaining line-up looks awesome. Great change of pace from the “edgy” stand ups and manic musicals. Of special note, of course, are tomorrow’s show by the mighty WordDogs and Sunday’s double-header featuring Hal Duncan and Richard Mosses.

Gigs – really, really, REALLY looking forward to seeing Miss Amand F. Palmer in Edinburgh on Saturday.

Cabaret stuff - the Bongo Club Cabaret is an Edinburgh Fringe institution and next Friday the 28th will see the Fringe debut of Miss M. de Saw and Mr B. Finkle esq. Come along and be bewitched, but bring a hankie.

Book stuff – first new publication to announce for a wee while is my inclusion in the charity flash fiction anthology Last Drink Bird Head. Edited by the Famous Vandermeers, authors were instructed to come up with a story suggested by just those four words. An interesting exercise, resulting in a very strange story from me indeed. Really looking forward to reading what other authors made of the challenge – especially given some of the names on that list. Copies will be available from around the end of October, but I’m sure they can be ordered somewhere if you look hard enough.

That’s it for now (but isn’ that enough to be going on with?)

Return of The Fist

For reasons that only a few people will understand, but which will take too long to go in to here (next time it’s a dark and stormy night, ask me to tell ye the tale…), I found this discovery by the Vandermeers in their latest expedition in the incredible repository of paperback entertainments, the Chamblin Book Mine in Jacksonville, both extremely amusing and frightening.

New book watch

For anyone looking for a something-to-read recommendation, two new books out this week which excite me:

1/ The Accord by Keith Brooke. I love Keith’s writing and anything – ANYTHING – new from him I consider an absolute treat. As soon as this hits the shelves in Glasgow I’m having it.

2/ Seeds Of Earth by Michael Cobley.  Mike’s new space opera series. I’ve started into the first few chapters, and already it’s promising to be a full-on, gung-ho, technicolour tour-de-force. Get in there, Cobley!

My favourite thing…

…in Interzone 220 was Rick Kleffel’s excellent interview with Jeffrey Ford.

My favourite Ford novel is still The Portrait Of Mrs Charbuque (and my favourite story is still “Creation”), but I’m thinking of giving The Physiognomy et al another read.

And of course picking up copies of The Drowned Life and The Shadow Year as soon as I can.

New Wexler

One writer who never seems to publish enough is Robert Freeman Wexler. His subtley side-swiped realities never fail to entertain. Well, now, hot on the heels of his excellent collection Psychological Methods To Sell Should Be Destroyed, we can look forward to a surfeit of new Wexler in the near future. Not only have PS Publishing lined up his much anticipated new novel, The Painting And The City, for a March release, but he has also begun a new blog.

Add him to your aggregator and enjoy.

Book Learning

So, after a somewhat intense last few weeks, I finally finished the rewrite of TMK. It’s been a long and much-interrupted process, and one which I’ve found massively frustrating, but from the point of view at least of professional development, it’s been pretty useful. Actually, scratch that: it’s been kinda fucking necessary on account of my never having written a novel before.

So, hopefully I’ve learned some things that will make the next one (Queen Of Clouds, coming to a netbook near me imminently) an easier and quicker process, and a better product.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned.

1/ A novel is not a short story. This may sound sort of obvious, but…it’s really not, you know?

2/ Plan better. Work out the mechanics of your world fully before you get into the story. No, seriously, do this. Because rippling fundamental world changes through a completed manuscript is a colossal pain.

3/ Your book is never as bad as you think it is. Nor as good.

4/ Not being a full time writer makes life difficult when you feel that you are under time pressure. Not being able to write when you want to. Not having the energy to write when you’re able. Not being able to keep track of your thoughts from one session to the next because of the elapsed time between them. Not being able to keep track of…oh, I wrote that already.

5/ Did I mention planning better?

6/ Match your ambition to your ability. For the first time out it’s probably better to start with a single character viewpoint, as opposed to, say, trying and tell the story of a city through the interleaved viewpoints of three characters who almost never interact with each other.

7/ Know your market. Yes. Well, that goes hand in hand with 2/ and 5/.

8/ Find different ways of reading the book so you can see what’s on the page, not what’s in your head.

9/ Chopping out swathes of text is cathartic, but possibly also dangerously addictive.

10/ Perserverence pays off, eventually.