Alan Campbell's Blog, page 6

Christmas Story Competition

BBC's The One Show are holding a Christmas story competition. Entries must be 200 words or less, and reach them by noon on Monday. You can enter online. The winning story will be read out live on air by the great Bernard Cribbins.

I had a go myself, but my story is too long at 300 words. So I thought I'd post it here. I'm not convinced it really captures the essence of Christmas anyway.

-- Jason and Cressilda --

Once upon a time a little boy and a little girl were wandering through a forest at ...

Life as a Writer

My brother Neil phoned me from the SFF section of a bookshop in Brighton, asking for any recommendations. Someone standing nearby overhead him and said, "The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss."

Neil asked me my opinion.

"I haven't read it," I replied. "But I've heard it's really good."

And then the passer-by asked Neil if he could recommend a book in turn.

Neil picked a copy of Scar Night from the shelf and handed it to him. "The author's on the phone," he said, "if you want to speak to him....

The Literary Taliban

Fellow Tor writer Anthony Huso emailed me the other day to let me know his website was up and running. Anthony is a newly-published fantasy author with whom I've been corresponding. As I looked at his website, these thoughts went through my head:

Hmm... Nice graphics... What does the blog say...? Uh huh... Woah.

His post about rejection stopped me dead.

Here Anthony talks briefly about his efforts to find an agent. One of the agents he approached sent him this reply:

"Seeing as how I find...

WRITERS UNBLOCKED

As part of the Biggar Little Festival, Edinburgh-based Writers' Bloc (of which I am a part-time member) join forces with Biggar Writers tonight for an evening of radical readings, hubris and hilarity.

If you're in the area, we hope to see you there.

Talking Piano

This is pretty cool.

Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe

I don't watch much TV, and I never know what's on, but when a programme about Video Games came on tonight – and I realised I'd worked on a couple of these games – I decided to watch. Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe covered the history of video games, from Pong and Jet Set Willy to the latest 3D slaughterfests. I found myself watching footage of a US news anchorman lambasting GTA 3, because you could "pick up a prostitute, have sex with her, and then beat her to death with a baseball bat."

It was o...

Anyhoo

Newbie Night at the Fringe was a great success. We had some of the guys reading their stories from "The Small Print", along with a fine excerpt from fantasy book reminiscent of "Dune", bitchy drag queens("like a Woman's Institute meeting with the bass turned up"), and some very Scottish superheroes read by our own Kirsti from the Edinburgh writers' group.

Reading in public is scary. I know this. I used to be terrified of doing it. So I was watching out for shaking hands, breathless pauses, and o

Sod it.

I was pretty angry earlier about the release of the Lockerbie bomber, so I posted a political rant which really had no place on a fantasy blog. I swore I'd stop doing things like that because it always starts a debate in the comments that I never have time to keep up with. Please do hit me if I do it again. I'll stick to apolitical topics.

An Open Letter to Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill

I've just watched you, Mr MacAskill, attempting to explain why you released the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi.

You said, "Our justice system demands that judgement be imposed, but compassion be available. "

It seems to me that you have decided to show compassion to a mass murderer, and yet deny any compassion to the families of his 270 victims, who now have to watch Al-Megrahi walk free and spend his final days at home in Libya with his own family.

You said that compassionate release

Edinburgh Book Festival

I keep forgetting I'm supposed to maintain a blog, what with real life happening all the time. There's been a lot to think about. Work on the next book continues. My characters are behaving themselves, mostly, and I've battered my plot with a stick until I know where it's going. I'm doing something a bit different with this book, something that I really can't talk about, but that I hope proves to be interesting and fun, even if it was utterly pointless mentioning it.

The Edinburgh book festival h