Peadar Ó Guilín's Blog, page 20

Reading and Watching

Reading

Lots of good books and a few duds this month. My most recent read was Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis: a wonderfully alternate World War II where the adversaries blast each other with a mixture of magical and steampunky weapons.

I wasn't too thrilled at the beginning when a cast of uniformly evil Germans took on an endless supply of plucky Brits. Yet, with the passing of the pages, the main characters become ever more complex and interesting. Except for one. The enigmatic, fascinating Gretel seems to stay the same, but she's so interesting as she is, I think I just want her to stay that way.



Recommended.


Watching

Sky Atlantic continues to Bring It with a hilarious and astounding cross between Jane Austen and Monty Python called Hunderby. Julia Davis' script mixes genteel, archaic language with appalling, hilarious filth to wonderful effect. An example of its dialog:

Elderly Husband to Nervous new wife: It is a quarter after ten. We shall intercourse until a thirty after.

Master: How is my mother?
Servant: Her insides are assailed by vipers. Her bowels still have not spoken... Although... I thought I heard them whisper.

You just gotta watch it...

Win Copies of My Books -- Wherever You Live!

The excellent-beyond-all-reason Bibliopunkk review site is running a competition to give-away some of my books. Check it out here for a chance to win. While you're there, hang about, read some reviews.

You can also see: photos of me.

"Oh, he's so dreamy. Like the Candyman."



Game of Thrones (TV series) From the beginning. On Sky 1.

If you live in the UK and have been hankering to see GoT for yourself, but don't have access to the elusive Sky Atlantic, well, Sky 1 will be showing episode 1, series 1 tonight at 9. Now's your chance!

From WorldCon I am Returnéd

I flew back into Ireland on Friday morning and the last dregs of jet-lag are only now leaving my system. So, it's time for all sorts of things. I want to get back into blogging; I want to concentrate even more on my writing. There are too many projects piling up on my plate to keep on with my old lackadaisical habits. 

Anyway, on with the show...

WORLDCON 2012 TRIP

Food & Folk

I had an amazing time in Chicago. I could do an entire post just about the great vegan food I had there. For now, I'll just say that Native Foods on S. Clark Street is heaven. I'd also like to thank the staff of The Protein Bar for keeping me alive with their "Green City Vegan" wrap. Chipotle too, a fast food chain never meant for vegans, allows customers to customize their own burritos, so that even I could leave the place full and smiling. Argo Tea, made tasty vegan muffins as well as cappucinos frothing over with almond milk.

Even the Airline -- American Airlines -- provided a decent vagan meal, especially on the return leg. I know airlines aren't supposed to feed you well, but there you go.

All Hail!

Obviously, however, we go to Cons to hang out with other people, and in this aspect, WorldCon was spectacularly successful for me. I've been making friends over the years, but the main groups I kept company with were:

The Brotherhood Without Banners -- a fabulous group of people who throw parties hard enough to shatter continents. I love them to bits. The main reason why anybody should want to be George R. R. Martin, is to have fans such as these. I'm proud to be one of them.

The Black Gate crew. This was mostly a raiding party of writers and editors that happen to have Black Gate magazine in common. I feel like I've known them for years through our online contacts, but this was my first opportunity to see how they match up to the little thumb-nail photos of their biographies. James Enge, Howard Andrew Jones, Tina Jens, Rich Horton, Donald, Kristen, Andrew Zimmerman Jones... I'm sure I've forgotten several others, including the evil editor John O'Neill, but it will come back to me.

The Shamrokon Committee -- AKA the Irish crew. I didn't see these guys as much as I would have liked, but then again, they'll all be at TitanCon and later, Octocon. I did get to sit at their table for a while and even sold a membership or two.

Special thanks go to...
lady_narcissa who practically ran a hostle in her apartment for bwbers, including myself.

LANSING TRIP

So, after WorldCon, I did a reading and a signing in Schulers Books and Music in Lansing Michigan. 

Why Lansing?

Some years ago, the owner of the Bibliopunkk review site wrote a glowing tribute to my first novel, The Inferior. It turns out the lady also worked in Schulers and together with her colleagues, sold the hell out of my book. So many did they sell, I felt I couldn't pass up the chance to drop in on them to say thank you.

I'm so glad I did. Lovely, lovely people turned up. They listened. They smiled. We all took photos and chatted and smelled pizza on the air together. I had a great evening and only wished I lived closer so I could go again. 

If you're ever in the area, drop in to Schulers and grab some books!


WORLDCON 2014

Now that it's official, I can announce that I will be working on the YA prgram items for WorldCon in London in 2014. I am open to ideas from anybody about anything. If you can think of a panel idea we could have, or an author we should ask, please don't hesitate to PM me with a suggestion.

All ideas are welcome, but as the Con will be held in London, people in the YA community who can reflect that city's culture and its diversity would be particularly welcome.

I have blind spots, please fill them in for me :)

MORE SOON

More soon. I'm back in the saddle now, yes I am.

German Editions Arrive

This blog has been, quite deliberately, a quiet place for the last few weeks and will be even more quiet for the next fortnight as I enjoy myself at WorldCon. After that, I hope to resume normal service. In the meantime, I was delighted to receive two copies of the German edition of The Deserter.

My WorldCon Schedule

This WorldCon is going to be one of the busiest ever for me with my time and my loyalties split among the following activities:

Adult Discussion Panels
The Children's Program
Reading Aloud to an echoy room
Supporting the London Bid for WorldCon 2014 (Go London!)
Supporting the Irish EuroCon Team 2014 (Go Dublin!)
Hanging out with The Brotherhood Without Banners (Go Winterfell!)
Meeting the crew of Black Gate
Meeting random friends for endless and endlessly wonderful coffees
Making new friends

I don't expect to have five minutes to myself and I don't want them. I cannot wait. 

A few days after Chicago, I will be attending a pizza evening at Schuler Books in Lansing, MI, but I'll have a full post about that later in the week.

Here's my WorldCon timetable:

Thu Aug 30 5:00:pmThu Aug 30 6:00:pmChiKidz: Irish Myth StorytellingColumbus HAs we enjoy our ice cream, we return inside to relax and listen to celtic mythologies, told in a true Irish Seanachai style with Peadar. Peadar O Guilin
Fri Aug 31 10:00:amFri Aug 31 12:00:pmChiKidz: How to Speak GaelicColumbus HJoin Peadar as he introduces you to speaking Gaelic and you learn some phrases. Peadar O Guilin

Fri Aug 31 7:00:pm

Fri Aug 31 7:30:pm

Reading: Peadar Ó Guilín

Field

Peadar O Guilin

Fri Aug 31 12:00:pmFri Aug 31 1:30:pmMobile Phones Are the FutureAddamsWe were promised flying cars and undersea homes. What we got was the Internet and mobile computing. The future is all around us and is amazing.Bill Willingham Espana Sheriff  Jacqueline Lichtenberg  Peadar O Guilin Robert Runte

Sat Sep 1 10:30:am

Sat Sep 1 12:00:pm

Social Media for Writers

Gold Coast

Should you incorporate social media to advance your career? How? For writers at all stages of their careers.

Adam Christopher Amanda Luedeke Emma Newman Lillian Cauldwell Peadar O Guilin

Sun Sep 2 10:30:am

Sun Sep 2 12:00:pm

SF in Libraries Focus on Schools

Comiskey

Science fiction is an area of increasing interest and activity for library collections. Discover what types of materials are being collected, how they are being used, and how they are exposing a new generation to science fiction.

Bryce Moore Greg Prickman James Bryant Maurine Starkey Peadar O Guilin

The Villain Comes Home

I'm not supposed to be on a social network right now, what with all that writing to do, all those Con preparations, all those parts of my nostrils that have yet to be explored. However, I am very excited by the announcement that When The Villain Comes Home is now available to buy.

This is the sequel anthology, obviously enough, to last year's When the Hero Comes Home. There are some great, famous, talented, thrilling authors on the TOC, but mostly, I'm excited to see personal friends of mine in there too. You'll see my lovely name half-way down the list with a story called "The Sunshine Baron" -- very appropriate for the monsoon summer we in Ireland are currently experiencing.

Note: only the physical book is available for purchase right now, but the ebook is imminent.

Here's the cover, followed by a full list of the contents.

Camille Alexa – Pinktastic and the End of the World
Erik Scott de Bie – Hunger of the Blood Reaver
Chaz Brenchley – Villainelle
Eugie Foster – Oranges, Lemons, and Thou Beside Me
David Sakmyster – Prometheus Found
Marie Bilodeau – Happily Ever After
Richard Lee Byers – Little Things
K.D. McEntire – Heels
Peadar Ó Guilín – The Sunshine Baron
Jim C. Hines – Daddy’s Little Girl
Ari Marmell - Than to Serve in Heaven
Karin Lowachee – The Bleach
Jay Lake – The Woman Who Shattered the Moon
Julie Czerneda – Charity
J.M. Frey – Maddening Science
Clint Talbert – Birthright
Rachel Swirsky – Broken Clouds
Tony Pi – The Miscible Imp
Leah Petersen – Manmade
J.P. Moore – Lord of the Southern Sky
Ryan McFadden – Back in the Day
Todd McCaffrey – Robin Redbreast
Erik Buchanan – Cycle of Revenge
Gregory A. Wilson – The Presuil’s Call
Rosemary Jones – The Man With Looking-Glass Eyes
Gabrielle Harbowy – Starkeep
Ed Greenwood – A Lot of Sly Work Ahead
Mercedes Lackey / Larry Dixon – Heir Apparent
Chris A. Jackson – Home Again, Home Again
Steve Bornstein – The Best Laid Plans

Pulling Back For a Bit From Social Networks

You may or may not have noticed that  I haven't posted here for a while and that my comments on your own wonderful entries have been few and far between. What can it be? What's going on?

Quite a lot, actually. Enormously exciting things have happened. Great books have been read; TV has been splendid; wars, outrages and hilarious moments are everywhere to be seen and experienced.

But somehow, I've lost my mojo for blogging. For now. I'm going to take a break from the whole thing until after WorldCon in Chicago at the end of August. Actually, that's a lie, because I know that in a month or so, I'll be bursting with excitement for that awesome event and will simply have to talk about it. I'll want to put up my schedule of panels if nothing else.

Until then, though, my posts will be distinctly lacking.

I hope you're all having a fab summer. I look forward to mojo reaquisition some time very soon.

Peadar the Lazy

Boring Action

What's in it for me?
Oh, I've read a lot of boring action scenes lately. Worse, I've written a few myself. 
How can that be? I mean, it's all about raising the stakes isn't it? Here's sweet Jenny. Quirky, yet kick-ass, with those goggles and that steam-powered gun. And now, she's just been invited to the school dance by a bare chested, sensitive bad boy. Does he shave that chest? Oh, yeah.
And then, on her way to the prom, she leaves the gun behind, and Mr. BigTooth McVampire glides down from a darkening sky... Why am I not afraid? She could DIE! Sweet Jenny, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Not really, though, right? We're only halfway through book two. Without George R. R. Martin at the helm, Jenny is in no danger. I know she gets through this scrape and indeed the one that comes after too. If you want me biting my nails, dear writer, then your action scene will need to threaten somebody or something else.
Say, for example, the assault on Jenny is only needed to distract her from the attempted, and possibly successful murder of her mum. The reader is aware of this and frets as the clock ticks down.
Or, the fighting is meant to destroy Jenny's dress so that she will not be allowed into the school dance. 
Or, her attacker, BigTooth McVampire, might be the desperate one, the one with something vital to protect. What is it? Tell me! 
You see, it doesn't matter how high the stakes are for the character, there has to be something in it for me too.
The Power of Curiosity
I recently read a book where the central mystery was about a monster. Where did it come from? What were its strange powers? Did it have a plan? 
The creature attacks characters I was supposed to care about, although I have to say I did not. But the attack *was* interesting because every move and counter-move of the fight allowed me (and the characters) to learn more about the beast that wanted them dead.
They managed to drive it off, but as often happens in a good action scene, this was only a prelude to a new emergency... Sadly, the secondary fracas, just as frenetic as the first, sent me to sleep. There was nothing in it for me. I knew the characters would get out of it and that, absent the monster, the interest just wasn't there.
To Err is Human
So, I don't feel too bad for writing not so excellent scenes, but I promise my readers that I'm learning all the time. The next book I write won't just have hight stakes for the characters -- the reader will have something to bet on too.

An Irish SF Podcast

The Momus Report, featuring Emmet O'Cuana and our own hatgirl has been discussing Irish SF. They thoroughly explored my story Where Beauty Lies in Wait alongside the work of such great writers as Iain Macdonald, Oisín McGann and Pat O'Shea. You can listen to the podcast here, although if you want it on your mobile device, you'll have to download the mp3 or ogg here.

As for my story, well, most of my friends here have already seen it, but if you want to have a read before casting the pod, you can find it here, in various formats, as part of a free sampler of my work:

kindle
ePub
Pdf

New German Cover Finally Available

Yes, yes, the new German cover of Die Kuppel, a.k.a. The Inferior came out last week. I've shown it here before, but why not again, eh?




Speaking of Irish Writers

And speaking of Irish writers, I finished Conor Kostick's Epic a short while ago. It's what my American friends might call a Middle-Grade book, I think. It's a great story, although it will teach your kids such lessons as "all authority is out for itself" and "the decks are stacked against you" rather earlier in life than you might have wanted. Then again, it's probably better than my books where you learn that everything wants to eat you :)

I liked it a lot and will read the others in the series 'ere long.

On Battleship Hill

I don't listen to music radio much anymore. No surprise then, that most of my new "discoveries" come from watching TV. This week's Hit and Miss on Sky Atlantic had a stunning piece of harmony right in the middle. So beautiful was it that I had to rewatch the program the following day so that I could find it. 

No regrets. I give you, P.J. Harvey's "On Battleship Hill". Give it a minute and a half to get to the bit I was talking about.