Mark West's Blog, page 85

Apropos of nothing, here's a picture...

...of me, Nick and Sarah (head partially obscured by Dad's technique!), cruising up the Norfolk Broads in 1988. I like this.

It's Official! "Come and get it while it's hot!"

Shoes, Ships and CadaversTales from North LondonshireThe Northampton Science Fiction Writers GroupIntroduction by Alan Moore Northampton:A town that sits at the heart of England. A town that has played host to kings, saints, parliament, public hangings, and hot air balloons. A place steeped in history, laden with mystery, and bursting with wonders just waiting to be realised.Let us be your

The Lost Film novella (post 1)

Well, it appears to have started. Sorrell Eve is in the process of engaging the services of Gabriel Bird and it seems to be running along quite nicely so far. My target is to have this finished by 19th October (preferably the week earlier, as that'll tie in with my first critiquing slot at Northampton SF Writers Group) and we're off, so here's hoping everything goes to plan. Speaking of plan,

Simon Bestwick's Statistics

My friend Simon Bestwick's latest blog entry (click here to read it for yourself) is an interesting little essay about him sorting through old stories to hopefully put together a new collection (which'd be very nice). The biggest revelation was that he has written over 190 short stories.Bloody hell! He has a couple of years publishing headstart on me but even so, my credits pale against his. I

State of play

Okay, this is where I am now:* Chris has signed off on the last of the illustrations for the "Tourniquet Heart" pdf, which is good.* My diary is now up to date* My afterword for "What We Do Sometimes, Without Thinking" is now completed (and might just make an appearance here, once the story is published)* I have caught up on all of my critiquingMy slate is now clear, therefore, leaving me free to

Last minute changes...

Chris has pointed out a perfectly reasonable thing about my illustration for my own story in the "Tourniquet Heart" pdf - the opening line is "The bathwater was crimson..." and it clearly isn't here.So, this was supposed to be my picture but now isn't!

FantasyCon 2010

I'll be there - looking forward to it already, in fact - will you? If so, make sure you say hi! This is the direct link to the dedicated FantasyCon website

"What We Do Sometimes, Without Thinking"

Woo hoo!I'm really chuffed - my story "What We Do Sometimes, Without Thinking" will appear in a forthcoming NewCon Press anthology, featuring stories about Northamptonshire (and which'll hopefully have an introduction by a comics legend).For me, this story has been a revelation - Ian told me about the antho on the Wednesday, I had the germ of an idea that night, Matthew helped things along by

FantasyCon in a fortnight, another teaser tonight...

As mentioned in a previous post, Pendragon Press is producing a free, limited edition PDF version of "Tourniquet Heart" for FantasyCon. Only perhaps a dozen of the original ToC will be included, but one of those will be my "Up For Anything" (yep, the tampon one).Chris approached me to produce some photo montages, as story headers and I've had a lot of fun with the process. I'll post all of the

Couldn't resist - a late-coming INXS Friday special

Lately, from the Wembley concert (which I was at). Not included on the original concert film (it's an extra on the DVD), this has a terrific sax solo by Kirk Pengilly.