Jeremy Szal's Blog, page 8
December 31, 2017
2017: A Year in Review and taking risks (and eligibility stuff)
So. Another year’s whisked by. A strange year, to be sure. But also a busy and productive one, both in and out of writing.
I’ll waffle on about the year as a whole, before I list all my publications at the bottom for award eligibility and reading sources (this is what all the cool kids are doing, apparently).
Novels:It was last year, way back in 2016, that I really kicked novel writing into gear, having penned The Rogue Galaxy. I swore, that if nothing else, I’d get an agent. And on May 31...
December 26, 2017
Writing Update: Stormblood Edits
At the tail end of the year, my good good agent John Jarrold has sent me edits for my next book, Stormblood. It’s The Wire meets Mass Effect set on an asteroid that’s comprised of a hundred cities stacked on top of each other. Contains first-person snark, alien drugs, drug culture, religious cults, armor, gangs, neon-dunked streets,, food porn, and booze. Lots and lots of booze.
I’ve been tackling the edits for a few weeks now, they’re going pretty smoothly. It’s been slowly climbing in word...
December 4, 2017
Book Release: Where the Stars Rise and Asian Science-fiction
It’s not been a bad year, writing wise, but having so much on means I get my attention split between projects. But even so, I’ve always been focused on this one project ever since I was asked to contribute towards it. And almost two years later, it’s out!
Where The Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction & Fantasy is exactly what it sounds like: an anthology that focuses on Asian science-fiction and fantasy, exploring Asian cultures, themes, language, histories and futures. Being from a background...
November 29, 2017
What I’m Reading, and my conversion (not quite) to Audible
I’ve been reading quite a lot lately. Or rather, listening a lot, since I got Audible and have been tearing through books on the day job. I’d never be able to get through 3 books a week like this. So far I’ve gone through The Quantum Thief (loved it), The Ocean At The End of the Lane (enjoyed it very much) and I’m halfway through Andy Weir’s Artemis (which is…okay so far). There’s so many books I want to get through but don’t have the time to read at home, so I’m loving this.
Other books I’ve...
November 22, 2017
Ark of Bones now available! In audio!
https://embed.acast.com/starshipsofa/starshipsofano509jeremyszal
A very, very belated post: but my short story “Ark of Bones” is now available in audio over at StarShipSofa in episode 509. It’s narrated by the wonderful Mikael Naramore, who’s narrated audiobooks by Clive Barker, Nora Roberts, Wesley Chu, and other writers much more talented than me.
His buttery man vocals bring the story to life in ways that put a stupid grin on my face, and I usually can’t listen to audio adaptations of my w...
November 16, 2017
PoC Destroy SF wins British Fantasy Award
Even cooler? I'm in it!
Obviously my particaption didn't leave that big of an impact on the jury's decision. There's over one hundred people in it, and I only had a small part, albiet one that was very important to me (you can read my essay here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/... ). So it's great that something so personal was able to be included in the project.
But still, it's pretty cool to contribute to an award winning anthology (a very shiny award at that) and be ingrained in something so widely read and established in fandom. I mean, look at that juicy Table of Contents list....
I do believe this is the first time I've been in something that's won an award, so this is definitely a tick on the bingo square.
Ever onwards....
October 10, 2017
PoC Destroy SF wins British Fantasy Award
Self-explanatory title: the acclaimed anthology People of Colour Destroy Science-Fiction picked up the British Fantasy Award for best Anthology at FantasyCon last week.
Even cooler? I’m in it!
Obviously my particaption didn’t leave that big of an impact on the jury’s decision. There’s over one hundred people in it, and I only had a small part, albiet one that was very important to me (you can read my essay here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lightspeedmagazine/people-of-colour-destroy-...
September 28, 2017
Book Review: Provenance, by Ann Leckie
A copy of this book was supplied by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Ann Leckie’s latest novel takes place in the same universe previously explored in the acclaimed Ancillary books, but fortunately can be read as a standalone. The narrative focuses on the sole-PoV of Ingray Aughskold, who breaks a dangerous thief out of prison by the name of Pahlad Budrakim to help her adopted mother damage a political rival, while raising her own status amongst her family. They plan to do th...
September 25, 2017
“Oh, you’re THAT Jeremy.” WorldCon75 and Realising You’re a Writer
There’s little moments in every writer’s life, when he or she realises something’s changed. You’ve upgraded. When I sell a story to a good market, when I’ve nailed a third act in a novel, or even I signed with my agent. I recognized that I’d leveled up; hit a new milestone.
But there was nothing little about my experience at WorldCon 75, where it occurred to me, perhaps for the first time, that I am a writer.
See, having never gone to a con of any sorts before, and being in the almost non-e...
September 21, 2017
The Deal with the Devil: Talking with Harlan Ellison
It was a few months ago when I realised that episode 500 of StarShipSofa was bearing down the tracks. Five Oh Oh glorious episodes of our show. We needed to mark the occasion with a ground-breaking author and a ground-breaking story. But who? Not William Gibson, he was episode 400. Not George R. R. Martin, we had that privilege back in episode 389. Not Chiang, Sterling, Moorcock, Gaiman, Brin or any other of the masters of the genre we’ve already had on the show already. No. We needed someone...
