Tim Major's Blog, page 12

New Year roundup

[image error]It’s been a good start to 2020. I’ve read a lot, watched good films, Hope Island is done and dusted and ready for May 2020 publication, and I’ve finished the first draft of my Victorian novel and now I’m into the second pass. A few random nice writer things have cropped up recently, so I thought I’d gather them all here, mainly so I don’t forget any of them myself:

I wrote a short Victorian-era coda to ‘The Princess and the Pea’ for Fudoki Magazine, which specialises in myth,...

My Writing Year 2019

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I’m happy to say that this year I’ve written more words than in any previous year – 182,000 words, which is a great deal more than my previous record of 133k last year. However, I only spent 30-odd more hours writing this year (282 hours in total), so in fact the high word count is probably more reflective of the fact that I’ve done a lot of drafting and little editing in 2019.

I wrote:

Universal Language – Martian mystery novella (45,000 words), currently out with publishers for...

Favourite albums of 2019

Drones

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Goodness, what a lot of good drone albums there were this year! The Sacrificial Code by Kali Malone is a towering achievement – almost two hours of austere, subtly shifting pipe organ drones that slip me into a liminal space the moment they begin. I’ve listened to Genera – Live at AB Salon, Brussels by Bana Haffar more than any other album this year and still I understand it very little, but find it totally absorbing, strange and inspiring. The Gaelic smallpipe drones of The...

Two guest blog posts

Two guest blog posts popped up online during the last week:

First off, Book Stewards put together a really nice Q&A, covering reasons I began writing, happy accidents that resulted in publications, upcoming projects and the elusive ‘Tim Major thing’. I also got to recommend a load of my favourite recent reads. You can read the full article here.

Secondly, Speculative Chic were nice enough to ask me to write an article for their ‘My Favourite Things’ series – I chose the SF, horror and classic...

Black Static reviews ‘And the House Lights Dim’

[image error]The current issue of Black Static features a terrific review of my short story collection, AND THE HOUSE LIGHTS DIM. It’s insightful and detailed (a page and a half long!), and enthusiastic and kind. It made me cry a little. It includes careful analysis of each story in the collection, and ends with the following summation:

“And the House Lights Dim is an immensely worthwhile read. A liquorice allsorts of genre and theme which nonetheless coheres thanks to the enduring prose style and strong...

My FantasyCon 2019 schedule

I’ll be attending FantasyCon in Glasgow this weekend, and this is what I’ll be getting up to:

Launch: The Shadow Booth
Friday 5pm
Launch of Shadow Booth Vol 4, edited by Dan Coxon, with readings by Robert Shearman, Gary Budden and Tim Major.

Panel: The 13th Doctor
Saturday 12pm
The Doctor is back and she’s better than ever! What are the best moments in series 11? What do we love about Whittaker’s Doctor? How has the series riffed on existing concepts but explored them in new wa...

HOPE ISLAND cover reveal

My next novel, HOPE ISLAND, has a cover! Once again, it’s by the wonderful Julia Lloyd, who also designed the SNAKESKINS cover.

The novel features a remote island, creepy children, ethereal cave songs and, after a fairly quiet start, quite a lot of dead bodies.

[image error]The Barnes & Noble blog hosted the cover reveal – if you click through to the announcement you’ll also find a short extract to whet your appetite…

HOPE ISLAND will be published by Titan Books in the UK and USA in May 2020.

SNAKESKINS audio book

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The release day has snuck up on me, but I’m happy to say that SNAKESKINS is now available as an unabridged audio download. Maybe a pleasant way to spend 11 hours and 19 minutes?

It’s available from the usual sources, the obvious ones being Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

New interview (with me)

[image error]Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction have published a new interview with me today. It’s quite a wide-ranging one, covering writing habits, recent publications, my work editing the British Fantasy Society’s BFS Horizons, as well as a minor revelation about my previous brief sideline as a bassist in a band that was actually pretty good. You can read the full interview here.

My WorldCon schedule

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I’m going to be quite busy at Dublin WorldCon in a couple of weeks’ time! Here’s my schedule:

Panel: When good futures go bad: dystopia as horror fiction
Friday 16 Aug 2019, 12:00 – 12:50, Wicklow Room-1 (CCD)
It’s not just for science fiction any more! How do horror dystopias differ from those in SF, and what are some examples, old and new, that we should be reading?
Prof David Farnell (M), Tim Major, Pat Cadigan, Emil Hjörvar Petersen, Nina Allan

Panel: Hammer Horror
Friday 16 Aug 2019, 14...