Geoff Nelder's Blog, page 43

My Amazon author centre page

Amazon UK has introduced a way for authors to show their short biography and photos along with books they authored that exist on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B002BMB2XY

There are other books and magazines I am involved with as editor or contributor but I've yet to figure how to insert them on that page.

Is it Science Fiction?

I have yet to read China Mieville's The City and The City as I've been bogged down getting through Stephen KIng's The Stand, a long-promised read (the 1400 page version). I make the admission in order to clarify that I am not making a judgement on China's award-winning book. I love his other books mainly because of the literary style of his writing, and it shouts at me from the bookcase to be read.

It is fascinating through how doubt has been levelled at The City and The City as to whether it ...

Smashing words

With my agreement, encouragement and applause, the publisher of my humorous thriller, Escaping Reality, has released it as an ebook on Smashwords. See http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/brambling

Cheaper than a cup of tea, you can download in almost any format and be reading it in seconds. For information on the book itself have a glance at

http://geoffnelder.com/ERinfo.htm

Short story submissions

I note that some writer friends post news about the progress of their short story submissions in public domain places such as Facebook, MySpace and in their open blogs. Now, it might seem silly but I am wary of telling the world that a favourite story has just been rejected. For example a favourite of mine is Janet and John Deconstruct the Cassini Ring. A fun science fiction piece written in the style of a Janet and John primary reader. It'll either tickle or provoke sputum. It is being...

Dieting for the age

Okay, so over the years I have put on two stones (28 pounds) too much weight. Minimum – I'm 13 stones (182 pounds) and only 5 feet 8. I'd like to live long enough to be helpful to my grandkids so I am determined to lose the extra flab. I am the fattest vegan I know. So there I am in the queue in Tesco today. My trolley has plenty of salads, fruit, nuts, tea, sugar-free muesli, sugar-free everything else. A healthy trolley – it must have been whimpering with self-righteous goodness. Then I...

Sun-disadvantaged Vampires

I didn't want to upset the other readers at my first attendance of a science fiction and fantasy reading group, but I had to keep sipping my tea to stop myself. It is a general consensus that vampires cannot go out in the daytime because the sunlight will fry them. Some of the folk in the group were annoyed with recent films, for example in Twilight, that dare to show vampires in daylight.

What I'd like to have pointed out is that early depictions of vampires don't have them burning in...

Why Dogs Bark

As a cyclist I've had occasion to leap sideways when a mutt barks suddenly, even when its behind a gate. It puzzled me why some dogs started barking when they couldn't possibly hear or see me, so on behalf of the magazine, Cycling World, I spent the best part of six months researching the topic, doing experiments and persuading canine psychologists to talk to me. The resulting article came out in Cycling World in 2004. This month I updated the piece and it is published online for the first...

How The Ardly Effect is working

A few years I read and reviewed a delightfully humorous science fiction novel, The Ardly Effect, by Mitis Green. I had written: "After my poor disappointed eyes had been dragged across the pages of so many best-sellers, this unknown gem is a delightful must read. Any lover of lateral thinking, British sense of humour and sheer page-turning adventure will love this book.
Warning: don't read it on the bus or tube unless you like being the centre of attraction as you gasp and laugh out loud.
Any S...

Escape Velocity needed

Good to hear that an American university in South Carolina has ordered 20 print copies of each of our Escape Velocity magazines. No one has a bad word to say for it – an eclectic mix of science fact and fiction. The latest web page for it is here. Kindle sales of Escape Velocity are picking up.

Early ebook versions are free to download if you go along to that link. Issue 5 will be out in Spring. Thanks to all those excellent authors who contributed for their patience. The delay is because of t...

British Fantasy Society

Hooray. thanks to Ally Bird and Stephen Theaker, there is a thread in the BFS forum – for writers and readers of fantasy and science fiction – for us authors to promo ourselves. In the past when a relatively unknown author tries to tell folk about their publications there are cries of spam and yahboo from jealous others. Now it is official and readers wanting to experience new authors and their works can do so.

The link is here to the BFS Ask an Author. If you are an author of speculative...