Scotland, Fantasycon and broken ribs...in that order!
posted by Sarah Pinborough at 09:11I can't believe it's been so long since I blogged. And given that I no longer have a 'proper' job that's just ridiculous...Anyway - here now!
So - where to start? Oh yes, Scotland.
What can I say? It didn't work out... Don't get me wrong - Scotland is a lovely place. I'm half-Scottish, it's in my blood to love it, but once I'd waved Sam, Andy and Nyah off back to the beaches of Dubai, life got very quiet. VERY. I had a very idealistic view of writing in my Scottish hideaway for a few months, but to be honest, now that the day job is ditched, by five o'clock after writing all day it's definitely wine time - and I'd moved a seven hour drive away from all my wine time buddies!
I stayed a month during which time I wrote TORCHWOOD: INTO THE SILENCE (BBC books, May 2009) so that was productive, but I was bored, lonely and missing my friends, so after a long chat with lovely Lucy on the phone I decided to come back down to the glory of the south. So here I am I'm back in the much maligned and under-estimated Milton Keynes surrounded by friends and only half an hour from London (a girl should never be more than an hour on the train from London, I've decided...) until Christmas when I'm heading stateside to spend a couple of months in Raleigh, NC with Liz and Alex. By then I'll have finished FEEDING GROUND (Leisure Oct, 2009) and be ready to start on something new.
I do have to send a thank you North of the Border to Sam and Andy's lovely neighbours who stopped me going insane during my month of solitude. Cathy and Ray and their daughter Kirsty (and her daughter Katie!) were so welcoming and shared my love of both wine time and the X-factor so we had several mad nights of alcohol, Nachos and ridiculous games during my stay. Lovely fabulous people, and Sam is really lucky to have them guarding her house....even if we did have some problems figuring the alarm out...but then maybe we should have done that BEFORE starting the wine for the night! ;-)
A few days after returning to the glories of England Fantasycon was upon us. I got up at stupid o'clock to pick Chris Golden up from Heathrow and I was glad that I did, cos the problem with conventions is that you never get enough time with all the people you want to spend time with, so at least we had that couple of hours to catch up and I got to hear how Connie was getting on with her teacher training (I feel her pain..) and how the boys and Lily were.
The Con was great as always and I caught up with all the usual crowd over late curries and too much bad wine..I didn't win Best Novel, but was happy that Ramsey did so all was well there and I didn't have to stab anyone with my butter knife.
Life since then has been quiet...I was cleaning some kitchen cupboards (so domesticated) and the steps I was standing on slipped away, leaving me with cracked ribs and torn muscles..so its been writing and TV for the past few weeks..BUT World Fantasy in Calgary is this coming week, and I'm really looking forward to that.
There are a few recommendations I'd like to pass on:
Alex Sokoloff has been running some very good articles on novel writing over at her blog - if you're interested in writing etc then defo check them out at:
http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/
Bookwise I've just finished reading Graham Joyce's /Seamus Heaney's,'The Memoirs of a Master Forger'. It's the kind of book I've come to expect from Graham - completely baffling to define in terms of genre, but a beautiful, quirky story that had me gripped throughout and left me thoughtful and moved. You can't ask for more than that really.
Two more recommendations come from collections I picked up at Fantasycon from two really brilliant writers whose styles are very different, but each a master of the short story in their own way.
Mark Samuels' 'Glyphotech and other macabre processes' , from PS Publishing is a very dark collection of stories with a real sense of creeping terror in the tradition I would say of the old masters like M.R James...these actually scared me, which is no mean feat... I think I've been a bit slow coming to Mark's work, but he really is a hugely talented writer. One of the stories from this collection 'A gentleman from Mexico' can also be found in 'The Mammoth book of Best New Horror' ed Stephen Jones and I actually don't think that's the best story in the collection which will give you some idea of the quality of the work. Anyway, I suggest you find this out for yourselves! The book can be bought at:
http://store.pspublishing.co.uk/
The second collections is:
Paul Meloy's 'Islington Crocodiles' from TTA Press. I'm at a loss to describe Paul's work and do it justice because he really does have a unique voice and although at times both humorous and shocking, his stories always leave something with you. I've been a fan of his for a couple of years and I think he really deserves more attention from readers as well as the praise he's garnered from fellow writers - see below.
“In the stories of Paul Meloy – where walk the living dead, genetically modified pandas, and the mad and terrible Nurse Melt, among others – raw, tell-it-like-it-is comedy brawls with trippy horror in a cage match for the human soul. Take a front row seat. Try not to get any blood on you” Joe Hill
Islington Crocodiles can be bought at:
http://ttapress.com/511/islington-crocodiles-by-paul-meloy/
That's about it from me for now.
Have a good November,
Sarah x
So - where to start? Oh yes, Scotland.
What can I say? It didn't work out... Don't get me wrong - Scotland is a lovely place. I'm half-Scottish, it's in my blood to love it, but once I'd waved Sam, Andy and Nyah off back to the beaches of Dubai, life got very quiet. VERY. I had a very idealistic view of writing in my Scottish hideaway for a few months, but to be honest, now that the day job is ditched, by five o'clock after writing all day it's definitely wine time - and I'd moved a seven hour drive away from all my wine time buddies!
I stayed a month during which time I wrote TORCHWOOD: INTO THE SILENCE (BBC books, May 2009) so that was productive, but I was bored, lonely and missing my friends, so after a long chat with lovely Lucy on the phone I decided to come back down to the glory of the south. So here I am I'm back in the much maligned and under-estimated Milton Keynes surrounded by friends and only half an hour from London (a girl should never be more than an hour on the train from London, I've decided...) until Christmas when I'm heading stateside to spend a couple of months in Raleigh, NC with Liz and Alex. By then I'll have finished FEEDING GROUND (Leisure Oct, 2009) and be ready to start on something new.
I do have to send a thank you North of the Border to Sam and Andy's lovely neighbours who stopped me going insane during my month of solitude. Cathy and Ray and their daughter Kirsty (and her daughter Katie!) were so welcoming and shared my love of both wine time and the X-factor so we had several mad nights of alcohol, Nachos and ridiculous games during my stay. Lovely fabulous people, and Sam is really lucky to have them guarding her house....even if we did have some problems figuring the alarm out...but then maybe we should have done that BEFORE starting the wine for the night! ;-)
A few days after returning to the glories of England Fantasycon was upon us. I got up at stupid o'clock to pick Chris Golden up from Heathrow and I was glad that I did, cos the problem with conventions is that you never get enough time with all the people you want to spend time with, so at least we had that couple of hours to catch up and I got to hear how Connie was getting on with her teacher training (I feel her pain..) and how the boys and Lily were.
The Con was great as always and I caught up with all the usual crowd over late curries and too much bad wine..I didn't win Best Novel, but was happy that Ramsey did so all was well there and I didn't have to stab anyone with my butter knife.
Life since then has been quiet...I was cleaning some kitchen cupboards (so domesticated) and the steps I was standing on slipped away, leaving me with cracked ribs and torn muscles..so its been writing and TV for the past few weeks..BUT World Fantasy in Calgary is this coming week, and I'm really looking forward to that.
There are a few recommendations I'd like to pass on:
Alex Sokoloff has been running some very good articles on novel writing over at her blog - if you're interested in writing etc then defo check them out at:
http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/
Bookwise I've just finished reading Graham Joyce's /Seamus Heaney's,'The Memoirs of a Master Forger'. It's the kind of book I've come to expect from Graham - completely baffling to define in terms of genre, but a beautiful, quirky story that had me gripped throughout and left me thoughtful and moved. You can't ask for more than that really.
Two more recommendations come from collections I picked up at Fantasycon from two really brilliant writers whose styles are very different, but each a master of the short story in their own way.
Mark Samuels' 'Glyphotech and other macabre processes' , from PS Publishing is a very dark collection of stories with a real sense of creeping terror in the tradition I would say of the old masters like M.R James...these actually scared me, which is no mean feat... I think I've been a bit slow coming to Mark's work, but he really is a hugely talented writer. One of the stories from this collection 'A gentleman from Mexico' can also be found in 'The Mammoth book of Best New Horror' ed Stephen Jones and I actually don't think that's the best story in the collection which will give you some idea of the quality of the work. Anyway, I suggest you find this out for yourselves! The book can be bought at:
http://store.pspublishing.co.uk/
The second collections is:
Paul Meloy's 'Islington Crocodiles' from TTA Press. I'm at a loss to describe Paul's work and do it justice because he really does have a unique voice and although at times both humorous and shocking, his stories always leave something with you. I've been a fan of his for a couple of years and I think he really deserves more attention from readers as well as the praise he's garnered from fellow writers - see below.
“In the stories of Paul Meloy – where walk the living dead, genetically modified pandas, and the mad and terrible Nurse Melt, among others – raw, tell-it-like-it-is comedy brawls with trippy horror in a cage match for the human soul. Take a front row seat. Try not to get any blood on you” Joe Hill
Islington Crocodiles can be bought at:
http://ttapress.com/511/islington-crocodiles-by-paul-meloy/
That's about it from me for now.
Have a good November,
Sarah x
