Wednesday, March 03, 2010

A Word From Our Sponsors

A break from scribbling, always scribbling, to blurt out a few scraps of news:

I'll be attending the World Horror Convention in Brighton, where I'll be leading a creative writing workshop. Intensive fun for all (at least, that's the plan) - a few places left, I think, for those of you who already have memberships for the convention. I'll also be spending a couple of days at Eastercon, the British Science Fiction Association's annual gathering. Hope to see some of you there. Later in the year I'll be one of the guests of honour, along with Pat Cadigan and Paul Cornell, at Newcon 5, 'Northampton's only Science Fiction and Fantasy literary convention'. I guess we'll be talking about books, comics, and Doctor Who.

Just out, this fine anthology of short stories about alternate histories, edited by Ian Watson and Ian Whates, who were kind enough to include one of my stories, 'A Very British History', which explains how the space race was really won. Appropriately enough, the US edition of the anthology has an alternate cover.

Coming soon, The Best of the Best New Horror, edited by the indefatigable Stephen Jones, who kindly included my proto-steampunk story 'The Temptation of Dr Stein'.

And my novella 'Crimes and Glory will feature in not one but two Best SF of the year anthologies, thanks to editors Gardner Dozois and Rich Horton, and it will also feature in AudioText's The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 2.

Enough already. Back to work . . .

UPDATE: in all the excitement, forgot to mention that issue #5 of the fine ezine Journey Planet (link to large .pdf), packed with all kinds of good stuff on alternate histories, features my story 'A Brief Guide to Other Histories'.

13 Comments:

Blogger PeteY said...

Hi Paul, is there any chance you might script a Dr Who episode, now that RTD has gone and there's a chance to get some proper SF in?

Also, in relation to Paul Cornell, isn't there a bit of a resonance between A Very British History and his British Summer Time?

March 04, 2010 12:04 am  
Blogger Paul McAuley said...

Hi Pete,

I've written a Doctor Who novella, and would be happy to do another.

Any resonance between Paul's fine time-travel novel and my short story is probably rooted somewhere around Dan Dare...

March 04, 2010 9:12 am  
Blogger George Berger said...

Good morning Paul. Last week I bought Gardens of the Sun as soon as the great Uppsala English Bookshop got my ordered copy. I lent TQW to a very sharp SF fan here, who runs a monthly Book Discussion. Since TQW impresses him he might well choose it for a coming discussion evening.

March 04, 2010 9:46 am  
Blogger Paul McAuley said...

Thanks George! Keep up the good work :)

March 05, 2010 3:32 pm  
Blogger LarryS said...

Hi Paul, just wantes to query something I've only just noticed,the missing J from your name! When did you drop it and why? I kind of think Paul J McAuley flows better off the tongue,or it could just be I'm used to the old moniker.

March 06, 2010 9:32 am  
Blogger Paul McAuley said...

Hi Larry,

I dropped it in 2000. No real rational reason or significant reinvention: I just didn't like it as much as I did when I started out, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. It's been remarkably difficult to get rid of it completely, though.

March 08, 2010 9:41 am  
Blogger LarryS said...

@Paul. It seems a common occurance with authors. Stephen Baxter dropped the 'M' early on (as did Gerald Durrell!) and I just dicovered that a newly found author, Neal Asher used to be Neal L Asher!
Hmmm I wonder if Iain Banks will ever drop the M....;)
BTW I've yet to find one of your novels to read (want to read Eternal Light!) but I seem to remember reading some in Interzone back in the 90s.

March 09, 2010 9:44 am  
Blogger PeteY said...

Larry, Iain Banks's latest book, Transition, was published with the 'M' in the USA but without in the UK. He generally uses the M to distinguish SF from 'other', but that book was fantasy I suppose. He considers it a non-M book but his US publishers thought otherwise.

March 09, 2010 12:53 pm  
Blogger LarryS said...

@Petey,yea I did notice that on a few websites(his own has it minus the M) and was confused! I've only read one Banks novel so far, Consider Phlebas,last year;very good it was too!

March 09, 2010 2:30 pm  
Blogger Paul McAuley said...

Hi Larry - didn't realise that Gerald Durrell dropped an initial. Devoured his books when I was much younger, and still am a big fan of My Family and Other Animals. Eternal Light was reissued in two different paperback editions last year. If you don't live in the UK, may I recommend the Book Depository?

March 10, 2010 6:12 pm  
Blogger LarryS said...

Hi Paul, I also collect Durrel books-have most of them in first edition now. His first book, The Overloaded Ark, is under gerald M. Durrel. the next book, Three Singles to Adventure, lacks the M.

And yea I live in the UK and have eternal Light on my boookmooch wishlist!

March 10, 2010 6:59 pm  
Blogger Paul McAuley said...

Hi Larry, Very envious of yr Durrell first editions. Read all of those, borrowed from the library, back in the day. One of the things that inspired me to become a biologist.

March 10, 2010 8:49 pm  
Blogger LarryS said...

I've also got most of David Attenborough's books too-he remains a HUGE influence on me!

March 10, 2010 9:25 pm  

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