2014 was my second full year of writing fiction. It was good to me. In fact, it exceeded expectations.
My goals were as follows:
1) 60 short story submissions,
2) with two sales, one of those being a professional sale …
Neo, Trinity and Morpheus were mass murderers.
This realisation came to me as I re-watched The Matrix recently. It’s still a fine film, no doubt, which stands the test of time. Slick, stylish, philosophically intriguing, with some fantastic set-piece action …
He goes by many aliases: Kris Kringle, Saint Nicholas, Hagios Nikolas, Joulupukki, Nicholas of Myra, Sinterklaas. He’s the jolly bearded man bearing gifts; the herald of good will and joy; an icon for the young; an ally to the old …
Trying my hand at short stories was the single best decision I made when I started writing fiction.
A couple of years back I started a novel – like just about everyone else does when they decide to take up …
While cinema gets bigger every year: bigger budgets, bigger battles, bigger explosions, and a bigger box-office, the ideas and ambition of the medium steadily get smaller. The idea that cinema can be a transformative experience, the notion that movies can …
The apocalypse is easy. The zombie plague, the uncontrollable pandemic, the meteorite hitting earth – these are the easy catastrophes. They are dramatic, tragic, and most importantly, no-one is responsible. The catastrophic event is merely a plot point, an a …
It’s the perfect storm for the struggling writer: average author income is collapsing, social mobility is in decline across nearly all wealthy countries, and inequality is on the rise. These structural changes are leading to an inescapable reality: it is …
I’m very pleased to have found a second sale to the excellent Interzone magazine. The full title of the story is: An Advanced Guide to Successful Price-Fixing in Extra-terrestrial Betting Markets. It’s probably the weirdest one I’ve ever written, …
Writer’s conventions have powerful utility for the aspiring author. I suspect they are pretty damn helpful for seasoned writers, as well.
I recently spent a long weekend at Conflux, the annual speculative fiction writer’s conference held in Canberra. I’ve been …
Existentialist literature is the purest form of noir, but it isn’t the best.
Noir film and novels, according to various definitions, usually involve a morally ambiguous main character, a seedy underworld, femme fatale, corrupt system, bleak ending, and lots of …
