Screw you, Halloween
“It’s fun for the children,” they tell me. “Harmless,” they say. “It gets the kids outside – don’t be such a killjoy,” they implore.
So if my opposition to Halloween makes me the Scrooge of that festival, then so be …
Mad Max Fury Road Boxed Set: Oh What a Lovely Detail!
You need to re-watch Mad Max: Fury Road. Stop asking questions and do it. That’s the short version of this article.
The long version: while Mad Max: Fury Road does suffer in the transition from big to small screen – …
The Art and Beauty of Blade Runner
This article was published last year, but due to its enduring popularity I’ve moved it to the front page for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.
Blade Runner is one of the most visually haunting and memorable movies …
The Future History of Killer Robots
When we develop Artificial Intelligence, our philosophical DNA will be embedded in our creation. This is one of the fascinating arguments of the movie Ex Machina: that the values of the creator are imprinted on the new being (an …
Milestones and Millstones (and a hypothetical Stephen King)
With a sale in recent days to the excellent, criminally under-read Interzone magazine, I’ve hit the small milestone of ten short story sales.
Given I started my writing career with barely a thought for short fiction, ten sales in under …
Fiction and the Hidden Trauma of Vietnam
For those of you unfamiliar with the rather esoteric world of short story markets, Asimov’s is one of the oldest and most prestigious science fiction magazines in the world. Some, such as this site, rate it as the best. …
Terminator Genisys: Ruminations on a Train Wreck
The more you think about this movie in the bitter aftertaste of viewing, the more you realise almost none of it makes any sense.
Now look, if you don’t think at all, Terminator: Genisys has a kind of retro pleasure …
Writing 2015: The Half-Time Score
Holy shit. Half the year is gone already. More.
It is times like this I think back on the year and wonder why I haven’t lost five kilograms, or learned 
Kung-Fu, or sufficiently explained to my 3-year-old the importance of …
Time Travel and its Discontents
I was a few days into writing my first time travel story when I realised I was screwed.
After a particularly difficult session involving much grinding of teeth trying as I tried to figure out the implications of time-travel on …
The Writer’s Training Regime, Part 4 – Lessons from Poker
I used to play a lot of poker. Took it pretty serious, as well: serious enough to make the trip to Vegas in 2009 to play in the World Series of Poker.
I played regularly for about ten years, every …