It's a full life, if a trifle banal

I'm very pleased that my very short story "In Tauris" will be appearing in the anthology Dark Currents, edited by Ian Whates, published by NewCon Press, and launched at Eastercon.

This is a particularly exciting publication for me, because it will mean that this year is my tenth consecutive year in print.

Other contributors are: Adrian Tchaikovsky, Adam Nevill, Tricia Sullivan, Rod Rees, Nina Allan, Andrew Hook, Finn Clarke, Lavie Tidhar, Jan Edwards, Emma Coleman, Rebecca J Payne, Sophia McDougall, Aliette de Bodard, V.C. Linde, and Neil Williamson.

The cover, by Ben Baldwin, is amazing. Under the cut. (Huge version here.)

( Cover under the cut )

Over the weekend, I was at NewCon in Northampton, a gathering of SF writerly types, with guests Iain Banks, Ken McLeod, Storm Constantine, and Paul Cornell. Thank you to Ian Whates and Ian Watson for organizing. I felt like I was at a big party with excellent company and the most welcoming of hosts.

Saturday night saw the launch of Subterfuge, the latest anthology from award-winning independent publishers NewConPress. It contains "tales of misdirection, of finesse, of wilful sleight of hand, stories in which not everything is always as it seems", from authors including John Meaney, Neal Asher, Pat Cadigan, Tanith Lee, Tony Ballantine, Juliet McKenna, Gary Couzens, and Neil Williamson.

There's also one by me: The Great Gig in the Sky. It’s a story about a band, and their tribute band, and it’s my own tribute to three things that I love: the unreal city I haunt, folk music, and sensitive young men. I had a playlist while I was writing; more about that under the cut if you’re interested.

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