Helen starts her new job this week, which means a completely new routine for both of us – no more night shifts for her and she has to be at work by 8.00 am.  For me this means walking the dog every morning, something I haven’t done for a while, and an empty house five days a week (six in this first week, since Helen’s shift is three days at work, one off, and then another three days).  Hopefully this means I’ll get more work done.  Hopefully… With typically bad planning I’m also out two nights of her first three shifts.  Yes, I do feel guilty, but neither are occasions I can really...

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The week has been an interesting one, kicking off with Novacon in Nottingham last weekend (November 11^th to 13^th) which proved a gently enjoyable affair.  On the Friday I had dinner with Terry Martin, attended the launch of John Meaney’s latest novel, Transmission – not officially released...

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It’s odd, the things that can impact your life. Honey, our wonderful, crazy, irrepressible Cocker Spaniel, had to have an operation earlier this month. An abscess had developed just below her right ear; a rock-hard lump that swelled dramatically until it was encroaching beneath her throat, and it was making her life a misery. The operation was straight forward enough but, of course, there’s always a risk with such procedures, particularly when a general anaesthetic is used. Suddenly there was the very real possibility, however slim, that she might not survive. Contemplating that prospect made...

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A week on and memories of Fantasycon still put a smile on my face. In many ways this seemed more like a successor to last year’s World Horror Con than a Fantasycon – same town, same hotel, similar number of people – but it was a lot more chilled and relaxed than WHC… and the weather was far better, as Brighton basked in an unseasonal heat wave. Many highlights – the launch on Friday night went better than I’d feared (we were scheduled against two huge crowd pleasers: the Fantasycon quiz for the first half hour and the raffle for the second). In the end there were fewer people...

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My debut novel, City of Dreams and Nightmare, was released via Harper Collins imprint Angry Robot on March 4^th (UK and Australia, due out in the USA this August).  This is the first of a series set in the fabled city of Thaiburley, a multi-tiered metropolis of social strata and complex politics.  Most of the narrative takes place in the basement level, the City Below, where Thaiburley is at its dirtiest and deadliest.  The novels are urban fantasy with a heavy dose of SF and a side-order of steampunk. Inevitably, I’ve been both excited and nervous about how the book...

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