Yes, I had an excellent weekend. The highlight was (obviously) winning the 2023 Best Novel Award from the British Science Fiction Association, as voted on by members. The full list of winners is here and you can learn a bit about the BSFA while you’re there, if you wish.

I was pleased and honoured to be shortlisted. Yes, that’s what people always say. The thing is, it’s true. A nomination for a genre award means readers find your work worthy of recognition alongside books written by your professional peers and personal friends. That in itself is wonderful. When a friend’s novel which I have enjoyed turns out to win, I’m thrilled for them.

The Green Man’s Quarry actually winning this award was a wholly unexpected delight, and an honour not only for me. Writing may be a solitary occupation, but getting a book into print most assuredly is not. I am intensely grateful to Cheryl Morgan of Wizard’s Tower Press, who first set up her publishing enterprise to help writers like me make our backlists available in print and ebook formats on terms that brought us a worthwhile return. When The Green Man’s Heir was met with a discouraging lack of interest from the agents and publishers I approached, she was absolutely ready to see how the book fared as WTP’s first original publication. The rest, as they say, is history – and do check out the subsequent original titles from Wizard’s Tower Press.

My further thanks go to Toby Selwyn, whom I have known since he was a teenager reading my epic fantasy novels. We’ve met at conventions and stayed in touch through his university years and subsequent career as an editor. This combination of his rigorous professional skills and his finely-honed understanding of my writing makes a significant contribution to these books. I also thank Ben Baldwin for his outstanding artwork, for the whole series, and especially for The Green Man’s Quarry. This latest cover did everything the previous art did to catch the eye and stir the imagination, as well as hinting this time, readers should expect something a bit different… Each of these books brings new members to the team. Since The Green Man’s Quarry sees Dan venture north of the border, I enlisted Shona Kinsella, also a fine writer and meticulous editor, as Scots cultural consultant. She made an invaluable contribution, so thank you to her for that.

It’s thanks to SF conventions and the wider SF&Fantasy fan community that I know these people. Conventions are where I first met Cheryl and Shona. Ian Whates of Newcon Press, another friend made through conventions, recommended Ben when we were looking for an artist for The Aldabreshin Compass reissues. Our genre’s early and effective adoption of websites meant Toby and I could make contact all those years ago and stay in touch ever since. The online world has long enabled keen SF&F readers and reviewers to share their enthusiasms. This virtual word of mouth makes it possible for small press publications to find the people who will love their stories. So thank you, everyone in SF&F circles for that.

The rest of the convention? The panels I took part in were fascinating and informative conversations. I listened to various talks and discussions with keen interest and my notebook to hand, coming away with new information and perspectives that will improve and inform my own work. The convention’s guests were wonderful to meet, and to hear talking about their writing and their working lives. In between times, I caught up with long-standing friends whom I haven’t seen in person for far too long, given the weird dislocations of these past few years. I met online pals in person which is invariably a pleasure, and I made connections with people I wouldn’t have encountered elsewhere, who will assuredly become friends and colleagues. If anyone ever asks you if SF conventions are worth their time and money, feel free to cite all of the above.

There was one notable difference from many UK conventions this year. Rather than being based in a main hotel, this Eastercon used the Telford International Centre for its programme and events, and for central social space. This turned out to work extremely well. Accommodation was readily available within easy walking distance in a range of hotels to suit all budgets. There was similarly a good choice of restaurants and other refreshments options within easy reach, as well as food and drink on site. I recommend event organisers in search of a venue take a serious look at both this site and at this slightly different model for themselves.

As those of us who’ve been involved in event organisation will know, nothing as big and complicated as an Eastercon runs as apparently smoothly and successfully as this weekend did, without a tremendous amount of hard work by a great many people both beforehand and through the event itself. Last, but emphatically by no means least, my thanks and admiration go to the Convention Committee, everyone working in the various departments on site, and to the Levitation volunteers.

And thanks to my husband, for tackling the interesting photographic challenge of this shiny transparent glass award alongside shiny dark-hued book covers.

I’m extremely pleased to share the news that my story Unseen Hands will appear in the shared world anthology, Ampyrium, to be published later this year by ZNB. As I’ve said previously, shared world writing has some particularly interesting angles for authors. Seeing the ways in which this particular setting has grown in the telling of our various stories, I can see it’s going to offer tremendous potential for all sorts of tales. Do check out ZNB’s anthologies. They always offer great reading, as well as opportunities for debut authors through their open calls.

In other writing news hereabouts, the next Green Man novel is coming together nicely, with Dan Mackmain using what he’s learned in recent years to counter new challenges. There are a couple of other short stories in the works, of which more, later.

In upcoming events, I’ll be at Eastercon over the bank holiday weekend. I’ll bring some print copies of the Lescari and Hadrumal trilogies with me, which I’m happy to offer for free to keen readers. If you’re interested in these books, let me know – or find me at the convention. If you have anything you’d like me to sign, feel free to say hello and ask.

As well as seeing friends and colleagues, and enjoying the programme myself, I’m participating on a varied selection of panels, alongside writers whose thoughts I’ll be very interested to hear.

Choosing Character Voice – Sat 11:00–11:45
What are the relative benefits to the storyteller of adopting 1st, 2nd and 3rd person point-of-view? What can the author achieve with each and what are the challenges? What opportunities does the choice of past, present or future tense present? What other stylistic elements contribute to character voice?

Making Systemic Change – Sat 16:00–17:00
The British SF and Fantasy field is still very monocultural in terms of both authors and readership. How do we define and support the kind of systemic change we would like to see to make British SF&F more diverse?

Motherland Fort Salem: a complex allegory… – Sun 13:00–14:00
…about contemporary US politics. Motherland Fort Salem is queer, women-focussed, gloriously intersectional, and complex.

This Green and Pleasant Land – Sun 16:00–17:00
Not everybody was terribly enthused by the industrial revolution. British SF & fantasy is full of alternatives to the industrial future, pastoral, communitarian, and a Britain made over for tourism.

Faery, folklore and fairy tale in fantasy – Mon 12:00–12:45
The exhibition at the British Library this year has placed folk and fairy tale at the heart of fantasy. The panellists will discuss the role fairy tale has played in modern and contemporary fantasy, the sources people have drawn on, and the ways in which authors, artists, film makers and others have weirded and subverted the folk and fairy tale.

(edited to add)
Consider the Loom – Mon 13:00–14:00
How do fashion and technology interact in sf and fantasy. Do you ever find yourself wondering how on earth a character can wear a thing that their culture clearly could not produce? The panellists will talk about clothing and fashion design and trends from different sci-fi universes and fantasy ones, how people describe cloth and fabric and construction, how they use it as part of their worldbuilding and their character design, what people’s fave outfits were and which they’d like to lift wholesale to add to their own wardrobes.

I’ve been back and forth with myself, pondering the answer to this question. With so many new ideas just waiting to be worked on, why do we, as writers, return to old stories? Why do some stories hold such power over us that we retell and reimagine and reexplore them over and over, centuries after they were first told? Perhaps, in some cases, it’s because there are voices in those stories which have never truly been heard, whether that’s the women of Arthurian legend as in Juliet’s The Cleaving, or Snow White from the point of view of the stepmother, as in Cast Long Shadows by Cat Hellisen. In other cases, maybe it’s following clues through history and archaeology to shine new light on old tales, as with Stephen Lawhead’s King Raven Trilogy which places Robin Hood in Wales, in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest.

Ultimately, I can’t speak for those authors, or tell you why they revisited these tales (although I can definitely recommend that you read the books, each one of them is wonderful). All I can really tell you, is why this story called to me.

So, why then did I feel the pull of a Scottish myth so old that its origins are lost to time?

Like many fantasy readers, I have always loved myth and legend and folklore, especially from Scotland. I spent a lot of time outdoors as a child, often in semi-wild places rather than in cultivated gardens and parks. I clambered over rocks on loch sides and riverbanks, made dens in the roots of trees, hunted for tadpoles and dragonflies in marshy, undeveloped land near my home, felt the wind and the sun and the rain – always the rain – on my skin as I searched for signs of the fae. Even now, though I spend more time in my office than outside, I never fail to turn my face to the sun on the first warm days of spring, to find joy in the changing of the seasons and to point out these markers to my children as we walk to school.

It is perhaps unsurprising then, that I should have such love for a myth which touches upon the lives of the gods said to govern the seasons – The Cailleach, the lady of winter, who formed the highlands by striding through the land dropping boulders from her apron; Bride, queen of spring, who is celebrated at Imbolc at the beginning of February; Aengus, god of Summer, love and poetry. It is not a particularly well-known myth outside of the Scottish highlands and certain pagan groups dedicated to the worship of one or other of these deities, which is initially how I stumbled across it. As a pagan dedicated to the worship of Brighid (also spelled Brigid, Bride, Brigit) this myth has deeply personal resonances for me.

In the original myth, The Cailleach is jealous of Bride’s youth and beauty and so imprisons the younger goddess in her cave on Ben Nevis. Aengus dreams of Bride, falling in love with her, and he borrows three days from summer to put the Cailleach to sleep. He rescues Bride and they flee across the land, bringing spring in their wake. The Cailleach wakes and chases them, which is why we have a false spring, often followed by blustery weather in March and April.

As much as I loved this myth as a way of understanding and explaining the seasons, it never sat quite right with me. In other tales, Bride is not a meek princess who would weep and wait for a man to come and rescue her and the Cailleach is powerful and fierce – unlikely to be so jealous of another’s beauty that she would resort to such measures. In fact, in many versions of the Cailleach’s story, she is said to grow young and beautiful over the course of winter, only to age again during the summer.

I began to wonder what this story would look like if the two women were not placed in opposition to each other. I thought about what the myth I was familiar with told us, not about the gods themselves, but about the people who wrote it down. The Cailleach is jealous of another’s youth and beauty because we imagine aging beyond attractiveness to men as being the worst thing that can happen to a woman, but what if it’s not? Wouldn’t it be far worse to have your value and contribution constantly overlooked? Bride is meek and mild and obedient because those were virtues that were valued in a wife, but what if she was strong? What if she was determined to have power over her own life?

Was it possible to keep the exploration of the seasons and what they mean to people, while honouring the gods as I saw them? The Heart of Winter is my attempt to do just that. I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide whether or not I achieved my aim.

https://www.flametreepublishing.com/the-heart-of-winter-isbn-9781787588318.html

Scottish fantasy author Shona Kinsella is the author of The Heart of Winter, The Vessel of KalaDene series, dark Scottish fantasy novella Petra MacDonald and the Queen of the Fae, British Fantasy Award shortlisted industrial novella The Flame and the Flood, and non-fiction Outlander and the Real Jacobites: Scotland’s Fight for the Stuarts. Her short fiction can be found in various magazines and anthologies. She served as editor of the British Fantasy Society’s fiction publication, BFS Horizons for four years and is now the Chair of the British Fantasy Society.

Shona lives near the picturesque banks of Loch Lomond with her husband and three children. She enjoys reading, nature walks, and spending time with her family. When she is not writing, doing laundry, or wrangling children, she can usually be found with her nose in a book.

We went to the Earth Trust/Dig Ventures festival of discovery on Sunday. We listened to two talks by teams of young, enthusiastic archaeologists discussing the finds from digs around Wittenham Clumps. One was on everyday objects, and the other was on ancient animals. In between, we had a very nice lunch, strolled around the local landscape, and went to the pop-up museum where a small selection of the thousands of finds was on display.

I expect many of us have seen Roman tiles with cat and dog prints left when the clay was still wet. This is the first time I’ve seen a fox leave its mark.

Then there were the mystery objects, such as this. I always ask Husband what he thinks. After studying it for a few moments, he proposed a use that one of the archaeologists confirmed is their experts’ current best guess.

Apparently a feature of Bronze Age sites is ‘pots in pits’, and there’s much discussion about what deliberate deposits of selected items might mean. Rituals linked to ‘end of use’ are generally proposed, though it’s impossible to know whether these marked, for example, a death, the demolition of a dwelling, or moving away from an area. One such pit here is particularly interesting as the objects deposited are a well-used, smashed pot, broken loom weights and a 4 year old sheep. When swords and other weapons are deposited in water or pits, they are deliberately broken to put them beyond use. Is this a similar ritual involving objects associated with textile production? Sheep for meat were usually slaughtered by the end of their second year. Beyond that, they were primarily kept for wool. What does this tell us about spinning and weaving and those who did it? That these women and their skills were respected with such rituals? What does that tell us about these ancient people and their society? Maybe it wasn’t all mighty-thewed warlords defending helpless women and children?

Another speaker observed that ‘hillfort’ is increasingly considered a misnomer for enclosures ringed with ditches and banks, as modern archaeology increasingly indicates they weren’t built for defence, not primarily at least. People could retreat into them at need, but for most people, most of the time, these appear to be trading and gathering centres, possibly seats of power for tribal leaders. Where did the people come from to trade and meet? DNA work on burials on this site is still pending, but at least two skeletons have been interpreted by bone experts as likely of African heritage.

This got me thinking about where that term ‘hillfort’ had come from. Field archaeology pioneers from the 1850s onwards started surveying and excavating these landscapes. The British Empire was at war with someone or other through most decades of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. How much did that background noise of perpetual conflict influence these men to see such earthworks as military and defensive? What assumptions followed? You only build defences when there’s an enemy out there. Therefore anyone new must be an invader! But what if that initial assumption is wrong? The the whole framework collapses. Finds that have been interpreted to fit that world view should be reassessed. This is just one reason why I find current archaeology so fascinating.

Since one of my personal lenses for viewing history is its use in world-building for fantasy writers, it’s apt that the next creative writing article from my archive is on this very topic.
The Uses of History in Fantasy

Is it still called ego-surfing? That term was coined in the 1990s as more and more people got online, and would put their names into a search engine to see what came up. It soon became clear this was hazardous for authors. A few months after The Thief’s Gamble came out in 1999, I found two very negative reviews. According to one, the book proved I was a patriarchy-enabling betrayer of the sisterhood. The other reckoned it showed I was a ball-breaking man-hater. I was all set to respond, to explain, when a friend working in IT told me to take a breath, step away from my keyboard and think this through. I remain eternally grateful to him for explaining my chances of success were minimal, compared to the significant possibilities of things going badly for all the online world to see. As a more experienced writer told me soon after, ‘Arguing with a critic is like starting an arse-kicking contest with a porcupine. Even if you win, the cost to yourself won’t be worth it.’ The decades since have seen memorable catastrophes when authors have challenged reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

So no, checking reviews and comments is not what I’m talking about. But another online saying in the 1990s was three things make a post. So here are three solid reasons for writers to stay vigilant over what’s being said about them online these days.

Generative AI has seen an explosion in misinformation. This year’s hobby among writers has been asking ChatGPT and similar for their biography. The inaccuracies that result can be hilarious, as very-far-from-intelligent software scours the Net for anyone with the same name and produces a mishmash of results. After that initial laughter though, this isn’t so funny. How can someone without any prior knowledge of the subject untangle the truth from the nonsense? How can they fact-check when search-engine results are increasingly poisoned by this rubbish?

This gets much worse when some inaccurate statement could have negative professional consequences. Tobias Buckell recently discovered he was being cited as an author praising AI for helping him finish writing a novel, in a lengthy and entirely made-up quote. He was justifiably furious. The excuse that the article was AI-generated so no one is to blame is ridiculous. A human decided to put that lie online – unless no one checked what was being posted, which just makes this worse.

There’s also been an upsurge in online impersonation, especially of literary agents, editors and other people working in publishing. Hopeful writers are being contacted with wonderful offers, and some will be too naive to know this is not how the book trade works. Generative-AI makes these scams more plausible and more common. Writers are being impersonated by scammers creating supposedly new stories in much-loved and long-ago completed series. They find themselves listed as authors of books they have never heard of on Amazon and other sites. These ‘books’ are AI-generated garbage, but how is a reader to know that before buying one and finding out that it’s trash? If the reader doesn’t know what’s happened, the danger of reputational damage for that writer is very real.

Not all of this misinformation can be blamed on generative-AI. I have been checking in on a particular Wikipedia page for over a month now, since I noticed a major rewrite that stripped away an individual’s positive achievements and inserted highly critical and inaccurate material. By which I mean paragraphs that no newspaper’s lawyer would let go to print as some statements would be legally actionable. The person making these edits was doing so under a pseudonym, while Wikipedia culture does not accept the subject of a page making changes themselves. (I have written before about issues with Wikipedia.)

I discussed this with several friends who are active on Wikipedia, who were naturally concerned. They undertook to take a look, and assured me that Wikipedia does have systems to deal with such situations. I have observed these systems in action, and I am glad to say that the page now offers fair and balanced content. But resolving this has taken quite a while, and there have been periods when that seriously inaccurate content remained visible. Two things follow from this. Firstly, if you are the subject of a Wikipedia page, check it from time to time. You need to know if inaccurate material has appeared before you can find help to get the facts straight. Secondly, if you are using someone’s page as a source, and something doesn’t seem right, do click on the Talk tab to look for any current disputes between Wikipedia editors.

In conclusion? All these things strengthen the arguments for an author maintaining and updating their own website, to ensure there is at least one source of accurate and up-to-date information about them online, which they control.

Back in 2020, when Elsewhen Press were about to announce the forthcoming publication of Bloodsworn – the first instalment of my Avatars of Ruin series – I had a sudden stroke of inspiration whilst reviewing the press release they had prepared. I decided to email them with an idea that had been playing in the back of my mind for a while, as I realised that it was now or never.

See, in the original version of the press release they had referred to Bloodsworn as ‘Book 1 of the Avatars of Ruin’ followed by a word that I asked for them to redact and replace with a more ambiguous one; ‘series’.

Now that I have told you this I am guessing the first suspicion that has popped into many of your minds is that I was worried this series might befall the fate of others and birth more sequels than originally intended, but no. That wasn’t the reason. I am – mostly – a planner, and do have a good grasp on the overall arc this series will take. When I first submitted Bloodsworn to Elsewhen Press back in 2019 I told them precisely how many more there were to come, and it was something they considered when they committed to publishing it.

There are a few reasons for I decided to make this suggestion to them. Some of them are specific to the arc it takes, so I won’t – for the sake of spoilers – go into them here, but one of them is a more general point I would like to discuss.

For me, knowing how many books are in the series that you are reading can often feel like a bit of a spoiler, especially when it comes to genres such as epic fantasy, and its various cousins such as grimdark. For example; if you know that the book you are reading is the finale in a trilogy, quartet, pentalogy, etc, the reader will feel some form of reassurance that, no matter how high you up the stakes in that climatic battle, there is a good chance that something will happen to give this book the closure that they have been waiting for. Whether that be a hearty resolution, something bittersweet, or the death of your villain-protagonist and restoration of a bleak status quo, will likely depend on what kind of vibe the series has taken, of course. There are various ways that one can still surprise people with a twist at the end, but most books will have some kind of closure that fits its particular subgenre and for good reason. To not have this will often be a disservice to the narrative, its characters, and leave readers feeling cheated.

Elsewhen did accept my proposal, and the reaction so far has been quite mixed. This series has done fairly well for one published by an independent press. It does not automatically make it onto all the high-street stores nor have all the publicity that comes with one of the bigger houses, of course, but some good reviews and a bit of luck have drawn a bit more attention to this series than my previous urban fantasy duology that didn’t get as much attention than I would have liked. I am certainly more on the map now but far from being a household name, and I am not the kind of author where this experiment has drawn enough attention to be scrutinised much online. I have noticed – on a few occasions – people referring to my series as a ‘trilogy’, but that is an assumption they have made based on its genre. I have not gone out of my way to correct people when this happens – as to confirm or deny either way would be revealing – but neither have I told any lies. Some reviewers (and even, on a few occasions, readers) have reached out to me and asked for clarification, and, whenever this has happened, I have always been honest and told them that this is something that myself and Elsewhen Press are choosing not to disclose for now. I haven’t had any negative reactions to this so far. Some have commented that they find this approach intriguing.

I feel that it will be in the coming months that I will finally find out how successful this little experiment has been. The third instalment – Blood War – is to be released on the 2nd of February. Its name and the blurb do hint at a climactic battle, and I certainly don’t think it will disappoint in that regard. But whether this battle ends up being the closure to a trilogy or the instigator for more volumes to come is something my readers are yet to discover. The only thing that I am certain about is that many people have made assumptions either way so there are going to be at least some who will be surprised, and it will be interesting to see what their reactions will be.

Tej Turner is an SFF author and travel-blogger. His debut novel The Janus Cycle was published by Elsewhen Press in 2015 and its sequel Dinnusos Rises was released in 2017. Both are hard to classify within typical genres but were contemporary and semi-biographical with elements of surrealism. He has since branched off into writing epic fantasy and has an ongoing series called the Avatars of Ruin. The first instalment – Bloodsworn – was released in 2021, and its sequel Blood Legacy in 2022. The third – Blood War –is due to be published in early 2024.

He does not have any particular place he would say he is ‘from’, as his family moved between various parts of England during his childhood. He eventually settled in Wales, where he studied Creative Writing and Film at Trinity College in Carmarthen, followed by a master’s degree at The University of Wales Lampeter.

Since then, Tej has mostly resided in Cardiff, where he works as a chef by day and writes by moonlight. His childhood on the move seems to have rubbed off on him because when he is not in Cardiff, it is usually because he has strapped on a backpack and flown off to another part of the world to go on an adventure.

He has so far clocked two years in Asia and two years in South America, and when he travels he takes a particular interest in historic sites, jungles, wildlife, native cultures, and mountains. He also spent some time volunteering at the Merazonia Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Ecuador.

Firsthand accounts of Tej’s adventures abroad can be found on his travel blog.

For links to his website and travel blog, social media etc – http://linktr.ee/tejturner

It’s always worth taking a look at the novels long- and shortlisted for genre awards – even if you’re not a member of organisations like the BSFA, the BFS, or SFWA. Likewise, it doesn’t matter if you’re eligible or not to vote for awards linked to conventions such as the Hugos. These are books that have appealed to a solid number of well-read SF&F fans. The juries who pick the winners for accolades such as the Arthur C Clarke Award and the World Fantasy Awards are fans first and foremost, and assess all submissions diligently. Not every book is for every reader, but there’s every chance you’ll find something to your particular taste that you haven’t come across before.

Then there are the short stories, the novellas, the non-fiction and related works. The odds are good that these lists will offer you unfamiliar names whose writing you’ll want to check out, both of authors currently published and of authors being written about. There’ll be discussions about aspects of the genre which you may very well find of interest. When something on any of these lists comes from a small press you haven’t previously encountered, it’s definitely worth seeing what else they’re publishing. And don’t forget the art awards, which invariably illustrate the breadth and depth of skill enhancing SF&F stories these days.

Why am I mentioning this now? Because the BSFA long lists have just been announced, and yes, I have an interest to declare because The Green Man’s Quarry is among the nominations for best novel. Will it be shortlisted? Who knows? At the moment, knowing enough readers enjoyed Dan Mackmain’s latest to nominate the book gives me a nice, warm feeling on this chilly wintry day.

If you are eligible to vote, but haven’t read this latest in the series yet, this is great timing, as the ebook is currently a Kindle UK limited time deal for the bargain price of 99p – and so are a good few other BSFA longlisted titles. Amazon have a wide-ranging SF&Fantasy offer on at the moment. That’s well worth checking out whether or not you’re interested in voting for any awards at all.

Happy reading!

The first exciting news of 2024 is Amazon Kindle have The Cleaving ebook on offer from 15th – 21st January. Check your local price.

This Arthurian retelling follows the tangled stories of four women: Nimue, Ygraine, Morgana, and Guinevere. These women fight to control their own destinies amid the wars and rivalries that will determine the destiny of Britain. The legendary epics of King Arthur and Camelot don’t tell the whole story. The chroniclers say Arthur’s mother Ygraine married the man that killed her husband. They say that Arthur’s half-sister Morgana turned to dark magic to defy him and Merlin. They say that the enchantress Nimue challenged Merlin and used her magic to outwit him. And that Arthur’s marriage to Guinevere ended in adultery, rebellion and bloodshed. Why did these women chose such dangerous paths?

As warfare and rivalries constantly challenge the king, Arthur and Merlin believe these women are destined to serve Camelot by doing as they are told. But men forget that women talk. Ygraine, Nimue, Morgana and Guinevere become friends and allies as decisions that shape their lives are taken out of their hands. This is their untold story. Now these women have a voice.

In local news, this household and assorted guests had a very enjoyable festive break. Now we’re adjusting to life since my husband retired on 31st December. So far, this January has seen a major and long-overdue sorting out of cupboards, drawers and wardrobes which has proved remarkably stress-free and very constructive, so that’s a big tick in the plus column, and a good few other things have been ticked off the Domestic To Do List as well. When the weather improves, we intend to make good use of his free time to travel around the country and to catch up with visiting friends we haven’t seen nearly enough of over this past couple of years.

In between sessions of shared household chores, I’ve been reading random books on folklore and a few other things. That’s prompted mulling over ideas for the next Green Man book in a relaxed, unfocused fashion as I sort and tidy. I now have several pages of notes outlining what promises to be an exciting story to write and to read later in the year.

Other projects on the Work To Do List include the Ampyrium shared-world project I’m part of alongside other ZNB authors, and the collection of my short stories to be published by NewCon Press in their Polestars series. There’s another potentially very interesting possibility under discussion – more to come on that in due course, hopefully. Then there’s Eastercon, WorldCon in Glasgow, and Fantasycon to come. I will also be continuing my work on the Society of Authors’ Management Committee, in the interests of all writers.

So we’re set fair for 2024. We are also keeping a weather eye on those folk beset by the many storms, real and metaphorical, that are swirling around so many people these days, and helping out where we can.

I’ve had a good year. Not an amazing or an astonishing one. I’ve not won any awards or had a book optioned for film or TV or had anything else happen to make the SF&F world go wow! And you know, I’m absolutely fine with that, especially after the past few years that have been so hard all round.

I’ve had two books published in 2023: The Cleaving, and The Green Man’s Quarry. Both have won enthusiastic reviews from readers who’ve understood and appreciated what I was intending to do with those very different stories. I’ve done interviews about both novels, including a whole lot more video than I’ve been used to doing. I’ve been to enjoyable and interesting conventions where fascinating conversations with readers and other writers started with those books and spun off into any number of absorbing topics. Sincerest thanks and all best wishes for the fans and event organisers who devote so much time and dedicated effort to making SF&F fandom the best possible place it can be.

Those two novels bring my published total to 25 books in 25 years, since January 1999 saw the publication of my debut novel, The Thief’s Gamble. This is extremely pleasing. Looking back to that very different world as far as the book trade goes really makes me appreciate the friends I’ve made along the way, and the friends who were there at the start and who are still supporting me. It’s been two and a half decades of constant change, with some major ups and downs, and there’s no way I would still be writing if I was trying to do this on my own. Once again, sincerest thanks and best wishes to all.

I’ve revised a short story that will be published in a great anthology next year, and I’ve done the preliminary work on a shared world project that will be ongoing in 2024. Another very interesting prospect is on the horizon and I’ve spent the last month or so working on that. Plus I’m currently musing on various ideas for the next Green Man book. This is all very satisfactory, as I take a break from online spaces as well as from work until the New Year.

As I say, things are good here, and good shouldn’t be underrated. I am content to live in this moment, just for now. That doesn’t mean I don’t see things are not good for far too many people, for far too many reasons to count. Being in a good place isn’t something I take for granted. So I do what I can, where I can, to help out those who aren’t. Let’s hope for better days ahead for all.

And now I shall go and make some tea, and sit down to continue my first reread of Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence in literally decades. I never owned these books as a kid, but read them from various libraries, along with many others. I have long promised myself that I would buy my own set one day. Last week, I decided that this was that day.

Since you may have missed these pieces I’ve written recently, and you might find them interesting reading.

Myth-making has never stopped and that can be useful – Guest Post for Sarah Ash

Why you must be your own, first, and most ruthless editor – Guest Post for the British Fantasy Society

Looking at the male gaze in the mythic foundations of fantasy fiction from a 21st century perspective. Guest Post for The Fantasy Hive.

Tackling The Guinevere Problem in The Cleaving – Guest Post for Sarah Ash

In other news? Life has been extremely busy, personally, professionally and socially, through October and November. Now the pace has slowed somewhat, I can start thinking about the upcoming holiday season and hopefully get that sorted out at a leisurely pace. We’re also looking ahead to changes in the life-work balance hereabouts as my husband officially retires on 31st December. Next year promises to be interesting in all sorts of ways.