…eatures! But it’s not only features that make people “different” , and in fact our differences are often much much more than skin-deep. To whit: I can write (and have written) an entire story that features recognisably Asian people, without a single distinctive physical description. So can Rochita Loenen-Ruiz. (I wonder how much of the emphasis on physical appearance is shaped by our worship of movies/TV series? I sometimes think that Hollywood et…

…The Waiting Stars” Ken Liu, “The Shape of Thought” Alex Dally MacFarlane, “Under Falna’s Mask” Martha Wells, “Mimesis” Kelly Jennings, “Velocity’s Ghost” C. W. Johnson, “Exit, Interrupted” Cat Rambo, “Dagger and Mask” Christine Lucas, “Ouroboros” Jack McDevitt, “Cathedral” Very pleased to be part of this awesome lineup! Mine is… er, weird, and involves Xuyan mindships, a Vietnamese rescue squad and homicidal nanobots. You can read samples from all…

…ensibilities: Your alt reality is my everyday life. Yes. It’s a brilliant summary of what’s wrong with the “rule of cool” SF (and why you need to be careful about which bits of which cultures you put into your story, as I argued elsewhere) Activity this week is likely to be sparse, as I have to fit in a Vietnamese lesson, a few appointments left over from before the summer, and a workshop in Brittany with Kari Sperring, Tricia Sullivan and Rochita…

…Had food. Went to visit Orléans with the H and spent far too much time in a games shop looking at everything they had. Stared at my story until beads of blood formed on my forehead. Tried to ply my muse with food; it didn’t work. Proofed outcoming novella On a Red Station, Drifting (well, the first two thirds, anyway). Off to watch some Thin Blue Line before bed, methinks….

…– then our cultures are glittering mines. But drawing from your own background is backward and predictable if you’re a person of colour. Sometimes white people try to sell me back my culture and I have to buy it. My China is as much the BBC version as it is the PRC one. There are things I want to eat but cannot cook. -Rahel Aima on vernacular English: Embedded within non-western English lies a parallel tension. The vernacular promises all the sedu…

…tion’s artificial intelligence has offered guidance and protection to its human relatives. But war has come to the Dai Viet Empire. Prosper’s brightest minds have been called away to defend the Emperor; and a flood of disorientated refugees strain the station’s resources. As deprivations cause the station’s ordinary life to unravel, uncovering old grudges and tearing apart the decimated family, Station Mistress Quyen and the Honoured Ancestress st…

…s languish dustily at the back of the nation’s cupboards. I use my garlic press all the time, mainly because I love to put garlic in everything. Also, if the vampire apocalypse ever comes to pass, I’ll be well prepared. I also had to google most of these, because I didn’t know they existed (cookie presses? sandwich makers? Wow), and wasn’t altogether sure of some things: for instance, our pressure cooker doubles as a steam cooker thanks to a handy…

…rcumstances will soon take him. In the sweltering jungle, his purity has become a commodity to the ettin invaders and their lord, the dark Vexor. But how long can his innocence last in a godless land? A short story by AJ Cooper   Looking For Daddy Three weeks ago, Daddy left town with the other volunteer firefighters to fight the fires in the city and Tom and Mother have looked after the farm. Radios, phones and TV have fallen silent, trains have…

So, I’m attending Bristolcon next Saturday (where I’ll be catching up with lots of friends): here’s my schedule in case you’re interested. In between panels, I’ll be where the drinks are… 10:00-10:45: Colonising the Solar system: Many recent science fiction books, including Blue Remembered Earth by Al Reynolds, andThe Quiet War by Paul McAuley, are set in a solar system colonized by mankind. What would it take to make this happen? Could we really…

…an local boy, is a very biting look at the industry of tourism and how it distorts local life (and you gotta love the pet pig named Clint Eastwood). There’s a wide range of narrators and experiences, and it all adds up to a lovely atmosphere. It was a very refreshing book for me on two accounts: the first is that those are literary stories, and it’s nice to be reminded once in a while that short stories don’t have to follow the SFF genre conventio…