…cent one…). Featuring a space centre in a monastery, Daoist philosophy, and forbidden love. Many thanks to those OWWers who took a look at it: Christine Lucas, Tom Crosshill, Ilan Leman and Owen Kerr; and to Chris Kastensmidt for his comments. EDIT: the new title is now “The Wind-Blown Man”. That sound you hear? It’s me hyperventilating. I’ve been dreaming of breaking into Asimov’s for a while, and I don’t think it quite feels real yet. I think I’…

…‘Ys’ refers to a legendary drowned city off the coast of Brittany in this realistically-rendered tale where myth crosses into real life. Francoise finds herself surrogate mother to the heir of Ys and struggles to regain control of her life with the help of her sceptical historian friend. I always enjoy stories set abroad that are written by someone who knows the country and the culture well. Sometimes the country next door can seem as alien as an…

…te for AR–he had a way all his own of making gritty, deprived futures feel real, and to create sympathetic characters who struggled against oncoming disasters. He also did so much for the field, by working hard on Bristolcon, and by editing those wonderful anthologies (I still have my signed copy of Future Bristol, though I think I’ll never look at it quite the same way). The news leaves me stunned, and saddened, and angry at the unfairness of the…

…ntil Nov. 1st to enter the Master of the House of Darts competition, which comes with lots of neat prizes . You can enter via a comment or a repost, but for the best chance to win, don’t forget you can make up an Aztec recipe! So far, we’ve had prickly pear juice, chicken mixiotes, Aztec brownies, poultry with spicy fruit sauce, and gummy hearts that look like real hearts (not a recipe per se, but good enough as Aztec food 🙂 ). Come and join in th…

…g the past to the ethics of biomanipulation, but never preaches; and the latest episodes are still very strong–a pretty rare feat considering how long the series has been going on. And of course, there’s Yoko herself, who’s the multi-competent badass (but it’s a nice change to see that she solves problems more through science than through action); who never hesitates to let her sense of what is right guide her; and who straddles several worlds fro…

…to it… (he liked it, but his enthusiasm wavered a bit when I explained the composition process). Bò bún: it helps if you think of bò bún (and other bún dishes) as a giant salad–yes, there’s meat in it, and warm rice vermicelli, but it’s not really a hot dish (and please please don’t microwave it, as I’ve seen a number of takeaway places do. It tastes horrible, and the soy’s gone all limp). So, accordingly, I made my bò bún with honey-dipped beef &…

…they are theme park fantasies — right up there with that ‘England’ where everyone is either Hugh Grant or a Cockney, and we have names like Rupert and Gwendolen (comments disabled because the discussion should really be happening over there, but yes. Yes. Yes)…

…he’d turn the tables on the team. But no, he was exactly as foolish as he appeared all along), but honestly, I could see what twists there were coming a mile off. Sigh. I might be becoming too jaded for this….

…yadda yadda. You know the drill 🙂 ) It’s kind of odd that this feels more real than the English publication; most likely because I can see it on shelves near my workplace, and hand it to friends and family who don’t happen to speak English. With the English version, all I could do was watch amazon, and the odd English-language bookstore in Paris. Not quite the same, somehow… On bookshelves at my local bookstore (cut to spare you from further book…

…ion. Gareth D Jones is from the UK. His stories have appeared in over forty publications and twenty languages. He also writes reviews and drinks lots of tea. Work of his is forthcoming in The Immersion Book of Steampunk, published by Immersion Press. Coming up next: Nancy Fulda talks about writing and art….