tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61343162012-02-21T11:26:40.314Z<a href="http://www.infinitarian.com/">Philip Purser-Hallard</a>&#39;s weblog, for random musings on writing, life and such other matters as arise. <br> All material © Philip Purser-Hallard unless otherwise stated.Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.comBlogger6321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-21960935170873905172012-02-15T19:50:00.008Z2012-02-21T11:26:23.265Z

Recently, when not serving the needs of either the Government or my two-year-old, I've mostly been working on the editing of Tales of the City, which is coming out very nicely indeed. I'm impressed by the quality, scope and variety of the stories the six authors and I have managed to assemble together, and I'm confident it's going to be a really strong anthology. The other author who I vaguely

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-83803786684052008712012-01-28T16:06:00.016Z2012-01-28T23:37:50.442Z

With my novel in the hands of various friends awaiting their (hopefully critical) feedback, and the bulk of the stories for Tales of the City not due until Tuesday, I find myself quite unusually at something of a loose end on a writing day. This has led me to notice that it's been over six months now since I last posted any kind of book review here. This is shocking, really, because I've

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-49340389805636513432012-01-18T11:11:00.014Z2012-02-15T20:01:34.673Z

It occurs to me that, given my usual enthusiasm for plugging things here, I've done relatively little banging on about Tales of the City, the short story anthology I'm editing as part of Obverse Books' Obverse Quarterly series. At first this was because there wasn't much to say about it that could be considered definite, but since the publishers informally announced the author lineup that hasn't

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-75007290467298420832012-01-08T20:30:00.005Z2012-01-08T21:10:45.953Z

Looking through old documents recovered from my previous computer, I found this, which I have absolutely no memory of. Titled "Website vague idea thing.doc", it appears to be my early stab at a bonus story for my website, bringing elements from "Nursery Politics" and "The Ruins of Time" at the same point in Of the City of the Saved... that I eventually used for another website bonus story, "

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-43646585974542018742011-12-20T17:00:00.000Z2011-12-20T17:00:02.234Z

It's time for the now-traditional web release of the story I sent out last year in my Christmas cards. 2010's offering was a science-fiction reworking of a traditional Christmas story. DYSCHRONISMUS CAROLby Philip Purser-Hallard     Marley was dead, to begin with. Luckily we could fix that.      Protean Pete visited him on his deathbed – 24/12/1836, seven years pastward of our scheduled

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-36124565039754039402011-12-07T11:51:00.008Z2011-12-07T15:52:00.643Z

The "side-project" I've occasionally mentioned here as running alongside my current attempts to write a novel, do a paid job, look after a two-year-old and find the time to eat and sleep occasionally, has now been announced. We present Tales of the City, the first short-story anthology dedicated to my creation, the galaxy-sized secular afterlife known as the City of the Saved, as seen in The Book

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-65818045202877051292011-12-03T20:44:00.005Z2011-12-03T21:31:19.893Z

I've spent most of today writing this year's Christmas card story (see here for past examples -- I'll be posting last year's closer to Christmas itself). I keep ending up writing these at the last minute, which is annoying -- I keep noticing all the stuff that's wrong with them when I go back to look at them later. Anyway, this one is the longest of these stories I've written to date, at a

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-42500345212983518292011-11-20T22:05:00.001Z2011-11-21T06:14:52.901Z

The story so far: I'm still attempting to twist my worldview around by 180 degrees or so, to accommodate a great big absence of God. Since a couple of readers have been startled at the speed of my volte-face from "christian" to "atheist", I should probably clarify what I mean by the latter. I no longer see any reason to believe in God. That doesn't mean there isn't a God (or even that there's

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-1457525932253456242011-11-08T13:52:00.001Z2011-11-08T13:54:38.908Z

I've dithered about posting this. What I have to say here is a very big deal for me. I think, though, that it needs to be said. When I was nineteen, I had a religious experience. Two, in fact, one a few weeks after the other. The second was in a church, but this wasn’t directly relevant as the first was on a beach. Both involved an intense appreciation of the beauty of the created world (a

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-55507292420578535192011-11-08T10:26:00.007Z2011-11-08T13:20:59.077Z

Well, it's been three months. Unless you comment and let me know otherwise, I'll assume you've missed me. I'm still working, when I get potential writing time, on this novel project, and on an exciting side-project which may well get a proper announcement sometime soon. This (and paid work, and childcare, and sleep) leave little time for blogging, so I've missed posting here for quite a while.

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-52496217315731734882011-08-07T11:13:00.005+01:002011-08-07T11:45:27.885+01:00

Hmm. Well, I intended to keep these updates daily, but they would have been rather dull if I had. I'll probably make this the last, unless anything surprising emerges later on. I still don't understand how easy this has been this time round: my previous experiences of giving up coffee (yes, temporarily, obviously) were agonising, and I've been drinking more coffee since R. was born than any

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-25713017489427995572011-08-01T22:43:00.003+01:002011-08-01T22:49:59.746+01:00

Right. Well, yes. Very little to report, really. 77 hours now without a caffeinated beverage, or caffeine from any source. Still no headaches, although I'm getting aggravating muscle twinges in a variety of places, which isn't normal. At present this feels less like withdrawal than a ludicrously protracted period of getting up in the morning and not having had coffee yet. I'm tired and

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-76226162451133478002011-07-31T19:12:00.003+01:002011-07-31T19:21:32.568+01:00

I'm actually feeling like a bit of a fraud at the moment. It's... let's see... 50 hours since I last had coffee, so that's genuine enough. What's odd is that the promised withdrawal symptoms -- and in particular the violent chiselling headaches which I remember from previous attempts -- have yet to materialise. I had some milder headachiness yesterday, which was easily addressed with

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-51756160864217572332011-07-30T13:56:00.005+01:002011-07-30T14:25:50.818+01:00

This is a difficult post to write. I don't mean it's emotionally charged or brings bad news or anything, just that it's an extraordinary challenging task to actually compose it. My head feels as if it's been inexpertly filled with cavity wall insulation which someone's still trying to hammer in, and attempting to organise anything like a sentence in a form which my fingers can interpret as

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-57401428673447627642011-07-05T19:14:00.005+01:002011-07-11T20:47:14.425+01:00

For the last few weeks I've been reading Hodd by Adam Thorpe. It's a dense text, bleak in its outlook and not an easy read, but I enjoyed it. Superficially, it's a revisionist retelling of the Robin Hood legend, set in an authentically violent, slimy, pustule-ridden Middle Ages, following a young minstrel (later a monk, whose confession in old age we're supposedly reading) as he's pressganged

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-56710653864526506852011-06-27T14:27:00.015+01:002011-06-28T12:44:41.315+01:00

So, another month's gone by. Hello. Because I know you're sick of me plugging A Romance in Twelve Parts by now, I'm going to start by plugging something you won't have heard me mention since, ooh, last March: my novella Peculiar Lives. It's still available through all the following methods:from Telos Publishing;in paperback or hardback from Amazon.co.uk;in paperback or hardback from Amazon.com;

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-48097981419663839592011-05-26T19:22:00.011+01:002011-05-30T07:55:57.120+01:00

Well, A Romance in Twelve Parts arrived with me on Thursday, and (as we expect by now from Obverse Books) it's a gorgeous-looking volume. As well as the other contributors' copies, I gather the first batch of orders has been sent out too (although the official publication date's this coming Tuesday, 31 May). I've only read the first two stories, partly because -- having finished Embassytown, on

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-75827177140820346722011-05-11T21:38:00.008+01:002011-05-11T21:57:51.489+01:00

That plan of reviewing the books I was reading hasn't gone well, has it? I accidentally keep reading more. I now have Moon over Soho to review when I get time, among other things. Meanwhile... erm, sorry. I'll stop plugging A Romance in Twelve Parts, which incidentally you can buy here or here, once it's been out for a short while, I promise. I'm probably overemphasising it a bit because it's

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-21343866459120058352011-04-21T22:00:00.005+01:002012-01-28T16:31:39.689Z

Kim Stanley Robinson's Galileo's Dream is a a historical novel about Galileo Galilei, with SF interludes where time-travellers take him to visit the civilisation of human colonists living on the Galilean moons of Jupiter in 3020 AD. This, at least, is true on the face of it (it's how Guardian reviewer Adam Roberts describes it, for instance). However, the history (though it is indeed

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-38590838224554515502011-04-20T21:45:00.007+01:002012-01-28T16:32:02.993Z

Right. I've repeatedly promised you book reviews, and despite the manifold distractions in my life at present, I am -- or at least, I strive to be -- a man of my word[1]. As it turns out, it's going to take several instalments. So here's the first...First, Rivers of London by Doctor Who novel alumnus (and my one-time fellow contributor to this volume), Ben Aaronovitch. It's an urban fantasy

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-11758786525384240352011-04-19T12:29:00.005+01:002011-04-19T12:48:09.355+01:00

1. Buy new cooker online. Take careful note of the terms and conditions, which state that unless your existing cooker is thoroughly disconnected at time of delivery, the delivery staff will neither take it away nor install the new one for you. 2. Spend an evening with your head in a cupboard disconnecting wires. 3. Await delivery of new cooker. 4. Receive phone call informing you that the

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-3408800703067107682011-04-18T18:20:00.005+01:002011-04-19T08:53:12.383+01:00

I'm working on a book review post. Honestly I am. In the meantime, on with the plugging. Here's the updated cover of A Romance in Twelve Parts, due from Obverse Books on 31 May: Note the rather lovely use of the blended-case font last used back in 2003-04 by Mad Norwegian for the titles of This Town Will Never Let Us Go and Of the City of the Saved.... You may also wish to speculate about

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-3997418139623954432011-03-30T23:15:00.012+01:002011-04-11T22:24:44.032+01:00

It's taken a little while, but Obverse Books have made the first of their Faction Paradox short story collections, A Romance in Twelve Parts, available for preorder at their website. As I may possibly have mentioned before, this anthology contains my 10,000-word sequel to Of the City of the Saved..., "A Hundred Words from a Civil War". (It's also on Amazon, although there "Twelve" appears to be

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-37237381168442773522011-03-09T21:00:00.003Z2011-03-30T19:14:02.617+01:00

My word, you have all been patient. The latest word is that publication of Faction Paradox: A Romance in Twelve Parts, initially scheduled for last month, is now expected in April. Final tweaks to my story are being made this week. So, here's the last of my pre-prepared deleted scenes. In the alternative universe where ‘A Hundred Words from a Civil War’ was published without the guest

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-34402121472284649622011-02-11T15:19:00.003Z2011-02-11T16:00:48.403Z

What is the secret of the British ‘road lines’?Across Britain, narrow lines can be observed at the edges of many roads. They occur close against the kerbside and parallel to it, on both major and minor highways. They occur singly or in pairs, appearing to be marked out in something similar to yellow paint. They range from two or three metres to many kilometres in length. Where do the ‘road

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-67650122272753375962011-02-02T15:05:00.004Z2011-04-05T10:23:09.714+01:00

I'm beginning to suspect that Obverse Books' original plan to publish Faction Paradox: A Romance in Twelve Parts this month may have been a tiny bit optimistic, and thus that my (no doubt annoyingly) persistent trailing of the book since October may have been premature. Obverse are a highly competent, not to mention lovely, small press, but the precedent for anyone managing to publish Faction

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-47040988013662228442011-01-16T15:30:00.011Z2011-03-30T19:14:28.959+01:00

I'm beginning to suspect, if I'm to keep this blog going at all, that I need to learn the art of writing pithy but substantial posts, rather than great long screeds which lay out my every passing thought on a topic. As a first stab at that, here are brief(ish) reviews of the most recent pair of books I've read:* * *Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks: The latest of Banks' loosely-linked Culture

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-30900895409594408482011-01-03T16:59:00.002Z2011-04-05T10:24:34.335+01:00

2011 will be the year I turn 40. That really doesn't seem feasible, somehow. I remember a time when I thought that any year with two nines in it sounded thrillingly futuristic. Anyway, B. and I have spent the past week-and-a-half gadding about the country in the traditional manner, only this time with a toddler in tow to help keep things astonishingly overcomplicated. (One happy by-product of

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-83727126561953000882010-12-20T12:42:00.000Z2010-12-20T12:43:16.480Z

If you're a regular reader, you'll know that every year since 2006 I've written a Christmas story to send out to friends with our Christmas cards. A year later (so that it feels to the friends in question as if they're at least a little bit special), I archive them here and on the short stories page of my website. (When there are enough of them, I might try to get them all published as a slim

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-13157542601893275582010-12-18T14:22:00.003Z2012-02-21T11:26:40.322Z

The inexorable imminence of the Midwinter festivities means I'm fairly unlikely now to have time for blogging of substance until 2011, with one exception: I do have a Christmas story, "Stella Maris", lined up to publish here and on the website for Midwinter Day. This means that the following is the last time this year you'll be teased about my forthcoming drabblectic epic "A Hundred Words from a

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-6892445673592910602010-12-18T13:32:00.008Z2010-12-21T09:28:25.074Z

Birthday present update: As well as penetrating nearly halfway into Surface Detail, I've now listened to all those Eurythmics CDs and watched all the DVDs I hadn't already seen, as well as Doctor Who series 5, which I had. I'd love to write a detailed, considered appreciation both of that series (the best since... erm, actually, possibly ever, to my mind, thanks to the thoughtful brilliance of

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-919103648269976302010-12-03T15:26:00.027Z2010-12-18T12:28:08.685Z

You may have noticed that this blog has a redesigned template. I'm not sure about it, to be honest, but at least it doesn't look as if it still thinks it's 2005. I've finally completed my list of birthday presents by getting into town and picking up Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks, his eighth (or possibly ninth) novel set in the Culture universe. It's about technological afterlives, which

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-89793033316053317252010-11-28T16:58:00.017Z2010-12-18T12:28:19.898Z

I dreamt last night I was watching a '70s horror film with a premise I found fairly disturbing: A faith-healer who practiced laying-on of hands (it was clear that he was sincere about his gift, though not whether it actually worked) was kidnapped by satanists and turned into a carrier for the apocalyptic plagues mentioned in Revelation, so that everyone he touched, instead of being cured, became

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-8025745182348183642010-11-17T15:47:00.008Z2011-04-05T10:25:09.310+01:00

Hmm. It would be fair to say that the three deleted drabbles I've posted so far to trail my forthcoming City of the Saved short story in Faction Paradox: A Romance in Twelve Parts have been a bit abstract and static. This hasn't really been giving an accurate picture of what the story's like. So here's an action sequence:     The wight stares at its severed arm. ‘You’ll pay for that, sonny,’

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-64042341589515073862010-11-07T15:50:00.004Z2010-11-28T17:32:52.442Z

In the last week I've entered my fortieth year of life, which is... disconcerting. Well, terrifying, really, if I allowed it to be. Fortunately, for the next 358 days I'm still in my late 30s, so I can remain in denial regarding that particular milestone for now. I did, however, get given lots of lovely things by my friends and family, mostly (though not exclusively) in Digital Versatile Disc

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-65158885508845571812010-10-27T14:57:00.008+01:002011-04-05T10:25:29.929+01:00

Even I would never have had the chutzpah to append 100 words of my own fiction to that previous entry. So here's the second of eleven teasers / deleted scenes / unused drabbles from my short story "A Hundred Words from a Civil War", to be published in Obverse Books's forthcoming Faction Paradox: A Romance in Twelve Parts.     The City’s Southwest fringes belong to the survivors of one brief

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-80446657127853580952010-10-27T12:19:00.009+01:002010-10-27T15:12:29.833+01:00

Pop quiz: what do the following high-profile British writers all have in common?Richard CurtisDouglas AdamsPaul McAuleyKim NewmanStephen GallagherSteven HallAlan MooreGrant MorrisonNeil GaimanOK, so virtually everyone who's still reading this blog will know the answer. (Is anyone who isn't a Doctor Who fan still reading this?) Click the links below to find out which Doctor Who story they wrote,

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-42292985257989618242010-10-10T17:08:00.011+01:002011-04-05T10:25:53.618+01:00

1. Other-Quite apart from not actually posting here for weeks, I've not done nearly enough to publicise the fact that my brother Nick has self-published a novel which seems to be gaining some approving reviews among fans of the kind of novel it is. I don't really enjoy the idea of zombies, in the usually understood modern sense. I've no problem (other than credibility, obviously) with the idea

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-17089786459011259312010-09-12T18:30:00.005+01:002011-04-05T10:26:15.919+01:00

Quick note, because I need to go and help put the baby to bed:I've updated my website with a new Faction Paradox page, and with a blurb-of-sorts for "A Hundred Words from a Civil War", my short story in Obverse Books' forthcoming Faction Paradox anthology, Faction Paradox: A Romance in Twelve Parts. The blurb takes the form of a hundred-word title, and it goes like this:A HUNDRED WORDS FROM A

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-31426843454423082122010-08-12T16:25:00.010+01:002011-04-05T10:26:40.154+01:00

Yes yes, I've been looking after a baby (or, as it now appears, a one-year-old proto-toddler) for the past four months, so haven't had time to update my blog. And yes, I am indeed coming back to it now because I've got a forthcoming piece of published writing to promote. So I'm a lazy self-publicist. It's not as if anyone else is going to be arsed to publicise me, is it? Anyway. What's

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-4119113503171760912010-03-28T16:15:00.014+01:002010-03-29T08:19:27.415+01:00

If I ever discard the mutant remnants of my christian faith, abjure my God and admit to the world "Yes, you were right, I've been following a stupid fairy story and what's more I knew that all along, I'm so sorry I wasted your time with it and incidentally I take full personal responsibility for such atrocities as the Inquisition, the Crusades and Godspell..."(Deep breath...) ...it won't be

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-90413666979349933132010-03-15T16:40:00.004Z2011-06-27T20:52:48.997+01:00

Frankly, I’m not sure what I think of ebooks. I understand the convenience, of course: the portability not merely of single volumes but of entire libraries; the fact that said collections take up no more space in the house than a hard disk, rather than drastically reducing the cubic meterage of half the rooms in the house with stacks of dust-amassing shelves. I admit to using the things

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-87592880199587925642010-02-19T15:27:00.017Z2010-02-27T16:10:14.006Z

My living-room's full of women and babies at the moment. And stray toys which squeak underfoot. And discarded food. If I hide up here long enough, they might go away. I may also be able to bring you up to date on the books I've managed to finish since 10 January, because I know how much that sort of thing always interests you. I asked for The Corner: a year in the life of an inner-city

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-73504087513244741692010-02-19T13:44:00.006Z2010-02-19T14:28:56.608Z

I miss writing my columns on science fiction and faith for Surefish. They were a useful writing discipline and they allowed me to stretch my brain in a way I'm not doing so much these days. Plus they were a reliable source of monthly cash, which isn't trivial. Partly because of this, and partly to help pay for the B&B accommodation we're inevitably going to need this year with a

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-40452379553615193882010-01-29T16:30:00.003Z2010-01-29T16:36:39.144Z

...too important to bury at the bottom of that last post, in fact. I've been told that Haloscan, the comment-hosting service I've been using for this blog since long before Blogspot (as it then was) got its own act in gear, is closing down. I have the choice of either upgrading to a paid service -- which hardly seems worth it now Blogger are hosting a moderately effective comments service of

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-86334765366588055762010-01-29T11:29:00.026Z2010-01-29T17:45:12.955Z

1. Today I'm trying to finish my working synopsis for the prospective novel I was calling The Arrow and the Circle, and have now renamed (under what may be the too obvious influence of Christopher Priest) The Devices. Once I know what the shape the plot takes, writing a 120,000-or-so-word novel in which it all happens should be, er, simplicity itself. This clearly calls for diligent

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-15584996963291436942010-01-22T10:17:00.013Z2010-01-22T13:35:41.323Z

When I said it had been ages since I finished a book, I wasn't, of course, counting books which are about twelve pages long and made of cardboard. I've read an awful lot of those recently, a couple of them upwards of a hundred times. I may at some point do a list of recommendations, for anyone who's interested, but I did want to mention one in particular: Peepo! by Janet & Allan Ahlberg.

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-18402661480154185052010-01-10T17:13:00.007Z2010-01-11T09:22:41.266Z

I've reinvigorated @trapphic on Twitter: if you're not a subscriber, you can consult the feed here for the latest 140-character microfictions spattered from my disintegrating brain. I realise I'm... erm, 56 years late to the party, but the two surviving episodes of The Quatermass Experiment are shockingly awesome. I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but it's bloody cold out.

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-44576281926637024302010-01-10T15:07:00.017Z2010-01-22T16:59:47.713Z

For the first time in a couple of months, I've managed to finish a book: The City & the City by China Miéville, which my grandmother-in-law was kind enough to obtain for me for Christmas. I love Miéville's three New Crobuzon books: Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council, complex, intelligent tales of radical politics in a baroquely embellished fantasy world. If I had a quarrel with

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-87693738621386084592009-12-16T15:20:00.006Z2010-01-23T12:08:07.186Z

Looking back at my last post of 2008, I see I opened with the words "I realise I've really let this blog slide the past few months."Well, I didn't have a baby then. (Frankly, the me of December 2008 didn't know he was born. He barely knew his son was going to be.) Now I do, I really know what it's like to be very much too bloody busy to maintain an online presence. That said, I'm going to

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-49888823062012463532009-10-16T13:00:00.004+01:002011-07-05T19:22:00.084+01:00

Aargh. Blogger just swallowed my entire post, like the gigantic devouring worm at the heart of the world. I'll do my best to retype it while it's relatively fresh in my mind.So. You were probably expecting me to say this, but I haven't had a great deal of opportunity to read or write of late. In the ten weeks since B. and I successfully procreated, I've managed a handful of books and a bare

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-15861389571677351222009-09-24T16:40:00.019+01:002009-09-25T01:21:01.546+01:00

I'm predictably late in blogging the fact, but I feel we -- where "we" means cinema audiences -- have been almost unprecedentedly privileged this summer in having the opportunity to see two new pieces of intelligent, well-made SF drama. I'm talking, of course, of Moon and District 9: set respectively in a cramped mining station on a relatively near-future Moon, and in a boderline-alternative

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-57302386039269442702009-09-03T15:29:00.023+01:002009-09-04T00:17:10.001+01:00

This year, for the first time since 2004, I didn't blog the Greenbelt festival (of faith, art, music, activism, food and stuff in general) for Surefish. Those of you who've been paying attention may be able to guess one reason, which is that Surefish haven't actually been paying for new content since a while ago now. The other is, of course, young master R., who rather restricted our attendance

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-75233363445481022532009-08-28T13:31:00.014+01:002009-08-28T14:20:15.152+01:00

My God. Over the past few weeks we've had (by which I really mean that baby R. has had) some wonderfully thoughtful presents -- including clothes, toys, books, DVDs and various containment mechanisms -- from a vast array of people we know, love and / or are related to, most of whom we've completely failed to thank so far. (If that's you, then sorry -- things have been a little bit hectic.)

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-67882648817867964422009-08-21T17:35:00.021+01:002010-01-10T17:27:32.208Z

Things about fatherhood which are easier than I expected: Changing nappies[1]. Barely disgusting at all after the first half-dozen or so, and for reasons I won't trouble you with it gets less unpleasant still after the child's first week or so of digestion. Things about fatherhood which are harder than I expected: The sleep deprivation. God, it's difficult. Still, if you haven't heard that

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-14676496883158428612009-08-15T00:53:00.010+01:002009-08-15T07:24:22.303+01:00

I'm writing this at 1:30 in the morning, with my son strapped to my chest. He's breathing gently, and occasionally stirring slightly. I keep worrying that he's too hot, or too cold. He's five days, three hours and twenty minutes old. I won't be identifying him by name here -- privacy is rare enough on the internet, and I'm not going to blow it for him by naming him on a public forum before

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-39053423277608035882009-07-26T11:41:00.007+01:002009-07-26T12:00:30.856+01:00

I'm told it's very dull to start so many of my posts here with an apology for not having updated for ages. So, if you've been checking here daily in the hope of new thoughts and insights from the mind of PPH, then, erm... ha ha, you're obviously some kind of loser. (Is this right?) Since 12 June I've accomplished the following:Finally finished the absurd book project which I've been obscurely

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-6063405500580071912009-06-12T20:49:00.009+01:002009-06-15T18:58:41.934+01:00

My revived work of approximately halfway-deranged fan-scholarship is taking up most of my time at present. (Most of the time, at least, when I'm not being a civil servant, learning to drive or changing my entire inventory of possessions in preparation for the increasingly imminent arrival of the fruit of my loins.) However, I did want to record the fact that I've had time actually to read Iris

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-88333494891504959872009-06-03T19:04:00.005+01:002009-06-03T19:11:58.180+01:00

It's been quite a while since I did any photography, and my old camera seems to have died in the meantime. But I was quite pleased with these, taken wandering around a startlingly small area of central Bristol on Monday while thinking about borders, boundaries, thresholds and spaces between:More here.

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-4268859064975635012009-06-03T17:59:00.006+01:002009-06-03T18:58:33.974+01:00

Up until last Sunday, I'd somehow managed to spend every second of the ten years since its original release not watching Fight Club. This was, as it turns out, the right decision. After all the praise I'd heard, I couldn't believe what a pile of faux-radical, pseudo-intellectual drivel it was. To be sure it's well made and well acted and the like -- and I did enjoy the animated Ikea catalogue

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-16526081314155706082009-05-29T12:40:00.007+01:002009-05-29T15:05:48.416+01:00

1. AMERICAN FANTASY AUTHORS AND SCRIPTWRITERS! A "lady" is a female member of the nobility. "Ladyship" is the quality possessed by such a person. A male minion addressing a female member of the nobility will either call her "my lady" (because she is) or "your ladyship" (out of respect for the quality). A minion who speaks of "my ladyship", in any context, is referring erroneously to a

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-63904647141791981332009-05-26T18:07:00.007+01:002009-06-03T17:59:21.157+01:00

T'sk. I don't post anything substantial for ages, and then I pop up to denounce the organisers of an online forum. I can feel the process of accelerating détournement as I morph into an internet caricature of myself. The executive summary is that, as of today, I'm quitting the primary web forum for Doctor Who fans, imaginatively known as The Doctor Who Forum. It's a wrench, to be honest, as

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-70857360117150082772009-05-17T14:39:00.011+01:002009-07-26T11:56:06.809+01:00

right. The unexpected resurgence of a previously moribund writing commission FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE means I probably won't have very much time to blog for the next couple of months. Erm, again. I know I've been saying that sort of thing rather a lot recently. I wish I were able to keep this blog updated as frequently as I used to a couple of years ago, but what with imminent procreation and a

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-18849994584865822742009-05-04T14:39:00.004+01:002009-05-04T15:01:29.423+01:00

If the steepish price has so far put you off buying The History of Christmas and Time Signature, the Short Trips volumes containing my two licensed Doctor Who short stories, you may be interested to know that they and the other 26 volumes in the series are currently half price at the Big Finish website. This means each hardback costs £7.50 -- a moderate price for a paperback these days -- or you

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-65976913064698377922009-05-01T14:57:00.011+01:002009-05-17T14:59:17.634+01:00

Lord, I'm being useless at the moment. Keeping the twittering classes entertained with daily microfiction isn't helping me keep up, either with the personal writing projects I'm working on or with this blog. Speaking of which...Here lies Billy Joel Underton (1984-2011, 1947-1981) with his beloved wife Deborah (1925-2010). This monument erected by his son and father.This one may be slightly more

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-65336901380809123952009-04-29T16:49:00.007+01:002009-05-01T17:38:27.784+01:00

It's been a little while coming, but The Vampire Curse has been reviewed at Sci-Fi Online. Unlike last year's review of Nobody's Children, Richard McGinlay's opted to give the three novellas separate mini-reviews. He gives poor Kelly Hale (whose novella Possum Kingdom is for my money the best of the three) short shrift, but at least he likes Predating the Predators:These are well-rounded and

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-83747097264444957612009-04-23T13:13:00.004+01:002009-04-23T13:29:37.999+01:00

The 21st century isn't getting any less confusing. I'm beginning to lose track of the permutations of feeds between Twitter, Facebook, here and my website. I'm worried I'll start clicking through to check they're all working and get stuck in a never-ending loop. Ah well. In less baffling news, I'm told that Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus is now at the printers for publication in May

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-73986482080015574442009-04-23T12:45:00.005+01:002009-05-17T14:59:41.035+01:00

During an idle moment in Tuesday's lunch hour I created a second Twitter account, cleverly named "trapphic ", as a conduit for the 140-character microfictions I've been posting there occasionally. By 2:30 it had been picked up and recommended by Dave Gorman (the famous one, that is), and by the time I left work it had over 100 readers. (The presence of celebrities in Twitter is strange and

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-35211288217813756932009-04-21T19:03:00.005+01:002009-04-21T19:58:39.867+01:00

The twenty-first century to date has been very odd. The day before yesterday I was sitting in a Lebanese restaurant in Soho listening to someone in California playing "Yesterday" on a pretend ocarina. The Californian ocarinist (who was surprisingly competent, given the instrument they were working with) remained serenely unaware of my existence. The day before I'd seen another iPhone

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-63697951864847169622009-04-15T16:53:00.005+01:002009-04-15T17:42:13.661+01:00

I feel completely zonked. Every time I try to do something (update this blog with anything of substance, for example) I end up sitting and staring into space and / or my screen, and vibrating gently from side to side. It's a good thing we're about to go on holiday for four days, really. Well, it would be if I could summon the energy to pack. I have now -- finally, eventually and at both

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-53636121177380715082009-04-04T14:54:00.006+01:002009-04-04T15:37:35.258+01:00

There's a lovely (although perhaps inadvertently) double-edged compliment in the Wikipedia entry on Iain Banks's Raw Spirit:Banks has said he felt more relaxed when writing this book; critics have said that this comes across on reading it.I did enjoy Raw Spirit, but it reads more like a bunch of rather rambling letters to one of Banks's friends than something he's actually put effort into writing

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-81786599022256616952009-04-03T10:21:00.007+01:002009-04-03T16:02:17.658+01:00

[Three teenage boys are sitting in the shelter on a railway platform, possibly waiting for a train.]TEEN 1: His dad was President before, yeah? Like twenty years ago or something.TEEN 2: [Texting assiduously] Yeah?TEEN 1: You know the first war in Iraq, yeah? That was George Bush's dad. Then he sent his son in to finish it. TEEN 3: What war?TEEN 1: There was this other war in Iraq, like

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-56216624720458463892009-04-02T13:18:00.012+01:002009-05-17T15:00:47.209+01:00

I finally succumbed to peer pressure and adopted Twitter a little over a month ago. (And yes, if all my friends jumped off a cliff I'd probably do it too. I'd miss them.)Since then I seem to have posted there 83 times (84 including one I removed, which ill-advisedly commented on... ah, er, never mind). Assuming the code I cutandpasted has done its job properly, you should be able to view a

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-61656039108001082652009-03-29T15:13:00.011+01:002009-07-26T11:54:21.226+01:00

This morning I experienced lost time as a result of a government conspiracy. I'm still optimistic that Gillian Anderson will come into the room at some point and show me her mosquito bites. It's particularly annoying, though, as I'd been intending to placate you all with a nice long post to make up for my silence during the rest of this month. Now I have to be somewhere else too soon, so sadly

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-2362101447193364032009-02-25T16:09:00.003Z2009-02-25T16:44:36.668Z

I've updated my website today with a page about the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme anthology, Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus. This has meant a certain amount of rearrangement of other material, including a new Iris Wildthyme Short Stories page to go with my Bernice Summerfield and Doctor Who ones. I'm rather pleased with the description of Iris I wrote for it: What is there left to say

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-69834140762519275242009-02-20T12:22:00.007Z2009-02-20T12:55:09.467Z

You remember -- well, probably you don't, as I was a bit busy to blog much at the time, and only mentioned it once -- that I spent a substantial chunk of December writing a 5,000-word short story for a new anthology? And that I was going to announce it here when the publishers had made their own announcement? Well...Obverse Books, a new publishing venture owned by the estimable Stuart Douglas,

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-65512973517766121212009-02-17T06:28:00.005Z2009-02-17T08:17:45.203Z

This morning a Facebook application reminded me: "Valentine's Day is just around the corner! Send a cuddly anima". Clearly the timekeeping processes at work here could do with some attention, but given the existence of fluffy microbes and plush subatomic particles, the idea of cuddly Jungian archetypes seems, in retrospect, almost inevitable. They'll probably branch out into Freudian psychic

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-21687539465945693232009-02-11T18:10:00.009Z2009-02-13T10:11:20.068Z

I missed blogging about it at the time, but a few weeks ago The Guardian, ever hungry to add value to their news coverage, started publishing a series of supplements which between them make up a list of recommendations for 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. Inevitably the category of this list which most interests me is the rather impressive Science Fiction and Fantasy section. The whole thing's

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-89584990022394721962009-02-06T09:36:00.005Z2009-02-08T16:42:50.302Z

Forecast, adj.: Having a bifurcated bottom (cf fork-tongued). Pillowcase, n.: The enzyme responsible for digesting pillocks.A: I just found my wife hiding behind an evergreen oriental shrub.B: Japonica?A: Well, something must have.[Edit 7-2-9 to add:]A: I think my wife's joined a Japanese organised crime syndicate.B: Yakuza?A: No, I wouldn't dare.

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-2985982410454136982009-02-04T19:00:00.001Z2009-02-05T16:59:36.509Z

The Servants by M. M. Smith is a rather different offering from the author's previous books as Michael Marshall and Michael Marshall Smith -- some of which I've discussed here in the past. It has the same core premise as Only Forward and Spares (and to some extent One of Us), of a solidified subconscious realm where the protagonist's psychological issues are worked out through surreally allusive

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-51470982661988717682009-02-04T16:35:00.007Z2009-02-04T17:01:46.136Z

The other day at work I was strolling along the top-floor corridor towards the Gents', texting my other half as I went. When I arrived at the urinal, I found my flies already undone. It's possible, of course, that I hadn't zipped up again after a previous visit. That would be embarrassing, but only mildly so. We all do it occasionally, after all. What bothers me far more is the possibility

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-31028620653614556392009-01-30T18:03:00.007Z2009-01-31T14:30:07.581Z

I've had a frustratingly unproductive week -- I've only produced only about 700 words of a sample chapter. The rest of the time I've been waiting in for building contractors, journeying fruitlessly into town and arsing around on the internet. Not a good set of outcomes, although the 700-odd words do seem to me to be rather good ones.Meanwhile, I've finished two books written (presumably rather

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-33610619330610557092009-01-28T16:46:00.005Z2009-01-28T18:52:26.230Z

I know that at least some of you have enjoyed the theoretically regular monthly columns on science fiction and faith which I've been writing for Christian Aid's webzine, Surefish, over the past couple of years. At present new material from Surefish, including my column and those of various pals of mine, is on hold while Christian Aid considers the future of Surefish's authored content... the (

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-34788881044167556452009-01-25T10:51:00.010Z2009-01-25T17:29:05.968Z

All names have meanings, at least originally. (Admittedly some of them mostly mean "Look how stupid my parents are.")"Philip Alexander Purser-Hallard", for instance, means "Lover of Horses, Saviour of Men, Steward, Steward" in Greek, Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon[1]. Even in English, a good many names are more transparent than that, as both Heath Ledger and River Phoenix could attest if they

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-23041396790439882102009-01-23T19:58:00.008Z2009-01-25T13:22:28.298Z

Ah. OK. I was going to point out, further to this post from the other day about the death of Patrick McGoohan, that I've actually discovered the second of the Prisoner novels published by Powys Media, Miss Freedom by former Doctor Who scriptwriter and novelist Andrew Cartmel, available at a not particularly steep price just over here.But, as you can see, it isn't. Which is a bit disconcerting,

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-17587142727297700852009-01-23T18:31:00.009Z2009-01-24T08:07:15.205Z

Clicking idly along a string of links from a friend's LiveJournal brought me to the "Are You a Humanist?" quiz at the British Humanist Association website. Now, it's possible I'm reading too much into a harmless piece of fun on the internet. But the notes do state that the quiz is "a more or less serious set of questions designed to help you think about whether you are committed to a religious

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-83151632561692714052009-01-15T15:20:00.014Z2009-01-15T17:28:50.240Z

Then he must no longer be referred to as Number 6, or a number of any kind. He has gloriously vindicated the right of the invididual to be individual, and this assembly rises to you... sir.The President, Fall OutThe Prisoner is the only television programme in existence which inspires me to anywhere near the same degree of fannishness as Doctor Who. My friend Anthony and I discovered it late --

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-81517518840596550242009-01-15T13:54:00.004Z2009-01-16T15:29:27.909Z

Humanity may not be alone in the universe (Telegraph).Kate Winslet has nice breasts (Guardian).Ms Winslet's undeniably well-proportioned, but I'm not sure the same can be said about the Guardian's news coverage.

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-4318438552265664242009-01-14T18:32:00.002Z2009-01-14T18:34:45.609Z

Patrick McGoohan is no more.

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-63926754566614075412009-01-12T06:26:00.010Z2009-01-24T09:42:51.506Z

Some educationalists criticised the programme [Teletubbies] for encouraging young children to mimic the infantile sounds of its characters and Christian leaders in the US, who claimed that one of its characters, Tinky Winky, was gay.[The Guardian, 4 January 2009]I suspect that this sentence originally began "The programme was criticised by some educationalists...", and was recast from the passive

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-4167146373380626472009-01-08T18:47:00.015Z2009-02-04T17:45:13.200Z

In my general remissness recently, I've omitted to mention any books not written by me or my friends since... well, it looks like October, which is actually more recently than I thought, but the time before that was August. I clearly have been slacking. At present I'm still immured in Kim Stanley Robinson's One Mars Two Mars Red Mars Blue Mars trilogy. (Incidentally, I've discovered since that

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-52036534462606857992009-01-08T17:34:00.015Z2009-01-08T18:44:05.535Z

My perhaps overly mystical response to the casting of the eleventh Doctor -- complete with musings on the heroes of British myth-cycles, the writings of Ian Fleming and Joseph Campbell, and world mythology ranging from Egyptian to Native American -- is now available online at Surefish. I hope you enjoy the reading as much as I enjoyed writing of it. Surefish are having a bit of a reorganisation

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-22802987330016197642009-01-07T18:01:00.024Z2009-01-09T14:17:21.331Z

(Well, not technically, as she was spayed long ago.)SCULLY: Ah, about time. Excuse me...HUMAN: Hello, Scully.SCULLY: Excuse me, waiter! HUMAN: Hello, sweetheart. Did you miss me?SCULLY: What? No. Listen, I was served my starter -- HUMAN: Aren't you good? Patient little cat. SCULLY: Yes, quite. Listen, I was served my starter at 6:30 this morning, and I'm still waiting for my main. [HUMAN

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-81238179069279432972009-01-04T18:01:00.008Z2009-01-04T19:35:13.581Z

Well, there's no getting away from it[1], it's 2009. And I said I'd be making a New Year's resolution to post here more. So let's give it a go.I spent most of yesterday writing a Surefish column -- due up sometime this week, with any luck -- on the casting of the new Doctor Who. Although in fact it's less about the specific casting of young Matt Smith than about the recasting of the Doctor in

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-70438840515478386842008-12-19T12:00:00.005Z2009-12-16T15:29:43.786Z

I realise I've really let this blog slide the past few months. Work's been ludicrously busy, as has stuff-outside-of-work, and I've been stupidly tired for most of the available time. (I have, however, also written a 5,000-word short story for an anthology, which I'll link to here once my involvement's been announced.) Next year's likely to be busy as well, for a variety of reasons, but I'll

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-83382046411486035572008-12-18T16:42:00.019Z2008-12-23T16:42:07.926Z

For years I was convinced that the translator into English of Raymond Queneau's Exercises de Style -- which I've owned a copy of since (so my inscription in the flyleaf tells me) 1998 -- was the same person as Dorothy L. Sayers's god-daughter and biographer, who finished Sayers's mammoth and magisterial translation of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy after her death. I appear to have thought this

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-69971512965620307692008-12-03T16:36:00.008Z2008-12-05T11:15:34.626Z

...the not-particularly-long-awaited DVD-style extras pertaining to my novella in The Vampire Curse are now online at www.infinitarian.com, along with a handful of other things I've had hanging around. First of all, we have notes on my novella, "Predating the Predators". DO PLEASE READ The Vampire Curse first, though, as these notes contain SPOILERS for the novella. You don't in any sense need

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-25680881256238507512008-11-24T18:34:00.005Z2008-11-24T18:53:52.849Z

One day soon -- potentially as soon as 2036, unless the retirement age has been bumped up by then -- I'm going to get round to posting some actual content here, rather than continually pimping my own writing. In the meantime, though... I have in my hand a physical copy of The Vampire Curse -- the three-decker novella collection about Professor Bernice Summerfield and a number of vampires,

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-85123010931503489272008-11-05T15:21:00.001Z2008-12-03T17:40:23.219Z

And in slightly less momentous news... Big Finish have released Adrian Salmon's very fine cover for The Vampire Curse. Which means I've been able to update my pages too, with a larger version of the cover and the actual back cover blurb. I've updated Peculiar Tomes, as well, and put in links to pre-order through Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.Now I'd better get round to writing those extras I

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-28711119320010328962008-11-05T15:20:00.006Z2008-11-05T15:29:15.759Z

This made me smile. But only after this had reduced me to floods of tears: "And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. [...] And to all those who have wondered if

Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0