Vote for Fantasy and Science Fiction! Only we can save the future!

With the election looming, time for a confession. I have been politically active for a large number of years now, but I’ve never joined a party, posted a leaflet or ‘doorstepped’ a constituent. My contribution has been a little different, but still equally as important I feel: I’ve made fun of them all.

I’ve written political comedy for the radio, for television and a number of live shows. To hear your political thoughts, sketches and jokes being performed by some of the best talent in the country is a great buzz. I heartily recommend it.

A Typical Politician (what we all believe really)
A Typical Politician (what we all believe really)

Continue reading Vote for Fantasy and Science Fiction! Only we can save the future!

Why Fantasy Writing is Like Rocket Science

Fantasy writing can be tricky but it’s hardly like rocket science is it? Why yes it is actually, and I should know, because I’ve done both.

Now let’s get one thing straight. By rocket science I don’t mean the actual science of rockets. Surely we’re pretty good with rockets by now, so how much more does that leave to work out? However, what we do with, and on rockets, is a different matter.

And I once worked on a project funded by the European Space Agency, all to do with growing plants in Space. Because if we are going to have anything like self-sustaining colonies in space they are going to need plants.plant in space Continue reading Why Fantasy Writing is Like Rocket Science

Feeding the Horse with the Green Nose

A.F.E Smith, the talented fantasy writer, is to blame. Or rather, I should humbly thank AFE, not blame her. It was an interview with AFE that brought ‘The Horse with the Green Nose’ back to my mind. Now, I can’t get that horse out of my thoughts, what’s more ‘feeding the horse with the green nose’ has become my catch-all phrase for my own fiction writing.The horse with the Green Nose

You see, ‘The Horse with the Green Nose’, by Agnes Frome, is one of the earliest books I can remember reading. It had been passed down the generations in my family; battered and worn but with a fabulous soft cover and a unique smell. I can’t tell you much about Agnes though. It seems likely that Frome was a nom-de-plume, taken from the town in Somerset. Some clever genealogical work has discovered that she was probably really Agnes Dora Rimmer, born c 1895. Continue reading Feeding the Horse with the Green Nose

The Good, the Bad and the Elvish

Elves, you just have to love them, don’t you? I mean, with their natural in-born nobility, un-specified magical powers, tall blond looks, high cheekbones and pointy ears, what’s not to like? No wonder that the most unfairly maligned of youth cults, the peace-loving hippies, was so taken by them. Unless, of course, your elves happen to be small enslaved domestic helpers with no dress sense and a habit of talking about themselves in the third person: “Blobby wear sack now”.

A typically unattractive elf. What do they see in them?
A typically unattractive elf. What do they see in them?

Continue reading The Good, the Bad and the Elvish

Paperback book trailer release.

Well, looky* here! Some moving pictures and such like all in honour of Nicely’s paperback appearance. Not long now for all you ebook refuseniks

*an alternative form of the imperative look ye! Similarly, the linguist Andrew L. Sihler indicates that ye, the now-archaic subjective form of the English 2nd pers. plural pronoun, “is fossilized in looky (here)