Styx Water and a Sippy Cup

I decided to do a reading for your viewing pleasure.

SFF Translation Awards Prize Draw Fundraiser

The clue is in the title. Yes, the jury for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards are currently considering the various nominees, but in order to give prizes to the winners they need money. So, a fundraiser is afoot in which you can win prizes. I'm donating a signed copy of my poetry collection, Songs for the Devil and Death, and I note that Steve Berman of Lethe Press has donated a prize including hardback of Wilde Stories 2011, containing "Oneirica" by yours truly. So if either of those pique yer interest -- and there's more neat swag to be won besides that -- click on through and add yer support.

New Link, Not Quite New Story

At some point I'll probably pick up where I left off before Christmas with my ramblings about mnemes and semes and whatnot. There is a big post on memes sitting half-done in Scrivener. But at the moment, I'm sworn to get my shit together and finish the fucking novel. So needless to say I procrastinated and updated the "Online Fiction" links to include my story from the latest Cabinet des Fées, "The Wolf and the Three Wise Monkeys." I'm sure I posted about it before, but if ye missed it the first time round, go ye and read.

Also, another story got placed a week or so back, so I'll let yez know where to look for it as and when the contract malarkey is done and dusted.

As you were.

Happy New Year

Having returned from my annual Hogmanay jaunt with mates to a remote cottage -- in the wilds of Dumfries and Galloway this year -- I just thought a quick wee post was in order to say Happy New Year to yez all.

Unfortunately, my MacBook seems to have become a boddhisatva with the end of the festive period, extinguishing all ego in the form of the letter "i," so emphasis on the wee. Oh, it survived the trip fine, was working perfectly when i booted it up on my return to check email. But somewhere between tweeting and checking that the interwebs were all in order, it suddenly decided there's no "i" in anything let alone "team." So, yes, when i say "wee post" i do mean "wee," cause copy-&-pasting one letter is fucking tedious to say the least. Looks like i have a fun trip to the Apple Store tomorrow to spend Chrimbo money on repairs. Either that or everyth_ng _ write turns _nto some crazy Oul_po malarkey. Fun fun fun.

Still, i refuse to be scunnered by this little gnatbite of happenstance, as i also returned to the news of Vellum's release as an audiobook n the US. Should you feel so inclined, you can now go buy yourself a copy over at Audible.com. Cool!



Even cooler, i also returned to an email from Dutch artist Stijn Windig to let me know that he was reading Vellum and had been inspired to create some art based on it. Here's his take on the Road of All Dust, and fucking awesome it is too, i think we can all agree:



Do click through because there's some great detail shots on his website, and hours of fun to be had exploring the other work up there. Gormenghast! Nefarious squid creatures! "Whirring mechanical dragon-type things"! Go see! The short animation Jacob's Lament is gloriously gorgeously trippy.

Anyhoo, enough for now. Don't think i can sustain the substitution of Ctrl-V for "i" much longer, but i just had to share that pic.