| I can exclusively reveal that NOT winning a Hugo you could cocneivably have won is not the best feeling in the world. They sit you RIGHT by the stage so you have a nice half hour or so (in my case) of working your route out even as the rest of your brain screams ‘THIS IS NOT A CERTAINTY’ at the part that’s been rehearsing your speech for the last six hours. Then, they open the envelope and it’s not you and…well…while I didn’t have very many sorrows to drown at the Losers Party, I figured I’d at least have a drink. |
| Anyhoo. Here’s the thing, when you’re in a field this ridiculous, just being there is the win. Seriously, this was an incredible finalist class! Look at them! Charles Foz Bogi James Elsa Me My victory condition was not placing last. I didn’t place last. I have some thoughts, none of them polite about the fact No Award scored higher than someone on that ballot but we’ll get there. The truth is, there was no bad home that rocket was ever going to and I’m delighted that Foz has been recognized for years of fiercely badass work. Would I be more delighted if it had been me? Of course! Every single one of us wanted that thing but we all deserved it and any result was going to be a good result. So now what? Well, that was a question I asked an agent and I got a pretty great answer. |
I had an agent meeting. A second agent meeting. With a brilliant agent. Who has ASKED TO SEE MY BOOK.
MY book. The one from MY WHOLE ENTIRE HEAD.
This is brilliant for two reasons. The first is I HAD AN AGENT MEETING AND THEY ASKED TO SEE MY BOOK. The second is it forced me to focus in on just what I have in the pipeline right now. And right now? It is a Lot.
Currently Available!
The PseudoPod Tapes Volumes 1 and 2
Courtesy of the mighty Fox Spirit. These collect all my end caps from PseudoPod in 2012 and 2013. yes I am hilariously behind and looking at options for that is one of the things on deck for a few months from now,
Available Soon!
Cracks in the Rock
My essay in the upcoming Specuative Masculinities anthology which looks at how Dwayne Johnson’s career especially shows the evolution of the action hero.
Processing, PROCESSING!
The Icarus Thread
My first (well, second but that’s a whole other episode) novel is out to beta readers. I’m fine. I’m FINE.
Pirate anthology
I’ve been invited to submit to an anthology of pirate fiction put out by Inklings and blocking this out is next. The current idea involves Point Nemo and a burglar in the wrong place at the right depth…
NaNoWriMo 2019
The Icarus Thread was zero drafted in last year’s NanNoWriMo because, unlike whichever randomly selected professional author it will be this year, I don’t find my masculinity threatened by the idea of a community giving itself permission to write a zero draft. Or not write every day. Or try something new. Or experience joy.
Anyhoo.
I LOVED doing it and I’ve got a couple of ideas in contention this year. One is a brace of horror novellas best described as ‘The Lottery meets Taken’. Then there’s the one about the two jobbers who decide this is the night they’re going off script. Oh and just maybe a do over of my first novel but, like I say, whole other episode.
In other news, I have three RPG projects in various stages of readiness. One is with a company who declared bankruptcy right before their Kickstarter was due to launch, while another was handed in over a year ago on a tight deadline and the company is ‘getting around to reviewing it soon.’ Combined those two jobs are about $1700 of work I basically did on a promise, and neither promise has been fulfilled. Yet.
I’m not doing that kind of work anymore.
What I AM doing is indie and creator owned work because its’ fun, you get paid on time and the projects actually happen! After The War, my co-created RPG with Jason Pitre, is at the presses as you read this and I am incredibly excited to see our weird, hopeful apocalypse baby released into the wild.
I’ve also got early stage work in play on a collaboration with the mighty Alex Acks on a working class fantasy novel and the equally mighty Ella Watts on a non-fiction book. (And at least one of them is reading this. Hi buddies!). On top of that I’m writing the Black Archive book on Day of the Doctor, due out next year. Oh and rough notes for an MG novel set on the Isle of Man about teenage magicians. Which I was.
So, fiction, non-fiction, podcasting and RPGs. As well as a weekly newsletter. And regular hosting duties on at least one show. Oh and being the unsung hero of The Magnus Archives.
Hi! I’m Alasdair, you may have heard of me. You’ve almost certainly heard me. This is what I do.
