Brownian Emotion

My top ten “new” reads of 2022

Welcome to the end, again, again—strange to me that I only post once a year on this blog now, and yet this duty seems to come around faster and faster… meh, expect more old man observations as I close ever in on my personal half century. Sixty reads consumed in 2022, along with five-hundred and ninety-three short stories for Mythaxis Magazine, which published twenty-eight more of the best to hit…

Happy New Year, world! Here's a rundown of the ten books I loved most in 2021 (plus a few of the near-misses).

Welcome to the start of another one—year, or best of list? Why not both? In 2021 I gobbled down forty-three novels or non-fiction books, and (in my capacity as speculative fiction magazine editor) six-hundred and seventy-four scifi, fantasy and horror short stories (file under “exhausting, but rewarding”). You can find out which of those I liked most by checking out Mythaxis Magazine at the link,…

Very happy to have sff author Stephen Palmer breathing life back into my blog as a part of his CONJUROR GIRL blog-tour!

Long ago in the misty depths of time, I think during my teens, I read a couple of strange science fiction novels named Memory Seed and Glass. They were probably my first experience of ecological sf, and definitely my first experience of Stephen Palmer, as they were his first published books. Quarter of a century or so later, we became acquainted through the anthology project at SFFWorld.com when…

Twenty-Twenty Hindsight, mostly - I quick summing up of what I got up to in 2020. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s only as I crawl feebly towards the final hours of this stinker of a year that I realise I distanced myself from this blog every bit as effectively as I did so many other parts of my life. In fact, I got up to a few things in 2020, in spite of (first) Spain’s fairly strict lockdown measures in the middle of March and (second and ever since) my own voluntary, near-total continuing efforts to…

Check out my top ten "new" reads of 2020 - one of them's so cutting edge it was published in 1953!

Boy, did I ever predict 2020 wrong. I mean, according to my last post on this slow, slow blog, I thought 2019 was bad… hah! What we’d have given to merely endure a retread of that cake-walk, instead of chainsmoking miseries large and small the way we all have done. And there’s still the god-damned Brexit to look forward to!* But in one or two regards, 2020 went okay — I read some very fine books…

Happy New Year! And while I've got you filled with annual cheer, let me share good news and a free-read contest too:

Happy New Year!

In many ways, 2019 was a terrible year — the state of the climate and the state of the politics to name but two — but, I happily confess, on a personal level last year was a pretty good one for me. Let me count the ways:

I moved to a new city, Barcelona, which I like very much.I miss my friends in Madrid a lot but, since Spain plans to make its high-speed rail system considerably…

Apologies for missing out 2018 - to make amends, here's my top ten reads of 2019 instead:

Lamentably, in 2019 the world came to a grinding halt, in the most part because I didn’t share the revelatory details of my reading activities in 2018. Disastrous climate change, despicable political upheavals, all this and more, with my poor self justifiably to blame.

Far be it from me to risk calamity on such a scale again, but happily I read some reallygood books in 2019, so we should assume…

The Archipelago Has Launched! (Part Two) - our alt-historical, fantasti-naval, "swashbookling" paperback is out now!

Two weeks down the line, and it’s time for the second half of that announcement. And what a two weeks: the ebook edition of ARCHIPELAGO, the historical naval fantasy which I co-wrote with Charlotte Ashley and Kurt Hunt over a year ago, has been quietly selling some copies of itself while I’ve been wrestling with the forces of evil to get a print-on-demand version finalized for publication. And…

Archipelago Has Launched (Part One)! The @Archipelagoers ebook is out, with a discounted launch price of $2.99 for the duraction of #WorldCon2019! @CharlotteAshley @SonitusSonitus

Look at that! Two posts in less than thirty days! See how nice I treat you now? Real special!

Speaking of all the nice things I do for you, here’s some lovely news: a year after me and my writerly collaborators Charlotte Ashley and Kurt Hunt wrapped up the first season of our alternate history naval fantasy serial, ARCHIPELAGO, we are releasing the epic novel-length version of the same.

Archipel…

Long time no see - let's catch up. Also, my story "Blow the Stars Away" is now appearing in TRIANGULATION: DARK SKIES!

Hello blog, long time no see!

Sorry that this is my first post of 2019, but life has been pretty full in recent times. Early last year, I vigorously downsized my life, dividing it between two-and-a-half suitcases and a one-and-a-half square-metre storage locker in south-central Madrid. I had to give up so many books… I’m still coming to terms with the loss…

About six months after that, I washed…

How to pre-order a Perfect Christmas - all you need to do is follow these simple instructions...

A few months ago, the WELCOME TO PACIFIC CITY Kickstarter campaign raced to success, and I’m now very happy to announce that it is soon to be published.

The release date is Christmas day, but the ebook is available for pre-order right now. Also, for the first time, an SFFWorld.com anthology will be available as a paperback too – so even if electronicbooks aren’t your thing we still have your…

The Kickstarter campaign for the "Welcome to Pacific City" anthology just went live - and we're already 1/4 of the way to our primary goal!

Wow — only my second post of the year, and the last one was about nine months ago!

One reason for my low blogging activity is that I’ve had a pretty chaotic 2018. Since the middle of March I’ve been homeless and flat-surfing, and since the middle of July I’ve been unemployed as well (conventional day-job employment, that is). However, in 2017 I again took on the role of editor for the latest…

Here, have another opinion in the form of Six Story Reviews: The Hugo Short Stories, 2018...

Someone (naming no names) was pestering me to review this year’s Hugo short story nominations before the (inevitable?) winner is selected (at the end of this month), but I kept distracting myself from it, even after someone else (naming Sue Burke) did a rather good job of reviewing them too (only with somewhat divergent opinions of the contenders), so now (to cut a potentially even longersentence…

My first Hollywood Interview in ages - a 25-word Q&A with @AliceFitzWrites, yet another Madrid-based lit-success story!

…with Alice Fitzgerald

The Cartesian Theatre now welcomes guests from around the worldosphere, with an invitation to tell us all about themselves – in 25 words or less. Okay, okay, it’s not as bad as all that: they get 25 words per answer. They can wax lyrical if they want, but beware: I edit with an axe…

This week, let’s give a big hand to Alice Fitzgerald, freshly-minted first-time novelist…

Here's another ten mini film reviews, revealing that most of my cinematic exposure for 2018 is going to leak from the corporate teat...

My early ’18 film-watching escapades have not ceased (although they have been challenged by some rather good television shows and not a little personal upheaval, the first of which subjects I might even blog about sooner or later), so here’s another ten quick reviews: Coco Brace yourselves for the controversial opinion: Coco was really, very nice. Interesting that (not sure if this one will hold…

I #interview @SueBurkeSpain to celebrate the publication of her first #novel, #Semiosis...

Welcome to the slightly grainy world of the Call Back Interviews, a chance for previous guests to return for a more detailed, in-depth chat. The word counts are off and the axe is back on the wall where it belongs – so why not relax and kick back in a patented, 50s-through-70s-styled green leather chair and get ready to talk about Life, the Universe, and Everything… …as imminent novelist Sue…

Here's brief thoughts on the first ten films I watched in 2018 - I know you've been waiting for this...

I’ve decided I don’t do enough with this blog any more, but since I’ve a few things lined up for the year to come I’d like to provide it with some padding to soften their landing a little. I’ve watched quite a few movies since the start of 2018, so I’m going to post groups of ten mini reviews as I go. (more…)