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18/2/10 |
I am on Facebook. Part of me feels like I've given in to the nasty, nasty social networking virus - but my publisher insists this is a good idea. Friend me if I know you! I've also put up a fan page for the Petrovitch trilogy which you can join.
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9/2/10 |
I'm going to Eastercon for the first time. I've never been to an SF convention before (yeah, yeah, I know...), so I'm hoping that I get to meet lots of lovely people, hear interesting things, quaff heroic amounts of ale, and meet my editor at Orbit, the delightful Darren Nash. I have also (within fifteen minutes of registering for the con) been asked to go on a panel, so I felt compelled to say yes. I'm currently one half of the Junior Science Question Time panel, at 3pm on the Sunday. Apparently, I'm not only supposed to have encyclopedic knowledge of Science! but be able to explain it. Hmm.
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15/1/10 |
And here it is. I'm in the process of signing a three book deal with Orbit - who are, if I'm not mistaken, the largest SF publisher on eight planets. The books in question are Equations of Life, Theories of Flight, and Degrees of Freedom, and star (if that's the right word) everyone's favourite sociopath Sam Petrovitch. I think in his honour I shall christen the trilogy The Books of Petrovitch.
More on the Orbit website for now, and more here later!
w00t!
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6/1/10 |
There is, of course Other News of great portent and worth. But I'll let them talk about it first, and I'll post about it shortly afterwards.
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6/1/10 |
In more Lost Art related shenanigans, there are still (some) bookplates left to go. Just to reiterate, a free signed bookplate to anywhere in the world, for you to stick in the front cover of your copy of The Lost Art. I'm up to #65 out of #100, and when they're gone, they're gone!
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6/1/10 |
Amongst the things I also need to mention is that The Lost Art is now out in Italian, published by Rizzoli. Obviously, it's not called The Lost Art, but the much more romantic L'Arte Perduta. Yours for 20 euros, gov. It has its own page here.
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6/1/10 |
Next up, The Lost Art was a finalist for the Catalyst Award for best teen fiction. Even though I didn't win (Helena Pielichaty did, which is only fair since she is hugely talented), I did get to corrupt the minds of a couple of hundred Scottish teenagers - so it was well worth the visit. Many thanks to all the schools involved - the pupils alone get to decide the winner - and the magnificently hard-working librarians who hosted the events.
There is a predictably cheesy photograph of the finalists: I have contrived to have more hair than Gary Kilworth. There is also a Q&A using the questions I didn't have time to answer at the awards ceremony, including a definitive answer on the Chicken/Egg conundrum.
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6/1/10 |
I'm reliably informed that I should update my website more often, because that means people come back and read it! So, first up is this: we - meaning a disparate (and most likely desperate) group of ne'erdowells - have won the Rolls Royce Science Prize for 2009 for the best school science project. Which in this case involved letting the kids use a custom-built wind tunnel to design wind turbines. Back in the summer of 2008, my school's science teacher, the inestimable Mr Smith, sidled up to me with a sheaf of paper and said, "Reckon we should have a crack at this?". The rest was indeed history, along with fiddling with some very tiny electronic components (which I'm convinced have completely wrecked my eyesight), and using Kinder eggs and CD motors to build anemometers. And making automatic car door locks work as a flywheel brake.
You can see the incriminating evidence on this page, which includes a couple of videos. We also got some press coverage - this is how the Telegraph reported it on 6/10/09. We ended up with £15,000 to spend on Science!, a shiny titanium jet engine blade on a plinth, and a very self-satisfied glow that hasn't quite worn off yet...
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