Wigtown: Photographic Evidence

Here be a photo of myself at the Wigtown Poetry Prize ceremony, October 2011. Seated beside me is Gaelic winner, Meg Bateman. Behind us the judges (L-R) Angus Peter Campbell (Gaelic judge), Rab Wilson (Scots judge) and Brian Johnstone (Main Competition judge). Photo by Ed Flannighan.

Thresholds Feature Writing Competition

The Shortlist for the Thresholds Feature Writing Competition is now online. While I didn't make the Shortlist - for my article on Breece D'J Pancake - I do get Highly Commended. No bad way to start a Wednesday. More info here.

Rocket Science "Superb" - The Guardian

The Guardian have reviewed Rocket Science very favourably, calling the collection "superb". Read the whole review here.

This week on "Introducing the Author"...

http://rocketsciencenews.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/introducing-the-authors-sean-martin/

Rocket Science Launches on Sunday

Rocket Science, the anthology of sci-fi and sci-,...er, non-fi, is being launched at EasterCon on Sunday 8 April. Easter Sunday, in fact. Edited by Ian Sales and published by Mutation Press, the book is a collection of hard sci-fi and non-fiction pieces. My contribution is a story called "Dreaming at Baikonur". So, if you're at EasterCon, and not going to see George RR Martin, come along to the Rocket Science launch! Enough said. (I won't be able to go, as I'm at another festival, Tip of the Tongue, on Jura, but shall be there in spirit. No pun intended!)

The Ghosts of the NW3 Literati

I've made a modest contribution to Jen Campbell's new book, Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops, which is out now. The comment came from a customer many years ago when I was doing a lengthy stretch at Waterstone's in Hampstead. The customer in question got the title of a well-known book by CS Lewis a tad wrong.

New Story Out in April

I have a new short story, Dreaming at Baikonur, included in an anthology called Rocket Science, which is due to be published by Mutation Press in April. The book is an anthology of 'realistic and authentic hard science fiction' - as Mutation's site phrases it - and is edited by the redoubtable Ian Sales, who is blogging the book's progress here.

The book will be launched at Olympus 2012, which is being held at Heathrow over the weekend of 6-9 April (guests of honour include George R.R. Martin). Ian will also be at alt.fiction in Leicester on the weekend following (14-15 April), where a 'second-stage launch' may indeed blast off.

I'm not sure at the moment whether I'll be at any of these illustrious smorgasbords myself. I think I may well be on Jura during 6-9 April, for a screening of a film I co-directed (see my filmmaking blog for any possible developments in that area). Alt.fiction remains a possibility. More news when I have some.