Lotus Eater published in Nebula Rift!

Clone Music published by Perihelion SF

My story Clone Music has been published by Perihelion SF!  It landed on the 12th February.

This story features a character from my novel The Scion, an artist called Sirius Andervich.  Well, he is only obliquely referenced in The Scion, but he was an interesting chap, so I wrote a bit more about him and it became this story.

The idea came to me when I was thinking about Paul Simon incorporating other cultures into his music when writing Graceland.  Not that I am in any way denouncing this album - it is quite brilliant.  In due course the idea became darker and more perverted, especially when a former friend of Andervich reared his arrogant head and some clones got involved.

Clicking on the speaker above will take you to the Clone Music...

Blowing The Scion's Trumpet

A few lovely Scion-related things have happened since I last blogged.  Things which have cast the shadow of self-doubt away from my feelings about The Scion and, perhaps rightly, elevated its status in the world.  I find self-doubt always creeps in somewhere, with the insidious nature of the Wraith - a healthy part of the process, until it becomes all-consuming...

Anyway, here we go: the trumpet is blasting, hopefully not deafening the rest of the orchestra, or swallowing the viola's delicate melody. Unfortunately, I think maybe the entire brass section were in the pub in the interval.

Fancy a cuppa and a good SF novel?

BSFA Longlist

The Scion was longlisted for a British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) award.  BSFA members can vote for the book (alongside other fabulous works like Al Robertson's Crashing Heaven and Paul McAuley's Something Coming Through) up until the 31st January.  Fingers crossed it'll make the shortlist.

Preditors & Editors Poll

The Scion seems to have somehow snuck onto the Preditors & Editors Poll for Science Fiction & Fantasy novels published in 2015.  Currently storming up the charts to hover around number 3. If you fancy voting, you have until the 14th of January - which is soon!

Perihelion Science Fiction Review

Carol Kean has written a quite wonderful review of The Scion for Perihelion, giving the book 5/5 stars.  We had quite a lot of correspondence about the book - some of which is alluded to in the review.  Well worth reading, here is one of my favourite quotes: 'Bursting at the seams with planets, space ships, futuristic technology, wars, peoples, and monstrosities, “The Scion” is the hardest type of #HardScienceFiction, as we in the Twitterverse say. You could safely scrape the Mohs test-diamond over this story without leaving a visible scratch.'

Carol and Perihelion are also both up for awards in Preds & Eds, so go vote for them!

Thanks

A big thank you to Carol for your kind words and support, in Perihelion as well as on goodreads and amazon. Thanks also to everyone else who has nominated and voted so far - you are all lovely people.

Gestating Elegy published in Bards and Sages Quarterly!

 

Amazon links here: UK, US, CA, AU

And here if you want to review it/recommend it/etc. on GoodReads...

A Twitter short story

A few weeks ago, following the lead of David Mitchell (of Bone Clocks/Cloud Atlas/Slade House fame) and his 'Twitter' short story, which surfaced sometime last year, I decided to have a go at something similar.  This idea appeared during a lull between stories.  I reconstructed a story which appeared in Imaginalis - the first part of what came to be known as 'The Machine Sequence'.  'The Machine Sequence' stories are in turn prequel stories to another novel I've written called 'Machine Songs', which is currently languishing in a slush pile somewhere...

You can read it all from my Twitter account @GuyTMartland, but I've transcribed all twelve tweets here as well for your delectation.  Or something.

Tweet 1:
'You remember when the machines fell to Earth?'
<Dark times.>
'They got darker. I'm looking for answers.'
<Aren't we all?>

Tweet 2:
'If we reboot them, maybe we can reboot ourselves'
<How? They are tech from a bygone age!>
'If I can find whoever designed them...'

Tweet 3:
<Their inventor won't be able to help.>
'Why?'
<Fenix was a genius. Until he lost his mind.>
'I was told you knew him.'
<I did. Once.>

Tweet 4:
'You were friends?'
<Is that why you are here?'>
'I've told you why I'm here.'
<I've heard stories that he died.>
'I don't believe them.'

Tweet 5:
<Fenix thought he was the reason for all the problems.>
'He wasn't responsible for an alien invasion!'
<The machines he made caused a war.>

Tweet 6:
'A war that opened Earth to an invasion.'
<Could be he felt he hadn't done enough?>
'There must be a way.'
<To start another war?>

Tweet 7:
'If I got hold of an old machine. A Mecha.'
<You think you can use it to fix others?>
'I could try.'
<You'll need the machine sequence.>

Tweet 8:
'And where would I find that?'
<Fenix.>
'We're going round in circles.'
<There is another rumour he is alive, but was driven insane.>

Tweet 9:
'So where is he?'
<He is far away. Across miles of alien vegetation.>
'I'll find him. And make the machines work again.'
<Then what?>

Tweet 10:
'We have to rely on the past to enhance our future.'
<Our past is broken.>
'But machines will return the magic.'
<Pure Science Fiction!>

Tweet 11:
'Well, any sufficiently advanced technology...'
<You'll need help. An expert in alien biology.>
'I know a botanist.'
<Well that's a start.>

Tweet 12:
'I'll make the machines sing again. They will begin to heal Earth.'
<You'll probably die.>
'At least I'll die trying to save our planet...'

END

More to follow?

Bards and Sages, worldbuilding and other news...

Get your SF head on when worldbuilding... (photos taken at Port Eliot festival 2015, unknown artist)

A late addition to The Scion blog tour, I've written a post for Bards and Sages about worldbuilding.  Stuff I've picked up over the years by reading, writing and attending a few conferences (such as the Milford SF conference).  Big shout out to Julie Ann Dawson at Bards & Sages for hosting me.

You can read about my thoughts on worldbuilding right here.  The post even includes a crude map I drew when writing The Scion.

Who are they?

Are we here?

Bards & Sages have also accepted by story 'Gestating Elegy' for publication in January 2016.  This is a story based in the universe of an unpublished novel and a recent story 'Esterhazy's Cadence', which appeared in Perihelion SF.

In addition a new story 'The Flock' has been picked up by the new British SF magazine The Singularity.  Am loving the artwork on the cover of their first issue!  This story was inspired by some of Antony Gormley's artwork, in particular a piece called 'Event Horizon'.  When it will appear, I do not yet know.

In the meantime, other words are being written.  Mostly on Scrivener.  More subs are flying out into the aether.  Mostly on Submissions Grinder.  I am also contemplating bringing the aforementioned unpublished novel out of retirement, but it'll need a few workouts to get it match fit (insert musical montage here).

Finally, a big thanks to those who have already bought The Scion.  And for those who have given it some lovely reviews on Amazon.  If you haven't picked up a copy, now's your chance...

The Scion - Guy T Martland Interview

Back in July, I did a few interviews as part of The Scion blog tour.  Here is one of them, which appeared in Rudes Review on the 8th of July.  I thought I'd stick it up on here as I haven't posted much for a while...  And here's another picture of the novel's cover:

What is your latest book about, where can we find it and how long did it take you to write it?

My latest book is called ‘The Scion’ and is SF novel in the Space Opera tradition.  When I started writing this book, it was my intention to write a gothic SF novel.  However, I was having a lot of fun and some of my humour also crept in, which offset the bleakness.  Nevertheless, those who have read it tell me that it is pretty dark in places.

The plot concerns a young man called Septimus Esterhazy, an aristocrat, who lives in a penthouse on an island called Kennet; he has little to do, so whiles away his life as a part time DJ (or at least a future equivalent thereof).  When we meet him, his best friend Persephone, is dying.  But not is all as it seems.  Odd things then begin to happen: a blue star appears above his home planet, his cousin is kidnapped and then he begins to be followed and evenutally attacked by some odd creatures.  He is oblivious to the fact that the universe’s very nature is being threatened by a powerful alien race, called the Wraith.  Nor does he know that he is somehow involved with why they are coming.

In a separate thread, the self-proclaimed ‘Protectors of the Known Universe’, the Sassrit, are trying to do everything they can to thwart a Wraith attack.  But time is running out for them and resources are stretched.  A Sassrit agent, one of the shapeshifting Jarthiala, is subsequently recruited to help.  The path he follows leads to the doorstep of a planet called D, an Earth colony, above which a blue star hangs, its light reflected in the eyes of Septimus below.

As the threads begin to weave together, Septimus has to go on a journey which will change him forever.  It will make him question his nature.  He will uncover secrets about his family that have lain dormant for years.  And it will test the loyalty of those closest to him.

The book can be found on Amazon here.

I wrote part of the first chapter in 2007.  This seems like a long time ago, but I have lots of first novel chapters lying around which either get used in shorter works or just sit in my computer’s hard drive, awaiting resurrection.   For some reason, I was quite taken with Septimus and his friend Persephone and wanted to find out what happened to them as characters (I knew the overriding story arc).  So I wrote their story.

Most of the book was written in 2010 and 2011.  Then came various edits.  I called a friend, Liz Williams, to ask if she’d have a look.  At the time I wasn’t even sure if it was any good.  Anyway, I drove over to Glastonbury and we met in her ‘office’ – the back room of the George and Pilgrim pub.  She read it, seemed to like it, made some suggestions and a while later I sent it to Safkhet. 

What inspired you to be a writer?

It wasn’t so much an inspiration as a calling.  I have to write.  This may sound a bit clichéd but it is unfortunately true.  If I don’t get some words on a page almost every day, then I simply don’t feel complete as a human being.

Words have been with me from a very young age.  My mother gave me ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Brideshead Revisited’ to read when I was five years old.  So maybe I blame her.

Who is your favorite author?

I don’t have a single favourite author, but I have many I love and look forward to reading.  In the SF world, Alastair Reynolds and Paul McAuley are probably top of my list of living SF authors.  The late Iain M. Banks, who I had the pleasure of meeting on a number of occasions, features prominently in the other list.  In the non-SF world, I am a huge fan of Haruki Murakami, Paul Auster and Julian Barnes.  Justin Cartwright is also fantastic, and for some inexplicable reason, is much overlooked.

How many books have you written?

Three complete SF novels.  And another using chunks of one of these which was given a fictional slant, but which was semi-autobiographical, overly self-interested rubbish.  I have also published numerous short stories in various places, such as Perihelion SF, Albedo One, Encounters Magazine, Shoreline of Infinity and Fiction Vortex (full bibliography on my website).

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently in the process of editing one of the above novels, ‘Machine Songs’, with view to sending it off somewhere.  This is about a future Earth overrun with alien growth, but one which still harbours some interesting drone tech.  I’ve also started writing a sequel to The Scion as well as a standalone SF medical dystopian piece.  In addition, I’ve got a few stories I’m working on which I hope to get out into the world soon.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Read and write as much as you can.  I’ve found critique groups can be helpful, such as the Milford SF conference.  But really, you have to sit at your desk, and grind the words out.  Writing takes time and a lot of effort, with a huge dash of patience thrown in.

When I first started out I wrote to Paul McAuley asking him this very question.  His reply was along the lines of you either are a writer or you aren’t.  Make of that what you will.

Tell us about about yourself?

I live on the South Coast of England, a stone’s throw from where Robert Louis Stevenson wrote ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, and not far from where Mary Shelley is buried.  When I’m not writing, I work as a hospital pathologist and play a 19th century German violin (but not at the same time).  At 6 foot 8 inches (2.032 metres), I am possibly one of the tallest living SF writers.

Is there anything else you want to say?

I hope everyone who reads ‘The Scion’ enjoys it as much as I did writing it.  Thank you for  interviewing me!