Jon Courtenay Grimwood

Here it is, UK cover for the Fallen Blade

Fri, 21 May 2010 12:19:52 +0100

Okay, here we go...

The same image but red title type rather than the US silver, different lettering for the author's name, and no glowing eyes or slight suggestion of blood around the mouth of the figure.

Interesting to compare the US cover below with the UK version

The Fallen Blade - cover and catalogue copy

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:20:18 +0100

Here it is... The US cover for The Fallen Blade

'In the depths of night, customs officers board a galley in a harbor and overpower its guards. In the hold they find oil and silver, and a naked boy chained to the bulkhead. Stunningly beautiful but half-starved, the boy has no name. The officers break the boy's chains to rescue him, but he escapes.

Impossible, Possible, Plausible - writing alternate history 1

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:01:40 +0100

With Stalin being friendly, Zinoviev on leave and the Politburo hedging their bets, Trotsky has to be careful. It’s October 1923 and the scheming, rivalry and machinations to take over from the dying Lenin are at their height. Trotsky is favourite; although he has his enemies, Zinoviev among them.
Trotsky’s mistake is to go duck shooting.

neoAddix for download

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:50:55 +0100

Written in 1993 at a kitchen table in Tottenham, North London, neoAddix was eventually published by New English Library, part of Hodder, in January 1997. It was the book on which I learnt to write. (Well, began to learn to write.)

Not so much a novel, more an exercise in learning to write

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:47:09 +0000

At some point in the next few weeks I'm going to put together the best version of neoAddix I can on my motley and over-large collection of old steam driven laptops and stick it here as a PDF file and ePub file for download

Writing Rob's obit...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:18:12 +0000

There are some jobs you just don’t want to be given because you don’t want them to be necessary, ever…

Liking the characters we write

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:00:17 +0100

Last Drink Birds Head

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:08:06 +0100

What Is 'Last Drink Bird Head'?
That’s the catalyst editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer provided to over 80 writers in creating this unique anthology. The result? Last Drink Bird Head is a blues musician, a performance artist, a type of alcohol, a town in Texas, and even a song sung by girl scouts in Antarctica...

Venice

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:59:45 +0100

random pretty Venice photograph taken with iPhone late at night from the quayside near San Marco. Okay, that's enough excuses as to why the quality is crap. Still tells me what my hero sees though... Bet you can't spot the German assassin. No, he can't either!

Onibaba

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:11:23 +0100

If you go to IMDb and look up Onibaba the trivia will tell you two things.
1) It was refused classification by the English censor in 1965 because of the violence and nudity; but was passed in 1968, when it was approved with an X certificate with cuts.
2) The demon mask used in Onibaba inspired William Friedkin, the Exorcist’s director, to use make-up of a similar design in The Exorcist.

Getting from Z - A

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:49:51 +0100

Sometimes my relationship with science fiction seems like a particularly bloody love affair.
We’ve broken up and got back together so many times I’ve lost count of who got bored with what and went off to do something they shouldn’t.