Introduction to Cthulhu's Dark Cults Online

Chaosium have posted the Introduction to Cthulhu's Dark Cults online on their website, if you wish to know more about this book than you might already. They have also included Author Biographies.

Meanwhile, if you are on the Chaoium site, you should check out Brian M. Sammons' latest and very cool Call of Cthulhu Role-playing Game book, Strange Aeons II.

Interview with Greg Egan Posted Online

My interview with Greg Egan is now available online on Greg's webpage. This interview originally appeared in Albedo One Issue 37. Here is an extract:

Virtual Worlds and Imagined Futures (2009)

First published in Albedo One, Number 37, 2009. Copyright © Greg Egan and David Conyers, 2009. All rights reserved.

Greg Egan is one of Australia’s leading science fiction authors with over sixty short stories, seven novels and three collections to his name. His novel Permutation City won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and his novella “Oceanic” won the Hugo Award, the Locus Award and the Asimov's Readers Award. He regularly appears in leading science fiction magazines such as Asimov’s and Interzone, and in Gardner Dozois’ The Years Best Science Fiction series. His most recent books are the novel Incandescence (Gollancz, 2008), and the short story collection Oceanic (Gollancz, July 2009).

What was it that compelled you to pursue a career writing science fiction?

I was interested in both science and science fiction from a very young age, and by the time I was seven or eight it was obvious to me that the best thing in the world would be to spend my life doing three things: writing books, making movies, and working as some kind of scientist. And I did make some attempts at all three, but I didn't really have the temperament to persist with the last two.

How did you get started?

I wrote a lot of crap for twenty years, starting from the age of six. I had a novel published by a small press when I was twenty-one, but it wasn't very good and it was more or less irrelevant in terms of my development as a writer. Then in the late 1980s I started writing short stories about biotech and artificial intelligence that just clicked. David Pringle, the editor of Interzone, bought several of them and encouraged me to work to my strengths.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Cthulhu Afrikus: It's Official

I have another chapbook in its way, Cthulhu Afrikus, featuring three of my Cthulhu Mythos short stories set in or about Africa. The book will be published by Rainfall Books, and feature my tales "The Faceless Watchers", "As Above, So Below" and "Screaming Crawler". .

If you've enjoyed my Call of Cthulhu role-playing game sourcebook, Secrets of Kenya, then three of the stories I referenced appear in Cthulhu Afrikus. It makes a good companion.

Cthulhu Afrikus features my artwork and is edited by Steve Lines. It follows on from Cthulhu Australis 1 and 2 which were also published by Rainfall Books. Expect it out in October 2010 in the United Kingdom.

Another Review of Andromeda Spaceways #43

David Kernot's edited issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Isssue 43 gets another review, this time on ASIF, "An eminently readable collection, well-balanced with long and short stories, fantasy and science fiction and horror, so something for everyone."

This is what was said about my story, "Emergency Rebuild":

"The victim of an accident on Mars suffers massive injuries and is progressively ‘fixed’ as parts of him fail. An old school style science fiction story that shows compassion and humanity don’t require a biological body."

I wonder what 'old school' means. I guess I have been reading science fiction since I was ten, and started with some of the originals, like Asimov, Heinlein, Niven, Herbert, Aldiss and Dick, so their influence would be in there somewhere.

"Emergency Rebuild" reviewed on SF Crowsnest.com

SF Crowsnest likes me, or at least Rod MacDonald does who reviews for the site, with his very generous review here of "Emergency Rebuild". This short science fiction story appeared in David Kernot's edited issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Issue 43. This is what Rod said:

"'Emergency Rebuild' is an exploration into what it is to be human. An excellent story, very well told and I hope I will be reading more of his work in the future."

Rod jokes that I haven't given him a brown paper envelope stuffed with money, but (jokingly) perhaps I should. He's also given me great reviews for "Black Water" and "The Octagon" which appeared in Jupiter Magazine. Thanks Rod!

For further information on Andromeda Spaceways #43, David Kernot posted this interesting article on his website on how it came to publication.

“The Uncertainty Bridge” to appear in Jupiter 30

I just learnt that Ian Redman, editor of Jupiter Magazine has accepted my science fiction novella “The Uncertainty Bridge” for Issue 30, out later in the year. That’s three publications in this magazine now, my first short story sale for 2010, and it puts me on six new short stories out for this year.

“The Uncertainty Bridge” is set several hundred years from now, set in an isolated community suffering a severe winter in the aftermath of a distant apocalyptic catastrophe. A pandemic sends almost all the citizens into comas, but not before they start remembering technical details about Earth’s previous accomplishments.

Just How Big is the Universe Anyway

David Witteveen recently posted this image on his website, which puts the universe into perspective, on just how big it really is. This kind of mind-blowing perspective is what got me into writing science fiction in the first place.

Wikipedia has an interesting article on how big the universe is here. The observable universe is 13.7 billion years old and 93 billion light years across, because space expands faster than light. The observable universe has an estimated 7 x 10 to the power of 21 stars (70 sextillion) , i.e. what we can see due to the speed of light limit from the Big Bang. How big the universe actually is is anyone's guess.

Aurealis Awards to move to Sydney

I know this news has been out for a while now, but the Aurealis Awards are going to move to Sydney. This is good news to me, for obvious reasons, which means I might be able to attend the event. Nothing like a networking opportunity within the Australian speculative fiction community, and just a chance to meet some of the players in the industry I've only known for so long via email. It's sorely needed on my behalf.

Ian Redman, Editor of Jupiter, Interviewed on SF Crowsnest.com

For anyone who reads Jupiter Magazine, there is an interesting interview with the editor, Ian Redman, on SF Crowsnest.com by Rod MacDonald. It struck me reading the interview that Interzone started out much the same way, so I wonder where Jupiter could be in years from now?

A review of Jupiter 28 can also be found here, which I unfortunately didn't appear in.