May update

 Thanks for your patience with the lack of news over the last few months. All's been well, I've been busy with work and travel, but I'll offer a few highlights as a prelude to more regular updates as we go into the summer.

Once the Zurich stuff had died down (see last post), I got back into preparatory work on the new novel. I decided I wouldn't start any actual writing, though, until I'd completed the first round of edits on MERLIN'S WAY. February and March, then, were mostly taken up with planning, chapter outlines etc. It's not always the way I work, but with a book of the kind I'm now writing, it's all but unavoidable.

It wasn't all hard work. In Mid February my wife and I travelled to Birmingham to see Carlos Acosta's ballet production Don Quixote, which was magnificent. On the way, we diverted via That London where we went to the launch for our friend Paul McAuley's wonderful new novel LOSS PROTOCOL, which is certainly one of his best and most personal books, an affecting take on climate change, catastrophe and adaptation in a future Britain four or five decades from now. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

March came and went, as Marches tend to do. I hit my 60th birthday, but not being one much for milestones I kept it deliberately low-key, and was perfectly content with that. As the end of the month neared, edits came in on Merlin so I attended to those (not too bad) and then travelled back up to Birmingham for the Easter National SF Convention, held in a hotel at the NEC. I only went along as a punter, not taking part in any programming but it was nice to sit in on a few readings, panels etc and just generally catch up with friends old and new. I really love Birmingham and its environs; I've always felt comfortable there and it's a particular joy to have that connection affirmed by my link to the Birmingham SF Group (who I also visited during February's trip). I enjoyed Eastercon but I think it reinforced my feeling that one full day is about right for me, especially now that the dealer's room isn't all that great for just general book-buying. 

Peter Hamilton and I had an enjoyable meal the first night, then did the same thing again the second, along with the aforementioned Paul M, and Robin Kilsby from the Brum group.

Back in Wales, I finally made a real start on the new book. Not much to say on that one right now, other than that it's set mostly in Wales, in 2046, and it's structured around a police investigation. It's not noir, but it is very much science fiction.

Later in April I'd agreed to go to Bratislava to attend "VytahConf", a business-orientated space meeting. As the trip neared, I dropped work on the novel to prepare my talk for the closing session. My topic choice was handed to me on a plate, given the recent success of Artemis II. I'd just turned 60 and my whole life - thus far, at least - might be viewed as bookended by crewed Lunar missions. I don't remember any of the specific Apollo missions, but I do remember the fact of them happening, and my interest in space exploration was sufficiently activated that I do have clear recollection of Skylab. It's also one of the great thrills of my life to have met two Apollo astronauts (Jack Schmidt, and the now late Al Worden).

For my talk, I took an overview of those 60 years, looking at the timeline for orbital bases and lunar settlements that we might have had, contrasting visions from both NASA technical forecasts and contemporary science fiction, taking in such ambitious but perhaps unlikely ventures as Von Braun's proposal for a nuclear powered Mars landing by 1982. Although much remains unclear about Artemis III and beyond, the evident success of the Lunar fly-around, re-entry and splashdown was enough to be able to leave things on a reasonably optimistic note. I was captivated by the whole mission, in fact, and can't wait for the next chapter. 

Just a pity they cut the chorus:

Anyway, my hosts in Bratislava, Igor and Adam, made sure I was very well looked after. I loved my glimpse of this beautiful city, which marked my first visit to Slovakia. Indeed, other than a visit to Vienna about thirty years ago, I'm seriously untravelled in this whole part of Europe. I flew in to Vienna, by the way: it's only a relatively short, frictionless car ride across the barely-discernible border and between the two glittering, Danube-threaded cities.

Igor had arranged a Q&A and signing event at a great bookshop, Martinus, for the evening before the conference. The bookshop event was fantastic. Although I've not been translated into Slovakian, a number of my books have appeared in Czech language editions over the years. I signed many copies and chatted to some lovely people.

I don't take being translated at all lightly, but once you've received your contractual allocation of books, it can sometimes feel a bit abstract. Seeing these books, some of the new, but some of them also old and well-read, gave me a fantastic jolt of appreciation for the time and energy taken to put these translations into the world, and to the readers who have sought them out. I loved talking to everyone at Martinus (and the other readers I met at VytahConf, and in the pub later on) and hope my gratitude came across. There are so many legitimate reasons for having a writerly whinge lately: seeing your work scraped for AI training models, the hollowing out of publishing, the creeping death of the mass market paperback etc... but there are good times, too, reasons to keep grinding on. I came back from Bratislava absolutely stoked and threw myself back into the new book with renewed purpose.

There was stuff in May, and now I'm back on the book ... but I'm also taking a stab at a new novella, because I don't think I've been doing enough shorter fiction lately. It's a topic I touch upon in this interview with Jon from ScifiScavenger, which I did last month:

I very enjoyed chatting with Jon and if you've not checked out his channel, there's lots to dig into there. On the subject of Youtube channels, too, while it's not an interview, you might want to check out this discussion about Halcyon Years on Robin Kilsby's Bookspin channel:

Well that's about it for me. I'm off sick right now with a nasty chest infection so there's really nothing to be done except lounge around watching Star Trek re-runs. Could be worse, couldn't it?

Cheers and best wishes.

Al R