End of year update

 As we approach the end of 2024 I'd like to send good wishes to all my readers and hope you have a relaxed and enjoyable conclusion to the year however you choose to celebrate it, and the very best of times in the New Year. I'd also like to give particular thanks to all those who supported me during my Cardiff Half Marathon challenge with Alzheimer's UK. Every pound was appreciated and it will all make a difference in the fight against this awful disease.

Looking on, I've registered for next year's event, where I will be attempting to raise funds for Cancer Research Wales. It's a bit early now but once we get into the year, I'll start sharing the fundraising page at semi-regular intervals, and aim to keep you abreast of my training, including the inevitable setbacks. According to my Garmin I ran 509 km this year, including a big dip over the summer where I was managing a foot injury. I hope to do somewhat better than that next year.

In terms of writing, 2024 was a mixed bag. I got off to a good start by writing a novella for the Eric Brown memorial anthology, entitled "The Scurlock Compendium" - a sort of MR James thing with ghosts and time-travel in post WW2 Suffolk. In mid-March I delivered my next novel, Halcyon Years, then (since it wasn't going to be read for a bit) resubmitted it a few weeks later with a few tweaks I felt it needed. With that off my desk I took a few weeks off, got unexpectedly involved with am-dram, and then turned my thoughts to the next book, which was going to be a standalone space opera. For various reasons that didn't quite get off the ground over the summer, and by the time I returned from the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow over August, I felt that I needed to work on something else. The current contract had always included an intention to composite the Merlin stories into a single book, so I turned to that instead. Between dithering over those projects, I also wrote another novella, "The Dagger in Vichy", which I'm pleased with and which will now appear as a small book from Subterranean Press, ably edited by Jonathan Strahan. It's a science fiction story set in a dark, Medieval-tinged future Europe, about a travelling theatrical group (inspired by the am-dram stuff, of which more below). For various innocent external reasons there was a gap of about six months before edits returned to me on Halcyon Years, but I completed them in fairly swift order in November and the book is now off my desk again until the next round of queries, which I expect somewhere around January. Until that happens, I'll be working on the Merlin stuff pretty solidly, allowing for a bit of down-time over Christmas. I'm taking the opportunity to reframe and rework the stories so that they form a consistent novel-length narrative, as well as addressing certain aspects of the character development, worldbuilding and storytelling that I felt needed alteration. So, while I didn't start and finish a novel, and I'd have liked to have written a bit more short fiction, it was an OK year - certainly not the worst. Mustn't grumble, first world problems, could be worse etc.

I travelled a bit for work - not as much as in some years, but definitely more than during 2018-2022, when a combination of family illness and Covid pretty much saw me not leaving home at all - and attended enjoyable gatherings in Montpellier, France and the aforementioned Glasgow. And I was delighted to become honorary president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group, who have been friendly and kind to me since I first emerged as a novel-writer at the turn of the millennium. I didn't get up to Birmingham during 2024 but I did attend a few of their meetings over zoom, and I look forward to seeing all the Brum crew again next year. They really are a wonderfully supportive and enthusiastic bunch.

I've carried on my existential journey into the mystical realm of the guitar, taking weekly online lessons from a lovely gentleman who is helping me make massive strides with music theory and an understanding of the fretboard. I managed not to buy any guitars this year, although I did take two of mine in for a complete servicing, which was as good as getting two shiny new guitars.

The big "didn't have that on my bingo-card" thing for me in 2024 was the am-dram involvement, which came completely out of the blue following a chance encounter while out hillwalking. I bumped into a friend of mine from the local running community. I knew he had a theatre involvement, but that was as far as it went. Since I expected to have delivered a novel by April, I agreed to help with scenery shifting during an upcoming musical production. This then led to two (then three) speaking parts in the same show, which proved a success financially and got an enthusiastic response from the community. Still buzzing from that, I auditioned for our summer Shakespeare production and got the part of Dogberry in "Much Ado", which we performed in the round (and mostly outdoors) over three nights in July. I capped that by being an extra on a BBC shoot for a day later in the month, then took a step back from it all to concentrate on writing. However, my willpower not being great, I was soon back in the fold for our next musical production, "Guys and Dolls", which we'll be putting on April. I have a small but fun part in that. Throughout all this, although she doesn't like being thanked, I must mention the massive support provided by my wife who has patiently endured many hours of line-readings. And of course, she is my usual rock for getting me through another year of being a writer, with all that entails.

My reading throughout this year has been bitty, alas - not because of the books, but because of me not being in the right head-space to get on with much fiction. I need to remedy that in 2025, and also find time to get a few more short stories done. Whatever the year brings, I'm sure there will be surprises, but I hope for my readers there are more of the pleasant kind than the other, and we'll all be here again a year from now. Thank you all, and very best wishes.

Al

It ain't me, babe

 Thanks to my friends Paul and Malcolm for alerting me to a fake Bluesky social media account which is purporting to be me - it isn't. There is also at least one Stephen Baxter impersonator on Bluesky. 

For the record, I'm not on any social media platforms. I used to be able to at least monitor the content of Twitter and Facebook without logging in, but I can't even do that anymore.

White Foxes - Susanne Sundfør

I've gone completely ga-ga for this song and video. It's an old one but Susanne Sundfør wasn't on my radar at all until I heard a collaborative piece by her on the soundtrack to the new Day of the Jackal series. That led me to this piece, which I adore. It's always great to discover a brilliant artist.

The Saints!

 Nice article on the reformed Saints in The Guardian today:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/nov/11/punk-pioneers-the-saints-im-stranded

Galactic Vinyl Memories #13

 I needed to cheer myself up on Wednesday morning, so - thanks to a pre-arranged visit to Cardiff - I did a bit of retail therapy in HMV.

I really like Michael Kiwanuka's music, although this is the first record of his I've bought. I was surprised by how much of it I've recognised on first play. He did a great set at Glastonbury in the summer, and has a new album out now as well.

This is a Khruangbin album. I love Khruangbin! I came to them via a live set that was shown on BBC Wales a couple of years ago after a performance in Cardiff. They're a Texan three-piece. I've no idea how to describe their music other than "groovy". Their wiki page says they blend soul, dub, rock and psychedelia, which sounds about as good a description as any. All three of them are amazing musicians. Two of them wear wigs. I've got a couple of CDs and one other vinyl record by them, but I think this might be a live album. Khruangbin! It means "aeroplane" in Thai.

Suzanne Vega has put out a quartet of records with re-recordings of her songs arranged thematically. I've got the first and third of the set on vinyl, and this is the second. I've been a fan since hearing "Small Blue Thing" on the radio in 1985, and that song still sends shivers down my spine. She's created a fantastic body of work over forty years.

Galactic Vinyl Memories #12

 A two-for-one this time! No connection to the previous record that I can think of, although they certainly stem from a similar period in my listening.

These two records, both of which I'd suggest are now considered "seminal", were bought from a small independent record shop called Rock City in St Andrews, Scotland in October 1989. "Sensual World" was Kate Bush's first significant new release since "Hounds of Love" four years earlier (quite a long time in them there days), while The Blue Nile's second album, "Hats", came five and half years after their debut. That wasn't just quite a long time, that was an eternity. No one took five years between albums back then, not even Tears for Fears.

The second track off "Hats", entitled The Downtown Lights, was, rather fantastically, namechecked by none other than Taylor Swift on her recent album. Apparently this caused such a rush of interest in the long-defunct Scottish band that they quickly sold out of vinyl copies of "Hats". The album itself is a magnificent record and fully the equal of its predecessor, "A Walk Across the Rooftops". I saw them live around the time of the release of their third album.

Kate Bush's album is one of her best, without question, and contains some wonderful songs. It's a smoother, more sumptuous recording than "Hounds..." and none of its moments match the sheer strangeness and newness of parts of that record ... but it's still an absolute banger.

Why are these two albums shown together, beyond the fact that I bought them at the same time? Because they were both released on the same day, October 16th 1989. Talk about an embarrassment of riches!

Galactic Vinyl Memories #11

 I've been having fun with these vinyl posts, so I thought I'd carry on with them for a bit. There's only the most tenuous of links between this record and the preceding one, though: they're both on the Geffen label! Beyond that, you'd be hard-pressed to find an LP that sounds less like Asia than this one.

I bought this album by The Chameleons on the strength of hearing a single on Radio 1 in the early summer of 1986. It was on one of those "juke-box jury" type programs. I don't think anyone liked it very much. I did! It had a great stop-start energy I'd never heard before. Before buying the LP, though, I got the 12" EP which contained the single, "Tears", and two other tracks on the B-side. It's a great EP and I've still got it. Somewhat oddly, none of the tracks feature on the subsequent album, "Strange Times", which was the third by the band, and the only one on Geffen. There is a version of "Tears" on the LP, but it's a completely different, much slower arrangement. I like them both very much. The record as a whole is melodic, guitar-driven indie-rock, with a bit of a goth-adjacent feel. It's got a very raw, live-sounding production by Dave Allen, who also worked with The Cure and Psychedelic Furs, two references which give a very rough indication of the sort of sound on the record. You could also say they sound a little like Joy Division, Echo & The Bunnymen, Magazine, Comsat Angels, The Passions, etc - while being entirely their own thing.

The two preceding albums, which came out in 1983 and 1985, are as equally good as the third. They've got a sort of high-tuned, echoing, wall-of-sound guitar texture which has been much imitated. On "Strange Times", there's less echo (to my ears) and the guitars sound grungier. I like them all. Unfortunately, the band were already dissolving as I got into them. They reformed for another album in 2001, which evolved their sound, but then broke apart again due to internal differences. It's a shame as the music is great, but perhaps it took a particular, combustible chemistry to make it happen. Sadly, the drummer John Lever (who is ferocious on all these recordings) passed away in 2017. I caught the band live on two occasions in the Netherlands and now that two of the remaining members are touring again, I would like to see them one more time.

My vinyl copy of "Strange Times" was bought in Newcastle in the autumn of 1986. I seem to recall that there was a choice of pink or blue covers (and possibly matt or non-matt treatments?). I went for the pink one, and it's still (mostly) in its shrink-wrapping. There are some coffee stains on the sleeve. The record is slightly warped but still plays fine and sounds absolutely epic right down to the last wail of feedback on the final track.