The Warm September of My Year

After a glorious summer, things have been returning to normality; there's a rather wistful irony in that I usually find that I experience a spike in writing activity at the moment that my professional, day-job work becomes extremely busy. It always seems thus: at this time of year everyone gets back into the groove after the long and languid summer break, and while it feels counterintuitive that I should find more time to write when work gets busy, that's where we are.

It's been a great week. Last Friday I managed to get to Waterstones in Chichester where there a wonderful joint launch of Bryan Wigmore's The Empyreus Proof, the stupendous follow up to his 2016 debut The Goddess Project; and Naomi Foyle's Stained Light, the concluding part of her acclaimed and popular eco-fantasy series The Gaia Chronicles.

Naomi and I weren't done with each other, though; this Wednesday past she interviewed me about Man O'War on behalf of the British Science Fiction Association. We chatted for an hour about some of things that crop up in the book: sex robots, transhumanism, Marxist revolutionaries, holidays in Sri Lanka, jellyfish recipes, and more. You can watch the whole interview right here.

Over the summer I managed to submit a novella, The Gigantomachy of Antonios Costas, to Tor, and hope to get a response next month. Gigantomachy is an urban mythological fantasy set in an Athens where a huge sinkhole appears. I like to think of it as an urban Indiana Jones-style adventure, with a handful of Umberto Eco-style flourishes.

Next week I'll be in Bremen for work at the International Astronautical Congress, where all the major movers and shakers from the global space sector will be showing off their gear. My colleagues and I have made a snazzy video explaining what I do at work with respect to space robotics. As it seems so pertinent to science fiction, and my work played such an important part in helping to create Man O'War, I'll be posting the video here soon.

Meanwhile, I'm about 80% through Hole In The Sky, and hope to have that completed before Christmas!