Authors Electric

I grew up writing fantasy. I say that literally – I wrote my first novel aged 15, and by 18 or so, I was well into a fantasy novel. I remember at about age 10 or 11, finding a paperback of Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land on the bookshelf of a family friend; I borrowed it and I was hooked. That and a passage from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in English at primary school gave me a love of everything fantasy and science fiction, and in my teenage years I worked my way through all of Heinlein, Wyndham and most of the Robert Hale yellow-covered hardbacks in the library.  My first short story sale was fantasy. Fairly mainstream fantasy that was ‘normal’ enough for Bella magazine in the early 1990s. Most of my short stories after that ranged from outright horror, through dark fantasy and into science fiction – I have a collection of stories available in Maniac & Other Stories . The lead title story is the one from Bella magazine. It won second prize in their twist ...

 June is Crime Reading Month! The Crime Writers' Association has joined forces with The Reading Agency to promote it. There are lots of events up and down the country and you can find out more by going to  crimereading.com  . It's seventy years since The CWA was created so there's plenty to do. And of course, I've arranged something too. This is the perfect time to launch Murder In Merton: Crime Writing Events. First up, this coming Saturday 10th June 2-4pm at West Barnes Library, we have a Crime Authors Fair. With Sarah Clarke, Lucy Martin, Biba Pearce, Amer Anwar, Alex Khan and ML Rose. The authors will be free to chat with readers, with a more formal talk from Amer Anwar at 3pm. Books will be available to buy and there will be refreshments at a small cost. Entry is FREE and no booking is required. There will be a competition too! On Tuesday 20th June 7-8.15pm at Wimbledon Library, I'll be interviewing Robert Gold, Olivia Kiernan and Saima Mir about their latest n...