Alastair Reynolds's Blog, page 11

 I haven't posted any art here for a very long while, but I did splash some paint around over Christmas. Here is the result. Not quite sure if it's finished yet, but I'll certainly put it aside for the time being before revisiting with a fresh eye. Acrylic ink on untreated canvas board.

 Unquestionably that is not how you want a world championship to be decided. The procedure at the end was irregular and Mercedes are right to be feel aggrieved. Ordinarily Lewis Hamilton (who was far more gracious in defeat at the end of the season than Max Verstappen was on last week's podium, when he flounced off) would have won under the anticlimactic condition of a safety-car finish. However, Mercedes should cease with their challenges against the result and just accept what has happened. Ve...

I liked the album this is off very much when it came out, but it's only since putting it on my running MP3 (at my pace, it's just right for a 5k) that it's really revealed its secrets to me. This song contains the late Edwin Morgan's wonderful recital of his poem "Scottish Fiction", worth - as they say - the price of admission.

 With the Omicron variant spreading rapidly, there's an understandable push to press on with the booster jab program. I've been waiting for my call-up for weeks, so I was relieved to get a text advising me that slots were available at my local vaccination clinic. I called the number and was arranged a time and date to get my booster. When I arrived, however, they had no record of my booking. Apparently this wasn't the first time that day that the third-party call centre handling the bookings had...

 Copies of "Belladonna Nights And Other Stories" have reached me, and it's a beautiful-looking item. Aside from the cover, which takes its inspiration from the title piece, Marc Simonetti has also done a lovely illustration for the end papers, inspired by the story "Night Passage". It's a privilege to have my stories collected so handsomely, and of course always a pleasure to continue my association with Subterranean Press.

I talked about the book a bit more back in May:

http://approachingpavonis....

Pictures taken at Thiepval, 2006.

 Last week I completed the first set of revisions on Eversion, and the novel (now around 85,000 words) has now gone back to my editor. If all goes smoothly, there will be one more round of edits then the book will go into production for 2022. A few weeks before that, I also finished a novelette which I've submitted to the marketplace.

Unavoidable production delays have pushed back the Belladonna Nights collection a little, but it should be with us soon. It's a difficult time in publishing with su...

 I was on Radio 4's Today program earlier this morning talking about Dune, both the book and its various adaptations. You can catch me just after 8.20 (2 hrs 20 into the program):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0010ptv

It may be necessary to register for the BBC website.

 If you're still after a signed first edition of Inhibitor Phase, keep an eye on Goldsboro Books. Here I am signing copies which will shortly go back to them.

https://www.goldsborobooks.com/