Lost is...over..sniff...
Okay, so the sixth season of Lost aired on Monday, and, having watched the penultimate episode only the night before I was primed and ready for it. I'll go into specifics in a second, but let me first up say that I loved the way the show ended. It did everything I needed it to, providing me with emotional highs, closure to the main story arcs and a sense that there was still more I could read into the story, still more I could gather round the water cooler (If I had one) to talk about what it all meant.

After six years and so many sprawling plot lines, it was inevitable that some questions would remain unanswered, but you know what? That's absolutely fine. That's Lost. If everything had been tied in a neat bow, fed to me on a silver spoon, I'd have been disappointed. There's still aspects of the show I don't know and probably never will, and I'm okay with that. What was the golden light, who was Jacob and MiB's mother, what was the deal with Walt? To name a few. But the show's strength was always its characters and the writers and actors imbued them all with real depth and warmth that made me really care about them. I've lived and breathed alongside them on that island, and to see their fates played out before me gave me many moments of triumph along the way. Seeing Claire and Charlie reunited at the concert during Aaron's birth had me blubbing like a little girl, as did Sun and Jin's reveal - even though it included scenes of their death. And Jack's, 'I'll see you in another life, brother,' line in the cave turned me into a wreck.

Watching Jack and Locke brawling on the cliff in the rain was just amazing, with its shades of 300, and the symmetry of so many images throughout the episode spoke of such carefully crafted plotting that I sat in real admiration of J.J. Abrams, Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof and all the other writers. Watching characters I'd grown to love over the six year run of the show meet their fates, grisly or otherwise, was a real treat, and I don't think I've invested in a show as much as I did Lost.

And the ending. Finding out that the Flash Sideways were a kind of celestial waiting room, where all the characters had to find themselves to 'let go' and move on was a stroke of genius, as it made sense of the strange connections established in what I had assumed was a cracked, parallel time line established by the detonation of the hydrogen bomb at the end of Season 5 (which, as it now turns out, clearly didn't go off...). I guess a lot of folk read this as confirming the suspicions many had early on that everyone died in the crash and that the island was some form of Purgatory, but Christian spells it out for Jack, that everyone had to find each other, and that what happened on the island really happened. In a lovely piece of symmetry from the opening episode, we saw Jack lying in the bamboo field, and where we begin with his eye opening, we end with it closing. Perfect. Oh, and the dog lives too. Jerry Bruckheimer would be proud.

So, emotional journeys, wonderful character moments and a sense of closure. I couldn't ask for anything more, though I have to say that I felt kind of sorry for the Man in Black. Yeah, he did some terrible things along the way, but didn't he just want to leave the island after glimpsing the possibility that there was life beyond its shores? Perhaps as Old Smokey he really shouldn't have left...great evil, blah, blah, blah, but perhaps if his mother had just let him go in the first place, all this could have been avoided. Yeah, and if they'd given Gwaihir the Ring there'd have been no trek across Middle Earth. And wouldn't that have been boring? That's what I thought of Lost's finale, what did you think? Genius, dross, not enough answers, satisfying in every way...? Let me know.

Farewell Lost, I'm going back to the Season 1 box set to start again, armed with the knowledge of what's really going on...

Paul Gray
And in other news, I read that Paul Gray, the bassist for Slipknot was found dead on May 24th, which made me pretty sad, as I'm a big fan of the band. Having just watched BBC2's documentary "I'm in a Rock & Roll Band", I've developed a newfound respect for the bass player, the so-called, 'other one'. Often without the fiery charisma of the lead singer, furious noodling of the lead guitarist or pounding aggression of the drummer, they were sort of the quiet ones at the back. There are of course, some obvious exceptions, like Gene Simmons, Geddy Lee, Paul Simonon, Peter 'Hooky' Hook, Steve Harris and, of course, Mark Gibbons. And if you don't know who any of these guys are, Google them now.

So you ignore the bassist at your peril, for a powerful bassline anchors the greatest rock songs. Just look at Ace of Spades. I know Slipknot weren't to everyone's tastes, but when they exploded onto the scene with their self-titled album in 1999, it was like a hand grenade in the midst of bloated stadium bands that shook the world of rock and metal to its core. I equate their impact to that of Nirvana, who did something similar, playing a stripped back rock that was powerful in its simplicity and lo-fi approach to rock. Anyway, this Maggot wishes Paul's soul well wherever it is now. Maybe he's meeting up with Jon Bonham, Keith Moon and Kurt Cobain before moving on...

Cancellations
Don't you hate it when you're just getting into a show and the network pulls the plug? Why is it that dross like Two and a Half Men (A show by Chuck Lorre, whose other work, The Big Bang Theory, I love) and the innumerable cop procedurals get into their tenth seasons and beyond, while shows that demand a bit of investment and eye-on-the-ball smarts get canceled before they have a chance to grow? Shows like Flash Forward, Firefly, Invasion etc... I understand that the American TV landscape is a harsh place, where cut-throat execs roam with their snipping shears of doom, but it seems to me that by canceling shows that don't hit stratospheric numbers of viewers they're actually shooting themselves in the foot.

Now it seems to me that you get a lot of people watching a new show, then there's obviously going to be some drop off from the fly-by-nighters who aren't interested in continuing, but there's a loyal core of fans who get the show and stick with it, loyally tuning in every week to see what happens next. Aren't they the ones you're sticking it to by canceling the show, the ones who stuck with you and put their faith in its potential? It's a rare tv show that gets to choose its time to end. The Wire did it beautifully, BSG did it well, as did Buffy, and as I mentioned above, Lost managed it too. To an extent Angel did it too, though a lot of what went into the ending was a tad rushed and the open-ended charge into the monsters felt a little...unconvincing as a finale. Listening to Joss Whedon's commentary for that final episode, I can see his point that it's representing the fact that the battle against evil never ends, but it still left a sour taste in my mouth, like that explanation was bent to fit how they ended the episode.

Take Flash Forward for example. It started well, and though, admittedly, sagged a tad in the middle - not helped by a mid-season break in a terribly chosen spot - it was picking up pace toward the end and was establishing a nice balance between dangling bemusing threads and answering some of the earlier questions. And then it gets canceled. Arse. We've yet to watch the final episode, though I read that it's been edited and put together in such a way as to provide some element of closure to its multiple plot lines since the show's producers knew they weren't going to get any more episodes. We'll see. And 24, another of my favourite shows, is ending soon too (can I take the trauma of so many cancellations!?). We'll see how they end that in a convincing way, though knowing Jack, it's going to be ridiculously over the top, violent and with plenty of utterances of the word Dammit! Which is just how I want my Jack Bauer.

Right, back to work now, and I promise I'll have something vaguely writing related to talk about next time.

...to the Literary Project, where I was interviewed by the splendid Gemma Noon, who deserves many brownie points for being able to transcribe several, rambling hours of chatter into a coherent blog entry. (You'll need to scroll down to the 14th of May to find me, as I was a bit late in publishing this link...)

And here, to Team Preston's review of the Chapter's Due.

That's it, have a great weekend, and I'll speak to you next week.

Another short one today, because website content doesn't just write itself...

As I may have mentioned once or twice, Empire has been nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award, and the good folk there asked me a few questions about the book and the nomination.

You can find out what I had to say to them by clicking here.

And if you haven't voted for Empire yet (and why not...?) then you can click here and make your voice heard. At least here we shouldn't have a hung vote. Remember to vote for Jon Sullivan too!

Just a short one today, as I'm busy collating information for the shiny new website look and content that's coming your way soon.

As a follow up to my last post about the trip to London for the SFX Summer of SF Reading, the interview I did with the guys is up on the SFX website.

You can read what I've got to say by clicking here.

And you can read the SFX report from the evening by clicking here.

Yesterday I took the train to London’s Piccadilly branch of Waterstones for the launch of SFX’s Summer of SF reading. I found the store with surprising ease, as I normally get all turned around when I get to London and find that each tube station has a dozen different exits. But the gods of metal were with me and I arrived at the store far too early to be cool, but early enough to get this picture of where we were to be doing our signing.

Dan and I shared the table on the left, though we were prepared to knock others from their tables had the need arisen. An eager fan awaits our arrival.

 

By the time everyone turned up and we were ready to go, quite a nice little crowd had gathered, complete with rucksacks bulging with books and curious expressions. We had a fine stable of authors for the fans to pick from; myself, Stephen Hunt, Adam Roberts, China Miéville, Michael Cobley and last, but not least, Sir Dan of Abnett.

The stars come out. Dan and Mrs Dan, Nik Abnett.

 

Then the signings began, and I think I missed my calling as a salesman, as I managed to foist both our books on unsuspecting customers who were just passing and made the schoolboy error of making eye contact with me. It was a fun hour and a half, and lot of people said very nice things about both our books, so it was an evening of Win. At the end of it, I managed to sidle up to China Miéville and blag a signed copy of his latest novel, Kraken – which from the little I read on the way home, looks set to be a fantastic romp.

 

As we were the last to leave the signing area, I nattered away to him, complimenting him on his last novel, The City and the City, and trying not to sound like a dribbling fanboy. As we got our drinks, I mentioned how I’d gotten Evan to roll his first dice as a d20 saving throw for me (against being turned to stone) and he pointed out what a lovely metaphor that was. Evan’s arrival had been an event that saved me from the ossification of aging, an act that had made us young again. And given the TV we’re watching a lot of these days (Timmy Time, Tinga Tinga Tales and 3rd and Bird) I think he’s spot on. It was a cracking moment, and I promised him I’d make mention of it, so for that lovely observation, Mr Miéville, I thank you.

 

Me with China Miéville.

 

Then Dave Bradley of SFX called the panellists to heel to discuss the following conundrum: “Millions of people watch SF on TV and at the cinema – why don’t more people read SF books too?” I stood at the sidelines with Jon Green and watched as the debate unfolded, with everyone making good points with an acuity and articulation that made me glad I wasn’t up there with them, dribbling like a simpering numpty after two large glasses of the free red wine. More than one question came out about the BL/GW connection and my hand went up more than once to reply/refute what had just been asked, but Dave (probably wisely) went to other people for more questions rather than indulge me.

 

Terry Pratchett was there too (just to the right of the pillar), though I didn’t get a chance to do more than say hello to him. He was in fine form and looked like he was enjoying the panelists deliberations.

 

A lot of good points came out of the discussion from panellists and listeners; the merits (or otherwise) of SF cinema and the clear distinction that cinema is a different medium that deals in images and spectacle as opposed to the written form of SF, which is all about ideas. Not to say that they can’t cross over – of course they can – but SF novels can go far deeper than most cinema has the power, time or financial viability to do. Anyone here have any thoughts on the matter…?

 

Dan holds court on the panel.

 

Everyone on the panel acquitted themselves nobly, and though I was a tad intimidated by the idea of being amongst such interesting panelists, I think I could have held my own had I been up there too. Next time. Dave did a great job wrangling everyone, and when it was over, the room broke up into lots of nattering groups pondering upon what had been said. I chatted away to loads of people and was having a great time until I remembered I had a train to catch.

 

A nearby helpful soul told me it was quarter to nine, which was forty minutes before my train was due to leave St. Pancras. Plenty of time, right? Turns out their watch was slow, but by the time that was pointed out to me, it was 21.12 (coincidentally my favourite Rush album), leaving me thirteen minutes to get down six flights of stairs, catch a tube to St. Pancras and haul ass out of the tube station to the platform. Needless to say that didn’t happen, though I was outa there like I stole somethin’. After a bit of jiggery, and indeed, pokery, I found my way home via a different train and half-empty night bus that did a magical mystery tour of the midlands before I finally crashed back into the house at half one in the morning.

 

It had been a long day, but a great one, so thanks to all the guys at SFX; Dave, Ade and Stuart for making it such a great day and making us all feel so welcome. And thanks to everyone who came down for the day; Christos (I’ll be looking for that Look Of Destiny picture soon) Jenni, Jon, Joe, Mark, Simon, Alan, and the authors for coming down and really marking this day as the beginning of the Summer of SF reading.

 

So what are you doing reading this…go get some SF and start reading!

Morning folks, another event for your diaries, another event with too little notice... Oh well. In my defence, I was finishing God King (the last full stop went down yesterday. Now I just have to read the last four chapters with the Red Pen of Doom in  hand) before handing it over to BL. But I digress...

Anyway, if you've a free evening this Monday the 10th of May, come along to the Picadilly branch of Waterstones, where the good people of SFX have arranged An Evening with SFX, which includes an in-store book signing open to all from 5.30pm to 7.00pm. Here you'll see such luminaries as Adam Roberts, China Miéville, Michael Cobley, the Mighty Dan Abnett, Stephen Hunt, and my good self.

And as if that wasn't enough, it's followed by an exclusive, ticket-only function where the fortunate few who win the SFX competition can mingle with all those doing the signing and a few other, "mystery guests". And enjoy drinks and nibbles. This function will also feature a special panel discussion: “Millions of people watch SF on TV and at the cinema – why don’t more people read SF books too?” Panellists include Adam Roberts, China Miéville, Michael Cobley, Dan Abnett and SFX editor Dave Bradley.

You should really try to come along, as the SFX Summer of SFX Reading is a major multi-issue celebration of the best in SF and Fantasy novels, which will be featured in issues 196 (on sale 5 May) to 198. It’s sponsored by Gollancz and includes an ambitious history of the top 100 SF authors and retrospective articles on the work of John Wyndham and William Gibson, plus new author interviews and more. Issue 196 is also guest edited by the legendary Terry Pratchett, and you’ll feel his influence throughout the issue.

So, how do you get your hands on tickets? Simple. Just check the competition here. Just remember that the 5.30-7pm signing is free to come along to, you don't need a ticket!

Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

Graham

Just a quick post today to let you know a few places I’ll be signing over the next couple of weekends. A little late notice, I know, but, hey, I was busy with God King (which has now reached the heady heights of 73,000 words and is pushing towards the endgame).

 

Assuming the volcanic ash from Iceland allows us to get to Scotland, I’ll be at the following locations over the next week:

 

Saturday 17th:

The Argyle St branch of Waterstones in Glasgow between 2pm and 3pm.

 

Sunday 18th:

Conflict Scotland, which is being held at Braehead Curling Rink. I’ll be there most of the day to chat, sign books and hang out, so come along and say hi if you’re going to be there.

 

Saturday 24th:

The West End Branch of Waterstones on Princes Street, Edingburgh between 11am and 12noon. And after that, I’ll be heading to the Student Nationals being held at Heriot Watt University (hopefully for around 2pm, but we’ll see how the transport arrangements work out…).

 

Hope you can make one of those events, and see you north of the border!

Empire for the Legend!

As I may have mentioned in my last post...Empire has been shortlisted for the David Gemmell Legend Award... Well, the Shortlist polls are now open, so I need YOU to click here and vote for Empire. If we rally enough support, we could do something pretty special for the world of tie-in fiction, so get on over to the DGLA website and vote for Empire! Remember that Empire also appears in the Ravenheart Best Fantasy Cover category, so be sure to give Jon Sullivan your vote too!

Eastercon

I went to Eastercon at the beginning of May, and it was a bit of an odd day. For starters, it wasn’t a signing event and I wasn’t particularly down to do anything, so it was an excuse to go as a fan and see what sort of stuff was out there. I got to the Heathrow hotel and met up with BL’s Alex Davis, where we did what most folk do at conventions. We went straight to the bar. Beveraged up, we bumped into Ian Watson and (a few other writerly types that Alex knew) before we met up with Jenni – an editor from Solaris, and Catherine – Alex’s former partner in crime from organising the Altfiction convention (which I’ll be attending later this year…). We had a great natter – including one with a random guy who came up to talk to us about geoengineering and how we could solve the climate change problem by breeding white seals to reflect energy back into the sky…

 

I attended a panel discussion Writers and the web – blogs, Facebook, Twitter Amazon etc. Another BL stalwart, Mark Charan Newton, was on this panel, along with Joe Abercrombie, Maura McHugh and John Meany. I felt a lot of this panel was taken up by John Meany’s painfully unfunny grandstanding and fans using their opportunity to ask questions as a way to talk about how great they were. Despite that, Mark and Joe made some good points about how a writer needs to utilise these new tools at their disposal to achieve real longevity, but how that needs to be tempered by the reality that a writer needs to actually, you know, write… And that the number of folk you’re reaching and being lauded/hated by is – relative to the number of people who read your books – actually very small. Joe’s point about picking your level of involvement and sticking to it was a point that struck home, as was Mark’s that it’s a medium that isn’t going away any time soon and needs to be embraced.

 

I embrace it in a cautious way, using my blog to chat to my readers and let them know where I’ll be, what I’m up to or any other random bits and pieces I fancy writing down. I loathe Facebook, though will probably have to create a fan page at some point, as too many people have told me ways in which I can make that work for me, as opposed to having it dictate to me how often I do things with it. I had a Facebook page when I first went freelance, but found it quickly came to dominate my inbox, prompting me to be back checking it so often that days went by without any work of real substance getting done. That got deleted sharpish.

 

Later I buckled and got a Twitter account, which lasted all of a couple of weeks, as I realised I wasn’t writing anything I thought was even vaguely interesting. I mean, why would folk care about this tiny snippet of ephemera I’m posting about what sandwich I had for lunch? I know it’s a useful tool, but I always feel like I’m skiving if I write a blog entry/tweet/Facebook update. I sweat and think that I should be creating, propelling the latest novel to its thrilling climax instead of wittering on about something else (or, in this case, wittering on about wittering on…). I’m gradually coming round to the idea that this is part of my job too, but that my main job, the one that pays the bills, and buys travel cots etc is writing novels. I’m an author and that’s what I do. It’s what I need to do if I want to stay an author without feeling like a fraud.

 

Like all things, I think there’s a happy middle ground where 90% of my time is writing books, and the rest is divided up between doing signings, blogging and other bits and bobs connected to my work. The little and often pattern of blogging seems to work for me (this post excepted) so I’ll keep that up more. Anyway, back to Eastercon…

 

So, with that panel over, I went to Swordplay for Writers, hosted by the magnificently named, Mr Killbane. To my mind, this was an over-earnest discussion where someone who knew a lot about swords tried to tell us the history of swords, rather than anything to do with how to make the people who use them in our books more realistic. I imagine him sitting in front of the tv shouting that you’d never use a hand and a half sword like that, or that it’s completely unrealistic to show a five foot man with a two handed sword in one hand and a magic wand in the other. Still, there were some cool swords to touch and swing around, so it was fun in that regard.

 

With those panels done (the only two I really had time for) I wandered to the Dealers’ Room, where – after Alex told me he’d spent £200 the weekend before at World Horror Con – I had high hopes of acquiring something cool. By accident I’d taken £300 from a cash machine at Heathrow, so was worried I might blow the lot. It turned out that my money was quite safe, as this room was a massive disappointment. It looked like the various dealers had just emptied their basements and attics of all the second/third/fourth hand books they could find and tried to flog them on from soggy cardboard boxes. Absolutely nothing tempted me, so I left with my wad of money unbroken and went back to the bar. I bumped into Alex briefly, but didn’t stay too long after that, as there wasn’t a lot else to see or do that appealed to me, and I had a three hour journey back home.

 

So, was Eastercon worth it? As a one day visit, I’d say not for me, but I think that’s a function of my level of involvement more than any failing of the con. Being there for a few hours is no way to get the best out of a convention; you need to be there for the weekend (at least) and probably go with some pals, or know folk there. I got the impression that plenty of people there were regulars at these conventions and that by attending lots of them regularly, you’d get an exponential amount of enjoyment back out it. Sadly, I can’t make that kind of commitment, so will have to look at events like this as fun things to do if I can, but not as anything I think I’ll get to regularly. Though, having said that, Eastercon is in Birmingham next year, so perhaps I could be there for longer and make more of a day/weekend of it.

Stuff

In other news, Iron Warrior is selling well and, as I write this, there are thirteen copies left, so if you want to get one for the very reasonable price of £30 instead of the no doubt astronomical prices you’ll be charged on ebay once they’re all gone, get on over to Black Library to pick up a copy.

 

In short, loving the new Doctor Who. David Tennant left some big shoes to fill, but Matt Smith is doing a bang up job of making the role his own. And Karen Gillan is just cute. And Scottish, so it’s Win Win.

 

In Guilty Pleasure Corner, we’ve been watching Pineapple Dance Studios, where the runaway star is Louie Spence and his outrageously camp performance. I say performance, but I suspect (and hope) that’s who he really is, as it’s tremendous fun to watch. The whole studio looks like it’d be a fun place to work, though you’d have to be okay with days where you got absolutely nothing done. On this week’s show there was a guy from Nottingham who wanted to run a sword fighting course at the studio, and the moment I heard where he was from I cringed, just knowing that the show was going to take great relish in showing that he liked to play toy soldiers and read lots of fantasy books. Sure enough, the camera pans along a line of Death Guard Terminators, an unpainted Fire Warrior and a shelf stocked with fantasy novels, vampire books and so on. Hell, those could have been my shelves! The trouble was, he appeared to take himself far too seriously, and when Louie started taking the mick out of his proposed class, you could see he wasn’t happy about it. I’ve long since made peace with my geekiness and wear it as a badge of honour, though this guy, as much as I’m sure he’s a lovely guy in person, came across like the worst stereotype of fantasy fan imaginable. Still, we got to see some 40K miniatures on tv, so it’s not all bad.

 

Right, that’s enough for one morning. As I mentioned earlier, a writer’s job is to write, so I best get doing some of that then. I’ve a tribe of the Empire to destroy. Speaking of which, did I mention that Empire needs YOUR vote in the Gemmell Awards? Click here to go and vote for it!