Munchkin's Mind
A blog to track the scribblings of Brian M. Milton
Thursday, 31 January 2019
A face for radio
Tuesday, 11 December 2018
2018: The Year of Distractions
I hope you like them too.
My resolution, as much as you can make one, for next year is to mandate writing time and stop making excuses.
Tuesday, 12 December 2017
2017: The Year of the Step Up
Firstly, I have a new story out. Yay! Normally at this time of year I do a review of the year and post up an old story for you. But today I happen to have a new story out from the wonderful people at Fireside Fiction. It's called Rab the Giant and Witch of the Waterfall and it is available to read for free here right now. It's a wee story about the monsters of yore and how they get on in the modern world. It features cake.
Go, enjoy, I'll see you later if you feel the urge to come back for more of my drivel.
...
Oh, hello, thanks for coming back. Hope you liked it. If you did, please do consider chipping some money towards Fireside to help cover their costs. It all helps towards them providing more and better stories.
I've been attending story telling events of late and a lot of their stories are traditional fairy tale type stories. They all start wth 'Once upon a time' and have a moral and this was my attempt to do something similar. With luck and some insightful critiques from the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle I'm feel I've got a fair way towards that.
Also, did you see the illustration they gave my story? How flipping wonderous is that? By Marianne Khalil and I'm not sure I can quite express how awed and overjoyed I am to look upon it.
Anyway, now that I've calmed down from my great excitement let's turn to my more normal end of year review thingy.
Until quite recently it was looking like a quiet year. I had a story out in KZine way back in January but there has been a wee flurry recently. Obviously there is this new story out but I've also been told another three have been accepted for publication. A flash piece on the dangers of ancient technology, a bit of far future action with musings on memory and a second story to Fireside featuring a university library janitor and his talking cat.
Expect to get spammed by me when those appear, hopefully next year.
Another thing of note is that back in October I celebrated five years since my first publication. That was The Greatest Rocketman, published by Sein und Werden and you can read it here as a previous year's Christmas present story. As such I thought I'd do a wee roundup of how those five years have gone, with a graph (ooo).
Mostly what this graph shows is that I hate Microsoft's Excel and can't get it to do what I want, but it does also show that, after my best year for number of publications in 2013, I only just got away without a complete Granny in 2014.
This being a good reminder to myself that one good year does not mean that the next will be similar. Those laurels must remain un-rested-upon.
Still, if, five years ago, you'd told me I'd have seen this much success with my wee writing hobby I'd have laughed right in your face. If you suggest I might even do similar in the next five years I will still laugh in your face.
Any roads, thanks to everyone who has helped me by reading or critiquing or publishing my nonsense. You're all lovely people.
Thursday, 10 August 2017
Writing on the shoulders of giants
I've sold a story!
Very pleased to be able to say that Fireside Fiction have bought a story from me called Rab the giant versus the witch of the waterfall. They have an announcement here
It's a modern fairy tale featuring giants and witches (obvs) and is silly. I hope you like it when they publish it.
I'm pleased for many reasons. They are good people with a politics I like. They publish wonderful stories. It's a fun, daft story which makes me smile. And they pay at a professional level.
Payment is always nice, exposure gets you arrested, but there is a definition by the SFWA of what counts as a professional pay scale and this is the first time I have sold at that level. Normally it's a token fiver and a comp copy, which is always appreciated, but for someone to like something enough to pay the pro rate is such a wonderful boost and write the shock.
Probably the only time I'll make this level but, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be smug about it for a bit.
Wednesday, 25 January 2017
It's always colder in your memory
Sorry if it comes over as a bit too topical at present.
Tuesday, 13 December 2016
2016: The Year we'd mostly like to forget.
That said, there has been the odd nice thing this year. I got engaged for one.
via GIPHY
Another nice thing was my writing. It has been very patchy this year with the muse coming on me in fits and starts but I did get three stories published.
First, in January was The Past Does Not Watch Over Us, a story of science, General Relativity and willful stupidity. That can be found in The Speculative Book
Next up in May was More Certainty In Your Shopping, a story of how to cope with the apocalypse while not believing everything supermarkets tell you. It can be found in Kzine Issue 15
Then, in September the Glasgow Science Fiction Writer's Circle celebrated their thirtieth anniversary with their anthology Thirty Years of Rain I managed to sneak a wee collection of passive aggressive letters into it under the title of The Lodger.
I'm deeply happy with all of these.
I also had a great time at conventions (waffling about writing rather than doing it, obviously) and even had a couple of reading occasions which were great fun, if nerve-wracking.
Looking forward, next year is due to start brightly as I have a new winter story coming out in KZine in January. Have no fear, I'll annoy you about it when it does.
Beyond that the aim is to keep on keeping on. I have a first draft novel roughly three quarters done that needs finished and several stories I'm hawking around the place so here's hoping that I can find the time for them.
I'll also be going to Worldcon in Finland and must say I am very much looking forward to it. A place I've never been.
As is now tradition I've added a new story to the blog for you to read. It's a story of fairy cakes called Unexpected Visitors that I got published a few years back and if you've not seen it before it can be read here. It includes a free recipe for some very nice cakes.
I hope you all have a good festive period and an improving New Year.
Monday, 29 August 2016
Thirty Years of Glaswegian Story Building
UPDATE: Now available from here; Lulu shop page and Amazon print edition and Kindle edition
Did you know that the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle was started thirty years ago? Well now you do.
Off the back of a writing course run by Duncan Lunan a small group began to meet regularly to critique each other's work and encourage one and all to better and bolder things.
Also to go the pub, but that was a minor part.
Well, not the main part.
Well, not the only part.
OK, so mostly there was a lot of sitting in pubs talking about the state of genre fiction, but also occasionally writing was worked on and eventually people got published. Very good people.
People such as Gary Gibson, Hal Duncan, Neil Williamson, William King, Michael Cobley amongst many others.
I first popped along in the mid-Nineties and spent a lot of time feeling hugely inadequeate, before running away to Englandshire and letting all that sort of thing lapse. But, on my return to Glasgow I took up the pen again and eventually returend to the circle, who have been nothing but encouraging as I show them my scribblings. Without their help I would never have had any of my stories published
To celebrate their milestone the Circle are bringing out an anthology with thirty stories by people who have been at the circle over the years. It's called Thirty Years of Rain (it is Glasgow based after all) and the glorious cover graces the top of the page.
I'll post links to it as they appear but there is a launch on the Saturday of Fantasycon in Scarborough this year (three o'clock on Saturday with Newcon if I remember rightly) and on the 30th of September at the Sauchiehall Street Waterstones in our own rainy Glasgow.
Details are here
Do please come along, meet some of the brilliant people who are in the book and maybe even buy a copy. We'll probably go to the pub afterwards.
And yes, I am in it, with a wee short about refugees that, if you ever think my mind has slipped its moorings, this will only add to the evidence. It's silly.
By way of getting your imagination off on completely the wrong foot here is a Pulp-O-Mizer cover that is totally misleading about the story.