Just a Taste

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“What I’m thinking,” said Carlisle to the barman, “is that you’re a thief.” The barman blinked at her.  “Say what?” “Because I know a thief when I see one,” she said, her words slurring just a little.  She leaned forward over the bar.  “Serious…  Seriously?  Twenty bucks for a shot of Jack is theft.” “You could drink somewhere else,” said the barman.  “Free country.” Carlisle gave a long, lazy smile.  “Free country.”  Only bar in this town.  If you can call it a town.  She’d heard of three-horse towns, and this place was two horses short.  No one else was in the bar tonight, the broken down old jukebox spitting out the same two songs on repeat.  She’d had about as much Johnny Cash as she could take.  The door to the bar opened behind her, and she felt a Read More …

Looking Up

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I started a new job this week.  It’s outstanding. Other than that, the company gave me a new phone.  Not some shitty hand-me-down: a top spec Nokia 930. It’s wizard. I dunno.  I’ve been using iPhones for so long, and pretty happy with them — right up to when I got this thing.  The 930 is a work of art, it’s fast, the apps are brilliant, the keyboard is superb, the camera is like technology only aliens from outer space should possess.  And now when I go back to trying to use my “old” 5S, it feels … faded. Yeah.  I might be a convert.

The Perfect Waffle

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This isn’t my usual fare, I know.  Look at it like a little something extra. One part of my Christmas haul this year was a waffle iron.  Little Breville unit, looks like a flying saucer with a temperature gauge.  It came with a collection of almost useless waffle recipes, so the hunt began for the perfect waffle. I picked up Primal Cravings from the guys over at Health Bent.  This has a pretty good waffle recipe, but it’s not a perfect recipe — I found it a little … chunky.  It didn’t spread like a good batter should — gluten’s good for something, right? Enter the Family-Favourite Oatmeal recipe.  This thing would be close to perfect except for the use of a megaton of carbohydrate, which isn’t really the way I like to start the day.  But man, it smells like the tears of Read More …

Seeing the Future

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A friend just flicked me through the CityLIFE Architectural Challenge winners. It’s a bit Upgrade-ish, you know?  The first one especially.  Please click to enjoy.  

2014’s a Wrap

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The king is dead — long live the king. And by, “king,” I mean 2015.  We got a new year — different number and everything.  This only happens once a year. What’s that mean for yours truly? I’ve started work on Boundless, which is a different pace and texture to my previous two books.  I’m enjoying it so far, but am wrestling with a nagging feeling that I should really be working on Night’s Favour’s sequel Night’s Fall (or even Lost Children, the sequel to Upgrade).  The plan has been to sequence them in that order — Night’s Favour, Upgrade, Boundless, Night’s Fall, and Lost Children — but I really like those first two stories and want to go back.  Decisions, decisions. Me and SpecFic have parted ways, insomuch as I’ve stopped paying my dues.  This isn’t really an emotional thing — those Read More …

Re-Imagining Wonder Woman

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If you’ve read my work, you know I dig strong female characters. I don’t even know why I have to put “strong” in there.  It’s like it’s a special class of alien life form that people are unfamiliar with.  Possibly this is because we’re always assaulted by the wrong side of stereotypes.  And there’s no bigger stereotype than the large-breasted, bikini-wearing Diana Price (Wonder Woman).  There’s no way that DC would let me at their property, but let’s pretend they wanted me to re-imagine their iconic demigod. Head off and do an Internet search on Wonder Woman.  Just for fun, do an image search.  Try and find me a decent picture of her wearing something practical.  It’s pretty tricky. If I took over writing Wonder Woman, let’s say someone at DC does some acid and signs me on, I’d make her the Read More …

Sometimes Stuff Is Cool

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Today I bring you: Skype. Wait, what? No, not your usual Skype: this is the new Skype Translator. Seriously, aliens are here, they live amongst us, and a significant percentage hold R&D positions at Microsoft.

How To Find The Right Tombs

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We had a sort of argument over lunch about whether Tomb Raider was a good game or not. This isn’t actually up for debate. 2013’s reboot of the francise was brilliant, the Internet loved it, and as we know, the Internet is the source of all correct opinion on our little blue-green Earth. Despite this, we had the argument because people got confused about what we were talking about.  Why were some of us confused? Seems there’s a game coming out today/tomorrow, involving Lara, and tombs. You could be forgiven for thinking that this was a Tomb Raider game, but it’s actually a Lara Croft game. Wait, what? Here, let me break it down for you. The good games are all called “Tomb Raider” (or derivative now). You’ve got the excellent Tomb Raider from last year, re-released in Definitive Addition Read More …

Unleash the Horde

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Once again, dawn comes to an awards ceremony. The Sir Julius Vogel awards are a live-fire exercise.  You can nominate as many humans as you’d like, but as with last year, I’m really interested in you nominating me.  I got shortlisted last year, which was superb!  I didn’t win, which was made slightly less sucky by the excellent Freya Robertson picking up the prize instead. If you want to nominate Upgrade, and I’m hoping you do, click this handy link: [RIGHTEOUS NOMINATION] Very important: make sure you correctly update your contact details towards the end of the email.  Otherwise, we’ll all look like dicks.