So, you know, it’s a quiet holidays - we’re going over to my wife’s sister for the “big meal” and I spent Christmas Eve teasing my daughter about whether Santa Claus would come and whether/when we’d let her open her presents. It sounds cruel but, honestly, she’s vibrating at such a high frequency of excitement over the arrival of the other big fat guy that I’m not sure she noticed. Thankfully the big day is finally here, another 24 hours of delayed present opening and I’m convinced she’d explode.

This has been a remarkably stress free Christmas so far (for me, at least, can’t say the same for my wife), I did my shopping unreasonably early and (thanks to the t’internet) without having to rub shoulders with another human being, and so I’m feeling an unusual sense of deep contentment. I am, in an astonishing number of ways, a lucky man.

I hope everyone out there has a happy, peaceful (well, if not peaceful then at least non-violent) and harmonious Christmas and that the new year brings  you everything you need (and that somewhat approximates to giving you everything you want).

“And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”

My review of the latest issue of F&SF is online now at The Fix, which is nice, though Gordon Van Gelder has already pointed out that I made a mistake - calling Dean Whitlock’s “Changeling” his first public story, when it obviously wasn’t.

Apologies to Mr Van Gelder and Mr Whitlock - fortunately the mistake happened on one of the stories I really liked in the issue, so I don’t feel like I’ve insulted an author twice!

The new BSFA mailing arrived today - unfortunately it’s a little late so some of the material in the newsletter is out-of-date. Still it’s a bumper Vector with loads of reviews and three very good short stories in a sampler from Elastic Press. And for the very first time in a very long time a BSFA mailing has gone out in which there is not one single word written by me… well, except for the newsletter… nothing in the magazines.

Speaking of the BSFA - is there any BSFA member out there (or anyone willing to become a BSFA member) with some web design experience who’d be willing to take on the production duties on MATRIX. Ian Whates has an issue that’s ready to go but we’ve got no one to do the web lay-up. The format from previous issues is already in place so there’s not much in the way of design to do. Come on, step-up, be a volunteer in the BSFA’s happy marching band…

It’s taken much longer than expected, but the shortlist for the BSFA Short Story Competition has finally been agreed and is now online here:

http://www.bsfa.co.uk/bsfa/website/community/default.aspx?g=posts&m=3425&#3425

with a little taster of each story.

It’s a pretty diverse list and the judging was very interesting - I’m writing a piece for the next Focus…

And next yhear, the BSFA (and me) take on the James White Award, so this is just the start.

…better than beating a Tory, it’s beating the Nationalists! Thank you to the people of Glenrothes for making my morning.

…that i hope I can teach my daughter, it’s that she should have faith in her own judgement because too many of her teachers will be idiots.

…I will never buy, it’s a USB endoscope

So, like the rest of the planet I’m enjoying the brief sense of liberation that the election of Barack Obama has brought - we are finally heading back to a world where the worst lunacy’s of the Neo-Cons will be shoved into a darkened box somewhere and forgotten, at least for a while.
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I don’t know which bit of that title has me shitting my pants with excitement more. Read more »

I don’ t do much politics on this site, but as the last surviving member of the Labour Party (alright, it only feels like that sometimes) one of the hardest things to stomach over the last few years is all the stuff about how the party has done nothing to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

Those of us who pay attention to the details of the statistics of these things kept pointing out that apparent lack of movement was an artifact of the time lag between action and the the collection of data.

Well, at last, and probably too late to do this government’s reputation any good, the statistics have started to catch up with the fact that Gordon Brown has overseen the only sustained attempt at using the tax system to achieve redistribution from rich to poor in the history of British politics. For all their other achievements, no Labour government - not Attlee, Wilson or Callaghan - ever attempted anything on the scale of Brown’s effort.

• The amount governments spend on taxation and redistributing wealth across developed countries and in the UK is higher than at any time in history.

• Income poverty - that is, a household with less than half the country’s median income - fell from 10% to 8% in the UK between the mid-90s and 2005
• For the first time since the 1980s, the UK poverty level is well below the OECD average
• The number of children living in poverty fell from 14% to 10% between the mid-90s and 2005 - the second largest fall, behind Italy, during this period. But child poverty rates are still above levels recorded in the mid-70s and 80s

Is the record perfect? No.

Could more be done? Yes.

Would anything like it have happened under the Tories? Would it fuck.

Of course the question is, can it be sustained now that the economies around the world have turned to shit. Well, at least one party would try.

Politics is slow and messy and takes ages - and most of the time, most of the people assume that the achievements happen by magic rather than through long, boring, slogs for justice by people who never make it on to the cover of Hello! But every advance won by working people over the last century has been fought for by organised labour - and for the most part that means it has been delivered by the Labour Party (for all its faults) and opposed by businesses and their mates in the Tory Party.

Anyway, here endeth the lesson.

My latest, despicably late, review at The Fix is online now - it’s a look at the short stories in the PARSEC anthology Triangulations: Taking Flight.

I’ve just sent Niall Harrison an essay on John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War books (for the Vector after next) - it’s the first time I’ve done an essay for Vector (and the first time I’ve done a serious piece of critical writing about a novel since English A Level (when Thatcher was still in power and we took recessions for granted). It was harder than I expected.

On my about page I have added a list of my published fiction including, for the stuff that’s still online, a link directly to the story and, otherwise, to the magazine’s site.

I’ll update it as more stuff gets published and eventually I’ll get around to putting some of the older stories that were in print magazines or defunct webzines on this site (except for “Men of Ulster”, which will never appear anywhere, ever. Let us never speak of it again.)

That is all.

Back from NewCon 4 today - congratulations to everyone involved in a pretty great little convention - Iain Banks, Ken MacLeod, Paul Cornell and Storm Constantine were excellent gohs and Iain Banks in particular seemed in fine form. Add to that an unscheduled, brief but very gracious appearance from Northampton’s most famous son, Alan Moore (who seemed genuinely amazed that there were other people interested in science fiction living in or willing to visit Northampton - though having spent a little time in the town, I think I understand what he means, no offence to any Cobblers out there) plus some good debate, cider, three very different bands on Saturday evening, a BSFA birthday cake (very tasty) and lots of familiar faces (and a chance to put some faces to familiar names - Hello Geoff Nelder!) and the even really exceeded my expectations.

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