Cameron Johnston

So I didn't win the James White Award in the end, but it's still a great thing to have been shortlisted in the first place so I take heart from that. The winning story, 'The Morrigan' by fellow Glasgow Science Fiction Writers' Circle member Stewart Horn is an excellent and well-deserved winner. I'll look forward to seeing it in print in a future edition of Interzone.

As my novel is currently undergoing edits with my agent *waits with both trepidation and eagerness* it’s got me thinking about the process of critique and editing of my work by other people. It’s always a slightly daunting prospect to submit a new piece of writing for the first time, especially if you are asking people to pull it to bits and hold each morsel up to the light to be thoroughly examined. Still, that’s one of the best ways to improve your writing, and when all the dust has settled you will be left with a much-improved piece of writing. But you do need to develop a thicker skin. It may be your darling mind-baby but it’s not personal critique, it’s professional.  The harshest critic is likely be your finest friend when it comes to writing. There’s an important word – Professional. More on that later. When I joined the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers’ Circle back in 2010 (Has it really been so long??) I poked my poor little prose head right into the word-lion’s den ...

It’s been an eventful and exciting month for me on the writing front, a whirlwind of new experiences, nerve-wracking waits and last minute panics (more on this in the very next post). First up we had FantasyCon 2016, FantasyCon by The Sea, in Scarborough at the end of September. It was great catching up with friends from all over and talking books, writing, and nonsense of all sorts. As always happens at these conventions, my best intentions of going to see a wide range of interesting panels goes mostly unfulfilled in favour of talking in the bar. That said, some of the things I did go to included: -Author Miles Cameron (of The Red Knight fame) talking about war logistics, scouting, water supplies, and why Sauron should have waged economic warfare on Gondor to bring it to ruin instead of going for ‘The Big Win’. -Jonathan Oliver, editor-in-chief of Solaris and Abaddon books had a candid and informative talk on the world of agents and publishing and on how much input his authors ...

Celebrating 30 years of the Glasgow Science Fiction Writer's Circle (yes, really, 30! Years!), Thirty Years of Rain is being launched next month. It being the rainy city of Glasgow, we feel it is an entirely appropriate title. Many fine wordsmiths have sat in a circle on a rainy night critiquing stories at the GSFWC before decanting to a nearby pub to buy the poor author a pint to numb the pain. A large number of weird and wonderful stories have been born from that very post-crit pub chat. Many of our members have gone on to have stories and/or novels published professionally, people like Gary Gibson, Hal Duncan, Neil Williamson, William King, Michael Cobley, amongst many others. There will be a book launch at FantasyCon  this year at 3pm on Saturday 24th alongside NewCon Press in the Main Ballroom of The Grand hotel. We will also be holding a more local launch on 30th September in Waterstones Sauchiehall St, in Glasgow at 7pm (details here ) Come along for the launch, ...

The Glasgow SF Writers' Circle 30th anniversary anthology is almost finished! *much excitement and celebration* We have called it Thirty years of Rain, and as anybody living in Scotland can tell you, it's an incredibly apt name. A whole heap of work has gone into this, and some hard decisions too, and I'm so happy with how it has turned out. We have some truly amazing and wonderful, and creepily disturbing stories between the pages from well-known authors, and some old hands and up-and-comers alike. Expect more exciting details soon! :) I'm very happy to be returning to writing my own fiction, but I think I've learned some important things from this, not least polishing of my editorial skills, an improvement that I can hopefully apply to my own writing.

As some of you might know, I am one of the editors for the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers' Circle 30th anniversary anthology. It's been an eye-opener. For the first time I am on the other side of the editorial fence. I'm much more used to submitting fiction and waiting for the inevitable rejections to arrive (Boo! Hiss!), interspersed with the occasional and joyful acceptance email when my stories find the right home. Instead I'm reading my way through other people's submissions and making comments for our other two fine editors. Fortunately we have a group of excellent writers sending us stories so I will miss out on the pleasure of reading outright gibbering bonkers and bad writing that open submission markets must get. It's early days yet but I can reveal that we have already had some really fascinating fiction hitting our inboxes. This anthology project has got me thinking about the role of edi...