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Now in Physical Form for UK readers: Fifty-One

Fifty-One is of course available through various channels – Google Play, Amazon Kindle, and so on.

But I’ve found that I’m embarrassingly old-school: it’s only when I see the actual, physical book – preferably in an actual, physical bookstore, among other lovely books – that I admit to myself the book properly exists.

So I’m really pleased that the book is now properly available in paperback in UK bookshops.

A reminder of what the book’s about:

Jacob Wesson is a timecop from 2040, sent back to 2nd World War London to stop the assassination of Winston Churchill. The assignment plays out with apparent ease, but the jump home goes wrong, stranding Jake in war-ravaged 1944. Jake’s team, including his long-time girlfriend, is desperate to trace him before something else goes wrong.

Stuck in the past, Jake must pull from his training and blend in. He clings to the one familiar face he can find, Amy Jenkins, a war widow whose life he saved during the assignment. Drawn to each other by their loneliness and thrown together amid the terror of war, Jake and Amy look to a future together.

But Jake’s future cannot let him go. And when his bosses finally find him in 1944, Jake faces a terrible choice: risk unraveling the modern world, or let Amy die.

To celebrate this moment when Fifty-One becomes fully available in the non-digital realm in the UK, I thought I’d bring together in one place all the ways you can now get it, should you choose to do so. Take your pick below:

Amazon UK (Kindle or paperback)

Amazon US (Kindle or paperback)

Google Play (ebook)

Waterstones (paperback)

(And, if you’re in the USA, consider doing independent publishing a favour, and ordering from … Filles Vertes Publishing ebook and paperback)

For me, there’s no substitute for finding books in bookstores, so I’ll be giving a plug on here to any stores where I spot it on sale. And look out for a launch event, coming soon, appropriately in a place that features in the story.

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Back to Reality

Goodness, I’ve neglected to keep up to date here. Partly because there have been a lot of trips out of London recently, and by the time I was back home I seemed to need ages to recover. Encroaching age!

My first ever Eastercon was a fascinating experience. Follycon took place in the very grand Majestic Hotel in Harrogate, on the kind of grey and rainy weekend that England has specialised in this winter (and spring).

Continue reading “Back to Reality”

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FOLLYCON EASTER 2018

The weather’s lousy, but spirits Chez Barnham are high as we prepare to set off for the trek north to Follycon, the 69th National British Science Fiction Convention, which this year is in Harrogate.

Having been a science fiction fan for longer than I can remember, I’m ashamed to admit this is my first EasterCon. But I hope to make up for lost time.

As well as meeting people and catching up with what’s going on, I am of course also taking a couple of boxes these beauties – the British paperback release of Fifty-One is here!

Come along to the Dealers’ Room and say hello.

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Heading for the Hills

All this self-promotion for Fifty-One, alongside grafting away at the current work in progress (more on that another time). Well, it gets tiring, and I need to recharge my batteries.

So, I’ll be offline for a few days, walking the latest instalment of England’s South West Coast Path: 630 miles of largely glorious (but often challenging) coastal trail.

I used to dream of doing the whole trail in one go, turning myself into some kind of salty, hermit for six weeks in the wilds. A couple of years ago I accepted that this was never going to happen, and I’ve since been tackling the walk in sections.

2016-07-22 21.12.24I started in Minehead, north Somerset, and headed west, with the sea on my right. Last October I reached St Ives in Cornwall (one of my favourite places in the world). Now, with winter over, I’m heading down to St Ives again to pick up the path and walk round Land’s End.

You can follow my progress on my alter ego’s blog here

When I get back, it’s off to FollyCon. Busy, busy, busy.

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Fifty-One: UK Publication

Of course, Fifty-One has been available on ebook for a few weeks now. And lucky folks in the USA have been able to buy the ravishing paperback.

But there’s nothing like having an actual physical book, available in your local bookshops. So, I’m just a tiny bit excited that the UK paperback is now at the printers, and should be available by Easter.

I certainly hope it is, because I’m planning to take a few boxes up to Harrogate, Yorkshire, for FollyCon – this year’s 69th national British Science Fiction Convention.

Really looking forward to it. If you’re there, come and say hello.

Buy a book!

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Best of British SF 2017 – When I Close My Eyes

It would be exciting enough that a book is coming out, containing the best British science fiction of last year.

But I confess I am beside myself that my story ‘When I Close My Eyes’ has somehow managed to sneak into the book. Where you will find it gazing around in awe at the illustrious company of fantastic writers like Adam Roberts, Eric Brown, Jaine Fenn and Ken MacLeod…  and the list goes on.

The collection is edited again by the marvellous Donna Scott, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. I loved the 2016 collection, and this one looks even better.

You can order it here, from New Con Press. Go on, you know you want to.

The story first appeared in Interzone #271 last summer. It was my ‘hardest’ SF story yet – with a bereaved astronaut trapped by a rockfall in a cave on Titan, encountering some fragile but peskily well-organised Titanian aliens. (He was however helped out by a ghost, so I guess it is not that hard SF!)