I helped make a book!

Ops Ed by day, were-writer by night...

I'm really excited right now. I don't really talk on this blog about work - by day I'm an Operations Editor, a sort of levelled-up magazine subeditor. I also freelance for a few other magazines in my spare time, but that's mainly writing and the occasional knitting pattern. The freelance I've been doing longest is science fiction and fantasy book reviews, mainly for SFX, which I've done since the late 1990s, but for brief time I also contributed to Death Ray. Last year author Guy Haley asked me to be one of the contributors to a science fiction encyclopaedia he was editing. I'm not allowed to work for companies apart from my current employer without permission, but as this was a book, not a magazine, my boss said I could do it. Now the book is listed on Amazon, The Sci-Fi Chronicles, and it will be out in October. I am so excited!


There was no way I was going to turn the work down once my boss had given me permission to do it. However, I did have frequent crises of confidence. Many of the other contributors are really experienced people, people much more involved in the world of science fiction. I love it, but I'm no Fan. I don't go to conventions, I don't frequent online forums. I've never written a book. I just read it and watch it for myself, without 'community' involvement. So I had moments when I really thought, "I can't do this! Why did he ask me to do this? Why did I say yes?" However, I'd said I'd do it, Guy believed I could do it or he'd never have offered me the work, and so I did it.

Most of what I wrote about was all perfectly Crinoline Robot - Frankenstein, HG Wells, Un Voyage dans la Lune, pulp publications... I really enjoyed doing it. I can't wait to see the book in print, and am really grateful to Guy for giving me this amazing opportunity. I'll probably witter on more about the book once it's in my sticky mitts, but I couldn't resist bouncing at you about it right now.