Last weekend Del and I held our post apocalyptic party, which centered on our wedding vow renewal ceremony. Our very dear friend, Sam Moffat, acted as officiant and organised the most incredible ceremony. Sam had secretly contacted a number of our closest writer friends and asked them to give a short reading on the post apocalyptic theme. Listening to the readings, I was overwhelmed by this gift of words. Sam collected all of the pieces for us to keep, which means we can read them again and again. We also had some very touching messages in the form of the notes that were added to our original hand fasting willow circlet. Sam brought Scarlet into the circle of stones (collected from the beach – again, I loved the significance of this) and both of them bound Del and me together, for the next ten years and way beyond that! And then it was time to party. I’d say its pretty common knowledge that Del and me enjoy a drink or several, rock music turned up high, and having our friends help celebrate with us. Much happy madness ensued – dancing, karaoke, cavorting, a fire dance, spontaneous fire breathing, slightly soggy camping, bad hangovers, Sunday dinner and then the clear up. A truly wonderful night.

It’s certainly been a year of celebration so far. April saw me turn 40, which didn’t bother me anywhere near as much as it perhaps should have – I suspect because I always like the idea of fresh starts and turning over a new leaf and all that jazz. April was also packed full of writing events, including Eastercon and Alt Fiction. Eastercon was tremendous fun, if a little nerve-racking as my novel Cyber Circus was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Best Novel award. I was very happy to lose to the inimitable Christopher Priest and The Islanders, and I thought Chris’s speech was wonderfully witty. Eastercon also gave me the opportunity to spend panel time with two authors I admire greatly – Gail Carriger, author of The Parasol Protectorate Series, and Genevieve Valentine, author of Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti. One short week later, I was among the wonderful crowd of fellow creatives at Alt Fiction. The new venue in Leicester was great and I had a really lovely day meeting fellow writers through my Steampunk workshop. I also enjoyed taking part in the panel on Science Fiction and listening to my fellow panellists – what a fab bunch!

While I’m delighted that my YA novella, Queen Rat, has been well received, I’ve been knocked for six by the reactions to Cyber Circus. Last week I heard the fantastic news that the novel has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel. I can’t begin to explain how happy this has made me – surely knowing that folk liked your novel enough to vote for it is the best reward there is? I am doubly delighted because my work has always straddled SF and Dark Fantasy and this nomination recognises that tendency. I’m overwhelmed by my fellow nominees and am just looking forward to an amazing con in Brighton in September and having my name read out alongside theirs.

And what about the rest of the year? I’m thrilled to have been asked to take part in the ‘Worlds of Tomorrow’ YA event at Foyles on the 22^nd May. The panel is hosted by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre, features Moira Young, Steve Cole and myself, and is presented in association with the Society of Authors and the Kitschies Awards. I can’t wait!

After the Foyles event I am locking myself away in the writing dungeon to work on my new YA novel. I will be surfacing though for Fantasycon in September and Bristolcon in October, where I am very pleased to be interviewing Guest of Honour Gareth L. Powell. I will be sneaking out a few stories too. My story, ‘The Island of Peter Pandora’ – influenced by Peter Pan and The Island of Doctor Morea – appears in Resurrection Engines: Sixteen Extraordinary Tales of Scientific Romance, which is released from Snowbooks at the end of June. In the same month, Newcon Press are releasing their new anthology of ghost stories called Hauntings, and which features my short story ‘Dark Peak’. Later in the year, I have another ghost story coming out. ‘Field of the Dead’ appears in The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women, released by Constable & Robinson. I do have a soft spot for ghost stories!

But while I am busy tucking myself away to write, I’m always aware that it is good to have other interests outside of work. I have loved doing narration for Starship Sofa over the past few months and have been lucky enough to read some amazing stories. Scarlet and I have also been enjoying having Del working in the midlands and coming home every evening. It is so great to be able to function like normal human beings…well, as best we can! And we have a wedding to look forward to! Our wonderful celebrant, Sam Moffat, is marrying writer, reviewer and Arthur C. Clarke Award judge Paul Skevington in August. Scarlet is a flower girl, Del is best man and I am Maid of Honour – and it is indeed an honour to be included so much in this special day. Now I just have to get that hen night organised…good job I enjoy a good party

‘Ken Russel’s series of documentary “Teddy Girl” photographs were published in Picture Post magazine in the summer of 1955′

Researchers have built a new super-small “nanodragster” that improves on prior nanocar designs and could speed up efforts to craft molecular machines.

“We made a new version of a nanocar that looks like a dragster,” said James Tour, a chemist at Rice University who was involved in the research. “It has smaller front wheels on a shorter axle and bigger back wheels on a longer axle.”

http://www.livescience.com/8019-world-smallest-hot-rod-nanotechnology.html

http://static.feber.se/article_images/12/51/31/125131_940.jpg

Alien Skull Garden Ornament

http://www.mirabilisdesign.co.uk/skull/product_small_alien_skull.html

For my fellow introverts – TED Talk on Introversy.’

It’s hard to believe the mind is such a powerful thing. I don’t mean that in some self-congratulatory, “I am Girl Genius” kind of way. No, I’m talking about the phenomenal power of the sub-conscious over every aspect of our lives. Up until three years ago I could never have believed the mind was truly capable of affecting the human body quite so completely. To me, the rules were simple – eat well, exercise, drink in moderation, don’t smoke (I failed on that one) – and all will be well. I hadn’t accounted for the fact that stress is like a cancer; it creeps up on you and, before you know it, has spread through every aspect of your life – and, as it turns out, your body. The weird thing is sometimes you don’t even know you are stressed.

When I say ‘you’ I do in fact mean me, of course. My symptoms were numerable – lights in the eyes, dizziness, muscle weakness, visible and internal twitching, muscle spasms, numbness, and the most horrible feeling that my head was too heavy for my neck. The obvious diagnosis was MS but tests revealed none of the normal indicators of the disease. Instead, I was eventually diagnosed with endometriosis, macular degeneration, and yep, you guessed it, something along the lines of a psychosomatic disorder (I love how that term starts with ‘psycho’).

Looking back now, it’s hard for me to begin to process how that explanation made me feel. Confused, angry, weak, insane. How could my mind turn on my body like that? I had always considered myself a very peaceful, rational kind of person. Were the experts really saying it was all in my mind?

In reality, I was calm on the exterior, but like the proverbial swan on a mill pond, my legs were peddling like hell beneath the surface. I won’t bore you with the details of what caused the stress, only that it was accumulative and as I put it to a friend once, “There was no one big thing.”

Ever so slowly, I have seen my nervous disorder start to abate. Sure, it comes back with a vengeance whenever I am a little anxious, but very gradually my health has improved. Over the last few months this has been in no small degree due to the fact that my husband, Del, has been working in the midlands and coming home every night. After living apart during the week for nearly 8 years, it had never occurred to me that I might like a little company, that maybe my mind was crying out for it.

So, why am I telling you all this? I guess because the role of the writer is a solitary one which involves long stints sat at a desk or in a chair, where days blur into nights and nights blur into days, and without the need to ever step outside of the house. My point here is to beg you all to think about the health of not only your body, but also your mind. Find mechanisms to de-stress – get a little fresh air into your lungs, drink that glass of wine in good company, dance in your kitchen, lie out in the sun – and remember while it is the little things that can make us ill, it is also the little things that can make us better.

DERWENT, DERBYSHIRE

Drowned Church in Derwent Valley – part of my research for a new ghost story called ‘Dark Peak’. Click on the image to watch the video.

The illustrations of one of my favourite artists, Alexander Jansson. His enchanting ‘greenpunk’ series opens the casement onto all manner of wild woods and weird worlds.