More news from Abaddon

Abaddon Books, publishers of my Pax Britannia series, have more news regarding releases from their imprint for this autumn and next year.

Click the following link to find out more about Arrowhead and The Light of Heaven.

The Big Science Read

The Oscars seemed to pass by this year with less of a bang than a whimper and now Britain is celebrated unprecedented medal success at the Olympics but, you'll be pleased to hear that once the dust from Beijing 2008 settles, there is still another awards ceremony to look forward to.

Launched at Jodrell Bank’s literary weekend, 13th - 14th June 2008, the Big Science Read is a campaign that invites you to explore, re-discover and get excited about science-themed books. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite science-themed read - any book that you have found life-changing, inspirational or revelatory in some way. The book can be either factual or fictional in genre, as long as it explores science or technology as a core theme.

Now, none of my science fiction novels appear on the recommended list (as yet) but it could be argued that the Pax Britannia series deals with some modern scientific and technological issues and certainly the first story arc is driven by a certain scientific discovery. So, in theory at least, you could vote for Unnatural History or Leviathan Rising to be on the final shortlist. ;-)

To find out more about the Big Science Read, follow this link.

A Steampunk Superhero

If you're anything like me, then from time to time you've thought that it would be fun to create your own superhero. Well, now you can - at the click of a mouse.

.

If you head over to ugo.com you can try out their HeroMachine 2.5 software. You can choose the pose of your character, gender, hairstyle, companion, costume... pretty much everything!
.

So, in part inspired by the new Batman movie The Dark Knight and in part inspired by my preparations for the next Pax Britannia novel (that's the one after Human Nature), I would like to present Spring-Heeled Jack, a steampunk superhero.

But in all seriousness, I could see a tool like this proving very useful when it comes to creating new characters. You simply design their look using HeroMachine, print it out and then you have a consistent image to refer back to during the writing process. I know it will help me, certainly.