New Michael Marshall book title

Award winning author Michael Marshall has a new book out later this year. Michael was one of the guests at the Altfiction event in Derby this weekend and those who attended his final session of the day were treated to a reading of the prologue; Mike has just finished the first draft of the book which he has revealed will be called Bad Things.

2000+

Yay, latest stats show viewings have topped the 2000 mark. Have you lot really got nothing better to do? Banks’ Matter related stuff is still getting the most attention but that will no doubt start to fall away now the book is actually out. Damn, now I have to find something else to attract the same level of attention.

Interestingly, to me anyway, is where people are coming from (WordPress stats shows the sites viewers are linking from) and in the case of Mr Banks there’s some attention coming my way from a French SF forum called CafardCosmique.com. No idea what they discuss there, SF presumably, primarily because when I click on the link it takes me to a log in screen and my knowledge of French is sadly so lacking I can’t even begin to go searching for the relevant thread. But I appreciate the interest they’ve shown and if anybody from that forum wants to leave a comment, including French red wine recommendations (which I’ve become more appreciative of in the last year or so - me, crawling, never), please go ahead.

Blog idea

I’ve been thinking over the last couple of weeks about how to move this blog forward in the new year. One of my plans revolves around the film and book listings. Instead of just providing a list (although lists will be retained for easy reference) of what I’ve been watching and reading I’m giving serious consideration to passing comment on them as well; not reams of critique and plot description, just a paragraph or two of my thoughts, along with links to other source material such as IMDB, author and publisher sites, etc.

I’m trying to get a handle on the type of readership I have so let me know if this approach would be of interest, or if you have any other suggestions (preferably constructive) please feel free to comment.

1000+

Checking my blog stats today and the viewing has passed the 1000 point, less than 3 months after I started this blogging lark on 13 July. This total was helped in no small way by the Iain M Banks Matter cover post back on 8 August, which so far has amassed 495 hits and still being read. Most of these are finding their way over from Ariel’s UK SF Book News, so a big thank you to him for that. He’ll probably also insist that the move to WordPress from Blogger is a major contributory factor. Not sure about that but it certainly is a better platform to work with.

These stats reflect only visits to the site and what people are clicking on within the blog, not those reading the posts via feeds, so the total may well be higher.

I haven’t bothered to analyse the rest of the posts for popularity, to do so might make me start to bias the blog towards what I think people want to read, rather than the “whatever I feel like” approach that was my original intention. So expect more of the same and a thank you to all those who have taken the time to read and post comment.

Hello Again!

Ariel suggested I set up a blog. I did so. But it was on Blogger and he was not amused. So now I’m here.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my new blog. Webmaster Ariel has suggested on several occasions I get involved in this lark so you can all blame him. As mentioned in the header description I intend this to be a completely random place, no individual topic will be covered but expect posts on books, films, beer, links to stuff that pique my interest.
The layout will probably change over the next months and more functionality will no doubt be added as I learn more about how this works, but stick with me and please feel free to pass comment, suggestion or constructive criticism as you desire.