Geoff Nelder

Geoff Nelder’s guidance notes to short fiction competitors. These notes are the result in my being a short fiction judge in several competitions over the years including the Eros & Rust, and the Whittaker.

Whether it is a subject for art, films, books or poetry sooner or later we are drawn over or under a bridge. They are the subject of international competitions because they link territory and by metaphor, people with their cultural differences.

A few years ago, a gap existed on the bookshelves of readers of science fiction, who also enjoyed reading snippets and arguments of fact (a gap nicely filled these days too by Kalkion) Robert Blevins was playing with the idea of a publishing venture featuring stories of adventure – mainly science fiction, but other genres too along with true-life stories of inspiration.

Are barking dogs just a nuisance? Say that to the five million people bitten each year in the USA where insurance companies pay out a quarter billion dollars each year in claims from dog bites.

The British Government took a decision recently to shut down DI55, a special investigations unit of the Ministry of Defence.

More than one?

At FantasyCon 2009 in Nottingham I was asked to be part of a discussion panel on ‘E-books and Other Wizardry in Future Publishing’.

I am an admirer of Margaret Atwood and her fiction. Sometimes she can be too eager to thrust environmentally-friendly subtext at us, and her narrative in-jokes do not always hit my peculiar funny bone, but her life-stretching characters and literary prowess are a joy.