[7RQ] New story / New(ish) novel / New podcasts

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WATCHING THE FOOTBALL

Earlier this year, inspired by events in/around North Korea, I wrote a (very!) short piece called WATCHING THE FOOTBALL. It’s a satire, and I guess doesn’t even technically qualify as a short story, so editors didn’t really know what to do with it. But it remains strangely relevant (🤔) so I decided to publish it on Wattpad. You’ll see what I mean when you read it:
https://www.wattpad.com/628784673-watching-the-football

STEALING LIFE

Meanwhile, this week I had to re-read my own decade-old novel — written in 2005, published in 2007, and not looked at again since — in preparation for interviews about the newly revised edition. That was pretty weird, I tell you.

As you can see from the cover, the publisher’s quite up-front about the fact they’re reissuing the book because of the success of ATOMIC BLONDE, and it’s been both amusing and frustrating watching people read and review the book as if it’s brand new. Am I the only person who actively reads indicia pages?

(Then again, one reviewer was astute enough to identify the influence of Harry Harrison’s STAINLESS STEEL RAT books on this story. The Slippery Jim diGriz series was one of my first literary obsessions as a kid, so full marks there.)

Thankfully, STEALING LIFE holds up pretty well…! So if you fancy reading a crime-caper-sci-fi-fantasy-heist-adventure over the holidays, give it a whirl.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/178108520X/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36373683-stealing-life
REVIEWS:
https://strangealliances.wordpress.com/2018/10/31/stealing-life-by-antony-johnston-book-review/
https://paulspicks.blog/2018/10/01/stealing-life-by-antony-johnston/
https://writingandediting2018.wordpress.com/2018/09/21/review-stealing-life/

MAKE ROOMBA

In today’s What Could Possibly Go Wrong news, Roomba is working with Google to make a map of your home layout. Bonanza day for home invaders?
https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/31/18041876/google-irobot-smart-home-spatial-data-mapping-collaboration

SO RANDOM

Time for another round of RANDOM TRIV, where evil game host Erika Ensign makes a bunch of hapless fools (like, um, me) answer questions from, well, randomly selected editions of Trivial Pursuit. Come listen to me proudly display my comprehensive ignorance of all worldly matters:
https://www.theincomparable.com/gameshow/98/

OPEN SEASON ON THE UNDERWORKED AND OVERPAID

Meanwhile, the latest episode of my heavy metal podcast THRASH IT OUT is two hours of me ranting at my long-suffering co-host Brian LeTendre about how brilliant ‘pagan metal’ band Skyclad were at their height, and how it’s a crime that barely anyone knew about them back then, let alone remembers them now.
https://thrashitoutpodcast.com/episodes/4-5

NOV 17-18: WRITERS GAME, DUBLIN

In a couple of weeks I’ll be giving a talk at the Writers Game conference in Dublin, on the importance of working across different media in a modern writer’s career. I’m speaking on Saturday, but I’ll be around for the whole conference (I think I may also be on a panel, but not sure about that yet) so if you're there, do introduce yourself and say hi.

(It seems there wasn't enough time to organise a signing at Big Bang Comics the same weekend, after all. Another day.)
Website: https://writersgame.media/
Tickets: https://writersgame2018dublin.eventbrite.com

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