BLOG: Another Year Bites the Dystopian Dust – Onward To 2020!!

My apologies for my absence from here for so long. Health issues and the demands of living have taken their toll, but hey, here I am again, 18 months later…
Much news of note to update, for 2019.
In September, Luna Press published a collection of my short stories, alongside three essays and three new previously unpublished stories as LEARNING MONKEY AND CROCODILE: (with a glorious cover by Yorkshire artist John Cockshaw)

The TOC of LEARNING MONKEY AND CROCODILE is:
Of Hearts and Monkeys. First Published in PostScripts 22/23, 2010.
The Girl Who Called the World. First Published in Fierce Family, 2014 Thandiwe’s Tokoloshe. First Published in African Monsters, 2015.
Five Hundred Photons. First Published in 365 Tomorrows, 2017.
God in The Box. First Published in Interzone 187, 2003.
Bridges. First Published in Albedo One, 40, 2011.
Azania. First Published in AfroSF, 2012.
Lunar Voices (On the Solar Wind). First Published in Redstone Science Fiction, 4, 2010.
African Shadows. First Published in Infinity Plus, 2003.
Mindreader. First Published in Escape Velocity, 2, 2008.
The Paragon of Knowledge. First Published in The Future Fire, 33, 2015.
Case Notes of a Witchdoctor. First Published in The World Science Fiction Blog, 2013.
Dream-Hunter. First Published in Omenana, 6, 2016.
Thirstlands. First Published in Subterfuge, 2008.
The Guardian of the Grain (original to this collection)
A Million Reasons Why (original to this collection)
Beautiful Meat (original to this collection)

The three original non-fiction essays are:
Writing Ourselves and Others – On Writing ‘Diverse’ Characters
The Sticks and Stones of Becoming ‘Disabled’ – Writing while Disabled.
Writing Speculative Fiction for Personal and Socio-Political Change – Writing to Make a Better World.

In November, I edited (along with Prof. Nimisha Patel at the University of East London) a special issue of the Clinical Psychology Forum (323) on RACISM (within clinical psychology). For any interested, free digital copies are available from the British Psychological Society’s website here.

Also in November, Vector, the British Science Fiction Association’s critical magazine, posted my article on South African comics: A personal perspective on South African Comics: From Superheroes to Ordinary heroes

This special issue of Vector (289) has a wealth of fascinating information on AFRICAN SCIENCE FICTION and is well worth a look through, if you can access a copy.

WATER MUST FALL is due for release next year at EasterCon 2020.  (GOH include the mercurial Tade Thompson et al.)

The glorious cover for WATER MUST FALL is by Cape Town artist Vincent Sammy.

The art has already been revealed by my publisher NewCon Press. 

The Cover blurb will be as follows:

IN A DESICCATING WORLD, WHO GETS TO DRINK?
 
The year is 2048. Climate change has brought catastrophe and water has become the most precious commodity on Earth. Water companies play god and determine the fate of millions.
 
In Africa, Graham Mason struggles to come to terms with the changing world and save his marriage to Lizette, who is torn between loyalty to their relationship, and her people.
 
In Northern California, Arthur Green battles to find ways of saving water and root out corruption, even when his family are threatened by those he seeks to expose.
 
Seeking to uncover the truth on two continents, Graham, Liz, and Art are caught up in a new uprising, a desperate attempt to challenge those set on appropriating the world’s remaining water for their own gain. In the FreeFlow Corporation they face a common enemy, but do they have any hope of prevailing – against a power that is so ruthless, and so entrenched?
 
As the planet continues to thirst and slowly perish, will water ever fall?
 

In today’s world, dystopian fiction is redundant. We need fiction for revolutionary change and new hope for the many, not the few (to borrow a recent phrase!) WATER MUST FALL has become even more relevant – set in 2048, it references the Republic of Scotland. Britain has gone, in a puff of BREXIT.

A Luta Continua, as Miriam Makeba sung so many years ago.

To 2020, but first, a tribute to my father, Chip Wood, who died this year. He was an accountant while working, but always wanted to be known as a poet. Here he is, winning a poetry prize only a few years ago. I miss you very much, dad!