There's been a good overview of the growing world-wide interest in - and power of - South African speculative fiction in a Guardian article as revealed here. The S.L. Grey book mentioned, The Mall, is now out in the UK, so please go and buy! (The cover is kindly reproduced here, courtesy of authorial permission).

Welcome back as well to Something Wicked (SW) magazine, which has recently started up again after a hiatus of about a year. Issue 11 of this South African 'zine has just been published and so please have a look online and subscribe to try and ensure this local dark fantasy/SF gem keeps going: (Issue 11 has an interview with both 'halves' of S.L.Grey. I am also pleased to report I have sold Of Hearts and Monkeys to SW as a reprint, which will hopefully make its' South African debut in there towards the end of 2011.)

Congratulations are due to Tom Learmont, who has just had his SF/F book Light Across Time published by Kwela Books in South Africa. Yet another sign of the growing local South African storm gathering, in the speculative fiction scene! Finally, I'm pleased to report my story Lunar Voices (on the Solar Wind), published in Redstone Science Fiction last year is now credited as a pro sale by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA). It has recently been podcast in two episodes #40;#266 - 41 minutes in and #267 - 35 minutes in) by Beam Me Up; episode 1 here. Thanks go out to Paul Cole for doing such a good job on this! Onwards and upwards to African SF/F - and Jonathan Dotse seems to know the way, from Accra in Ghana: http://www.afrocyberpunk.com.

Until, next time, read, listen, write...

Nick Wood - July-September 2011