The recent release of Stories, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio has upset my balance – again. Look, don’t get me wrong, I like short stories. I read Stephen King’s short story collection Night Shift a long time ago (probably the eighties) and there are stories in there that still give me the willies. You’ll probably recognize some of them, as several movies came out of them. What makes me smile a little is the fact that most of them were published first in ‘mens magazines’ which, as we’re talking about the ‘70s doesn’t mean Men’s Health but Cavalier...

You may or may not know who Ray Bradbury is, fair enough. But for me he’s one of the most influential authors of the last century — and he’s still going strong at 89. I was reminded of Ray Bradbury after reading a recent article in the Sunday Times and I do indeed owe him a debt. Like the author of the article, I probably wouldn’t be writing now if it weren’t for Ray Bradbury. Famous for his short stories — I’ve only just realised he’s written only a handful or two of novels, three of which are detective stories...

Why is it that even when we love doing something it’s very easy to get distracted by other things? I’m supposed to be editing the next book in the Jaared Sen series – Death After Midnight – but I keep finding myself distracted by the silliest things (Facebook, Twitter, other people’s blogs – isn’t Suzi Perry @suziperry great?). I’ve always felt like I was a bit lazy, really, preferring to read a book than mow the grass. But then who wouldn’t? With writing it’s supposed to be different as it’s more of a passion than a job, or so one...

I’ve been thinking about technology a lot lately and it still seems we’re far too dependent on it for our daily lives — at least here in the West. Ironically, it seems the bulk of our gadgets, iPods, mobile phones, TVs come from the East. Sweat shops in China, Korea, wherever they can find somewhere that will build these things for the cheapest price. What’s worrying is the number of stories we’re hearing about workers in these places dying or killing themselves. How much do you want an iPad? But apparently the iPad factory isn’t the worst place to work...