Fossil Hunting

As we had about two hours of sunshine this bank holiday weekend the family decided to go fossil hunting on the beach at Llantwit Major

The beach looked really promising with the giants cliffs laid out like stepping stones and the numerous rocks and boulders stacked up beneath them. I thought we'd get an ammonite or two but after a couple of hours searching all we came away with was what looked like a fossilized thread- worm and a cockle-shaped pebble which could be a fossil, we aren't sure. The other thing we came away with was a couple of soaking kids (if there was a rock pool to find then they found it, and fell in) and a family with a hearty appetite. The sea air was bracing and the day was a success, even though the fossils proved harder to find than I imagined.

BTW, this isn't one we took home!

More Cone Zero News

There is a nice review of the Cone Zero anthology over on the Serendipity site which ends with, quote

'I expect to see Cone Zero on the lists of this year's best anthologies. It will richly deserve any such place.'

Oooh nice! I hope someone takes notice!

Cone Zero can be bought here - BUY
and don't forget there is a cash prize for whoever works out which author wrote what story!

Nicole Cooke Wins Gold For Britain & Wales!

Britain got its first Gold Medal in The Olympics in Beijing thanks to Welsh girl Nicole Cooke who rode to victory at Juyonggguan.


The last few yards had me holding my breath, but what fortitude, what guts. She was brilliant. The only downside is that China has negated on its promise to improve human rights. A promise that they made when they were awarded the Olympics, and their word has been broken by not allowing the showing of non-International Olympic Committee countries flags in the games’ venues. Supposedly this is associated with China’s efforts to prevent dissent. Namely Tibet.

However, a spokeswoman for the British Olympic Association said: “This ban appears to be in line with Rule 51 of the Olympic Charter.”

But rule 51 does not mention flags. It states: “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.

So here is Y Ddraig Goch,

China, your dragons are nowhere near as good-looking as ours, no wonder you didn't want our flag to be shown...

Looks more like a bloody eel with legs!

Short Story on Scfi UK Review

I'm extremely pleased to say that one of my short stories has been taken up by Richard Hawkins for his Scifi UK Review website.
It's called 'What Visions In The Dark Of Light'
It's a dark sf/f/horror story, I hope you can pop over there for a read and perhaps leave a comment on it. Richard will be reviewing my novel
'Flames of Herakleitos'
sometime in the future too.

A bit of good news - Steve Upham (Screamingdreams editor/publisher) is home from hospital and on the road to recovery. He's still very weak and still under the care of his doctors but on the mend.

Best wishes, Steve :)

Bob

Cone Zero Thoughts

Well I've read Cone Zero cover to cover and enjoyed every one of the fourteen stories (yes even my own one, well I had to check it was all ok, didn't I?) I can't say which was my favourite as it might give away one of the authors and Des Lewis, the editor, is having a competition which will pay out £50 to the winner. here are the details :-

CONE ZERO AUTHOR IDENTIFICATION COMPETITION

A prize of £50 (GBP) by PayPal from Nemonymous to the reader who guesses or assesses (by whatever means) the most correct authors of the stories in the CONE ZERO book..

The authors themselves are not eligible to enter.

Deadline: March 4th 2009 (when authors are due to be revealed).

If there is a tie, the prize will be shared.

The Editor’s decision is final.

Please write to bfitzworth@yahoo.co.uk with your choices. If you do not receive an acknowledgement of your entry within a week, please try again. You can enter the competition up to three times, but each entry will be treated separately.

The story titles:
"The Fathomless World"
"The Point of Oswald Masters"
"Cone Zero" (page 23)
"Cone Zero" (page 33)
"Cone Zero, Sphere Zero"
"An Oddly Quiet Street"
"Always More Than You Know"
"Cone Zero" (page 129)
"Going Back For What Got Left Behind"
"Cone Zero" (page 147)
"The Cone Zero Ultimatum"
"Angel Zero"
"How To Kill An Hour"
"To Let"

The authors in a random order:
Neil James Hudson
Colleen Anderson
Jeff Holland
John Grant
A.J. Kirby
Eric Schaller
Kek-W
S.D. Tullis
Stephen Bacon
Sean Parker
Dominy Clements
Bob Lock
Grant Wamack
David M Fitzpatrick

Here is a first review of the anthology, and it's a pretty good one: REVIEW