Craig Pay

MCM Manchester Comic Con

30 July 2015 by Craig Pay Leave a Comment

So we did MCM Manchester Comic Con. This was a first for me and only the third time time I’ve ever cosplayed if you count Secret Cinema. I was wearing my Jedi outfit — I really need a blue lightsaber to qualify as Obi Wan — and I was accompanied by my younger son dressed as Anakin and my eldest son going for a Boba Fett / SWAT look.

It was great to meet up with fellow Manchester Spec-Fic writer Eliza dressed as Blake Belladonna from RWBY. Behind the lens we have Eliza’s other half Ken rocking a RWBY Sun Wukong outfit complete with tail. Cheers again for the photo Ken!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cosplay, Star Wars Tagged With: Boba Fett, Boba SWAT, MCM Manchester Comic Con, star wars, SWAT, Wigan Comic Con

Secret Cinema: Tell No One

29 July 2015 by Craig Pay Leave a Comment

So we did Secret Cinema. We dressed up as Star Wars characters. We wandered around London. That’s my eldest son in the photo next to me. I do not have the words to describe how much of an amazing time we had that night and even if I did I wouldn’t tell you because that’s the whole point.

Tell no one!

With you RebelX!

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cosplay, Star Wars Tagged With: empire strikes back, RebelX, Secret Cinema, star wars

A Flock of Shiny Stories

26 June 2015 by Craig Pay 1 Comment

In a few week’s time my short story Truth About Crows will be published with the Scarecrow anthology from World Weaver Press. Scarecrow is one of two related anthologies; the other is called Corvidae and it’s due out in just a couple of weeks.

The covert art for Corvidae — as you can see on the left — is absolutely gorgeous! I can’t wait to see Scarecrow!

You can pre-order copies of Corvidae right now direct from the World Weaver Press website or it will be appearing on the 7th July in all the usual places: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and so on.

Secret Cinema: Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back

13 April 2015 by Craig Pay 1 Comment

I’ve been threatening to go to a Secret Cinema event for a while now, ever since I realised I’d missed out on Blade Runner and Alien. Last year’s Back to the Future gig looked fantastic, even with the media parade surrounding the late opening dates.

So, when I found out that this year’s event was going to be Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, well . . . I was ready at my keyboard with my finger hovering over the F5 key as the ticket lines opened.

I’ve managed to buy tickets for Saturday July 18th before they sold out. I have a shiny new lightsaber and my Jedi costume should arrive in the next few days. See you there!

Filed Under: Star Wars Tagged With: Secret Cinema, star wars, The Empire Strikes Back

The Light Fantastic

14 March 2015 by Craig Pay Leave a Comment

I spent my teenage years painting Citadel miniatures and playing a bucket-load of role-playing games: Traveller, Warhammer, MERP, Shadowrun, to name but a few. I was an avid reader of course, SF mostly, some fantasy: from Lord of the Rings to the Pern series to Neuromancer. For some reason I’ve always struggled with fantasy that wasn’t set in Middle Earth. There is one other notable exception.

Back in October 1986 I had a subscription to White Dwarf magazine and when issue #82 appeared through the letterbox I had no idea I was about to read something that would influence me as a reader — and perhaps as a writer — for the rest of my life. That little something was an extract from the novel The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Reading Tagged With: Terry Pratchett

REVOLUTIONS! Anthology

15 February 2015 by Craig Pay Leave a Comment

It is time, once again, for me to don my editor’s hat! Over the next few months I’ll be teaming up with fellow writers Graeme Shimmin and Eric Steele to produce the Revolutions anthology, a collection of Manchester-themed speculative fiction short stories due for publication later this year. Submissions are open right now through to the 1st May (that’s this year, 2015, for you time travellers).

We are a paying market and we are looking for speculative short fiction — that’s science fiction, fantasy, horror, dystopian fiction, slipstream and so on — with a link to the Greater Manchester area. That’s a pretty wide remit. Feel free to mix it up. I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the more interesting interpretations.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: Eric Steele, Graeme Shimmin, Manchester Spec Fic, Revolutions anthology

LonCon3

19 August 2014 by Craig Pay Leave a Comment

This year’s Worldcon — the appropriately named LonCon3 — was held in London over the weekend, so I popped along on Saturday to have a look.

WorldCon is a science fiction convention that’s held every year in a different city, different country, and has done so since 1939. Worldcon also hosts the Hugo Awards.

The convention was huge! Multiple discussion panels, a Fan Village with gaming tents and its very own library, an Exhibits Hall with tons of loot for sale. Slightly daunting at first and so much to do that I barely scraped the surface. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: LonCon3, t-shirts, Worldcon

Glass Fifty-Three

17 June 2014 by Craig Pay Leave a Comment

Very happy to announce that my short story Glass Fifty-Three has been published with the Happily Never After anthology from Fey Publishing. It’s available on Smashwords as well as Kindle from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. It’s also sitting pretty over at Goodreads.

Glass Fifty-Three is a standalone story set in a dystopian future and based around the reworking of a rather well-known fairy tale. There’s a gun, a flying car and a talking hoover. Fellow students and lecturers from the 2010-2013 Creative Writing MA might recognise this story from one of the workshops.

So check out the anthology and let me know what you think. Here’s the blurb . . .

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: fairy tales, Fey Publishing, flying car, Happily Never After, talking hoover

China: Shanghai & Hong Kong

30 April 2014 by Craig Pay Leave a Comment

This is the third and final blog post about our recent tour around China. The last two stops were Shanghai and Hong Kong.

I’ve visited Hong Kong before now and I love the place. The plan was to take my family to some of the places that I’ve visited before such as Lantau Island and the Big Buddha as well as Victoria Peak.

As for Shanghai, well I was expecting some ‘sci-fi city’ and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. [Read more…]