Cameron Johnston

I've been doing this writing lark properly for a few years now and I've learned a massive amount, enough to be helpful to others. On the fantasy fiction and writing forums I frequent I encounter the same basic questions being asked again and again from less experienced writers: -What do you think of my idea X (very cliched idea) -I've written something - now what? -Er...is this punctuation correct? -How do I make it better? How do you edit? -How do I find publishers/markets? With that in mind I've decided to create a writing resources page on this site that I will update with other sites and resources of interest to people developing their writing skills. I'm hoping that some of you will find it useful.

Over the last year I've been learning how to make chainmail, and steadily working away on a chain haubergeon. It's surprisingly easy....mostly. The basics are very simple indeed. Here's how to construct European 4-in-1 maille. You can either start with a spool of wire and construct a mandrel  and cut your own rings or you can buy jump rings like I did (not having the space for such equipment, and I'm working in stainless steel to complicate things.) Sites I can recommend for supplies would be Armchair Armoury in the UK and The Ring Lord in the US/Canada. Start with a pile of jump rings: Taking two pairs of flat-nosed pliers, clamp them down on either side of the ring and twist to open some of the rings. I find doing strips of 10s works well for a larger project but you can do whatever length of strip you wish: Once you have 10 open rings, get some more untouched rings and then close 22: Put 4 closed rings through 1 open ring and then close t...

Up and Coming: Stories from the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Writers (Which includes me!) anthology has been released, available for free download until the end of March from the folks at Bad Menagerie . Thanks go to SL Huang & Kurt Hunt for organising and compiling this years' anthology. It includes stories from writers currently eligible for the John W.Campbell Award for best new science fiction or fantasy writer, which means writers who had their first sale to a professional paying market within the last two years. I expect to be reading awesome fiction from many writers I haven't encountered yet. This anthology also includes me after the publication of The Economist & The Dragon by Buzzy Mag in 2014. So hurrah for that! :D At the time Buzzy Mag also posted me THE most ridiculously lovely hand-written thank you card when they accepted the story, saying that they enjoyed it very much. That blew me away - so nice of them!

This year I will be attending Eastercon in Manchester in March and Satellite 5 in Glasgow in May, and possibly Fantasycon by the Sea in Scarborough in September. It's always good to go to some of the more interesting panels, but even better to catch up with friends :) Feels a little strange to think that my first ever con was only in 2013, that being World Fantasy Con in Brighton. It was a big and bustling venue and as a newbie to cons I found it quite intimidating at first, but fortunately a goodly number of the GSFWC crew were down for it and I quickly met some other rather interesting writers. That first con is also notorious for the 'Ambush Opera' organised by Neil Williamson.

As some of you might know, I am one of the editors for the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers' Circle 30th anniversary anthology. It's been an eye-opener. For the first time I am on the other side of the editorial fence. I'm much more used to submitting fiction and waiting for the inevitable rejections to arrive (Boo! Hiss!), interspersed with the occasional and joyful acceptance email when my stories find the right home. Instead I'm reading my way through other people's submissions and making comments for our other two fine editors. Fortunately we have a group of excellent writers sending us stories so I will miss out on the pleasure of reading outright gibbering bonkers and bad writing that open submission markets must get. It's early days yet but I can reveal that we have already had some really fascinating fiction hitting our inboxes. This anthology project has got me thinking about the role of edi...