I’ve been convention-going for–bloody hell!–more than a decade now so I guess I can claim to be something of a, er, well… con-noisseur (sorry). Eastercon, Novacon, Fantasycon: you name it I’ve loitered about in it making a nuisance of myself. All the aforementioned have their individual charms. But by far my favourite is a little-known […]
Read more "MOONCON: Britain’s Best Science Fiction Convention"Just noticed something… odd… about the start of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Indy goes to the ruined temple with about 10 other ppl. But then he makes his escape on a 2-man biplane. So… er… if everything had gone well were all 10 guys plus pilot meant to leave on that plane? Or was […]
Read more "A Quick Thought About Raiders Of The Lost Ark…"Honestly? Aside from two magazine articles I’ve never read any Gore Vidal. I can rain neither mana nor venom upon his historical novels, whatever worth they possess. But what I can say– and will die upon any hill you choose saying- is that as far as building a writer’s nest goes, Mr Vidal absolutely nailed […]
Read more "The Absolute Writer-Porn Of Gore Vidal’s Cliffside Villa"The photo? That’s my present from my nephew Jake and his family (it transpired to be a whole bottle of Kraken Rum! Yum!), addressed to me in Babylonian cuneiform. Can you get more festive? Anyway, hope you had a nice festivus season. I’ll try and blog more. Forgive me.
Read more "Merry Christmas!!!"Greatest birthday card ever from my bro Tom and his family. They know me so well! #JGBallard
Read more "Sweet Ballard Birthday!!!"Part Two of Feral Space is now available to pour into your ears at your leisure. Eleven hours of space opera power read by the incredibly talented Sara Parlier. Yet again Sara’s done an incredible job of evoking my lil’ saga. I love the way she voices my characters. HERE’S A SAMPLE. And here’s […]
Read more "The Delighted now out in audio!!!"Quite epic huh? Maybe it’s somewhere in the Aegean. Ah, but no; because now you’re looking at the base and thinking it’s far too modern for that. So… London, right? Some public park there or, if not, Birmingham or Berlin or some big old world city. But no. These two Ionian columns stand in Swanage, […]
Read more "The Epic Gothic Strangeness Of This Quaint Seaside Town"It’s the mid to late nineties in Chicago and a man comes home to find Spider-man trying to con his girlfriend out of seventy dollars. This incident was just one of several during that decade where both Marvel and DC superheroes pushed their way into this man’s everyday life and acted, well, shamefully. Violence would […]
Read more "The Man Who Whupped Spider-Man, Superman and Batman’s Ass."
J.L. Worrad 