Wednesday 11 June 2008

We organised this event with the library several weeks ago to try and publicize Interzone locally. I noised it around the internet and Tony, who has had 12 stories published in the magazine and one in the original Third Alternative very kindly agreed to help with a reading.

Manchester let us down by not having a rainy day and hence not driving its denizens indoors for their lunchbreak. However we had an audience of ten including Black Static author Tim Lees.
I said a few words about SF magazines, their history and Interzone’s place in the scheme of such things. Then Tony did sterling work with a reading, a Q & A session and a good few words on the importance of Interzone to his career, and that of future authors before I sold a few magazines. Joely Black of “Amnar:4785� came along and interviewed Tony for her podcast, after the main event. She told us it was her first podcast interview so she had a good subject as Tony had received the contract for his fourth novel, Twisted Metal, that morning. I’ll link to the podcast when available.

30 June 2008 The Podcast of Tony’s interview is on the Amnar:4785 site now and fills the last 10 minutes of the Amnar Book 1 - 4785 - Episode 18 podcast.

Tony Ballantyne has had three novels published by Tor Recursion (2004), Capacity (2005) and Divergence (2007) all of which were based on ideas first explored in IZ. He now has a fourth novel under contract.

Our thanks to Darren Rawcliffe, Manchester’s Cultural Services Manager, and Manchester Central Library for their help, hospitality and welcome along with the refreshments for ourselves and the audience..

Tags: Joely Black • Manchester Central Library • Tony Ballantyne