Stephen Embleton

Mark Bould gives his insights into this collection of speculative fiction from Africa: Imagine Africa 500 is a smart and engaging addition to the growing number of anthologies of African sf, not quite as literary as Nerine Dorman’s Terra Incognita, nor quite as pulpy as Ivor Hartmann’s AfroSF collections. Billy Kahora, The Story Club and Pan African Publishers are to be congratulated for setting this all in motion, for their commitment to developing new writers, for their efforts to address the domination of African sf by South Africa and Nigeria – Imagine Africa 500 includes five authors from Malawi, four from Uganda and one from Botswana, as well as three Nigerians and two South Africans – and by male writers – two-fifths of the stories are by women, which is not parity but is heading in the right direction. Read the original review here.

In 2010, after I had submitted the draft manuscript of a full length novel to a publisher, I decided to start Journal of a DNA Pirate as a means to continue writing - in any way possible. The objective was NOT to be bogged down by creating a story that had a known end or where I knew it needed to go. I just had to write from one end point to he next. The journal format worked for that purpose. Each time I came back to it I had to ask myself "What now?" And so I began. I stopped it in 2011 but had some ideas of where it was going. I had interest in my novel manuscript so I focused on that once again. Then in 2014, there was a call for submissions by Fox & Raven for their second Ravensmoot speculative fiction anthology - maximum 8,000 words. Journal of a DNA pirate fitted the bill. I just had to finish it off. So, for a few days I wrapped up what I had in mind and made the word count - 8,000 words exactly. I submitted it and waited. The long list was released 1 October 2014