Author: piersb

  • D&D Adventurers League

    Dropped into my FLGS yesterday to try and play some 5th edition D&D, and it was a bit unclear exactly how the organised play system was supposed to work. So when I got home I armed myself with a glass of whisky and dropped down the rabbithole. If you want to give the new edition of D&D a […]

  • Loncon 3 Schedule

    Here’s my schedule for this year’s Worldcon in London, for  those as are interested in that sort of thing. Mastermind Friday, 15 August 3:30pm – 4:30pm The play what I directed. The masked villain known only as Mastermind has hidden a bomb somewhere in the city. When it goes off, it will kill hundreds of […]

  • Mastermind

    I’m immensely happy to be able to announce that I’ll be directing a play at this year’s World Science Fiction Convention in London. It’s called Mastermind. The masked villain known only as Mastermind has hidden a bomb somewhere in the city. When it goes off, it will kill hundreds of innocent people. It’s going to […]

  • The Politics of Cowards

    You might not know about the bill that’s going before Parliament next week to force telecoms companies and ISPs to retain data so that the security services can look through it at a later date. This is because it’s being rushed through as emergency legislation. The leaders of all three parties are claiming that there’s […]

  • Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn!

    I have a short story coming up in the new anthology from Ghostwoods Books. The book is called Cthulhu Lives! and is a selection of Lovecraftian short stories. My piece, Universal Constants is the first story in the book. It’s available to pre-order now from the following places: Amazon US Amazon UK The Book Depository  

  • Come and have a go (if you think you’re hard enough)

    For the last few years, myself and a few friends have been entering the Sci Fi London Film Festival Pub Quiz. (It says it’s a pub quiz, but it’s actually in a cinema. There are, however, drinks included in the entry price. So that kind of counts.) Every year, we win. Every. God. Damn. Year. […]

  • The Blog Tour: What, Why, and How I Write

    So Jason Arnopp tagged me into this a while back, and today’s the day to publish my answers! It’s a sort of Q&A thing about my writing. Gosh, this takes me back. I remember in the days before Twitter, where everyone updated their blogs on a weekly basis, these things used to go round all the […]

  • Some thoughts on BBC3

    Reports are coming through that BBC3 is going to become an online-only channel in the near future. I’m absolutely fine with this.Back in about 2000, I saw my first TiVo, which itself was the first PVR. A PVR (Personal Video Recorder) has a big-ass hard drive, and gathers information from the Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) that’s […]

  • A basic introduction to UK libel law.

    I am not a lawyer. But I did once work at the BBC, where a very helpful woman once came round and explained to us the basics of UK libel law. To be libelled in English law, you have to have a) something written about you which is b) untrue c) may cause serious harm […]

  • In Praise of Trivets

    I was round my parents house the other day, and we needed to put a hot pan on the table for dinner. It went onto a tablemat, so the wooden table wouldn’t get burned. I said to Dad “I wonder what the generic word is for that thing you put hot things on so they […]