Guild Member Spotlight: Malcolm Cowen

Malcolm Cowen
1 wife, 3 sons, 3 daughters in law (from 30-12-2009), 3 grand-daughters, 1 grandson, 1 stroppy cat. (the hairy dog and the psychotic cat both recently RIP )

When did you join the LGG? How did you make the connection?
Found it by internet search, can’t remember when, perhaps a year or so ago.

What's the first thing you remember that happened in the Guild?
I lost the link, then the website moved or something.  Took me a fortnight to find it again.

Tell us some good things that have transpired from belonging.
The links to useful places, the realization that it's not just me struggling to find outlets.

What's your genre and subgenre? Why do you think that is?
SF - my habitat stories (Golden Age, pref character driven, like John Wyndham), or parallel world - Lady of Foxdale and sequel(s).

I'm not keen on fantasy, the magic too often makes convincing plot conflicts difficult to set up.

Do you like to read the same genre as you write? What other genres interest you? Favourite authors?
Yes, but I also enjoy historical WhoDunIt, Brother Cadfael, Sister Fidelma, M Didius Falco, and so on.

You could argue these have a lot in common with SF.  It’s an alien society, just alien in a different way.

Tell us about your published work, and where we can go to find out more.
It started when I was working in Switzerland, and I sent an article in to a trade magazine. They published it, and about 20 others.
Then the internet came along, and the magazine folded because all their advertising income went online.

I wrote a few more stories;

“The Night that is Different” was published by Small Press of Florida,
and another story, “The Agent” got published in translation by a magazine
in Slany in the Czech Republic.

I’ve done a couple of nevels, “Lady of Foxdale” and sequel “Daughter of
the King”, available on
www.e-bshop.co.uk
(and on Readers Eden at
www.readerseden.com/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=42)

Recently “Conjuction”, was accepted to be published by TeenAge magazine. It's one of a series set in Space Habitats - hollowed out asteroids, as
is the Radio Drama, Sleep of Death, a Habitat WhoDunIt (locked room, 2 bodies, why were the bodies stolen) I’m awaiting confirmation of good
news there.

What are you working on right now? How's progress?
Just submitted 2 radio dramas to BBC The Blitzmädchen (about the German resistance to Hitler) and RTE (a post plague whodunit. There's
only a few hundred people left alive in the country, so who is the strange woman, and who killed her - and why).  Right now I’ve got
some software to write to earn some brass to live on, so writing might have to wait a bit.

How has the LGG helped you in your work?
Encouragement, and information.  I am not alone.

What are your dreams for the future of Christian speculative fiction, and for yourself within that?
Get Christian writing accepted as a genre worth reading, because of our high quality output, and act as salt in our society.  But that
means we must produce the best stuff around, because it’s got to appeal outside the Christian ghetto to people who are currently immersed in a
godless worldview.

Your best writing tip?
Read it out aloud to yourself, ask if the dialogue sounds believable or just twee.  Find a loving but ruthless friend to criticise it.

What else are you up to that our readers would find interesting?
Making a living working from home, so is Wife, who teaches over the internet in an online Christian School. Trying to improve my language
skills in German and Welsh.

Something you reckon not many people know about you? 
Prosthopagnosia - I can't recognise human faces. Add to this all the various bits of me which got re-arranged, twisted round or generally
mucked up, and my loving family reckon this proves I'm really an alien.

I like writing poetry, (follow "Private Web Links" then 'lyrics' on www.cowensw.com).  My English version of
Câlon Lan has been recorded by male voice choirs, and I occasionally get notification of another performance.

Your website or social media profile?
Is in dire need of overhaul. I'm too busy doing other people's.
www.cowensw.com
(includes writing links) www cowensw.co.uk.

The builder's house is the last one to be fixed - as usual.