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“Upon reaching this place he was irresistibly impelled to visit the palace of Gordius and his son Midas high up on the acropolis, in order to inspect the famous Wagon of Gordius and the Knot with which its yoke was fixed.”
- Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander

Welcome to my website!
I’m a writer, poet, office-curmudgeon, lapsed academic and frequent traveller. At the moment I’m based in London.
The menu above should take you everywhere you need to go: About to find out more about me; Bibliography to see the complete list of everything I’ve got published as well as what’s forthcoming; Blog to read my posts about writing, travel, history, learning Old Babylonian, feminism, etc; Travel to get some specifics about my recent travels.
My blog is crossposted to Livejournal and Dreamwidth if you prefer to read and comment there. I keep a main Tumblr for smaller bits and pieces, as well as beautifulmarkets to feature pictures I’ve taken in markets around the world. I’m also on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.
Read on for the latest news about my writing, contact information and my future convention appearances.
My Writing
My poem “Sung Around Alsar-Scented Fires” has been published in Stone Telling 6: Catalyst, the Science and Science Fiction issue of the boundary-crossing poetry zine. I’m really proud of this poem – I hope you like it! Check out the roundtable, where I talk about the development of my space opera setting (of which this is the first published piece) and some of my opinions on the depiction of war in scifi. I touch on the subject again in this recent blog post.
Steam-Powered 2: More Lesbian Steampunk Stories edited by JoSelle Vanderhooft is out! Find out how to acquire it here. It contains my novelette “Selin That Has Grown In The Desert”, which is about the impact of steampunk among the Turkmen people of Central Asia. I’m currently working on a novel in the same setting.
Papaveria Press has produced a very limited edition beautiful handbound miniature copy of my story “Two Coins”. Only 18 copies were made, each featuring two coins from around the world. At 55mm x 77mm it truly is a miniature. There are still copies available to buy.
Contact

Appearances
In 2012 I’m planning to be at the following conventions:
Eastercon, 6-9 April, London
Wiscon, 26-30 May, Madison WI, USA
Bristolcon, 20 October, Bristol
My plans for 2013 are still in-progress, but I will definitely be at World Fantasy in Brighton.
Latest Work
Recent Comments
- Alex Dally MacFarlane on Soldierporn! Or: Celebrating destruction of the ultimate enemy.
- poetic spammer on Ancient City in Translation
- Steam-Powered 2 | Tales and Foreign Markets on Steam-Powered 2 TOC!
- Aliette de Bodard on Soldierporn! Or: Celebrating destruction of the ultimate enemy.
- Katie on black rain floods the downs
A Life in Pieces
- @catvalente All your Polish covers are amazing, wow. 29 minutes ago
- Managed to work on a bit of The Bone Queen after all, despite Friday nights normally being quite useless. Onwards! 32 minutes ago
- Perhaps I'm part lizard: the cold makes me lethargic. 2 hours ago
- Need to get out of this habit of sitting at my desk, cold, not getting up to put on more clothes and get on with some work. 2 hours ago
- @aliettedb @mythicdelirium Thanks! =D 3 hours ago
People I Read
- Ambling Along the Aqueduct
- Archaeological News
- Ars Marginal
- BLDGBLOG
- British Museum Blog
- Brooke Bolander
- Erzebet YellowBoy
- Goblin Fruit
- Hyperbole and a Half
- Invisible Games
- io9: archaeology
- J M McDermott
- Kameron Hurley
- KJ Bishop
- Molly Tanzer
- Papaveria Press
- Rachel Stark
- Requires Hate
- Silence Without
- Silver Goggles
- Small Beer Press
- Stone Telling
- Terri Windling
- The Daily Cabal
- The Streets of Bangkok
- The World SF Blog
- Theodora Goss
- Urban Ghosts






