Justina Robson
Excerpt
Zal woke to the strobing flicker of fitful orange light as it shattered the pitch darkness of the night. The sudden whining scream of metal grinding on metal hurt his ears and the hot stink of it bit his nostrils anew even though he’d been sleeping in the room for several hours. He pulled his noise-cancelling headphones off the useless place they’d slid to on his neck and sat up silently to resume his spying. Sparks jetted in the shape of a small firework flare and lit the unprotected face of his wife as she bent to her task. They leapt into her cropped black hair and briefly illuminated its scarlet streak as it consumed them. They showered onto on her pale skin, finished their brief, brilliant lives, and fell from her in motes of black dust. He saw one dart straight into the liquid surface of her eye as if it were trying to give her an artist’s impression of a wicked glint against the stormy blue iris. She blinked and it was gone. Where they cascaded into the front of her lilac and blue sundress they vanished entire and whole, leaving tiny white circle splashes behind them; raindrops falling into a pond. The hem of the dress shed soot onto the raw concrete beside her knees.
Bio
I went to Clarion West in 1996, with all the best people. Since then I've had eight novels published, received a lot of nice critical attention, and been shortlisted for a bunch of awards in the U.K. and U.S.A. I will be a GoH at Swecon this year, and also Beneluxcon, and next year at Swancon in Australia (how lucky is all THAT?!!). I was a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Award a few years ago, and continue to write SF and fantasy. The above excerpt is from my present project, just coming to an end--the last book of the Quantum Gravity series.
Publications
Quantum Gravity Books 1 - 5, available in the U.K. from Orion/Gollancz and in the U.S.A from PYR. Previous publications all available in online stores; just type in my name to find them.
Writing Description
Hard SF meets thrills, spills, chills, and romance inside the Faery Queen's handbag.
Goals
I have to finish all the edits of QG5 and start something new.
I hate admin of every kind, so I will just say PLEASE, if you have any spare money and you love genre fiction, give something to Clarion West because it is a fantastic stepping stone for all those up-and-coming writers you will need to be reading in the next ten years.
Website
