About

Welcome to The Genre Files!

Hi. My name's Darren Turpin (although for a long while I went by the a.k.a. of 'Ariel', for reasons far too convoluted to explain here…)

I was a bookseller for six years, and by the time I ended my retail career I was running the sf / fantasy / horror department of Waterstone's Manchester Deansgate branch, one of the largest in the country (and certainly the largest specialist genre fiction section in the UK) with the more-than-able assistance of Matt Leyshon and Michael Rowley (who is now Waterstone's national sf / f / h buyer).

These days I'm a freelance website content manager. I run a bunch of websites for UK genre authors - most of whom you really ought to have heard of, if you haven't heard of any of them for some bizarre reason then check them out, there's a list below) as well as the award winning UK independent publishers PS Publishing and Pendragon Press, and Les Edwards / Edward Miller, the award-winning fantasy artist.

In my spare time I run the UK genre publishing news website UKSFBookNews.net with my good friend Sandy Auden.

I've been lurking around the UK genre scene for the past twelve years or so, starting way back when I was a bookseller. Back then I edited a fanzine called The Alien Has Landed, which morphed into www.thealienonline.net when I quit the bookstore (to get a job that didn't involve having a maximum of six weekends off per year). As a result I've gotten to know quite a few, mainly UK-based, authors, publishers, artists and agents, and I can therefore quite categorically state that 99% of them are very nice, friendly and interesting people indeed.

And here's that client list, all of whom are most definitely among the aforementioned 99%…

PS Publishing
Pendragon Press
Les Edwards / Edward Miller
Michael Marshall Smith
Richard Morgan
Paul Kearney
James Barclay (and his Barclay Talks Sport blog)
James Lovegrove
Mark Chadbourn (and his Jack of Ravens blog)
Joe Abercrombie
Brian Ruckley
Adam Roberts
Jane Johnson
Sarah Ash (artwork on this one by Les Edwards)
Mark Morris
Philip Palmer
Tim Lebbon
Deborah J. Miller
Sarah Pinborough
Jay Amory
Jude Fisher
Tom Arden
Michael Cobley (bit of an old site, needs a re-work…)
The Works of Tim Powers (I just look after the technical side of this one, John Berlyne is the brains behind the content)

I look after a bunch of other sites as well, for a range of clients. Mostly SMEs, small organisations, individuals. I firmly specialise in good content - written and otherwise - rather than overblown design, which tends to appeal to those on a smaller budget.

Anyhow, that's about all I have to say on the subject of 'welcome'. If you'd like to get in touch for any reason, there will probably be a comment form appearing somewhere shortly, or you can send an email to:

ariel {at} thegenrefiles {dot} com

Remember to convert the vaguely anti-spam characters etc. Sorry about that, but you'll understand the need to at least try to thwart the spam-harvesting bots, I'm sure.

And hey, please feel free to leave comments on any items that you feel are comment-worthy. Spammers will of course be treated with the derision they so richly deserve and their comments will be summarily deleted. I just wish there was a big, red button that would do the same to them…

That's all for now.

Cheers!

Darren Feb 8th, 2008 (updated)