Paul-St-John-Mackintosh-e1368550116855-225x300TeleRead’s new Associate Editor is Paul St John Mackintosh, a long-time tech writer and e-book lover, as well a poet and writer of dark fiction.

Paul, a consummate Scot, lives in Budapest, Hungary, but is the official poet of the Clan Mackintosh.

He is ahead of me in a most useful way—by six hours, to be exact. Beyond just his journalist gifts, this Cambridge University alum is a natural to beef up TeleRead’s morning offerings.

You can read the TeleRead information page and Paul’s Amazon author page for additional bio. And more information is here on his ongoing literary career as an acclaimed poet, translator and short story writer. In a nutshell, however, Paul first got into e-books in Hong Kong, where he worked in PR and journalism. E meant lower prices and more titles to choose from.

Paul is partial to the works of H. P. Lovecraft but goes for a wide variety of writers ranging from Franz Kafka (the better to understand the mindsets behind convoluted copyright laws?) to Charles Stross and Peter Watts.

A reformed iPhone fanboy, he uses his Lenovo A7-10 and cell phones nowadays for most of his e-reading. For writing short stories, he relies on handwriting recognition on touch screens.

Paul started posting to TeleRead in 2012 “about the same time as I first started shifting my focus as a writer from poetry to dark and weird fiction, and started to push my work and my presence seriously out on social media.

“TeleRead has enabled me to stay on top of developments in e-reading and gadgets in general. What’s more, it’s allowed me to read and stay current on the most important new works and trends in the literary genres that I love, and to become more of a voice in fiction in general. And to meet and get acquainted with some great people: writers, publishers, publishing commentators, and important figures in the whole book world – digital and traditional both.

“Oh, and it’s given me a platform to evangelize for what I strongly believe in: access to the most important literature of the world, for everyone, everywhere, easily and conveniently, in whatever format suits them best. And for the rights of writers to enjoy the benefits of their success, versus the vested interests that are constantly trying to channel and control their endeavors, to bamboozle and suborn them for selfish motives, and to grow fat at their expense.”

Separated—attention, female e-book lovers—Paul is the proud father of two half-Hungarian daughters.

Congratulations on the new title, Paul (and on the daughters, too)!

Meanwhile the much-appreciated Chris Meadows will continue as Editor. Chris has been with TeleRead since 2006.

On another front, my best wishes to yet another talent, Joanna Cabot, a TeleRead veteran who is getting married this weekend.

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