"I would love it if every talk show let me say whatever I pleased." -- Chris Bell
Chris Bell was born Holyhead, North Wales in 1960.
After working in the UK and Germany variously as a writer for and editor of a music magazine, musician, record company runner and song lyricist, in 1996 Bell published The Bumper Book of Lies, a collection of short stories, several of which had previously been published in periodicals including The Third Alternative, Grotesque, The Heidelberg Review, Transversions, Not One of Us and Takahe. The anthology The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (10th Annual Edition), which included Bell's story The Cruel Countess, described the collection as 'an impressive debut', while Asimov's Science Fiction [1] said the book was 'highly recommended'. The book came with a 'recommended soundtrack' featuring a diverse list of songs by Frank Zappa, Steely Dan and others for listening to while reading the book.
Bell's first novel Liquidambar (2003), a surreal take on film noir and 1940s pulp thrillers inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, won the 2004 UKA Press international Search for a Great Read competition.
In 2005 Bell edited the 'celebratory booklet' published to coincide with the Russell Hoban Some-Poasyum, an international convention celebrating the novelist's 80th birthday. The booklet included contributions from a number of Hoban enthusiasts and collaborators including Glenda Jackson, Andrew Davies and Sir Harrison Birtwistle.
Bell now lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand and is a regular contributor to The New Zealand Blogging Corporation [2].
"Ethics in government has always been important to me.""I filed the ethics complaint against Tom DeLay not because I'm a Democrat and he's a Republican or even because he drew me out of my congressional seat but because he engaged in corruption to further his plans to disenfranchise voters in Texas.""I guess what bothers me so much about what I now see going on in both Washington and in Texas is an effort to keep people from finding out about the mistakes of lawmakers and then when they're uncovered, an effort to fool people and pretend there was nothing wrong.""I have no problem with battling for a position. I have no problem trying to beat somebody out. It's a sport, competition, so I'm used to it.""I think that people need to have the courage of their convictions and not be trying to fool people into thinking that they've changed overnight.""So many people are accustomed to written information that you really have to have a few more bells and whistles in this day and age.""Texas has a lot of challenges, but if I choose to run I will talk about opening democracy to mainstream Texans and not just to a closed circle of entrenched ideologues.""The American people do not begrudge anyone his or her power until they start abusing it.""The American people expect public servants to be able to police themselves. But instead of designing a system to enforce ethical conduct, Tom Delay and his cohorts have implemented a self protection system. Obviously, it wasn't good for democracy.""The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Don't store unnecessary data, keep an eye on what's happening, and don't take unnecessary risks."