Maverick Revised

Hi guys,

Just a short note to let you know what I've been doing these past few weeks. In a word editing. (Actually it's probably the most horrible word in any author's vocabulary! It is mine anyway.)

But the good news is that it comes with a purpose, and that purpose is to get some of my books into paper form (yes I know many of you younger people may not remember what that is any more!), through CreateSpace.

So so far this year both Thief and Maverick have been through extensive revisions and given new covers in preparation for the transition, and more will follow. However for those who've read them and want something new, currently my long suffering editor (sister) is working on the first edit of the next book off the blocks this year, Alien. I hope to have that out on the Kindle in the next few weeks.

In the mean time, because I may be the worst (most unreliable) blogger in history and feel the need to apologise - again, I'll leave you with an even worse joke.

A priest, a nun, a monk and a bishop walk into a bar.
The bartender looks up at them and says - 'This is a joke right?!'

Cheers, Greg.

Update On Writing: Thief Re-edited.

Hi Guys,

Been a while since I posted last but I have an excuse - the dog ate my homework! Well maybe not, but I have been busy writing so I figure that has to count for something. Anyway since publishing the second Wizard at Law book in January (and February has only just begun), I've also re-edited and recovered my first novel - Thief.

I'm really quite pleased with the way the cover turned out. It's a million times better than the old one I think you'll agree, and it's another step in my master plan to take over the world! Or at least to get a few of my ebooks published on paper as well by the end of the year.

Next to go through this process is Maverick. It already has a new cover and is being edited as I type (thanks Lucy!). I've also started the CreateSpace process for it, but I have to admit that when it comes to all things computers, I am somewhat on the slow side.

As far as writing goes, I'm currently finishing off Alien, a sci fi romance adventure in which a retired agent with a personal enemy that would make Superman tremble is visited by an alien woman that funnily enough has her own enemies. Of course the real fun starts when their enemies get together!

This is a book that has been almost finished and sitting around as an untouched file on my computer for years, like so many others. So I'm quite pleased to be finally completing it. Of course that leaves maybe eighty more all awaiting the same attention!

Anyway, that's been my year so far and I'm quite pleased with how its gone. I hope you and yours are having an equally good one. Oh and I thought this was funny:

If wishes were horses I'd need a lot of pooper scoopers!


Cheers, Greg.

Second Wizard At Law Book Published.

Hi Guys,

Happy new year and all.


Thought I'd let you know that the second Wizard at Law book - The Glimmering, has been published on the kindle. Here's the blurb:

It starts with a glimmer, and then it just glows!

Thomas Crow and his friends are back with another case.

Someone is busy turning the people of London bright yellow one by one and in the precess, threatening the exposure of the people and magic to the world.

Thomas must represent his client, one of the yellows as they've become known, a normal with no idea that magic exists or the people for that matter, and a man who really just wants a drink. And at the same time he has to keep lying to him, following the line of the Circle that it's just a disease and that the victims need to be quarantined. Helping to maintain the cover up that stops world wide exposure.

And then of course they have to find the caster that's creating the panic in the first place. Before the press finally get a picture of a yellow in all his glory and everything goes to hell.

Who'd be an advocate?!

 

So my years off to a good start, I hope yours are too.

 

Cheers, Greg.

 

Time Travelling Novella Written

Hi Guys,

Just time for one more post before Christmas, and thought I'd use it to let you know that the time travelling bug hit me again.

This time it was the bootstrap paradox that dominated my thoughts again, and in particular one scenario that I previously raised in my posts on time travel paradoxes. I won't give the plot away, but in essence this is the story of mankind's first chronosphere as it undertakes the greatest ever mission of exploration, the journey to the begining of time. The big bang. But of course things don't run smoothly!

This is a novella that I've just sent off for editing, and should hopefully be out on the kindle before the end of the month.

Other than that I thought I should just wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year, and hope that 2013 (now that we've got through the end of the world as the Mayan calander ran out of dates) will be a great year.

By the way, not saying that I ever believed the prediction for the 21st, but does anyone know where I can flog a slighty used bomb shelter and a million freeze dried RTE's?

Merry Christmas, Greg.

Time Travel Paradox - Can A Woman Be Her Own Mother?

Hi Guys,

I was going to continue with the next installment in my Alien Spotters Handbook in this post, but a few days ago in one of the other fora I engage in someone came up with a brilliant time travel paradox riddle, and I felt the need to write about it. Besides the dark vans with the tinted windows outside my house every day, and the men in dark suits with the sunglasses, were becoming a pain! Maybe they'll back off now!

Anyway the riddle that was asked was can a woman be her own mother through the aid of time travel? And the scenario given was this: A woman meets a man, gets pregnant by him, travels back in time, gives birth, and leaves the baby on someone's doorstep. That baby then grows up to become the same woman, gets pregnant, and then repeats the entire cycle.

This is of course a variation on the bootstrap paradox, in that messing around with time only occurs to the woman because she has already messed with it. Thus lifting herself up by her own bootstraps as it were.

Now to look at this juicy little conundrum, I think it's important to first point out two obvious issues. First, at some point in time, in fact for a whole nine months, this woman is actually going to be carrying herself inside of her. The other issue is that this is an obvious case of incest, since this child is going to grow up to have sex with her father! These are both strange and ichy issues, but not really relevant.

What is relevant is as I've said in previous posts, the fact that this scenario does infact make that entire period from the woman's conception, through her time travel into the past as a foetus, until her getting pregnant in the present, completely determined. For this entire period there can be no free will, no random chance. Everything must happen through this period as it happened before.

The reason for this is simple, genetics. In every conception there must be an egg and a sperm joining together, and in every ejaculate of a man, there are millions upon millions of sperm. Now in order for this woman to be her own mother, genetically she must be identical. That means that exactly the same sperm and the same egg must join. The chances of that happening, even if the conception happens in exactly the same way, on the same day down to the second, are of course millions to one. And if a different sperm makes it through, then the new baby will not infact be the woman that is her mother, it will be the sister (or brother) of that woman.

As any change, even the slightest one could theoretically change which sperm is successful, there can be no variation.

So for that entire, say twenty five tears, every free will choice anyone made, could not have been truly free. Because on each repeat of the cycle through time, they would have to make exactly the same choice. Every random event during this time span, could never have been truly random. Because on every repeat of the cycle, the same results would have to follow.

Anyway, that's my take on the paradox.

I'll try to get my next post out before Christmas, once more returning to the Alien Spotters Handbook (Men in Black - I'm just kidding! - Oh and please stop going through my rubbish. I did think it was the papparazzi but they've denied it!)

But if I don't, and lets face it, I also want to get the next novella in the Wizard at Law series out by Christmas as well, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy holidays.

Cheers, Greg.

It's Bloody Done!

Hi guys,

Yes, as the title so crudely puts it, Days of Light and Shadow has finally been finished and put out on the kindle.

I'm sorry it took so long, but as I said previously this was a book that just seemed to grow and grow, and what I thought initially would be a normal enough length for a fantasy novel, ended up at two hundred and fifty thousand words. Far larger than I expected. But then as I have said elsewhere, my writing style is that of a panster (writing by the seat of my pants!) not a plotster. The best I can hope for as I write is that I have a rough idea of where the book is going. (And sometimes I'm wrong even in that!)

Anyway I finished the first draft a few weeks ago, got my sister to do an edit on it (she's an English lit sort of a girl with a far better eye for detail than me - but don't tell her I told you so!), and then spent three frustrating days with the track changes feature of Word. - That has to be the most horrible edit feature of any program I've ever used. Your eyes go screwy as you spend ages struggling over every little letter and space in the text.

Then, after a couple more days doing the format edit and checklists etc, at midnight last night I knew I was ready, and went to publish it on the kindle. Of course even that wasn't straight forward, and after three attempts lasting until dawn this morning, while the little wheel spun around and around telling me it was uploading the text, (the wheel lies!), I went to Kindle Boards. And there some wonderful man suggested a complete restart of the computer and wiping the cache, and behold - the fourth time it worked!

So that's been my night - and my day. Currently I'm overwhelmingly happy, but exhausted, and even after a nap I don't think I can write anything more today.

My plans at this stage, (yes I know, my plans usually come to naught), are to finish off the second book in the Wizard At Law series before Christmas. It's only forty thousand words and almost complete, so even for me it should be possible.

So that's it for me for the day. Next time I'll return to the Alien Spotter's Handbook.

Cheers, Greg.

The Alien Spotters Handbook: Chapter Two.

Hi Guys,

Finally finished the draft of Days of Light and Shadow and sent it off for editing. 237,000 words of blood, sweat and tears, and I'm sure my fingers have grown shorter over the previous months from all the typing!

So now while I've got a little time up my sleeve, I thought I'd return to my blog on spotting aliens among us.

The Alien Spotters Handbook:

 

Chapter Two: Personal History.

Ok, so you've got some questions about your co-worker. You think he's a little strange. That he smells odd and does weird things. He's always watching everyone. And that odd palor. You think he might be from somewhere a little further away than Kansas. So how else might you check if he's literally out of this world?

Well personal history is always a good guide. And it's not as if you'd be snooping if you asked him about his family or where he's from. This is all the normal stuff that people ask about their friends and colleagues.

So what can we be reasonably sure of when we ask an alien about his personal history?

Well for a start he'll have one. It would be a very foolish Martian who came to Earth to study us and had no background. In this he'd be no different to a spy sent in to a foreign land to steal secrets. If he had no background, he'd stand out, and no spy, and I assume no alien, wants to stand out.

But his personal history will have to be different from yours or mine in several key areas. (Unless of course you are from another world!)

For a start there'll be no real way of checking it.

Consider the situation when you go for a job interview. The panel ask you about your work history and your schooling and so forth. All perfectly reasonable stuff. But our alien can't really have this. After all it's highly unlikely that he grew up in Kansas, went to school in Mrs. Meg's School for Oddballs and so on. Certificates of achievement can be faked. Databases can be corrupted. And we assume that people who can travel light years can do these sorts of things. But how would they fake the actual life history of someone who wasn't there?

The answer is that they couldn't, and so most likely, they wouldn't.

Instead they'd do the next best thing, make sure that their personal history couldn't be checked. So expect their personal histories to include details of growing up in strange little out of the way places. Places so remote that it would be a near miracle if they ever ran into anyone else from them. In fact they may well have histories that include growing up overseas. (It would explain any issues with accents as well.)

Likewise their schooling. Since they would not have been on Earth as children, their schooling would have to be a fake as well. Otherwise it'd be simple to just ring up the school and ask if they have a yearbook from 1987 with lots of photos. So what would be the chances that the school burnt down, was closed, or that the teachers they mention have all retired or passed away?

Then there's family. We all have families, and I assume that aliens do too. But their family is likely sitting on another world. So the only family members they could list would have to be fellow aliens also on Earth. Family who I would guess, would also have similarly uncheckable pasts.

Further, those family won't include children. Who would bring a child to an alien world full of strange people that know nothing of aliens?

Work history is another likely problem. Granted they may be posing as young adults, relatively new to the workforce. But if they aren't, the question becomes how long were they planning to spend on Earth as they continue their studies? My guess, a few years at most. So any work history prior to that would again have to be fake. Again think companies that have gone out of business, bosses who've retired, overseas employment. Anything that would make it impossible to check.

So there it is. Another Archilles Heel in the alien's library of techniques to hide in plain sight. So if you do have doubts about a friend or colleague, why not just ask them the normal things you would ask of anyone else. Where's you grow up, go to school, work before coming here?

But be warned. He might not be an alien after all. He might be James Bond!

Cheers all, and good spotting.