Lost in the Weeds - again!

 Hi Guys,

Just a brief note to let you know where I am these days and why I haven't posted anything for a while. And I think the title about sums it up. As you know I recently put out Freaksville, and was extremely happy to have finally got it finished after more than a year of procrastination. But after that I found myself losing focus for a time and ended up watching masses of Youtube and various telly shows. Some old ones but also some brand new.

By the way for those of you into quirky and sort of detectivy, I can't recommend the shows Deadlock and Population 11 highly enough. I don't know what is happening on the other side of the ditch, but the Australians really seem to be excelling with their offbeat characters and plots. Damn, I just wish I could write characters that completely and so hilariously off the wall! I mean years ago they put out films like Malcolm, Strictly Ballroom and Garbo, but lately they've been taking things to a whole new level. I love it!

Other than that, I've been sort of blocked in my writing, sitting at my desk and wondering how the orange trees outside the window can be fruiting when we're just starting winter, and the overnight temperature drops to damn near freezing. Most people keep telling me that oranges shouldn't grow in this climate at all! But I figure since I've also got lemons and grapefruit in my back yard, my back yard must be some sort of tropical micro-climate. Or magical!

The good news is that I'm nearly through the first draft of an urban sci fi - Good Neighbours - the story of a typical New Zealand Vet beset by aliens. The bad news is that I'm blocked again. For some reason this whole book has been like that. I write a chapter or two and then can't think where I go from there. It's like pulling teeth as they say and a lot of coffee has been drunk, a lot of swear words muttered! On the positive side I can't pull my hair out since I got stuck in with the trimmer a few weeks ago and there isn't anything long enough left to get a good solid grip on!

Anyway, that's been my life lately, that and trying to explain to the cat that no she wasn't born in a glass factory and I can't see through her when she decides to deposit herself in front of the monitor, and the reason it's been a while since I've posted. But I hope to have some better news by the next post. And in the meantime, enjoy the alien duck!

Cheers, Greg.

Writing In a Time of Covid

 Hi Guys,

Another long pause between posts - and between books. The good news is that Modesty is out. And that another book - The Traveller - is now through its first draft and has had two complete revisions and edits. It's a steam punk fantasy book with a main protagonist who can travel between worlds - other fantasy worlds - on a steam powered motor bike of course!

The reasons for the delay are many and varied. But lets just say that 2021 has been a shocker of a year for me. I suppose we're all due one now and again. 

It began with my sister coming to stay with me after becoming unemployed. And while that's no bad thing, it is a shock to the system for someone who's been living alone for so long to suddenly have to share a house with someone - and three cats!

And not long after that the plague arrived! Yeah, maybe it was technically a cold. But I have never had a cold that lasted a month before. Or one that left me coughing so much and so powerfully that it was literally agony to breathe. Or one that wiped all the energy from my system for another month and a half after that.

It wasn't covid, at least I don't think so. But man - it really made me think. If I did catch that damn bug, I definitely wouldn't survive it! Luckily I've now had my first shot and am looking forwards to the second and immunity. Yeah!!!

After that of course 2021 took another unexpected and terrible turn just as I had got back into writing. My mother who was elderly and living in a retirement facility, became ill. And literally the day after I published Modesty I was driving down to Wellington to be by her bedside. She died a couple of days later. And the only thing I can say about that is that even though I knew it was coming, I wasn't prepared for it. I'd guess that nobody ever really is.

Anyway, since then I've been trying to get back to work. It's difficult to concentrate unfortunately, my thoughts keep wandering, but I will return to things in time. And The Traveller will probably be out in a few weeks.

In the meantime, I wish you all the best and hope you're having a better year than I am. Oh, and I cannot stress this enough - get yourselves vaccinated!

Cheers, Greg.

Anomalies

 Hi Guys,

Thought I'd better pull finger and get out a post this year - especially now that my first book is out for 2021.

Anomalies was a struggle to write and in fact I had to rewrite it several times before it reached a stage I was satisfied with. I think that's because it was one of the books that changed along the way. Though in it's case it wasn't the plot or the characters that fought to be something else, it was that the book developed an underlying theme. 

 In essence while you can read Anomalies as a straight forwards and hopefully enjoyable urban sci fi with a few thoughts on genetic engineering etc, it has an underlying theme about identity. Who are we and who do we think we are? And perhaps the most important question of all - who do we choose to be? All the main characters are wrestling with these questions throughout the story - with varying degrees of success. And while most of their issues are related to various forms of genetic engineering carried out upon them, it's still a question that can and probably should be asked by every one of us as we grow and change.

Anyway that's the nature of the book. Here's the blurb and I hope you enjoy it.

ANOMALIES:

Clem Atkins has lived happily on Coast Road in the Coromandel for sixteen years. To his neighbors he is nothing but a beach bum with an annoyingly loud car and a terrible wardrobe. They have no idea he escaped from a genetics lab as a child.

 

His neighbors also have no idea that the drug rehabilitation facility known as the Sanctuary, just a few k's down the road, is an alien base. And they would never suspect that Callie who peddles her way up and down the road every week to sell the Sanctuary's produce, is a surgically and genetically altered woman from another world.

 

And then there's Maggie, who only knows that she was built to be a spy, and she doesn't want to do that anymore. But there is no walking away from her life for those like her. And she doesn't know how to escape.

 

But when the navy shows up one day and starts bombing the Sanctuary the time for not knowing has to pass. It's time to start asking questions – and hope that the answers don't kill them all.

 

Cheers, Greg.

 

Stuck In Ruttland!

Hi Guys,

Well it's become a rough old time for me this last week or so. The weather's turned freezing cold, and while you'd think that wouldn't bother someone with as much padding as me, it actually does. And I seem to have acquired an eye problem - it's probably dry eyes, so hopefully not serious - but everything's a bit on the blurry side, it feels like grit in them and for some reason they keep weeping. Damn it's irritating! But hopefully the optometrist will give me some drops.

But the most annoying thing is that the mad, almost frenetic inspiration that was driving me for the first half of this year seems to have vanished and every time I sit down to type my fingers fail to move. (And when they do much of the time it's to erase most of what I've written!)

Most writers go through periods like this - some call it writers block. I'm not sure it's that. It's more like being lost, sitting at the keyboard and simply not knowing where the story is going. So I thought I'd share some of the things that seem to help me when I fall into these ruts.

The first is at the top of this post. I like to create a cover for the book I'm working on and then paste it to my computer screen. It hopefully gives me a little bit of an inspiration every time I turn the machine on. And I have to admit the cover is brilliant. The image from 123RF was great and I modded it a little for atmosphere and lighting and to better let it fit the plot of the book. It may or may not be the sort of cover that would make a reader want to pick it up, but it works well for me in persuading me that I want to write it.

Distraction is also a useful tool. Sometimes you just need to get away from the keyboard for a little while. Immerse yourself in things that don't require a lot of concentration. So for me it's usually old movies / tv series and computer games. At the moment it's Heroes of Might and Magic V and a whole bunch of comedies - mostly British.

Oddly coffee helps - but not in the way you'd imagine. For most people it's a stimulant. For me it relaxes me, even helps me sleep!

And even more strangely, exercise. Normally I'm totally opposed to all forms of exercise - including walking. Truly if I could get one and afford a whole bunch of servants, I'd be riding around town in one of those divan chairs that Dave Allen used to have on his show when he was playing the Pope. (Sadly I don't think a mere four men would be enough to hoist me off the ground!) But lately I've been playing with the free weights a little, and I think I might even have broken into a sweat at one point! Scary stuff!

Anyway that's what helps me at these times. I imagine other writers will find other distractions and techniques will be of more help in getting them through. And one more thing - the understanding that you will get through it.

Of course the next book - Chy - is in the works, but I fear it may be a month or two before it's ready to roll. It's an epic fantasy which is only two thirds complete - and I haven't even started on the blurb as you can see!

So that's where I'm at. I hope you're all well, and getting through these endless lock downs, which seem to be starting up again just when you think they're over! But fingers crossed, there will be a vaccine probably early next year.

Cheers, Greg.

Barton Villa Takes To The Press

Hi Guys,

So March nears it's shocking end and this coronavirus outbreak has exploded into something I don't think anyone saw coming. Certainly not me. And now we in New Zealand are in our second day of lock down, and crossing our fingers that when the four weeks are up this nightmare will be under control. But as worrying as it is for us, when I look at the unfolding horror on the telly, I know it must be a thousand times worse for so many of you. And all I can do is wish you and your loved ones all the best and hope that the measures being taken by our various governments will bring things under control.

In the meantime I have another book out, Barton Villa Welcomes You, which is a sort of light-hearted space opera set mostly in the South Pacific, which oddly enough doesn't involve aliens, UFOs or epic space battles. But it is set on what may be the strangest tropical island ever imagined. I hope it brings some cheer to you all in these difficult times.

Here's the blurb:


Barton Villa Welcomes You:

There is a tropical island in the South Pacific where the millionaires frolic in the sun. Secretly. Because they're the ones that don't want to be seen. An island where traffic gives way to ducks, the world's richest people ride old scooters over the dirt track roads, and where leatherback turtles have a protected hatching ground – even though none have ever been seen.

It is an island from which alien spaceships come and go – though no one ever reports them – and of course there are no aliens.

And it's also an island which the ever watchful eyes of NovATA have noticed. Which the boss of the alien hunting agency has set his greedy heart on. And which an art forger and an intelligence officer will have to protect. If they can.

But then of course there's the vital question. What will the aliens – who don't exist – do?


Cheers, and best of wishes to you all, Greg.

Manx is Out

Hi Guys,

So my first book of the year is out – Manx – and I'm feeling good. (Apart from my back of course which is absolutely killing me! Too much sitting, staring at a computer and snacking – way too much snacking!) But anyway, I feel like I'm finally making progress instead of simply sitting in my chair, staring off into the distance and typing random thoughts, and that's a good thing.

One of the problems writers face (I say confidently as if I have any idea what other writers go through!) is motivation. Not necessarily to write, but instead to write to a program. I write because I love to tell the stories in my head. But it's a very different thing to going to work every day and working. There you have goals. Set things you have to achieve every day. On your own the only goal you have is whatever you set for yourself. I may actually work harder and for a great many more hours at my keyboard than I did when I worked nine to five, but I tend to write less productively. My daily word count is much greater than before, but for every book I write I probably have ten others which I start but then let go nowhere. Some of them are nearly complete novels. So when I complete one, it's always an achievement. This book is a definite achievement. And Manx was also one I loved writing.

I love the cover too. It fits the book because the main character in it – Maxwell Smythe (Manx) – is a librarian in a Victorian / steam-punk era library who adopts a green eyed cat – despite the fact that he can speak with cats and knows they have nothing good to say!

The cat in question – She With The Sharp Claws Who Must Be Adored – is based loosely on my own cat Tab (yes Tabby the Tabby – I never claimed to be good with names!) Tab passed away late last year after a long battle with hyper-thyroidism and then renal failure, and I have to admit the loss hit me quite hard. It's amazing how much the little fur-balls can worm their way under your skin and into your heart. But I'd like to think that a little of her seeped its way into the work. Particularly the complete lack of guilt or shame she knew when she destroyed pieces of my home! In fact she used to stare at me with bits of fluff and furniture in her mouth, and wonder what I was upset about! Purring by the way, is simply a cat's way of lying!

The next book on the line is Adrift – which has absolutely no cats in it! It's a space opera about a man abducted by aliens trying to get home. I'm hoping to get that out in the next couple of months – but sadly I often have such hopes, so we'll have to see! Still the first draft is complete, and I'll start on the edit after I've completed the paperback version of Manx.

And maybe for once, I'll finally achieve my target of four books published in a year! Who knows – it's a new decade. Anything could happen!

Cheers, Greg

New Years Blues!

Hi Guys,

Well I meant to start this year off with a bang (no not the one half of you are thinking of!). But things haven't gone quite according to plan. At least not my plan!

Still, there is some good news. Manx' first draft is done, and as soon as I've finished the first draft of my current space opera - sadly it can't be titled Lost in Space even though that precisely describes the plot - I'll move into the starting edit.

Manx is the story of a man who can talk to cats - but who would want to! A cat who's really above all the troubles in her servants' lives and just wants to be fed and groomed and maybe have a nice shoe or two to take a dump in! And a three eyed woman who can see into other realms. After all what would be the point of a third eye if it didn't let you do that! I suspect the book cover is going to be a problem!

The bad news is that summer has finally arrived in Rotorua, and as I sit here typing, I'm more or less dissolving in front of the keyboard - which may or may not be melting. It's hard to tell when your eyeballs are sweating!

Anyway, I'll try to keep going through the heat and the perspiration. And I'll bravely ignore the cries of my neighbors as they discover that I'm typing in the nude! (Hysterical blindness isn't a real thing!!!) And I hope you all have a great year.

Cheers, Greg.

Callum's Out!!!

Hi Guys,

It's done! The Ebook version anyway! I finished the final revision yesterday morning, put it up, drank a cup of coffee and collapsed onto the couch. Next thing I knew it was thee a.m. this morning!

Regardless it's done and I'm happy (you know - that happy that comes from exhaustion!). Here's the blurb by the way:

Sometimes doing the right thing can be the wrong thing to do!

When Callum saw Fae locked away in prison wagons being hauled through the city like common criminals, he knew his duty. He reported it to the wizards of Eternum. And then he thought no more of it – until the Fae came to rescue their people, started a major battle in the city and finally abducted him. And when he escaped his spells started going wrong!

Raina had always obeyed the Elders. She was High Guard. That was her duty. She could never have imagined that the Elders would commit murder in front of her, dismiss her and finally try to have her assassinated.

Now the enchanter with the misfiring spells and the High Guard officer forced into running had to do something new – if they were to survive.

They had to do the wrong thing!

Anyway, I'm going to have a lie down now! So Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year.

Cheers, Greg.

The December Frenzy

Hi Guys,

Just a short note to let you know where I'm at. 

Callum (I decided to go with that as the title instead of Scars) is now back from the editors and I'm working hard on it. I hope to get it out by Christmas but January is looking more likely. I've done a rough mock up of the cover - above. I was hoping to go for a vibe of slightly magical and slightly creepy, but it may still need some work - not to mention a blurb!

In the meantime I've just finished the first draft of a new epic fantasy - Manx, about a thief and his cat (or possibly the cat and her thief! She With The Sharp Claws Who Must Be Adored certainly thinks so. By the way, cats choose their own names in case you hadn't guessed!) In essence it's a book about a steampunk world where magic has become little more than a legend for four hundreds years as the spell-casters all went away, and a librarian who has the magical gift of talking to cats (which is more of a curse!) And then the spell-casters return and everyone's world turns upside down.

Wings is just about ready to go down to Baen and sit in their slush pile for a year!

And somewhere in all of that I've got to buy some presents, prepare for Christmas and New Years, and maybe take a holiday!

Anyway, if I don't get another post out this year, Merry Christmas all and Happy New Years. And as always be good or don't get caught!

Cheers, Greg.

The Travel Bug

Hi Guys,

Just a quick note to let you know that my latest book is out: The Travel Bug. And no, despite comments to the contrary it's not a hot, steamy romance! It's a sci fi - bordering on space opera. But you try finding a cover that shows astral travel space opera!!!

Anyway, here's the blurb:

Abel Montgomery had slept his way to the top – literally!

He was a traveller. He spent his days searching the stars in his dreams. Hunting for advances that would make the world a better place.

It was a good job. The hours were good. The pay was very good. And he got to see all the wonders that were out there.

Until the aliens started following him home!

Cheers, Greg.

Fear And Loathing In Outer Space

Hi guys,

Bit of a different post this time. Hopefully one that makes you think a bit. But to begin with I put out Madness and Magic about a month ago – really happy about that – and have got some nice reviews for it which is great. And of course immediately after that, while I probably should have been doing something useful, I started on a brand new book.

But this one I actually completed!

The rough draft is now finished – (87 K in a month – don't tell my editor!) and I'm tinkering with it at the moment. Turning it into something more fun to read mostly. At the moment it's title is “The Travel Bug” which is a bit of a pun and it's a sci fi – but not a traditional space opera. There are no spaceships – a few flying saucers though – and no epic space battles. Instead the action is set mostly on Earth and the book is based on two basic ideas.

The first is astral travel and the idea that some people who experience lucid dreams or astral traveling, are in fact actually able to travel to the stars. And that scientists will one day be able to record our dreams, meaning that these people, these actual astral travelers will become the equivalent of astronauts. Traveling the stars and bringing back all the wonders out there for the rest of us to see and learn from.

This of course is not a new idea. There aren't a lot of new ideas in fiction. And this one though it's been used a bit, mostly comes from Simak's “Time is the Simplest Thing”, which is a really great read and I recommend it. I fairly much recommend anything by Clifford Simak.

But it's the other idea contained within the story that's really the subject of this post. That we don't know and can't really understand what alien actually is. And we won't be able to until we actually experience it for ourselves.

This idea has been used all over literary fiction. If you read Lovecraft you'll know that his great and terrible creatures aren't just terrifying, but they overwhelm the understanding of his characters. A few years back the movie Gareth Edwards film “Monsters” came out and one of the central themes in it was that aliens while dangerous and apparently determined to immigrate to Mexico, are something we've just never encountered. The film tried desperately to make us experience a concept of “alien” not really seen before. I also recommend seeing this film, not so much because of the usual things, but because it is an experience. A little bit on the mind blowing side of things.

In “The Travel Bug” I wanted to take this idea and advance it. To ask the question, what would people do if one day they encountered something – an alien – that was completely beyond their understanding? Would they be terrified? Shocked? Overwhelmed? How would we deal with it?

This is actually an important question. We all know that the chances that there is alien life out there are high. The chances that it will visit us in the near future are quite a bit lower, but never the less, we've come up with plans for dealing with that eventuality. But every one of those plans that we've ever heard of centers around the idea that there will be a commonality between our visitors and us. That we will be able to understand them on some fundamental level. But is that realistic? Will we be able to understand them at all? Or will the sheer alien nature of them, completely overwhelm us?

I think this is a possibility we need to seriously consider. Because I'm not sure that we are at all ready to understand what alien really means. And yet we keep imagining that we are. And we even attempt to justify our imaginings with theories that may have no more scientific weight than candy-floss.

We can talk about concepts like parallel evolution meaning that certain body types and ways of interacting with the world will be universal. But really that's guesswork. Evolution has no plan, there are multiple ways of interacting with the world we live in, and worlds themselves may vary wildly. Is there actually any reason to think that an alien water life form should look at all like a fish? It may have evolved a completely different way of living in water.

And why should we assume that they think like us at all? Just because they go to the trouble of visiting us, does that mean they actually want to see us? Some of you will have read the story Roadside Picnic in which the aliens came to Earth simply for some sort of stopover on their journey and mankind wasn't even on their radar. They weren't interested in us at all. And we're trying to interpret the items they left behind in the belief that they left them for us. But really, it's just rubbish that they tossed aside. The point is that we assume aliens will be like us in some ways. That they'll behave in ways we do. But I suspect that may be a mistake.

Assuming that some alien with funny ears may simply wander down the landing ramp and tell us they come in peace, is likely a mistake. Whatever arrives may actually ooze through the porous hull of its vessel and then completely fail to recognize any form of intelligent live on Earth as it really just came to look at the pretty sunsets.

And how would we deal with aliens? We want to think we're rational people. But just as one example, what if what came down that landing ramp was a human sized spider? We already know that a certain proportion of people will run screaming in terror if that happened, while others would find themselves rooted to the ground in terror. We don't know why, but arachnophobia is a common human issue. We fear spiders. They have too many legs, move in unpredictable ways and we're frightened that they're poisonous. Yet the reality is that they're mostly harmless. And we're far less terrified of dogs even though vastly many more people are hurt by them every year. The reason I suspect, is that we can sense a sort of kinship with dogs. When a dog barks or growls, we can get a gist of their intentions and what they'll do. Spiders are simply too alien, for want of a better term.

But spiders are from Earth. We have far more in common with them than any alien being that may come from the stars. So why not take that phobic reaction we get from seeing spiders, and amp it up a thousand times or so, to try and understand what our reactions to our alien guests might be. Suddenly it might not just be a few people screaming in terror, running away in blind terror, depositing the contents of their stomachs on the ground, or standing rooted to the spot like statues. It may be half the population.

And I can hear the doubters scoffing at this even now. They watch horror movies. Nothing could scare them. Not like that. But my counter would be that this wouldn't be a movie. It would be real. There's no screen in front of you, constantly telling you that what you're seeing is only a movie and that you're safe. Instead there may be sounds and smells that simply make no sense. Actions we just can't interpret. There's no way to predict how people will respond when something truly alien walks into their life without the reassuring safety net of a screen between them and us. But my guess is that it could be very badly.

The gist of this blog is really that when it comes to aliens, we don't actually know what alien is, and we won't until we finally meet it. We also don't know how we'll react to it. And we won't even be sure why it came. But the one thing we do have to do, is put away our beliefs that we do. Because all our theories about aliens have rooted deep within them, the idea that they'll be just like us in some ways. 

And the whole point of being alien, is that they're not.

Cheers, Greg.

House Prices in Midsomer and Unintended Consequences!

Hi Guys,

This time I thought I'd turn my attention to unintended consequences in world building. And the title, though perhaps a little tongue in cheek, says it all. Would you buy a house in Midsomer? I wouldn't when the chances of your surviving there until old age are remote and the likelihood of suffering a gruesome death is high. (On the other hand St Mary Mead is once more a desirable place to live now that Miss Marple has gone away, and house prices in Cabot Cove are starting to rise again since the departure of Jessica Fletcher!)

I know, this all sounds very odd. But in essence it's a simple point for writers. We dream up characters and world builds and all sorts of wonderful things, but too often don't stop to think what the consequences of our dreams would be in the real world. Nowhere is this more true than in the realm of science fiction and fantasy.

The reason I bring this up is that in writing more steampunk fantasy like Madness and Magic and now Callum, I've been having to concentrate a lot more on this very issue. In Madness, I had my hero riding on a steam powered motorbike - which I thought was damned cool idea, I admit. But in doing that I had to deal head on with the question - could you have steam powered motorbikes in a world full of magic? Because if everyone had magic, why wouldn't people just fly or portal wherever they wanted to go? On the other hand if magic was rare, complicated and difficult and only a few had it, why would anyone even care about it let alone desire it? Everyone would be getting motorbikes and the roads would be perfectly smooth.

This has been my struggle with world building for steampunk for the last couple of years. A tricky balancing act where I have to both advance and hold back technology and magic to explain why neither of them has dominated the world. Why there hasn't been an industrial revolution and mass production - or a magical enlightenment. What lets them compete in the world without one dominating the other.

For me I've developed and used a number of answers to resolve these questions and I think they've been reasonably coherent. Enough that my worlds don't leave people scratching their heads too much - I hope! But after handing Callum over to my editor I've begun watching more shows of late, and seen more versions of these problems popping up everywhere.

In Powers - a show I really enjoyed - I watched superheros and villains streaking across the sky and having aerial battles over the city and a question struck me - would you have air travel in a world like this? Because planes would be horribly vulnerable to attacks and accidents and the safest way to travel would quickly become the most dangerous. The industry would never take off! (They actually had a partial explanation for this in the show about flight heights and rules, but it didn't sound plausible to me.)

I re-watched Lord of the Rings and once more found myself caught with the question about the eagles. If you can simply get on an eagle and fly why wouldn't you just fly the damned ring to the mountain? I know, there is an explanation - the ringwraiths on their dragons would tear the eagles apart - but really Mordor is a big place and the ringwraiths can't be everywhere. They could sneak through. Especially at night. And more so when they have invisibility on their side.

Then there was Powerless - a fun little comedy where the employees of Bruce Wayne beaver away in their building creating all sorts of devices to protect people from super villains. But a single question arises - why haven't the super villains got together and destroyed the building and its people? They are after all villains and it is a threat to their continued villainy.

My point in this post is really just that actions - or in this case characteristics of your world build - have consequences, and that we as authors really need to sit down whenever we come up with a cool idea like wizards on motorbikes, and start asking ourselves what is this going to mean for our world? Will house prices go up?!

Cheers, Greg.

Madness and Magic

Hi Guys,

Just a quick post to say - Yes! It's out! And I'm buggered! (Also my eyes have gone a little wonky! Editing has to be the most awful part of writing ever invented!)

Now on to the next books. Callum is off to the editor shortly - Shh - don't tell her, it'll be a lovely birthday surprise! And then I'll finish off Winged Fool (yeah the title may need some work!) and then off to Baen Publishing (hoping of course that they haven't read Madness and Magic and discovered a bookshop in it called Baen's Books!)

Cheers, Greg.

Writing Up A Storm

Hi Guys,

Just to keep you up to date on where things are at with me. First, Madness and Magic is still with the editor. But progress is being made and I hope it'll be out in the next month or two.

And while that's being edited I've been working on two other books.

One of them, possibly to be called Callum or Chase - since that's the hero's name - has finished it's first draft and is now in the sitting around phase, waiting for me to mull it over a bit. I'm not completely convinced with the ending and some of the language needs sharpening up a little. It's the tale of a hedge (wizard) caught up in a war he wants no part of, between true wizards and the fae. I don't know if that will go the self publishing route or be farmed out around agents and publishers yet.

The other book - I want to call it Wings, but the name is already taken by the tv series and trademarked - is the corollary to the Arcanist. In essence it starts out with an identical protagonist - a third son of a noble family blessed (or cursed in this case) with magic, and technological skills. But everything departs from the first tale because of one small change in the world build. In his world, magic and technology undermine one another. So spells weaken and damage technology around them, while technological items weaken enchantments etc and make spell casting problematic. Our hero lives in a technological city (think steampunk) and when he discovers his magic is forced to flee the city and head to the magical lands to the west.

This book, I'm thinking will go initially to Baen Books, given that they have an open submission system and like works to be focused on magical systems. I just hope that they don't read Madness and Magic, since the hero in it is called Baen and has a book store called Baen's Books!

Ah well, such is life!

Cheers, Greg.

Magical Science

Hi Guys,

This time I thought I'd turn to a slightly different aspect of writing - magical science. Or put another way, science that simply isn't possible.

Now as you know I write space opera and one of the impossible sciences that's fairly much vital to the genre is faster than light travel. To those purists among you who only read so-called hard science fiction, this is pure fantasy. And who knows, maybe you're right. But maybe, you're wrong. It all comes down to whether the theory of relativity is right. And for my part, while I don't intend to expound in great detail about the problems I find with the theory, I would point out one important fact. It's a theory. Therefore I feel quite comfortable inventing and using various methods of FTL travel in my books.

There are however, other scientific principles that I have a harder time allowing to be broken. One of them as you may know - since I actually wrote a book about it - is the concept of disassembling and reassembling someone and expecting them to somehow live through it. Yes this is the Star Trek transporter! This device, invented because the show was low on budget and they couldn't afford to create sets of shuttles etc, if it worked would actually be a killing booth that murdered a man at one end and created an exact duplicate at the other, Or according to others a nearly exact duplicate with bits of fly mixed in!

Having said that, there are other, similar ideas which for me at least, don't pass the sniff test. One of them, which pops up all over the place, is the idea of somehow uploading your consciousness into a computer to become a digital immortal. To me at least, this is pure nonsense. It will never be possible. Yes you may be able to make an exact digital copy of your brain / mind one day and put it out on a network of some sort. That seems perfectly plausible. But what isn't plausible is that that copy will be you. It'll just be a copy. You'll still be where you were in the real world - though quite possibly dead.

Time travel also falls within the spectrum of impossible science for me. I don't accept that time travel is possible in anyway - and not just because of the inevitable paradoxes it would cause.

And while I'm at it, mirror universes are also out. Parallel universes are fine. But mirror ones where there's an exact duplicate of everyone on Earth living the same lives? No. That's fantasy too. I mean think about it - an exact duplicate universe with just one tiny little change as they all inevitably have? That change, no matter how minor, after its been experienced by every person in the mirror universe for millions of years, is no longer minor. The butterfly effect would have kicked in and it would be extremely unlikely that any single person in our universe would have a duplicate in the other one.

I could go on. I could mention the bizarre mish mash of diseases that turned up in the Helix tv series - none of which made any sense. Or the immense windstorms on Mars that apparently blow people around like confetti when the atmosphere there is only one percent as dense as that on Earth. Then there's the Xelayan heavy worlder from the Orville. Yes she may have vast strength. But unless she also weighs thirty or so tons, when she hits a metal wall with all her strength, she's the one who's going to be bouncing off it!

My point here, is that everyone has different limits to what they will accept as believable, and when it comes to basic scientific principles you have to tread very carefully as authors. Because it doesn't matter how you spin it - whether you try to gloss over the impossibility without any explanation, make up some pseudo scientific sound basis, or simply assert it as scientific fact - the moment you cross these boundaries, you're going to lose readers.

As someone once said, as a writer you can be allowed one impossible thing in a story, but no more. So treasure it and use it wisely.

Anyway, Cheers, for now,

Greg.

Prognostication and Cats

Hi Guys,

So this morning began in an unfortunately familiar way – with the sound of my cat trying to throw up the contents of her stomach on to my face! Naturally being a cat owner I took this as a sign. Cats, as everyone knows, are able to predict the future with incredible accuracy. It's why they're never around when hard work beckons! Unfortunately this remarkable ability is possessed by creatures with the temperaments of … well cats. So instead of using it to give their owners insights into the coming days and even warn them of impending doom, they prefer to use it to predict events that have already happened and then laugh at them!

Which brings me to yesterday. A day which also began in an unfortunate way when the marge in my electric fry-pan as I fried some eggs decided to start spitting at me and caught me perfectly on the tip of my nose. A nose which I might add had already been attacked by my cat three days before and so was particularly sensitive!

After the screaming had died down – and the cat's laughter as she had naturally predicted the event and found herself the perfect position to watch from – the rest of my day proceeded to go from bad to worse.

Bad was when I got to watch the rubbish truck drive straight past my wheelie bin without stopping. I suspect that the Council has started hiring cats as drivers! Worse was when rushing outside to yell and shake my fist at the retreating rubbish truck I somehow managed to tumble on the drive and ended up lying in a puddle of filthy water! Worse still followed when I decided to clean myself up and discovered that the hot water had run out! But the truly terrible and completely unmitigated disaster was when my editor rang me up to say she was making good progress with my latest book and she liked the story!

Damn it! Hasn't she heard of the kiss of death?!

So now as I sit here writing this and waiting for the ceiling to collapse on top of me, I find myself wondering – will it be enough to simply beat myself over the head with my computer? Or will a true blood sacrifice be required?! But it could be worse I suppose. I could be superstitious!

Still the good news is that Fineas and Tusk: The Epic Journey of a Man and His Pig, is approaching publication. The cover art has been done, and it looks glorious. The artist by the way is Andrew Morris – vanmorrisman on Deviant Art – check out his work. (I added the titles by the way, so don't blame him for that!)

So that's been my last day or so. I hope you've all had a better time of things. And as always, be good or don't get caught!

Cheers, Greg.

The Speed Of Information

Hi Guys,

Bit of a change in topic this time. First up the next book – Fineas and Tusk: The Epic Journey of a Man and His Pig, is with the editor at the moment, but since she's in the process of moving house at the moment, it may be a while before it returns to me. The image above by the way is one that I found on DeviantArt.com while I was searching covers for the book, and while I can't use it since it doesn't really match the story at all, I loved it so I thought I'd share it. I may contact the artist and get him to paint me something similar.

However, this time I thought I'd return to an old chestnut of mine – Relativity and space opera. We all know the basics, Relativity means that faster than light travel is essentially impossible, so most space opera is impossible. In essence if we want to write space opera grounded in any sort of reality we have to resort to cheats like warp drives and hyperspace. Theoretical speculations and mathematical possibilities but still things not observed. Or else write things like The Expanse and Starhunter – sub-light speed space opera contained within the solar system. Alternatively we risk arousing the wrath of hard science fiction fans and being told we're fantasists. (That may actually be true in my case!)

But as some of you may know, I have never been the most ardent believer in Relativity. Yes I know – it's one of the most tested and validated theories in physics, and even suggesting that it may not be right is like standing on sacred ground for many. But I have never been comfortable with the idea that time is mutable. To me it seems that if time can be slowed by motion or gravity, or even stopped, then it can be reversed and time travel becomes possible – and I really do not accept time travel. To me something either is completely mutable or it isn't at all. And if time is actually mutable as Relativity says, than we live in a universe of time travel paradoxes.

Naturally I don't think my speculations are going to end up on the title pages of any physics text books any time soon! In fact quite likely I may end up labelled as a Luddite! But that's life.

However in keeping with my views, I've often found myself wondering over the years, is there a way to explain the observations of Relativity without actually having to claim that time itself is somehow being bent? And the answer is yes – at least in my view. I'll attempt to explain my answer here. (Physicists avert your gazes now – this may be treason!)

So my theory is a simple one. That what is observed, has nothing to do with time being bent or slowed. It is in fact nothing more than an artifact of what I'll term the speed of information. Time is not in any way affected by motion. Only the information about it is.

Now I should say at the outset that this artifact is real. It must logically exist. So any theory of apparent time dilation must include it. I'm not sure however, if it's included in current relativistic calculations. I thought about contacting NASA and asking but could feel the laughter building!

OK, that said lets consider the old twins paradox which is what essentially buggers up a lot of space opera. Now according to Special Relativity we have one twin on Earth and the other on a rocket ship leaving Earth at the speed of light. The twin on the rocket ship has time slow down or stop for him, so that when he returns to Earth, he finds he is in fact younger than the twin he said goodbye to. And we have evidence that objects travelling away from Earth do in fact appear to be experiencing less time. Sounds like a case closed sort of thing doesn't it?!

But what I would ask you, would we expect to see if Relativity wasn't an issue? If the universe operated purely by Newtonian principles? Would we expect to see the rocket ship leaving us at the speed of light and everything as if it was happening right in front of us?

Actually no. If Relativity was not an issue we would expect to see that rocket ship which is heading away from Earth at the speed of light, seemingly only travelling at half the speed of light. And if there were portholes on that ship, we would expect to see the people on board moving and ageing at half speed. It would look like everything was in slow motion.

This has nothing to do with time dilation. Time is not being slowed in any way. This is purely an artifact of the speed with which the information about that rocket ship's travel comes back to us – at the speed of light.

To explain this, consider that the rocket ship has been travelling at the speed of light for a year. Could we sitting on Earth staring at it with our telescopes, expect to see the rocket ship one light year away? No. We would see it at the six month point in its trip. This is because the light from the rocket ship as it travels takes time to get back to us. So at the one year point in its journey, that light will take a second year to get back to us, meaning that we will observe the rocket ship at its one light year point, after two years.

To extend this point a little, if the ship is travelling to Alpha Centauri, four and a half light years away and is travelling at the speed of light, it will arrive in the system in four and a half years. But we on Earth will observe it arrive nine years after it left, without any time dilation being involved. Naturally this fits perfectly with the fact that everything we see of Alpha Centauri is four and a half years out of date.

Now lets reverse this a little. What does the man on the Rocket ship staring back at Earth see when he's travelling at the speed of light? And the answer assuming that he sees anything at all, is that he would see the Earth as if it was frozen in time. Someone had hit the pause button on the dvd player. This again is simply an artifact of the speed of information. All the light from Earth telling him what's happening there, is travelling with him at exactly the same speed. So the light that left Earth one second after he did, is still one second behind him for the entire journey.

And again to extend this point a little, when he arrives at his destination and stops, four and a half years later, he suddenly sees the Earth start moving again as someone hit play on the machine. But everything he sees is four and a half years out of date. Naturally once more this fits perfectly with the fact that everything seen of Earth from Alpha Centauri is four and a half years old.

Now lets add a third observer. This time the guy at Alpha Centauri watching the rocket ship come to him. What does he see in a universe without time dilation? Oddly, he sees nothing. The rocket ship takes off, but he won't see that until four and a half years later – at exactly the same time as the rocket ship arrives beside him. So he has the unusual experience four and a half years after the rocket ship leaves Earth, of seeing it take off, travel for four and a half years, and arrive all in the same instant. A sort of photonic boom.

So what does all of this mean for us space opera writers? It means at the very least that there is a simple explanation for why we might observe what seems to be time dilation without it actually existing. It also means there might be a very simple reason that we cannot observe anything travelling faster than the speed of light – all the information about that thing travels to us at the speed of light since it's axiomatic that light cannot travel faster than the speed of light.

Most importantly it means that we can write space opera involving faster than light travel without having to invoke the gods of hyperspace and warp drive etc, and still feel good about it! Hard science fiction be damned!!!

Anyway, must dash. I see the men with the white coats walking up the drive and I suspect they have a new jacket for me – one that straps up at the back!

Enjoy your writing.

Cheers, Greg.

The Dotard

Hi Guys,

 

Short post this time. Just to let you know that there's a new book coming out shortly. It's just gone off to the editor yesterday, and I'm now playing Skyrim and waiting for the normal round of abuse from her! But really, it has I think, the quality she most looks forward to in my books – fewer words! So that's got to count for something!

Anyway the book's called The Dotard and is a steam-punk with wizards battling one another. It's hopefully a little more light reading than A Bitter Brew, and with a little more humour. The plot's also not so convoluted though there are a few surprises in it. Even I can't spend eternity weaving plot elements into a complex tangle that only makes sense right at the end!

For those who want to know where the idea came from, the book was started about a year ago on a whim. At the time I'd just read something about the then up and coming final wolverine movie and there was a piece in it about Professor X. The man with the most powerful mind in the world suffering from a deteriorating illness of the brain and losing control of his abilities. And it occurred to me – what if he was a wizard?!

So that's where the book began. Where Wilberforce Wilberton came from. With one of the most powerful wizards known, suffering from advanced dementia, losing his sanity and the control of his spells. With magical accidents happening whenever he cast a spell and him refusing to hang up his cauldron! And with a town living in fear of what he might do next. You just never know when a cow might unexpectedly fall out of the sky and wreck your house! Or your day!

Anyway that's all I have for the moment. So as they say in Skyrim – Watch the skies, travellers!

Cheers, Greg.

 

 

 

The Unexpected Perils of Holding a Pen!

 

Hi Guys,

 

I've been without a computer for the last week or so, since the machine decided it no longer wanted to start. But it kept telling me it wanted to – if only I'd select the right operating system from the list provided so it could automatically repair whatever was wrong with it. Unfortunately the list it presented me with was blank – something that made me think the fault might be somewhat terminal! Thankfully, as you can tell, it wasn't and here I am a week later, still kicking and screaming.

However, the computer's breakdown gave me a little time to think about things. For a start it gave me a chance to be grateful that the breakdown occurred a week after I published A Bitter Brew and not a week before! It also gave me a chance to get back to the basics of writing. At which point I discovered that my fingers have forgotten how to hold a pen!

I know. It sounds ridiculous. But it's actually true. I've been typing for so long that the actual physical act of writing with pen and paper is alien to my hand. And the script that flows from it is less than pretty. Not that it was pretty before, but things have definitely gone downhill! For those of you who think I'm kidding but equally don't write with pen and paper, all I can suggest is that you try it for yourself. It is actually quite shocking as you sit there with cramped fingers trying to remember which way the pen goes to link to the next letter!

That in turn set me to thinking about some of the other odd effects writing – either with pens and paper or computer – have had on my world. The downsides. And here I'm not talking about the traditional downsides of being an author – poverty, an ever decreasing circle of friends, a never ending need to shout from the rooftops that no one is listening to you, followed by alcoholism, death and a pauper's grave! No here I'm thinking of the ones that no one normally talks about.

One of them is what people think is shyness and embarrassment. The absolute aversion I've developed to telling people in the off-line world that I'm a writer. But it's not because I'm ashamed of what I do, or because I'm shy. It's because it inevitably leads to two questions, neither of which I know how to answer, nor want to try.

The first is –“where do you get your ideas from?” I hate this question, because I have absolutely no idea. They just come. I write and they flow. More than that I can't tell you. And if you ask me this question face to face I'm just going to have to think of some clever answer, because let's face it – “I don't know” sounds terrible!

The other question of course is that perennial favourite – “have you written anything I know?” I hate this question because the answer is mostly – no. Of course I haven't. A lot of people read what I write and some of you say nice things about it for which I'm eternally grateful. But that doesn't make me Stephen King. On top of which I only write in a couple of genres and there are hundreds of others that people read. So it's really quite unlikely that any particular person would have read my books. But saying that just makes me feel like a failure.

Another of the unexpected consequences of spending so much time writing these past few years is that I've become a grammar Nazi! I don't know when it happened exactly. And I loathe being that person. But still it's there. And the inner grammar Nazi reveals itself at the most unexpected times. For example there's a song on the radio I listen to quite often. And every time I hear it a part of me cringes as they sing part of a line “… gets me overwhelmed.” I usually end up yelling at the car radio that it should be “… leaves me overwhelmed.” As you can guess this particular song is not good for road safety in my case! And I'm already in the process of writing up the legal argument for the day that the inevitable happens! I'm not sure that anybody has ever before cited dangerous song lyrics leading to a car crash as the grounds for a civil action!

In fact the pain of hearing this line annoys me so greatly that many times I've considered writing the boy band in question a letter demanding that they fix it. (Of course they're quite safe at this stage since my fingers can't hold a pen and my computer has only just come back to life! Also I understand that they've broken up – in fear perhaps of my scathing note and legal action!)

Reading has also become problematic over the years. I find it hard to slip into someone else's prose these days – not because there's anything wrong with it, but because I've become so used to my own style and in the back of my mind there's always this little voice saying; “well I wouldn't have written it that way”. These days whenever I do any critiquing for fellow authors I have to constantly check myself as to whether I'm suggesting a change because it's good for the work or because it fits my style.

Google has become a nightmare. Yes it is my friend. But sometimes you can have too many friends! The problem is that whenever I write something and I touch on a topic I'm not familiar with, whether it's gun handling, the Ninth Legion or brewing ale, I have to go and research it online to make sure I've got it right. And the amount of research I can end up doing for a single scene or even a sentence in a book, is mind blowing. It can take longer than writing the actual book! And the amount of material I download is frightening. (Maybe that's what killed my computer!)

And then there's stress. Yes I know, who can lie around all day typing a few words, and somehow discover stress?! It seems unlikely. But it's real. All day I'm constantly wondering – will people like my latest book? Will they read it? What about typos? What if I run out of ideas? (I don't know where they come from after all so I can't tell how many might be left!) And will my cat finally claw my face off in my sleep?! (Yes that one's my own personal demon, but still it's not a nice way to finally close your eyes!)

Anyway, for those of you wanting to embark on this journey of writing, I thought I'd share some of the unexpected perils you may find along the way.

 

Cheers, and good luck, Greg.

 

 

 

Mages, Covers and The Woes of Princes

Hi Guys,

 

 

 

 

Tornado Mage by WarNick on DeviantArt

 

Been a while since I last posted, but I've been busy writing so I guess I have an excuse?! In fact I've written a bit over 160K in the last month, which is something of a record even for me.

 

The new book, which is about 80% complete, is called "A Bitter Brew" and is another epic fantasy. But this one's a little bit different to my others. The hero is a mage, but like all those with magic in his world, he isn't called that. He's called "afflicted", and magic is considered a disease. The afflicted have become a lower class in his world, like the untouchables, and are relatively powerless. They're also easily spotted, since as part of their gaining magic, they become marked with one of seven magic metals. In Hendrick's case the metal is Mithril, and the markings run up his entire left arm.

 

In his world - Styrion - the afflicted aren't just shunned. They are discriminated against in law. They may not hold any office or station. They can't enter the capitol city or any Council Chamber in any other. If by chance they have a useful spell, they cannot charge for its use, and if someone in authority asks, they have to provide the magical service immediately and for free. In short they are the lowest of the low, without any hope of improving their lot in life.

 

The reason those with magic are so powerless is that the way they gain their magic is different to that in other books. They aren't born with a talent, and they don't learn it. Instead they pick up a fragment of magic metal, usually not knowing what it even is, and it promptly dissolves into their skin marking them for life. And then instead of acquiring (or absorbing) a whole type of magic, they only acquire a single spell. One spell per fragment. And to add to their woes, there's no telling what spell any fragment contains. It could be a useful one. It could even be a warspell. But the most likely outcome is that it will be something completely useless - the ability to grow body hair for example!

 

This means that most of the magical are left in their world with one or two spells which are of no earthly use to them, and marked as afflicted for all the world to see. Probably the worst of all possible situations for a spellcaster! And yet there is an even worse possibility for some. That they pick up their spells by having the fragment of magic metal touch a part of their body normally covered by clothes, so the markings are hidden. These poor souls are called witches and warlocks, and are considered to be hiding their affliction. Naturally the normal distrust people have for the afflicted is multiplied for witches and warlocks, and in fact they're often simply considered evil.

 

For Hendrick the situation is more complicated still. As well as being afflicted and trying to run a brewery in a small town, he is also a prince - seventeenth in line to the throne - and yet the law actually forbids him from ever assuming the throne or even setting foot in the royal city. So he's a prince in name only, and an outcast! (I so love putting my characters in difficult situations!)

 

Of course I couldn't leave it there - it was just too easy! So naturally I had to give him a sociopathic mother who discarded him in favour of his older, unafflicted brother, and who spends her days plotting against the other wives in the royal household. A father - the King - who sent a squad of mercenaries to kill him on the pretext of escorting him to his latest royal wedding. A brand new step-mother who isn't so much monstrous as actually a monster. And a war. Actually, several wars!

 

So that's where the book begins.

 

Anyway the book is nearly finished, and will probably head off for beta reading in the next few weeks. Meanwhile I'm at the stage of looking for book covers - which is where the image at the top comes from. I was hoping to use it, if I could get it a little modified by the artist, but thus far he has failed to respond to my message. Still it is I think a powerful image and so hopefully he'll get back to me at some point.

 

Meanwhile I'll leave you guys with a rather brilliant word I came across while doing my research for the book. It's a ye olde timey English word which I found and loved - Mumblecrust. And for those of you who, like me had never heard of it before, a Mumblecrust is in fact a toothless old beggar who because of his lack of teeth can't speak clearly - bit like a few politicians I can think of!

 

Cheers, Greg.