I Have Entered The Modern Age!

 Hi Guys,

Yes, it's true. I have finally entered the modern age - though admittedly I was dragged into it kicking and screaming. Or put another way, my old land line died. So yes, now I have a cell phone! (Five or ten years behind the rest of the world!)

I'd like to be able to say I love it - but I don't. It looks pretty enough, but my fingers are too clumsy to push the keys on the screen - and for some reason it seems to click on keys before I even touch them. It's not like a proper keyboard at all. And I can't tell you how infuriating that is when I'm trying to enter my fifteen digit password! (Maybe the guy at the shop was right about using a shorter one!) And even when I'm sure I've entered the password correctly, it doesn't work! It just keeps telling me to try again in thirty seconds. One of these days those thirty seconds are going to be the length of time it has left to live!

As you can guess things have not been quiet in the house. There has been an awful lot of yelling at the damned machine! Enough that the cats keep running away - or staring at me as if I'm having some sort of fit!

So anyway, I guess it's back to the Spark store to get the password changed, and then to pray that in time the world goes back to the glorious age of land lines and actual buttons! (And yes, I do see the irony in that - a writer of science fiction unable to deal with even current technology! I may actually be a technophobe! But I comfort myself with the fact that many writers even in this computer age, use typewriters or even write by hand. I'm in good company.)

In the meantime, somewhere between screaming like a two year old on crack at the phone and pulling my hair out, I have been writing. Jumping as I usually do, between several different books. But a couple of them are close to completion at least - including the long promised Freaksville. All while I wait nervously for the first reviews of Moody Rockers.

Anyway, cheers, for now. 

Greg.

Moody Rockers is out!

 Hi Guys,

Yes, it's been a battle, but Moody rockers is out in Kindle, finally. I did the paperback too, but thus far, after hours of pulling my hair out this morning, I haven't had word from Amazon as to whether it's going to make it through the inspection process. There were four typos after all! But we'll wait and see, I suppose.

Moody Rockers is an urban sci fi set in 2030 New Zealand, when backyard genetic engineering has become a thing, and it explores a number of the issues associated with the technology - not to mention a growing freedom of expression movement called Moody Rocking. Essentially it's the next step in body art. Why paint an elf or an ogre on your skin when you can actually become one?! 

Doctor  Robert Moody is my MC and the guy who invented the process (this year in fact so he'd better get moving!), which is why the movement bears his name. And why he's becoming the next thing to a cult leader whether he likes it or not!

But the story is essentially a slightly futuristic police procedural revolving around the criminal side of genetic body modification. What people can do to themselves - and others - with the technology. And what those who have been modified can do on the criminal side of things. (And of course I had to have werewolves and elves and super soldiers because as Homer would say - doh!!!)

It also looks at how this particular technology will change our society and the problems it may cause. But the advantages it will bring as well - like longer life spans and improved health. It's essentially a genie that is almost out of the bottle.

Anyway, it should be an enjoyable romp, and I hope people enjoy it.

https://www.amazon.com/Moody-Rockers-Greg-Curtis-ebook/dp/B0C3ZDYDGC/ref=sr_1_2?

Cheers, Greg. (And as always, be good or don't get caught!)

Alone In The Dark Is Out In The Open!!!

Hi Guys,

 

Well it happened guys! I was supposed to be working on Freaksville (which is almost done - still) and got side tracked again. As usual! And I ended up finishing off Alone In The Dark - which is another detective / police procedural.

But I will say this one does touch just a tiny bit on genetic engineering - in as much as it has some skin pigmentation etc mixed in with cosmetic surgery. But in this case, that genetic tweaking, is really not a lot more advanced - if it's more advanced at all that is - than what's currently available, which is why I felt comfortable including it in what is essentially a basic detective novel.

In essence this is a book about a woman in witness protection who is offered the ultimate don't get killed card - change your name, face and race and then take up residence as a new person in a foreign country. And so Maryanne Simpson was born. (Her old name is deliberately never used in the book because the story is not about who she was, only who she has become!) And I have a detective of course - Dan Murdock with the New Zealand police whose job it is to track down criminals using exactly the same sort of technology through the black market clinics, to escape justice.

I wanted to explore in this book, a lot of the reasons that people might use this sort of technology, both for good and ill, as well as of course, what it would be like to live as a different person of a different ethnicity, in a strange land - all while living with the threat of a violent death hanging over you if you get caught. As well as throwing in a murder mystery to round everything out! (There may be a few odd jokes as well!)

Anyway, I hope people enjoy it and as always to all of you, be good or don't get caught!

Cheers, Greg.

More Book Cover Designs

 Hi Guys,

Okay, just having a little fun with Deep Dream. So take a look!

So this, or a variant will be the cover for the next Barton Villa. That's Dee Wallace by the way. and pretty close to how I imagined her, just a little hotter!

A couple of versions for the other novel I'm working on - "A Ghost Of A Chance" It's a steampunk fantasy in case you couldn't guess!

And while I was looking for covers for Moody Rockers - an urban sci fi, I somehow created this! Hell if I know how! But here's something closer to the actual cover:

Damn this thing is fun!!!

Cheers, Greg.

Freaksville is Coming Along Nicely

Hi Guys,

 

 

Just thought I'd write a short post to tell you that, no, I haven't been just simply sitting on my arse, twiddling my thumbs all this time. (Just some of it!) In fact I've been busy writing two different novels - oh the perils of being a pantster! 

The first is "A Ghost Of A Chance" which is about an astral traveler in a steampunk world who discovers all the strange troubles his talent can get him in. At the moment I'm a little bit blocked on it, which is why the second book, "Freaksville" is coming along a little faster. Freaksville is an urban fantasy set in New Zealand about an engineer trapped in a community full of nyads, dryads and - you guessed it - faeries. It also skirts the boundaries between urban fantasy and urban sci fi which means it may end up being classed as science fantasy. (Oh, it also has a six legged cat!)

But what I really wanted to talk about was a new art program I've recently discovered. And maybe I'm a little behind the times, but it is wondrous. It's called Deep Dream AI, and as the name suggests, it actually has an AI generating images for you based on how you describe the image you want. And it is stunning! It does beautiful pictures, though it has problems. Number one unfortunately is that it can't do wings, which is why I had to tinker a little with the image above. (And there's more to do yet - this is just a draft!)

What blows me away though, is that the computer generates these images all by itself based purely on a few words you give it. Now that truly is science fiction!

Anyway if you've got a few spare moments, I'd recommend hopping over to the site, and taking a look. It has a limited free offer - probably about fifteen or so images you can experiment with - but unfortunately after that you have to pay. But it's well worth just seeing the brave new world of computing arriving in front of you.

(I just hope AI's don't start writing books - or I'll be in trouble!)

Other than that, I really haven't got a lot else to report. But as usual I wish you guys all the best. And as always, be good or don't get caught!

Cheers, Greg.

Byson Darious: The Man, The Myth The Unicorn!

 Hi Guys,

Happy New Year all. (Yeah, it's been a slow start to the year for me!) 

But I've been busy. Ever since I finished the first draft of Bound off around Christmas, I've been more or less head down in the book, editing and revising. A book that grew out to a hundred and seventy one thousand words! Every time I thought I was done, I realized there was just a little something more I needed to add. Still finally - yesterday - it's done.

Bound is a light-hearted epic fantasy about Byson Darious, an apothecary trying to live a simple life, but whose family seem to want to drag him into their own troubles - or get him to dig them out of them. And mixed in with that Byson has his own secret - that he has bound himself to a unicorn to gain a little more magic of his own. Naturally that has it's own unexpected consequences! But in the end, as the world is falling into ruin, it may be the very thing that's needed - naturally!

Anyway it's gone up and I'm glad. I'd almost begun to think for a while that I would never finish it. Now I can turn my thoughts to other things for a while - like getting the back yard cut back some more. A lot more. And solving the riddle of the ages - why when I threw out lawn seed on a patch of ground a few months ago, did only clover grow? I think it's magic! A curse. Or the cats did it - which is fairly much the same thing!

Also I have another pile of books in various stages of completion waiting for me to finally get round to finishing, and as usual I have no idea which I want to get to first. But I suppose there's no shortage of them to throw myself into. (That's a good thing, right?!)

Anyway I hope all of you are well and enjoying life in 2023. And as always be good or don't get caught!

Cheers, Greg.

So I Can See Again!!!

 Hi guys,

So the good news is I got through the cataract surgery on my left eye, and it went sort of alright. Sadly I've got something called negative photopsia in the eye, which is something I'd never heard of. It's basically a black border on the outside of my vision, but which will hopefully go away in a few months. If not optomotrists have a cure - sort of. It's called wearing glasses with thick black rims until you stop noticing! (And no, I'm not kidding!)

The bad news is that I got my vision changed to far sight, which makes it difficult to read the computer screen. In short I need reading glasses. 

 And the really bad news is that now that I can see again - I'm starting to see all the typos in my latest books! Bugger! (Guess what I'm going to be doing over the coming month!!!)

But with my new and improved vision in one eye, I finally managed to complete another book - The Keeper - which is a change from my usual fare. It's a straight detective. (Actually when I listed it on Amazon they let me put it in a category called Female Sleuths which seemed to fit perfectly.) So no magic, no spaceships just a crime - and a whole lot of lions! (Also a lot of very bad language and some poor jokes!)

Don't know why I decided to complete this book now, but it's been sitting on my computer for a couple of years and I suddenly felt the need to go back to it. That's the way we pantsters roll I suppose.

Anyway, I'm finally back at it now that I can see the computer screen from more than six inches away. I don't think I'll be able to get Bound out before January - it only needs a few more chapters, but then come the revisions and edits. (And that doesn't include the fact that I might get side tracked again!) But at least my writing speed is up to normal again.

Hope you're all doing well etc, and if you are looking at cataract surgery, do check out negative photopsia - it's actually quite common.

Cheers, Greg.