Para-ranting

As time moves on I’m getting tempted to write about the recent distractions in my life especially that there’s been a few. The first and foremost, my daughter, but I already boasted about her earlier, so will refrain from it this time. Her subject does, however indirectly, lead on to one of the projects I’m working on, which is an educational board game for kids and adults taking place in the solar system. The first draft is nearly completed, so we’ll be doing some test plays with my son next week. If all goes well… well, then I’ll let you know.

On another note, I wanted to share some of the good things I’ve seen and read recently. First was the ‘door wedge’ style novel “Great north road” by Peter F Hamilton. A murder mystery/action fiction set in futuristic world where the only know alien life form is inadvertently hostile and alien to the point of working under different physics rules. I’ve seen some complaints on the net about this book, mainly because of the level of detail given to the police investigation. However, although I can see why that could be seen as a negative trait by some, the narration is so fluent, I didn’t feel I was losing time reading about it.

Speaking of great sci-fi visions I have to mention the few good movies I’ve managed to watch in the past few weeks. Admittedly not all of them new, but hey – c’est la vie. Firstly, I’ve finally got to see the ‘Elysium’, which was visually stunning, though had predictable story-line. What I really liked about it, was the vision of ultimate gated community and relentless use of robots and drones to control the population. Tim Maughan reviewed it very well here, so I will refrain from further comments, just stating that it was well worth watching.

Secondly, slightly fresher picture, was the ‘Edge of tomorrow’ with Tom Cruise. I know that a lot of people don’t like Cruise because of his Scientology connections but frankly, on the screen I prefer to judge him as an actor. And when it comes to acting, he does a good job, no questions asked. ‘Edge of tomorrow’ is a story of alien invasion on Earth that did not go well for the humans. It was actually a relief to watch it, while still having in memory the boring ‘Battle for Los Angeles’ or even ‘Pacific Rim’ (don’t get me wrong I loved the latter movie because of the BIG ROBOTS but it had a story as flat as a pancake). Although ‘Edge…’ geographically spans through several countries, most of the story is neatly compacted to a single day’s events. Somebody called it a combination of Groundhog Day, Starship Troopers and Source code and it’s not a far fetched comparison, as it borrows from those movies a lot. The CGIs are smooth and visually it’s a feast. The tone of the movie, despite the backdrop of invasion and soldiers dying by the dozens, is rather light and tends to veer of towards wit, fun and action. All in all, a good evening entertainment.

Finally, there was ‘Utopia’ upon which I stumbled accidentally few weeks ago and its first few minutes swept me off my feet. First of all I have to admit I’m wary of European  sci-fi series, which is I admit, a bit ridiculous, but there you go. There reason for that is I’ve seen few and they lacked some kind of finishing touch that would make their otherwise interesting stories, compelling. Having said that, ‘Utopia’ represented everything I was looking for in a mystery/conspiracy/sci-fi series. Let’s start with story arc. Being aware that a lot of people haven’t seen it, I’ll just say that the characters (who are – with few exceptions – a regular bunch of people) and their personal stories neatly intertwine with the evil (or not so?) corporation agenda that is indeed world spanning. The actors are decent and I have a high praise for Neil Maskell for his fantastic creation that will haunt my dreams for years to come. Now, I have to admit that for a couple of episodes I wasn’t sure if ‘Utopia’ will turn into a bizarre comedy like ‘LEXX’ or not. The credit for that goes to Cristobal Tapia De Veer, who’s weirdly joyful compositions thrown in contrast to the scenes of brutality and remorselessness are a big part of the series’ charm. And while mentioning scenes of brutality, although corpses are not short in supply, the creators managed not to show most of the actual action, which seems to be the ache of a lot of American productions. What finally needs mentioning and praise are the outdoor shots, which are done with high colour saturation and add to the general surreal atmosphere of ‘Utopia’. Definitely worth watching.

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Since this post took me over a week to write in small instalments, there’s one more thing alas a major one to mention. BristolCon 2014. Posts and blog entries pop around with high praise and rightly so, still I decided to add to the pile. This was the third time I’ve attended BristolCon and as far as one day conventions go – it’s a perfect blend of panels, workshops and ‘off-the-record’ discussions. This year As always, I came back with a backpack full of books. Some of them purchased, some swapped on the book exchange table which debuted this year and seemed to be an immediate success. One of them was a comic album ‘Hector Umbra’ by Uli Oesterle. Great artwork, interesting, intricate story lines and the colours! The sentence that summarises Hector: Hellboy and John Constantine, meet Hector Umbra. He’s got a cooler record collection than either of you. Read it, you won’t regret it.

This years BristolCon was also my first time participation in a panel discussion on author’s inspiration. We’ve covered subjects spanning from Bible through Moliere, Agatha Christie and Joanne Hall to Dan Brown, archeology and movie inspirations. It was a scary type of fun, but I hope to repeat it some time again. I then went to a workshop with Pete Newman on ‘getting unstuck’, which was accidentally very helpful. I say accidentally because going in I was not sure if I was really stuck or whether I just lacked the kick in the back side to push on (bit of both it turned out). I also owe Pete thanks for his ‘just 50 words’ advice which made me white a couple thousands words in the last few days. The day closed with a gaming session of ‘Ricochet Robots’ and ‘Warewolf’ which made me regret not living nearer to Bristol.

Summarising a fantastic day of excitement, laughter and interesting conversations that requires a massive thank you to Jo Hall and all the organisers. I shall definitely be there next year. May BristolCon live long and prosper!

And to revive and old tradition of mine, I leave you with something for the ear. Or even two. Or more if you happen to have any lying about. Enjoy.

Bristol Invaded

In the beginning there was thought. Then there was an intention and finally… there was failure due to the lack of time.
Initially I was going to invite you to the BristolCon invasion of Watershed on Sunday 5th of October, but hence that date is long gone I’ll just say thank you to all organisers and all who attended. It was fun. After all not every day am I being asked for writing help – immensely nice and I sincerely hope my rumblings were of any help. That aside, I myself feel, have learned a lot from the talks and those super-intelligent ants and laser-eyed pigeons will haunt my dreams for many weeks to come.

Just a gentle reminder, there is a short story competition following that event, with some prizes and help from professional editors, so ‘to your keyboards’ fellow writers. All the necessary details can be found here.

Now, hence you’ve already opened up that link, you might as well sign up for the BristolCon that will happen the following Saturday. It’s a year of first time experiences for me, as I will be taking part in a panel discussion about what influences us, authors. This will take place in the fine company of Joanne Hall, John Baverstock and Tricia Sullivan. And while this is clearly not the main reason to turn up at DoubleTree hotel that  day, I do hope to see lots of you there.

On more personal note, the most amazing thing happened on the 9th of October and my daughter, Jagoda, was born. This leaves me slightly overwhelmed and enormously happy. It might also explain my occasional loss of concentration, plot or sanity.

I leave you in peace (hopefully one) with a nice tune that was recently stuck to my neurons.

Kraken rises again

I’d like to invite you to The Shakespeare Tavern, Prince Street in Bristol, where readings of some of the stories from ‘Kraken rises’ anthology will take place. The date and time: Monday 22nd September at 7:30pm.

More of the details can be found here

As it will only feature fragments of five of the ten published stories, you might want to consider buying the e-book anthology here. Proceedings will go towards the Bristol Festival of Literature, so you will be supporting local cultural development.

Hope to see you on Monday!

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Blog Hop – Work in progress

I was very kindly tagged by Joanne Hall (http://hierath.wordpress.com/) to take part in a blog hop about my work in progress. It is… well, in progress, so things may (and most likely will) change. It’s my first serious attempt at a novel and I work out certain things as I go.

 

  1. What is the name of your main character? Is he/she fictional or historic person?
    His name is Alexander Cook and he is a fictional character.
  2. When and where is the story set?
    Distant future (circa 25o years) and further. It is set in the Sphere universe, which was created for the role play game of the same title. The story will take place on and around Earth and few other locations in the Milky Way.
  3. What should we know about him/her?
    He is a former diplomat, who witnesses the start of genocidal war between humans and gefydds and effectively… but that would be too much of a spoiler.
  4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
    The main conflict is the war between humanity and the geffyd empire.
  5. What is the personal goal of the character?
    Survival. Predominantly his own and as many other humans as possible. Revenge as well, after a fashion.
  6. Is there a working title for this novel and can we read more about it?
    No working title thus far, but any suggestions are welcome.
  7. When can we expect the book to be published?
    No idea. The plan is to complete the draft before winter. Then, all depends if anyone becomes interested in publishing and how long the many edits will take.

I realise that above is very limited in terms of information and there is much more to the story, but hence I’m working on the development of the game simultaneously, certain things must remain hidden. At least for now.

The time has come to invite some more people to join:

Science Fiction Dark Fantasy author of 8 novels, creator of the Yellow Dawn – The Age of Hastur RPG
David J Rodger
http://davidjrodger.wordpress.com/

Author of witty flash fiction
Kevlin Henney
http://asemantic.blogspot.co.uk/

Hard Science Fiction author of C.A.T. series
Rosie Oliver
http://rosieoliver.wordpress.com/

Enjoy!

Time wasting

I’ve discovered quite recently the problem with focusing, developed through lack of sleep, kids, dogs and visitors and enriched by the overall laziness of human nature, is beginning to bother me. I’m not moving forward towards any declarations, but would like to share some of the distractions occupying me recently.

Books first. I’ve finally had the pleasure of reading ‘Ack-Ack Macaque’ by Gareth Powell and it was amazing. I have to admit I started reading worrying it will be one of those books with a slapstick idea run over and over again. I was very much and pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a rich AND funny science fiction. I have previously read Gareth’s short stories (which are quite excellent as well), but ‘Ack-Ack’ made me want more of the characters. I could go on here and rant more about them, but instead I’ll just say: read the damn thing! You won’t be disappointed.

Ack-Ack Macaque

Moving to movies. With not much time together to venture into the world of cinematics, we (myself and wife) recently managed to scape up some time to watch the ‘Europa Report’. It is… and interesting movie. Not much in terms of action, no great names at the beginning, but it has enough story to keep you seated through the whole thing. The things I specifically liked were the neatly shown isolation through enormous distance from Earth and the claustrophobic feel of the inside of the ship. It reminded a little the good atmospherics of the ‘Apollo 18’ movie. And I know the aliens there were… well let’s just say obsolete. But that movie very nicely shown the innate lack of space in outer space. The music was also appropriate and played well alongside the picture, so if you want to know what happened to a crew of astronauts sent further than any man before, do watch it.

Europa Report

Series finally. I recently watched the first season of Black Sails, which is a pirate story of captain Flynt et al. taking place approximately 10 to 20 years before the ‘Treasure Island’. First thing that catches is the really nice soundtrack. Well composed and interesting enough to listen to it on its own. The pirates, ships and all that junk that comes with the territory is also present and more or less accurate. The actors play well and the characters (thank goodness!) are mostly villains, which is repeatedly shown and nicely bottom lined with Benjamin Hornigold’s quotation: “No matter how many lies we tell ourselves or how many stories we convince ourselves we’re a part of…we’re all just thieves awaiting a noose.” One thing that I found obsolete were (excuse the gentle reader) naked tits. And don’t get me wrong – I love to watch naked female body just as much as the next man, but there were few instances where those shots didn’t really bring anything relevant to the story. Curse of the game of thrones, I suppose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMSoo4B2hFU

On the bright side, work with stories is progressing well, so hope there’ll be some good news to share soon.

Airship Ball

Let me invite you to the launch of the Bristol Steampunk anthology ‘Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion’. There will be a Victorian picnic with a selection of sandwiches and cake and a glass of home-made lemonade or sparkling kir royale.

There’ll be a fancy dress competition for best representation of a character from the book, (fancy dress is not compulsory!) dramatic readings, and music from Cauda Pavonis.

Picnicker tickets are available in advance from the BristolCon team or bristolcon.eventbrite.co.uk, and cost £15 or £11 with a copy of Airship Shape. Latecomer tickets will be sold (subject to availability) on the door from 8:30 p.m. onwards priced at £5.

Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion is available now from wizardstowerpress.com at the Bristolcon Fringe reading on Monday 17th March taking place in Shakespeare Tavern, Brisol.

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Hope to see you there!

Book launch

So, this will be the first entry here and hence it’s about a launch of an anthology that has my story in it, I’m hoping it will be a good omen. I’m working hard on a couple of stories and waiting to hear back from a two publishers regarding things I’ve submitted to them but in the mean time, allow me to invite you, dear reader, to the aforementioned launch.

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The official launch will take place in Forbidden Planet Megastore in Bristol, UK on 8th March 2014. The contributors will be signing their work between 13:00 and 14:00 or 1pm and 2pm, if you prefer.

You can also join it on Facebook here