tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25290146765469324362024-03-14T03:03:40.927+00:00Mike with a J - Writing SFThe occasional ramblings of fantasy and science fiction writer, Mjke Wood.Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.comBlogger169125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-71221751153859578302021-12-08T16:44:00.000+00:002021-12-08T16:44:02.089+00:00A story for Christmas<p> Here's a story. It's not sci-fi and it's not fantasy, just a Christmas story. Hope you enjoy it.</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Theodore Grimaldi Lights Up</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">by Mjke Wood</p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Sophie, what’s Grimaldi up to?” said Gwen. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.2px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sophie looked up from her computer and smiled. She beckoned her friend inside. Gwen slipped through the doorway of the legal secretary’s office and leaned against a cabinet. Gwen had noticed Grimaldi’s odd behaviour, days ago: smiling, being pleasant, and she had to know what it was all about.</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.2px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sophie held a finger to her lips and whispered. “Keep it down. He’s in his office.” She nodded towards the closed door. “I don’t know what’s happening, Gwen. He’s been like this all week.”</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.2px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Come on, Sophe, you must know something. Everyone’s talking about it downstairs. Rob says he even heard him humming Jingle Bells in the corridor. Like he was cheerful or something.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“All I know is, he’s been coming and going for days. He hasn’t given me any work to do since Thursday. And he’s been moving boxes. He comes in with a box, then a few minutes later he takes one down to his car. And another thing,” she added, “he’s signed the Christmas Holiday rota.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“What? He’s agreed it?” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Hardly looked at it. Didn’t seem to care. Just signed it.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“But he never agrees the holidays. He always has to knock someone back. It’s tradition. He hates Christmas.” Gwen’s voice had climbed an octave. Sophie flapped her hands and shushed her, nodding towards Grimaldi’s office door. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Which opened. There was Theodore Grimaldi himself, carrying a large cardboard box. He was the ultimate grey man. Grey suit, grey hair, grey pallor… The other partners called him the Old Grey Litigator.</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Ah, Miss Quinn. No work today? That filing cabinet struggling to stay upright without your assistance?” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>This is more like it</i>, thought Gwen.<i> Here comes the bollocking. Normal service is resumed. </i></span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Well, if you have a minute, Miss Quinn… er, Gwen, would you and Sophie mind terribly helping me down to the carpark with two more boxes? They’re on my desk. They’re not heavy. It would be kind of you. Thank you, ladies.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Grimaldi turned and disappeared down the stairs. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Gwen and Sophie stared at each other. Had Grimaldi just been nice to them? Theodore Grimaldi was not a Christmas person. He usually celebrated the season of goodwill by sacking at least one of his legal team. Before last Christmas, Grimaldi, Buttersmith and Dean, solicitors at law, had been Grimaldi, Buttersmith, <i>Price</i> and Dean. But Price had been caught aiding one of his clients in a thoughtless act of compassion. Rumour had it he was now clerking at the branch offices out in Mold, above the fish and chip shop.</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Gwen picked up one of the boxes. It was even lighter than Grimaldi had suggested. The lid was sealed with tape. She shook it. It felt like... She didn’t know what it felt like. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Sophie went out with her box leaving Gwen in Grimaldi’s office. Gwen looked around, just a glance. She felt guilty enough even being alone in here. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Standing on the floor, in the corner, another box. Same as the others, except… </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The lid was unsealed.</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Gwen looked over her shoulder towards the door. She listened. She calculated. Grimaldi had been gone... What? Thirty seconds? One minute to the car park, half a minute to unlock the car and put the box in the boot, another minute to return. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Okay.</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Gwen crept over to the box. She looked over her shoulder once more, her ears attuned for any sound. She reached out with her foot and, all careful and casual, she lifted one of the flaps – just an inch or two. She took a peek inside. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What she saw <i>amazed</i> her. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">#</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“So, why are we here, Gwen? What’s this thing you have to show us?” Sophie spoke from the back of the car. She was squashed-in between Connie and Tom. Rob sat in the front with Gwen. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Wait,” said Gwen, rubbing condensation from the windscreen with her sleeve. Her de-misters hadn’t worked for weeks. “I promised you a spectacle. Be patient. I am about to deliver.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“That’s Grimaldi’s house isn’t it?” Rob pointed to the grey building that brooded over on the other side of the busy traffic roundabout. They were parked in a tree-lined side road, concealed by shadows, but they had a good view of the main road. Darkness gathered. Rush hour was cranking up. A twinkling line of headlamps stretched back towards town. The air was foggy with exhaust from many cold engines on this muffled December evening. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Just wait,” said Gwen. “Not long, now.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Each of the five watched. They hardly dared breathe. The minutes on the dashboard clock moved like syrup. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“I’m starting to get cold, Gwen.” Connie blew on her hands and rubbed them together. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Wait.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And then it happened. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There was an audible woosh. There was light. Lots of light. Colour. Strobe effects. Elves. Reindeer. A giant, pulsating Christmas Tree. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The grey Grimaldi mansion had become Vegas, or Blackpool, and with a bigger carbon footprint than East Coast USA. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A shimmering red sleigh came swooping down over the road, suspended on wires. It bore an illuminated automaton Santa, ho-ho-ho-ing at a thousand decibels, a unearthly noise that drowned out the traffic, a noise that would leave everyone with rock-concert-ears for a week. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And then, there was Grimaldi himself, barely recognisable. Where was the fabled, Old Grey Litigator? This Grimaldi was wearing two things never before seen on his person: a Santa hat... and a smile. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Merry Christmas,” he shouted, to the passing, bug-eyed motorists. Me-rry Christmas.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Five legal execs sat in the car and goggled. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“He’s gone and done a Scrooge on us,” said Rob. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“He’s lost his marbles,” said Connie. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Well, I think it’s wonderful,” said Sophie. “It’s a miracle, that’s what this is. A Christmas miracle.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And then came the first accident. A three car shunt. Then another. And another. Carnage. Broken headlamps. Steaming radiators. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Grimaldi was there before the first wheel rims had even stopped rolling. His face was suffused with joy. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Grimaldi, Buttersmith and Dean,” he shouted, handing out business cards. </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“No win; no fee. Me-rry Christmas.”</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9j5z_Iu88ps/YbDgUJ9tIJI/AAAAAAAAFvc/F9uUCyirJvkFAj9IKfhTukawj0fpmH4zgCNcBGAsYHQ/s1920/Dream_TradingCard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9j5z_Iu88ps/YbDgUJ9tIJI/AAAAAAAAFvc/F9uUCyirJvkFAj9IKfhTukawj0fpmH4zgCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/Dream_TradingCard.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>Thank you to Wombo.art for the image.<br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p>Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-74510177550422192742021-08-15T12:08:00.001+01:002021-08-15T12:08:34.785+01:00Songs in a Lesser Known Key - on Pseudopod<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="d4bkc" data-offset-key="bhgar-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bhgar-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="bhgar-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine a musical key so dangerous it's been erased over time.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="d4bkc" data-offset-key="fevhu-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fevhu-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="fevhu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine a song so dark it was banned by governments.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="d4bkc" data-offset-key="4umr5-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4umr5-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="4umr5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">But someone's playing it again, in that forgotten key.</span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4umr5-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="4umr5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4umr5-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="4umr5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Dare you listen?</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="d4bkc" data-offset-key="3r3ri-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3r3ri-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="3r3ri-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3r3ri-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="3r3ri-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Songs in a Lesser Known Key</b>, a story that's more true than you might imagine. Hear it told on <a href="https://pseudopod.org/2021/08/06/pseudopod-769-songs-in-a-lesser-known-key/" target="_blank">Pseudopod - the sound of horror</a>.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="d4bkc" data-offset-key="63uh6-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="63uh6-0-0" style="color: #050505; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="63uh6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="63uh6-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="63uh6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: red;">Attention!</span><span style="color: #050505;"> Not one of my usual light and fluffy stories. This one's way dark, and comes with an explicit warning.</span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="63uh6-0-0" style="color: #050505; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MMKIY3crTHg/YRj0OqC1dtI/AAAAAAAAFrE/x088fNAnlfcUu6ewh9YWbVsHMCP-A8-WgCLcBGAsYHQ/s713/Screenshot%2B2021-08-15%2Bat%2B11.42.37.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="713" height="96" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MMKIY3crTHg/YRj0OqC1dtI/AAAAAAAAFrE/x088fNAnlfcUu6ewh9YWbVsHMCP-A8-WgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-08-15%2Bat%2B11.42.37.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span data-offset-key="63uh6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div>Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-80902296422487296042021-04-06T16:25:00.000+01:002021-04-06T16:25:14.465+01:00Old Man in a Spacesuit – New Cover<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kz6GqTrZp_A/YGx2GRy5JZI/AAAAAAAAFks/mWs6ZlzVgtgkgG2Dg6vH6UVoZ9iTTDrGQCLcBGAsYHQ/s853/web-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="533" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kz6GqTrZp_A/YGx2GRy5JZI/AAAAAAAAFks/mWs6ZlzVgtgkgG2Dg6vH6UVoZ9iTTDrGQCLcBGAsYHQ/w250-h400/web-cover.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;">I really should make an effort to keep this blog up to date, because now I'm late announcing that <b>Old Man in a Spacesuit</b> has a spanking new cover. It's from Kritzelkunst (Doodle Art) in Germany. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I was never fully happy with the old cover. Probably because I designed it myself. I am not a cover designer, and yes, it showed. But this one?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> I <i>love</i> it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The expression on HBs face is worth a thousand words. He seems to be saying, "Okay, so I'm here on Mars. Don't expect fancy speeches or even a smile. I don't have to pretend that I like this, but I'm here, and that's how it is."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If the previous cover didn't grab you—and who would blame you for that?—then maybe this one will.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Try the book, on <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Old-Man-Spacesuit-Mjke-Wood-ebook/dp/B08CD1V76S">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Old-Man-Spacesuit-Mjke-Wood-ebook/dp/B08CD1V76S">here</a>.</span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0Wirral, UK53.3727181 -3.07375425.062484263821155 -38.230004 81.682951936178853 32.082496tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-45484921466572211242020-07-09T21:44:00.000+01:002020-07-13T08:04:01.289+01:00Old Man in a Spacesuit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SLmh4CQJcq4/Xwd9-r0iK1I/AAAAAAAAFS4/aSIbXJt0nvcy6Y63G8eC37xuuTO3qwWJwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/OMIASS%2BKindle%2BCover%2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1050" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SLmh4CQJcq4/Xwd9-r0iK1I/AAAAAAAAFS4/aSIbXJt0nvcy6Y63G8eC37xuuTO3qwWJwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/OMIASS%2BKindle%2BCover%2BB.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I launched a new book this week. Old Man in a Spacesuit is a near future sci-fi, that's light hearted, but also has a serious side.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Harry Burton – HB to his friends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Ex-author: old, knackered, and psychologically fragile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As a candidate for First Man on Mars, HB isn’t just the wrong stuff; he’s the wrong stuff that got lost in the post.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But they’ve sent for him anyway.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Others, too. Others nearly as unqualified and unwilling as him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And while HB would rather sit in a coffee shop and pretend to write…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">He’s curious.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You can find it on <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Old-Man-Spacesuit-Mjke-Wood-ebook/dp/B08CD1V76S">Amazon here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This one started out in the Odeon cinema in Bromborough, a year or so ago. I was looking a film post that showed an old cowboy, I don't even remember what the film was, and I started imagining the character in a spacesuit. I filed it away. Then a few months later I found myself in Utrecht, in the Netherlands, and came back to that Old Man idea. I started creating a character who lived in Utrecht. I decided which street his house was in. I walked the route he would walk, or cycle, into town. I had coffee in the coffee shop that would be his regular haunt (after a bit of geographic relocation). Then I wondered about the circumstances that would get Harry Burton into space. I got on a train to Cologne and Frankfurt, a trip Harry would make.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And it all came together. </span></div>
Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-85638001996706982412019-11-20T09:57:00.000+00:002019-11-20T09:57:45.690+00:00Ad Astra<div id="AppleMailSignature" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">
Went to see <b>Ad Astra</b> yesterday. Yeah, I know, I'm a little late to the party, but I'm an Odeon Silver Cinema addict, where those of us of a certain age, and can do daytime cinema, go to watch a film that came out a few months earlier for just three quid, and there's tea and biscuits thrown in for free. What's not to love about that? </div>
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Anyway, I digress. <b>Ad Astra</b>. Brad Pitt et al. It's had mixed reviews. I went along with a nagging feeling that I'd be in for a long afternoon, wondering when it might end. I got a surprise. I loved it! Sure, there are issues: like how come the 1/6 lunar gravity only applies outside? Ditto for Mars. And if they could build a radio transmitter that reaches up to LEO why not strap a lift (elevator) on the side and save on a few trillion tonnes of rocket fuel? And then there's... Okay, there were other things. But I'm staying off that road, because the film, overall, as an entertainment, was so good. The images and moodiness. The music. The sense that there are goodies and baddies in the near future, but who are they and what do they want? Which are we? The psych testing – something that will be coming to an app near you, soon, I'm sure of it – and the general sense of disorientation that pervaded the whole thing. This was a film in which to immerse, to lose a whole afternoon. Great stuff. Wish there were more like it.</div>
</span>Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-59936280603840204312019-02-10T16:21:00.001+00:002019-02-10T16:21:38.334+00:00Sansevieria slickerii<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ib6a_HvrI10/XGBMtdnu8gI/AAAAAAAAE0k/NLYj_eyi55sLNSe9woKp7pvSZwP_U3cVgCLcBGAs/s1600/zlzTtQ4zSO%252BM5u6OM48bNw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ib6a_HvrI10/XGBMtdnu8gI/AAAAAAAAE0k/NLYj_eyi55sLNSe9woKp7pvSZwP_U3cVgCLcBGAs/s400/zlzTtQ4zSO%252BM5u6OM48bNw.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I found this in Ikea of all places. It's a Sansevieria. Okay, it's not quite the same species as the Sansevieria <i>slickerii </i>that appears in <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spherical-Trust-Sphere-Influence/dp/1729490182">The Spherical Trust</a> – I'd have to travel two hundred light years to Pinky Space to find one of those. I'm not sure if they'd have a branch of Ikea out there, either.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Anyway, when you come across the plant that forms the main plot focus for your <a href="https://www.mjkewood.com/">series</a> finale, and it looks kind of alien, much how you imagined it, and even though you're only there for the veggie meatballs and maybe for a new drainer for the kitchen sink, well, you just have to buy it don't you?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It's sometimes called Snake Tongue, and... yeah I see it.</span></div>
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<br />Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-75655257101162644602018-07-23T20:56:00.000+01:002018-07-23T20:56:07.451+01:00The Size of the Universe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PtmxYTBfC5w/W1Yv7yh-nDI/AAAAAAAAEqU/ah5hjNTaVyoqXd1QNdyvC33I5TFFPjhzgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_4292.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PtmxYTBfC5w/W1Yv7yh-nDI/AAAAAAAAEqU/ah5hjNTaVyoqXd1QNdyvC33I5TFFPjhzgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_4292.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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I'M IN OXFORD at one of my favourite museums, the Oxford Natural History Museum. Apart from the fact that it is a beautiful building, it's also full of the most fascinating collections. I could spend weeks here, looking at all the fossils and crystals and bones... Every time I visit I find something new.</div>
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I just noticed this (see photo below) which seems oddly out of place here, amongst all the ammonites and sabre-toothed tigers, but maybe this is the perfect place for it, after all. There's a model of the sun sitting on the balcony. Nothing special, just a football-sized golden globe. But then on the opposite balcony is a case with a model of the Earth and the Moon, which are to scale in terms of size and distance from each other, and also to scale in terms of their distance to the sun model on the other side of the museum.</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zG9qskYcdzM/W1YvX2NhxtI/AAAAAAAAEqM/vqu8du7tWtcTuhB4u2qdIV7OdNAStqQiwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_9107.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zG9qskYcdzM/W1YvX2NhxtI/AAAAAAAAEqM/vqu8du7tWtcTuhB4u2qdIV7OdNAStqQiwCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_9107.JPG" width="300" /></a><br />
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In the photo, I've tried to show all three. The Earth and moon are at the bottom, tiny dots – the Earth is the size of a petit pois pea – held on bits of wire; it's the dark area of the photo, with the circle showing the Moon's orbit. Now look across the gallery, between the third and fourth columns counting from the left, and you'll see a golden ball, the sun. That is to scale. Impressive, huh?</div>
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Next month, 4th August, a spacecraft will be making that trip. The Parker Solar Probe will be launched on a Delta IV Heavy and by 1 November it will make its first close pass, about 30 solar radii from the sun's surface, then getting closer and closer with each orbit until it's about 6km from the surface, and within the sun's atmosphere, the corona. I was impressed by that even before I saw the scale model of the distances involved.</div>
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There's one other fact that really blew me away though. At these scales, if we wanted to include Alpha Centauri, our nearest stellar neighbour, where do you reckon we would have to position the model star? Across town in the Ashmolean? No. How about where I'm staying, in Abingdon, a half-hour bus ride away? No. Okay, then, what about putting it in London, in the Science Museum, about 50 miles away? No, not even close. At these scales, we'd need to position our Alpha-Centauri model about <i>1 million kilometres away</i>. That's about three times the distance of the Earth to the moon. And Alpha Centauri is our <i>nearest</i> star.</div>
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Oh yes. Space is big!</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gA_IjQQJwZ8/W1Yv_v6-X0I/AAAAAAAAEqY/Aj_6-_ILdcUvirjTCEaXXizR90RszP_wACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0908.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gA_IjQQJwZ8/W1Yv_v6-X0I/AAAAAAAAEqY/Aj_6-_ILdcUvirjTCEaXXizR90RszP_wACLcBGAs/s400/IMG_0908.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This has nothing to do with Alpha Centauri. It's a T Rex, and too cool to leave out.</td></tr>
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<br />Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-20572544807060316072018-02-20T16:21:00.000+00:002018-02-20T16:21:00.862+00:00Electric Vehicles, Driverless vehicles – the future is backwards<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ALL0mX29VNY/WoxFZ-v21EI/AAAAAAAAEjQ/6t8oZh58szg5sD87N4LhlPzRdxmN2ohCwCLcBGAs/s1600/cereals-1340234_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1123" data-original-width="1280" height="175" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ALL0mX29VNY/WoxFZ-v21EI/AAAAAAAAEjQ/6t8oZh58szg5sD87N4LhlPzRdxmN2ohCwCLcBGAs/s200/cereals-1340234_1280.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I<span style="font-size: large;">n a few years, we’re all going to be jumping into our electric cars and putting up our feet while we’re driven to work. We might even read a book on the way, or our car might do the reading for us while we gaze with bleary eyes at the passing scenery, not quite awake from our slumber. Sci-Fi would have us think this, but there’s a sci-fi future that looks a little different. Technology does not always move in the direction we expect.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Take your morning bowl of cereal, for example. Perhaps in the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">future</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> our milk will come to us, fresh each morning, delivered by an autonomous, intelligent drone with a super-low-carbon footprint.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Well, a century or so ago that’s exactly what happened. The vehicle was a horse-drawn milk cart. It knew the route; the driver/milkman didn’t need to guide the vehicle, it knew the way. Then, when they reached a row of houses the four-legged AI processor was able to keep the cart moving, in pace with the human, who took the bottles to each doorstep. Very efficient. No noise apart from the restful clippity-clop of hooves, and low carbon emissions from the 100% bio-fuel power unit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then we had technological progress. Enter the electric milk float in the early 1900s. Yep, that’s right, 1900 and we had electric vehicles. In fact, by 1967 the UK had more electric vehicles on its roads than the rest of the world put together. They were nearly all milk floats. But now the milkman had to stay awake and drive his milk round because he’d lost the AI module at the front. But still, milk floats were quiet – with their open or sliding door – they non-polluting, and they were efficient.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Then we had more technological “progress”. The milk companies started to switch to diesel vans. So not only did the milkman have to stay awake, he ensured that everyone else on his round, his customers, were awake also. Jolted from their dreams by the steady knock-knock of the idling diesel, the revving engine, the opening and slamming of the van door outside every house. And if the window was open they could smell the fumes, blue and oily, and laced with particulates. </span></div>
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Progress didn’t end there. Now we drive to the supermarket in our own cars and load up with a week’s supply of milk. The milkman is virtually extinct. Electric vehicles – gone. Artificial intelligent guidance systems – gone. Until Google re-invent them.</div>
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<br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>I’m not knocking science fiction, I love science fiction. You want to try some of those futures? Here’s a chance to read 58 science fiction stories and novels, <b>for free</b>, courtesy of BookFunnel. Click on the link, <a href="https://books.bookfunnel.com/scifigiveaway/rpy6ysavwe"><b>here</b></a>, for free e-books.</i></span><br />
Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-43542603758564947452018-01-23T15:59:00.000+00:002018-01-23T15:59:03.244+00:00Interview with Author, Bonnie Milani<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RP5TTbco3Hw/WmdUvZ_7s2I/AAAAAAAAEiU/LpdpoK1OYl4QtaGdY9jFnnOyUb3ATcXFQCLcBGAs/s1600/Cherry_Pickers_Revised_Final_9-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RP5TTbco3Hw/WmdUvZ_7s2I/AAAAAAAAEiU/LpdpoK1OYl4QtaGdY9jFnnOyUb3ATcXFQCLcBGAs/s320/Cherry_Pickers_Revised_Final_9-17.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">I always enjoy seeing how other writers go about the process of creating their fictional worlds. Each has their own approach to plotting, planning, character and setting, and their own likes and dislikes. Here's an interview with Bonnie Milani, an award-winning US author with a background in journalism.</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><i><span lang="EN-US">When did you first realize you wanted to be a Sci-Fi writer?</span></i></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">About the time I figured out how to put words together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">What authors and books inspire your writing? <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Wow, that's a tough one. Dickens (baaaaadddd style to copy but addictive reading), Austen, the Bronte sisters, up through Heinlein, Asimov, Pohl, Anderson, Norton, and the writer who quite literally got me to actually start writing Sci-Fi, C.J. Cherryh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Are you an extrovert or introvert? How well do you like book signings and other interaction with readers?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Total extrovert. LOVE meet'n greets! LOVE signings - it's just that I'm here in LaLa land, so there're neither many bookstores left nor people willing to show up for a signing unless that person's a 'face'.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">What is unique about writing in your genre?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Sci-Fi, to me, is a technological society's answer to the ancient world's mythology. We can't believe in anthropomorphic gods anymore; even accepting miracles is a challenge these days. Yet to be human is to need to let your imagination roam, to create, to explore. Sci-Fi is the one medium that lets us do so by exploring the possibilities in the tech we're beginning to create.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Have you ever created a character with an actor or a person you know in mind?</span></i></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Only before I actually started working with the Industry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">What inspires you to write?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Life. News magazines. History. Politics. Religion. Crazy relatives...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Are you Self-, Indie-, or Traditionally published? Why?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Both traditionally (small press) & indie. I'm glad I went small press to start; my publisher was able to get my debut Sci-Fi novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'Home World'</i> onto the shelves at Barnes & Noble, as well as into Canada's Indigo chain. I wouldn't change the experience for anything. But working Indie requires me to learn to understand the business side of publishing, and I think that's a necessary piece of knowledge for all writers. Besides, I LIKE working on cover art!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Do all authors have to be grammar perfectionists; or do you use a Copy Editor?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">With a Master's in Communication from Stanford, I don't typically find grammar to be my greatest challenge in writing. There's such a wealth of alternatives...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gHRBLo96afE/WmdU0ai78MI/AAAAAAAAEiY/FXcq4QmoM2UkHlaa2BT42qG9kPy18k2XQCLcBGAs/s1600/10-20-16%2BLiquid%2BGambit%2BFINAL%2B%2BCOVER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gHRBLo96afE/WmdU0ai78MI/AAAAAAAAEiY/FXcq4QmoM2UkHlaa2BT42qG9kPy18k2XQCLcBGAs/s320/10-20-16%2BLiquid%2BGambit%2BFINAL%2B%2BCOVER.jpg" width="213" /></a><span lang="EN-US"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">“Writing is a get-rich-quick scheme.” And, “All writers are independently wealthy.” How true?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">Hah! To quote Stan Lee: "'nuff said!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Plotter or Pantser (free flowing)? Do you write from an outline, or just start writing and go with the flow?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">I tried just going with the flow when I first started writing waaaaayyyyy back in the day. Never got a story finished that way; always landed myself in a corner with no place for the plot to go. It was terribly difficult to teach myself to outline, but I've found the discipline of making myself work out the whole story to be invaluable. Even if the final product winds up bearing no resemblance to the outline at all!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">What is the secret to becoming a best-selling author?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">You tell me we'll both know. In truth, I believe it's a combination of producing professional caliber work with a systematic, consistent dedication to market identification and outreach.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Do you write book reviews? How important are reviews for your work?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">Definitely! I generally won't review a book I couldn't finish, but I believe reviews are essential to indie authors' success. Me, I am ALWAYS hungry for more reviews! Not that I'd stoop to hinting or anything...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">Do you have a favorite book or series you have written? Which one?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">Each story I write is my favorite until the next one comes along. But I have to admit to a special fondness for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'Liquid Gambit'</i>. It's the Casablanca tie-in, y'know?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black;">What are you working on next?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span lang="EN-US">I'm trying to clear my decks to dive back into <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'Home World'</i> and get the series going. I have a generation of stories in my head for that universe!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>Thank you, Bonnie. Good luck getting back to the Home World series. To find out more about Bonnie Milani visit her website at <a href="http://www.bonniemilani.com/">www.Bonniemilani.com</a>.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>You'll also find her on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/bonnie.milani">Facebook</a> and Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/homeworldnovel">@homeworldnovel</a> </i></span></div>
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<br />Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-13725548073673176822018-01-12T20:34:00.001+00:002018-01-12T20:34:50.104+00:00Antipodean Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t4HJSEqDoo0/WlkbEoEtMoI/AAAAAAAAEho/-YLrWt_HCtIen5X-p-0LxEqAi5L1WvDvQCLcBGAs/s1600/fullsizeoutput_168.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="632" height="207" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t4HJSEqDoo0/WlkbEoEtMoI/AAAAAAAAEho/-YLrWt_HCtIen5X-p-0LxEqAi5L1WvDvQCLcBGAs/s400/fullsizeoutput_168.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If I were to go out into the garden and dig straight down until I came out on the other side of the world I’d find myself in New Zealand. Well, almost New Zealand. In fact, I’d come out in the South Pacific, about 250 miles east of Campbell Island, so my hole would fill up with water and I’d get quite wet. This, after being crushed by terrible pressures and evaporated in the 6000C heat of the Earth’s outer liquid core, and then ruining my shovel chipping through the solid nickel-iron inner core.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But I’m getting off the point. My intention is to point out that New Zealand is about as far from the Wirral, UK as it is possible to get. This week I had a review of my <i>Power for Two Minutes and Other Unrealities</i> book, from a reviewer in New Zealand. I’m blown away by this. I once flew to California, which, at five and a half thousand miles, is less than half the distance to New Zealand. California was far enough, and it helps me appreciate just how big the world is, and how far away New Zealand is, and to think that someone is out there, reading my book and taking the time to say nice things about it, is, to me, mind-blowing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://tyke.net.nz/wotired/holidays234.htm" target="_blank">Here’s a link to the review</a> – it gets a mention about halfway down – and to Alan Robson, a big thank you, and enjoy the rest of your summer. Here in the UK we’ll be keeping the central heating on for a while.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For anyone wishing to read <i>Power for Two minutes and Other Unrealities</i>, you can grab a copy for free by hopping over to <a href="http://mjkewood.com/">mjkewood.com</a> and signing up for my newsletter, or you can just buy a copy, which is cool, too.</span></div>
Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-83348842306834676892017-12-31T16:53:00.000+00:002017-12-31T16:53:26.819+00:00Bullet Journal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MBD2QC3FB4Q/WkkEaNRkkNI/AAAAAAAAEg8/2qFywluc-z05UGLV_XdwXhVDvdTBLZE1gCLcBGAs/s1600/20171231_152336.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MBD2QC3FB4Q/WkkEaNRkkNI/AAAAAAAAEg8/2qFywluc-z05UGLV_XdwXhVDvdTBLZE1gCLcBGAs/s400/20171231_152336.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It could be said that I have a lot of notebooks. Do not ever let me near another stationery shop. <i>Ever!</i> Sew up my pockets. I wonder if there's such an organisation as NA (Notebooks Anonymous) that I might join.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well, after getting up at four AM this morning, with a burning urge to start indexing all the material in my notebooks, I realised I needed help, (although I found some cracking story ideas that I'd forgotten about).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Anyway, I'm trying something new. Not just another notebook, this time I'm trying a different kind of notebook. I'm trying a Bullet Journal, and New Year's Eve seems as good a time as any to start.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So what is a Bullet Journal?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well, I couldn't help it. I've spent money on the official, shop-bought, bullet journal layout, but really it can be done with any notebook because it's a method more than a physical item. Bullet journalling appears to be a cross between a diary and a notebook. A word of caution, though. I haven't started yet, so anything I say here can, and probably is, wrong. But maybe there is no such thing as wrong. Maybe there are just different ways. But, hey, there's a website with videos you can watch that explain the process far better than I can, <a href="http://www.bulletjournal.com/">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In short, it's all about rapid logging, which uses bullet symbols to categorise and organise all the different kinds of notes, such as tasks, migrated tasks, scheduled tasks, etc. There are three types of log: The Future log, the Monthly Log, and the Daily Log. Items from the short, bulleted monthly log are either actioned, scheduled or pushed forward. The whole thing is flexible and can contain notes sketches, appointments... anything. My daily log already has sections for story ideas, blog ideas, writing goals for 2018, and for recording my daily writing progress. There is no limit to how the system can be used. And central to it all is an index system – and this is a big deal for me – in which you can find the notebook entries that you know you made and can't remember where you put them. Only this week I spent hours searching for some notes I made about my ongoing travel book project. I can't remember which notebook they're in (and I have more than the small stack shown above, believe me) or they could be in one of my many Evernote notebooks – which should be easier to find if I could remember the right tag words.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Anyway, depending on where in the world you're reading this, 2018 is here or drawing close. I've written my resolutions in my Bullet Journal, and I'm even nuts enough to share them below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">All that remains is for me to wish you all a <i><b>Happy and Prosperous New Year!</b></i></span></div>
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<i>Mjke Wood is the author of the Sphere of Influence series. <a href="https://www.mjkewood.com/deep-space-accountant">Deep Space Accountant</a> and <a href="https://www.mjkewood.com/lollipop-of-influence">The Lollipop of Influence</a> are available now. The Spherical Trust will be published in 2018. Visit <a href="http://www.mjkewood.com/">www.mjkewood.com</a> for details of how to get your copy of his short story collection, <a href="https://www.mjkewood.com/power-for-two-minutes">Power for Two Minutes and Other Unrealities</a>, for free.</i>Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-79768660296145340332017-10-21T19:54:00.000+01:002017-10-21T19:54:46.526+01:00Vintage Radio<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This Thursday, I'm to be interviewed by Will Redfearn for Vintage Radio's community hour. I've done this slot a couple of times before and I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm hoping to talk about The Lollipop of Influence, and about the Sphere of Influence series in general, as well as a host of other random things that Will might throw at me.<br />
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It's a little like a Desert Island Discs session, too, because I get to choose the four or five pieces of music that punctuate the show. I need to get searching through my CDs, right now.<br />
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You can find Vintage radio on the internet, <b><a href="http://www.vintageradio.org.uk/index.php">here</a>.</b><br />
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Of course if it was me listening, I'd just ask Alexa to play Vintage Radio on Tune In. Oh yeah I haven't mentioned my thoughts on the Echo and other home assistants yet, have I? I might just bring it up on Thursday, and how they're leading us to imentor faster than we knew.<br />
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<br />Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-28969297441243359872017-09-26T12:30:00.001+01:002017-09-26T12:30:36.345+01:00Jim Baen Memorial Award: The First Decade<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wjXnb0F9TO0/Wco4XE9PaiI/AAAAAAAAEec/8S4zy1ayfjo3eqyggnlCtwPXQlPB04MWwCLcBGAs/s1600/header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="951" data-original-width="1200" height="316" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wjXnb0F9TO0/Wco4XE9PaiI/AAAAAAAAEec/8S4zy1ayfjo3eqyggnlCtwPXQlPB04MWwCLcBGAs/s400/header.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Writers of SciFi have another great</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">bundle of FREE books and stories to offer.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">It's available now through to the end</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">of September. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://books.bookfunnel.com/writersofscifi/iims23gl2h">Click here to access your free downloads</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vG8DA23muPE/Wco4ilPrIJI/AAAAAAAAEeg/Uf19ysZK3vwDgTysPunwneAl_EAfBgTQwCLcBGAs/s1600/159515bff3bf7b102dd07cc1a49d690f-w204%25401x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="204" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vG8DA23muPE/Wco4ilPrIJI/AAAAAAAAEeg/Uf19ysZK3vwDgTysPunwneAl_EAfBgTQwCLcBGAs/s320/159515bff3bf7b102dd07cc1a49d690f-w204%25401x.jpg" width="210" /></a><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Launching in November is <b>The Jim Baen memorial Award: The First Decade</b>. It's an anthology of 16 optimistic short stories that present a plethora of futures beyond Earth.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">My own story, A Better Sense of Direction, was the first winner of the award back in 2007. It's a story I've included in my own collection, Power for Two Minutes and Other</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Unrealities.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">I'm super excited to be included in this book. All the stories are from past winners, and I get to rub shoulders with some top award-winning authors. The anthology has been edited</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">by Nebula-award-winning author, William Ledbetter, who has administered the Jim Baen Award right from the start.</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Here's a pre-publication review by </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4814-8281-3">Publishers Weekly</a></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> which should help the book to hit the ground running on launch day. I've had a sneak preview of the proofs, of course, but I</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">decided to wait until I have the book itself in my hands before I read the other stories. I can't wait.</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">In two days I'm off to Peterborough, for Fantasycon, the annual bash of the British Fantasy Society. It's a great place to meet up with fellow writers, and has been a regular event</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">on my calendar for several years now. I'm very much looking forward to it. But with all fun things there comes a penalty: I need to get ahead on my word count for The Spherical</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Trust (Book 3 in the </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://www.mjkewood.com/">Sphere of Influence series</a></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">) so that I'm not having to play catch-up when I come back. Hey ho!</span>Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-76530821382345082352017-07-08T09:00:00.000+01:002017-07-08T10:18:16.532+01:00Launching Today! The Lollipop of Influence.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Following <b>Deep Space Accountant</b>, here comes the second book in the Sphere of Influence series.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Bob Slicker and his navigation officer, Florence McConnachie, are blamed for the open-ended jump that dropped their battle fleet into deepest, uncharted space. </span></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><br style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">They attempt to make amends and are pushed together into an unlikely alliance.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>Can they find a way home to the Sphere of Influence? Nobody ever managed it before, so they couldn’t make things worse.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Or could they?</span><br style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #fcfcfc; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">From villain to hero, the adventure continues.</span></i></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.mjkewood.com/lollipop-of-influence" style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Lollipop of Influence</a><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> is available at the launch price of $0.99 (£0.99) </span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">from 8th July</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">. Special price for one week only.</span></h3>
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Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-30134775798196470042017-04-17T21:05:00.001+01:002017-04-17T21:05:59.888+01:00Music and Science Fiction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: justify;">A few weeks ago, on a trip to Oxford, I visited the Bates Collection of musical instruments.</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> Not just an ordinary museum, this was special.</span><i style="text-align: justify;"> Because you get to play some of the instruments. </i><span style="text-align: justify;">Brilliant! This is how museums should be. What’s more, the curator doesn’t just sit behind a desk waiting to sell T-shirts, pencils and rubbers, he tells you about the exhibits – things you never realised you didn’t know. A fantastic visit and highly recommended if you're in or around Oxford.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>So, anyway, I tried a couple of crumhorns, a serpentine and an ancient flute. They were all <i>much</i> harder to play than I expected because of the finger stretches. I hadn't realised how much modern instruments have been developed to help keep the fingers close together so you can cover the tone holes. These old instruments seemed to require some kind of genetic modification for the player to enable him to splay his fingers enough to make any kind of air tight seal. And some of them had more tone holes than fingers. How is <i>that</i> meant to work?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />So enough of the ancient blowing instruments. One other instrument that caught my eye was a theremin.<br />Whoa! What's that? <i>I can have a go at a theremin?</i> I’ve always wanted to try a theremin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />If you’re wondering what a theremin is, go and watch an old fifties #sciencefiction film. Doesn’t matter which one, most had theremin’s in the soundtrack. It’s the instrument that makes the wobbly woo-woo sounds. It’s played by waving your hands in the air. The left hand controls volume, the right hand controls pitch. I should have recorded my laughable attempts at controlling the beast. Maybe it was just as well that I didn’t. It’s very hard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So that takes me to the Easter weekend and #Eastercon2017.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zL0k_SafzNo/WPUQUxmZ3gI/AAAAAAAAETk/XIDAEi86rJwb_AmsbumHAdj8zh_aFnK3gCEw/s1600/20170416_205908.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zL0k_SafzNo/WPUQUxmZ3gI/AAAAAAAAETk/XIDAEi86rJwb_AmsbumHAdj8zh_aFnK3gCEw/s320/20170416_205908.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Having “mastered” the art of theremin playing I was excited to find that the Eastercon programe had a musical treat in store: a concert by Thomas Bloch and Pauline Haas.</span><br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JVadxPcGa3U/WPUQUe1EuVI/AAAAAAAAETk/u2TjLG4wC5gxpltahC2K3LF45ijCxSHTwCEw/s1600/20170416_205848.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thomas Bloch is a virtuoso on that other venerable #scifi instrument, the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument like a monophonic synth, that lets the performer move the keyboard around to bend the notes.</span><div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JVadxPcGa3U/WPUQUe1EuVI/AAAAAAAAETk/u2TjLG4wC5gxpltahC2K3LF45ijCxSHTwCEw/s1600/20170416_205848.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JVadxPcGa3U/WPUQUe1EuVI/AAAAAAAAETk/u2TjLG4wC5gxpltahC2K3LF45ijCxSHTwCEw/s200/20170416_205848.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: large;">Thomas Bloch was accompanied by Pauline Haas on harp, and together they gave us a night of genre film and TV music to feature, not only the ondes Martenot, but two other instruments with similar haunting woo-woo sounds, the glass harmonica and the cristal Baschet.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H-wdL1YUpIs/WPUQURnVALI/AAAAAAAAETk/ZQgeUNr2nHsBmIdStBNXuTXPygJwcqEfACEw/s1600/20170416_202416.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H-wdL1YUpIs/WPUQURnVALI/AAAAAAAAETk/ZQgeUNr2nHsBmIdStBNXuTXPygJwcqEfACEw/s320/20170416_202416.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: start;">Centre is the glass harmonica. The thing on the left looking </span><br style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: start;" /><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: start;">like something NASA would build is the cristal Baschet</span></span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IB0sqLJ1BD0/WPUQUe4JHcI/AAAAAAAAETk/emdv7Hjc2fsDsn-6ZaIeHjL10bNQ4yyJQCEw/s1600/20170416_202404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IB0sqLJ1BD0/WPUQUe4JHcI/AAAAAAAAETk/emdv7Hjc2fsDsn-6ZaIeHjL10bNQ4yyJQCEw/s320/20170416_202404.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The ondes Martenot is the keyboard left of the harp.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">We even had a sneak preview of the music from the forthcoming film Blade Runner 2049, and yes we were warned, the film is pre-release so the music might change a little between now and when we get to see it on the screen.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">It was a fascinating evening. I loved seeing how these sounds are produced, and was as much mesmerised by the musical mechanics as by the haunting music itself. My phone photos don’t do justice to the evening, which featured amazing light and smoke effects by the Eastercon tech guys (who did a fabulous job all weekend).</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The concert was my finale to Eastercon for this year. I had to cut the weekend short and dash off straight after the concert, blasting north on the M6 until the early hours. I fell into bed and lay there happy and content, still hearing the woo-woo sounds as I tried to sleep.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I need to give you a flavour, so here's a bit of Thomas Bloch on the cristal Baschet, that I found on You Tube.</span></span></h3>
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Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-73115071103748815192017-03-28T20:55:00.001+01:002017-03-28T20:55:26.052+01:00Music While You Work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6zRTQbTG2ag/WNq4YQU_87I/AAAAAAAAESY/vV2DH2zbpFgSYDGNWMD-F7eehUczPLVpgCLcB/s1600/turntable-1337986_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6zRTQbTG2ag/WNq4YQU_87I/AAAAAAAAESY/vV2DH2zbpFgSYDGNWMD-F7eehUczPLVpgCLcB/s320/turntable-1337986_1280.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.399999618530273px;">I heard a short item on BBC Radio 4 last night about listening to music while working or studying.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.399999618530273px;"> </span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: left; text-indent: 10.399999618530273px;">You can listen to it </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04y6n37" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: left; text-indent: 10.399999618530273px;"><b>here</b></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: left; text-indent: 10.399999618530273px;">, for a limited time. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-align: left; text-indent: 10.399999618530273px;">It was fascinating.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.4px;">They talked about an app called Focus at Will, that uses different types of music and sounds to engage the part of the brain, the limbic system, that can otherwise become distracted by outside stimuli. It sounds great. I’m all for things that prevent me being distracted, and if I thought it could work I’d sign up. <i>But music?</i> No. I can’t write with music playing. Not at all.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.4px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.4px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I know some writers who do it all the time, who have different soundtracks for the particular scenes they’re working on – fight scene music, love scene music, setting description… Some have whole mixes that are intrinsic to the book they are writing, and that music will be forever associated with the specific book in the writers’ minds.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.4px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Maybe it’s because I’m not much of a multi-tasker, or is it just because I’m a musician, and become analytical when I’m listening to the music? All I know is that if I can hear any music at all, then I stop work. I can't help it. I lose focus.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 10.4px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">I’m pretty much the same in cafes and coffee shops. If the music is loud I have no chance of doing anything that involves a separate stream of consciousness. I even find it hard to have a conversation. Only last weekend I was in a cafe where they were playing a Sinatra CD. Some of the tracks were standard Nelson Riddle arrangements that I’ve played with bands myself, and others were new to me, and very nice too. Either way I found conversation very difficult, and kept drifting off, my attention switching between music and conversation, but never both.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.4px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I do like to have some background sounds when I work, though. I often use an app called <i><a href="https://coffitivity.com/">coffitivity</a></i>, which plays the ambient noises of a coffee shop. I'm running it now. I love it. Give it a try. There are cups rattling, espresso machines hissing and the buzz of conversation. But no words can be heard, and there is no background music.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.4px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m also a big fan of noise-cancelling headphones. Or I was, until mine started buzzing and popping with a regular, almost musical beat. You know how it is when you make up tunes to go with the windscreen wipers, and they keep slowing down and speeding up? That is almost more of an attention killer than incoming emails or tweets. The headphones went back.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.4px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>I’m curious what you think</b>. Can you read a book while music is playing? Can you study? Or are you like me and need some background sounds in order to feel comfortable, but nothing that requires attention?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.4px;"><span style="font-size: large;">I wonder why we’re all different. I'm sure there's a lot more to it, and more to learn.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; text-indent: 10.4px;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Work continues on <b>The Lollipop of Influence</b>, sequel to <a href="https://www.mjkewood.com/deep-space-accountant">Deep Space Accountant</a>. I’m now reaching the end of the first editing phase, and working in a strictly zero-music environment. Coffee shop sounds only.</span></i></span></div>
Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-60958690073572987012017-03-20T19:09:00.001+00:002017-03-20T19:09:24.444+00:00Tick Tock<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hzTUymGd5yo/WNAPOLoKxGI/AAAAAAAAERw/cPHH7l7DRKcjtLbKlceu0bFOqXmiekrDACLcB/s1600/TickTock_Quarrell_EBOOK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hzTUymGd5yo/WNAPOLoKxGI/AAAAAAAAERw/cPHH7l7DRKcjtLbKlceu0bFOqXmiekrDACLcB/s320/TickTock_Quarrell_EBOOK.jpg" width="214" /></a><br />
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This week saw the launch of a new anthology on Amazon, featuring the work of my local writing group, Wirral Writers. It's called <b>Tick Tock</b>, and it's edited by our chairperson, Lynne Quarrell.</div>
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There's a good mix of genres: general fiction, some scifi, some fantasy. There are poems, flash fiction and short stories. I have a story tucked away right at the back, out of harm's way, called <b>Go Gentle</b>, which I should warn comes with an advisory, NOT SUITABLE FOR THE OVER 60'S</div>
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Here's a list of my esteemed ToC Buddies:</div>
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Arthur Adlen Chris Black</div>
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Elizabeth Fisher Tom Herbert</div>
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Cheryl Lang Paul G Mann</div>
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<a href="https://alexandra1st.wordpress.com/">Alexandra Peel</a> Lynne Quarrell</div>
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Nick Rose <a href="http://www.mjkewood.com/">Mjke Wood</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Tick Tock is available on <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1541013514/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_6?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=F49EHY448S53CBZBQ5E2">Amazon</a> as an ebook and in paperback.</i></span><br />
<br />Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-5005515401816368372017-03-05T13:10:00.001+00:002017-03-05T13:10:52.796+00:00The Jim Baen Memorial Award: The First Decade<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mYFP25ufK7M/WLs4YomMHLI/AAAAAAAAERM/N1TaDj0N7BsLvNSLMBZbdh-Ao7zZIGZsACLcB/s1600/Baen%2BAwards%2BCover-small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mYFP25ufK7M/WLs4YomMHLI/AAAAAAAAERM/N1TaDj0N7BsLvNSLMBZbdh-Ao7zZIGZsACLcB/s320/Baen%2BAwards%2BCover-small.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
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Details now released for “The Jim Baen Memorial Award: The First Decade” anthology with cover artwork by the phenomenally talented Bob Eggleton. The book will be available from Baen in autumn of this year. Here's the Table of Contents. I'm mega excited to be included in this stellar line-up.</div>
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"A Better Sense of Direction" by Mjke Wood<br />"Letting Go" by David Walton<br />"Cathedral" by Mike Barretta<br />"Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan<br />"That Undiscovered Country" by Nancy Fulda<br />"Taking the High Road" by R.P.L. Johnson<br />"The Lamplighter Legacy" by Patrick O'Sullivan<br />"Low Arc" by Sean Monaghan<br />"We Fly" by K.B. Rylander<br />"Dear Ammi" by Aimee Ogden<br />"Citizen-Astronaut" by David D. Levine<br />"Gemini XVII" by Brad R. Torgersen<br />"Scramble" by Martin L. Shoemaker<br />"Balance" by Marina J. Lostetter<br />"To Lose the Stars" by Jennifer Brozek<br />"Cylinders" by Ronald D Ferguson</div>
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My story was the winning entry in the very first year of this award, nearly eleven years ago. It was a breakthrough moment for me, and something for which I'll be forever grateful.</div>
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I get quite a kick from watching the contest each year, which has been coordinated right from the start by Bill Ledbetter, who is also the editor for this anthology. I'll post details of the launch date as soon as I know it.</div>
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Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-11887465084972850942017-02-20T13:02:00.000+00:002017-02-20T13:02:05.992+00:00Interview with Books Go SocialIt's been a good month for interviews. This week I've been talking to Books Go Social, a platform that helps to promote new books, and telling them all about <i>Deep Space Accountant</i>. Here's a link to the interview.<br />
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<a href="http://booksgosocial.com/2017/02/20/deep-space-accountant-an-interview-with-author-mjke-wood-acra/">http://booksgosocial.com/2017/02/20/deep-space-accountant-an-interview-with-author-mjke-wood-acra/</a><br />
<br />Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-21782552137224445642017-02-14T11:14:00.000+00:002017-02-14T11:14:38.475+00:00Liverpool: Look Closer<h4>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aOHgafk8nLg/WKLcRD9xpHI/AAAAAAAAEPQ/_6l6SJugep81zJ5xZJL-EQqQUUSd6u7OQCLcB/s1600/liverpool-1500885_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aOHgafk8nLg/WKLcRD9xpHI/AAAAAAAAEPQ/_6l6SJugep81zJ5xZJL-EQqQUUSd6u7OQCLcB/s400/liverpool-1500885_1280.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I have a story up on the shiny new</div>
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<b> Liverpool: Look Closer</b> website.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is a website hosted by Rachael Johnston that looks at the great city of Liverpool and its inhabitants through the art of writing. Follow <a href="http://rach-johnston.wixsite.com/lookcloser/a-look-into-liverpool-stories-1">this link</a> for some free fiction and poetry, including my own story, <a href="http://rach-johnston.wixsite.com/lookcloser/a-look-into-liverpool-stories-1"><b>The Last Glass</b>.</a></span></div>
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Also look out for the follow-up print magazine, coming soon.</div>
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<i>(Thanks to pixabay.com for the image)</i></div>
Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0Wirral, UK53.3727181 -3.073754000000008153.2211401 -3.396477500000008 53.5242961 -2.7510305000000081tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-49324915816667277752017-02-12T22:35:00.000+00:002017-02-12T22:35:02.851+00:00Interview – Massive Black Hole<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7fbwqdpJQ7s/WKCvWimIPRI/AAAAAAAAEOQ/qzb1_hzl3nMnOu4nlB6HErvFHmz0sO2_gCLcB/s1600/interview-1018333_640.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7fbwqdpJQ7s/WKCvWimIPRI/AAAAAAAAEOQ/qzb1_hzl3nMnOu4nlB6HErvFHmz0sO2_gCLcB/s200/interview-1018333_640.png" width="200" /></a></div>
I'm delighted to have been interviewed by author Andrea Barbosa for her <a href="http://massiveblackholenovel.blogspot.com/2017/02/books-interview-with-science-fiction.html">Massive Black Hole</a> blog.<br />
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Andrea's blog is packed full of interviews with writers and creatives from a whole range of backgrounds. I've enjoyed reading them and I'm sure you'll be as fascinated as I have been to discover both the differences and similarities in how other authors like to work, and what inspires them.<br />
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You can link to Massive Black Hole, <a href="http://massiveblackholenovel.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/books-interview-with-science-fiction.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-88108868564383261162017-01-30T12:34:00.000+00:002017-01-30T12:34:12.471+00:00Metallic Hydrogen Rocket FuelThe creation of a chunk of metallic hydrogen just a few days ago should set pulses racing amongst sci-fi writers and space geeks. If it turns out that metallic hydrogen remains metastable once they start backing off the pressure, then the door might open, just a crack, for a rocket fuel to enable SSTO, Single Stage to Orbit, rockets.<br />
It's actually better with a little sci-fi materials tech, because the more realistic options involve a diluted form of the fuel. Pure metallic hydrogen would need materials capable of withstanding 7000k temperatures. We don't have any yet. So diluting the metallic hydrogen with water or liquid hydrogen is required to bring temperatures down to something more manageable, and that, sadly reduces the specific impulse. Still way better than liquid hydrogen/oxygen fuels, though. But hey, what an incentive for someone to take a look at high temperature materials research.<br />
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There's more detail, with the maths, about metallic hydrogen as a rocket fuel here:<a href="http://bit.ly/2kiJb5r"> http://bit.ly/2kiJb5r</a><br />
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If nothing else it gives us a label to use in medium-future stories that can make hopping into a ship and flying off to the moon without having to scatter giant fuel tanks all over the globe, a little more realistic.<br />
And I haven't even mentioned the sci-fi transportation applications for room temperature superconducting metallic hydrogen, giving us, amongst other things, super fast maglev trains. Fwoar!<br />
I'll be watching the metallic hydrogen story with great interest.Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-66527819224838689292017-01-23T20:45:00.000+00:002017-01-23T20:45:23.466+00:00Shh! Don’t use the R word: How not to Retire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">A few years ago a friend of mine retired. He’d been looking forward to it for years. He bought a cottage on the isle of Anglesey, in Wales. He furnished it, then waited for the moment when he could walk away from forty-five years of work and drop down into his new patio lounger, glass in hand, and watch the tide coming in and out. The big day came. He moved over to his new home and a week later he dropped down dead.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It could have happened to anyone. We were all shocked and saddened. But so often we hear similar tales, and the common thread seems to involve that dreaded transition from being needed, respected, indispensable… to being surplus-to-requirements.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;"><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">You are going to want to avoid this happening to you.</span></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"> Whether you are in your thirties, forties or fifties, the time to avoid the scourge of transition is now. This isn’t about planning for retirement, it is about planning for non-retirement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Who wants to feel useless? All that training and knowledge gone to waste? I think cloud-watching could be an over-rated pastime.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">The secret is: Do the thing.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> You know, the thing you always wanted to do. The career you couldn’t choose because you had a family to feed, a mortgage to pay. Photographer, artist, actor, musician, and in my case, author. And I suggest you do it now. Don’t wait. Don’t get to that big day and find yourself looking up at a learning curve that resembles The Eiger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Of course your day job might also be your thing. If that is so then congratulations, and I have nothing here to offer by way of advice. But of course you have no plans to retire, anyway. Why should you give up doing the thing you love? The rest of us, well, <i>we need to start now</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Begin to dabble. Start acquiring the skills. Take a little time to ease into your chosen creative world and learn the connections. There’s often a barrier to entry, a gatekeeper, and this could be the insider knowledge about how to submit to exhibitions, how to get into Musical Directors’ address books, becoming known in the local amateur theatre circuit or knowing where to submit stories. Get to know the gatekeeper early and get yourself a set of master keys. None of this has to detract from your career. There’s nothing wrong with hobbies. Except <i>you</i> know: it isn’t a hobby, it’s a beginning. It’s that thing that will grow and become all-consuming. Your <i>raison d’être</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then, when the time comes for you to make the transition – note we’re not using the R word anymore – you will find there is no transition. You are ready. You are accessing a supporting income, that some people call a pension, to allow you a moderately risk-free transition into the thing you always wanted to do. The old day job is no longer a precious jewel you have lost but an old thing you can at last push aside so you can get on with the real meaning of your life. If you can earn some income from your former-hobby/new-career, then great, every bit helps. If you don’t earn much, then no matter, you’re not going to starve.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">All of this is subject to your own circumstances of course: having access to a reasonable pension, retaining your health, having a conducive domestic situation. These things matter and they are all part of your forward planning, not just your creative thing but taking exercise and being serious about financial plans. But if you haven’t done so already, <i>now</i> is the time to act. Find your thing and take those first steps.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Mjke Wood took his first steps more than thirty years ago, when he started writing short stories, submitting to magazines, collecting rejections, and learning the craft from his many mistakes. He now writes full time. His novel, <a href="http://www.mjkewood.com/deep-space-accountant">Deep Space Accountant</a> is available on Amazon and other platforms. His stories are available in many science fiction and fantasy magazines. One such story has been optioned for a motion picture on which script writers are working at this very moment.</span></i></h4>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Mjke now writes full time. He doesn’t miss the day job.</span></i></h4>
Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-30945211210484052422017-01-16T15:47:00.001+00:002017-01-16T15:47:03.544+00:00Where Do Ideas Come From?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">A question asked of every writer at some time is: where do you get your ideas?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ttzzahtdKic/WHvTpc9dneI/AAAAAAAAEM0/RUWkgxi8RZ8z6W7gj-hcxXae99GyzzTugCLcB/s1600/shower-1027904_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ttzzahtdKic/WHvTpc9dneI/AAAAAAAAEM0/RUWkgxi8RZ8z6W7gj-hcxXae99GyzzTugCLcB/s320/shower-1027904_1280.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><i>Image credit:Pixabay</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I usually have a flippant answer stored and ready to use. Ideas come through the plumbing in my house, because every time I climb into the shower the ideas flow, and of course this is the moment when I’m most separated from my notebook. So many times an idea has come while showering, only to be rubbed away in the towelling process soon after. I fixed that problem. I bought a waterproof notebook.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It’s a silly answer to the question of course, because ideas come at any time from any trigger. It is rare that I can even remember what triggered any single idea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Deep Space Accountant</i> is different, though. It’s one of the few story prompts I’ve had for which I can remember the exact thought process that gave rise to the idea. And no, I wasn’t in the shower.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For <i>Deep Space Accountant</i> I must thank the cartoonist, Gary Larson. I love Gary Larson’s cartoons and I have several books of his collected work. One cartoon in particular rang bells. It shows an accountant standing on a promontory with his briefcase. The caption reads <i>Seymour Frishberg: Accountant of the Wild Frontier</i>. (I’m not going to infringe copyright and post the image here, but here's a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/TheFarSideGallery/comments/4wce76/seymour_frishberg/">link</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Straight away I wondered what a science fiction version of the Seymour Frishberg cartoon might look like. Pretty much the same layout except that he’d be in a spacesuit instead of a business suit. And maybe there’d be the odd ringed planet in the sky.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then I started wondering about the accountant’s story. Why is an accountant in space? <i>Deep</i> space? And there it was. I even had my title - originally Nathaniel D Nicholson: Deep Space Accountant, I changed it to Elton D Philpotts midway through the first draft, then I dropped the name part when I realised I’d have a tough time cramming it all onto the book cover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You’d think, also, that my job as an accountant might have had an influence? Not true. The idea came to me in 1985, long before I ever considered accountancy as a career. Back then I earned my crust by compiling bus timetables and duty rosters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, I wrote a first draft, hand written on secretary’s spiral notepads. It was horrible. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t plot. I knew nothing about accountancy. I put it away in a drawer and carried on writing short stories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Flash forward twenty-five years. I’d become an accountant. I’d started winning the odd award for my writing. I found Deep Space Accountant in a box.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was <i>still</i> horrible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I put it back in the box and buried it. And started again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Different plot. Different characters. Different Result.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Want to know how it turned out? Find out <a href="http://www.mjkewood.com/deep-space-accountant">here</a>. </span></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.mjkewood.com/deep-space-accountant">Deep Space Accountant</a> is the first book in the Sphere of Influence series, available in paperback and all major e-book formats.</i></div>
Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2529014676546932436.post-34133516327025195392017-01-10T18:00:00.000+00:002017-01-10T18:00:13.637+00:00No Such Thing as Gravity<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UIxXCAfWvIE/WG0zav3dePI/AAAAAAAAEMI/LcMqsmMZ6j8JSN3abF1QXIuk2Ll87TsZACLcB/s1600/cameringo_20170103_133401.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UIxXCAfWvIE/WG0zav3dePI/AAAAAAAAEMI/LcMqsmMZ6j8JSN3abF1QXIuk2Ll87TsZACLcB/s320/cameringo_20170103_133401.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From Sarah Sparkes' The Ghost Formula. Apologies for the<br />
image, it's better without the reflection of my hands and<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">An exhibition running at FACT in Liverpool asks, what is the nature of scientific truth? A group of artists have approached areas of science in a way that can create unease and controversy. I went to see <i>No Such Thing as Gravity</i> this week and came away confused and ill at ease. But it's art, so that's a good thing, yeah?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I can say up front that I often find the exhibitions at FACT to be… challenging. A common theme is a merging of scientific and artistic thought, and it is the artistic side of this partnership that can be difficult. Having said that, I rarely miss an exhibition, and even if I don’t understand much or anything about what’s going on, the images and exhibits will be guaranteed to unsettle me and give me cause to think deeply about the ideas long afterwards. Perhaps that is my problem. Maybe we are not meant to understand. Maybe the idea is to present a series of triggers designed to send our brains skittering off on random courses to find their own understandings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Unsettling is the best way to describe Helen Pryor’s exhibit, <i>The End is a Distant Memory</i>, upstairs in Gallery 2. This is an exploration of the ‘unknowable space between life and death’ and she uses a series of video presentations using chickens, from factory farm to supermarket shelf, and even beyond, where life of a kind has been seen to continue for several days within fibroblast cells of chickens taken from those same supermarket shelves. In another part of this gallery we see a man on a table. He is unconscious and limp, and being dragged, arranged and manipulated for some purpose. His body is lifeless but the movement is constant, and it is disturbing in a way that is hard to define. Like many of the other exhibits, it left a mark, perhaps even a scar, and I have no idea why.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I would recommend a visit to FACT if you are in the area. The exhibition will make you think… about something… but I cannot predict what.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-indent: 10.4px;">Cafe’s good too. Pretty decent veggie and vegan fare. I had a falafel and guacamole sandwich. Mmm!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>No Such Thing as Gravity</i> runs until 5 February 2017. And it’s free.</span></div>
Mjke Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06364056147914070231noreply@blogger.com188 Wood St, Liverpool L1, UK53.4021893 -2.97788009999999353.401597800000005 -2.9791405999999929 53.4027808 -2.9766195999999931