New Look

So, I got bored with the old look, and decided it was time to update. I think it looks quite nice, actually. Very futuristic and clean.

It's pretty dull outside here in Leicester, and I'm rather hoping it doesn't rain. The forecasters said it would, but let's face it, you can't trust them. They mean well, but half the time, they couldn't forecast their way out of a paper bag. It's not their fault; they can only work with the information they're given.

And this is where the rain that was forecasted does happen, and I get soaked on my way home.

Anyway, had a very productive day yesterday. Managed to hammer out nearly 1,400 words of Serial Psyence, during which, people were shot, subjected to explosive decompression, and a girl saw herself die. It sounds horrible I know, but considering the subject matter - a serial killer - what do you expect? I'm quite pleased with how it went, though after reading up on the effects of vacuum on the human body, I realise it needs a bit of work. Nevermind, I had lots of fun writing it. Which makes me sound a bit sick. Bugger.

On the plus side, the story is progressing very well, and I'm making much better progress than I was with the flashbacks. I don't know why, but I feel much more comfortable with a setting I'm completely unfamiliar with. whenever I try using a setting I know, I just seem to falter, as what I know about the place conflicts with what I'm trying to imagine. Using a setting that's wholly imaginary (like an arcology on Callisto) is so much easier.

Nine weeks into my new job now! That's gone quick. Only four more weeks until Christmas. Have I done my Christmas shopping yet? No. That's planned for this weekend, when I'm going shopping in Birmingham with Heather. She has decided she wants clothes for Christmas, and personally, I don't trust myself to buy the right ones. And so I'm off clothes shopping. Yay?

Long time no see

Wow, it's been a while since my last post. Almost a month, even.

I'd like to say it's because I've been uber busy, having started a new job, and getting a major publishing deal ... but that would be a lie.

Okay, the new job thing isn't a lie. Still no publishing deal though. Ah well, what matters is people like Liberator's Ruin.

So what have I been doing? The truth is, not a lot. I've played games (Batman, Dark Souls and MW3 - all brilliant), and worried about lack of money. Which, considering I've bought three games in the past month, you might consider a little odd, but I have lots of credit with Blockbusters at the moment, so no actual money was spent on their purchase.

I've also been getting on with Serial Psyence. Now that the plan is finished, I've started writing the flashbacks which run over the course of the main story. I'm not sure how well it's going at the moment. I'm almost 11,000 words in, and it feels like 11,000 words of utter rubbish - that's what I get for having hardly written a word in 6 months - and it's highly likely that the first 15,000 or so will be trashed, but we'll see how I feel once it's all finished. I'm quite looking forward to writing the main story. I've never written a crime thriller before, so it should be interesting.

Depending on how things go, I may post some sketches in the future, detailing the arcology the story takes place in.

Oh, and anyone waiting for the next part of that piece I started a few months ago, you may have to wait a while longer. I will finish it, I promise!

Once I work out where it's going.

3D is so overrated

I'm quite good at backing the wrong horse. I had this shoved in my face in big, neon letters when I went to the dog races for Heather's Grandad's birthday (now there's an awkward sentence - moving on!).

I bet on about four or five races, and did I win a thing? No. There's a reason why I don't gamble: I never win.

Turns out, I do the same with tech, too. First it was the Gamecube. Not many games. Most were good - brilliant even, when you get things like Metroid Prime - but there weren't many. I bought one.

Then HD DVD. There I was, thinking the tech was just as good, if not better than blue ray, except Sony, being the (mostly) smart buggers they are, bunged a blue ray played in the PS3. So most people instantly had a HD drive. And voila, blue ray won (fortunately, I bought a blue ray player after the dust had settled).

Now it's the 3DS. When it came out, I was justifiably excited. Having played on one in game, I could see how amazing it was. Then I bought one, with ghost recon and pilotwings. After a while, I forgot the 3D was even there, so I wasn't getting much of a benefit. Every now and then, I'd go, 'oooh,' but they got less frequent. I got Zelda, and hardly played it. It's one of my favourite games, yet I can't be bothered. In seven months, I've barely touched my 3DS. I took it on holiday with me, then spent most of my time playing games on my iphone.

The problem is twofold. There aren't many games. Yes, I know it's only been out for seven months, and the DS took a good couple of years to pick ip (hell, even the xbox 360 only had a few games for a year), but there's hardly anything in development that I'm interested in. Then there's the price. 3DS games cost around £30 - £40 each. I could buy an xbox game for that! The great thing about DS games was that they at most cost £30, but you could always find them for £20 or less.

These days I'm limited in my games buying, so I can only pick up a full price game once every couple of months. Inbetween, I might splash on an XBL Arcade game, or a pre-owned or sale game, but I can't justify paying out for a lot of games any more.

So that's it. I'm selling off my 3DS, and the money is going toward an iPad instead. It's got plenty of games, and there are often sales, where games go for dirt cheap (I recently picked up a couple of Gameloft games for £0.59 each). Plus, if I get a keyboard case, I can use the iPad for productivity.

I still have my Xbox 360, and that's my go-to machine for most of my gaming these days (Akham City next Friday!)

I think devices like the iPad are the future of mobile gaming - but what do I know? I always back the wrong horse!

A visionary has been lost

I was shocked to turn on the news this morning and learn that Steve Jobs had passed away, aged 56.

Say what you will about his business practices, his draconian ruling of Apple, but the man was a true visionary, and should be remembered for the technology he enabled. without him, would we have today's smartphones, or even tablets like the ipad?

I find it incredibly touching that even his greatest rival from the 80s and 90s, Bill Gates, passed on his condolences, saying that he was honoured to have known him.

My heartfelt condolences to his family for their loss.

Rest in peace, Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011.

I just don't know

Do I want an iPad? Should I get one?

I don't know. The geek in me (read all of me, including that little fingernail that rolls its fictional eyes whenever I get stuck on the topic of geeky stuff) says yes. At the moment, I have a really underpowered netbook. I'm not kidding. If I try to do much more than writing on it, it has a fit and sits in the corner until I leave it alone. Browsing websites is a chore, and watching digital movies is a nausea-inducing exercise (ever been in a nightclub when the lights start blinking on and off rapidly, so that people look like they're moving jerkily? Yeah, bit like that).

I know what you'll say. Get a new laptop! Which is a good idea. My only problem is that the sort of new laptop I want, means spending upwards of £600 to get.

With the release of IOS5 later this year, an ipad is only getting more enticing. No more needing to tether the thing to a pc! Proper multi-tasking! I would still need a pc to do a lot of things with my book, especially when editing the file to get it ready to publish, though that's something I can use my current laptop for. And I could do a lot of writing on the ipad - as long as I got an external keyboard, essentially turning it into a netbook.

The problem is, I've been getting a bit annoyed with my iphone of late. Admittedly, a lot of that has to do with the fact that it's so damn slow, being a 3GS. It's put me off having another iphone (that and the signal issue, of course).

The question is, what do I use my laptop for?
Internet browsing (reading the latest news, writing to this blog, making online purchases)
Watching videos
Writing

That's about it, really. And I can do all of that on an ipad, only switching back to the pc when it's time to edit. Hell, I already use my phone to browse the internet and watch videos, due to the aforementioned reasons.

My phone is due for an upgrade sometime over the next 6 months, so when I get rid of the iphone, maybe I'll put some of the money toward an ipad.

We'll see.

No time like the present

Well! The final edition of Liberator's Ruin has finally been submitted to Amazon and Smashwords, and should now be live.


What's so different about this edition I hear you ask? It turns out my editing wasn't quite as good as I thought it was. Whilst the edit itself is fine, I missed an awful lot of typos. Far more than I thought I had. But with the help of some very kind people on Goodreads, I should have got them all now! I'm ashamed that I let such a shoddy copy get published, but at least that's one thing I can finally let go.

Mosey on over to Amazon or Smashwords to download a copy. Samples are free!

I'm working hard on the plan for Serial Psyence at the moment, so hoping to starting writing it by the end of October. It's going well. I think I finally passed the halfway mark today, so the main plot is starting to heat up (there are two plots running parallel in the story).

We've almost finished moving out now. After over a month since we first got the keys to the new flat. We're having to downsize from a 3-bed maisonette to a 2-bed flat, so some things are going to be stored in a parent's loft for a while. And here I was thinking I'd moved out of my mum's house. Ha!

Maybe one day.

What I'm listening to at the moment: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Soundtrack. Believe it or not, it's very good. Nice bit of music to listen to whilst planning Serial Psyence.

PS. Anyone waiting for the next update to We Should Have Run, it's coming. I just have to sit and write it ...

We Should've Run: Part 2

It's taken me a few weeks to actually sit down and work on this, but I have been planning Serial Psyence. And playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's awesome, and time consuming, and far too distracting.

Anyway, here's part two.

The Cat’s Eye had half a dozen spacesuits. Each suit consisted of a single piece, tear-resistant bodysuit, to which was attached plates of impact armour; the suit provided no protection from kinetic trauma. A chest plate with a wide collar attached to the torso, containing the suit’s power supply and air recyclers in a small backpack unit, as well as a small thruster unit. They were big and bulky, and in a way, a lot like the Cat’s Eye: old but well maintained, having seen plenty of use during midflight repairs to the ship’s superstructure. Lorenzo was loath to replace them, even though there were better, less bulky models on the market. But he just couldn’t bring himself to get rid of them, despite his crew’s protestations. Although, considering the way the suit pinched, he was beginning to consider coming round to their way of thinking.

Once he was suited up, Lorenzo put on his shell helmet. Everything went dark, then there was a hiss as the suit sealed. An array of activation lights lit up, and the faceplate cleared. Yeven was staring at him, holding out an SIPC. He gave his sensors officer a thumbs up, and took the rifle, clipping it to his chest.

‘Ready?’ Lorenzo asked.

‘Aye Captain,’ came the replies through his suit comm.

The three moved into the airlock, the door sealing behind them. Lorenzo watched his tactical display as the airlock cycled, and once the external pressure dropped to zero, he opened the hatch.

The Cat’s Eye was holding station three hundred metres away from the ragged hole in the side of Sintra station. Two external lights were focused on it, but he could barely make out anything. With luck, they would find an entrance point in there.

‘Captain,’ Katria’s voice spoke in his ear. ‘I’m burning a lot of delta v holding position with the station.’

‘Alright. Once we’re clear, drop down to a trailing orbit a thousand kilometres back. We’ll holler if we need you to come get us.’

‘Roger.’

Lorenzo stepped up to the edge of the airlock. He paused for a moment, staring straight at the space station. It was only a few hundred metres, but at right this moment, it could just as well be a hundred thousand. It was impossible to gauge. He took hold of the side of the airlock, and jumped.

Once he was clear, thrusters in his backpack fired, rotating round to stare back at the Cat’s Eye. Both Riko and Yeven had followed him out, and now the three of them floated in a loose formation, steadily retreating from the bulk of the ship.

‘We’re clear, Katria. You’re free to break position.’

‘Roger Captain.’

Bright pinpricks burst to life as the Cat’s Eye’s manoeuvring thrusters fired. The big ship began dropping behind and below them as it turned away. Then the main drive lit up, and the ship rapidly dropped away.

Lorenzo watched it for a little while longer before he fired his thrusters again, reorientating himself back on the station.

With the Cat’s Eye moving away, they had lost the ship’s searchlights, turning the ragged hole they were heading for into a gaping, black maw. Suddenly, Lorenzo’s perception changed, and he was no longer heading toward the station, but it coming for him, to swallow him. Lorenzo’s fingers twitched toward his SIPC.

Twisting his head inside his helmet, he looked away and toward the bulk of Heathcliff. The Station was just heading into the planet’s nightside, the thick bands of storm clouds disappearing into the darkness. When he focused on the station again, it was back to just a blasted, ragged hole of twisted metal and composite.

A glance at his suit telemetry told him that he was now only 50 metres away. Gripping the controls for his suit thrusters, he began firing the jets. Both Yeven and Riko did the same, the trio drifting into the maw at less than a metre per second. Their suit lights came on, playing across the interior.

‘Fuck, it’s like the station was cored with a fusion lance,’ Yeven said.

He was right, Lorenzo saw. In the beams of light, he could see that the surface of the hole looked as though it had been melted. A glance at his display told him that the melted structure wasn’t emitting any radiation. He’d been wrong in his first impression. A compressed muon explosion would never have done this sort of damage. Never so cleanly. It was as if a miniature star had blossomed momentarily against the side of the station, disintegrating everything it came in touch with before it winked out.

As his lights played across the damage, he spotted a corridor, leading deeper into the station. Activating his thrusters, he flew over to it and manoeuvred inside, Yeven and Riko following. Halfway down the corridor, he began to drift toward the floor. Instinctively he brought his legs out to brace for the landing, realising only at the last second that it was the wrong move. His boots touched against the floor and he bounced back up to the ceiling, his helmet knocking against it with a thud. Lorenzo winced and pushed himself back to the deck and activated his boots just as he touched down again. This time he didn’t float back off.

He ignored the grunts of laughter from his two crewmen and stomped off down the corridor, feeling weight return with every step.

‘Still gravity,’ Yeven said. ‘It’s weak, though. You reckon the gravistar is still spinning?’

‘Maybe. That would assume there is still power to it.’

‘Sintra’s got a vacuum motion generator attached to the gravistar. Even if the main reactor goes down, the gravity stays on,’ said Riko as he peered at a melted intercom. He poked it with the finger of one gauntlet and little black flakes erupted out in an expanding cloud.

Both Lorenzo and Yeven turned to look at him.

‘What?’ Riko said defensively. ‘I went on a date with one of the station engineers a while back. Hey, I do have interests outside of the ship, you know. Plus I thought we might get a VMG as a backup, so I wanted to get to know about them.’

‘Was she pretty?’ Yeven asked.

Riko grinned. ‘Yasmin Denehey.’

‘Oh. How’d you manage to pull that off?’

The grin turned malicious. ‘I borrowed a page out of your book.’

‘Cheeky bastard.’

‘Stow it, you two,’ Lorenzo said.

There was a bulkhead door at the end of the corridor, sealed shut. Taking out a sensor wand, Yeven pressed it against the door. ‘No atmo on the other side. I’m guessing it closed when whatever it was exploded, but the compartment vented anyway. Some organic residue on the other side. Can’t tell what. It’s hard to tell, but I think there’s trace atmo further in.’

‘Alright, Riko, see if you can get it open.’

‘You want me to cut it?’

‘No. Let’s see if we can use it as a makeshift airlock.’

‘Got it.’

Moving over to the bulkhead door, Riko braced one foot against the side of the corridor and tugged at the service hatch next to the door. It came away abruptly. He reached inside and pulled on the manual release handle. The doors shifted apart slight, and as Riko continued to pump the handle, they slid back into their recesses.

Once the doors were open enough, Lorenzo, Yeven and Riko moved inside, resealing the hatch behind them. Riko paused as he passed through the airlock, one foot having come down on something uneven. Moving his foot, he looked down.

‘Er, I think I found your organic trace.’

It was a hand. Or what was left of it. The skin was very pale, and covered in a layer of hoarfrost. The thumb was missing, sheared off in whatever incident had removed the hand from the owner.

‘Keep it,’ Yeven said.

‘Now the next one.’ Lorenzo detached his SIPC from his suit and flicked off the safety.

It took another ten minutes to open the second blast door. The manual release had seized up and wouldn’t budge. In the end, Riko took out his SIPC and switched to his under-barrel plasma beam, and cut a hole in the door. Air hissed through as he cut, a torrent that sent globs of molten metal flying.

When the three crewmen climbed through the hole, they found a scene of utter devastation. Light fittings hung from the ceiling, some still flickering on and off. Emergency lights pulsed away on the floor, heading deeper into the station. Conduits in the walls had ruptured, spilling fluids into the corridor, dribbling down the walls and pooling on the deck. Some had frozen the moment they burst, freezing in iridescent water bursts that glittered in their suit lights. There were, fortunately, no bodies.

‘Any signs of life?’ Lorenzo asked.

‘Six decks down, I think,’ Yeven replied, frowning at the readout from his sensor wand.

‘You think?’

‘I’m not sure. There are some readings the deck below, but they’re weird, you know? Like they’re not quite there.’

‘Some trapped, maybe nearly dead?’ Riko suggested.’

Yeven shook his head. ‘No, the sensor read’s biologicals, not life signs. It’s more like it can’t make its mind up.’

‘We’ll take a look as we go,’ Lorenzo said. ‘Let’s move.’

This place gives me the creeps, he thought, but didn’t say it.

*