Distractful

I'm getting there but it hasn't been easy

2010-09-24T00:27:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Sigur Ros, (3).

I've been reading William Gibson's Neuromancer - or re-reading to be precise, I've read it numerous times since I first came across it about 20 years ago (Gibson wrote it in 1983) - an amazing novel, even now that the World Wide Web has been around for 15 years and it was written a decade before the first browser became available, it's still a very credible story. Gibson has an amazing vision for sub-cultures and how technologies can affect humanity... way before the technology actually exists.

Revisiting Neuromancer has brought some inspiration back to me (the reason I dug it out of the bookshelf was in the hope that it would provide some motivation). I've cleaned up a little plot splice I had a few issues with and made that fit nicely with some new material I've been slowly working into the story.

After 5 years Coma City still isn't near finished but it's always nagging away in my mind. Sometimes that nag is loud enough to get me hunched over a keyboard for a couple of hours, other times it's barely a whisper.

To be honest I'm really pissed off at myself for not having finished the book. My sister was diagnosed with cancer at the start of the year and by the middle of the year her prognosis was very bleak so I set myself a goal of finishing my book for her to read, or at least having something close to a story, that flowed logically from beginning to end, within a couple of months. I had been telling her about my book for years and she was keen to see it come to fruition. Unfortunately her bleak prognosis of only surviving to the end of the year became a lot bleaker in August and she passed away that same month, leaving everyone with unfulfilled wishes and heavy hearts.

I love you Louise and miss you every day.

The e-book Revolution

2010-06-01T23:08:00.004+10:00

All this hype about Apple's iPad and iBookstore may be becoming a tad tedious but there is reason for some of the excitement, especially for unpublished authors.

Some commentators are saying that the popularity of the iPad could bring about the return of low cost reading matter like the old dime novels / penny dreadfuls or even pulp magazines that were popular during the late 19th and early 20th century.

Of course there are other (and some would say better) electronic book readers than the iPad (such as Amazon's Kindle) and most of these are more than capable of bringing about the revival of a inexpensive short stories revolution.

There are some caveats to Apple's iBookstore that complicate things for a small time author hoping to distribute their work. The first hurdle is Apple's requirement for all books to have an ISBN, which can be quite a costly exercise. The second hurdle is the requirement for a US Tax ID, maybe not such an issue to US citizens as it is to those in the rest of the world and hopefully over time Apple will open this up to tax ID's for each regional iTunes store, ie. Australia, New Zealand, UK, France, etc.

On top of that, your book must conform to the EPUB format and be encoded by Apple's dedicated software on a Mac with an Intel CPU running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or better.

Once over these, one must possess a valid iTunes account (so Apple can pay you) and one must be prepared to wait until enough of your books have sold to bring your balance over the earnings threshold set by Apple.

Does this all sound much too hard for a struggling author to cope with? Thankfully Apple have already anticipated your reaction and allowed for other self-publishing sites, such as Smashwords and Lulu, to do all the hard work to get your book on the iBookstore shelves. Most of these companies will also help authors (or anyone with something to publish) get their books into other e-book stores or even print hardcopies (I've mentioned Lulu in this regard before).

2010 is shaping up to be the year of the tablet (or slate) computer so expect to see more people reading e-books on these devices, as well as dedicated e-book readers, on a regular basis and hopefully authors will see a revolution similar to that being enjoyed by small time software developers creating apps for the iPhone (and other mobile device platforms). Stay tuned.

Progress

2009-11-11T11:31:00.002+11:00

I haven't been here for a long (too long) while but a comment by an anonymous poster has brought me back.

Whilst here I noticed that the Progressometer, in the right column had disappeared (and was, of course, not up to date). It turns out that the site for the word meter I had used (zokutou.co.uk) had vanished off the face of the web.

After a little hunting and googling I found another word meter. This one is actually better than the previous because it uses straight HTML code rather than images hosted on sites far, far away. Thus if the creator's site goes off air the meter will continue to function.

I have set the little meter in place, tinkered with the settings and updated the word count so that I can revel in the wonders of my advancement (sarcasm pushed all the way up to 11). Thank you to the author for so generously providing this handy little device.

Ciao

Tell the Australian Government we don't want our Internet censored

2009-02-20T11:33:00.004+11:00

Times are bad

2008-12-08T12:34:00.001+11:00

"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book."

A quote from the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (106BC-43BC) as true today as it was in his time.

Cheap Mobil Computing

2008-06-05T23:06:00.006+10:00

Listening to: So Easy, Röyksopp

For a while now I've been considering getting a small notebook computer with the idea that its portability will allow me to write more often and even provide me with the opportunity to write in locations that might induce inspiration - with my book set in Melbourne it would be very helpful to sit down and write in the exact place I'm describing.

At first I was set on an Apple MacBook - a natural thought for one who already owns a Mac - but then I started to rationalise what I expected to be doing with a portable computer and soon realised that a MacBook would be overkill (and over priced) for what would basically be a typing and Internet browsing tool. It would be wiser for me to upgrade my eMac to a more powerful iMac, with a larger hard drive and bigger screen than spend around the same amount of money on a MacBook with smaller screen, storage and lesser processing and graphics capabilities. Of course the MacBook has a faster processor than my eMac but I don't really need that when I'm away from desk, which is where I do most my CPU intensive work, ie. video editing and DVD authoring. When I'm out and about all I need is a keyboard, a screen and a small amount of storage (wireless Internet access would be an added bonus so I can write on-line using tools such as Google Docs - which I used to write this).

Around the same time I came to this conclusion along came the ASUS Eee PC 701. For the next few months I enthusiastically followed news and blogs on this remarkable little "Ultra-Mobile-PC" (UMPC). It's tiny proportions (225 x 165 x 21mm) and around 900 grams in weight are also matched with a small price of around $400-500AUD which even includes Wifi and a web camera. But there were two other features that had the tech world going gaga: First is the operating system, it's Linux based and includes 40 Open-Source programs arranged under four simple to understand banners: Internet, Work, Learn and Play. There's two advantages to Linux: It's open source (meaning it's free) and a well composed distribution doesn't bog down a system like Windows does so less powerful (and therefore cheaper) CPU's can be used.

The second thing that captured the tech jornos imagination is that the Eee PC stores it's data on Solid State Drive (SSD), rather than the normal Hard Disk Drive (HDD) found in most computers. The big advantages of SSD's are lower power consumption and no moving parts - so if you drop your Eee PC your data is less likely to be lost (shame about that cracked casing though). The disadvantage is the cost per Gigabyte of storage; meaning the storage sizes on offer are a tiny 2, 4 or 8GB. Asus later offered the option of having the Microsoft Windows XP operating system installed, to tempt those who couldn't possibly live without Solitaire and several hundred thousand viruses to keep them busy.

Of course the Eee PC's small proportions also means a small display of only 7 inches and a small keyboard that many reviewers say is too cramped, or at best, takes a while to get used to. Then ASUS brought out a 8.9" display model called the Eee PC 900 in a casing that was only a smidge bigger than the 701 and still weighed under 1 Kilogram. A nice additional feature is a multi-touch pad that allows finger gestures to perform actions such as zooming and scrolling. However the tiny keyboard remained, leaving me pondering whether I could learn to live with an Eee PC.

Then, just this week, at the COMPUTEX expo in Taiwan, comes the announcement of a 10" Eee PC in 2 models the 1000 and the 1000H. The 1000H uses a 80 GB HDD (hence the H) and comes with Windows XP installed, while the 1000 sports a 40GB SSD and runs the Linux OS. Both now run on the new Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor (as does a new 8.9" model, dubbed 901) which benefits from some clever power conserving technology, allowing for longer times between battery charges (up to 7 hours!). Something worth noting about the 10" models is that their casings are larger than their 7" and 9" brothers and therefore allow for a bigger keyboard; ASUS are saying it's 92% the size of a conventional keyboard (it will be interesting to see what the reviewers think).

So, has my search for a small, light mobile computer ended with the Eee PC 1000? In a word, no. Not since the MSI Wind blew (excuse the pun) into the UMPC market. This one is practically identical to the Eee PC 1000, with one major difference, price. MSI will sell the Linux version of the Wind for $399 USD, ASUS have gone bananas and put a USD$600+ sticker on the 1000. The 10" Wind is even cheaper than the Eee PC 901, although, part of this price difference can be attributed to the fact that the Wind uses a hard disk for storage and lacks the multi-touch pad. ASUS kicked off the low-cost UMPC market with a cheap, feature rich device and now they look like they'll be beaten in the very market place that they created. I hope they enjoyed their year in the spotlight.

However, something else happened in the last week that made even the $400 MSI Wind look pricey. My employer was getting rid of some old computers and offered them gratis to anyone who wanted them. Amongst these cast-off's was a Toshiba Portege M100, of 2003 vintage, with a 12.1" display, 1.2GHz CPU, 512MB RAM and wireless (albeit 802.11b). Needless to say, I snatched this one up.

As always there's a catch: my employer wouldn't allow the computers to go out into the wild with hard drives still installed, lest they carry some data of a sensitive nature. It's also a bit scuffed and grubby but I can live with that (at least I won't have that horrible feeling one gets when they put the first scratch on their nice shiny new toy). It's also nearly one kilo heavier than the Wind but it does have something none of the low-cost UMPC's have; a CD-RW/DVD-R drive, which I've been using to boot a variety of Linux LiveCD's to try out - I've never been impressed by Windows and so decided to set myself the target of getting this computer functional for as little or no cost.

So far I've had Puppy Linux, gOS and Mandriva One running on the Toshiba and all have performed well. The most impressive, simply because of it's tiny size, is Puppy. The entire OS can be loaded into the computers memory (as long as it's over 256Mb) and run from there even after the CD has been removed. Amazingly Puppy still includes applications for web browsing, e-mail, word processing and spreadsheets, media players as well as a bunch of utilities and games. I was able to quickly access my wireless network and Puppy even asked if I wanted it to to save my configurations to a USB flashdrive (remember, I haven't instaled a HDD yet). At no time did I need to consult the manual or look for help. Microsoft should be paying close attention to how well Puppy operates using only as much space as a 2 page Word document would consume.

Mandriva One, which is the LiveCD version of Mandriva, is also impressive. It looks a lot more professional than Puppy (and is about 10 times the size, at 500+ Megabytes, so it ought to) and includes the OpenOffice suite, Firefox web browser, Gimp image editor and media players, plus all the utilities that most Linux's include. I was pleasantly surprised when I plugged in my Bluetooth dongle into one of the USB ports and it was instantly recognised and once the passcode was entered I was connected to my mobile phone and transferring files.

The only issue I had with Mandriva was that the CD had to be read when ever a new program was opened, meaning things took a bit longer. Of course this wouldn't be a problem if I had a hard drive and doubled the RAM to 1GB; something I could easily do with a visit to a computer swap meet and $50 spending money.

Looking remarkably like Mac OS X, gOS looks beautiful with a dock full of Google applications and very easy to use... as longs as you don't want to change any configurations. It took a bit of searching of the gOS forums (their online help is dismal) to find out how to enter my WEP password so I could access my wireless network - a program with the non-descriptive name of Exalt is the wireless manager, I found it tucked away in a sub-menu of a sub-menu. Still, once that was sorted out, there's much to be impressed about. Along with all those convenient Google application links on the desktop there's a solid collection of on board apps., including OpenOffice.

I haven't completed my quest yet. I intend to try out Ubuntu and Fedora before I settle on an OS for my new free laptop... Sure, it's not as petite and sexy as the modern UMPC but what fun! I'm like being a kid in a candy shop.

The Great Search for Life

2008-06-04T20:55:00.005+10:00

I love science news and this past week has had some fantastic finds.

NASA have landed another robot on Mars, this time near the northern pole. Theyŕe searching for ice in the hope that the robots scientific equipment might find signs of the building blocks of life in the frozen water.

Meanwhile, another bunch of boffins, using a telescope atop a New Zealand mountain, have discovered a distant planet 3 times the size of Earth orbiting a distant dim star. Some have even speculated that the planet has a thick atmosphere and even liquid oceans and even the possibly of these oceans being made up of water. Again, the idea is that where thereś water thereś life.

And then comes a story from deep inside the Amazon jungle of Brazil of the discovery of a previously unknown tribe of indigenous people.

Ironic, is it not, that there is billions of dollars spent every year looking into space for life and yet new life can be found with a small aeroplane and a camera right here on Earth.

The Brazilian government have a no-contact policy for the many ¨uncontacted¨ tribes in their country, which I must commend . The worst thing that these people could have happen to them is to come into contact with the so-called Civilised World. First thereś all our diseases that no longer bother us thanks to our built-up immunity and vaccinations. And then thereś all the other things that would be horrible to pass on to these people; like money, TV, Top 40 music, the Internet and blogs :-)

I wonder what the policy is for when life is found on another world?

Peace During Wartime

2008-05-19T11:52:00.007+10:00

Here's a photo from Afghanistan I found to be surreal and uplifting:

An Australian soldier on patrol in the Afghan province of Oruzgan greets a little girl amid the area's oceans of poppies. Photo: PA

The source article is equally inspiring. The Australian army are basically using the good old fashioned Aussie charm to make friends in Afghanistan and help the people separate themselves from the Taliban backed poppy industry.

This could get ugly

2008-05-12T20:47:00.013+10:00

Listening to: Breathe, Télépopmusik

Sorry but I have to vent my spleen.

Some people close to me have been preaching the much hyped book The Secret to me lately and it's really getting on my tit.

I say preaching because to me that is exactly what it seems. Praising and pushing something you believe onto another person is the same as a Seventh Day Adventist standing at your door step preaching their beliefs... and just as annoying. Except it's easier to tell a stranger to buzz off than someone who is near and dear to me.

And I personally believe that the connection to religion does not stop at preaching. Believers of The Laws of Attraction, as laid out in the book, seem to have found a new religion - Interesting that the word Sect can be found in Secret. Those who are currently preaching to me are Catholic educated but not necessarily practising to the full extent of the faith. Maybe they've lost some of their faith in god or their church, to which the author of The Secret, Rhonda Byrne (a fellow Melbournian I'm sorry to say) has managed to tap into that hole left by the exit of one omnipotent being and replaced it with another omnipotent being they call The Universe.

But hang on a minute! Isn't The Universe something physical? The result of the Big Bang 13 Billion+ years ago? Wikipedia describes The Universe as: Everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and constants that govern them.

The way I see it - admittedly as an atheist - asking The Universe to fulfil your wishes is exactly the same as praying (to god or gods, saints, idols, deities, etc.). You are voicing your wishes and by doing so projecting a feeling of hope and positiveness.

And it is more likely that being of a positive attitude opens the mind to positive outcomes and tunes the mind to identify situations that would benefit your desires.

The opposite is also possible, where being of a negative frame of mind brings to focus more of the undesirable things in life. How many times have you heard someone explain a series of unfortunate events? "I had an awful day. I had a fight with my partner over breakfast. Missed my bus. Eventually got to work and the boss screamed at me for being late. Everything and everyone at work drove me nuts. And to top it all off I lost my wallet on the way home". Now, ask yourself, would all these things have gone wrong if the complainant had made mad passionate love to their partner instead of arguing with them? Sure they may still have been late to work but would they have been annoyed about being yelled at when the reason for being late was a nice bit of rumpy-pumpy? I doubt it. More likely they would continue smiling right throughout the day regardless of how many obstacles were put in front of them.

A Google search finds possibly thousands of staunch followers of The Secret willing to defend their new found answer to all their problems to anyone who dares to question it. And plenty of others who are more than willing to criticise the concept. Much like any two opposing groups - Mac vs Windows is a fine example - rarely will the two agree.

Before my recent encounters at the altar of the New Believers of The Secret, I had heard of the book but thought it's not for me but good luck to anyone who finds what they're looking for in its pages. But now I despise the thing and its author for corrupting the minds of people who are dear to me and now think that what they have learned is perfect for everyone. I am then forced to impart on them my beliefs: "I have come this far without believing in divine intervention I'm not about to start believing in any other kind of non-physical intervention."

I have no problem with people believing in something that they feel provides them with answers to their well-being. I DO have a problem with people telling me what I should believe.

Whilst Googling The Secret (to better my understanding of what all the hype is about) I stumbled across a book called The Luck Factor by British psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman (a wise man indeed). Prof. Wiseman studied two types of people; those who consider themselves exceptionally lucky and those who consider themselves exceptionally unlucky. His research (that's right, good old fashioned scientific research) identified four characteristics of lucky people: 1. Maximise Chance Opportunities, 2. Listen to Lucky Hunches, 3. Expect Good Fortune, and 4. Turn Bad Luck into Good Luck.

Thus, Prof. Wiseman's studies found that lucky people aren't born lucky as such but have instead unknowingly developed the above four principles through life experiences (Another, humourous, possibility is offered in one of my all time favourite TV shows, Red Dwarf. In the episode, Quarantine from series VIII, Lister, Kryten and The Cat have been confined to quarantine by Rimmer who has gone insane after being infected with a virus and has shut off oxygen to the room they're locked in. To escape, Kryten injects Lister with another virus, one that gives him immense luck, so he can correctly "guess" the PIN on a security keypad. See this video - skip through to 2 minutes, 50 seconds to view the scene I just described - makes me laugh every time I see it).

As a person who believes destiny is created by individuals, rather than appearing like magic out of thin air, I find this concept of creating one's own fortune easier to grapple with than "asking" for fortune from an omnipotent being. I'm sorry, but if you receive a pay rise or a bonus after asking The Universe for more money, you're selling yourself short (and The Universe didn't provide the job for you either. Your CV, cover letter and actions during the interview(s) are what made your employer decide to take you on). Please consider why your employer would offer this to you. Surely your manager wouldn't ask his superiors to go to their superiors to go to the board and ask for more money for poor old you even though you're completely useless at your job. You worked for it, you deserve to be rewarded. Don't distance yourself from what you have achieved.

Logic tells me that if I am optimistic and convey that optimism then people I meet will pick up on that. And the more people I meet maximises the chance that I will find someone who can be of some benefit to help me achieve my desires. Whether it be a new job, a relationship or publishing my book.

On the other hand. If I go around telling everyone I meet that I'm asking The Universe to help me out of a pickle then the majority of the people I meet will think I'm a fruitcake.

And if you seriously believe that you got that new house for the price you wanted because you asked The Universe, you're crazy. It's actually because the price you offered was suitable to the seller. If you offered $50 and the seller accepted (and the place wasn't built on top of an old toxic waste dump, or on the edge of a badly eroded cliff face, or riddled with termites, or some such seriously devaluing scenario) I'd still be inclined to believe it was more to do with luck than intervention by an omnipotent being... especially one that's 93 Billion Light Years across.

End of discussion.

Actually, my rant has been beneficial to Coma City. The main character needs a lot of good fortune to get him out of mess he finds himself in. I can probably build some of the arguments I used tonight into the story.

On a personal level, the four principles of luck would benefit me greatly at the moment. I shall look further into The Luck Factor.

Forget the Jasons. What about Steve?

2008-04-28T21:14:00.003+10:00

Listening to: We Would Fall Against the Tide, The Radio Dept.

Enough about other people. Progress on Coma City hasn't exactly been going at full steam (as you have no doubt deduced).

I still haven't been able to put into words the scene (or scenes) I call the "Writer's Chasm". There's ideas, characters, a probable outcome and a fair amount of frustration. I really need to workshop/brain storm the thing, or maybe just do a bit more free writing and see what comes out - so far I haven't been pleased with the outcome of previous free writing sessions for this particular scene.

At least there's been some work on other parts of the story. Mostly freshening up and some character establishing, which I'm happy to report has helped build a picture of the main characters life prior to the event the story revolves around.

Word count is now at 22,727.

Cyber beggar or clever

2008-04-24T21:40:00.005+10:00

Listening to: Immature, Bjork

What's with these Jason's? I just commented on Jason Heglund the minimalist blogger and now I'm reading about Jason Bartholme who is asking readers of his blog to donate money so he can buy an Apple MacBook because he has to pay his other expenses ("bills, diapers, baby food, etc.") but would like a new laptop that will "serve me well as an SEO and web developer". Donors in return will have their name listed on his web page http://www.jasonbartholme.com/donations-laptop-fund/

This seems to me to be a ludicrous request. Jason has his own web site, dedicated to web development and by his own admission is working in this line of work (Under the About tab is Jason's description of himself, "I am a ColdFusion application developer by day and an aspiring search engine optimizer (SEO) by night.") so he could save up and buy his own laptop or if he needs it ASAP (which he doesn't as he admits it is not a priority) he could always rent one and claim the payments on his tax return since the laptop would be used for work purposes. The point is he's not without the means of paying for his own trinkets - there's not even a sob story about being out of work or how his last laptop was stolen or his baby has a rare illness that requires an unusual amount of diapers.

Surely there's other ways to make some extra cash than begging. He has one Google ad on his
site, maybe he should look into increasing his advertising.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man who created the World Wide Web in 1989, must be mortified by the many and varied means people (and corporations) use the web to pilfer from its users.

I also would love a new MacBook to serve me well as an author but until I can afford one I will make do with what I have. Thank you.

I thought I had troubles

2008-04-24T19:52:00.010+10:00

Listening to: Only This Moment, Röyksopp

On Thursday 28th September 2006 a fellow named Jason Heglund created a blog entitled, Hard Part of Writing (http://writtening.blogspot.com/). It contains one solitary post which reads:

"the hardest part of writting for me is getting started.
revision technique best for me is rereading alot."

I'm not sure if Jason is just kidding around or what but he sure has nailed the difficulties of writing.

Actually, looking at Jason's profile he has 7 blogs, all created between 1st and 28th September '06 and all containing only one post. This might suggest that Jason doesn't have a grasp of how blogs work or it could be that the individual single entry blogs mean something to him. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and presume the latter.

One blog/post simply called "hook" (http://jasonshook.blogspot.com/) could give a clue to Jason's modus operandi.

"My hook is a long and interesting introduction to draw in the reader.
A writer must have a good interesting introduction to hook me."

Well, I guess 19 months (to date) is a long introduction, although I wouldn't say it's terribly interesting.

Strange what one finds whilst on an Internetional journey.

Easily distracted. Who me?

2008-02-26T01:07:00.005+11:00

Listening to: Last FM

I started writing tonight but got distracted trying to find a song.

I went to Last Fm and the next thing I know 3 hours have past. I thought I'd just quickly set up an account, add a few songs to my playlist and be off in 30 minutes max. But that place is a time vortex; I started looking for The Cure song, Just like Heaven and ended up going through all my musical tastes of the past 25 years: New Wave, Rave, Chilled, Alternative Rock, Electro, New New Wave, the list goes on.

My playlist ended up looking like this:

Oh well, I suppose I'll write that chapter another night then.

The Cold Hard Truth

2007-11-20T16:43:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Thoughts of a dying atheist, Muse

Just answered a couple of on-line surveys. Things look bad for me:

I've got a slim chance of surviving a zombie apocalypse.

46%

And when the zombies do finally get me...

$3890.00

But the worst news is...

44%
Only 44%!!! I need to inject an iPod and a MacBook into my veins.

Playing God

2007-10-13T23:12:00.000+10:00

Listening to: It's all in my mind, Beck

I'm toying/struggling with the idea of killing off a character. It's a tough decision, in some ways I think the character has run his course and death is a tidy way of removing him from the remainder of the story also, his demise will show the power the antagonist wields. But on the other hand there's only three characters and this one has become the comedy relief; I'm worried readers would be put off by his untimely departure.

Nick Daws (see previous post) has some tips on working through issues such as these. Basically by asking myself questions about the subject I can develop the story according to my answers... and my answers lean to death for the poor fellow.

If that's the route I take I will then need to work out how to do it. One thing's for sure I won't be bringing my story to life like an aspiring Mexican Horror writer has done. Police came to his apartment looking for his missing girlfriend and found some of her body parts in the fridge... he had even cooked some of it. Full story here.

Meanwhile, on a much lighter tone, I have updated the look of this blog (and the linked samples), taking advantage of the improved templates Blogger have on offer. Also, the Progressometer has been brought up to date by upping the desired total word count of the finished product by 10,000 to 50,000 words. The current count is 21,770.

Steve

Seeking Guidance

2007-10-09T13:14:00.000+10:00

Listening to: 5-8-6, New Order

I mentioned before that I was having trouble moving my story past a certain point which I named The Writer's Chasm. Well I wasn't getting any closer to traversing this chasm so when I discovered Nick Daws, Write Any Book in 28 Days... or Less course I thought, what the hell, I'm not getting anywhere on my own.

I must admit I was sceptical (as is my nature) and the tacky website was a bit off putting but there were also some things that appealed to me and the price (US$49) and the 100% Satisfaction Guarantee helped make up my mind.

In the first hour of the course (which arrived within a week of placing my order) Nick discusses Freewriting and then sets an exercise to come up with three random, unrelated words and spend 5 minutes writing whatever comes to your mind. In 5 minutes, to my surprise, I had written a 200+ word story of a man who finds his teenage daughters dairy.

The next surprise came the other day, in the second module of the course, where Nick explains a "secret formula" used by Hollywood scriptwriters, I found that what I have written so far fits into this formula.

George Lucas used this methodology to write Star Wars but I'm not saying that this formula will guarantee my book will be a huge successt but it is nice to know I can at least lay out a story in an acceptable fashion.

So that's what's been keeping me busy of late.

Ciao,
Steve

Plodding Along

2007-08-31T22:46:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Silent Sigh, Badly Drawn Boy

It's funny how the human brain works. I hadn't added anything to Coma City for a couple of months and then on Monday night I'm washing the dishes and a whole new idea comes to me, complete with dialogue and locations.

I have no idea what stimulated the thought process, one second I'm wondering if I should wash the pots or the knives first, and the next, my mind is awash with fresh ideas.

Naturally, I got stuck into writing them down - after watching Californication, a TV show about an author with writers block :-). At first I only intended to jot down the ideas in point form but they were so vivid and the words were flowing easily so I just wrote until I came, much to my surprise, to the end of the chapter and the perfect ending for the story - but not the end of the book, I have an epilogue, of which I have already written about 75% of, that conveniently ties up the loose ends.

I was up until 3am but it was worth it just to get those 2000+ words down.

Word count is now at 18,888.

Tabby of Death

2007-07-27T14:32:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Someday Soon, The Doves

This is Oscar, he's a pet cat at a nursing home in the USA. Normally he doesn't pay much attention to the patients... until they're only hours away from dying.

Somehow Oscar senses that death is near and jumps up on the bed to snuggle up to the patient.

Read the full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6917113.stm

Cat lovers out there are thinking, Aawww, how adorable. The cute little pussy cat has empathy toward the poor old person.

My twisted mind however instantly put together a story about Oscar the cat being a reincarnated psychopath who gets off on breathing in someone's last breathe.

I think I watched too many horror movies when I was young.

What's a metaphor for a metaphor?

2007-06-03T22:55:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Get some sleep, Bic Runga

This writing thing is hard. It's like when you meet a new love. At the start it's all you can think about. You can't wait to sit down and write again. You can't concentrate on anything else because there's all these scenarios, diaglogues, plots and sub-plots and moods, swimming around in your mind. And you're discovering new things about your characters and even yourself as a writer.

However, as with any passionate beginning, the fire burns bright and then dims down to a steady glow as the more denser fuel burns. And it's the dense fuel that gives a fire it's heat, but if that dense fuel is not replensihed the fire can cool to just embers, or worse completely go cold.

My fire was down to a few glowing coals until last week when I found some more fuel to throw on.

I have written a piece that fits in somewhere near the end of the story - possibly even as the final chapter - and adds a nice little twist on something the reader has been lead to take for granted for almost the entire story. No, it's not a Scooby Doo ending, Old Man Withers isn't going to confess that he 'would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those pesky kids'. Nor is it a silly Hollywood ending. It's just a strange turn of events.

So, I have a beginning, an end and some stuff in the middle... but that doesn't make it complete, does it? That middle stuff has gaps in it; some are huge and some are just hairline fractures.

It's like a railway (another metaphor, sorry), there's a station at both ends but the rails haven't been layed all the way through... and to be honest, there's a chasm that I've yet to find a suitable bridge to span its void. I was descibing my plight to a friend and decided it wasn't a 'writer's block', it's a 'writer's chasm' because I can see the other side I just can't find a way to cross it (that's the last metaphor for the post, I promise.)

So, dear reader, that's where I'm at. Teetering on the edge of a writer's chasm, with bits of story on either side just awaiting a bridge.

Does anyone know any good bridge-makers?

Word count: 16,697

Sick and tired of being sick and tired

2007-03-17T22:51:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Cotton Wool, Lamb

I've had the flu since Monday and today (Saturday) is the first day in almost a week where I have not been feeling dizzy, groggy, clammy, crappy or just plain yucky.

It started off as a horrible, dry, choking cough in the middle of the night but it wasn't until lunchtime that I started to feel unwell. So it was back to bed, where I stayed, pretty much, through to Thursday.

Friday I could move around a bit more but anything too energetic (like picking something off the floor) still set off vertigo like feelings in my gut.

But the worst symptom of this virus infestation of my body was what it did to my olfactory system. It was like rotten flesh soaked in the most foulest thing you can think of was inside my mouth and nose and everything tasted and smelt the same, only its intensity increased if the fragrance was stronger. So toast smelt and tasted worse than just plain uncooked bread, which still didn't taste anything like bread. Apples were about the only thing that didn't taste like the north end of a southbound (and very dead) camel... Figure that one out?

I went to see a doctor on Thursday afternoon. He was the most useless person I have ever met. Apparently I had a virus and he wrote out a medical certificate for the week with the reason for me being unfit for work was because I was suffering from "a medical condition". The Monday was a public holiday and my employer demands a medical certificate for any sick days taken prior to or after public holidays and weekends. I hope they're happy with "a medical condition".

This is by no means another excuse for not writing. I don't really have one anyway.

But if I was going to try an excuse I'd say, there's been a lot going on. For one, my wife is studying so she is often on the computer polishing up her assignment (What, you expect me to write with a pen?... on paper? Are you mad?).

Then there's the usual distractions of the warmer months, but I can tell by the sudden plummet of the mercury when the sun drops over the horizon that autumn is here and winter will be close on its heels so my pursuits will shift indoors... hopefully.

There's definitely no distractions on the television. Nothing is really floating my boat at the moment. I don't like cop/law stories, hospital stories, American sit-coms, game shows or reality TV (especially reality TV). That rules out American and Australian shows. Leaving British sit-coms and documentaries. In Australia that means tuning into the ABC. But even there I've only found a few programs that peak my interests.
One is Extras, which is so brilliantly written that you actually feel the gut wrenching pains of embarrassment as the characters and celebrity guests insult just about every demographic you can think of.
Another has been Around the World in 80 Treasures, but the presenter, Dan Cruikshank's whispering and constant touching of artifacts can get on my nerves (I'm shocked that this program aired two years ago in the UK. Why does it take so long to get programs on to the Australian airways? No wonder illegal downloading via bit torrents is rife here, but even that is crippled by our poor "broadband" speeds).

My old favourite, Time Team is still showing every Tuesday night at 6pm (we're years behind on that one as well).

So there's my round up on influenza, useless medical certificates, weak excuses and a whinge about TV and download speeds.

Ciao until next time... Maybe I'll actually have wirtten something for my book by then. You never know; stranger things have happened.

Another teaser of Coma City

2007-02-07T00:18:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Bliss, Muse

I'm finally happy with the chase scene I started almost 11 months ago. Pleased enough to post it for anyone in the world to read... Yep, that pleased :-)

So, click here and have a read. Feel free to leave a comment, either here or on the linked page. Any critique will be appreciated.

And if you haven't read the first batch of sample chapters I posted back in June '06, you can find them here.

Slack b'stard

2006-12-27T23:12:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Climbing Up The Walls, Radiodread

A couple of recent encouraging comments on this blog reminded me how slack I have been.

I wish I could say that I was too busy writing Coma City to update this blog but that would be a big fat lie.

There's no singular reason for my tardiness. I have been writing in spits and spats, mostly updates (I know I said I wouldn't make changes until I had completed the last chapter but you know how it is, nothing new was coming to me so I kept myself busy building on some earlier chapters that I now believe are all the better for my tinkering).

I went to the dark side again. Things get a bit disturbing toward the end of Chapter 4 I'm afraid (inspiration gained from my newest favourite TV show, Dexter). I don't want to go into too much detail because it would give too much away... but let's just say it involves sex and violence ;)

So that's a bit about what I've been doing these past 4 months.

Cheers to commenters: Anonymous and Shanna for the kind words and motivation (kick in the pants).

Word count is 15,510

Breaking the Drought

2006-08-18T22:59:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Untitled, Keane

It's been over 2 months since my last confession... Oops, sorry wrong place.

We've had a fairly dry winter here in Melbourne. There's been the occassional shower but no real soakings to fill the reserviors. The same can be said for my writing of late.

But tonight, I've had a 3 hour long solid downpour of words. I've added a lengthy section that adds some emotion to the story. I had been unhappy that the main character had not shown too much concern toward the fact that he is so alone.

With tonight's effort I have addressed that with quite a dark scene where a bottle of scotch seems to be the only thing that can relieve him of the pain of solitude.

Word count is currently 14,414

Moody

2006-06-13T22:51:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Please Forgive Me, David Gray

Victoria at Characters Journey has another great tip, one that I'm very familiar with; using music to get yourself into the mood of the scene you're writing.

As you can tell from the 'Listening to' section at the top of most my posts, I like to listening to music while I write and often set the pace with a certain artist, genre or ambience similar to the scene (you might also note my preference for Electronic music).

A prime example was from the night I first penned the chase scene. I was listening to a playlist of electronic music that suited the image of a motorcycle speeding down a freeway, pursued by a hell-bent helicopter. Especially note-worthy was the grinding synth-bass in Strict Machine by Goldfrapp, which was a huge motivator. Alison Goldfrapps' vampy and ethereal vocals set a kind of music-video image (a cool one, not some crappy teeny-pop song). An added bonus was the title suited my mental image of the motorcycle and the characters feelings towards his bike: love of its physical beauty, respect for the power it wields.

If you're wondering what the hell this Strict Machine malarky is all about, check this out.

Moving the Goal Posts

2006-06-08T14:47:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Such Great Heights, The Postal Service

After careful deliberation I have changed the Progressometer goal from 50,000 to 40,000 words.

I know, this seems like cheating but I can no longer see me ever getting to 50,000 words... but you never know.

This probably makes Coma City more of a novella than a novel.

Epilogue

2006-06-08T13:35:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Time Out From The World, Goldfrapp

ep·i·logue
A short addition or concluding section at the end of a literary work, often dealing with the future of its characters. Also called afterword.

I've been thinking about how to set out the conclusion to Coma City.

Because I've been writing in the 1st person narrative I reckon an epilogue will be necessary to tidy up a few things, mainly the stuff that the character would not have been aware of at the time but should be explained to make sense of things and also what happens after the conclusion of the story (it's hard to explain without going into great detail or giving away the ending). I think it will be best if it's in the 1st person narrative again, set 12 months after the conclusion.

So, last night I spent a couple of hours typing up a list of events and characters, giving each a basic explanation and how things unfolded for them and how the world copes post Big Sleep.

You might think it's pretty silly to be inking out the epilogue when there's still more than half the book to be written, but it was a worthwhile exercise because I got a lot of ideas for the direction of certain characters just from thinking about what the future brings for them... I wish I could read the epilogue of my life, I hope it'd have a happy ending.

Sample of the First Six Chapters

2006-06-07T15:06:00.000+10:00

Since we survived Devil's Day yesterday I thought it would be worthwhile to post a sample of Coma City.

It is by no means complete and is quite likely to change before I am comfortable enough to even call it complete (the title is also likely to change).

I have provided the sample of my book in good faith. Its existence is not an invitation to use it for any other purpose other than personal reading.

VERY IMPORTANT: There are some sexual references and coarse language so if you are under 18 years of age or offended by such things I suggest you don't click on the link below.

Otherwise, I hope you enjoy Coma City.

Here's the link

Please feel free to comment, either here on Distractful or on the linked page.

Devil's Day?

2006-06-06T14:52:00.000+10:00

Listening to: It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), R.E.M.

Today is the 6th day, of the 6th month, of the year 2006 and I haven't seen neither hide nor hair of the Prince of Darkness.

But he probably doesn't work to Australian time-zones so I guess we'll have to wait and see what's in store.

Then again, we have Christmas Day once a year and Christ never shows up to that so maybe Satan will follow suit :)

BBC NEWS | Europe | Prayer vigil targets Devil's Day

The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey

2006-06-06T14:04:00.000+10:00

Mark Jeffrey, author of The Pocket and the Pendant was kind enough to leave a comment (the first for this blog) on the post I made about my concerns of the similarities between his book and the one I am writing.

Mark assured me that although the concept of our stories have some likenesses, the scenario of an "empty world" is hardly a new one.

We exchanged a few emails and Mark was kind enough to answer my questions regarding self-publishing on Lulu which, considering how well it has worked for Mark, is well worth a shot... and it's free, so there's nothing to lose!

Mark is very friendly and his books are bound to be a huge success... but don't take my word for it - read a sample or download the audiobook for free from Podiobooks and judge for yourself. If you prefer to hold the physical thing you can order the printed book from Lulu, Amazon or Borders.

The audiobooks are read by Mark and he recorded most of them in his home studio. If you're interested you can read Mark's comments on making an audiobook here.

More Coincidental Weirdness

2006-05-31T00:13:00.000+10:00

I just did a search on Google for "Coma City" and found a band by that exact name, claiming to be "the hardest punk-ass motherfuckers in the world!".

They classify their music as Heavy Porn Music. Could be worth a listen ;-)

Now I'm wondering whether I should change the name of my book. I'm not exactly happy with it anyway... It's more than just a city that's in a coma, it's the entire human population of the planet. Maybe Coma World would suit better... or something else entirely.

I've still got 2/3rds of the book to go so I'm probably jumping the gun worrying about the title... and then there's the simple fact that I DON'T EVEN HAVE A PUBLISHING DEAL!!!

Great minds think alike... that or I'm psychic

2006-05-30T21:46:00.000+10:00

Listening to: The Day the World Went Away, Nine Inch Nails

I've found another book on Lulu with a similar concept to the one I'm writing now. This seriously worries me because I would hate to finally have my book published and have it written off as a stolen plot... but then again any publicity is good publicity, just ask Dan Brown :-)

This is not the first time I have had this problem. The first book I started (currenty in limbo) involves an incident involving the International Space Station which almost puts NASA out of business. I had written about a 1/4 of the book when a cargo ship crashed into the MIR Space Station, followed by a fire. Then a few years later, when I was just revisiting the book, NASA's Columbia Shuttle disintergrated on re-entry. I was beginning to wonder if I was psychic.

In The Pocket and the Pendant by Mark Jeffrey (released 2004) time on Earth stands still except for a boy named Max and a few other children who set about to find the cause of the time freeze and rectify it.
In my Coma City, the population of Earth is sent into a deep sleep, with the exception of a small group of survivors who set about locating the mysterious force that has inacted the world's slumber.

Further details from Wikipedia (entered unbeknownst to the author) reveal further likenesses:

The event occurs at a particular instant, affecting the entire world simultaneously.
Aliens feature in the story (except in Coma, not everyone believes Aliens are responsible)

The big difference is that Mr Jeffery's book is aimed at the teen audience and mine is more for the 18+ audience - there's a ranchy scene and a bit of colourful language... and that's just the first chapter :-)

Also, The Pocket and the Pendant is the first book in a series (the second book: The Two Travelers is due for release soon). I have no current plans for a sequel to Coma City, but who knows what the future may bring - lottery, or car crash, or join a cult (gratuitous Bjork quote from Possibly Maybe).

Mark Jeffery could very well be the next J.K. Rowling. I wish him all the best with it.

I, on the other hand, am hoping Coma City has more of a Neal Stephenson-Snow Crash-like status. Not a household name but popular with those in the know.

At it again

2006-05-24T00:32:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Oompa Radar, Goldfrapp

Just finished chapter 9.

I've created my own conspiracy theory and debunked it all in one chapter. Gotta love that.

Word count is 11600

Since I'm over the 10k word mark I thought I'd change the colour of the Progressometer to green.

Little by Little

2006-05-23T00:43:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Blade Runner Soundtrack, Vangelis

In the last couple of days I have twice broken my golden rule:

"Until thou hath penned thy last chapter, thou shalt not edit previous work. Thou shalt only add new writings."

I've added a new paragraph to the very start of the book, which I believe adds a little something that was previously missing... mainly a hook to get the reader to continue reading.

I've also rejigged the chase-scene chapters. Something I've been meaning to do for a while.

Oh well, it was more of a guideline than a rule.

Word count is: 10982

Inspired Effort

2006-05-12T13:32:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Utopia, Goldfrapp

Finally, after an almost two month hiatis, I have added to my book.

All it took was some inspiration, which came in the form of a novel called The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams, whose on-line novel I discovered via the self-publishing site www.lulu.com

Roger's novel, although far more profound than my own, gave me a real boost. As did the Lulu site, which I will seriously investigate when I get to that stage. For now I will concentrate on writing whilst I have my new found inspiration.

I had been thinking of trashing Chapter 7 and a new character it introduced. But now I have found a way to keep that character and the scenario Chapter 7 provided. This has also opened up possibilites for some drama and a tie-in to the finale. In fact, without giving away too much, the new character could become the crux to the conclusion of the story.

Word count is 10498.

Chernobyl, 20 years on.

2006-04-21T11:09:00.000+10:00

Listening to: Complex, Gary Numan

BBC News | In pictures | Chernobyl's silent graveyards |

These pictures from Chernobyl, 20 years after the reactor exploded are kind of fascinating, although very grim. The image of half sunk ships left to rust in the icy port is like a scene from a Sci-fi movie. It gives me some ideas for my book - which I must get back to ASAP.

Burning the Midnight Oil

2006-03-18T01:23:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Rock the Shack, New Order

Another late night with excellent progress. The chase scenario I mentioned in the previous post has really got the juices flowing.

This scene was actually the genesis to the whole story of the Coma City idea, so I'm glad I've finally been able to get it down.

Word count is 9890!. If I wasn't so tired I'd get those extra 110+ words out to make into the five-figures. But I'm having enough trouble typing this so I'll come back to it later.

Good night

Picking up the pace

2006-03-17T13:31:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Strict Machine, Goldfrapp

I was up until 1:30am last night writing an action packed chapter involving our hero (still haven't named him) on a supercharged scooter (like the one in the photo) being pursued at 180Km/h along a freeway.

It was a lot of fun to write, I hope others will find it as much fun to read.

The scooter is a Gilera Nexus 500, a very sexy beast indeed.

I actually envisage this chapter appearing a bit further into the story but the idea was there so I had to get it down. I also needed a distraction from the trouble I'm having with finishing off chapter 7 without it seeming like a waste of words... but maybe ditching it is the way to go.

The word count is now 8477. A long way from 50,000 I know. But it's a moving goal post.

Authors Blogs

2006-02-27T16:51:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Tuna Fish, Emiliana Torrini

I'm now listed on Authors Blogs. The listing is alphabetical, by first name, so you will need to scroll all the way down to the S's to find me (Steve Scott).

P.S. Can you spot the typo in the description. Call yourself a writer? HA!

Copyright

2006-02-27T16:34:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Lovely Head, Goldfrapp

You may have noticed that I have placed a copyright notice on this blog.

This is mainly to protect any postings I make regarding my book(s); such as the post of Chapter 3 I made earlier.

I have also added the same notice to the footer of the novel.

If you would like to know more about copyrights under Australian law check out this site: Australian National University (ANU) Division of Information - E-Prints

Not a bad effort

2006-02-26T01:35:00.000+11:00

I'm quite proud of myself tonight. I've just written up Chapter 7 in about 2.5 hours.
Now I have the Progressometer as a gauge I found I kept myself going that bit longer. I've gone from 6700 words to 7395. 695 words is nothing to sneeze at.

I only wish I had started earlier tonight rather than at 11pm. It's Sunday now but I'm sure my 2 year old won't allow me to sleep in past 7am.

I've changed the target to 50,000 words. 60,000 seems too much now. I'm not even sure if 50k is over the top for this story but I'll leave it for now... besides I really should get to bed.

Also, you might notice that there was no "Listening to:" at the top of this post. I was so busy writing I didn't even notice the silence. Yay!

Progressometer

2006-02-24T12:15:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Giving myself away, Faithless

I just added The Zokutou Word Meter to the sidebar (Over there on the right, below the 'About Me' box. Yeah, that blue bar thingy).

Hopefully this will encourage me to write more often; thereby pushing the blue bar on a steady march to the right.

I've set the expected total word count to 60,000 - I think that's achievable, I reckon I'm over a 10th of the way there (I can always change it as I get nearer THE END).

So keep an eye on that little blue bar. I know I will be.

The Pareto Principle.

2006-02-21T14:14:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Supersonic, Jamiroquai

The following extract from Victoria Lynn Schmidt's blog, Characters Journey makes a lot of sense to me. But does make me wonder if this blog is attributing to the 20% or the 80%.

Note: Victoria calls it the Pareter Principle but it's actually the Pareto Principle named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who in 1906 observed that 80% of property in Italy was owned by just 20% of the Italian population. It was later generalised and given the more catchier name of The 80-20 rule.

Characters Journey: "Ever heard of the Pareter Principle? It explains how successful results come from 20% of your hard work and the other 80% is just wasted effort. In business this is a well known principle and has been proven true time and time again. As writers I think we can all relate to this principle whether it's wasting time on chores that don't really need to get done or wasting 80% on starting numerous writing projects without getting any of them completed. Boy if we could just foucs on that 20% all the time how wonderful that would be!

The question is - 'How do you know what the 20% is that will get you results without having to waste the other 80% to get there?'

Calm your mind. Pure and simple. When you are calm you develop 20/20 vision and can see which actions will give you that 20%.You can calm your mind before you decide what needs to be done in a day, or which projects to work on, with meditation, deep breathing, soft music or any number of calming activities you enjoy. In one sense Julia Cameron's daily pages serves to accomplish this task, I know many of you love to write daily pages and swear by them.

Just a thought. Being more productive with your time will help you get those projects completed."

A sample of the current book.

2006-02-21T00:54:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Butterflies and Hurricanes, Muse

Our hero has awoken in his bed after a big party. He's hung-over and feeling like luke-warm crap. But that's the least of his problems when he discovers that his girlfriend and all the other party-goers are in some kind of coma.
As the day progresses things go from bad to disastrous, with some moments of weirdness in between, as he learns that it's not just his friends who are comatosed... It's the whole world!

Coma City
Chapter 3
Tinfoil Hat

Its dark outside and I still have that headache. You know those nagging little buggers where just one small area of your brain just doesn’t feel right? Well this one is just above my right eye.
I grab a couple of headache tablets from the kitchen drawer and swallow them down with some juice whilst I take a look out the window.
Streetlights are on but there are only a very small number of lights on inside houses and still no moving traffic. A dog wanders under a light on the other side of the road, sniffs the post, pees then trundles off into the shadows. There’s no noise, except a cat meowing to be let in somewhere.
The rest of the flat is just the same as it was. My friends are all lying about asleep.
I gather up some blankets and drape them over them. I huddle a few who lie on the lounge room floor close together and use a couple of big blankets to cover them.
In the kitchen Mikey still has his face resting on the table and Jules is still laid out on the floor. I decide to try to get them into bed so I pick up Jules first, because she’s the lightest, and carry her off to Mikey’s room, laying her gently down on the bed. Then go back to the kitchen and kind of carry/drag Mikey to his room and lay him on the bed. I remove their shoes and pull the covers over them.
I tidy the kitchen up and find myself placing the bottles quietly into a big green garbage bag. Realising this I decide that if I woke someone up it’d be a good thing so I start dropping the bottles in, letting them break and bounce off each other.
No one woke.
After an hour or so I get the kitchen into a reasonable state and take the garbage downstairs to the bins.
It's so eerily quiet out here it gives me the spooks so I drop the stuff in the bins and scurry back inside.
There’s still nothing on the TV or radio. So it’s back to the trusty Internet.
The traffic-cams of the world still show no flowing traffic. Other web cams yield similar results; some show people laid out on the ground. The weirdest scene is at a theme park where a roller coaster is zipping around its track with a cargo of sleeping passengers.
There’s still no clue as to what made everyone fall asleep, which gives me no clue as to why I’m not asleep.
I search on the words: “entire population asleep”, surprisingly I get quite a few responses but only one has a direct match.
I click on the link, a page entitled “The Aliens will assume control while you sleep” loads up. Scanning the index I find items with titles such as “How the aliens will make the entire population go to sleep”, “Make your own Delta Wave Interference Cap” and “I know the aliens secret”.
Obviously this is the web page of a complete nutter.
Nevertheless, out of sheer curiosity I click on the link titled “How the aliens will make the entire population go to sleep”.
Apparently the Aliens will use special radio frequencies that he calls D-Waves, which will force our bodies into a deep sleep by simulating the low frequency delta waves that are normally generated by our brains when we’re in the deepest stage of sleep. The delta waves slow our breathing and heart-rate.
“With the entire population asleep the aliens will simply just move right in with absolutely zero resistance” the author claims.
The author, who goes by the name I-Kno and is clearly insane, doesn’t say why the aliens would put everyone to sleep rather than exterminate us all. Maybe they’ll hook us all up and use the electricity in our bodies to power their new colony like in the The Matrix movies.
The “Make your own Delta Wave Interference Cap” is a hilarious read. I-Kno has invented the Delta Wave Interference Cap or DWIC for short, and explains in great detail how to wrap aluminium foil around your skull.
Yep. Plain old, everyday cooking foil. The Delta Wave Interference Cap is the classic Tin-foil hat and supposedly blocks the Aliens sleep waves that force the brain to sleep. I-Kno wears his 24 hours a day and strongly recommends you should as well.
He even has photos of himself wearing the tin-foil hat. And guess what. He looks like a complete nutter!
There’s a section where you can leave comments. I can’t resist so I write, “The aliens are here! You’re a genius; your Delta Wave Interference Cap has saved me. Thanks so much.” For added laughs I sign off as ET – being the squat little extra-terrestrial from the movie E.T.
“Loser” I chuckle as I click on the SEND button.
I continue searching for answers but there’s nothing but the brilliant Mr I-Kno’s explanation for the situation. A very scary thought indeed. Imagine if that loon is right?
Of course he can’t be. I don’t have a Delta Wave Interference Cap and I’m awake. I wonder if I-Kno is awake.
I end up reading through the various syndicates I subscribe to and come across an article from last Tuesday about a University professor in America who has developed an Artificial Intelligence program on a huge bank of Sony Playstation gaming consoles. This program has become so clever that it won’t allow its maker to shut it down. The professor finds it absolutely fascinating that the program has learnt how to protect itself.
“Good god man! Haven’t you seen The Terminator movies?” I yell at the screen.
This guy is almost as scary as I-Kno. Maybe they’re related.
I’ve seen enough so I close down the computer.
Feeling tired again so I go to bed.
Shelley hasn’t moved a millimetre.

Other things I've started and would like to finish

2006-02-21T00:23:00.000+11:00

Listening to: 2+2=5, Radiohead

I'm such a scatter-brain. Not only do I have ideas for three books banging around in my head I have other projects I've begun that are yet to be completed.

Here's the Top 3 Projects I'd Like to Get Finished in the Next Month or Two

1. Edit the video of my two kids and burn it to DVD. The eldest has just turned two, the youngest is three months.
I bought an Apple Mac last year with the intention of using it's creative powers (and greater stability) for creative pursuits such as these. From what I've been able to do so far the Mac is brilliant - and that's just using iMovie which came free with computer.

2. Fix up my father in-laws website. He has a furniture shop and an existing website that needs a bit of a spruce up. I offered to do it for him rather than pay a web developer (sorry to all the web developers out there who have all just let out a collective moan of 'Not another noob who thinks he can make a website').

3. Learn the JAVA programming language. I'm a COBOL programmer (and not that much of a noob) and fear I will be put out to pasture if I don't learn some new tricks soon.

So you see, I have set myself a few goals... the question is can I pull them all off and still find time to write my book. We'll have to wait and see.

Why write a blog when I should be writing my book?

2006-02-20T23:52:00.000+11:00

Listening to: The man who told everything, Doves

I'm glad I asked that completely rhetorical question.

The simple reason is guilt.

By thinking about what to write here I will feel guilty for not actually writing my book. Therefore, so my thinking goes, the less I write here the more I should be writing in my book. This theory falls flat on its arse for many reasons; writers-block for one - but I'm sticking with it.

Also, I hope it will get the creative juices flowing, so maybe after writing a post here I can go back to my book and apply those juices to its pages.

In the beginning...

2006-02-20T15:17:00.000+11:00

Listening to: Baggy Trousers, Madness

Why is it that so many of my school reports informed my parents that I was easily distracted?

I wouldn't say I had A.D.D. It was more likely that I was just easily bored.

The problem still persists to this day (I should be doing other things than writing this). For example; a few months ago I had a great idea for a novel, I wrote up the first 5 chapters in a week, the sixth chapter took another couple of weeks and now all I do is go back over what I've written and tinker with it. I have the story right through to the end in my head but I can't seem to commit myself to continuing.

This isn't the first time I had ideas for a novel. In fact it's the third... and I never finished the other two.

Have I not got what it takes to be an author or is there more to it?

Steve