Alternative plot endings

Every writer has an alternative ending to any story they see.
I loved this one of Lord of the Rings for it's brevity and clinical efficiency.

Think of it as the Occam's razor of story telling.

Final home straight sprint in the graveyard shift

Over the last few evenings I have been working till the early hours of the morning (2am and 3am usually). The reason? It's the home straight. I was writing the final two and a half chapters of the first draft of the novel. Everything is coming together nicely and I have enjoyed it.

Last night I ran out of steam (too many late nights in a row). Today I had too many meetings to attend and admin to do.

So the final chapter is sitting there, patiently waiting for me to return so that it can be completed.

Like any graveyard, it has it's fair share of spooks. I am certain that when I read what I wrote in that dark dash for the finish line, I will get a fright. I'll then bring out the ghost busting editing pen then hack the place to shreds and clear out all the cobwebs.

Matrix Humour

Humour is something that never came to me very easily while I had mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology rammed down my throat. Where do we learn Humour? Every now on and again we bump into it by accident. I loved the Matrix... and then I saw this matrix rip-off with a twist from that software package we all love to hate.

Then there's How the Matrix should have ended, with a cool bit of commentary on the plot at the end (which is the part us authors like to think about).

Is commercial space flight all a "scram"

I watched the first space shuttle launch in 1981 (Columbia). I was old enough to understand it's significance and I was mesmerised by the promise it held for space flight. While I was a kid I had read up about the Apollo missions and wanted to become an astronaut when I grew up. The shuttle seemed to make this dream more of a reality.


In 1986 I was shocked by the pictures of the Challenger disaster in the newspapers while I cycled on my way to school (oops, just given my age away).
Then in 2003, just over 20 years after it's maiden voyage, Columbia disintegrated during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

The dream of easy and accessible space travel was shattered. Reality bites!

So when Space-Ship-One won the Ansari X-Prise in 2004 most of us got our hopes up again. However, I suspect we are being over ambitious and hopeful. A few things tell me that we are a long way off from any real commercial space travel for several decades to come. One is this article on scram-jet technology. It's a pretty big jump going from Mach 3 to Mach 25, especially considering E= 1/2 mv^2. So that's nearly 70 times more energy required - so your fuel tank needs to be nearly two orders of magnitude larger. It's a bit like jumping from driving a motorbike scooter up to a bus. Now we are five years down the line and still the second generation commercial space flight ship is not visible.

The other thing that makes me think we're a long way off is that NASA is dropping the flight wing concept for a rocket design replacement for their space shuttles (See Ares 1). There is some cool animation with rocking beats on this video clip of the Orion capsule. Nasa currently plans to go to the moon by 2020.

The third way is to defy gravity. Boeing reportedly threw some cash at this as a research concept a while ago, but other sources say they deny it. This hype is all based on work by a Russian called Podkletnov who documented an effect called "gravitational force shielding." In this last link I just love the statement that "once you start talking about UFOs and Nazi antigravity you're not far from hidden tunnels under the White House full of lizard-men disguised as Freemasons." Classic Sci-Fi humour stuff :). As it is anti-gravity seems to be a bit of an "X-file". This is perfect
for Sci-Fi - something that is just not possible now - makes for a great breakthrough story.

Am I a skeptic? No, I am a realist. It may only be a few hundred kilometers between us and that magical place in space - but face it, gravity sucks, man!

This doesn't mean we can't write about it. Writing liberates the mind - anything is possible. As someone once told me "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."

I've become a fan of Ken MacLeod

There are plenty of Sci-Fi authors out there and I admire many of them.
I discovered something beautiful about Ken's art. It's his ability to create independent stories that are clustered around a key event. This event creates the basic setting or state of civilisation for the stories. As a result I am more than just an admirer. I've become a fan of Ken MacLeod.

I love this clustering idea and will be using it for my forthcoming "post-apocalyptic" type novels. It solves a few problems. It helps clarify the nature of a new state of civilisation (which is complex at the best of times) without having to bite it all off in one book and run the risk of turning it into technical lecture. It also allows characters to drift across books without the books being sequels. Ultimately I think it is a more efficient way of writing. I suspect it may also cut down the risk of boredom with the "same old, same old" which I experienced with Kim Stanley Robinson's second Mars book (which is also the reason I haven't plucked up the courage to try the last one yet).

Thanks Ken. We all learn from the masters.

Getting the balance "write"

When I started writing this first novel I wanted to make it a funny and lighthearted story with a bit of satire. Most of the other stories I want to write are a lot more serious and "Hard Sci-Fi". "Hard" being that the laws of science, physics and reality are maintained. This story is "soft" and borders of the edge of fantasy in some places.

However, despite my best first efforts some of the seriousness has crept into this story too. I think it's good because I don't want the story to be frivolous and superficial. One of the reasons I write is because I have some wisdom to share and I want to introduce some philosophical thinking, which is uniquely mine.

So now I find myself reviewing my first three chapters, with the objective of sending them out to find an agent, and I need to strike a balance between the more serious stuff and the tongue-in-cheek humour. Initially it was painful as I started suspecting that I would need to rewrite quite a lot. Rewriting is like eating the same breakfast over and over again. It grates me. However, I asked myself the question: How do I make this technical stuff more humourous? I was delighted to discover that it wasn't all that difficult. Just a little bit of imagination and I was there.

That spark of imagination is the thing that keeps me coming back. It is the fire of love that I have for writing and it warms my soul. I have tried my hand at many things and here I feel grounded and at home. It's a liberating space to be in.

So I am about to rewrite those first three chapters so that I can get the ball rolling on the agent front. Coincidentally I have three more chapters to write to complete the first draft. The first draft of the manuscript is nearly finished. I can almost taste it!

Become a FaceBook friend!

Social networking seems to be the essential way of connecting people.
If you love Sci-Fi please sign me up as a friend on face book.
The more friends and potential fans I have the more books I can convince my publisher to print.

Many Thanks!

The Humans are Dead

While I was watching the wacky moon tune I also discovered these guys:
This "song" called "The Humans are Dead" by the Flight of the Conchords has some more wacky Sci-Fi humour.

Wacky moon tune

I just had to giggle at the creativity that went into this video & song.








I also found their Amazon Cyborg from another Dimension.

YouTube link to my new novel

Please have a look at a quick video clip from one of the characters in my new novel.






Edward and Obsidian, a multi-dimensional cat from the Andromeda galaxy, have taken the moon. The earth's inhabitants are in turmoil. Why did this happen? Where did the moon go? Will it be back? Catherine, from planet Earth, knows what happened. She vanished at the same time the moon went missing. Is this a coincidence?

Welcome to my multiverse

I first started working on my current novel about ten years ago. It's one hell of an incubation period but I realise now that I wasn't ready for it back then. I am a firm believer in the Buddhist proverb "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear". This is when that magic principle of synchronicity kicks in and helps you when you most need it. I have also come to understand that synchronicity arises when one's internal values and beliefs are aligned with one's external expression of one's self in the world.

So it's with these humble wisdoms that I now approach my writing with more purpose and greater joy. Not everyone is cut out for it's long, lonely, empty silences and it's demands for continuous creation. I, however, love it. For years I have done other things. Things I was told I should do. Now I am doing what I love. I am living a dream and revelling in it.

So this blog will be my thinking space and my promotional space. This is my gateway to you, the most important person in this dance of chance. You are the benefactor, the client, the hungry mind that drinks the cocktails I mix. Welcome to my world, and enjoy your stay!