Monthly Archives: December 2012

Astronomy

This is a superb resource


At least for any would be Science Fiction writers. In November Google launched this map of the milky way based on known astronomical data called 100,000 Stars. I was busy looking for some kind of information on the Perseus arm of the Milky way for a new project when I literally stumbled across it.

One minor Caveat. The browser application requires a delicate touch with the mouse to navigate, and the bigger your screen the better. I’m going to check it out using the web facility on our Smart TV.

While not encyclopaedic, it’s a work in progress and will no doubt improve as all these open source projects do. I’m seriously impressed. Well done all.

Update: Doesn’t work on our ‘Smart’ TV. At least directly off the Internet. Just keeps on cycling through the ‘Focusing Optics’ stage. I suppose if I used a VGA cable from my venerable laptop I could get a reasonable result. Probably the issue with only support up to Flash 8 that a lot of Samsung and LG sets have.

General musings

Who is opening my post?


A letter from my Mother arrived yesterday. A Christmas card. It had been opened. This is not the first time, and has been going on for the last twelve months. Every letter or birthday card from my Mother in Claverdon, England, has arrived with seals peeled back, envelope flaps torn and marks on the contents. No other post from the UK arrives in this condition. I have spoken to my Mother about this matter on the phone, and last year forbade her to send anything of any importance of value, like documents or birthday money. I’ve even lodged formal complaint.

Despite the fact that my writings contain accounts of how the future EU morphs into a hideously theocratic regime that can only exist by murdering millions of dissidents and converting them into foodstuffs, or how said regime murders the British Royal family, I do not think that I’m on any kind of security ‘watch list’. Instead I prefer to think that one of the Postal employees covering the Claverdon area in Warwickshire is a light fingered tea leaf looking for easy pickings from old ladies sending letters to their sons in far off lands.

Newsflash; there are no pickings, all funds transfers are electronic, and all important documents get hand delivered by friends and family coming to and from Canada, because we don’t trust the UK Post Office any more.

General musings

Taking Christmas off


Angie and I have been talking about our relationship, and realise there’s considerable fence mending to do. So this Christmas we’re going for a break at a nice out of the way hotel with a balcony, great scenery, nice seafood, far from the drama and excitable high pitched squeaking. No presents, no cards between us, no Internet or phone calls from the 22nd until the 28th. I’ve put a few trinkets up around the house just for the look of things, but this year Christmas is going to be a very low key affair.

The kids are in England, family is scattered all over the globe, and for a change it’s just us. No tree, no Christmas shopping, no overloaded credit cards, no heavy meals we’re only going to have to sweat off in January. Nothing like that. Just a thorough detox. Massages, mud wraps and spa treatments. A relaxing break chilling out in whirlpool baths, reading a good book with a glass of fine wine, and getting a head start on the New Year. We’ve done our duty as far as family is concerned, catering and feeding, cleaning up after, and pandering to almost every whim for years. Now it’s our turn.

The only thing I plan to celebrate this year is Angie’s birthday on the 25th of December.

Cerberus

More Cerberus cover art


Masks background

Still playing with ideas for cover art for the first in the Cerberus series of novels should Harper Vector not respond positively, and ended up with the above collage built from various components. I’ve gone for heavy on the symbolism this time, hinting strongly at story elements within the first MSS. I’ve tried to convey a sense of being haunted, and a couple of other things which I’m not going to let slip. The three heads are of course a direct reference to the three headed dog who guards the entrance to Hades, but the faces behind the masks have their own meanings. I suppose you could call it art.

Sticking to the black and white colour scheme I’ve adopted for the series, which it seems to work. Well, I like it.

Cerberus

Heads of the beast


Still no word from Harper Vector, not even a “No thank you.” for Heads of the Beast, the first of my Cerberus Conspiracy novels. After two months I’m inclined to think that if they were interested they’d have been in touch before now, so I’m making preparations for my own eBook launch. Some of the base MSS formatting needs a little tweaking, and I’m in the process of editing the original MSS to suit. The cover art idea is good and quite distinctive, so I’ll run it past my in house critic and see what she thinks. Because it will be an eBook to start with, I’ll try the iBookstore and Amazon route at something like $2.50, seeing as Amazon is apparently about to kick out a whole lot of 99 cent titles. Two dollars fifty for seventy thousand words seems pretty fair. I may even earn a few pennies if people like it enough.

There’s the Metadata issue of course, and I’m paying particular attention to that. The collar and cuffs will match, and hopefully I won’t be reduced to tearing out what’s left of my hair like last time. All the document headings are consistent, and I’m not going to try and get tricksy with chapter headings like I’ve done with ‘Stars’.