Technology

Amazon addition


Following a tip from a LinkedIn forum I’ve busied my first free Saturday in months with creating an Amazon Author profile. Don’t know what good it will do me, but in for a penny as the saying goes.

What with all the intrusions of relatives, who seem to have learned the niceties of personal interaction from some obscure Porlock based branch of my Wifes family, writing has ground to a complete halt. The September deadline for ‘Darkness between the stars’ currently looks about as attainable as World peace. Gosh, is that my cynicism, I wonder where I’d put it. Unlike Douglas Adams, I don’t like missing deadlines. Even self imposed ones.

One of my problems I think, is trying to cram too much into a single volume. The market for 150,000 word niche market volumes is very restrictive, and people seem not to want that length of work any more. Especially for the kind of ‘retro’ style sci-fi I write. Yet the sheer enormity of the story demands this kind of treatment, and to do anything less would be to cheat the narrative, leaving too many loose ends. To me, the story is all that matters.

Perhaps releasing ‘Stars’ in 15,000-25,000 word episodes at a dollar ninety nine a time might work, properly reformatted for the eBook marketplace. At present ‘Sky’ runs to 148,000 and if taken as a whole, seems to ramble a bit. ‘Falling’ is a much easier read, and has a stronger sense of direction. ‘Darkness’ is currently only 30,000 words in and the story is tightening up nicely, but I can’t focus at present. Maybe I ought to backtrack and play with the original a little, release the first novella of the Cerberus series when I’ve decided upon a better ending for it and go from there. Let the narrative for ‘Darkness’ unravel and retie itself in my head before hitting the keyboard in earnest. Then let people buy the originals if they want to.

I used to think that writing original works was the hard part. Now it seems the market has changed significantly, and so must the way I work.

Stars Trilogy, Technology

Reactionless drives


In my ‘Stars’ trilogy, I’ve been looking at the issues, strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats with regards to Reactionless Electromagnetic Drives, of which my fictional ‘Omega’ drive is one such.

Today I was reading about Project Icarus, and the type of Drive envisaged to send what Niven would call a ‘Slowboat’ to other worlds. Essentially a pulsed Fusion reaction (See this Animation).

The same principle was envisaged in the Project Orion of the late 50’s and early 60’s which was killed off by various Nuclear test ban treaties. Essentially the Orion and Icarus Drives use the principle of a controlled nuclear detonation to provide a pulsed thrust to the vehicle they propel.

To my mind these solutions are on a par with Ramjet technology. Sure they could be made to work, but using one for interstellar travel would surely be like trying to use wood burning steam engines to drive Formula 1 racing cars. Or even Sir George Cayley’s Gunpowder engine, which probably worked, temporarily. Although the Mythbusters test showed how difficult the concept is to implement.

There is a body of opinion which says reactionless electromagnetic drives are ‘impossible’. See this paragraph from a Wikipedia article below.

“In spite of their physical impossibility, such devices are a staple of science fiction, particularly for space propulsion, and as with perpetual motion machines have been proposed as working technologies.”

I’d disagree strongly with Electromagnetic Drives being akin to ‘Perpetual Motion’ devices. Mainly because it’s a bad analogy. An EM drive by its very nature would utilise huge amounts of energy, but not reaction mass. Which in itself would not violate the rules covering the conservation of energy or momentum. With my fictional Omega drive, these rules are scrupulously observed. There is definitely no such thing as a ‘free lunch’ when it comes to interstellar travel.

When it comes to reactionless electromagnetic drives, at least in my fictional universe; I make a paradigm shift in starship construction and design. Working on the premise that such a vehicle would have to travel inside a magnetic warp to obtain the acceleration described, my fictional engine is an integral part of the hull. Several theoretical advantages to this approach present themselves; firstly economy of hull shape and use of the well documented skin effect. Secondly a tightly contained electromagnetic ‘shield’ to deflect harmful radiation / small objects as a benefit of the hull coils creating a magnetic circuit. Thirdly to create a pulsed electromagnetic field of sufficient density which might allow the fictional ‘Sub space transition’ I write about.

Low velocity impulse would be provided by a VASIMIR type engine, but the serious ‘grunt work’ of traveling between star systems would be provided by an electromagnetic drive such as the ‘Omega’. Again, this is an almost practical proposition. All it requires is enough energy.

Whilst there are some who might dismiss my musings on this subject as being ‘moronic’ or ‘impossible’, at least I’ve bothered to try the ideas out and take them for a test drive. What’s foolish about that?

General musings

Zero-Gee toilets


I’ve found myself writing a mildly comic sequence that revolves around the use of ‘Sanitary facilities’ aboard a Starship. By necessity, these would have to be adapted for zero gravity, and unisex. Simplicity of use and an ability to cope with varying degrees of gastric distress would be essential.

I’ve looked at the old MIR design, this rather complicated sounding solution, and this picture of the ISS space station toilet.

My own imagineered solution is a soft neoprene ‘one size fits all’ seat to make a partial seal around the relevant areas of the male or female anatomy, and connects to a pressure actuated vacuum tube to suck away the unwanted fluids or solids. There would need to be one orifice for each, obviously, but the basic shape of the whole thing would be reminiscent of a ‘Slipper’ bedpan curved slightly upward at the front and rear, with a soft barrier at the perineum. This would necessitate it being sat ‘in’ like a saddle as opposed to ‘on’ as with terrestrial toilets. A soft plastic ‘gasket’ would help create a better seal for keeping the smell under control as well. No sense in having unfortunate and inappropriate smells all over a Starship. After all, it’s a closed environment.

The inspiration for this solution comes from, of all places, 18th – 19th century Paris. There was a famous clergyman (Louis Bordalou) whose sermons allegedly went on for too long for some ladies of the congregation, and they had made small, relatively narrow slipper bedpans which could be discreetly slid into place and used; presumably so the court ladies would not commit heresy by slipping out to the loo during the service. I recall seeing one on the BBC’s old ‘Antiques Roadshow many years ago, and being at an impressionable age, the information somehow stuck in the back of my brain. Bordaloue, or Coach pot, as they are known in English.

This has me thinking about sanitation and hygiene aboard Starships, which is an issue that should at least get some literary lip service. I covered washing with the Steam tube, a shower like almost sealed chamber where high pressure air blasts water vapour at the showeree, simultaneously vacuuming out the soap and washing water. There is even a scene in ‘The Sky full of Stars’ where one of my lead characters catches two passengers using his personal facilities for sex, and takes out his own petty vengeance upon them for sullying his facilities.

There are all sorts of silly gags one can make (In space, no one can hear you **** for example), but on a Starship, personal hygiene is a very serious issue.

General musings, Stars Trilogy

My fifteen minutes


Literary luminaries at Nanaimo District Museum and fifteen minutes delivering what should have been a ten minute set piece to an audience. Five minutes about the Stars Trilogy, plus a five minute reading. One or two people picked up my books and checked out the promotional signs I’d made. “It’s well written.” One browsing reader commented. Sadly they did not buy. At 11:45, my turn came to speak.

One of my (many) shortcomings is public speaking. I make all the classic mistakes. I ramble and digress. I don’t keep to the script. I’m too busy reading my notes to give the audience my time and eye contact. I forget key information. In short, I’m happier behind a keyboard than in front of potential customers. No matter how polite and complimentary they are towards the end.

Having taken professional acting training I should be a whole lot better, but I’m not. I’ve picked up a stammer from somewhere. Now where in the tenth circle of hell did that come from? I’m sure I never used to stutter. Maybe it’s because I’m presenting my own work.

Again; this is odd. Acting, and especially comic improvisation used to be one of my strong points. Loved every second. Smooth as greased glass without a verbal tic in sight. Throw me a line or a gesture and I was away like a dog after a stick. Well, maybe not my dog, Amos. He sees me throw a stick for him to chase and he lies down with his tongue hanging out and gives me a funny look, as if to say “But you threw it away. Now you want me to get it? Jeez, Boss!”

One of the things I liked about the event was getting to talk to some of the other authors. I was the only sci-fi writer there, my neighbour Historical fiction writer Kenn Joubert and his wife Fern were on the next table but one, and spent a good deal of time speaking to Mary Ann Moore, a poet and writer from Gabriola Island.

Not many potential buyers, but it was good to see Jordan, Aimee and Amy of the Museum staff. I’m very fond of all the crew there. Although now I’m doing more shifts at my day job, I don’t get to volunteer as much as I used to. I miss that about Tuesdays, but most of the big display changes are done, and Jordan and Rick take care of most of those. On the run up to Christmas, I often felt I wasn’t really contributing any more.

Perhaps if the writing paid a bit better, I’d probably volunteer more. I’d also like to go to one or two of the Science Fiction conventions to hawk my wares. Just for the opportunity to rub shoulders with some more experienced authors like Niven and Bova. One can dream.

General musings

Post gone


My wife has asked me to take down my post about our little Vancouver break. It is gone. Under protest.

Apparently our youngest daughter objected to my comment about her grandmothers impending visit and its potential effect upon my relationship with my wife. Personally I thought the way I aired my thoughts was circumspect, and dare I say it, rather innocuous.

As next to no-one reads this blog anyway, I fail to see the problem.

The Facebook page will have to go too, I think.

General musings

Wikipedia shutdown – why it matters



I’m putting my miniscule support behind the current anti-SOPA and PIPA protests by Wikipedia and Google for one good reason; I write about futures where the State and commercial interests become all powerful, with democracy and the rights of individuals undermined to the point of extinction. Where any attempt to break free is met with immediate military force, and only the actions of a few can make a difference.

It’s not that I’m worried about the existence or non, of Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, and all the Social Media. It’s more the ‘This is what we have-and you will eat your greens’ attitude of the corporations pushing said odious legislation, that gets so far up my nose it’s giving me a massive sinus headache.

What about work that doesn’t meet the corporate models interests? Stuff that would never see the light of day otherwise apart from ‘Art House’ productions? Shutting down the file sharing sites would effectively sever the small productions’ chains of dissemination and distribution.

Today’s protest matters. Why? Because it supports diversity not conformity. Because it’s grass roots, not astroturfing. Because the needs, wants and dreams of the many outweigh the demands of the few.

Language

Abuse of language

2 Comments

My wife Angela, is a Learning Consultant who is, in my estimation, one of the best teachers I’ve ever seen for the age group she covers. When she worked in the UK education system, she often brought children from being barely literate to over three reading grades forward. For this alone she has my total awestruck respect and admiration. In her field I consider her an unsung genius.

Sometimes though, I have to raise my hand and say “No.” This should not detract from who she is or what she does, more to some in her profession who should be taken back to Junior High to learn the proper use of language. Failing that, beaten soundly with a copy of the OED, all twenty plus volumes, including the appendices until some sort of vocabulary sinks in.

Today’s foul neologism is ‘Languaging’. A war crime of a word if ever one was uttered. Essentially it’s an invented adverb, a polysyllabic nonsense to describe how language is used and perceived emotionally to convey ideas to children. In my English literature classes of long ago, we were taught to use the terms ‘context’ and ‘subtext’ to describe such usage. Inventing a term like this speaks to me of someone who can’t be bothered to pick up a dictionary.

My complaint stems not from the invention of the offending collection of semi-random syllables, but the $60 dollar a ticket price tag for a seminar to learn how to use ‘soft’ language and concepts to convey ideas to children. Angie was trying to persuade me to go to a seminar in Vancouver to see what the inventor of this bastardisation was saying. I declined. Sixty bucks is a lot of royalties right at this moment.

In addition my initial reaction to the word, which almost had me roaring with laughter, might have been a marital mistake. Angie became quite defensive and went into intellectual counter-attack mode. We occasionally fence with words and ideas, just for the fun of it, but this little bout had a different tone, like I had challenged something she valued and cherished.

In the end I conceded that this might be the vocabulary of the online world she inhabits, but with the rider that whilst English as a language evolves, that particular term should be buried in a deep Thesaurus at midnight with a figurative stake through its suffix.

Inventing terms for things which do not currently exist is for the creators of fictional worlds, and certainly not in the purview of educators. Language is a toolkit to give ideas shape and form, not for blurring the edges to create some pink fluffy la-la version of real life, then present an infantile world view as factual. Such usage only cheats the children it is used to teach because they are not being properly equipped to deal with the world.

My own point of view is that children will read what stimulates their imagination. Sometimes what children need to get them reading is perhaps not what their educators desire. Dressing it up with terms like ‘Languaging’ doesn’t help.

General musings, Stars Trilogy

I’m now a ‘literary luminary’


Martyn Jones at November book signingFinally got the picture taken of me, grinning like a maniac at my first ever book signing. Still not comfortable with seeing myself smiling, or the shine off my head. However, life moves on, and despite not doing much writing over Christmas, things have been moving gradually in the right direction.

Helping out with taking down our local Museums ‘La Belle Epoque’ display and gossiping with display guru Rick Slingerland about various things, when Amy, the museums Programs Director wanders into the display area we were taking down, sees me lying on on my back undoing bolts with an electric screwdriver in hand and asks to talk to me “When you’re vertical.”
“Sure.” Said I, finished what I was doing, and being a gentleman stood up to talk to her.

the upshot of our conversation was that I’ve been invited to do a presentation as one of the local ‘Literary Luminaries’, in which local writers get to do short presentations about their work on the 26th February. Although at the time of writing my name isn’t on the blog or any visible online publicity yet, but then I wasn’t asked until shortly before 11. Even in these days of instant connectivity, Facebook and Twitter, someone has to write the news down first.

Feeling mildly pleased with myself. Must get a couple of posters and some promotional stuff made. Fortunately I picked up some extra work over Christmas which will pay for such small expenses. I’m almost looking forward to it; which is unusual for me and public appearances.

Novella

Writing one off


Looks like I’m going to have to give up on getting ‘The Odd Machine‘ into iBookstore and Barnes & Noble. I’ve done everything the publishers asked, and the bloody thing still keeps on getting chucked back at me for the same reasons.

‘Change your metadata’ is all I could get out of support, which is about as much help as a slap in the face with a rotten Sardine. Even after asking “How is the metadata accessed?” Because I made all the requested changes where I could, and still my eBook kept getting rejected for the same ‘reasons’.

Well I’m writing ‘The Odd Machine’ off as far as iBookstore and Barnes & Noble are concerned. You can get to the point where something wastes so much of your time it gets in the way of new projects. I’ll just have to chalk this one up to experience and hope that particular eBook gets noticed via the blog.

To be honest it’s left me a little disenchanted and annoyed. I hate people who won’t give you a straight answer to a simple question, instead beating around the bush and hiding their response with jargon they won’t explain, and probably don’t understand themselves. Bloody hell, it’s like trying to get network support to perform a simple task. For the moment I’m going to stop beating my figurative head against the metaphorical wall and go and enjoy Christmas.

I’ll try my luck with the first of the Cerberus eBooks in the new year, and if I get the same problem, change publishers.

General musings

Authors rights


There’s a spirited little discussion between writers going on in the LinkedIn forums. Mostly on the “How does a writer get an agent in 2012” thread. I read several comments regarding copyright, where authors wanted the rights to their work returned and had difficulties getting the necessary permissions from their previous publishers.

Not being a lawyer, but fairly switched on legally speaking, my younger stepdaughter passed her law degree with honours and specialised in that area. So we have had discussions.

The thing is, when you sell a book to a publisher, what they are buying is the ‘right to publish’ for a given edition. If the writer has not been so blinkered by excitement of getting a deal and signed away everything. Did that once for a short story. Never again. The specific rights sold might be the US / UK book rights, the publishing rights for a screenplay based on your work, forget what they’re called, have to look them up. Anything like that. Only complete newbies sign away all the rights to a given piece of work, but then we’ve all been there. Excited and bright eyed because you’ve actually sold something, and so desperate not to lose that sale that you don’t bother to read the deal on the table.

Well, that’s my understanding. However, with the current boom in eBooks, print on demand services and self publishing, the field is wide open. This may mean the days of the publishers advance are coming to an end, but the self publisher seems to get a bigger slice of the pie, so better royalties.

General musings

Getting ready for festivities


Yesterday I had a minor baptism of fire regarding Christmas trees. On Friday, Angie and I were outside our local supermarket discussing buying a tree for Christmas. Angie was fretting about one shedding needles all over the place, and I was just letting her concerns just bounce off me. One of the locals noticed our dilemma, stopped by and was pretty disparaging about the quality of Supermarket trees. “Go see Mike’s place.” He advised, referring to Mike Gogo’s sawmill and Christmas tree farm on Nanaimo Lakes Road.
“Sure, I know where that is.” I said naively. So off we went.

Drove round to the sawmill to be greeted with a “Looking for a Christmas tree?” from the man himself, followed by “Follow me.” As he drove his car out of the Sawmill yard. So we followed to the sign where it says ‘Office’.
“Okay. How does it work?” We asked after the usual British Columbian small talk was exchanged.
“Take this saw. Go pick your tree. Twenty five dollars.” Said one of Mike’s girls, handing me a yellow twenty four inch bow saw. I left Angie at the office to pay our twenty five bucks while I went hunting the twenty plus acre site for a suitable sized tree.

After about twenty five minutes and several false alarm, plus a lot of tripping and muted anglo-saxon over frosty ground, I found a tree that would serve our purpose. At a gnats over eight feet high, it looked just the ticket. Trimming away enough of the straggly lower boughs, I took ten minutes to fell the nine year old fir with the little hand saw. Then fifteen minutes carrying my sixty pound plus trophy back to our car, where my wife announced that she hadn’t been able to pay as Mike only took cash, and she hadn’t brought any. After a moments chagrin and embarrassment, we asked if we could put the tree aside and pick it up when we paid on Saturday. “No problem.” Was the reply.

On Saturday morning, Joanna, my younger Stepdaughter drove us over to the Christmas tree farm, where the tree was christened ‘Douglas’ (Don’t ask) and cargo strapped onto her cars roof rack for transport home. No prizes for guessing who was given the task of clearing most of the bugs off the tree and erecting said item. So, here it is. with me smiling. Sorry about the smile. I’m not very good at them. Always think I look like a grinning idiot.

Will catch up with Twitter and Facebook too in a while. Providing I’m not running Christmas errands. At present all my major projects are on hold as the ‘important’ things like the festive season take precedence. Although ‘The Odd Machine’ should be accepted for Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the iBookstore fairly shortly if my latest ‘fix’ for the project works (See previous post). Once that’s done, I can pitch back into working on the promised ‘Cerberus’ Novellas and final volume of the Stars trilogy.

In addition, my issues with online readings have been resolved. My cameras data card required reformatting, as the little tinker was throwing up memory controller data errors when downloading onto my venerable desktop. This little frustration was probably down to memory fragments from repeated downloads clogging up my SD card. After formatting, all is functional again.

As soon as I can finish a reading without too many fluffs and interruptions, I’ll post a couple on Youtube and embed them on a blog page.

General musings

An issue with Lulu.com


If there were any logic in the world, my novella, ‘The Odd Machine‘ would already be on Amazon, iBookstore and Barnes & Noble.

At the current count, I’ve had a distribution message bounced back at me in three separate emails at eight day intervals for the following reasons;

“Given author(s), title or subtitle don’t match your files” – Yes they do. The fields exactly match the selected author profile.

“There’s a subtitle on your cover that needs to be added to your metadata.” – Sorry, but no, unless Lulu.com’s conversion process is incomplete, I’ve filled in all the fields available to me.

“Please add “A Novella” from your cover to your metadata.” – Why was this information not forthcoming in the first email?

My manuscript file conversion completes perfectly every time, and no error messages ever come back at that stage. It’s the 4-5 day lag that is getting overly frustrating. I am currently approaching the end of my EVA tether, and Lulu appear to have shut down all support apart from a pro forma guide and the discussion forums. Replying to their ‘error’ email address throws up a ‘message undeliverable’ report.

Currently not very impressed.

UPDATE: For those suffering the same issue, I think I have an answer. Check ‘file’ then ‘properties’ before uploading your text file, especially if using a Lulu.com document template. If the ‘collar and cuffs match’ all should be well. Am kicking myself for not cracking it sooner.

Stars Trilogy

Destroying Brussels

1 Comment

Despite the title of this post, I actually like Brussels as a city, and have fond memories of visiting friends who used to live there (Hi Ralph & Sheena).

In the late 21st Century of the ‘Stars’ trilogy, I’ve used the city for a more sinister purpose. Brussels becomes the headquarters of the Gaian European Republic, a thoroughly unpleasant bunch of oligarchs. A superficially theocratic republic where dissidents are routinely murdered for parts of their brains which form the processing cores for the Gaians war machines. Where people’s remains are cultured and rendered to form ‘Go-Quarn’, a Tofu like substance given to citizens as part of a ‘healthy vegetarian diet’. They were great fun to write. Even more fun to destroy.

This is the great thing about writing science fiction on the grand scale. You can have a great deal of fun simply blowing things (Places, Cities, even whole planets) up. Although in the imaginary future of the ‘Stars’ trilogy, the Gaians see democracy as a primary threat, and spend a great deal of time trying to wipe out said dangerous creed. So it could be argued that the Gaians got what was coming to them.

Language

Visual aids


Not a good day so far. Writing is again at the zero level because I’m busy running around doing other people’s errands. Small things being blown up out of all proportion, and being dumped in my lap. Like it’s my fault they were broken in the first place.

Still. One must persevere in these situations.

I’m beginning to understand why movies cost so much to make. My own first dozen attempts at doing readings for a simple YouTube vid are so full of slurring, fluffs and swearing that I’m beginning to doubt whether English is my first language or not. This is puzzling, because at Drama School, sight reading was at the top of my skill set. There’s also the issue that any vid I make approaching a Gig in file size overloads my little cameras memory controller, and the file will not download. Although considering the standard my sight reading has sunk to, I’m currently thanking goodness for the delete key. There is no way I’m inflicting that on an unsuspecting world. Even for the sheer comedy value.

Take a walk on the dark side of Science Fiction ©