Next Big Thing

So, I was recently humbled to find that one of my writerly friends had nominated me in this 'Next Big Thing' bloghop/tagfest. I've known  J. Michael Melican for quite some time online, and we recently met at the first Genrecon last year. I think I can safely say that he is the primary motivator behind my recent spate of writing, so... thanks for the shout out. Much appreciated!

For those who don't know, the bloghop works thusly: basically, a writer/blogger gets tagged, write an intro where they shout out & link back to their tagger, and then answer the 10 questions listed below about current work (or works!) in progress. At the end, they tag another author or three or four, and the process repeats itself. 

Without further ado, then:

When it feels, write

Truth.
It's a funny kind of concept. One of the hardest to really, really, commit to. We all like to tell ourselves we uphold the truth, or a very personal version thereof. This...is a lie.
Very few of us, I think, are entirely truthful, much of the time. Even with (especially with) ourselves.
Admitting to the truth often brings pain, akin perhaps to a birthing, of sorts.

I am not unique then, that I tend to settle for the truth as it seems to be, at the time. Really I, and the rest of my human fellows, live in a sort of consensus fantasy world. Things happen, and we tell ourselves a little story about it. Sometimes (all the time?) we embellish that story over time, and it tends to become our reality for that little snippet in time. A kind of 'that moment that sort-of-happened'. We cherish these almost-truths, for they help us to deal with the great big Truth, in a way.

So, according to my own theory espoused somewhat-coherently above, we tell ourself stories, all the time. Every day. We even relive those stories, perhaps flesh out details here and there (we call it 'remembering').
We pretty much rely on these stories to exist, to function. In some ways, they become our reality.

Why then, do I find it so hard to sit down and write a story?!

Magic USB™!

In stores now! The Magic USB! It not only transfers data, it does ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING ELSE!

Need to port video and sound from pc to tv? Just whack in the Magic USB!

Need to read data off of a dead pc? Just connect it to a new pc with Magic USB!

Need to stop the Zombie Apocalypse? MAGIC USB!!

The Great (un)Forgetting

Hello world. It's been a while!

Rest assured though, I haven't completely forgotten you all. It's been a time of growing and ripening. Ideas have been sown on fertile soils, and nourished by knowledge new and old.

It seems to me that a lot of my earlier posts deal with the past. I've always had a particular fascination with history. I like the sense of there being things we will never know, because we just weren't there. And we all know who writes the history...

Recently though, I've turned my minds eye forward (or possibly sideways - I don't necessarily prescribe to a completely linear view of time), and looked upon the future. It too, is filled with the unknown, because again, we just weren't there (aren't there? will be there? something..)!
The unknown here though, is somewhat more... sinister. It's a slightly unfriendly-feeling unknown. It lurks, just there around that corner, waiting to spring out and attack - or possibly just to help us across the road. We just don't know!
Many will say it's most definitely an unfriendly future. Death, War, Famine and Pestilence are all we have to look forward too (but not Ronnie, who left the group before they made it big - see the Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett). Many of them are even looking forward to this rock concert on the Hill of Meggido, secure as they are in the knowledge that they'll all scoot off to heaven (probably to point and laugh - such good christian souls that they are) before the mosh pit gets ugly.

Well, I want to take a good hard look at the possible futures ahead/ of/behind/beside us, and I feel the best way to do that is to continue to look at our past. After all, people are always saying we should learn from our mistakes. Maybe it's about time we actually did?

So herein lies the direction for the next couple of months: look at what lessons the past has to offer; look at how we have (or haven't) repeated the same mistakes; and see if we can't see our way clear to maybe not making those same mistakes again? Let's try to not forget to look back and seriously analyse the past mistakes we may have made. Above all, let's try to never forget.

If we don't appreciate where we've come from...

...then googlemaps has a hard time telling you how to get to where you want to go!

Keeping an Open Mind...

..is hard to do sometimes, and even when you're successful, it has its own pros and cons.

Some of you regular readers (thanks Mum! ;) may remember my 'It's a bit Fishy' blog. You may also recall that its 'Part 1', which naturally suggests that there are other parts to the blog, wherein I may actually get to some sort of point. Now I assure you all, I did have a point. And I'm pretty sure it was a good one too.
Trouble is, the more I read and research, the more that point...seems to transmogrify.
See, I think I fall into the trap of having TOO much of an open mind, at times.

And now for something different...

A slight change of pace.
Language warning for the faint of heart...

**********

Raging with the Machine

A friend once told me that he'd always considered me a utopian thinker. My first reaction was to scoff mightily, considering my many rants against the current state of affairs. On reflection though, he was absolutely right.
Not only that, but my ranting was just an extension of that very utopian way of thinking!

Interlude

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a blog writer in possession of little time, must have found himself a wife...
Yep. Got meself hitched over the festive season, and what with organising that, my real job, then the honeymoon, then getting back to work, then getting everything matrimonial settled down... Well. Lets just say I've been perhaps a little tardy when it comes to blogging.
Or a lot tardy.

Time to clean the windows?

Cor, I am NOT cleaning that one!

Quite some time ago, I came across the theory that ghosts, aliens, visitations, sightings, and a whole host of ethereal, mysterious, mind-boggling and unexplained phenomena can be explained by one thing.

Time Travel.

Well, not specifically Time Travel. More like Time...Windows?

By which I mean, little windows in time that offer glimpses - fleeting or otherwise - of another time, perhaps another place. Now, I'm not necessarily claiming that this *is* in fact a way of explaining all the abovementioned unexplainables. 

It is, however, a very intriguing idea...

On the use of technology to unfetter, not enchain...

I recently read this blog and I felt compelled to produce a response.

See normally, in other circumstances, I'd agree with Mr. Tierney. In fact, I do agree with him, on a number of points. I love books. I love the look of them, the feel of them, the smell of them. I've experienced all of the things mentioned in that blog in relation to books. I'd like to state, right here, for the record: I sincerely, unequivocally, most strenuously hope and wish that books - real, physical books - will remain a part of the human experience for as long as there is a human to experience it.

BUT

Trick or treat around the Maypole!

Evil spirits beware! People getting nekkid!

Yeah, that time of year again.
The time we celebrate hallowe'en! Yay!

Wait, we're in the southern hemisphere.  Why are celebrating halloween now?
I mean, shouldn't this be our time of fertility and celebration?

Makes little sense to me that we follow blindly in the footsteps of our Northern Hemisphere forebears. But lets not get bogged down in the where's and whyfor's of all that.

Main purpose here? To be lazy and make a blog from copypasting a wee conversation I had on the issue. Got us on to the topic of the Wiccan... whatever it is.

The Beast Inside

'Who knows what evil lurks inside the hearts of men?'

Had an interesting Monday night.  A conversation with a friend led me to thinking about the darker side of the mind, and how we all handle that particular side of ourselves.

What do I mean about the darker side of the mind?  I guess it's all those thoughts and impulses that we somehow know we shouldn't have. Whether we have an inner moral code which is in opposition to these thoughts, or because society dictates that 'those thoughts' are 'bad', depends on the person. At root, it's those darker, more sinister thoughts that the majority of us will (almost) never act upon. Doesn't stop us having them, of course.

Dracula: Dead and Buried?

Pretty sure this guy doesn't glitter...

If I were Dracula (and I mean, the original Dracula, Bram Stoker stylee), I'd be turning over in my coffin, unable to get a good days sleep.  Why? Cos there are unscrupulous bastards out there, perverting the real image of me and my kind (again, if I were Dracula, that is.  I'm not a vampire. Really)

A bad case of writers blog

Yes ok, two blogs in one day? What the...?

I write when I feel the urge. I'm not going to force a blog entry out, just cos I feel the need to keep to at least a 'one-a-week' schedule.  Having said that, yes, I do intend to make one (quasi-interesting) blog entry every week.  Or close to, anyway.

At the start of this blog, I sort of wanted to keep out any hint of my writing something which may or may not turn into a novel of sorts one day.  But, I... changed my mind.  Part of it has something to do with this blog.  In a way, I'm kind of using this blog as a way of doing research, and clarifying the thought processes that are going into the background of the story to this maybe-novel.  So, in a very essential kind of way, this blog is actually ALL about me writing something.

It's a bit Fishy (Part 1)

Curious similarities in priestly headgear 

I recently delved back into some murky, ancient tomes, and came away with a distinctly fishy flavour. A heavenly, Godly, fishy flavour, in fact.  I even discovered something quite intriguing, and (I thought) original (but then I discovered someone else had already discovered it..damn the internet!)

Nevertheless...

The Horns of a ...?

OK, pop quiz/statistical survey combination time!!

Most of you should be familiar with this popular idiom.  Traditionally, there is only one answer, but apparently I'm part of a small minority when it comes down to the way that the word the completes the phrase in the title is spelled!

Daily Bread

Soo...
Where to begin?
I think I've spent about three or four weeks going through any one of a dozen different topics (which I've been researching, and re-reading about, and making sure I have my facts straight, and blah blah blah), trying to come up with something that was fitting as a first blog post.

You'd think I'd know by now that the first anything is never perfect, and to keep in mind that old, sweet adage: Keep it Simple, Stupid!