Author: lazloferran

On Screen now: will eBooks catch on?

Before I forget, I have been reading Tolkien’s letters which I thoroughly recommend to anybody who is a big Tolkien fan, as I am. I have been reading it on screen though which I don’t recommend.

It has made me think about eBooks and whether they really will catch on. I am not (or haven’t been until now) one of those luddites who hold to the view that paper books are it and that e-books go against the grain of what a reader really wants – that sensual experience. but frankly I may change my mind. There really is something kinda (did you see what I did there?) anti-ceptic about reading on-screen. I don’t know what it is. I think in some way one feels that the computer is dictating terms in that it is ’emitting’ light and decides the format of the page as in fact the format of the page doesn’t normally seem to suit me on screen. I will have to investigate further but I just published one of my books as an e-book and I am wondering now if I should do this. Continue reading “On Screen now: will eBooks catch on?” →

The Straw that Built the Camel’s Bridge

Wow! 2 Followers now. I guess that means I really should try and write something interesting.

When the Sun of true power,
Sends forth its glow,
Take care where you tread
for the flowers below,
are the souls of friends.

I have had a couple of really bad days luck wise and its got (I reserve the right to use bad grammar including ‘got’ on my blog) me focused again on luck. The title of this post refers to the fact that sometimes, out of the direst bad luck you can bring out something good. It’s not easy though. I am not sure if I have been unlucky or maybe it’s a bit of evil finding its way back into my life. If it’s the latter then why now? And anyway I haven’t been feeling the presence that I usually feel when it’s around. So for the time being I think I have to put it down to very bad luck. Just little things really. Yesterday everything I did and touched went wrong. It was just continuous and I ended up knackered just trying to get through the day and I didn’t get anything done at all that I intended to do.

Just out of interest here is an edited version of my diary notes of luck/evil for the last month. What does anybody make of it? Do you have any similar experiences? Continue reading “The Straw that Built the Camel’s Bridge” →

Deluxe images

They are linked from here.

SU 401

LC5150

X.77

Alien Clover Leaf rifle

Lu-kshîa

JFK

Cruiser

MCS Cropped

MSC Detail

Reploids or Cyblicants?

In figuring out the main crux of my pending sci-fi story I ended up with a bit of a dilemma. My main character has some issues with whether he is human or not – Of course, this has been explored in Blade Runner and it’s not the main theme of my story so I didn’t want to get too involved with it but I did need to find a platform for his ‘kind of person’.

Originally I had conceived this part of the story in quite simple terms using just androids or cyborgs but this didn’t quite seem to cover all the possibilities I needed. Then I thought of sticking to Replicants – a-la-Blade Runner but this just seemed to dilute things and, in fact, make the story almost pointless. Continue reading “Reploids or Cyblicants?” →

I Entered an Amazon Competition

I have entered my draft manuscript in an Amazon/Penguin backed competition – actually hosted by CreateSpace.com – an e-author portal subsidiary of Amazon. Well why on Earth wouldn’t I? $15000 first prize and a contract with Penguin. I will let you know how I get on. They are taking first 5000 entries and then gradually eliminating through until June.

Only problem is that it is for unpublished works only so I have to hold off publishing now until I am eliminated or I win. It’s very interesting reading the T&C cos they go through in detail how you will negotiate the contract with Penguin if you win. It all sounds very pleasant.

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NASA’s Project Constellation cancelled

Well. A coupla interesting things.
It’s a bit depressing – on the face of it – that Obama has cancelled Constellation – the open-ended project stream that would have resulted at some point with men on Mars, but reading between the lines, it’s not so bad. There will be a move more to privatised companies doing the lift bit into space and supposedly a move to find more efficient means of getting to Mars (propulsion-wise). I do find the tone of the speech(?) or document by the Mars Director a little false though and I am not sure how many of their employees will buy into the ‘mood’.
What worried me most is that, as some commentators have pointed out, for many of us, a part of our hope in life is carried by NASA projects. This may be dubious in that NASA was founded on a combination of aeronautics reseach in the USA and Nazi scientists at the end of WWII but at least casting your eyes upwards to the stars provides some kind of common frontier – a reason to ‘collaborate’ rather than fight.
Without this we are in danger of becoming a species ‘looking inwards’ and this introversion, I think, seems to correspond with periods of increased conflict. Continue reading “NASA’s Project Constellation cancelled” →

Movie Review of Inglorious Basterds

The going is good at the moment.
A draft of ‘Some kind of Insanity’ has gone out to my group of readers and at least two have fed back that they are enjoying so far.

In the mean time I am painstakingly working through the logic of the plot of the (potentially) sci-fi story and I am slowly getting there. I really want to take my time getting this one right as it is quite a complex one – or rather subtle and could be too complex if I don’t get it right. So simplification is really what I am up to. Continue reading “Movie Review of Inglorious Basterds” →

Those Big Wheels in Space

So, I am starting to research the sci-fi story and very pleasant it is too. I was thinking about locations for the various parts of the story and remembered those ‘big wheels’ from the 60s and 70s – those things that float in space and look really good from the inside. I found out that the most popular one is called the ‘Stanford Torus‘.
You get views like this. It all looks quite utopian but of course it wouldn’t be.
Anyway I then found that in actual fact, whereas I thought these were simply figments of sci-fi writers’ minds in those days, NASA did do quite a detailed study about their viability (NASA content no longer available).

It makes interesting reading. For one thing, the cost would be astronomical – 50Bn in those days. I am not sure what that is now but I would guess at least 4 times that – so 200Bn. At first I thought – well who would fund this and why was NASA even thinking seriously about it? Perhaps, since the Cold War was still on, they were thinking about evacuating people. But actually it’s not that much. I found out yesterday that a certain City’s banks are preparing to pay out 50Bn in bonuses this year.

Now I need to start thinking about what life would be like on one of these colonies and what sort of political environment would it be. It will be interesting to think it through.

Onwards, upwards and outwards

What a relief. I managed to do a lot of editing yesterday (Sunday) and I am feeling that relief one gets when moving out from the focus on a piece of creative writing.
Actually I chopped almost 10,000 words out of the story – fairly harsh editing, but not as harsh as I would have liked. It’s just so hard to find any one part that you can completely delete. Anyway I am just working on finishing touches now – some secret codes that go on Chapter Titles and a few names left to do.

It’s strange how a name can cause you so much difficulty – the name of a detective or the name of a hero. I am still struggling over the latter although he is not the main character in the book.

This may be a short post as I can’t really say too much more without revealing too much of the plot. Anyway I am hoping to get it to a small, select group of readers this week so I can get some feedback, which will almost certainly involve some more editing.

The sci-fi story idea is going around and around in my head – quite delightfully actually. There are so many ways of telling the story – just a matter of finding the right one.

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Baby Boomers watching New Years TV

I found myself on the day before New Year’s Eve (New Year’s Eve eve) watching TV and to my amazement saw two of my all time top 3 films showing back to back on ITV2 (could be been ITV3 or 4). Well. I settled down to watch ‘633 Squadron’ and ‘The Wicker Man’ (original version with Christopher Lee, Edward Woodwood and Britt Eckland) with glee. Wrapped up warm on my bed, I could just drift back to my childhood.

But about half way through the first film, I began to wonder why they had both turned up together. Surely too much for coincidence? It must be, I thought, because I conform to a certain demographic. Are there really any other men (or women) out there who really like these two films (my third fave is Gladiator but surely there isn’t anybody else out there who would choose all 3 as his or her top films?)? And if such a demographic exists how come I have never in my life met any of these people?

Also a mystery is why they would choose my demographic on the day before New Year’s day. Since I guess most of us would be baby-boomers, it seems surprising that some scheduler has figured out that most of us will be out on New Year’s day and thus better show us our films the day before. Or perhaps I am just overestimating our importance here. Whereas The Wicker Man used to be shown about 3am on New Year’s day, perhaps now that demographic is ranked lower in importance. Still, its nice to be important enough to be catered for on the day before. A second-ranker is not too bad. Has any body else noticed themselves in such a TV demographic and did it surprise you?

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