Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
Short Story – Exodus: Mike’s Thread by James Kemp
I've made a short story from my NaNoWriMo 2012 event available as a Kindle book, which is available from Amazon. Exodus: Mike's Thread tells part of the story from the point of view of one of the characters, it isn't his whole story, but tells a large chunk of it and ends on an appropriate point. The gist of the story is that Mike is an officer in the US Space Command, and one of the insiders in a conspiracy within the US military to circumvent the inconvenient parts of civilian control. He tells his story in the first person to the interviewer after the events. The rest of the story is still in for editing, although I won't release more of it until I've got through some more of my open university maths course, I've got some catching up to…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
Book Review: Farewell Horizontal by K W Jeter
Excellent thought provoking and very well put together science fiction with a little twist, which left me wanting a little more from it. Ignoring the setting for a moment this is really a story about the rat race and how it affects people. It is set in a strange, slightly unbelievable, environment on the side of a massive building in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future, probably on another planet. However none of that really matters, and the point of the story, which is well crafted, is that sometimes you need to stop and think about things rather than just striving for the next payday. The primary character is a freelancer struggling to make enough income to cover all his costs, and on the point of bankruptcy. He lives on the outside vertical space of the building while he attempts to make…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
NaNoWriMo – the end
So November is finished, although my draft novel isn't. I managed to write 44,463 words during November for it, which isn't quite the magic 50k needed to claim a win. see for how my writing progress panned out. I really enjoyed this process and it wasn't as difficult as it first appeared. Some of it is helped by the regular pep talk broadcast mails it sends out, and also the stats counter tells you how many words you need to average every day that you have left to hit the magic 50k. However the pep talk mails give you a more human view of it, and I found them to be good encouragement to keep going. So why, with all that encouragement and sign posting, did I not manage to hit fifty thousand words? Well I nearly did, and this was…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
NaNoWriMo
After seeing some posts about National Novel Writing Month (AKA NaNoWriMo) I decided that I may as well give it a go and see if I can just sit and write stuff for the month. I don't realistically expect to hit the target 50,000 words, but thought I'd see how it went. There are times when I can write prolifically, although those are few and far between these days, what with family life, work and all the other things. However if you don't try you can never So if you want to see how I'm getting along look here UPDATE: It's taking shape, there are a dozen characters, a mad US President and the threat of nukes as well as space ships, genetically modified people and a moon The Moon as seen by an observer from Earth. Some people claim…
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /var/www/html/themself/wp-content/themes/mesocolumn/lib/functions/theme-functions.php on line 502
More Studying
After a short break I'm back studying with the OU, for two reasons, one of which is that as a continuing student before the fee increases I need to do at least one course a year to keep that dispensation, and the other is that I've found out that I can't get credit for my previous studies (a from the University of Glasgow from 1989-1992) because they were too long ago. So my idea of upgrading my Ordinary degree to an Honours is going to take a lot longer (but will leave me with two degrees as the OU degree I'm working towards is a BA(Hons) in Business Studies). Anyway, having done 90/120 points at level 3 I'm now back to level 1 and have just started the 30 point MST121 Understanding Mathematics course. This is a little late as…