M. Jonathan Jones's Blog: Spilt ink, page 2
August 24, 2022
Kindle Freebies: Tethys Trilogy
Just a quick post to advertise an upcoming freebie: all three books in the Tethys Trilogy - Ultramarine, Aqua Incognita, and Fire and Flood - will be free on Kindle from Thursday September 1st 2022 to Monday September 5th 2022, inclusive.
June 6, 2022
Trials and Tribulations of Trilogies
They say that readers don't much care for the behind the scenes workings that produce books. I'm not so sure, given how often writer interviews crop up in the glossy Sunday supplements, and one thing that I certainly was in need of myself a few years ago was an idea about how to tackle trilogies. Writing a standalone book is quite an undertaking, but it's self-contained, not part of some larger story arc. Many series work the same way, with each book effectively independent of the others. Trilogies though (and their more manic younger siblings, duologies) are very different. When I was looking for advice, I even did what I vowed I would never do, and asked a published writer for their thoughts. They never replied. I don't blame them (though some writers, like Joe Abercrombie, often respond to pathetic questions on their blogs). Anyway, having laboured through a trilogy, here are my thoughts on the task, as much for my own benefit the next time I try it. I've kept them, appropriately enough, to three.
1) Have an idea where it's going. I am not a planner by nature, I am a 'pantser' (I hate that term, not least because in British English 'pants' is a) underwear, and b) a derogatory term applied to stuff that's rubbish), which means I go with the flow. That said, I did have an idea where I wanted the Tethys Trilogy to end. I think having an ending in mind is important, not because you'll get there exactly - I didn't write the ending I'd been planning all those years ago - but just so you have some idea that the books do actually finish up somewhere. As you go along, that 'somewhere' may well change - which brings me to my second point.
2) Listen to the story and the characters, and let them take you along with them. I've seen some authors describe their characters as tools; Joe Abercrombie (him again, but he is open about these things) describes his characters as 'nails'. I've found that to be true to some extent. The characters have jobs to do, and you should use them for that purpose. But, when you're writing, sometimes a character will take charge. Once you're inside their head, seeing the events from their perspective, you see different options, or you realise that they themselves would never do what you'd planned: it would be out of character. So when that happens, go with it. It may take you somewhere interesting, and even if it doesn't make the final cut, you've had an opportunity to evaluate different outcomes. Listen to your pants.
3) Keep going. This applies to every book ever, and maybe finishing Thalassa: Fire and Flood was exceptionally difficult given the concussion that kept me out of writing for 12-18 months and still bothers me know and then, plus the pandemic and its effects, but a trilogy is a long haul. There are things I would certainly change if I rewrote it, and I suspect that a revision of book 1 in light of work on book 2 is a good idea before book 1 is released, but the important thing is to carry on. Snags crop up along the way, and at those times it's handy to write around them. You can always go back. A case in point: in my final revision of Thalassa: Fire and Flood I spotted what you might call 'an error of omission', not something major affecting the plot as a whole, but an incident that had served to get one character from A to B and then vanished from the scopes, literally as well as metaphorically. Revision 15 and I realised it was unrealistic that this incident would not be mentioned again, so I worked it in as an explanation for another previously unmotivated action. Unknowingly, I'd written past the problem, and the more stuff you have to work with, the easier those solutions become. If all else fails, go through the story again and just see whether you need to straighten out an earlier kink that will set your subsequent events on a different course.
1) Have an idea where it's going. I am not a planner by nature, I am a 'pantser' (I hate that term, not least because in British English 'pants' is a) underwear, and b) a derogatory term applied to stuff that's rubbish), which means I go with the flow. That said, I did have an idea where I wanted the Tethys Trilogy to end. I think having an ending in mind is important, not because you'll get there exactly - I didn't write the ending I'd been planning all those years ago - but just so you have some idea that the books do actually finish up somewhere. As you go along, that 'somewhere' may well change - which brings me to my second point.
2) Listen to the story and the characters, and let them take you along with them. I've seen some authors describe their characters as tools; Joe Abercrombie (him again, but he is open about these things) describes his characters as 'nails'. I've found that to be true to some extent. The characters have jobs to do, and you should use them for that purpose. But, when you're writing, sometimes a character will take charge. Once you're inside their head, seeing the events from their perspective, you see different options, or you realise that they themselves would never do what you'd planned: it would be out of character. So when that happens, go with it. It may take you somewhere interesting, and even if it doesn't make the final cut, you've had an opportunity to evaluate different outcomes. Listen to your pants.
3) Keep going. This applies to every book ever, and maybe finishing Thalassa: Fire and Flood was exceptionally difficult given the concussion that kept me out of writing for 12-18 months and still bothers me know and then, plus the pandemic and its effects, but a trilogy is a long haul. There are things I would certainly change if I rewrote it, and I suspect that a revision of book 1 in light of work on book 2 is a good idea before book 1 is released, but the important thing is to carry on. Snags crop up along the way, and at those times it's handy to write around them. You can always go back. A case in point: in my final revision of Thalassa: Fire and Flood I spotted what you might call 'an error of omission', not something major affecting the plot as a whole, but an incident that had served to get one character from A to B and then vanished from the scopes, literally as well as metaphorically. Revision 15 and I realised it was unrealistic that this incident would not be mentioned again, so I worked it in as an explanation for another previously unmotivated action. Unknowingly, I'd written past the problem, and the more stuff you have to work with, the easier those solutions become. If all else fails, go through the story again and just see whether you need to straighten out an earlier kink that will set your subsequent events on a different course.
May 24, 2022
Free on Kindle May 24th-28th 2022
To celebrate the long-awaited (by me, anyway...) publication of Thalassa: Fire and Flood, all three books in the Tethys Trilogy are free for Kindle for the next few days. Link to Amazon.com here.
May 20, 2022
It ain't over til the Blue Lady sings
I can't actually believe it.
Fire & Flood is on my hard-drive, one final spellcheck away from me pressing publish. Four days to go, and I'm on target for the e-book to be out on 24th May, as promised. Hardcopy will be a little later (an issue with proofs and ISBNs).
It's been... well, I've heard it said that readers (prospective or otherwise) don't want to hear about the travails of the author. Let's just say that between long-term concussion, pandemics, bereavements, trouble at work, and homeschooling (a joy, but very time-consuming) I'm amazed it's ready at all. And that's without even mentioning the trials of plaiting all the different POV plot-strands and making everything hang together.
I've learnt an enormous amount - not least that trilogies are more trouble than standalones. Who knew? The next project will probably not be a trilogy, though it's a possibility. I'm looking forward to just sitting down and writing freely for a while and seeing what pops out.
Thalassa: Fire and Flood is out now (e-book only; paperback waiting for proofs).
Free Kindle copies will be available from 24th May to 28th May inclusive on Amazon.
Also free for the same time-period, the first two books in the Tethys Trilogy, Ultramarine and Thalassa: Aqua Incognita. Enjoy!
Fire & Flood is on my hard-drive, one final spellcheck away from me pressing publish. Four days to go, and I'm on target for the e-book to be out on 24th May, as promised. Hardcopy will be a little later (an issue with proofs and ISBNs).
It's been... well, I've heard it said that readers (prospective or otherwise) don't want to hear about the travails of the author. Let's just say that between long-term concussion, pandemics, bereavements, trouble at work, and homeschooling (a joy, but very time-consuming) I'm amazed it's ready at all. And that's without even mentioning the trials of plaiting all the different POV plot-strands and making everything hang together.
I've learnt an enormous amount - not least that trilogies are more trouble than standalones. Who knew? The next project will probably not be a trilogy, though it's a possibility. I'm looking forward to just sitting down and writing freely for a while and seeing what pops out.
Thalassa: Fire and Flood is out now (e-book only; paperback waiting for proofs).
Free Kindle copies will be available from 24th May to 28th May inclusive on Amazon.
Also free for the same time-period, the first two books in the Tethys Trilogy, Ultramarine and Thalassa: Aqua Incognita. Enjoy!
April 17, 2022
The Tethys Trilogy – the story so far
Here is a summary of the events in Ultramarine and Thalassa: Aqua Incognita; beware, spoilers abound! And I have a date for the publication of Fire & Flood. All being well, May 24th 2022 for the e-book, maybe a few days later for the print.
A thousand years after the drowning of the Old Earth, the survivors of humanity have found a new existence in the shallow seas of Thalassa, living in cities of steel beneath the waves and protected from the poison air at the surface. But all is not well. The Tethys Federation keeps the peace by imposing draconian uniformity and destroying rivals to its power like the free colonies of Georgia Six. Beyond the Frontier, the free-spirited Pioneers live without much in the way of justice or stability or protection against hardship and failure. Many Pioneers have evolved the N-350 mutation, ‘ultramarine’ eyesight adapted to lower light conditions, something which is stigmatised in the Federation.
Moanna Morgan is one such Pioneer, living in the free colony of MacGillycuddy’s Reef, which lies at the furthest extent of human colonisation of Thalassa and is the subject of Federation interest. Moanna’s brother Jason Morgan died on a mission with the MacGillycuddy’s Reef Militia, or so everyone believes. Moanna discovers evidence that the wreck of Jason’s submarine, the Syracuse, was actually faked, presumably to cover up the smuggling operations of Hamilton Khan, the notoriously corrupt and self-styled governor of the Reef. She entrusts this information to Sherman Anderson, the Federation representative at the Reef and the father of her best friend Jenn. But Anderson is the real perpetrator of the sinking of the Syracuse, in an attempt to discredit Khan and take the governorship for himself. With his secret about to be revealed, Anderson stoops to desperate measures and tries to kill Moanna.
The murder attempt is thwarted by a mysterious stranger, but then Moanna is captured by Khan’s ex-special forces henchman, Aloysius McPhail. Moanna learns that the real destination of the Syracuse was the fabled city of Old New York, buried under the silt on the shores of the Atlantic, and the location of vast gold deposits in the Federal Reserve Bank. McPhail and Khan become Moanna’s unlikely allies in an attempt to bring Anderson to justice for the sinking of the Syracuse, but before they can act, Anderson declares martial law and enlists the help of the Federation Navy. Khan is taken prisoner, McPhail is injured but escapes, and Moanna is saved once more by the mysterious stranger, Sullivan. Together, Moanna and Sullivan flee in the Barracuda, Khan’s smuggling stealth-sub. But Sullivan is no friend to Tethys: he is from Oceanopolis, the Sunken City, what used to be called Chicago, which has pressurised its towers and survived in secret far to the north on the edge of the Michigan Deep. The Oceanopolitans have developed a vaccine to the plague air at the surface and live in constant fear of discovery by the Tethyans.
Sullivan takes Moanna to Oceanopolis where she is threatened with life imprisonment. Eventually, Sullivan agrees to help her escape. In reality, he is hoping to discover where the Syracuse really went, in an attempt to avoid open warfare between Oceanopolis and the Federation. Moanna and Sullivan track the wreck of the Syracuse north to ice at the Pole, but not before they have fallen foul of Khan’s erstwhile allies, the pirates who prey on Tethyan shipping from the lost colony of Roanoke. After sedating Miss Daggerheart, the leader of the pirates, and ejecting her in a lifepod, Sullivan and Moanna board the Syracuse where it floats trapped in ice at the surface. There, they discover the fate of the crew from Farley Monroe, an insane survivor and the man Anderson paid to sabotage the sub. Monroe tells them that the crew of the Syracuse, including Moanna’s brother Jason, were taken away by a mysterious group who live on the surface and have retained the technology of powered flight. Fearful of Anderson’s wrath at his return, Monroe stabs Sullivan, leaving Moanna aboard the burning Syracuse as he attempts to flee in the Barracuda. In a daring escape, Moanna boards the Barracuda and kills Monroe, but by the time she returns to rescue the injured Sullivan from the Syracuse, the wreck has finally sunk.
Moanna returns to MacGillycuddy’s Reef to warn them of an impending Oceanopolitan attack, but is too late. Khan and McPhail both escape from the Colony before it is destroyed, but Sherman Anderson is killed. Moanna finds her parents still alive and escapes with them out into the wilds of aqua incognita, far beyond the Frontier.
Despite the destruction of the Reef, the government in Oceanopolis is not happy: the battle fleet, constructed through the sacrifice of valuable building materials, was almost destroyed. Worse, Sullivan has not returned from his mission with Moanna, leading them to suspect that she will betray their existence to the Federation. A member of the Oceanopolitan intelligence network, Charity Chang, is tasked with hunting down Moanna and killing her.
In the Federation, Jenn Anderson, Moanna’s best friend and the daughter of Sherman Anderson, has failed to discover Moanna’s fate. To track her down, Jenn engages the help of Avalon Defoe, cheat, card-sharp, and general ne’er-do-well, once in the Militia at MacGillycuddy’s Reef, but Defoe knows something of Sherman Anderson’s attempt on Moanna’s life and tries to blackmail Jenn. Before he can collect his money, Defoe is caught by Naval Intelligence who are also interested in Moanna’s whereabouts and her role in the destruction of MacGillycuddy’s Reef. Jerome Kylstra Aguilera, a captain in Naval Intelligence, forces Defoe to go to the Pioneer settlement of Finnegan’s Wharf to lure Moanna into a trap. Aguilera also threatens Jenn, and blackmails her into stealing secrets from her grandfather, Lincoln de Marco, who is exploiting the political fallout of the attack on the Reef to challenge the Tethyan elite for the presidency. While copying secret data from her grandfather’s computer, Jenn discovers that her younger sister Carrie is really a Sixer, a child of the Federation’s destroyed rival Georgia Six, who was taken from her parents as a baby and raised as a Tethyan.
Out in aqua incognita, Moanna is tracked down by the Oceanopolitans, but Dwyer, one of Sullivan’s fellow agents who has been sent to kill her, instead asks for her help. A group of Oceanopolitan rebels wants to overthrow the paranoid and incompetent government of the Sunken City and take charge themselves. To this end, they want Moanna to use Khan’s stealth-sub, the Barracuda, to attack Oceanopolis and destroy the leadership; if she refuses, the Oceanopolitans will release deadly Omega plague toxin into the Tethyan colonies. Moanna reluctantly agrees, asking for the Oceanopolitans’ help in finding out who captured her brother from the ice, but secretly she decides to use the Barracuda for another purpose: to steal the Oceanopolitan vaccines which will render the Omega toxin harmless.
At Finnegan’s Wharf, Defoe finds Moanna and lures her into a trap engineered by Aguilera. The trap involves Khan’s ex-MANTArine henchman McPhail, who has been imprisoned by the Federation Navy as a suspect in the attack on MacGillycuddy’s Reef. Moanna and McPhail escape from Naval Intelligence, and McPhail agrees to help Moanna steal the vaccines from Oceanopolis. However, the Barracuda has been damaged and they must seek the help of Calypso Steele, a survivor from Georgia Six and one of the designers of the stealth sub who is living in the Federation under an assumed identity.
In an attempt to find Moanna, a Navy battle sub is sent in a secret and illegal operation across the Frontier to Finnegan’s Wharf. The Naval operation is opposed by the Fighters of the Free Frontier, a group led by the unhinged Garrett McCall. The Fighters fire on Finnegan’s Wharf, knowing that the Navy sub will have no choice but to act as a shield. A few missiles do strike the Wharf, however, and Jenn’s brother, Douglas Anderson, who is a Naval cadet, is severely injured. He is saved by Connor O’Grady, a Pioneer and friend of Moanna’s, who takes him to the nearest Colony of Jackson’s Drift for urgent medical treatment. The Fighters of the Free Frontier capture the damaged Navy sub, and to hide his crime, Garrett McCall executes all the Navy prisoners as well as any Pioneer survivors, including Moanna’s parents.
Hamilton Khan has linked up with the leaderless Roanoke pirates. Together with his childhood friend and smuggling partner Danny Midnight, as well as the enraged ex-leader of the Roanokers, Miss Daggerheart, they plan to steal a shipment of gold which Lincoln de Marco is using to pay for the rebuilding of MacGillycuddy’s Reef. Khan attacks the shuttle transporting the gold, but finds that Abilene de Marco-Anderson, Lincoln de Marco’s daughter and Jenn’s mother, is also aboard; he takes her prisoner.
Moanna and McPhail leave Calypso Steele and make their way to Oceanopolis in search of the vaccines. McPhail uses his MANTArine intrusion skills to sneak into the medic tower. Just as he prepares to leave, the Sunken City is attacked by the Federation Navy: someone has betrayed its location. McPhail is trapped. Aboard the waiting Barracuda, Moanna shoots through the supports of some of the towers, allowing them to float to the surface. In so doing, the Barracuda is damaged beyond repair and self-destructs. Moanna escapes, but she is captured by Aguilera, who informs her that the person who betrayed Oceanopolis is none other than her brother, Jason Morgan...
A thousand years after the drowning of the Old Earth, the survivors of humanity have found a new existence in the shallow seas of Thalassa, living in cities of steel beneath the waves and protected from the poison air at the surface. But all is not well. The Tethys Federation keeps the peace by imposing draconian uniformity and destroying rivals to its power like the free colonies of Georgia Six. Beyond the Frontier, the free-spirited Pioneers live without much in the way of justice or stability or protection against hardship and failure. Many Pioneers have evolved the N-350 mutation, ‘ultramarine’ eyesight adapted to lower light conditions, something which is stigmatised in the Federation.
Moanna Morgan is one such Pioneer, living in the free colony of MacGillycuddy’s Reef, which lies at the furthest extent of human colonisation of Thalassa and is the subject of Federation interest. Moanna’s brother Jason Morgan died on a mission with the MacGillycuddy’s Reef Militia, or so everyone believes. Moanna discovers evidence that the wreck of Jason’s submarine, the Syracuse, was actually faked, presumably to cover up the smuggling operations of Hamilton Khan, the notoriously corrupt and self-styled governor of the Reef. She entrusts this information to Sherman Anderson, the Federation representative at the Reef and the father of her best friend Jenn. But Anderson is the real perpetrator of the sinking of the Syracuse, in an attempt to discredit Khan and take the governorship for himself. With his secret about to be revealed, Anderson stoops to desperate measures and tries to kill Moanna.
The murder attempt is thwarted by a mysterious stranger, but then Moanna is captured by Khan’s ex-special forces henchman, Aloysius McPhail. Moanna learns that the real destination of the Syracuse was the fabled city of Old New York, buried under the silt on the shores of the Atlantic, and the location of vast gold deposits in the Federal Reserve Bank. McPhail and Khan become Moanna’s unlikely allies in an attempt to bring Anderson to justice for the sinking of the Syracuse, but before they can act, Anderson declares martial law and enlists the help of the Federation Navy. Khan is taken prisoner, McPhail is injured but escapes, and Moanna is saved once more by the mysterious stranger, Sullivan. Together, Moanna and Sullivan flee in the Barracuda, Khan’s smuggling stealth-sub. But Sullivan is no friend to Tethys: he is from Oceanopolis, the Sunken City, what used to be called Chicago, which has pressurised its towers and survived in secret far to the north on the edge of the Michigan Deep. The Oceanopolitans have developed a vaccine to the plague air at the surface and live in constant fear of discovery by the Tethyans.
Sullivan takes Moanna to Oceanopolis where she is threatened with life imprisonment. Eventually, Sullivan agrees to help her escape. In reality, he is hoping to discover where the Syracuse really went, in an attempt to avoid open warfare between Oceanopolis and the Federation. Moanna and Sullivan track the wreck of the Syracuse north to ice at the Pole, but not before they have fallen foul of Khan’s erstwhile allies, the pirates who prey on Tethyan shipping from the lost colony of Roanoke. After sedating Miss Daggerheart, the leader of the pirates, and ejecting her in a lifepod, Sullivan and Moanna board the Syracuse where it floats trapped in ice at the surface. There, they discover the fate of the crew from Farley Monroe, an insane survivor and the man Anderson paid to sabotage the sub. Monroe tells them that the crew of the Syracuse, including Moanna’s brother Jason, were taken away by a mysterious group who live on the surface and have retained the technology of powered flight. Fearful of Anderson’s wrath at his return, Monroe stabs Sullivan, leaving Moanna aboard the burning Syracuse as he attempts to flee in the Barracuda. In a daring escape, Moanna boards the Barracuda and kills Monroe, but by the time she returns to rescue the injured Sullivan from the Syracuse, the wreck has finally sunk.
Moanna returns to MacGillycuddy’s Reef to warn them of an impending Oceanopolitan attack, but is too late. Khan and McPhail both escape from the Colony before it is destroyed, but Sherman Anderson is killed. Moanna finds her parents still alive and escapes with them out into the wilds of aqua incognita, far beyond the Frontier.
Despite the destruction of the Reef, the government in Oceanopolis is not happy: the battle fleet, constructed through the sacrifice of valuable building materials, was almost destroyed. Worse, Sullivan has not returned from his mission with Moanna, leading them to suspect that she will betray their existence to the Federation. A member of the Oceanopolitan intelligence network, Charity Chang, is tasked with hunting down Moanna and killing her.
In the Federation, Jenn Anderson, Moanna’s best friend and the daughter of Sherman Anderson, has failed to discover Moanna’s fate. To track her down, Jenn engages the help of Avalon Defoe, cheat, card-sharp, and general ne’er-do-well, once in the Militia at MacGillycuddy’s Reef, but Defoe knows something of Sherman Anderson’s attempt on Moanna’s life and tries to blackmail Jenn. Before he can collect his money, Defoe is caught by Naval Intelligence who are also interested in Moanna’s whereabouts and her role in the destruction of MacGillycuddy’s Reef. Jerome Kylstra Aguilera, a captain in Naval Intelligence, forces Defoe to go to the Pioneer settlement of Finnegan’s Wharf to lure Moanna into a trap. Aguilera also threatens Jenn, and blackmails her into stealing secrets from her grandfather, Lincoln de Marco, who is exploiting the political fallout of the attack on the Reef to challenge the Tethyan elite for the presidency. While copying secret data from her grandfather’s computer, Jenn discovers that her younger sister Carrie is really a Sixer, a child of the Federation’s destroyed rival Georgia Six, who was taken from her parents as a baby and raised as a Tethyan.
Out in aqua incognita, Moanna is tracked down by the Oceanopolitans, but Dwyer, one of Sullivan’s fellow agents who has been sent to kill her, instead asks for her help. A group of Oceanopolitan rebels wants to overthrow the paranoid and incompetent government of the Sunken City and take charge themselves. To this end, they want Moanna to use Khan’s stealth-sub, the Barracuda, to attack Oceanopolis and destroy the leadership; if she refuses, the Oceanopolitans will release deadly Omega plague toxin into the Tethyan colonies. Moanna reluctantly agrees, asking for the Oceanopolitans’ help in finding out who captured her brother from the ice, but secretly she decides to use the Barracuda for another purpose: to steal the Oceanopolitan vaccines which will render the Omega toxin harmless.
At Finnegan’s Wharf, Defoe finds Moanna and lures her into a trap engineered by Aguilera. The trap involves Khan’s ex-MANTArine henchman McPhail, who has been imprisoned by the Federation Navy as a suspect in the attack on MacGillycuddy’s Reef. Moanna and McPhail escape from Naval Intelligence, and McPhail agrees to help Moanna steal the vaccines from Oceanopolis. However, the Barracuda has been damaged and they must seek the help of Calypso Steele, a survivor from Georgia Six and one of the designers of the stealth sub who is living in the Federation under an assumed identity.
In an attempt to find Moanna, a Navy battle sub is sent in a secret and illegal operation across the Frontier to Finnegan’s Wharf. The Naval operation is opposed by the Fighters of the Free Frontier, a group led by the unhinged Garrett McCall. The Fighters fire on Finnegan’s Wharf, knowing that the Navy sub will have no choice but to act as a shield. A few missiles do strike the Wharf, however, and Jenn’s brother, Douglas Anderson, who is a Naval cadet, is severely injured. He is saved by Connor O’Grady, a Pioneer and friend of Moanna’s, who takes him to the nearest Colony of Jackson’s Drift for urgent medical treatment. The Fighters of the Free Frontier capture the damaged Navy sub, and to hide his crime, Garrett McCall executes all the Navy prisoners as well as any Pioneer survivors, including Moanna’s parents.
Hamilton Khan has linked up with the leaderless Roanoke pirates. Together with his childhood friend and smuggling partner Danny Midnight, as well as the enraged ex-leader of the Roanokers, Miss Daggerheart, they plan to steal a shipment of gold which Lincoln de Marco is using to pay for the rebuilding of MacGillycuddy’s Reef. Khan attacks the shuttle transporting the gold, but finds that Abilene de Marco-Anderson, Lincoln de Marco’s daughter and Jenn’s mother, is also aboard; he takes her prisoner.
Moanna and McPhail leave Calypso Steele and make their way to Oceanopolis in search of the vaccines. McPhail uses his MANTArine intrusion skills to sneak into the medic tower. Just as he prepares to leave, the Sunken City is attacked by the Federation Navy: someone has betrayed its location. McPhail is trapped. Aboard the waiting Barracuda, Moanna shoots through the supports of some of the towers, allowing them to float to the surface. In so doing, the Barracuda is damaged beyond repair and self-destructs. Moanna escapes, but she is captured by Aguilera, who informs her that the person who betrayed Oceanopolis is none other than her brother, Jason Morgan...
March 20, 2022
Whisper it but...
... I think I've finished Fire and Flood. Today. Sunday 20th March 2022.
Now we've been here before, and there are still a few things to do - two chapters need finessing, and then I need to do a couple of full read-throughs to check continuity and that I didn't leave any Starbucks coffee cups in shot - so hold the bunting.
But bar the last minute tweaks, I think it's done. Phew.
I'll have a publication date soon. Watch this space.
Now we've been here before, and there are still a few things to do - two chapters need finessing, and then I need to do a couple of full read-throughs to check continuity and that I didn't leave any Starbucks coffee cups in shot - so hold the bunting.
But bar the last minute tweaks, I think it's done. Phew.
I'll have a publication date soon. Watch this space.
December 24, 2021
So this is Christmas...
Long time since I posted, and back in July the world looked as if it was slowly climbing out of the Covid-abyss. I'm a lifelong pessimist - or I aspire to be - so I was never convinced, but it goes to show: the Spanish 'Flu pandemic lasted 2-3 years, we shouldn't count any chickens with this one. Yesterday the BBC was describing this as the biggest event in world history, but I'm not sold on that - the Black Death, fall of Rome, end of the Bronze Age, World War II might all be events that could be said to have a somewhat European slant, but I'm sure they all have a better claim. Regardless, for many people these are tough times. If you're here you're a reader, and you'll already know how much books can help. Friends, mentors, an alternative reality where things aren't quite so crap, alternative realities where things are much, much worse; books have it covered.
That's not a "buy mine" post, by the way, since the latest one is still stuck on the hard-drive. But you know what I mean.
Yuletide Greetings to one and all, and here is to a better 2022.
That's not a "buy mine" post, by the way, since the latest one is still stuck on the hard-drive. But you know what I mean.
Yuletide Greetings to one and all, and here is to a better 2022.
July 13, 2021
Status: Update, July 2021
Been a while since I last posted, but there is a reason for that, and it's called writing. Yep, I've actually been writing. No major concussion-migraine episodes to dodge, and a welcome break from the homeschooling for all involved, so I have been getting on with Thalassa: Fire & Flood, the third and final part of the Tethys Trilogy. I've seen it said elsewhere that readers, prospective or otherwise, are not interested in the trials and travails of the writers, so I'll keep the technical stuff to a minimum ("see how I bent the demons of the Foreshadowing* to my will in that paragraph!"; "gasp at my miraculous escape from a continuity error on page 321!").
Anyway. The good news: if I was writing a 320 page book like the first two instalments, I'd be done. The bad news: trilogy part III's seem to always get a bit longer - it's a trend I see staring back at me from the bookshelves as I type. So I'm at 420 of possible 465-ish, with some knots to unpick, then a couple of full on read-throughs to check it all sits together well and the pacing works. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Release date? I'd love it to be September 2021. Might stretch a bit past that, but all being well I'll be done by then. What lies beyond? Well, ideas being as they are, I never get to the end of one thing with nothing else to start. What will work, what is just a side-idea for something else, remains to be seen. But the ideas are there, and that's always a good thing in my book(s).
*The Foreshadowing. Now there is a nifty name for something...
Anyway. The good news: if I was writing a 320 page book like the first two instalments, I'd be done. The bad news: trilogy part III's seem to always get a bit longer - it's a trend I see staring back at me from the bookshelves as I type. So I'm at 420 of possible 465-ish, with some knots to unpick, then a couple of full on read-throughs to check it all sits together well and the pacing works. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Release date? I'd love it to be September 2021. Might stretch a bit past that, but all being well I'll be done by then. What lies beyond? Well, ideas being as they are, I never get to the end of one thing with nothing else to start. What will work, what is just a side-idea for something else, remains to be seen. But the ideas are there, and that's always a good thing in my book(s).
*The Foreshadowing. Now there is a nifty name for something...
February 27, 2021
Sounds on Mars...
As someone who has always been fascinated by the planet Mars (and who even wrote a book, Race the Red Horizon which is inspired by Mars, if not actually set there), the latest NASA Perserverance mission has been breathtaking stuff: not just more pictures of the Red Planet, not just more science, but actual video footage of the thrilling skycrane landing. Amazing stuff.
The Perseverance rover also has microphones on it, which allow us to listen to Mars. The NASA site even allows you to record your voice and hear what it would sound like on Mars. Except, it wouldn't. Not really.
Let me qualify that. If you spoke in an Earth-type atmosphere and the sound of your voice was transmitted to the Martian atmosphere via a loudspeaker, you probably would sound something like the experts at NASA say you would. But if you were actually speaking on Mars, you would sound very different.
The reason is - and this is where my day job comes in - that the speed of sound on Mars is slower than in your vocal tract on Earth: 24,000 cm/s versus 35,300 cm/s. The latter value is an estimate, because there's no such thing as THE speed of sound anywhere: it depends on temperature, humidity, gas mixture. We actually don't know what the average speed of sound in the vocal tract is, and working it out is impossible because all of those factors above vary constantly, but the great Gunnar Fant reckoned it was 35,300 cm/s and calculations I've done with a load of speakers of different sexes and different languages suggests he was about right.
Now, that speed difference matters to the sound of your voice. When you say a vowel like 'uh' (Standard English from England or Aussies/New Zealanders saying the vowel in 'bird') your vocal tract is essentially an unconstricted tube, with resonances like an organ pipe. For vowels, we usually measure the first three resonances and call them formants. For the average adult male with a vocal tract effectively 17 cm long, those formants are around 500 Hz, 1500 Hz, and 2500 Hz; for adult females with a shorter vocal tract they come in higher, at around 600 Hz, 1800 Hz, and 3000 Hz. But they're only at those frequencies because of the speed of sound in air. Lower the speed of sound, as in the Martian atmosphere, and you lower the frequencies of the vocal tract resonances. The vowels sound 'deeper'. That means the vowel 'uh' for an adult male would have the first three formants at 342 Hz, 1027 Hz, and 1712 Hz and sound like it's being spoken by someone with a vocal tract not 17 cm long, but almost 26 cm long! For females the first three formants of 'uh' would be about 400 Hz, 1200 Hz, and 2000 Hz, so even lower (i.e. deeper sounding) than a male voice on Earth!
Of course, I'm simplifying here, because the speed of 24,000 cm/s quoted by NASA is for the dry cold Martian atmosphere, not the warm wet Martian atmosphere as it would be in your vocal tract, which would affect the speed of sound (but maybe not by much: heating makes it faster, adding water vapour slows it down). I'm also ignoring the fact that if you did go to Mars, take your helmet off and say 'uh', it'd be the last thing you did, and you might not even get that far. NASA know that, which is probably why they haven't adjusted the vocal tract resonances, but for those of us who combine an interest in Mars with expertise in speech, it's an interesting idea to speculate about. If we ever terraform Mars, the atmospheric composition won't be exactly Earth-like, and voices will be different inside a base with Earth-type air compared with outside. How different will depend, but you would probably sound taller. And don't even get me started on the speed of sound on Pandora in Avatar, where the taller than human Na'vi still sound like they have human-sized vocal tracts...
The Perseverance rover also has microphones on it, which allow us to listen to Mars. The NASA site even allows you to record your voice and hear what it would sound like on Mars. Except, it wouldn't. Not really.
Let me qualify that. If you spoke in an Earth-type atmosphere and the sound of your voice was transmitted to the Martian atmosphere via a loudspeaker, you probably would sound something like the experts at NASA say you would. But if you were actually speaking on Mars, you would sound very different.
The reason is - and this is where my day job comes in - that the speed of sound on Mars is slower than in your vocal tract on Earth: 24,000 cm/s versus 35,300 cm/s. The latter value is an estimate, because there's no such thing as THE speed of sound anywhere: it depends on temperature, humidity, gas mixture. We actually don't know what the average speed of sound in the vocal tract is, and working it out is impossible because all of those factors above vary constantly, but the great Gunnar Fant reckoned it was 35,300 cm/s and calculations I've done with a load of speakers of different sexes and different languages suggests he was about right.
Now, that speed difference matters to the sound of your voice. When you say a vowel like 'uh' (Standard English from England or Aussies/New Zealanders saying the vowel in 'bird') your vocal tract is essentially an unconstricted tube, with resonances like an organ pipe. For vowels, we usually measure the first three resonances and call them formants. For the average adult male with a vocal tract effectively 17 cm long, those formants are around 500 Hz, 1500 Hz, and 2500 Hz; for adult females with a shorter vocal tract they come in higher, at around 600 Hz, 1800 Hz, and 3000 Hz. But they're only at those frequencies because of the speed of sound in air. Lower the speed of sound, as in the Martian atmosphere, and you lower the frequencies of the vocal tract resonances. The vowels sound 'deeper'. That means the vowel 'uh' for an adult male would have the first three formants at 342 Hz, 1027 Hz, and 1712 Hz and sound like it's being spoken by someone with a vocal tract not 17 cm long, but almost 26 cm long! For females the first three formants of 'uh' would be about 400 Hz, 1200 Hz, and 2000 Hz, so even lower (i.e. deeper sounding) than a male voice on Earth!
Of course, I'm simplifying here, because the speed of 24,000 cm/s quoted by NASA is for the dry cold Martian atmosphere, not the warm wet Martian atmosphere as it would be in your vocal tract, which would affect the speed of sound (but maybe not by much: heating makes it faster, adding water vapour slows it down). I'm also ignoring the fact that if you did go to Mars, take your helmet off and say 'uh', it'd be the last thing you did, and you might not even get that far. NASA know that, which is probably why they haven't adjusted the vocal tract resonances, but for those of us who combine an interest in Mars with expertise in speech, it's an interesting idea to speculate about. If we ever terraform Mars, the atmospheric composition won't be exactly Earth-like, and voices will be different inside a base with Earth-type air compared with outside. How different will depend, but you would probably sound taller. And don't even get me started on the speed of sound on Pandora in Avatar, where the taller than human Na'vi still sound like they have human-sized vocal tracts...
January 1, 2021
HNY2021
Happy New Year! So it's 2021, and the world is still lacking hover cars, bacofoil onesies, and domed cities. Pity that. But what it has got... Well, a very mixed bag.
Personally, we've been lucky with Covid, and I feel for those who've lost loved ones and struggled financially. The vaccines are providing some hope that we'll see a way to live with the virus, and while I'm no expert, its mutation into a more transmissible form is probably just par for the course. It feels a little selfish to say it when there's been so much misery around, but as someone who tends to the introvert end of the scale, I hope we don't return to Life As Normal when the pandemic is over. We've seen clearly the distress caused for millions of people by the isolation of lockdowns, and I sincerely wish them all well. Life under lockdown has clearly shown me how much my own mental health suffers from the everyday 'normal' need to mix with people, causing similar levels of underlying angst every single day, so I also hope that we'll see wider acceptance of the fact that we may all be equal, but we're not all the same. Other benefits have been improvements in air quality and birdsong changing to become quieter and more complex, so it's not been all bad. There is always a silver lining, and life is better if you look for it.
In the UK we face a particular challenge with the start of a new post-EU chapter in our history. As one of the 48% Remainers, I hope we won't be forgotten or silenced by the taunts of traitor or 'Remoaner': for more than 40 years I had to listen to the gripes of the Brexit brigade, and so now is payback time. I really hope that the promised prosperity won't come at the expense of employees' rights and environmental protection, but I am not banking on it.
One thing I am looking forward to is The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie. As usual I turned up late to this party, but in the last year I've read everything by Lord Grimdark and I've become a fan; I even bagged a seat at a live 'Zoominar' when The Trouble with Peace was released, and it was a pleasure to listen to the insights provided by author and reader (the incomparable Steven Pacey). On his blog, Joe Abercrombie says he has already started the next project, so that's something else to look forward to.
My own writing has not been so prolific, slowed down by homeschooling and the effects of lockdown, and ongoing struggles with my post-post-concussion syndrome. I'm mostly OK now, but migrainey symptoms have become a regular part of life and I have to be careful to avoid the kind of 11 day stretch I suffered in October. That's had an impact, but Thalassa Fire and Flood continues to grind towards completion (or is it grinding me to completion; not sure) and I feel like I'm learning lots from the process of finishing a trilogy. Beyond that, when writing won't work, I'm nibbling away at thinking through and planning other things. I'm never sure what will reach critical mass and take off and what won't, but there at least are plenty of options there.
Wherever you are, whoever you are with, I wish you all the best for 2021; you know who you are.
Personally, we've been lucky with Covid, and I feel for those who've lost loved ones and struggled financially. The vaccines are providing some hope that we'll see a way to live with the virus, and while I'm no expert, its mutation into a more transmissible form is probably just par for the course. It feels a little selfish to say it when there's been so much misery around, but as someone who tends to the introvert end of the scale, I hope we don't return to Life As Normal when the pandemic is over. We've seen clearly the distress caused for millions of people by the isolation of lockdowns, and I sincerely wish them all well. Life under lockdown has clearly shown me how much my own mental health suffers from the everyday 'normal' need to mix with people, causing similar levels of underlying angst every single day, so I also hope that we'll see wider acceptance of the fact that we may all be equal, but we're not all the same. Other benefits have been improvements in air quality and birdsong changing to become quieter and more complex, so it's not been all bad. There is always a silver lining, and life is better if you look for it.
In the UK we face a particular challenge with the start of a new post-EU chapter in our history. As one of the 48% Remainers, I hope we won't be forgotten or silenced by the taunts of traitor or 'Remoaner': for more than 40 years I had to listen to the gripes of the Brexit brigade, and so now is payback time. I really hope that the promised prosperity won't come at the expense of employees' rights and environmental protection, but I am not banking on it.
One thing I am looking forward to is The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie. As usual I turned up late to this party, but in the last year I've read everything by Lord Grimdark and I've become a fan; I even bagged a seat at a live 'Zoominar' when The Trouble with Peace was released, and it was a pleasure to listen to the insights provided by author and reader (the incomparable Steven Pacey). On his blog, Joe Abercrombie says he has already started the next project, so that's something else to look forward to.
My own writing has not been so prolific, slowed down by homeschooling and the effects of lockdown, and ongoing struggles with my post-post-concussion syndrome. I'm mostly OK now, but migrainey symptoms have become a regular part of life and I have to be careful to avoid the kind of 11 day stretch I suffered in October. That's had an impact, but Thalassa Fire and Flood continues to grind towards completion (or is it grinding me to completion; not sure) and I feel like I'm learning lots from the process of finishing a trilogy. Beyond that, when writing won't work, I'm nibbling away at thinking through and planning other things. I'm never sure what will reach critical mass and take off and what won't, but there at least are plenty of options there.
Wherever you are, whoever you are with, I wish you all the best for 2021; you know who you are.
