M.H. Thaung's Blog: Musings, page 11

Author interview with Jon Rees, astrophysicist

For this interview, I’m happy to introduce Jon Rees, who is a researcher working at UC San Diego. We met several years ago while playing the online game Syrnia. Bit of trivia: we share a birthday – though not the same year! Jon’s from South West Wales. He completed a PhD in Physics at Exeter University in 2016, and then moved to the US for a research position.

Caroline: Jon, thanks for speaking with me. First of all, can you tell me what an astrophysicist does?

Jon: It depends on what area th...

Very short stories #7

For once, work hasn’t been too busy this week. I even had time to read a couple of books and post reviews on Goodreads. If you’re interested, here they are:

Memorandoms by James Martin: An Astonishing Escape from Early New South Wales by Tim Causer

Zeta: Resin Pines by SP Rowell

Yes, I know one’s a novel and one’s an academic book – I never said I was consistent in my reading habits!

I’ve also been trying to write flash fiction (ie stories with a word count of around 1000). At the moment it f...

Forging on

A Quiet Rebellion: Restitution – progress

I don’t usually post about my writing process or progress—there’s no reason it would be of great interest or use to anyone else. After all, I don’t post about my daily commute either! But A Quiet Rebellion: Posterity should be ready for publication in a couple of months, and I thought I’d share where I am with it.

I completed a first draft of AQR3 in June 2018. As you might expect, it was truly horrible. I don’t even call the initial writing a first d...

Very short stories #6 – and a few tips

March was a pretty busy month for me—three conferences and an academic writing deadline—but I managed to keep up with all the Twitter #vss365 prompts in a timely fashion. For this post, in addition to a few very short stories,I’m sharing some thoughts on how I create them. Bear in mind I’m pretty new to the game (only started in January this year), so these are relatively early impressions.

New to #vss365? Suggestions on how to play

If you’d like to participate in #vss365 but aren’t too sure...

Very short stories #5

I had a lot of fun with my previous blog post on predatory publishing, and it was very tempting to write a follow-up. I’ll keep that in reserve for later in the year, however—or maybe look at the similar phenomenon of predatory conferences.

My very short stories have been accumulating, so here are nine from February. Images are mainly from Pixabay this time round.

Paradigm

Joe tightened Dan’s bonds. “Your time travel paradigm will make me rich!”
Dan scowled. “No one’ll believe you invented i...

Unmissable opportunities

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I just wanted to take a moment and write you a long overdue thank you letter for your services to scientific world. Your previous submission was outstanding and innovates all of us.

In last few years I have known you; you have been an incredible inspiration to me and all the young researchers on how to carry ourselves in this great research world.

Well, if that didn’t give me a big head! I recently received this email which went on to invite me to submit an (academic) article, promising me a...

Very short stories #4

The first five of these eight stories have prompt words that are newly added to the dictionary. Images are from Wikimedia.

HANGRY

“Table 3’s arguing,” said Em.
“Likely hangry.” The chef sniffed. “Our cuisine isn’t fast food.”
Em grinned. “Solid gold cutlery’s a clue.”
The row escalated. The maître d’ intervened. Sullen, the unfed diners left.
Clearing the table, Em stared. The cutlery was gone too.

FACEPALM

After the starship’s door opened, everyone gaped. Rather than tentacled monsters, sc...

Very short stories #3

Here’s another week’s worth of very short stories. The first five have a theme of heteronym. Images are from Wikimedia and Pixabay.

Prompt: close

Feet scuffed the pavement. She darted into the close, padding past torn food wrappers.
Something growled. Panting, she speeded up.
There! A closed door beckoned. She raced for it.
As pursuit closed in, she hurled herself through the swinging flap.
Rex halted. Damn cats.

Prompt: convict

He frowned in the mirror. “I look like a convict in this outfi...

A chance encounter

It’s been a busy weekend. Friday started with a 5 hour train trip from London to Edinburgh for an afternoon meeting, then across to Glasgow to visit friends and family.

Click to view slideshow.

Before returning to London on Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting David Neilson, author of the Sophie Rathenau historical mysteries. David and I are both originally from Scotland. By some strange coincidence we were visiting Glasgow on the same weekend, even though David moved to Germany 10 years a...

Very short stories #2

Here are my seven stories from this week’s prompts. Images are from Wikimedia and Pixabay.

Prompt: parents

Carnage sounds upstairs.
“Kids!” She tsks.
“Let them have their fun. Remember when we met.” He turns up the radio. “You dancing?”
“You asking?”
“I’m asking.”
“I’m dancing.” Smiling, she steps into his embrace.
…
The boy tiptoes past the doorway and huffs. Parents!

Prompt: stick

Bob stared into his opponent’s eyes. “I shall not fear—”
Jim grabbed his arm. “This isn’t the time to stick t...