Jaque Thay's Blog, page 4

New skills

As marketplaces change we all need to learn new things. A few weeks ago I was turned down for a piece of work because I didn't have experience creating HTML emails. To ensure that doesn't happen again I've spent the night poring over Notepad++ going back and fore between various code building websites. My goal: to write my first HTML email.

I'm afraid coding does not come naturally to me. When I first started using computers, nearly twenty years ago now, I messed around with HTML and building websites. I made some basic pages and linked them together, added images and generally went as far as I could with the tools available… and while it was an achievement, it never really grabbed me. I didn't have the passion for it that I have for writing – I didn't have the flair either.

And so the years passed. Technology advanced and my old skills faded. Then, early last year, I decided to take the plunge away from using a pre-built website. Instead, I decided, I would build my own. The process was a slow one. After nearly two decades without practice I'd forgotten everything I once knew about HTML and worse – when I first learned, there was no such thing as Flash or Java or CSS. It simply did not exist – so I ended up relearning what I needed as I went.

This site is actually the third iteration of my own design. The first was simplistic; something on par with the sites I produced in the 90s, the second began to build in advanced features and involved tables and floating boxes. It quickly grew too unweildy and ugly so that was scrapped without anyone else seeing it. It was this design that took the longest to produce. On and off I worked on it from May until September, asking advice from more learned friends along the way. Eventually I came to the stage where, although not perfect, the design worked well enough – and so it was debuted. From then it's had little patches here, small fixes there, the biggest of which was the redesign of the blog section last month.

Which brings me back to HTML emails. I've spent the night learning how they work and what they do. I've built one and, although a little rough around the edges, it works. I have developed a new skill. Now, there is a great deal I still have to learn, and there is even more that I can do to improve myself… but it's a start. It's rare to get a second chance but this is one of those moments. Next time I'm offered a job that involves HTML emails, well, all I can say is I'll put my knowledge and my new skills to use!

Playing around with SuBo's Cat

I've spoken to Ana Catris on Twitter a number of times over the past few months and during the winter when I was performing book signing events I often saw her book, SuBo's Cat, promimently placed on shelves near the tills. I've been meaning to buy it but it wasn't until last week at the Cardiff Comic Expo that we met and I did so. She also interviewed me that day, and you can read about that here.

What is SuBo's Cat about? My British followers will be aware of the phenomenon known as Susan Boyle, a woman who rose to fame with her heart-warming rendition of "I dreamed a dream" on ITV's show, Britain's Got Talent, in 2008. Since then she's released two albums – but I'm not here to review her!  SuBo's Cat is an attempt at a celebrity tie in – a humorous chance to profit from a reimagining of a known, if improbable, rise to fame looked at from the point of view of Susan Boyle's fictional cat, Pebbles. The book's release was carefully timed to hit the Christmas 2010 market just as Boyle's second album came out which made it highly visible over the festive season.

Told through pictures and with very few written words, the book charts first how Pebbles came to be SuBo's cat and explores Pebbles' disappointment at becoming the pet of someone who has previously been described as having the "voice of an angel" but without the looks to match. You see, Pebbles dreamed of being owned by someone rich, famous and beautiful, and in the book Susan Boyle is none of these things – to begin with. Pebbles takes an instant dislike to her owner, and works to hurt and ridicule her wherever possible… until the idea emerges that maybe Pebbles can profit from Boyle's voice… then it's straight to 'Britain's Got No Talent'. Most of the major twists to Boyle's career have been covered, including her stint in the Priory. Unable to survive without her, Pebbles is forced to rescue Boyle, and nurses her back to health with the intention of using her to make yet more money – a fickle cat indeed.

Fame comes, and unfortunately it goes to Pebbles' head; as the cat that got the cream, Pebbles gets everything - until, through Ms Catris' illustrations, we are left with a cat out of control, drunk with power and craving more until eventually poor Pebbles goes off the rails. That's when the roles reverse. Boyle 'rescues' Pebbles against her will and the book comes to its conclusion with Pebbles even more frustrated than before - until she has a new bright idea…

There is some comparison to be drawn between SuBo's Cat and the second book by Simon Tofield about Simon's Cat, released around the same time - both are picture books about felines who frustrate their humans, but while Simon's cat acts with innocence there is a delicious malevolence to Pebbles, who takes pleasure in seeing Boyle suffer. With this added depth of character, as well as a more focused visual layout, SuBo's Cat comes across as a more broad story despite its short length. This added recurring narrative acts to seperate the two titles and ensures that SuBo's Cat expands upon Pebbles' character with each page whereas Simon's Cat looks only to explore the way his cat reacts in any given circumstance.

If you'd like a sneak peak at Ana's behind the scenes comments about the book, including some art that didn't make it in, I'd recommend you check out the SuBo's Cat tumblr page. You can also find Ana on Twitter as @acatris. Until then, like all the books I've reviewed, you can purchase SuBo's Cat in any good bookstore, or through Amazon with this link.

Ignore the Daemon at your peril

It's been a few months since I last did a book review so over the coming weeks I plan to bring you several gems from my collection to make up for that. The first is this: Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

I picked this up on a whim in Borders in 2008 a few days before I moved house. It has gone from box to box, bookshelf to bookshelf and has remained on my reading list the whole time. From the start it looked interesting with its blacked out cover, matrix-esque visuals and recommendations ranging from Google to the White House. Now, I have always been a fan of cyberpunk; I loved Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, adored Hackers and eXistenZ, and have read other collections like Cyberabad Days and Disco 2000 because of the themes they play upon.  I also try to stay aware of changes in technology that will shape the way the world functions – Daemon does all that and more.

I can imagine the actions happening in this book taking place. It has that level of credibility. Everything in this book is possible. And that is terrifying. People joke that the future is here and they are right; we live in an age where man has been to the moon, where missions to Mars are likely to happen within a decade and yet we don't realise just what an impact our society would have on those who haven't grown accustomed to it as it has emerged. Daemon shows this; the few tech-savvy characters that are aware of the true capacity of technology are hindered by the masses living in ignorance. This is a novel that actually manages to pull off the question "but can't you just shut down the internet?" with a straight face. (The answer, by the way, is no.)

There were things that annoyed me about the book though – so it is by no means perfect. It is the first half of a novel – the second part is told in a seperate book and that shows in the ending. The immediate plot is resolved but the world is left hanging. It needs completion. Until I have read Freedom I'll refrain from going into any further detail, suffice to say for now, if you like techno-thrillers you want to read Daemon.

Interviewed

You might remember that I said a few days ago I'd been interviewed by Ana Catris for the Sprout? Well that interview has now been posted and you can read it here.

This was the third time that I've been interviewed since the publication of my first book, and the first time that interview has been written down. The first time was a one hour guest slot on Radio Tircoed back in September. Unfortunately I lost my old blog posts when I updated the site design a few weeks later so I can't link to it. In essence I was invited by Debbie Evans on her Friday morning art and culture show. I read samples from Magic Beans and a few extracts from Twictions then dealt with questions about why I post short stories to Twitter and not Facebook (it's a copyright issue) and my background as a writer.

The other interview I performed was for Geek Syndicate at Thoughtbubble unfortunately my section was cut from the final video which only features Deadstar Publishing's David discussing their first graphic novel, Rising Stars vol 1. You can see me throughout on the lefthand side of the shot where I was talking to a passing cos-player. They loaded the interview here for anyone who wants to see it.

Hopefully I'll be allowed to repost the Sprout's interview on here, but first I need to check that with their editors.

QUICK EDIT: Yep, it is allowed so here's the interview:

Jaque Thay is the author of Jaque's Magic Beans and Twictions and is here alongside David Heyman of Dead Star Publishing at Cardiff Comic Expo on Saturday 26th February 2011 in the Mercure Hotel. Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about Dead Star Publishing?

Dead Star Publishing is a small publishing house which specialises in science fiction, horror and fantasy. So far we've had some short stories, a collection of graphic novel ideas, some posters and we're looking to take on at least one of the comics [at the convention today].

And what books have you published through Dead Star?

Jaque's Magic Beans is a book of twenty short stories, detailing journeys and ideas and appearances and it's told through a variety of different genres of story. So there's a bit of sci-fi, a bit of fantasy, a bit of horror with some general fiction thrown in. Then Twictions, which is the one I am better known for: I write a short story every day on Twitter that is exactly 140 characters long and Twictions is a collection of the best of those.

How did you get involved in Dead Star Publishing?

I've known David who owns the company for a long time and we got talking one night and the rest is history.

What would you say is the most difficult part of making your own books?

The money. Finding it.

What is the most rewarding part?

People coming back to you and saying "I like this!"

Do you have any tips and advice for people who want to get involved in writing or indeed in comic books?

If you want to write I have only one tip for you: Start writing!

Before I move on to speak to David, where can people expect to buy a copy of Twictions or Jaque's Magic Beans?

You can buy all of Dead Stars books on Amazon, Waterstone's, WH Smith… you can also get them from the Dead Star website.

As I said at the top, if you'd like to read the rest of the interview (which includes the bit with David) you can see it here.

Cardiff – a capital city for a convention

Until a few months ago I'd never really considered the fact that Cardiff was missing out in the convention stakes. Over the past few years there has been a marked rise in the number of comic, sci-fi and cos-play events around the UK but until recently there had never been an event in Wales. On Saturday that changed. For the first time ever Cardiff was host to the Cardiff International Comic Expo, organised by Mike Allwood and Iz McAuliffe. These guys also run events in Bristol and London under the Spexpo banner.

As it was the first time running the event, Saturday's convention was only a day long. It has already been confirmed that next year there will be a two year event instead which is good because, held in the Mercure hotel on Newport Road, the expo opened to the public at 10am allowing hordes of cosplayers to enter the hall excitedly – and what's better than a day of cosplay, new comics and meeting creative types? You guessed it, two days of the same!

Like in November at Thought Bubble, I was there with Deadstar Publishing who asked me to come along, meet the attendees and sign books for them. This being my second time behind a table at a convention I was a little bit more relaxed this time, so spent the day convincing people that they really did want to guess how many elastic bands made up Dr Deadstar's String Theory Manipulator (a Doomsday Device that doubled as a prop for the Deadstar competition). This was, of course, a step up from the penguin used last time.

EDIT: I can now announce that Sydney Isaac won that competition and that a copy of Jaque's Magic Beans, Twictions, Rising Stars vol 1 and four signed posters will be dispatched to him shortly.

Also at the expo were the ComX team including Ed Deighton and Andi Ewington so I had chance to catch up with these two again. You might remember I reviewed their graphic novel, Forty-Five, a while back? If not then you can see my review here. We chatted about their spinoff, Blue Spear, a character from the Forty-Five universe who now has his own graphic novel due for release in the next few months. As soon as I can get my hands on a finished copy I'll review that for you. While I was there I also pointed out the typo that Andi had been looking for since I first mentioned it on my blog. If you've got a first-edition copy of Forty-Five, see if you can find it as it probably won't be there in the reprint!

In all the convention passed fairly quickly although there were a few other notable events; for one I had my first convention portrait done. All of us on the Deadstar table were treated by David, the top dog at Deadstar Publishing, who arranged for Stiffs artist Gavin Mitchell to come draw us all as zombies. As soon as David gives me a copy of the portrait I'll upload it for you. The other major and notable point of the day was being interviewed by Ana Catris; this charming young lady was the illustrator for HarperCollins' title SuBo's Cat, a book that lampoons Susan Boyle by looking at how her cat, Pebbles, attempts to mastermind a singing career for her. Right now that's on my bedside table and I'm looking forward to reading it this week.

EDIT 2: Ana's interview with myself and David have now been posted to the Sprout and you can read it by clicking here.

After the convention ended and we'd dropped the last, unsold books to my flat for safe-keeping, myself, David and Danny from the Deadstar team returned to the hotel for the afterparty. There, we had a brief chat with Paul Cornell who was a thoroughly nice chap, then we spent much of the rest of the evening with the Stiffs/Pride creative team comprised of PJ Montgomery (who, as I've noted elsewhere, I've previously worked with on the Supermarket Matters project), Drew Davies, Joe Glass and Gavin Mitchell. You really should read their comics.

That's probably it from me for now; the next convention that I'm scheduled to attend with be Spexpo in May which will be held in Bristol – although come back ina few days and I'll have another blog post for you.

Gearing up for my second convention

In just a few days I will be a guest of Deadstar Publishing once again as they attend their second convention. Following on from Leeds' Thought Bubble in November I'll be spending the day chatting with the public, discussing future ideas and projects and generally having a good time at the Mercure Hotel in Cardiff. If you're coming to the Cardiff International Comic Expo then I will see you there!

Cataclysm part II

Cataclysm was open for it's second night at the new venue yesterday. Once again it was a little quiet – but then the whole city has been quiet for a few months now. Although the recession is officially over, people still aren't spending.

Fingers crossed it will pick up a bit next week.

My website improvements

There are some things that I've been meaning to add/change on here since I released this version of the site. They include the following and I'll update this page as I complete work on them.

Make the site phone friendly

Add google analytics to the blog pages

Install a custom wordpress theme to run the blog from

Fix the tables on the store and links page

Replace the photo of a pen on the landing page

Replace the low res wordsmith photo

Make a few general functions work more smoothly.

Cataclysm

A few months ago some friends came to me with an idea; they wanted to start a rock and metal night in Cardiff. Great! For the size of the city there are a lot of people interested in alternative music yet the scene itself is fairly limited. We have three real choices for venues that regularly play music other than chart, pop and RnB. These are Metros, Bogiez and Fuel. I have nothing against any of these places but a little diversity never hurts.

Cataclysm started above O'Neils on Trinity Street where they were granted the use of the function room for a few weeks. Over the weeks that they ran they began to draw a small but dedicated crowd by playing requests, ensuring that the music varied every week and that there was always a friendly atmosphere to be had. Unfortunately, due to middle-management policies, Cataclysm were asked to move after two months and have since been looking for a home. That home has been found. Pure nightclub on Guildhall Place (also home to Fuel) have agreed to open on a Wednesday each week from 10pm-3am and so tonight Cataclysm will reopen.

I'll be there, will you?

What (Supermarket) Matters in my life right now.

It's been a busy few weeks – but then I always say that. Perhaps I should say it's been an exceptionally busy fortnight. To start with my computer is now fixed and working again, and I have power too. From there I've been working hard to catch up with my to-do list. I'm not there yet, but the list is shrinking instead of growing now.

So, what's kept me so busy? Well there have been three main culprits – a friend turned 21. Not strictly work, but it kept me from doing a lot. I've not really expanded on my private life that much before, but I'm quite the geek at times, so when Ben (the birthday boy) told me that he'd booked out our local gaming club for an all night marathon I was – as you can imagine – quite excited.

The second event to stop me from working was a last minute book signing. Normally the guys at Deadstar Publishing arrange these months in advance so I have plenty of time to prepare and plan my workload around days when I'm off travelling. This time I was left with just 10 days notice. I'm glad they got me into the store though; I was at the Swansea WHSmiths and I had a fantastic day! The staff were friendly, the customers chatty, and I sold more books than in any previous signing I've done! I'd call that a day well spent.

Finally, and this is perhaps the topic that I should spend most time on; this weekend I was a guest at the ITV recording studios where Mark Chatterley's dream of becoming a world reknowned producer came another few steps closer to being a reality. What am I talking about? Supermarket Matters, of course! We recorded rough cuts of the first 8 episodes over the weekend and I can tell you now, I am excited about this project. Mark has shown just what can be achieved with enough determination and enough networking. In less than a year, and from his own pocket he has arranged for cast, crew, writers, and equipment to come together in order to create a broadcast quality radio sitcom. If you haven't heard of Supermarket Matters before, I cannot urge you strongly enough to go look it up.

I should get back to work now – so much to get done still! Come back in a few days and I'll share a few more details about Mark's dreams, my secret life as a geek and maybe some news about future signings and how you can get involved. Till then, have fun!