Huw Langridge's Blog, page 4
July 13, 2014
Winner - Best Large Service Desk Award Of The Year 2014 - CoSocius (Forrest Screendump)
About a year ago on this blog I presented a spoof video I had written and directed for our company called "Service Desk in Black", which, as the name would suggest, was a riff on Men in Black. This year, the company's submission (again written and directed by yours truly, although not without some stellar input from many others) was a spin on Forrest Gump. Not only did the video win (unofficially) best video at the Service Desk Institute awards, but our company CoSocius won the overall award for Best Large Service Desk. Well done to all involved. And here is "Forrest Screendump"...
June 19, 2014
"The Axiom Few" moves on
I'm going to use the word "tapestry" here because I can see no other way of describing the route my new set of Axiom Few short stories seems to be taking. BRENDA's origin story is well underway and I'm really excited. The stories are becoming a tapestry and that may well influence the title of the story collection when it comes out. It won't all be about new characters though. At the end of The Autumn Structure our friend Geek was trapped on an alien vessel and I have to get him off there!
All this will come in time. I'm having a lot of fun with it at the moment. In the meantime, why not head over to Amazon and get the book that started it all...
January 30, 2014
The Axiom Few - Free on Kindle till Monday
"...Come on, Channel 4, there's a series waiting to be made here..." - SFCrowsnest.com
"....A good old fashioned (yet high-tech) tale of approaching apocalypse, this story served to remind me just what unpretentious science fiction can do when written by someone who clearly relishes every word..." - Whispers of Wickedness
"...Beautifully crafted..." Annieworld
"...a nicely told story of alternate realities..." SFRevu
My short story collection The Axiom Few is the science fiction I am most proud of, and also the work that I enjoy revisiting the most. The ideas in the eight stories here feel to me like a springboard into a wider mythology. Three of these stories were published in Jupiter SF magazine, and were widely reviewed on various SF websites.
In other Axiom Few news I have started working on another set of stories to be published sometime in the not too distant future. Obviously Archer, Geek and Davey will be returning and their adventures will continue, but there will be some new characters too, whose presence and effects have already been felt.
This book is reviewed on the SF Crowsnest website here and can be picked up on Amazon for free from Thursday 30th January to Monday 3rd February. I really hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoyed writing them.
January 17, 2014
Three for Free this Weekend on Kindle
A triple whammy from me this weekend. Schaefer's Integrity, A Comet of Ideas Looking for a Planet and The Train Set. All free this weekend. If you have a Kindle, you should click on 'em. Go on, you know you want to.
October 21, 2013
The Things
The other night I treated myself to a Blu-Ray double bill of "John Carpenter's The Thing" (1982) and "The Thing" (2011), though, of course, the correct order to see them in, given that the latter is the prequel, is the other way round.
A lot has been said against the 2011 film, that it is a pale imitation of John Carpenter's classic horror, but I think it is a great piece of work, and it stands well against the older film, and it is a real joy to see them back to back, to learn what happened to the fated Norwegians before that helicopter came buzzing over the Antarctic ice shelf chasing that dog. And the two films, despite being made nearly 30 years apart, gel beautifully together.
What is especially fun is seeing how well Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr has recreated the living scenes from the ghosts or aftermaths of the scenes in the 1982 film, in his 2011 prequel. It's great to see the continuity of the helicopter, the dog, but also the ice-block and the room it is stored in, the axe in the wall, and the dead man in the chair. The attention to detail is exemplary, and it shows a real reverence for the older film, which, as Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr rightly said, could not be improved upon, so why even attempt to remake it.
If you're a fan of John Carpenter's classic film, I highly recommend a late night double bill.
A lot has been said against the 2011 film, that it is a pale imitation of John Carpenter's classic horror, but I think it is a great piece of work, and it stands well against the older film, and it is a real joy to see them back to back, to learn what happened to the fated Norwegians before that helicopter came buzzing over the Antarctic ice shelf chasing that dog. And the two films, despite being made nearly 30 years apart, gel beautifully together.
What is especially fun is seeing how well Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr has recreated the living scenes from the ghosts or aftermaths of the scenes in the 1982 film, in his 2011 prequel. It's great to see the continuity of the helicopter, the dog, but also the ice-block and the room it is stored in, the axe in the wall, and the dead man in the chair. The attention to detail is exemplary, and it shows a real reverence for the older film, which, as Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr rightly said, could not be improved upon, so why even attempt to remake it.
If you're a fan of John Carpenter's classic film, I highly recommend a late night double bill.
September 25, 2013
The Crowdfunding Thing
Crowdfunding is not something I'd given any thought to when it came to putting a piece of fiction out to the world. I'd always gone down the Lulu and Amazon KDP route, which for me seems to be working very well and gains more traction with every passing month. So when a work colleague, Ian Stove, mentioned to me today that he was using Kickstarter to put the finishing touches on his children's book it certainly made me think more seriously about it.
I've backed Ian's book and you can do it too by going here, and I'll be keen to hear from Ian how he gets on with his project, and I hope it gains the funding level it needs to go forward. The book certainly looks like a lot of fun, and although it initially looks like it might be an older read than my four year old will be able to understand (though I may be wrong about that), I'm sure I will enjoy reading it nonetheless. It's always great to read stuff by people you know.
Ian also has a book on Kindle, A Year Without Beer, which you can find here and gets a respectable 4.5 stars.
I've backed Ian's book and you can do it too by going here, and I'll be keen to hear from Ian how he gets on with his project, and I hope it gains the funding level it needs to go forward. The book certainly looks like a lot of fun, and although it initially looks like it might be an older read than my four year old will be able to understand (though I may be wrong about that), I'm sure I will enjoy reading it nonetheless. It's always great to read stuff by people you know.
Ian also has a book on Kindle, A Year Without Beer, which you can find here and gets a respectable 4.5 stars.
August 26, 2013
The Axiom Few - Free on Kindle this week
"...Come on, Channel 4, there's a series waiting to be made here..." - SFCrowsnest.com
"....A good old fashioned (yet high-tech) tale of approaching apocalypse, this story served to remind me just what unpretentious science fiction can do when written by someone who clearly relishes every word..." - Whispers of Wickedness
"...Beautifully crafted..." Annieworld
"...a nicely told story of alternate realities..." SFRevu
My short story collection The Axiom Few is the science fiction I am most proud of, and also the work that I enjoy revisiting the most. The ideas in the eight stories here feel to me like a springboard into a wider mythology, one that I hope to continue working on in the future. Three of these stories were published in Jupiter SF magazine, and were widely reviewed on various SF websites.
This book is reviewed on the SF Crowsnest website here and can be picked up on Amazon for free from Tuesday 27th August to Saturday 31st August. I really hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I enjoyed writing them.
July 11, 2013
Free till Sunday - A Comet of Ideas...
My brand spanking new short story collection A Comet of Ideas Looking for a Planet is free on Kindle until Sunday 14th July.
This collection covers fifteen years of writing, of stories that weren't part of the Axiom Few canon, or novels, obviously. In a later post I will write more about the stories behind the stories, but for now I hope you enjoy reading it.
July 3, 2013
Schaefer's Integrity - free till Sunday 7th July
I hope you enjoy it. Get it between now and Sunday and it will cost you nothing. You can get it from here.
June 25, 2013
A Comet of Ideas Looking for a Planet - released today
Over the last fifteen years or so I have written a number of short stories that have sat in a drawer (well, a digital drawer). I had put a few of them on my website when it was it its previous incarnation but now I feel I have enough stories to merit a collection. It's available from today on Kindle here.
From the frozen tundra of Jupiter's moon Europa, to a rainy night on Dartmoor. From an evening rush hour train bound for King's Cross, to a murderous interrogation room. From the hot city of Khartoum, to an interstellar data router that has started to malfunction. From the Falkland Islands, to a nightclub in the Kuiper Belt. Huw Langridge brings you 13 short science fiction stories to make you think about where we came from, where we're going, and who else might be with us.
From the frozen tundra of Jupiter's moon Europa, to a rainy night on Dartmoor. From an evening rush hour train bound for King's Cross, to a murderous interrogation room. From the hot city of Khartoum, to an interstellar data router that has started to malfunction. From the Falkland Islands, to a nightclub in the Kuiper Belt. Huw Langridge brings you 13 short science fiction stories to make you think about where we came from, where we're going, and who else might be with us.
