Huw Langridge's Blog, page 6
October 9, 2012
Books now available on Kindle
I'm pleased to say that four of my earlier works are now available to buy on Kindle via Amazon, all for less than a quid. Considering they are all so ridiculously cheap there isn't much of an excuse not to have a look, unless you don't have a Kindle, in which case, get it for the Kindle app on your phone or tablet. See I told you there's no excuse.
Go here to see them.
Go here to see them.
September 23, 2012
Interactive Fiction
Proof that the internet has a page for everything (I think we already knew that) is that I found a good many sites full of love for the old Choose Your Own Adventure book series from the 1980s, of which I had a shelf full. Those old books were about 100 pages long and featured a branch-like narrative with multiple endings. With titles like "The Cave of Time", "The House of Danger" and "Journey Under the Sea", these books worked for readers of my age (which was about ten).
"You reach a fork in the road and find an old man sitting there. To turn left in the fork, go to page 45. To turn right, go to page 56. To talk to the old man, go to page 80."
That sort of thing.
Later on, when computers came along, I fell in love with the text adventures of Magnetic Scrolls (yes there's a website for them too). With games like Jinxter, The Guild of Thieves and Corruption, I was hooked by the way that these games built worlds in your head.
Even now there is a cult following for these old style games, but interactive fiction lives on in the form of hyperfiction (hypertext fiction where you navigate the story through hyperlinks on a web page).
I've decided to have a go at creating a piece of interactive fiction for the Android phone. As a fan of the old Myst-style point and click adventures too I wanted to try and merge some of those elements in there too. As a writer I could combine a number of passions into one. Who knows, I might even end up with an App I could sell for a small fee.
So I've been having a heap of fun (a little bit of sarcasm in there in case you didn't notice) installing the Java Development Environment, along with all the necessary stuff to create and build Android Apps. Let's see where I end up. I have a story, which I am building into a game narrative, and I've devised a few puzzles to challenge the reader. And I've even dug out some of the old MP3s of music I wrote on my trusty Yamaha V50 synthesizer back in the 1990s, to add a little atmosphere.
I'm very excited about this little project, and will post more as I progress on this new journey.
"You reach a fork in the road and find an old man sitting there. To turn left in the fork, go to page 45. To turn right, go to page 56. To talk to the old man, go to page 80."
That sort of thing.
Later on, when computers came along, I fell in love with the text adventures of Magnetic Scrolls (yes there's a website for them too). With games like Jinxter, The Guild of Thieves and Corruption, I was hooked by the way that these games built worlds in your head.
Even now there is a cult following for these old style games, but interactive fiction lives on in the form of hyperfiction (hypertext fiction where you navigate the story through hyperlinks on a web page).
I've decided to have a go at creating a piece of interactive fiction for the Android phone. As a fan of the old Myst-style point and click adventures too I wanted to try and merge some of those elements in there too. As a writer I could combine a number of passions into one. Who knows, I might even end up with an App I could sell for a small fee.
So I've been having a heap of fun (a little bit of sarcasm in there in case you didn't notice) installing the Java Development Environment, along with all the necessary stuff to create and build Android Apps. Let's see where I end up. I have a story, which I am building into a game narrative, and I've devised a few puzzles to challenge the reader. And I've even dug out some of the old MP3s of music I wrote on my trusty Yamaha V50 synthesizer back in the 1990s, to add a little atmosphere.
I'm very excited about this little project, and will post more as I progress on this new journey.
March 26, 2012
Pandora's Star
A few years ago I had an idea for a novel. I even wrote a full synopsis, character list, complete with information about their own personal story arcs, and drafted the first twenty pages or so. It was going to be a trilogy, my magnum opus. The most ambitious piece of science-fiction I'd ever tried to write. It was going to be called "The Construction".
One day all the stars disappear. The Space Foundation call it "Star Blacking". A crew is assembled and a ship is sent out to the edge of the solar system, only to find that our solar system has been enclosed in a barrier, a shell. Alien's tell us it is for our protection, but then a war takes place outside the shell, and another set of alien's tell us they are attempting to free us from the imminent enslavement of humanity by the first aliens. Who do we believe? It sort of goes on from there...
Imagine my total disappointment when I recently picked up Peter F Hamilton's "Pandora's Star", only to find that the king of Space Opera got there first. There are a few minor differences but the principal is the same and so are the dilemmas faced by humanity.
So it's back to the drawing board for my magnum opus. Time for some new ideas. There's a beautiful moon in the sky tonight, and a stunning vista of stars. Always inspiring. New ideas area out there waiting to be had.
And it reminds me that there's a new character that's been bouncing around my head. His name is Derek Pytance. And for those of you who have read my short story collection "The Axiom Few", he's a new individual in that universe. Because I always wondered what would motivate a man to create something as powerful and omnipotent and calculating as the Biological Retro-Enabled Nth Dimensional Array (BRENDA to you and me...)
One day all the stars disappear. The Space Foundation call it "Star Blacking". A crew is assembled and a ship is sent out to the edge of the solar system, only to find that our solar system has been enclosed in a barrier, a shell. Alien's tell us it is for our protection, but then a war takes place outside the shell, and another set of alien's tell us they are attempting to free us from the imminent enslavement of humanity by the first aliens. Who do we believe? It sort of goes on from there...
Imagine my total disappointment when I recently picked up Peter F Hamilton's "Pandora's Star", only to find that the king of Space Opera got there first. There are a few minor differences but the principal is the same and so are the dilemmas faced by humanity.
So it's back to the drawing board for my magnum opus. Time for some new ideas. There's a beautiful moon in the sky tonight, and a stunning vista of stars. Always inspiring. New ideas area out there waiting to be had.
And it reminds me that there's a new character that's been bouncing around my head. His name is Derek Pytance. And for those of you who have read my short story collection "The Axiom Few", he's a new individual in that universe. Because I always wondered what would motivate a man to create something as powerful and omnipotent and calculating as the Biological Retro-Enabled Nth Dimensional Array (BRENDA to you and me...)
December 14, 2011
The Woman in Black - YouTube Ghost Story Competition
When I saw that Daniel Radcliffe was launching a ghost story competition for the release of the film adaptation of The Woman in Black I thought I'd have a go. The criteria being that the story must be read aloud by you on YouTube in 2 minutes. I tried chopping back an old 1600 word story but that was taking way too long to read, so I thought I'd write something original, and calculated that it needed to be about 400 words in order to fit the time slot. Not easy to tell a story in 400 words, but here's my entry...
I uploaded it yesterday, and saw that of the other 77 entries in the official YouTube channel for the competition, only a handful seem to abide by the actual entry rules. Many entries came from the US but the competition is only open to UK and Ireland residents. Some people had uploaded existing videos of "true" ghost stories. Some had uploaded videos that were radically overlong (yes, I know mine clocks in at 2:08, but some entries are over 4 minutes). Some had uploaded videos of the written text with some spooky music over the top. When I say spooky music, I actually mean it sounded like someone had dusted off their old Yamaha DX7, plugged it into an amplifier, selected SynthViolin, and sat on the keyboard.
Another type of video people were uploading were short horror movies. One was genuinely spooky and extremely well made, but it wasn't what the competition asked for. I'm intrigued that these videos, which are not appropriate for the competition, are being added by the competition staff to the official channel. Unless I'm missing something.
I don't want this to come across as sour-grapes. After all, I won't know that my entry has lost until 6th Jan 2012, but it's intriguing, and I am interested to see how many actual law-abiding entries I am up against.
On a final note, please go and "Like" my entry on YouTube if you have the time. You never know, it might actually help.
I uploaded it yesterday, and saw that of the other 77 entries in the official YouTube channel for the competition, only a handful seem to abide by the actual entry rules. Many entries came from the US but the competition is only open to UK and Ireland residents. Some people had uploaded existing videos of "true" ghost stories. Some had uploaded videos that were radically overlong (yes, I know mine clocks in at 2:08, but some entries are over 4 minutes). Some had uploaded videos of the written text with some spooky music over the top. When I say spooky music, I actually mean it sounded like someone had dusted off their old Yamaha DX7, plugged it into an amplifier, selected SynthViolin, and sat on the keyboard.
Another type of video people were uploading were short horror movies. One was genuinely spooky and extremely well made, but it wasn't what the competition asked for. I'm intrigued that these videos, which are not appropriate for the competition, are being added by the competition staff to the official channel. Unless I'm missing something.
I don't want this to come across as sour-grapes. After all, I won't know that my entry has lost until 6th Jan 2012, but it's intriguing, and I am interested to see how many actual law-abiding entries I am up against.
On a final note, please go and "Like" my entry on YouTube if you have the time. You never know, it might actually help.
November 20, 2011
From "Idea" to "Published Story" in 24 Hours
On Friday 18th November 2011 I managed to do something that I never thought possible.
Whilst walking to work I was listening to an old Level 42 album and pondering a new idea I had for a story. When I got to the office, to preserve the idea, I opened up Google Docs and jotted down a couple of sentences.
At lunchtime I re-read my notes and decided to turn it into a story. By the time I'd written about 400 words I realised that this would easily work as a 600 word story for 365tomorrows.com, who publish a daily flash-fiction piece in the sci-fi genre.
The last time I submitted something to 365tomorrows they rejected it weeks later, on the grounds that there was no narrative to the story (the story was written in pure dialogue).
Once this new story was completed I made two changes. I changed the gender of one character and the name of another. By the end of the day I had submitted the story, entitled "Freedom Someday" to 365tomorrows.
The usual turnaround response time for a story submitted to 365tomorrows is 4-6 weeks.
On Saturday morning, the next day, 365tomorrows had emailed me back to accept it, saying that the story was fantastic, and would be published on their website as the piece for Monday 21st November. Naturally I was thrilled!
So, within the space of 24 hours I'd had an idea for a fiction story, which I converted to a set of notes, which I converted into a 600 word story, which I submitted to an online publishing entity, and had it accepted; an achievement symptomatic of the Internet Age.
www.365tomorrows.com
Whilst walking to work I was listening to an old Level 42 album and pondering a new idea I had for a story. When I got to the office, to preserve the idea, I opened up Google Docs and jotted down a couple of sentences.
At lunchtime I re-read my notes and decided to turn it into a story. By the time I'd written about 400 words I realised that this would easily work as a 600 word story for 365tomorrows.com, who publish a daily flash-fiction piece in the sci-fi genre.
The last time I submitted something to 365tomorrows they rejected it weeks later, on the grounds that there was no narrative to the story (the story was written in pure dialogue).
Once this new story was completed I made two changes. I changed the gender of one character and the name of another. By the end of the day I had submitted the story, entitled "Freedom Someday" to 365tomorrows.
The usual turnaround response time for a story submitted to 365tomorrows is 4-6 weeks.
On Saturday morning, the next day, 365tomorrows had emailed me back to accept it, saying that the story was fantastic, and would be published on their website as the piece for Monday 21st November. Naturally I was thrilled!
So, within the space of 24 hours I'd had an idea for a fiction story, which I converted to a set of notes, which I converted into a 600 word story, which I submitted to an online publishing entity, and had it accepted; an achievement symptomatic of the Internet Age.
www.365tomorrows.com
