Steven J. Pemberton's Blog, page 17
December 30, 2015
Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age
Another post in my occasional series of "exhibitions you might enjoy"... a couple of days ago, I went to see
Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age
at the Science Museum in London.
From the title, I'd expected it would be about the decade or so from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when the Soviet Union was winning the Space Race. In fact, it starts in the early 20th century with a section on Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a pioneer of the theory of rockets and space travel. It touches on cosmism (not communism), a movement that's been retrospectively claimed as an early form of transhumanism. The exhibition continues to the present day - one of the largest galleries is about the Russian contribution to the International Space Station.
In common with other exhibitions about space exploration, there are many reproductions and engineering mockups - the real things are still in space or burned up on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. There are a couple of genuine capsules (the bit that the cosmonauts sat in, and usually the only part of the ship that returns to Earth intact). These have a "Millennium Falcon" feel to them. (As in, "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought.") The early ones re-entered the atmosphere too fast for the cosmonaut to survive the impact with the ground, so he had to bail out with a parachute. The engineers didn't fit retrorockets until they started sending up ships with more than one crew member, which left no room inside the capsule for the ejection system...
There's a selection of propaganda posters from the 50s and 60s, praising the cosmonauts' heroism and expressing hope for an age of peaceful exploration. If you study these closely, you'll notice that the rockets bear little resemblance to the real thing, but have more in common with models from science fiction films. This wasn't because the artists were possessed of over-active imaginations, but because the Soviet space programme at the time was partly military, and much information about it was classified... including the appearance of the hardware.
The military involvement perhaps contributed to the perception in the West that the Soviet programme was far ahead of the American one. The Soviet media never reported on a mission until it had already been successful, and said nothing about any failures, giving the impression that their technology was far more advanced and reliable than it actually was.
This culture of secrecy concealed the identity of the chief designer, Sergei Korolev. The Soviets were genuinely afraid that the USA would try to assassinate him if they knew who he was. Perhaps they were right to be worried - when he died unexpectedly in 1966, the manned space programme faltered, and took a decade or more to recover. (They started work on sending cosmonauts to the Moon in 1964, but the rocket that would have flown there never managed to take off without blowing up.)
Overall, the exhibition is well-presented, with clear and informative labels and good lighting. It's a little cramped at first but opens out later. Allow an hour to an hour and a half to see everything. I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in space exploration or Russia. Tickets are £14 for adults, and it runs until 13 March 2016.
From the title, I'd expected it would be about the decade or so from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s when the Soviet Union was winning the Space Race. In fact, it starts in the early 20th century with a section on Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a pioneer of the theory of rockets and space travel. It touches on cosmism (not communism), a movement that's been retrospectively claimed as an early form of transhumanism. The exhibition continues to the present day - one of the largest galleries is about the Russian contribution to the International Space Station.
In common with other exhibitions about space exploration, there are many reproductions and engineering mockups - the real things are still in space or burned up on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. There are a couple of genuine capsules (the bit that the cosmonauts sat in, and usually the only part of the ship that returns to Earth intact). These have a "Millennium Falcon" feel to them. (As in, "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought.") The early ones re-entered the atmosphere too fast for the cosmonaut to survive the impact with the ground, so he had to bail out with a parachute. The engineers didn't fit retrorockets until they started sending up ships with more than one crew member, which left no room inside the capsule for the ejection system...
There's a selection of propaganda posters from the 50s and 60s, praising the cosmonauts' heroism and expressing hope for an age of peaceful exploration. If you study these closely, you'll notice that the rockets bear little resemblance to the real thing, but have more in common with models from science fiction films. This wasn't because the artists were possessed of over-active imaginations, but because the Soviet space programme at the time was partly military, and much information about it was classified... including the appearance of the hardware.
The military involvement perhaps contributed to the perception in the West that the Soviet programme was far ahead of the American one. The Soviet media never reported on a mission until it had already been successful, and said nothing about any failures, giving the impression that their technology was far more advanced and reliable than it actually was.
This culture of secrecy concealed the identity of the chief designer, Sergei Korolev. The Soviets were genuinely afraid that the USA would try to assassinate him if they knew who he was. Perhaps they were right to be worried - when he died unexpectedly in 1966, the manned space programme faltered, and took a decade or more to recover. (They started work on sending cosmonauts to the Moon in 1964, but the rocket that would have flown there never managed to take off without blowing up.)
Overall, the exhibition is well-presented, with clear and informative labels and good lighting. It's a little cramped at first but opens out later. Allow an hour to an hour and a half to see everything. I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in space exploration or Russia. Tickets are £14 for adults, and it runs until 13 March 2016.
2015 in Review
This is what I said I wanted to do this year...
Finish Stone & Silence, the final book of The Barefoot Healer, and have it on sale by the end of the year. (Not done, but I did finish the first draft and have made good progress on editing it. Barring unforeseen eventualities, it should be on sale in the first or second quarter of 2016. I took some photos for the cover last week when I was visiting my family.)
Finish a first draft of a sequel to The Accidental Dragonrider. (Not done, but I have most of the plot for it. I'll start it once Stone & Silence is out of the way.)
Don’t let the TBR pile get any bigger. I had 110 unread books on my Kindle this time last year and now have 74, so that's good.
Reduce the size of the queue of stories I've yet to read on Wattpad. (Not even attempted. I think I'm going to have to be much more selective about who I follow on there.)
Record at least one audiobook and put it on sale. (Done. The Accidental Dragonrider is now available in audio, read by yours truly. Production and publication didn't go as smoothly as I would've liked, but I learned some valuable lessons for future recordings.)
Upload at least ten minutes of edited video, not including any videos that promote my books. (Done. I uploaded five videos totalling 10 minutes and 39 seconds, according to the timings on YouTube. Have a look here - https://www.youtube.com/user/pembersb... Even better, only one of the videos is from the archives - the others were all shot and edited this year.)
A couple of other things that weren't on the list back in January... I released a print edition of The Accidental Dragonrider, and started an audio edition of Death & Magic. I'm nearly done with recording that (three more chapters to go). Even though I haven't published anything new this year, 2015 has actually been my best ever in terms of books sold and money earned.
Come back in a few days to see my plans (ha!) for 2016!
Finish Stone & Silence, the final book of The Barefoot Healer, and have it on sale by the end of the year. (Not done, but I did finish the first draft and have made good progress on editing it. Barring unforeseen eventualities, it should be on sale in the first or second quarter of 2016. I took some photos for the cover last week when I was visiting my family.)
Finish a first draft of a sequel to The Accidental Dragonrider. (Not done, but I have most of the plot for it. I'll start it once Stone & Silence is out of the way.)
Don’t let the TBR pile get any bigger. I had 110 unread books on my Kindle this time last year and now have 74, so that's good.
Reduce the size of the queue of stories I've yet to read on Wattpad. (Not even attempted. I think I'm going to have to be much more selective about who I follow on there.)
Record at least one audiobook and put it on sale. (Done. The Accidental Dragonrider is now available in audio, read by yours truly. Production and publication didn't go as smoothly as I would've liked, but I learned some valuable lessons for future recordings.)
Upload at least ten minutes of edited video, not including any videos that promote my books. (Done. I uploaded five videos totalling 10 minutes and 39 seconds, according to the timings on YouTube. Have a look here - https://www.youtube.com/user/pembersb... Even better, only one of the videos is from the archives - the others were all shot and edited this year.)
A couple of other things that weren't on the list back in January... I released a print edition of The Accidental Dragonrider, and started an audio edition of Death & Magic. I'm nearly done with recording that (three more chapters to go). Even though I haven't published anything new this year, 2015 has actually been my best ever in terms of books sold and money earned.
Come back in a few days to see my plans (ha!) for 2016!
December 2, 2015
November's Writing Progress
I've continued editing Stone & Silence. It's now 128,000 words, and I have 198 comments still to consider. My critique group are about halfway through reading it, so I expect the number of comments to increase before it eventually drops to zero. For the last couple of chapters, they've grumbled about how much I'm waffling, which I tend to do when I'm in the middle of a book.
I recorded some more of the audiobook of Death & Magic, and I'm now up to chapter 32, which is about 69% of the way through. So far it amounts to 33 hours and 30 minutes of raw material. The latest weird noise that I'll have to cut out was an engineering train that (as far as I can tell) rebalances the ballast under the track. It stops moving, sticks some big pincers into the ballast, scrunches it up, pulls them out, then moves forward about three feet and does all that again. As you can probably imagine, it took quite a while to travel far enough that I couldn't hear it...
I recorded some more of the audiobook of Death & Magic, and I'm now up to chapter 32, which is about 69% of the way through. So far it amounts to 33 hours and 30 minutes of raw material. The latest weird noise that I'll have to cut out was an engineering train that (as far as I can tell) rebalances the ballast under the track. It stops moving, sticks some big pincers into the ballast, scrunches it up, pulls them out, then moves forward about three feet and does all that again. As you can probably imagine, it took quite a while to travel far enough that I couldn't hear it...
November 1, 2015
October's Writing Progress
I've started editing Stone & Silence and am pleased with what I've done so far. I've identified most of gaps and inconsistencies, and have fixed a good number of them. I deleted one chapter that started a subplot that didn't really go anywhere in the rest of the book, but I think most of the first draft will remain, with just some cleaning up to make it more pleasant to read.
Some of my earlier books changed drastically from first draft to final draft. I'd like to think the reason I need less editing now is because I'm a better writer, and perhaps I am. Having edited several of my books, I now recognise when I'm writing a scene that's similar to one I cut in a previous book, so I don't write those sorts of scenes any more. Also, I think I trust my instincts more now. The books that needed a lot of editing were written when I was hoping to land a publishing deal, and I was torn between writing a book that I wanted to write and writing a book that I thought an agent would think he could sell to a publisher. Nowadays I don't have that worry. Instead I worry, "Will someone who's read the previous three books enjoy this one?"
The book is currently 126,000 words, or near enough the same length as it was at the end of the first draft - I've added about as much as I've cut. The way I edit makes it difficult to track progress. I don't edit chapter 1, then chapter 2, then chapter 3 and so on. Instead I look through the notes and comments I wrote during the first draft, and that my critique partners have given me, and pick one to work on (or decide it's not valid and delete it). I track the number of those, which I suppose is a way of measuring progress. I started with 666 comments (dun dun duh...) and now have 299. You could interpret that as meaning I'm halfway through, but a comment could be anything from "think of a name for this minor character" to "write a new chapter to fix this massive plot hole." It probably averages out...
I recorded some more of the audiobook for Death & Magic. I'm up to chapter 17, which puts me just over a third of the way through. I haven't had too many trains passing through lately, but recording was interrupted for about ten minutes last night when someone brought a tow truck up to the front of the block of flats to remove a car. Ah well... that's what the editing suite is for...
Some of my earlier books changed drastically from first draft to final draft. I'd like to think the reason I need less editing now is because I'm a better writer, and perhaps I am. Having edited several of my books, I now recognise when I'm writing a scene that's similar to one I cut in a previous book, so I don't write those sorts of scenes any more. Also, I think I trust my instincts more now. The books that needed a lot of editing were written when I was hoping to land a publishing deal, and I was torn between writing a book that I wanted to write and writing a book that I thought an agent would think he could sell to a publisher. Nowadays I don't have that worry. Instead I worry, "Will someone who's read the previous three books enjoy this one?"
The book is currently 126,000 words, or near enough the same length as it was at the end of the first draft - I've added about as much as I've cut. The way I edit makes it difficult to track progress. I don't edit chapter 1, then chapter 2, then chapter 3 and so on. Instead I look through the notes and comments I wrote during the first draft, and that my critique partners have given me, and pick one to work on (or decide it's not valid and delete it). I track the number of those, which I suppose is a way of measuring progress. I started with 666 comments (dun dun duh...) and now have 299. You could interpret that as meaning I'm halfway through, but a comment could be anything from "think of a name for this minor character" to "write a new chapter to fix this massive plot hole." It probably averages out...
I recorded some more of the audiobook for Death & Magic. I'm up to chapter 17, which puts me just over a third of the way through. I haven't had too many trains passing through lately, but recording was interrupted for about ten minutes last night when someone brought a tow truck up to the front of the block of flats to remove a car. Ah well... that's what the editing suite is for...
October 10, 2015
The first draft of Stone & Silence is done!
Far too late on Thursday night/Friday morning, I wrote "The End" and copied it to the archive folder before I could be tempted to start tinkering. It came in at 127,000 words, which is the longest first draft of any Barefoot Healer book.
I'll have a glass or three of Jameson, put my feet up for a week or so, and then the hard work really starts - the editing...
This week, I also recorded some more of the audiobook of Death & Magic. I'm up to chapter 11, just shy of a quarter of the way through.
I'll have a glass or three of Jameson, put my feet up for a week or so, and then the hard work really starts - the editing...
This week, I also recorded some more of the audiobook of Death & Magic. I'm up to chapter 11, just shy of a quarter of the way through.
September 30, 2015
September's Writing Progress
I'd hoped to be able to report that the first draft of Stone & Silence was done. It's almost, almost done. I wrote 12,000 words this month, so it now stands at 122,000 words. The big battle scene didn't turn out quite how I planned, but I've got something I can edit into a fitting climax to the series.
The ending is dragging a bit (if I'm honest, it feels more like the start of a new book, and will probably need some drastic trimming). I think I'm reluctant to say goodbye to the characters and settings who've been sharing my head and my wordprocessor for most of the last seven years. (And actually Adramal and Lelsarin have been around for a lot longer than that.)
In other news, I started recording a new audiobook at the weekend. I'd been wavering over which one it would be, but eventually decided on Death & Magic. I'm up to chapter 7 (out of 45), which puts me about a sixth of the way through. I'll have a lot of editing to do afterwards (the trains outside have been joined by children playing and birds singing), but I'll put the lessons I learned from The Accidental Dragonrider to good use.
The ending is dragging a bit (if I'm honest, it feels more like the start of a new book, and will probably need some drastic trimming). I think I'm reluctant to say goodbye to the characters and settings who've been sharing my head and my wordprocessor for most of the last seven years. (And actually Adramal and Lelsarin have been around for a lot longer than that.)
In other news, I started recording a new audiobook at the weekend. I'd been wavering over which one it would be, but eventually decided on Death & Magic. I'm up to chapter 7 (out of 45), which puts me about a sixth of the way through. I'll have a lot of editing to do afterwards (the trains outside have been joined by children playing and birds singing), but I'll put the lessons I learned from The Accidental Dragonrider to good use.
August 31, 2015
August's Writing Progress
Not much to say this month, other than that I wrote 11,000 words of the first draft of Stone & Silence, which now stands at 110,000 words. I'm about to start on the big battle that's the climax of the book (and indeed the series). Wish me luck!
August 3, 2015
The Power of Poison
Yesterday, Breda and I ventured away from our usual museum haunts to see The Power of Poison at the Old Truman Brewery. As you might suspect from its name, the Old Truman Brewery was once a brewery, but isn't any more. It now describes itself as "East London's revolutionary arts and media quarter." We didn't realise there was anything besides the exhibition there, and so scooted off to take in the sun by the river, without seeing the rest of the site. Maybe we'll spend a bit longer if we go back.
As the name suggests, the exhibition is all about poison. It divides into two halves, the first about poisonous plants and animals, the second about the use of poisons by people. It presents a lot of information within those subjects, and does so in a way that's easily understandable by a wide range of visitors.
Plants and animals that use poison have to make a trade-off between it and whatever else they might use that energy and matter for. For example, spiders that hunt their prey tend to have much more toxic venom than spiders that spin webs. The web does some of the work of subduing the prey, making it less likely to fight back and injure the spider. Some scorpions have two types of venom - a mild one that causes pain, and a stronger one that kills. Such a scorpion, when cornered by a predator, will first try stinging with the mild venom. If that doesn't persuade the predator to leave it alone, it will use the more extreme option.
Often when one (prey) species in an ecosystem uses poison, you'll find another (predator) species nearby that's partly or wholly immune to that poison. The immunity allows it to eat something that no other species can, meaning it has no competition for food. Of course, this comes at the cost of having to manufacture whatever chemicals make it immune, and carries the risk that if the prey species goes extinct, the predator probably will too.
The human side of the exhibition uses a historical approach, taking in myths, legends and modern fiction, though it generally takes the angle of asking, "Could this really have happened?" The highlight here is a live presentation about the origins of forensic toxicology, specifically the Marsh test, which detects arsenic. Before this test was developed, arsenic, in the form of arsenic trioxide, was a very popular poison, to the point that the French nicknamed it poudre de succession, or "inheritance powder."
The large amount of content and the relatively low ticket price make the exhibition good value for money. The space is much larger than most of the exhibitions I've been to lately - there's plenty of room to stand and read the labels or study the exhibits without feeling that you're blocking people who want to pass you.
My only quibble really was that the standard of presentation left something to be desired. The cloakroom was closed, there's a sign warning of uneven floors, and the lighting levels are sometimes low, even though most of the artefacts aren't rare or valuable. Perhaps most annoying, the sound from various looping videos isn't properly confined to the places where you have a good view of the screen. By the time I got to watch each of them, I'd already heard the soundtracks four or five times.
Overall, I found The Power of Poison enjoyable and informative, and I'll be interested to see what The Old Truman Brewery has to offer next. The exhibition runs until 4th September 2015, and tickets are £9 for adults.
As the name suggests, the exhibition is all about poison. It divides into two halves, the first about poisonous plants and animals, the second about the use of poisons by people. It presents a lot of information within those subjects, and does so in a way that's easily understandable by a wide range of visitors.
Plants and animals that use poison have to make a trade-off between it and whatever else they might use that energy and matter for. For example, spiders that hunt their prey tend to have much more toxic venom than spiders that spin webs. The web does some of the work of subduing the prey, making it less likely to fight back and injure the spider. Some scorpions have two types of venom - a mild one that causes pain, and a stronger one that kills. Such a scorpion, when cornered by a predator, will first try stinging with the mild venom. If that doesn't persuade the predator to leave it alone, it will use the more extreme option.
Often when one (prey) species in an ecosystem uses poison, you'll find another (predator) species nearby that's partly or wholly immune to that poison. The immunity allows it to eat something that no other species can, meaning it has no competition for food. Of course, this comes at the cost of having to manufacture whatever chemicals make it immune, and carries the risk that if the prey species goes extinct, the predator probably will too.
The human side of the exhibition uses a historical approach, taking in myths, legends and modern fiction, though it generally takes the angle of asking, "Could this really have happened?" The highlight here is a live presentation about the origins of forensic toxicology, specifically the Marsh test, which detects arsenic. Before this test was developed, arsenic, in the form of arsenic trioxide, was a very popular poison, to the point that the French nicknamed it poudre de succession, or "inheritance powder."
The large amount of content and the relatively low ticket price make the exhibition good value for money. The space is much larger than most of the exhibitions I've been to lately - there's plenty of room to stand and read the labels or study the exhibits without feeling that you're blocking people who want to pass you.
My only quibble really was that the standard of presentation left something to be desired. The cloakroom was closed, there's a sign warning of uneven floors, and the lighting levels are sometimes low, even though most of the artefacts aren't rare or valuable. Perhaps most annoying, the sound from various looping videos isn't properly confined to the places where you have a good view of the screen. By the time I got to watch each of them, I'd already heard the soundtracks four or five times.
Overall, I found The Power of Poison enjoyable and informative, and I'll be interested to see what The Old Truman Brewery has to offer next. The exhibition runs until 4th September 2015, and tickets are £9 for adults.
July 31, 2015
July's writing progress
I'm almost back on the wagon... I wrote 12,000 words of Stone & Silence this month, so the first draft now stands at 99,000 words.
After some months of thinking I couldn't justify it, I decided to produce a paperback of The Accidental Dragonrider. I changed the font from Times New Roman, which I'd used for all my previous paperbacks, to Century Schoolbook, which is easier on the eyes for long documents. I thought it would be a very simple change, but I ended up having to re-jig almost all the formatting. Still, it's done now, so if I decide to do another paperback in the same style (such as, say, the Dragonrider sequel...) I just have to replace the text.
You can buy the new paperback from your local Amazon store, or direct from the printer at https://www.createspace.com/5572064
After some months of thinking I couldn't justify it, I decided to produce a paperback of The Accidental Dragonrider. I changed the font from Times New Roman, which I'd used for all my previous paperbacks, to Century Schoolbook, which is easier on the eyes for long documents. I thought it would be a very simple change, but I ended up having to re-jig almost all the formatting. Still, it's done now, so if I decide to do another paperback in the same style (such as, say, the Dragonrider sequel...) I just have to replace the text.
You can buy the new paperback from your local Amazon store, or direct from the printer at https://www.createspace.com/5572064
July 26, 2015
Butterflies at the Natural History Museum
This is another post in my "exhibitions you might like" series, but I thought I'd try a different approach this time. Every summer, the Natural History Museum in London puts a hothouse in their grounds and stocks it with various exotic species of butterfly. Breda and I went there a couple of weeks ago with the video camera. I spent a rainy afternoon today editing the footage, and this is the result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v9Tz...
I was impressed with how much detail the camera captured, so you might want to watch this in full-screen 1080p if your computer and connection are up to it.
Tickets are £5.90 for adults. The exhibition runs until 13 September 2015. See here for more information - http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/exhibition...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v9Tz...
I was impressed with how much detail the camera captured, so you might want to watch this in full-screen 1080p if your computer and connection are up to it.
Tickets are £5.90 for adults. The exhibition runs until 13 September 2015. See here for more information - http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/exhibition...
