Chris James's Blog, page 18
January 7, 2018
An Oasis of Sanity in the Age of Stupid
[image error]If 2017 was bad, the first week of this year has confirmed that we really are living in the Age of Stupid. But I’m a lucky guy: after a stinker of a day at the office, or when Amazon tells me my daily book sales are zero, or when the international news tells me nuclear Armageddon could happen because a feeble-minded simpleton mistakenly believes he is a genius and decides to prove it, then I’ve got my two daughters to bring things back into a better perspective. Hang on to your knowledge folks, only intelligence and patience will get us through the Age of Stupid. While we’re waiting, have a listen to what helps keep me sane. And if any of you know the English titles to these two short pieces, could you let me know in the comments? Thanks, *cough, choke*
January 1, 2018
Predictions for 2018 (Living in the Age of Stupid)
[image error]Firstly, I’d like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year, and in 2018 I hope you will reach your goals with sufficient effort to satisfy you, but sufficient ease to leave you ready for more in 12 months’ time. If you’re one of the 121 readers who read one of my books in December, thank you and do leave a review, whether good, bad or ugly.
Now that 2017 has slid into the more repugnant end of the cesspit of history, what does the coming year have in store? Among other things, statisticians can tell us that X people will die in traffic accidents, there should be Y aviation incidents, and if we’re lucky, we’ll see Z breakthroughs in a number of tech, medical and other areas. But the more interesting anticipation comes when we consider the astonishing trends currently playing out.
A mere 48 months ago, the idea of a referendum on the UK’s EU membership was a sometime/maybe/never sop to the racists on the right-wing of the Conservative Party. Now, aided by a popular press which indulges in the kind of hate speech that would see editors being prosecuted in more moderate societies, those fringe racists control the popular dialogue. Two years ago, the feeble-minded simpleton in the White House was known mainly for being a spoilt, uncouth, loud-mouthed, failed property developer who was such a great businessman he actually lost money running casinos. Now, he swaggers around the world spouting any lies that come into his flabby, confused head and barely troubles to disguise the fact that he is an asset of the Kremlin.
Predicting what comes next in such uncharted waters is tricky. Brexit appears to be heading for a typically British fiasco. If the UK government were in any way serious about it, places like the Port of Dover would be hives of construction activity to handle the increased border-control needs so trade can keep flowing, but that’s not happening. The likelihood for this year is that nothing will change and the UK will, in the fashion of the Light Brigade, continue its charge towards the cliff edge.
For me, the most terrifying thing to emerge last year from the White House was the claim that not even Hitler used chemical weapons. Easy enough to laugh off, but the level of ignorance required—especially the lack of basic education—defies belief. It is people that boast this staggering stupidity who now have the ability to go to war using the most powerful armed forces ever assembled. Some people, including at least one man who lived through the era, are comparing events today to those of the 1930s. While there are parallels with the hate speech and the burnishing of wilful ignorance, a closer look shows much that is lacking. Foremost is the absence of any political ideology. Putin’s key objective seems to be to destabilise Europe. The Syrian refugee crisis, Brexit, and the election of the feeble-minded simpleton can all be laid at Putin’s door, but any objective other than the destabilisation he’s already achieving today is difficult to ascertain.
Similarly, while the current incumbent at the White House is clearly an idiot, the vast majority of his supporters also seem to share this quality; there is simply no focus other than hatred for Muslims, a religious group comprising more than 1 billion members, quite a few more than the Jewish faith. Apart from that, he and his backers do not stand for anything concrete and have no obvious plan to change the world. As his recent tax-bill showed, he’s only in it to steal as much from poorer Americans as he can and give it to his rich friends. This is hardly earth shattering or even unique among Western leaders.
I believe we need to start calling this the Age of Stupid, and I think 2018 will continue to prove it. With one exception, I don’t see anything radical happening this year, just more of the same Stupid. The exception is this: if the feeble-minded simpleton and his handler in the Kremlin do have a broader scheme that involves the abrogation of democracy in the US, then something will have to happen to allow the 45th President to strengthen his grip on power by postponing the mid-term elections on 6 November; something very violent and shocking, something which will cost more American lives than 9/11, and something which, somewhat obviously, will be deemed the work vague, Muslim-connected terrorists. If Putin wishes to keep his asset in place, he cannot allow the Republican Party to lose control of the House of Representatives, and if the covert tactics the Kremlin used in 2016 to swing the Presidential election no longer work, then the destabilisation will have to become overt in a most violent and shocking manner. Let’s see what happens.
Happy New Year.
December 24, 2017
Merry Christmas (and a Cautionary Tale)
[image error]I’d like to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for reading my work. Wherever you are in the world, I hope in your world there is only peace, safety and happiness. Twenty-seventeen has been the first year that “my readers” have numbered in the thousands, and I’m grateful to each of you. For me, Christmas is now indelibly associated with what happened to me two years ago, when I came to within hours of dying.
A couple of days before Christmas 2015, my appendix burst but I declined to seek medical assistance until it was almost too late. This wasn’t down to any misplaced male bravado: a few weeks earlier, I’d had the same pain which went away after I fasted for ten days. I assumed the pain would go away again, so fasted again. Two days later, I finally went to see a doctor, who said: “You need a surgeon within two hours.”
[image error]Christmas Day 2015 passed in haze of drug-smothered pain, drips going into my arm and a plastic tube carrying a vile-looking yellow liquid out from my stomach. The surgeon who operated on me conveyed his assessment to my wife that I might not survive the operation, and certainly would not have lasted another night without the operation. But thanks to dumb luck and the fantastic efficiency and professionalism of the Polish national health system, I did survive. So, dear reader, if you ever get a sharp pain in your stomach above your right hip, don’t delay in seeing a doctor.
But the reason I mention this is because of what it then led to: when this drama happened, I had just begun writing Repulse. It was going to be my last book, but I had lost the will to continue writing it. I’d been self-publishing my books for five years at that point, and had grown sick and tired of the whole three-ring circus. I’d stuck to the rules, writing fast-paced, character-driven science fiction. I’d tried everything and could not find readers; moreover, I loathed the fashion which demanded that, as an unknown author, I should pay other people to give my books away for free. So, I’d had enough. One more book and I was done, if I could finish writing it.
Repulse was not only the last book, it also broke all the rules, which was why I had lost interest in continuing to write it. It consisted only of exposition and had almost no dialogue, which is regarded as suicide for a work of fiction. It had no discernible characters who were in any way memorable. And the story was related by a historian 30 years after it had supposedly happened. I felt certain that, like all of my novels before it, Repulse would sink without a trace. Indeed, because it broke the rules, I believed failure was absolutely guaranteed.
When I came out of hospital two years ago, I realised that I owed it to myself to finish and publish Repulse—this one, last novel-that-broke-all-the-rules—before I died. I redoubled my efforts, finished the book, and published it in August 2016. And in quite the irony, 16 months later over 4,000 of you have read it.
Merry Christmas and thanks again (I’m the ugly one at the back, still smiling, still writing).
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December 16, 2017
Dystopia Descending goes live
[image error]If you’re one of the millions thousands hundreds handful of people who pre-ordered Dystopia Descending, the novel is now live on your Kindles. Thanks ever so much; I hope you enjoy the story and, even if you don’t, do please leave a review.
The book deals with one of my favourite themes: how we might get from ‘here’ – our semi-functional democracy – to ‘there’ – an actual dystopia. In 2017, I believe this journey has certainly begun. Events in the UK and US have evidenced a new kind of warfare, where Moscow intends to destabilise the EU and America without firing a single shot. In an example of the very worst aspect of human nature, the Russians have taken something incredible, free and designed to disseminate information around the world at almost no cost, and turned it into an agent of despair, to undermine our beliefs and values, to set the citizens of Europe and America against each other as they haven’t been in over a lifetime.
The internet today channels hatred more than any other commodity, among people who, just a year or so ago, would not have hesitated to agree the common ground of their patriotism. Now, in a mirror image of 1930s’ Germany, we see those in power in the UK and US denouncing the opposition as ‘traitors’ and ‘enemies of the people’. Patriotism has morphed into rabid nationalism. A line has been crossed this year, from robust democratic debate to vehement hatred of those on the other side of the argument.
When Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914, few people on that day would’ve thought it would trigger a war that would cost the lives of nearly 20 million people, a war which would leave European stresses sufficiently unresolved that another war 21 years later would be required, which would extinguish more than 50 million souls.
Today, Russian manipulation of the internet is reintroducing to our societies those elements required to sow distrust and discord, to nurture hatred, which grow daily like a cancer in our midst. I believe this is the prelude to a potential re-figuring of our societies to a point where a group of very few people will control us. Where will future historians see the beginning of the end of our democracies? At which point in our recent history will they nod their heads and decide that that was where it all began? The UK referendum, that triumph of simple lies over complicated truths? The election of that feeble-minded simpleton to the White House last year, a sociopath wholly in the pay of the Russians? Some action by his handlers in Russia or his enablers in Washington, Americans who at this very moment are traitors of the highest order? Make no mistake: supporters of Brexit in the UK and supporters of the Republican party in the US are merely working from within to undermine their own societies, doing Putin’s work for him, labouring under the asinine illusion that they are somehow ‘patriotic’.
Perhaps historians will be some future event as the tipping point? As the Russians’ role gains greater exposure, democratic power will reassert itself, so to stay in power, as in 1930s’ Germany, new laws will have to be enacted, terrorist atrocities will have to be permitted or indeed manufactured, a ‘state of emergency’ will have to be engineered to subvert that democratic power until, ultimately, it withers and dies. If we look through history, we see that totalitarianism seldom announces its arrival. It is a gradual process. All of the ingredients are present today, and now only time will tell. Thanks for reading.
Dystopia Descending is published today at the special introductory price of $2.99, and is available in the UK here, the US here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.
December 1, 2017
Bits and Pieces (a kind-of update)
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Only yesterday, a fellow gave Repulse quite a critical three-star review on Amazon in the UK, and Bridget informs me he didn’t get very far when she found him, and he went down rather well.
In other news, for the last few weeks I’ve been lost in editing hell as I finally got Dystopia Descending up to the standard it needs to be. If I’m lucky, I’ll never have to read the bloody thing again. Today, I posted signed paperback copies to my group of VIPs (including you Daz, Audrey and KD) in the hope their bookshelves might finally collapse under the weight of my witterings. Just a reminder that the e-version is already available for pre-order at the ridiculously low price of $2.99 or equivalent, in the US here, the UK here, Canada here, and Australia here. The e-book goes live in two weeks on Saturday 16 December, but if you can’t wait till then, the paperback is already available here, although it costs a comparative fortune.
This is really starting to sound like a marketing post, isn’t it? Sorry about that. One thing I do at this time of the year, every year, and which has also kept me busy the last few weeks, is make a calendar. Exchanging Christmas gifts with family members in a different country can be quite frustrating, so several years ago I hit on the idea of doing a calendar from the best photos I took throughout the year, and as it happened 2017 turned out to be a very good year for my camera. So much so, that I had to leave off the calendar a few photos which I’ve decided to post here so my family can see what missed this year’s Christmas present.
Right, now it’s time to get back to writing… Oh, wait, look, it’s the UK Snooker Championships! Yummy…
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November 5, 2017
Documenting the New Motorway, #2: The Bridge and the ‘Before’ Shots
Today was the first Sunday in weeks it hasn’t been raining here, so I jumped at the chance to find out how much has changed since the first post I published regarding the S2 Expressway extension. Unfortunately, that this is the wettest autumn in decades here has swollen the Vistula to a level that today, it was impossible to get as close to the river as last time. But it wasn’t all bad news. Here, you can see that the three supports spanning the river haven’t changed much since last time:
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Here are the first supports on dry(-ish) land on the east bank:
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Although I obviously can’t know what the final level of the land will be on completion, I’m hoping this next image will be a good ‘before’ shot, where you can see the supports proceeding away from the river. Note the trees on the left, which I hope will still be there in three years’ time:
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This is a similar shot from further away, to bring more trees into view:
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I’m still quite amazed at the steel which will go into the concrete to hold the motorway up:
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And I think this image might turn up as part of the cover of a future novel of mine:
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Moving further away from the Vistula, this residence is very close to where construction is just getting underway, and I hope the owner doesn’t bother repainting the gates for the next three years, to give me great ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots!
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This is the level-crossing on ulica Patriotow, south of Radosc railway station. It is difficult to see, but in the middle of the image in the mid-distance, next to the tracks the trees have been cut down and the topsoil removed. At that point in the distance, the motorway will go right across the scene, and again I hope little else in the shot changes over the next three years:
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Finally, this is the view just outside the Boss hotel. A large area of forest has been cleared because a junction on the motorway will be built here. The owners of the hotel must be over the moon at the potential future business!
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October 28, 2017
Alchemy
So my 2010 novel Class Action has now become my 2017 novel Dystopia Descending—but why? Since the modest success enjoyed by Repulse over the last year (and if you’re one of the 65 readers Repulse has gained so far this month, thank you), obviously I’m doing all I can to try to recreate this alchemy to keep gaining new readers. When Repulse took off, I had hoped it would lead to an increase in sales of my older titles, but I saw quickly that this didn’t happen. I took two of my earlier novels and rewrote them into one new novel, and changed the title to express the core belief in the story: Time Is the Only God, but that hasn’t sold beyond my blessed handful of devoted fans (well, both of them anyway). From January to June this year, I wrote The Repulse Chronicles, Book One: Onslaught, to give readers of Repulse an expanded, character-based version of that war which goes into far more detail, but so far Onslaught is also struggling to find its readership and is lagging far behind Repulse.
A few weeks ago, I was told that the reason Repulse did so well was that it was the right novel at the right time: a year ago, people were worried about terrorism and the Middle East, and Repulse appealed to those fears. This year, things have moved on, and the actions of the Feeble-Minded Simpleton currently pushing the world to the brink of war have many people worried that soon we really could be living in a dystopia. I believe that plenty of people in the “developed” world are so poor that they already consider themselves to be living in a dystopia, but I digress. Nevertheless, when that vicious, lying, narcissistic psychopathic, servile toady of the Kremlin was sworn in last January, not for nothing was the biggest selling novel in the US Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
So, before I began writing The Repulse Chronicles, Book Two: Invasion, I decided to take another look at Class Action, and wondered if perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad time to try to get some more attention on it. The core idea of the novel is how a dystopia might happen. When I read voraciously in my teens, 20s and 30s, any dystopias I devoured would rarely describe how the fictional world got to that place; usually, the cause was some vaguely hinted-at nuclear or climate Armageddon. I always used to think that was such a cop-out: the author didn’t have the imagination to work out how the dystopia was brought into existence—how we got from here to there. So that’s what I wrote Class Action to do.
I’ve spent the last few weeks editing the text and have trimmed some fat, especially from the first half of the book, before the big plot twist halfway through. After seven years, I’m mildly surprised at how precious a writer I was back then, but also quite satisfied that predictions I imagined in 2009 still stand a fair chance of happening by 2032, when the story is set. In addition, I’ve also edited the story to accentuate its key point: how we get from here, our generally free and open democracy (despite its limits), to there, an actual dystopia where the ultra-wealthy from around the world have worked together to protect their privileges and crush even the remotest threat to their supremacy.
For those few of you who have read Class Action, Dystopia Descending is still the same novel, with the same events, characters, breathtaking action (*cough*) and amazingly prescient predictions (*choke*). But with a few tweaks and judicious editing, I’m trying once again to find the same elusive alchemy that made Repulse gain the number of readers that it has. Soon, Dystopia Descending will go on Kindle pre-order and I’ll probably set a release date around the beginning of December, while the Lulu paperback will go live in the next couple of weeks. If you read this blog, you’ll know about it. Thanks for reading.
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October 15, 2017
More Autumnal Colours (and a bit about the next book)
A long walk in the forest today yielded some more nice pictures of the changing colours among the trees, and yes, that is a purple mushroom down there; no, I had no idea, either.
On the writing front, I’ve decided to retitle, re-cover and republish Class Action (see how you need the hyphen in “re-cover” but not the other “re” words? Gotta love English!). I haven’t sold a copy for at least three years, so it has effectively been dead for some time. As has been the case for the last year, I’ve been trying to work out what made Repulse sell like it did, so I can replicate that performance with future books. This is turning out to be much trickier than I thought it would be, and my next experiment is to repackage Class Action and see if making it “new” will do anything. This is my oldest title which I published in 2010. Rereading and editing it now, I’m quite surprised how not-that-bad it seems. I need to do some tweaking to take account of events since I wrote it (the story is set in 2032), but almost all of the predictions I made then are still possible and could still happen. Nevertheless, I can also see the change in me as a writer, between how I was then and how I am now. Anyway, I hope you like today’s selection of pictures:
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October 8, 2017
Autumnal Colours
We’re having the best autumn here in years, with around a week’s rain every ten days. And I don’t mean those continental downpours, I’m talking about English rain: a wistful, slow, endless drizzle that makes one feel happy to be alive. Oddly, my Polish friends are complaining. I try to explain how lucky they are to have the kind of rain with which I grew up and which I miss so much, and encourage them to go for long walks in it, to feel wholly at peace, but then they look at me strangely. Oh well, never mind. I best enjoy it while it lasts.
In other news, the promo campaign for Onslaught has ended so I can sit back in a moment’s satisfaction at having published two novels this year. Now, I need to ensure I have another to publish next year. So, back to work. In the meantime, here are a few shots I took today in my local forest as the autumnal colours start to come on very nicely indeed. Hope you’re all doing well and enjoying Onslaught – *cough* *choke* *hugs*
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October 7, 2017
100 Great Songs to Publish a Book to, #1: Supertramp, Dreamer
Roger Hodgson’s most accomplished composition to date deals with a fundamental conflict of the human spirit: between the desire to create art to give value and meaning to one’s life, and the pragmatism of knowing it is pointless to do so. Dreamer opens with the Cynic lambasting the as-yet-unidentified object of his vitriol: “Can you put your hands in your head?/Oh no!” He goes on to mock: “Now you put your head in your hands,” and thus articulates the primary struggle inside anyone of limited ability who tries to create art: is it worth fighting such vast indifference?
Then, things quieten down and the antagonist joins in: the Dreamer, who tries to defend his belief, while all the time the Cynic heaps scorn and ridicule on him for being stupid enough to believe that he could create anything of objective artistic value. The track ends by building up to a shattering climax, as the Cynic repeats his tired refrain with even more energy, while the defiant Dreamer urges us all to: “Come on and dream and dream along.”
This is a breath-taking song on so many levels, but, in the final analysis, the last question which the Cynic asks the Dreamer during the middle part of the song is the one question which anyone intending to create art in the face of overwhelming indifference must answer to themselves honestly: “But can you do something out of this world?” Invariably, for the vast majority of us, the answer is “no”, although, of course, that should never stop us from doing so.
Onslaught is out now at the special introductory price of $2.99 in the US here, in the UK here, in Canada here, and in Australia here.
