Bryan Murphy's Blog, page 6
October 11, 2014
Pudding
Daria is now in print! You can buy her here: http://amzn.to/1yksd7e (USA) or here: http://amzn.to/1uUaSQ9 (UK) Handle with care, she’s dangerous. For lovers of Italy and the future.
September 12, 2014
Proof!
Do you remember when you received the first proof copy of one of your books? Do you still remember how you felt?
The proof of my novella "Goodbye, Padania", has just arrived from across the Atlantic and sits beside me now.
Seeing the glossy cover is a treat: the e-book is already out, so I’m used to seeing it in icon size. The name on the cover boosts the ego, of course, but also reminds you that you’re supposed to be doing something to justify its professional look, namely making sure that the inside looks professional, too.
It does, at first glance. Then you look closer and see things that you have got to change, like inconsistent chapter title formats. You’ve concentrated on the content, but now you realize that if you want the content to be treated seriously, you have to make it look serious, too.
Next time, if there is one, maybe you could bear that in mind from the start, and save yourself time and trouble in the long run.
Meanwhile, you can enjoy flashing the cover at friends, without inviting them to look too closely inside.
The proof of my novella "Goodbye, Padania", has just arrived from across the Atlantic and sits beside me now.
Seeing the glossy cover is a treat: the e-book is already out, so I’m used to seeing it in icon size. The name on the cover boosts the ego, of course, but also reminds you that you’re supposed to be doing something to justify its professional look, namely making sure that the inside looks professional, too.
It does, at first glance. Then you look closer and see things that you have got to change, like inconsistent chapter title formats. You’ve concentrated on the content, but now you realize that if you want the content to be treated seriously, you have to make it look serious, too.
Next time, if there is one, maybe you could bear that in mind from the start, and save yourself time and trouble in the long run.
Meanwhile, you can enjoy flashing the cover at friends, without inviting them to look too closely inside.
September 3, 2014
Murphy's Law and the Two Theories of History
Have you read Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine? If you are in the USA, you may have seen the Public Service TV series called Commanding Heights, which was based on it. It’s a marvellous book, I’ve just finished it, one that shows you things that were in front of your eyes but you had not noticed, or had noticed but not paid due attention to. It is about the rise of market fundamentalism and the disasters which that has unleashed upon the world since 1973, the date of the violent overthrow of democracy in Chile, which, by coincidence, is also the year in which my novel-in-progress opens.
When I lived in Africa in the 1980s, the crimes of the international financial institutions on that continent were no secret: basically forcing countries in debt to sacrifice their children by denying them health and education so that bankers could sleep easily at night secure in the knowledge that the bad loans they had made would be repaid at any cost. That, it seemed to me, was in the nature of bankers; what seemed more scandalous was how little anyone outside Africa was bothered. People in Europe would care very deeply when famine hit Africa, and fork out enormous sums to alleviate the suffering it caused, but were oblivious to the suffering meted out by human institutions. Well, as you know, what went round came round, and since 2008, when many of the less rich countries in Western Europe got into trouble over their finances, international financial institutions have been forcing market fundamentalism on them in return for debt relief. And guess what? The people in those countries do not like it.
Now, I live in one of the affected countries, and boy, do people moan. About the loss of their jobs, their children’s future, decaying public services, you name it. Quite right, too. But they do not actually do very much, here in Italy. Klein’s book was published in 2007, before “disaster capitalism” turned its attention to Western Europe, but she would accurately have predicted people’s initial reaction here: they were shocked into inactivity. Klein details how, in Latin America, it took over 20 years before governments started to stop taking the medicine that was killing them. People in Europe, with more hindsight available to them, may swallow less before they say “We’re not going to take it!” I hope I live to see that day.
One useful way of seeing history is that it offers us two main theories for why things go awry (Murphy’s Law, no relation): the balls-up theory and the conspiracy theory. The latter says that things go wrong because tightly-knit groups of politically or economically motivated men cause them to do so for their own ends. The former says that people would like things to work to everyone’s benefit, but we are just too incompetent to make that happen. Klein is clearly in the conspiracy camp; I’ve always been in the balls-up camp, which is a hard place to be in Italy, where mafias and politicians traditionally feed off each other out of public sight. I had thought that Italy was exceptional, in this as in so many other ways. Maybe it is not.
It is irresistible for a science fiction writer to imagine where market fundamentalism will lead us, if it manages to continue its current dominance unchecked. Unfortunately, I think we have already seen the answer, in the cult classic film Zardoz, in which the rich live a genteel life inside a high-tech bubble which physically excludes the poor, whom the rich continually urge to renounce sex and kill each other. It is the ultimate gated community, although in the real thing the bubble will have to be opaque, because transparency helps people to see not just into fundamentalism, but through it.
When I lived in Africa in the 1980s, the crimes of the international financial institutions on that continent were no secret: basically forcing countries in debt to sacrifice their children by denying them health and education so that bankers could sleep easily at night secure in the knowledge that the bad loans they had made would be repaid at any cost. That, it seemed to me, was in the nature of bankers; what seemed more scandalous was how little anyone outside Africa was bothered. People in Europe would care very deeply when famine hit Africa, and fork out enormous sums to alleviate the suffering it caused, but were oblivious to the suffering meted out by human institutions. Well, as you know, what went round came round, and since 2008, when many of the less rich countries in Western Europe got into trouble over their finances, international financial institutions have been forcing market fundamentalism on them in return for debt relief. And guess what? The people in those countries do not like it.
Now, I live in one of the affected countries, and boy, do people moan. About the loss of their jobs, their children’s future, decaying public services, you name it. Quite right, too. But they do not actually do very much, here in Italy. Klein’s book was published in 2007, before “disaster capitalism” turned its attention to Western Europe, but she would accurately have predicted people’s initial reaction here: they were shocked into inactivity. Klein details how, in Latin America, it took over 20 years before governments started to stop taking the medicine that was killing them. People in Europe, with more hindsight available to them, may swallow less before they say “We’re not going to take it!” I hope I live to see that day.
One useful way of seeing history is that it offers us two main theories for why things go awry (Murphy’s Law, no relation): the balls-up theory and the conspiracy theory. The latter says that things go wrong because tightly-knit groups of politically or economically motivated men cause them to do so for their own ends. The former says that people would like things to work to everyone’s benefit, but we are just too incompetent to make that happen. Klein is clearly in the conspiracy camp; I’ve always been in the balls-up camp, which is a hard place to be in Italy, where mafias and politicians traditionally feed off each other out of public sight. I had thought that Italy was exceptional, in this as in so many other ways. Maybe it is not.
It is irresistible for a science fiction writer to imagine where market fundamentalism will lead us, if it manages to continue its current dominance unchecked. Unfortunately, I think we have already seen the answer, in the cult classic film Zardoz, in which the rich live a genteel life inside a high-tech bubble which physically excludes the poor, whom the rich continually urge to renounce sex and kill each other. It is the ultimate gated community, although in the real thing the bubble will have to be opaque, because transparency helps people to see not just into fundamentalism, but through it.
August 26, 2014
Discussion
Which theory of history best explains the triumph of market fundamentalism? Have your say on The Write Room Blog http://www.thewriteroomblog.com/?p=2301
July 19, 2014
Facing the past
This post on the Write Room Blog describes how I laid a personal demon to rest in my fiction, poetry and real life. http://www.thewriteroomblog.com/?p=2211 The past can be both glorious and inglorious, at the same time.
July 9, 2014
Progress Report
I launched into my self-publishing adventure on 3 July 2012 with my first short e-book, “Linehan’s Trip”. My total sales + downloads now stand at over 7,000. “Linehan’s Trip” accounts for over 1,600 of these. I must confess that, unfortunately, the vast majority of these are free downloads rather than sales. I should also say that my marketing strategy is to build up a following before I release my first full-length novel, the first draft of which I have just joyfully completed. If you had these figures, how would you feel about them? And if you have any tips for making them better in future, I am all ears (as perhaps befits a writer of science fiction). Linehan's Trip
June 30, 2014
Writing Process Blog Tour
My friend Marta Merajver-Kurlat (http://www.martamerajver.com.ar/marta...), author of Just Toss the Ashes and Why Can't I Make Money?, among other works, kindly invited me to participate in this blog hop tour and answer four questions about my writing process.
1) What am I working on?
My first novel. Its provisional title is Revolution Number One. Usually I write short stories, which I set in an imagined future in order to write more freely about the present. The novel, in contrast, is set in Portugal back in the 1970s, where a young English businessman struggles to survive and thrive during the world’s coolest Revolution. I’ve just finished the first draft, so I guess that the real work is about to start.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Well, in the novel, I use the past to write essentially about the present and the future. I don’t read enough historical fiction to know how different that makes it.
Most of my work, though, is set in the near future. It’s really too low-tech to be true science fiction. My philosophy is that the problems of the near past, the present and the near future are similar: what is important is how we deal with them, irrespective of technology. Perhaps a better descriptor is social science fiction.
Whatever the setting, I hope to write literature first and genre fiction second.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I like to set my stories in places where I have lived and worked, like England, Italy, Portugal and China, but to move away from the present in order to get a clearer perspective on it. I have always been future-oriented, but advancing age has successfully tempted me to look backwards as well.
4) How does my writing process work?
Writing a novel changed this. Before, I would write a short story or poem on paper. Then I would type it on to the computer, print it out and revise it several times using pen on paper, before keying in the changes to leave a final version on the computer.
For the novel, the first version of each chapter went straight on to the computer, and so did some of the revisions. That saved time and sped me towards the goal of a completed first draft. I have reached that particular target way ahead of schedule, so I’m prepared to spend a great deal of time turning it from a finished novel into a good novel - if I can.
The wonderful Andea Buginsky is taking up the baton next week and explaining her writing process, on Monday 7 July.
Andrea Buginsky is a freelance writer with a BA in Mass Communication-Journalism from the University of South Florida. She has always wanted to be a published writer, and decided to try to write children's fantasy books a few years ago. The Chosen is her first book, and was released on December 14, 2010, to her delight.
Andrea has written three more books since:
• My Open Heart, an autobiography of growing up with heart disease.
• Nature's Unbalance: The Chosen, Book 2
• Destiny: New Avalon, book 1, a YA fantasy
She is currently writing the second book in the New Avalon series and editing the third book of The Chosen series.
Andrea lives in Kansas with her family, which includes her two precious puppies.
You can visit Andrea on her website or Google+. Her blog is at: http://www.andreabuginsky.com/.
1) What am I working on?
My first novel. Its provisional title is Revolution Number One. Usually I write short stories, which I set in an imagined future in order to write more freely about the present. The novel, in contrast, is set in Portugal back in the 1970s, where a young English businessman struggles to survive and thrive during the world’s coolest Revolution. I’ve just finished the first draft, so I guess that the real work is about to start.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Well, in the novel, I use the past to write essentially about the present and the future. I don’t read enough historical fiction to know how different that makes it.
Most of my work, though, is set in the near future. It’s really too low-tech to be true science fiction. My philosophy is that the problems of the near past, the present and the near future are similar: what is important is how we deal with them, irrespective of technology. Perhaps a better descriptor is social science fiction.
Whatever the setting, I hope to write literature first and genre fiction second.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I like to set my stories in places where I have lived and worked, like England, Italy, Portugal and China, but to move away from the present in order to get a clearer perspective on it. I have always been future-oriented, but advancing age has successfully tempted me to look backwards as well.
4) How does my writing process work?
Writing a novel changed this. Before, I would write a short story or poem on paper. Then I would type it on to the computer, print it out and revise it several times using pen on paper, before keying in the changes to leave a final version on the computer.
For the novel, the first version of each chapter went straight on to the computer, and so did some of the revisions. That saved time and sped me towards the goal of a completed first draft. I have reached that particular target way ahead of schedule, so I’m prepared to spend a great deal of time turning it from a finished novel into a good novel - if I can.
The wonderful Andea Buginsky is taking up the baton next week and explaining her writing process, on Monday 7 July.
Andrea Buginsky is a freelance writer with a BA in Mass Communication-Journalism from the University of South Florida. She has always wanted to be a published writer, and decided to try to write children's fantasy books a few years ago. The Chosen is her first book, and was released on December 14, 2010, to her delight.
Andrea has written three more books since:
• My Open Heart, an autobiography of growing up with heart disease.
• Nature's Unbalance: The Chosen, Book 2
• Destiny: New Avalon, book 1, a YA fantasy
She is currently writing the second book in the New Avalon series and editing the third book of The Chosen series.
Andrea lives in Kansas with her family, which includes her two precious puppies.
You can visit Andrea on her website or Google+. Her blog is at: http://www.andreabuginsky.com/.
June 19, 2014
Announcement
The undersigned is pleased to announce the birth, at 4.45 pm, Central European Time, today, 19 June 2014, of the first draft of his first full-length novel. The labour was long but the baby was delivered prematurely. Both father and baby are doing well, although the father is unusually tired and the baby is unusually quiet. It will now undergo a period of intensive care.
June 1, 2014
April 28, 2014
The world’s coolest revolution
Would you fancy a honeymoon during the world’s coolest revolution? Take a trip through time and space to Portugal 1974, and enjoy this extract from my novel in progress. http://www.thewriteroomblog.com/?p=1999 Comments welcome.
