Doug Strider's Blog

Space Danger! Update – Nemesis Mine and Beyond

FINALLY Part 2 is out. It only took eight months since Part 1. Sorry about that.

You can get it on Amazon UK, Amazon US (and all the other Amazon sites I should hope) and Smashwords for whatever format your heart desires.

Here’s a little bit of blurb, any more would cause spoiler meltdown probably!

Space is far more dangerous than Ensign Harris thought it was. He already knew it was really dangerous, of course, but now it’s just getting ridiculous.

Nemesis Mine follows directly on from Part 1, Th...

Almostly True: The Morrisonian Chicken

All through yesterday, and the evening before when the plans for this were put into motion, I was very much looking forward to visiting our local Morrison’s and reducing their stock of cooked, hot chickens by one and taking it proudly home to The Jennifer for us to consume in-between actual and proper glugs of ale and cider.

I did purchase some mead also but this got forgotten somehow and the gods of the alcoholic beverage aisle must never know. They must never know of this.

The Bus Lords had a...

Almostly True: I Need A New Coat

I’m a 17th Level Office Manager. I currently have a maximum of 157 hit points, some magical artefacts may be involved, and a cursed suit jacket that causes apathy but looks quite smart.

The charity shop where I got it from has never existed, according to the locals I spoke to, which is a shame as I need a new coat and was hoping they’d have one of those longcoats that pirate wizards wear to ward off tea rounds and leviathans.

There are other, regular charity shops around my locality though but...

Almostly True Story: The Goblin Man

As I managed to warily squeeze my way off the bus, through the sentinels that stand there oblivious to the movements of others, I weaved my way around the pavement hogs that charge or saunter directly towards me as if I am nothing but a puff of man-shaped air. I drew thoughtlessly on my cigarette and reached the crossing that no other Londoners ever use as they are all walking out in front of the traffic, sometimes held in a kind of stasis in the middle of the road.

I observed them for a while...

Dark Fiction – Moving On To Other Dimensions

Jen and I have been working on Dark Fiction Magazine for a good old while now and time has come for us to move on. I’ve really enjoyed my stay there but with time constraints getting constrainier, especially for that author I live with (her post here about it), I felt that it was the right moment to move on as my own projects are starting to demand far more hours than I generally have in a day.

I’ve enjoyed narrating, herding other wonderful narrators, editing and producing the episodes and ul...

Dun Dun dundun Dun Dun – Game of Thrones With My Drinking Buddy

That fellow on the left there is Jeb. We grew up together. Now we’re best ever drinking buddies. When he’s not in the pub, the bookies or herding pigeons we tend to watch a lot of telly together. See the post on Blake’s 7 for an example. It’s really quite amusing.

Sometimes though he likes to hold court about events, news, shows, films and whatever else even though he wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to whatever it is he’s banging on about.

Case in point, Game of Thrones. I bloody l...

Watching Telly With My Drinking Buddy – Blake’s 7

My fat headed, rotund, sweary little pile of sentient cloth and stuffing, Jeb, shares my like for science fiction. We certainly watched enough of it as a kid and a cub. One thing we’ve been meaning to do is get around to re-watching Blake’s 7. The only time we saw it was when it was first on telly and that, as Jeb so rightly put it, was fucking donkey’s yonks ago.

What put us off was the solid gold fact that the special effects are pants and that it would ruin our enjoyment. That and the fact...

Get Stuffed – Conversations With My Drinking Buddy

My old drinking, smoking and swearing buddy, Jeb, wouldn’t agree to doing an interview. Instead I asked if he’d like to go for a drink and let me ask him a few questions, he seemed fine with that. As long as I was buying and that there would be a choice of pork-in-pastry products, which seemed fair enough.

To our local we went, trying to remember certain movie theme tunes on the way and descending into fits of giggles as we managed to turn every single one into the theme for Black Beauty. Surp...

What’s So Good About Doctor Who Anyway?

As a kind of companion to Jen’s female Doctor post I’m writing this because I have started to question my loyalty to the show.

Would I like a female Doctor? No, I don’t think I would. Jen’s blog post highlights the need for more women behind the scenes, writing for the show and running it, which I’d be a massive idiot to disagree with. Also better female characters which has been sorely lacking. But a female Doctor? Just because you can have one, should we?

But that’s Jen’s discussion! Please d...

Incrediblly Amazing Space Danger Audiobook

Due to the overwhelming excellence of Spokenworld Audio and narrator Barnaby Edwards, Space Danger, The Deadly Planet of Death, has been made into an amazing audio version.

You can find it here: Space Danger – Spokenworld Audio

This is a far better version, really far superior, to anything I could rustle up on my own and it’s put the biggest smile on my tired old face. The team of superhero producer Neil Gardner and godlike voice master Barnaby Edwards are a force you could not even begin to re...