Ian Martyn's Blog, page 17
June 11, 2014
The human race needs to leave earth
What sparked this week’s blog was a program I watched recently. It emerged that if we keep cutting down the Amazon rainforest at the current rate it will be all gone in two hundred years. It seems the ‘west’ still has a desire for those rainforest hardwoods such as mahogany and the indigenous people have … Continue Reading →
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June 4, 2014
7 key things I’ve learnt from a year of blogging
It’s hard to believe it is a year since I set up this web site and started blogging. One year on I’ve published two books for Kindle and over fifty blogs. I’ve read a lot of blogs and a lot on blogging. And I feel I’ve learnt something (I hope) on the art of blogging. … Continue Reading →
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May 28, 2014
Don’t condemn science fiction to a ‘genre’ box
Why is science fiction condemned to that somewhat shabby heading of ‘genre fiction’? As if anything that falls within ‘genre’ is of lesser value? That somehow it’s not serious fiction (not that I’m sure what ‘serious fiction’ is). Good fiction affects us emotionally, we identify with the characters and inhabit their world for those hours … Continue Reading →
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May 20, 2014
UFOs a personal experience. But do I believe?
Ah, yes, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) myth or real? I’d like to believe I really would. However in this age of quality digital cameras with zoom lenses and camera phones etc. why are we still stuck with so many blobs and fuzzy images that could be almost anything? Also there are then so many fakes … Continue Reading →
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May 14, 2014
Science fiction and predicting the future
Everyone does it, trying to predict the future. Some are relatively small things, such as, holiday trends, mobile phone apps, whatever next big thing in fashion might be. These are looking, perhaps, a few years ahead. Some, however are the big questions that affect the planet/all of us such as, climate change, population growth and energy … Continue Reading →
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May 7, 2014
A transport vision for those megacities of the future.
A month or so ago I produced a series of blogs looking at what might become of our cities in the future. According to those that supposedly know, by the middle of this century it is estimated that 75% of the world’s population will be living in cities. I’m perplexed that given the advances in communication, … Continue Reading →
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April 30, 2014
The magic of fantasy – or sometimes not
As a science fiction writer I’m intrigued by sci-fi’s cousin, fantasy. I’ve read a lot over the years and compared to science fiction I’ve found it more unpredictable/more varied in terms of quality. I’ve read some excellent work such as that by Raymond Feist, David Gemmell and of course the currently trending George RR Martin. … Continue Reading →
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April 23, 2014
Eating, drinking and bars in science fiction
In a series of three blogs starting with ‘Where is society going? What will the future look like?’ I take a look at what life might be like in the near future, in this case as more and more people come to live in cities. However, as a writer (and reader) of science fiction I … Continue Reading →
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April 16, 2014
The power of the short story – 5 reasons we should write them (and read them)
In previous blogs I have advocated blog writing as tool for improving your writing, whatever your genre or subject. Here I want to champion short story writing. Also the reading of short stories. I think too often short stories are dismissed as less important than full length novels, somehow frivolous or not worthy of our … Continue Reading →
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April 9, 2014
How far can we go in ‘greening’ our cities of the future?
My last two articles (‘Where is society going’ and ‘Do you want to live in the highrise cities of the future’ on the cities of the future) concentrated on speculating where things were going based on what we see happening today. I would now like to take it a stage further, perhaps a bit more into … Continue Reading →
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