Terence Park's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-tau-device"

It's right that Amazon is finally, publicly, dealing with the abuses in its system; i.e. paid for high ratings / good reviews. These have been self-evident for longer than I've been writing (just over five years) and they belittle the efforts of the diligently honest. Amazon's attempts to curtail these can impact the innocent; they blocked my one (unpaid for) review a year back for no reason and haven't reinstated it despite my objections. Sometimes Amazon gets it wrong.

It's no good me telling potential readers that A Guide to First Contact is eclectic and multi-layered. Readers need to know what's in it. At the moment, the best I can do is give a sense of what those known to me have said, with my observations in italics

• Makes the reader work.
- Not all the dots are joined. Guide is aimed at a more demanding audience. Character motivations aren't always spelled out readers may have to deduce these by their actions. There are plenty of skim-read books out there, this isn't one of them (ref elsewhere on here). 
• Transitions between styles
- to suit events. 
• Ambiguous on God
- The debate (does he / doesn't he exist) is left to the reader. There are contemplative / philosophical aspects; naturally the Rapture gets a cameo (as part of the Apocalypse). The novel has Sufi influences.

* * *

I am finalising the first draft of a new novel:

The Tau Device

It's set in a different universe to Guide:

Outside of writing, I run a small business which provides just enough for us to keep heads above water (no fancy holidays or nice gifts, I'm afraid). The proprietor of my main client has endured a knee infection over the past few weeks. The vagaries of fate meant that I helped him in and out of hospital - he doesn't drive. Sad to say, he contracted MRSA, a condition that hospitals know all too well. This has caused a good deal of turmoil in his life and I have ended up sorting out a good deal of the disruption this has caused in his affairs. He's on the mend but it was touch and go for nearly a fortnight.
Get better soon, JJM, you rascal.
This, combined with my eldest daughters's desire to switch career (from all things Green, to Tax) has also hit me for six. I've lost the equivalent of over one 'writing month'. The Tau Device should have been at first draft at the end of September - it's only just reaching that state now. For the less mechanically minded, it's just one of those life-enhancing things that totally takes out your ability to create content.

Only another thousand words or more to go on this then the project can rest. I'm lining up an editor from the SfEP to hopefully take this to completion.
Still to decide on cover.


Update 10/11/2015
https://tparchie.wordpress.com/2015/1...

During the recent Burnley Artisan Market (01.10.22)I was asked for the survey link for The Tau Device – I have reposted the full survey here The Tau Device Survey - with added spoilers.

I should add that the Artisan Market was cold and windy - this is Burnley in autumn after all - and there were frequent incidents of stallholders rushing to stabilise their stock as gusts of wind tore through the covered walkway. More on this another time.

Hasiwriters started up again tonight - Hasiwriters being a writing group that meets in Haslingden Library every two weeks - after an absence of coming on for 5 years. I managed to get off early from work for this re-inaugural session. The group leader was Jim Taylor - a local poet of some repute and after introductions we got down to a 20 minutes writing session. A poet, a script writer, an activist (who smelt of tobacco) and two well-read, readers willing to give writing a go - plus myself. I have to concede my piece was hastily conceived and executed but it was a good to get to grips with writers meetings again.
When I got home I decided to check FB changes to FB pages, after concluding there was quite a lot of pruning to do, I made a list; so this is how my FB pages currently stand:
Door Witch
The Turning Stone
The Slow Holocaust
Burnley
The Tau Device
Silt From Distant Lands
A Guide to First Contact
Unfinished Tales
Ice Made and other stories
Lucky
Terence Park
Burnley (1st)
The Turning Stone Chronicles
My Writing Blog