Geoff Nelder's Blog, page 15
September 26, 2015
The Three Body Problem – #bookreview
The Three Body Problem 
By Cixin Liu
Print Length: 400 pages
Publisher: Head of Zeus / Tor (12 Mar. 2015)
ASIN: B00S8FCJCQ
Review notes by Geoff Nelder
This is a science fiction book from an award-winning Chinese author who while relatively unknown in the west is the most popular science fiction author in China.
Beware of plot spoilers.
Notes
The three body problem has been around mathematicians and physicists for nearly 400 years with studies on it by Newton, Galileo, Euler and others. Basically the problem is what happens to three bodies (usually astronomical bodies such as the Sun, Earth and Moon) close enough for their gravity to effect each other. Starting conditions being infinite means solutions are difficult and there is no one set of equations satisfying all situations. In this book Alpha Centauri is the planetary system where sentient aliens exist. It is known to be 4.4 light years from Earth, have one planet and three suns – hence the three body problem affects their existence. The visualization of three floating bodies in 3d orbiting each other is appealing, a fact that must have influenced Cixin Liu to use it.
The book starts with a lot of head hopping as if from Omniscient viewpoint. The footnotes irritate and take me out of the fictive dream. Some of the science seems thrown in for effect. This is likely to be the lost in translation elements of Chinese to English in both words and style. In some ways this is fine in that although it makes it more like an old-fashioned Western scifi novel it accentuates its foreign nature and appeal.
I like the reference to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1960s) – and it becomes the main theme for me in that Ye Wenjie one of the main characters, is saddened to the point of desperation with the way humanity is destroying wild life. I made Silent Spring a set book for my sixth form Environmental Science classes back in the 1970s. It seems to me that Ye’s despair of the disrespect of Nature led her to ask for help from the aliens.
Ye Wenjie was a prisoner during the Cultural Revolutions and saw her father murdered by Red Guards. Time and a remote location allowed her to accommodate to these atrocities but it lingered, as it would for all. She has quite profound thoughts such as ‘Old intellectuals like her…long years had ground away all the hardness and fierceness in their personalities, until all that was left was a gentleness like that of water.”
On p192 she says a mix of Zen and Jean Paul Satre’s existentialism with this: ‘Emptiness is not nothingness, it is a kind of existence. Use this existential emptiness to fill yourself.’ I love that. It kind of answers how my father-in-law can empty his mind to go to sleep while mine is full.
After getting used to so many Chinese names with Dong Dong, Da Shi, Yang, Ye, Wang and to note equalities such as Da Shi = Shi Qiang it jarred to encounter Mike Evans. Especially so as I taught a Mike Evans!
p270 Ye Wenjie was against nuclear weapons as “a power that should belong only to the stars” yet nuclear weapons are tiny compared to the weapons of the universe.
Several jarring instances of changes in POV and even to first person – that and the clunky style could relate to the translator, Ken Liu, who didn’t want to stray too far from the Chinese narrative voice. Even so I didn’t like the Americanisms in style and language that occasionally crept in – eg “Here’s the thing,” p326 Also most western authors would be slated for such a contrived solution in using nanostrings as a weapon when a main character, Wang Miao, specialized in nanotechnology.
I wonder if that applied to the treatment of the characters too. Only one persistently obnoxious character was the policeman Da Shi – and he possessed redeeming qualities in his ability, learned from criminals, to think outside the box. Saying he is obnoxious doesn’t mean I didn’t like him!
p341 Colonel Stanton tells Wang that he’d suffered amnesia episodes since learning of the Trisolarian invasion fleet. Hah. So reminds me of ARIA with its infectious amnesia brought by aliens.
Overall theme of environmental retribution is that of the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Ie Ye, Evans, et al wanted a more harmonious Earth while the Trisolarians considered the environment of Earth as paradise. Both kind of wrong. First contact. Yet the opposite of a BDO although interesting description of a proton in less than 11 dimensions!
For me the Trisolarians although not described and surviving via dehydration, or not, with a completely different suns – planet geometry, are too humanlike in their thought processes and science. Examples are the use of CPU, linear accelerators, etc. Inconceivable that the alien messages would include whole conversations and arguments between individuals even to the point of their Science Consul being described as ‘visibly excited’ when the poor reader has no idea what he looks like! 379
The fragments of two-dimensional strings from a proton falling onto cities and their inhabitants reminiscent of RIngworld (Larry Niven) when part of the rim precipitated.
Are sophons real? No, except Playful factions in the scifi game, Endless Space 2012
Rather unreal that the best players of the ETO’s VR game to recruit members were elderly academics and business men. Not the younger generation as we experience them. This could be explained in that video games in the west are more shoot-‘em-up whereas the Three Body Problem game is subtle.
Some science is pseudo – nothing wrong in that eg sending a microwave transmission at the sun which amplified it 100 million times. More interestingly Ye was forbidden to do that because it symbolically went again Mao’s name was associated with the sun and so he would be metaphorically eclipsed. Interesting how the aliens treat the initial invasion fleet as a funeral procession because by the time they reach Earth (450 years) we would have advanced far beyond them. Hence stopping Earth from developing small particle research by sabotaging linear accelerators – umm.
Quite enjoyed the novel and its Chinese dimension and engaged thoroughly with both Wang Miao and Ye Wenjie.
Summary:
First contact
Grass is always greener
Observations on the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s-70s
We are bugs!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Body-Problem-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00S8FCJCQ/
Sequel out later in 2015 and the third out in 2016.
Nelder News
How to WIN Short Story #Competitions
A pdf version is available from Ideas4Writers here.
For UK Amazon Kindle
For US Kindle
New story published recently and it will only cost you 50p (80 cents) or less than the biscotti for your coffee.
One of my wife’s colleagues ran into a container. Clarify Nelder. Okay, he was sailing to the Isle of Man and the container had fallen off a ship. To a writer of spooky stories this is a rich start to a horror story. What’s in the container? Surely not people, yes but what kind of people… It’s calledVoyage of the Silents, published by Pennyshorts
To grab a copy of one of my ARIA books here are the links
Kindle – Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle UK –http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback UKhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/
Publisher’s website with more details and formats.
http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
Buy it quick before you run out of memory
Another science fiction book you might like of mine uses a bit of quantum mechanics but in a fun way. EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEE After timequakes cause chaos, a Mars mission is diverted to chase departing mysterious spheres. Will the spheres listen and return before Earth rips apart?
Check out the page with video clips and purchase linkshttp://geoffnelder.com/project/exit-pursued-by-a-bee/
The post The Three Body Problem – #bookreview appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
August 25, 2015
Too dangerous to release – review
Jean Gill Faithful Through Hard Times 
“Too dangerous to be allowed out and too precious to destroy.”
Malta is a small island 9 x 19 miles 50 miles off the Italian island of Sicily. It might be the most fought over island in the Mediterranean. Some say Atlantis was just off shore and survivors made it to Malta in ancient times. Plato wrote about it. Homer has it in his Odyssey – his Calypso’s Island is said to be Gozo, an even smaller lump of limestone within Malta’s group of islands. I’d live there tomorrow if circumstances were different. The Ottoman Empire laid siege to Malta in 1565 and in spite of their superior numbers they couldn’t get the better of the thick limestone walls and fortitude of its people. True, that after the defences were strengthened the French sailed by en route to Alexandra and after a petite seige they took the island in 1798. The French capitulated to the British in 1800. The island is in a strategic position and so the Axis powers in WW2 preferred Malta to be in their hands than the British.
Any aficionado of things Maltese and World War Two will love this book. It tells of the personal experiences of a young Scottish soldier stationed on Malta and seeing firsthand the deprivations, disease yet heart-warming accounts of bravery. Diary entries log the comings and goings of bombed convoy ships and plucky minesweepers along with the mixed feelings some had for the plucky yet often arrogant RAF pilots. George loved the island and its stalwart people and it shows. He had a girl at home and the difficulties of communications meant their romance was as much stretched to breaking point as the Malta defences. In between the bombs and deprivation, George was inducted into the Freemasons and this account is one of those rare insights into that secretive society along with symbols and odd handshakes.
Some literary turns of phrase. P49 ‘…he recognised the elegant flick of a wrist, the swing of shiny auburn hair and a smile that scanned you like an X-ray and moved on, leaving you exposed.’ Marvellous.
My favourite quote from Jean Gill’s book that epitomises the whole Malta experience under siege: its indomitable Editor wired London, ‘Heavy bombing interrupted reception. Please repeat Derby winners.’
Many of my Maltese and British friends will enjoy this book and will recognise places and the ennui on the islands.
Perhaps you’ve seen the film Malta Story (1953), which is also based on the island during the war and features a pilot – photographer (played by Alec Guinness) co-opted by the British to take reconnaissance photographs over Sicily. He falls in love with a local girl and experiences the angst of the locals including a little of the Mussolini sympathisers on the island. Jean Gill’s book goes into that more so. It must have been quite a dilemma for many families in Malta who had relatives in Italy and its islands.
Jean Gill’s Faithful Through Hard Times is a valuable contribution to historical interpretation of Malta during the siege of WW2. I can commend it.
http://www.amazon.com/Faithful-throug...
Nelder News
Another rejection for my Chaos of Mokii story. Ironic that I consider it one of my best but perhaps it’s too exotic for contemporary publishers. A city that only exists in the minds of its inhabitants. It’s now on its way to MetaSagas magazine. Wish it luck.
Spiritus Quercus Robur has been delivered to The Horror Zine for consideration. The story is based on a real oak tree in Llangollen. In my story the tree is ancient and witnesses a murderous crime. Incensed and seeking justice the tree vows to keep its spirit alive even though the wood has gone.
Holm Oak in Llangollen
Ysbyty Ifan – bigger than it looks – Geoff Nelder – Science Fiction Writer
How to WIN Short Story #Competitions
A pdf version is available from Ideas4Writers here.
For UK Amazon Kindle
For US Kindle
// ]]>
New story published recently and it will only cost you 50p (80 cents) or less than the biscotti for your coffee.
One of my wife’s colleagues ran into a container. Clarify Nelder. Okay, he was sailing to the Isle of Man and the container had fallen off a ship. To a writer of spooky stories this is a rich start to a horror story. What’s in the container? Surely not people, yes but what kind of people… It’s called Voyage of the Silents, published by Pennyshorts
To grab a copy of one of my ARIA books here are the links
Kindle – Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/
Publisher’s website with more details and formats.
http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
Buy it quick before you run out of memory
Another science fiction book you might like of mine uses a bit of quantum mechanics but in a fun way. EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEE After timequakes cause chaos, a Mars mission is diverted to chase departing mysterious spheres. Will the spheres listen and return before Earth rips apart?
Check out the page with video clips and purchase links http://geoffnelder.com/project/exit-pursued-by-a-bee/
The post Too dangerous to release – review appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
August 16, 2015
Ysbyty Ifan – bigger than it looks
Crepuscular rays shining on Llwyn-Onn Guest House in the distance
Aside on my walk to Ysbyty Ifan on Thursday 13th August 2015. I had cycled from Chester, the 50 hilly miles to Llwyn-Onn Guest House about 8 miles east of the tourist honey-pot (since the Romans relaxed there) Betws-y-Coed. I’d stayed at that guest house so I could focus on writing a story and this time to do the same. I enjoy walking around the area. It has such a notorious history for such a beautiful place and yet few know about it. This though, was not planned.
Ysbyty Ifan August 2015 – bridge over the River Conwy
In search of a shop in Ysbyty-Ifan that I thought wasn’t there I saw an elderly couple (me plus a few) waiting at the bus stop. I said, “Are you waiting for a bus or perhaps a taxi?”
“Bus.”
I examined the mostly-blank bus timetable. “But the next bus isn’t until tomorrow. It only goes Wednesdays and Fridays.”
Old woman hitting man with her handbag, “I told you it wasn’t Wednesday today. You’ve got to get that telly fixed.”
Also at the bus shelter were three young children. A boy (~7 years) asked me, “Would you like to play our game?”
Ah, children don’t usually ask ancient grownups to play with them so there must be something in it for them. I played along. “Okay, what do I have to do?”
A girl (~11) said in a gorgeous Welsh lilt, “Well, for a pound you have these three stones and if you get one in the bucket you win.”
I saw a small red bucket full of water on the seat in the shelter and a scattering of stones on the floor. The youngest boy (~4) piped up, “Or you can have two goes for £three!”
The others shushed him, scared I’d walk away by the bamboozlement. The bent to wag her finger at him, “That’s too much.”
The little boy grinned, “Nine pounds?”
I fished out a pound coin and handed it over in exchange for three stones. “Ah,” I said, the Geographer getting the better of me. “Now see this is limestone, that is slate, but look closely at the piece of quartz. See it has green inside it? That’s probably Malachite. Find some with lots of green and you’d have a semi-precious crystal you could sell in the city.”
I made a terrible hash of getting my first stone in the bucket but the children changed the rules on the fly and the third one sploshed in. I was rewarded with a piece of quartz.
I was really in search of a one-man sized hydro-electric turbine I thought I’d seen in the village over 30 years ago. I asked a woman who mainly wanted to talk about the busloads of kids they get measuring the river. Hah, that was my fault – back in the early 1970s it wasn’t enough to stand, stare and field sketch for a Geography field trip. I’d taught them to measure river speed, pH, size and shape of pebbles, etc. I wrote an early teachers’ guide to doing all that in my Conwy River Trail. Anyway, the woman pointed me back to the village where she said I’d find my water wheel.
Yep, there was one – huge wooden one probably 200 years old for grinding wheat into flour. I asked another woman nearby if she’d heard of a local turbine making
18th Century water wheel in Ysbyty Ifan – wrong wheel!
electricity but she misheard me, unlocked and took me into the mill building. Wow, well-preserved gearings and faded notices about the water wheel. She said she didn’t live in the village, only helping a friend out and pointed me at the village shop where I’d find a woman who had lived in Ysbyty all her life –(so far – I don’t like it when people think they’ve already lived ‘all’ their lives). No wonder I didn’t know there was a shop, the entrance is through the back door, a kitchen and into a small room. Shelves supported the odd jar of jam but no drinks.
In fact there was more confectionary than any other products and that was handy because in came Alan Sugar aged 7 to spend my one pound. The lady storekeeper laughed with me as she learned how the trio had lured me into their enterprise.
She sold the lad a pound’s worth of Haribo sweets and gave me a complementary mug of water. She knew of no local HEP project except one the school designed as a water-storage scheme but had it turned down by the local water authority – shame.
All this to research the hole-in-the-wall gang that pillaged and raided Chester and other border towns in the 15th century. I discovered much about that –at least who their landowners were – The Rhys family, whose stone effigies lie in St John’s Church built on the site of the original hospice put there by the Hospitaller Knights of St John. Not only the sick took refuge there but the bad Red Bandits, or Black Knights, who did the raiding sought sanctuary there. I walked a few more miles up to the house those noble landlords lived in. A quiet, lovely place called Plas Iolyn near the hamlet of Rhydlydan. I’d read it was a roofless ruin but it’s a refurbished lived in listed building. No sign that it once housed the most notorious noble family of North Wales. Their names ap Ryse became changed over the years to Price and the last one sold the property in 1921. Hey, they were famous! One of them, Rhys Fawr, is said to have killed Richard III at Bosworth in 1485. Another Tomos Prys became a playboy, adventurer, pirate and poet and died in 1634. Doctor (of Law- The Red Doctor) Elis Prys ingratiated himself with Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII and was probably responsible for changes in the way Wales was administered since – as well being absolutely brutal in the way he disposed of the monasteries and the hospitallers. Yet, nothing of this shows in plaques or signs near their home at Plas Ionlyn. The local church in Ysbyty Ifan houses their marble effigies (might just be polished limestone).
Rhys family effigies – St John’s Church Ysbyty Ifan
What interests me is not only that fascinating local history lies beneath the surface in this picturesque place but what little there is in the church and local signs in the village say nothing at all about the massacre of the Red Bandits, the thieves and pillagers who took refuge there. Yet the townspeople of Chester from where I rode my bike along the same roads that the bandits rode their horses, in league with other border towns hired “White Knights” and wiped out all the bandits. No sign of that. I’m doing more research and writing to historians who should know. In any case, I think I have a plot for another historical fantasy…
I waved a bye-bye to the three kids, waiting, hoping for more people to pass by, maybe more who think it’s Wednesday. I just heard the girl call out to a passing hiker, “Come and win some Marrakesh here!”
Does anyone have a copy they could lend me a copy of Wynn, Sir John (1990). Jones, J. Gwynfor, ed. History of the Gwydir family and memoirs. Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer
Also, a copy of The Conway River Trail by G.J. Nelder. It was printed en masse at Colne Valley High School in the 1970s. I can’t find my own copy. It wasn’t for sale just for Geography teachers and pupils.
Other Nelder News
How to WIN Short Story #Competitions – Geoff Nelder – Science Fiction Writer
New story published recently and it will only cost you 50p (80 cents) or less than the biscotti for your coffee.
One of my wife’s colleagues ran into a container. Clarify Nelder. Okay, he was sailing to the Isle of Man and the container had fallen off a ship. To a writer of spooky stories this is a rich start to a horror story. What’s in the container? Surely not people, yes but what kind of people… It’s called Voyage of the Silents, published by Pennyshorts
To grab a copy of one of my ARIA books here are the links
Kindle – Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/
Publisher’s website with more details and formats.
http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
Buy it quick before you run out of memory
Another science fiction book you might like of mine uses a bit of quantum mechanics but in a fun way. EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEE After timequakes cause chaos, a Mars mission is diverted to chase departing mysterious spheres. Will the spheres listen and return before Earth rips apart?
Check out the page with video clips and purchase links http://geoffnelder.com/project/exit-pursued-by-a-bee/
The post Ysbyty Ifan – bigger than it looks appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
August 8, 2015
Using images to sell your book
The importance of cover art cannot be underestimated as a hook equally the title. At least that is the contemporary assumption. Sir Allen Lane and his brothers formed Penguin Books in 1935 using only a simple two-tone colour plain cover. The design was added to with a penguin logo 
but otherwise the covers remained plain for decades. Don’t be fooled. This was so successful because of a) the original price of only 6 pence, b) the books were mostly reprints of already well-known authors and classics, c) they stood out precisely because of the lack of gaudy designs. The irony is that these days Penguin use much more colour and fancy designs on their covers. This allows other publishers to sneak in with a surprise plain cover such as WHITE by Kenya Hara.
Other than such gimmicks readers casually browsing online or in a bookshop are influenced by images that reflect their favourite genre. Spaceships and astronauts for scifi, galleons for historical naval novels, navels for erotica and weapons with blood for crime.
The tricky thing is to design a cover that stands out within your genre. The cover for 
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (Anthony Burgess, 1962) uses a stylistic impression of a futuristic gothlike face of the sinister main character, Alex.
On the other hand beauty is represented by the historical fantasy, PERFUME (Patrick Suskind, 1985).
A clever book cover I saw recently is VIEW FROM THE SIXTH FLOOR (Elizabeth Horton-Newton, 2014) which features a surprising new take on the JFK assassination. 
The cover has a view of the Book Depository but in three shots (get it?).
For the ARIA TRILOGY I was lucky to see an art gallery at FantasyCon of Andy Bigwood’s art. He produced all three covers. We met and discussed what themes were crucial to each volume then Andy came up with a variety of options for each cover. For additional publicity on twitter, facebook, etc I use other related images such as one of a virus to represent the ARIA bug.
Even better I was pleased to receive this strip cartoon based on the central premise from Benedict Martin. Marvelous. He says, “…the cartoon hit me early on in the story. I think it was when Jack brought in KFC and his wife said it was her turn to make dinner. It’s funny how that works.”
See for yourself if his cartoon hits the spot:
ARIA smarturl.it/1fexhs
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...
Geoff’s UK Amazon author page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Geoff-Nelder/e/B002BMB2XY
And for US readers http://www.amazon.com/Geoff-Nelder/e/B002BMB2XY
The post Using images to sell your book appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
August 1, 2015
How to WIN Short Story #Competitions
A few years ago I travelled down to Exmouth on the south coast of England. No, I wasn’t there on holiday although I enjoyed strolling the beach in warm sunshine, pretending not to ogle bathing beauties. My main intention was not to visit the home of my dad and Rosemary, who’d lived in the town for a few years although I went along to spot any of his outdoor potted plants and I chatted to their new owner about how my dad had exercised his Romany gene by moving to Berwick-upon-Tweed before he moved again to Ledbury, and again to Peebles. No, I was there to meet up with Dave Haslett, the originator (with his wife, Kate) of Ideas4Writers, a great site full of ideas, writing engines, and a forum. We had both been judges of short story competitions and had entered many ourselves, winning some. I’d just completed judging the Helen Whittaker Prize – a tough job as there were 9 rounds amounting to judging and writing a critique on hundreds of stories of many genres. Dave and I thought it would help other writers to pool our experiences. He brought a microphone and tape recorder and we set them up in the dining room of the hotel I was staying at in Exmouth. After judicious editing, and the inclusion of a sample story by the gifted Jonathan Pinnock, the booklet is ready to distribute to would-be competition winners.
Hey, when you win competitions or find your writing has leaped in quality after our 
book please drop me a line.
A pdf version is available from Ideas4Writers here.
For UK Amazon Kindle
For US Kindle
You can freely download a program from the Amazon site to run Kindle books on your PC or Apple.
Okay, now for another unexpected angle. The cover art has a story too. The medal is knitted. It was photographed with a page from Jonathan Pinnock’s winning tale as the background. Only at the point of publication did Dave notice the word tosser could be read. Not wishing to offend it has been sufficiently airbrushed – haha.
Nelder News
New story published recently and it will only cost you 50p (80 cents) or less than the biscotti for your coffee.
One of my wife’s colleagues ran into a container. Clarify Nelder. Okay, he was sailing to the Isle of Man and the container had fallen off a ship. To a writer of spooky stories this is a rich start to a horror story. What’s in the container? Surely not people, yes but what kind of people… It’s called Voyage of the Silents, published by Pennyshorts
To grab a copy of one of my ARIA books here are the links
Kindle – Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/
Publisher’s website with more details and formats.
http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
Buy it quick before you run out of memory
Another science fiction book you might like of mine uses a bit of quantum mechanics but in a fun way. EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEE After timequakes cause chaos, a Mars mission is diverted to chase departing mysterious spheres. Will the spheres listen and return before Earth rips apart?
Check out the page with video clips and purchase links http://geoffnelder.com/project/exit-pursued-by-a-bee/
The post How to WIN Short Story #Competitions appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
July 31, 2015
Pulling the wool over your eyes
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I know everyone here will disagree with my vegan views here but nooo. It is a cruel existence. Farm animals do not live like in the Ladybird book of Farming. Sheep only live for half their natural lifespan of 12-15 years when their meat and wool is "needed" to make humans happy. Ask the ram if it enjoyed the electric shock given up its anus to force it to ejaculate sperm for Artificial Insemination. You'll have to wait for it to finish writhing on the ground.
Every shop assistant, when asked which mattresses were wool / silk free said, "Why are you allergic?" Only two appeared to respect my philosophical stand while they pointed out, sadly, that as with vegetarian shoes, belts and other products, the most expensive make use of animals while nasty plastics were often the only veggie alternatives. Several thought the word "Natural" meant wool, leather and silk until I pointed out that hemp, cotton and linen were also natural.
Finally we found the Ortho 1200 in John Lewis that was vegan and comfy. Then we needed a King size because the Ortho 1200 double is smaller than our current bed and we don't want to get in each other's way. Then I asked the crunch question:
Does it absorb snoring? Perhaps to store the snore for release when no one is at home?
There's a niche in the market.
Nelder News
New story published recently and it will only cost you 50p (80 cents) or less than the biscotti for your coffee.
One of my wife’s colleagues ran into a container. Clarify Nelder. Okay, he was sailing to the Isle of Man and the container had fallen off a ship. To a writer of spooky stories this is a rich start to a horror story. What’s in the container? Surely not people, yes but what kind of people… It’s called Voyage of the Silents, published by Pennyshorts
To grab a copy of one of my ARIA books here are the links
Kindle – Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/
Publisher’s website with more details and formats.
http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
Buy it quick before you run out of memory
Another science fiction book you might like of mine uses a bit of quantum mechanics but in a fun way. EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEE After timequakes cause chaos, a Mars mission is diverted to chase departing mysterious spheres. Will the spheres listen and return before Earth rips apart?
Check out the page with video clips and purchase links http://geoffnelder.com/project/exit-pursued-by-a-bee/
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The post Pulling the wool over your eyes appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
July 17, 2015
Why Cyclists Shave Their Legs
and.. should I shave mine? Inspired by the current le Tour.
2015 Tour de France stage 13
Many of you know that I am a keen cyclist. I plod along astride my Dawes Super Galaxy touring bike with its mudguards and panniers riding long distances but so slow that butterflies overtake me. (Butterflies with a following wind that is, doing say, 12 mph). My legs are, like the rest of me, quite hairy, so why do I not shave them to be like proper cyclists?
For one thing it isn’t a one-off activity. Granted that leg hair grows slower than facial hair, I’d still have to shave, or wax (arrgh!) them weekly to keep them smooth. So, are there any good reasons for cyclists to shave their legs? Recently, Road Cycling UK resurrected this question and some of this information comes from their website. http://roadcyclinguk.com/
Reason #1 I’m mostly interested in health and safety factors than speed, although I’ll come to the latter in a moment. Cyclists are prone to lacerations, road rash and scratches on their legs. Apart from the obvious hitting an unseen object or pothole and crashing, there are thorns sticking out from hedges seen too late to avoid and bizarrely, we can suffer minor injuries from our own faithful steeds. For example my mudguard stays end in spiky metal just centimetres from my legs when cycling or even walking and their protective rubber tips have long since been lost. So why are shaved legs safer than the hirsute? Let us recall when I crashed in Ledbury a few years ago. The roads were wet and I didn’t see a small lip between the road and a friend’s drive. My wheel saw it and went right and I hit the drive with my left leg. Road rash and pouring blood from ankle to thigh. I was most impressed and grateful that two drivers stopped to assist. Thanks again! My leg hairs got in the way of properly cleaning out the grit, and that’s one problem. More seriously, some hairs and hair follicles could have become embedded in my epidermis, become infected and give me folliculitis. Ironically anyone can get that by shaving!
Reason #2 In the summer hairy legs get hotter than smooth legs.
Reason #3 Hairy legs and arms trap more insects.
Reason #4 Shaved legs are easier to massage, which is more effective without hair.
Reason #5 Shaved legs are more aerodynamic allowing you to go faster. Really? People guessed this might be the case but no one had proven it until Specialized used a wind-tunnel to experiment. Pro-triathlete Jesse Thomas is a hairy cyclist – scoring 9 out of 10 on the Chewbacca scale was timed on a bike in the tunnel. They shaved his legs, put him back in the tunnel and found that shaving his legs saved a lot. The gains added up to the equivalent of 79 seconds over a 40km time trial, or a 7 percent saving in drag, or 15 watts.
How does this compare to other aerodynamic effects that we see on professional cyclists?
Specialized’s Evade aero helmet claims a 46 second saving over the same 40 km, their new Sub6 shoes claim a 35 second saving and even their new skinsuit only claims to save 96 seconds over 40kms. And all three are far more expensive than shaving your legs. No wonder all the professional cyclists shave their legs and no wonder I am so slow!
Reason #6 To look cool like a proper cyclist.
Given the overwhelming evidence that shaving legs reduces drag and so increases speed why are so many cyclists bearded, even if with only the fashionable 5-day growth? Mainly it’s to demonstrate they have testosterone and it’s in vogue but perhaps they should reconsider. For his World one-hour record, Sir Bradley Wiggins broke the hour record by storming around for 54.526km but only after accepting advice from his aerodynamic adviser. It went something like this: SBW “Should I shave off my beard?”
Adviser: “I believe you should.”
It could be that Bradley was only clean-shaving for that 7th June 2015 but if it worked then it should work all the time. At least I am clean shaven in the face – just think how slow I’d be if I had a beard? I’d be going backwards. Here’s my legs
Geoff Nelder’s short fat hairy legs
How about you – smooth or hairy?
Nelder News
New story published recently and it will only cost you 50p (80 cents) or less than the biscotti for your coffee.
One of my wife’s colleagues ran into a container. Clarify Nelder. Okay, he was sailing to the Isle of Man and the container had fallen off a ship. To a writer of spooky stories this is a rich start to a horror story. What’s in the container? Surely not people, yes but what kind of people… It’s called Voyage of the Silents, published by Pennyshorts
To grab a copy of one of my ARIA books here are the links
Kindle – Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/
Publisher’s website with more details and formats.
http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
Buy it quick before you run out of memory
Another science fiction book you might like of mine uses a bit of quantum mechanics but in a fun way. EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEE After timequakes cause chaos, a Mars mission is diverted to chase departing mysterious spheres. Will the spheres listen and return before Earth rips apart?
Check out the page with video clips and purchase links http://geoffnelder.com/project/exit-pursued-by-a-bee/
The post Why Cyclists Shave Their Legs appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
July 11, 2015
#Review Planet Purgatory
Planet Purgatory by Benedict Martin
Print Length: 176 pages
Publication Date: May 22, 2015
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
ASIN: B00Y5JCXP2
Reviewed by Geoff Nelder
Who isn’t fascinated by what happens when we die? Okay, quite a lot of people are in denial of the curious streak in them and don’t want to think of fate and their post-mortem if anything. Heaven, Hell, somewhere or something else? This is one of those cases where literature meets philosophy rather than science. Fantasy, yes, not science fiction but absorbing all the same for it is literally ‘out of this world’. Stories set more-or-less with the concept of purgatory can be found from the ancient Greeks, the Bible, Dante’s The Divine Comedy; to David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, and many contemporary novels use the concept of limbo to an intriguing effect. The first contemporary novel based on Purgatory that struck me as both ironically funny and thoughtful is Pit-Stop by Ben Larken. In that novel people in a roadside café find they cannot leave and conclude they are in a kind of limbo waiting for the Reaper to collect them – unless they can escape. I enjoyed that book so much I now compare it to stories based on that link between life and the after-life.
Planet Purgatory is easily worthy of such comparison. In this case one man suspects that he, his four-legged best friend and the people around are in Purgatory, while they believe they are colonists on an Earth-like planet. However, while in Pit-Stop the reader can believe totally in the story for a long time into the novel, in Planet Purgatory nothing suspends belief as much as a whale flying up out of the ground and landing on top of you. Brilliant. Much of the book is like a road trip written by the Grimm brothers in the setting of the film Avalon. Yet, it isn’t all laughs – I hurt when the dog died. (or did it?) The imp is delightfully clever and intriguing who “…stared at me with an intensity that it was a wonder I didn’t burst into flames.”
So pleased to see a Rubik’s Cube involved in such a tale, however briefly. My brain has forgotten how to unscramble one but my fingers remember. This novel is rather like a Rubik’s Cube where ideas and people are scrambled but patterns form and the final page is the puzzle solved – so to speak.
Nothing is what it seems in Planet Purgatory, a morality tale at its most compelling grotesque. Highly commended.
Links:
Amazon link for Planet Purgatory:
http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Purgatory-Benedict-Martin-ebook/dp/B00Y5JCXP2/
and Ben Larken’s Pit-Stop
http://www.amazon.com/Pit-Stop-Special-Edition-Hollows-Book-ebook/dp/B00FS04K3A/
Nelder News
New story published this week and it will only cost you 50p or less than the biscotti for your coffee.
One of my wife’s colleagues ran into a container. Clarify Nelder. Okay, he was sailing to the Isle of Man and the container had fallen off a ship. To a writer of spooky stories this is a rich start to a horror story. What’s in the container? Surely not people, yes but what kind of people… It’s called Voyage of the Silents, published by Pennyshorts
The post #Review Planet Purgatory appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
June 27, 2015
#Review: Footsteps of Galatea
Footsteps of Galatea by Robyn Cain
ASIN:B00Y5Q2YPY
Sequel to Goods By Hand ASIN:B00ES2P236
Review by Geoff Nelder
This is a delightfully weird book of the paranormal cleverly utilising an ancient mythical premise that is born from Galatea. She was a milky-white statue that came to life, possibly on Cyprus. I looked for her in the Paphos region where she was seen, apparently, and I kind of felt her presence in many coves, caves and crevices. Her presence in this book is more ethereal than a statue although a bloodline may have descended through to Saffron and her daughter, Omikia. How this ancestral inking of life manifests itself in the contemporary scene comes through this novel like jagged veins.
Richard is the criminal here: we see him plotting, scheming yet he is normal compared to the incandescent Omikia. Her character is terrific, grips you by the throat, her intelligence coruscating compared to the rest – as exemplified by the wordplay between her and Richard. Like verbal chess, move and countermove, check and mate. In spite of the mythical undercurrent with the mysterious ‘ink’, there are wonderful thrusty conversations just as you might overhear. I did today, on the #7 bus from Broad Green, Liverpool. A girl, maybe 6, on the back seat gave a running commentary to her dad near the front, on everything she observed. Loved it, especially when she uttered to a boy near her, “My ma is bigger than your da.” Haha, images unfurl as they do in the well-crafted dialogues in Footsteps of Galatea.
Sometimes it is the simplest of descriptions that reveal such craft, as in when Mina walks by something: ‘…the case near their front door caught her eye. And yet, she almost didn’t see it. Turning to look at it directly, it was as if nothing was there.
Convinced she’d been mistaken she turned to go and from the corner of her eye, she saw it again.
“I can see you,” she told it. The dilapidated leather case was upright, giving the impression it would be ashamed to lean in any way.’
You might need patience to get into this novel. Become accustomed to the names and absorb their relationships. It’s not like a thriller with a hook to grab you in the first page, paragraph and yet keep going and it will take you. There’s a free chapter of a prequel at the end. In some ways I guessed Footsteps wasn’t the first book and perhaps the author should say in a preface that it is a sequel. Perhaps reading the prequel segment is a better preparation for its sequel but I don’t know because I didn’t find it until afterwards. Either way, this is a book of intriguing characters and ancient plot I’m thrilled to have read.
Robyn Cain’s author page is here
I met up with Robyn Cain this week at a writers’ moot in Tarporley. She lives in Cheshire so that’s just a quick hour and a quarter bike ride for me. She was early – if I’d known I wouldn’t have stopped to chat to some horses at Hargrave. Hey here’s a picture of me and Robyn in the cafe.
Geoff Nelder and Robyn Cain
Nelder News
I’ve been playing around with twitter tweets linking to
ARIA and my other books lately. A sample of those that enjoyed the most retweets are:
NASA’s Dr Antonio is charming, a woman’s man, clever but in the end, lethal. See for yourself
Mad Dr Antonio (me!)
ARIA smarturl.it/1fexhs
Seeking an epic escape from humdrummery? Get lost in this post-apocalyptic gem,
ARIA smarturl.it/1fexhs
and a great 5* review from Elizabeth Horton Newton is here at
http://elizabethnnewton.com/2015/05/13/aria-left-luggage-by-geoff-nelder/
“most innocently thought provoking book I have ever read”
The post #Review: Footsteps of Galatea appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
June 10, 2015
What the hell were you thinking?
What the hell were you thinking? 
Good Advice for People Who Make Bad Decisions!
By Amritsar Al-Falloudjianapour and Tech Answer Guy
In the Alternate Reality News Service – Ira Nayman, Proprieter
ISBN: 978-1927645062
Review by Geoff Nelder
Those of us in the know already know that the news mostly isn’t new and largely fabricated by journalists who cannot work to deadlines if they have to find real information. In other words newspapers and broadcast news is so edited, rushed and desperate for catchy headlines that it might as well be fiction. So, why not get your news as a form of entertainment as a metafiction? [Fiction that deals, often playfully and self-referentially, with the writing of fiction or its conventions. – thefreedictionary.com] Once again we are treated to a perfect example of fictionalised news in the Alternate Reality News Service vicariously penned by Ira Nayman. In this instance we go straight to what every newspaper and magazine reader loves the most—the agony aunt columns. Okay, so some of them aren’t relationships but technical, but those are agony too and thus treated to Nayman’s deliciously whacky sense of wit and humour.
Two main journalists cover readers’ questions. Amritsar is a devilishly, fiendish female reporter who wears leg warmers around her spine because what some readers ask her sends shivers up and down her spine so much. TAG (with or without a #) is Tech Answer Guy who often can’t believe the ineptitude of some readers with the consequence of ludicrously funny exchanges during which the editor has to intervene. Great example of insult-tennis over 8 pages from p128.
Yo, Tomtom,
Every kid says that, but every kid does it.
The Tech Answer Guy
Yo, Tech Answer Guy,
Not me.
Sincerely,
Tommy from Tacoma
Yo, Toms,
Even you.
The Tech Answer Guy
Yo, Tech Answer Guy,
No way.
Sincerely,
Tommy from Tacoma
Yo, Thompson,
Way.
The Tech Answer Guy
…
[EDITRIX-IN-CHIEF BRENDA BRUNDTLAND-GOVANNI: Jesus Begesus, you both suck! Do you have any idea how much slapping I would be doing at this very moment if there wasn’t a minor present?]
…
Often the points raised to TAG are about technology that’s so nearly here they might actually already be on your phone without you being smart enough to know it. Take the Far Kempt app: a brilliant piece about a phone app that makes your calls to a taxi firm. It analyses your journeys and via probability calculations it ‘knows’ what you’ve been up to. Eg Glory Holes are your illicit visits to a sexual partner unknown to your spouse, whereas Gory Holes are where you meet with hit men to arrange removal of said spouse, or maybe the sexual partner becoming too demanding, one way or another…There’s graphs with this piece too—marvellous.
I felt in my pocket with irony at agony advice to a woman on Mars escaping her jilted ex to ‘be wary of nitro-glycerine being snuck into your re-cycled water’. Like millions of others who allowed game-playing cardiologist shove stents into my coronary artery, I carry a nitrolingual pump spray of GTN, which is basically nitro-glycerine. Just don’t mess with me or I’ll throw it at yer—d’yer hear?
Another piece of personal interest to me is one on ‘le droit a l’oubli’ the right for individuals to insist that Google and other web databases remove personal information. TAG explores the logical consequences of the world disappearing up its own backside as forgetting becomes such a personal right taken to extremes. I cringed with recollection of my ARIA Trilogy–ironically about infectious amnesia—because Wikipedia deleted the page about it created by my publisher’s publicist. If you search there for ARIA Trilogy now it is says it doesn’t exist, did you mean Area? The Wikipedia police force said it was removed because it (and by association, me) was insufficiently notable to be worthy of an entry. This in spite of it winning two awards (admittedly minor) and the only novel to be about infectious amnesia. At least they didn’t delete me, yet, and Wikipedia’s rival database does have an entry on ARIA Trilogy*
Once again Ira Nayman, as the proprietor of the Alternate Reality News Service has come up with a genius collection of short pieces that will have you in stitches yet wondering if these futuristic alternatives are already here. To help you in the usual manner of not, there is an index at the back. It speaks volumes that you’d have to know what the near-random chapter titles mean in order for it to make sense: a kind of joker in the tail.
Highly commended.
Amazon UK page for What the hell… is here.
* A wikia page about the ARIA Trilogy is at http://nelderaria.wikia.com/wiki/NelderAria_Wiki
Nelder News
If there was a plant for my ARIA books there are two contenders: Forget-me-not and the plant that strangles Earth in book two – a variety of Bindweed. Which is which?
To grab a copy of one of my ARIA books here are the links
Kindle – Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/
Publisher’s website with more details and formats.http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
Buy it quick before you run out of memory
The post What the hell were you thinking? appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
