Geoff Nelder's Blog, page 16

Murder Most Rural – #Review

Murder Most Rural is one of a series of the Riz Sabir Thriller by Charlie Flowers.

Midsomer Murders meets the SAS with a touch of Hot Fuzz.

Holly (Bang-Bang) Kirpachi is the female half of an MOD troubleshooting duo with husband Riz having to deal with terrorists in the UK. Holly is marvellously described as an Essex Girl from Mars. “Non committal hazel eyes” Brilliant. Pages loaded with dynamic phrasing and humour some of which stay such as the Secretary of State who has eyebrows with a life of their own. I can imagine them semaphoring their own thriller novel right now.

The author writes this contemporary thriller with some authority because he has worked in security. The nearest I’ve come to working with terrorists is as a teacher but fending off flying chairs in a classroom and luckily, most of my pupils wanted to learn and were well behaved. However, I’ve been involved as an editor with novels written from the point of view of a Muslim and one was a terrorist plot to blow up the Olympics—The Last Olympiad—written by my writing buddy on Cyprus, John Goodwin.

Chapters are punchy short making them fly by and I liked the description of the part of Essex our two heroes went to: mud, wheat, sheep.

A fair bit of techie stuff from Holly but only enough to make her role convincing—along with her curry cooking. I knew some of it (not the culinary) eg Yagi aerials because in my capacity as an IT Advisory Teacher years ago, I’d installed them, along with 1 metre dishes on the roofs of most of the high schools in Cheshire. I’d encountered interesting caches of stuff on those roofs, some of which also related to the illicit goings on in MMR. Haha. I could write a book… Holly (Bang-Bang) is far from a typical housewife as you could get, she’s mad, clever but very loyal to Riz: not just his right hand, but arm and leg too.

Their ‘help’ was the all-female Black Eyes army unit one of whom, Calamity, wore a necklace of human ears whose previous owners were London gangland leaders. My ears twitched when I read that.

The plot is a grittier version of Miss Marple or Midsomer Murders eg nice Mrs Bradley dies but was it suicide? There are clues, side tracks and ironic humour. The setting in rural Essex evoked haunted old buildings, overgrown woods and shady goings on, exquisitely crafted.

I commend this book, which although is the fifth in a series can easily satisfy as a standalone thriller.

Link to buy Murder Most Rural here

 

#1812 History, Pride and Hilarity – Geoff Nelder – Science Fiction Writer

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Nelder News

I enjoyed a marvellous cycle ride from Chester to Warrington – to visit father-in-law convalescing after a fall – and back again. Perfect time alone on the 60 miles or so to dream up new plots.

Kathleen Bullock (illustrator) and I (writer) have completed the first of our Scoot illustrated books for infants. It’s a surrealistic story about string with no end which they follow through their favourite shops, woods and playgrounds. Now getting the query letter ready to send to agents. Here’s the front cover

//

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 Murder Most Rural – #Review appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.

#Review of A Sixth of a Gill by Jean Gill

At first glance this is a collection of stories, poems, blog pieces and articles but when you plunge into it a WOW factor kicks in. The poems are sublime, the tales are like poems. The blog pieces are interesting, especially the ground-truthing, as we remote-sensing nerds call it, of the 12th century history. Dog aficionados will find their bowls chock a block. In Going to the Dogs we have a fine lyrical narrative eg ‘the mirror had always been an untrustworthy friend… sniggered behind your back.’

This eclectic collection could be described as a literary e-magazine, one you can pick up and relish twenty minutes at a time, on the bus, a waiting room, when a spouse is nagging… and be oblivious  within, allowing the world to spin on by.

Some poems are thoughtful translations while others are originals such as Park Statue, which culminates with …

And if one night she smooths her hair

and twirls her skirt and dances barefoot

will the locked gates tell the stars?

 

My favourite is a poem Struck Down in Anger, Ward 39

Sample:

I have

told them my name,

the month, the year, the season;

listened to the words ‘table’ ‘apple’ dog’;

subtracted sevens from a hundred

till they grew bored at sixty-five

…

I know these tests for independent capability and dementia and I, like the woman in this poem, desired to escape the well-meaning, healthy, yet strangling confines of an institution. I was blues and twos ambulanced in the early hours to Lodgemoor (isolation) hospital near Sheffield having been struck down by a mystery virus. I couldn’t swallow and breathing became less than optional when my landlord checked on me. Two days and armfuls of penicillin later, I was fine—except that I was in a single-bed-glass ward, not allowed anything to read, nor visitors because they didn’t know what I had. After a week, the termination of my residency was far into the antiseptic mists of time so I planned my escape. With no shoes and no coat I traipsed across Ringinglow Bog to a road and blagged a ride on the number 51 bus into the city. They might still be looking for me although as that was in 1970 I somehow doubt it.

If only, in that ward, I possessed a copy of One Sixth of a Gill I would have been content to stay.

Nelder News

I’ve submitted four short stories to magazines this week and finished writing one for an upcoming Twisted Tails anthology based on the concept of Wunderkind. That one involves two soldiers on watch at a Somerset watchtower during the Napoleonic Wars. The 16-year-old boy soldier has visions of the tower under siege and his inadvertent paranormal abilities has strange effects on the outcome.

Some of you asked when the final ARIA is out and here it is. Enjoy.

http://www.ll-publications.com/aria3.html

In case you are inspired to read the first book in the trilogy, the price of the ebook has been slashed to less than the price of a coffee as you’ll see on these pages: #kindle now http://amzn.to/1daTUUn  UK – http://amzn.to/1gn3iHI

 

Highlights:

ARIA is the first and so far only book to use the concept of infectious amnesia.
Although character-led, the novel has breakthrough plot threads, making us think of what is the most important and crucial aspects of our lives. Research help and support was emailed from space! Astronaut Leroy Chiao answered my questions about the nature of the struts on the International Space Station, and wished me luck with the book.
All the places on Earth used in the book are real geographical locations, including the ‘hidden’ valley – Anafon – in North Wales.
The cover art is designed by award-winning artist, Andy Bigwood.
The idea of infectious amnesia came while I was riding a bicycle up a steep Welsh hill.

You tube video trailer http://youtu.be/oh0AAXIe8VU

Facebook page for you to ‘like’ if you will http://www.facebook.com/AriaTrilogy

A wikia page about the ARIA Trilogy is at http://nelderaria.wikia.com/wiki/NelderAria_Wiki

Anyone wanting signed copies of any of the books please send me a message here in a comment or email geoffnelderATyahooDOTcom or message me on facebook.

 

The post #Review of A Sixth of a Gill by Jean Gill appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.

AUTHOR 2 AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Authors Mark Fine & Pamela Crane Reveal their Lives in Pursuit of the Art of Writing. | Mark Fine | Ruminations

Source: AUTHOR 2 AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Authors Mark Fine & Pamela Crane Reveal their Lives in Pursuit of the Art of Writing. | Mark Fine | Ruminations

The post AUTHOR 2 AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Authors Mark Fine & Pamela Crane Reveal their Lives in Pursuit of the Art of Writing. | Mark Fine | Ruminations appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.

#Coincidences and the #Moon

Well that’s odd. I wrote a blog piece this morning on Inside the Mind of Geoff, pressed the Publish button and away it went. I know it succeeded because when published a link is sent to my twitter feed. Many Retweets have happened since but they all point at a blog piece that’s years old! Hopefully this one is more successful.

Rather than spend a couple of hours writing a new piece I offer here a blog article I wrote for Escape Velocity magazine related to the Moon – topical with the recent total eclipse.

 It annoyed me a little that the otherwise excellent BBC coverage of the 2015 total eclipse dumbed down the vocabulary for the viewer. This is demeaning because all 13-year-olds in the UK have to know about eclipses in terms of umbra, penumbra and need to use words like reflection for their exams. They won’t get marks for bounce when the proper term is reflection.

Illusions, Coincidences and the Moon

Compiled by Geoff Nelder

Based on an article in Escape Velocity Issue #3 by Geoff Nelder

 

More than one?

Which moon I hear you ask. I could have filled a page or so about Cruithne, the 3-mile-wide (5-km) satellite, which takes 770 years to complete a horseshoe-shaped orbit around Earth. Some say it isn’t a proper moon, but let’s not go there. It will be up yet not easily visible around Earth for at least 5,000 years. I’ll focus this article on the moon we can see.

 

Dumbbell

I used to tease my students by saying that the Earth goes around the Moon. To my dismay, I often found no reaction until I repeated it louder, and then they’d assumed I’d made a mistake. However, they accept the elliptical nature of the Moon’s orbit and when they were told that the focus is not in the dead centre of Earth but about 1700km beneath its surface, the unequal dumbbell dual orbit is appreciated.

 

A few facts

I could pack this piece with dry facts such that the Moon is a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 km, which is about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The Moon has a diameter of 3,474 km…. STOP! Anyone can scroll through data, let’s go for interesting.

 

Now you see it…

Unlike ancient Man we now take eclipses for granted. Tabloid newspapers, not a wise old shaman, alert us these days. But would anyone have bothered were it not for the coincidence that the moon was orbiting just at the right distance for its disc to perfectly cover the Sun? Not that it always did so. The Moon used to be much closer, and so looked larger. It’s drifting away at a rate of around 4 cm per year. However, by the time Man kept records and made predictions, the eclipses were perfect. Why? The Sun’s diameter is 375 times that of the Moon. The Sun is 375 times the distance. Hence both have an angular diameter of around ½ degree as seen from your house. However, the gravitational tug is slowing the Earth’s spin. By the conservation of momentum and the Moon’s initial impetus, the Moon’s distance from Earth is increasing. Eventually, the Moon will not seem to cover the Sun giving us only annular eclipses. One day the Moon will stop drifting away – and return – whack. Or it will disintegrate at the Roche Limit, either way humans had better find somewhere else to live. On the other hand the Moon won’t reach us for another 50 billion years and we would have been engulfed by our sun doing its red giant trick long before that – maybe in 5 billion years. No sweat.

 

Optical illusion or mental delusion

Many people think the moon looks large at the horizon in contrast to its overhead (zenith) position. This is an illusion and in spite of overhearing people mentioning the magnifying lens of the atmosphere, the apparent size of the moon hardly changes. A simple proof would be to hold a small coin (you’d be surprised how small) to just cover the moon at zenith and again on the horizon. This is probably more a perception than an optical problem. Even back in 200 AD, Cleomedes suggested that the horizon moon looks larger because it is farther away, and our minds thus trick us. This was perceptive of him since, of course, the moon is about an Earth’s radius farther away when we view it on the horizon! Washburn in 1894 suggested that if we look at the horizon moon from between our legs (ie upside down) then the illusion vanishes. Perhaps we could do a straw poll on that one!

 

Part of the illusion maybe because the moon appears squashed and more red at the horizon – not a lens but a prism effect. Certainly, the scattering of the shorter wavelength blue light through the atmosphere allowing only the near-red longer wavelengths through gives us orange and red moons as it does for the sun.

 

Impact

There are half a million impact craters on the moon, mostly on the side facing away from the Earth for obvious reasons. What the nearside does have are Maria, which are large solidified seas of lava. These are likely to be the results of collisions with meteors or comets, but why should the nearside have them in preference to the farside? One theory is that the side of the Moon facing the Earth has a higher concentration of heat-producing elements (Shearer, 2006). This is supported by geochemical mapping via the satellite Lunar Prospector.

 

Origin

Hartmann & Davis in 1975 produced the most acceptable hypothesis that the Moon is the result of a giant impact from a Mars-sized planet colliding with Earth around 4.5 billion years ago. By then much of the iron on our planet had accumulated into the core, but only lighter mantle rock was blasted off and after forming a ring then aggregated into a sphere but with little iron. Unlike the other solar system objects the moon shares similar oxygen isotopes to that found in the Earth. So it is unlikely the Moon is a captured planetoid nor did it form by spinning off an early Earth or it would have more iron and computer models don’t support the dynamics.

 

Now we know the moon has significant quantities of water, it will be shortly be occupied even if only by researchers. Water is handy stuff and not just for drinking and washing. We only know there’s a few water tanks full in one crater for sure. Maybe water was donated by crashed comets or from ancient volcanoes – whichever, a lot more surveying is needed. They’ll be able to split the molecules to extract oxygen and hydrogen.

 

Would minds on Earth have had their imagination stretched more if we’d had a ring orbiting us instead of a moon? If so, would we all have been more intelligent and creative now? Intriguing isn’t it?

 

 

References

 

Hartmann, W. K. and D. R. Davis 1975 Icarus, 24, 505

Shearer, C.; et al. (2006). “Thermal and magmatic evolution of the Moon”. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 60: 365–518

Most of this article came from Escape Velocity issue 3 published by Adventure Books of Seattle. To grab your own copy of the magazine to read the rest of the marvelous stories and articles go to

http://www.adventurebooksofseattle.com/titlesforkindlereader.htm

 

Nelder News

The ARIA giveaway at Goodreads for April has finished and the lucky winner has been sent a signed copy of ARIA: Left Luggage for him to read in his native Canada and hopefully to write a favourable review.

If you want to get your hands on a copy – in print or ebook then please go to my website

http://geoffnelder.com

and follow the links.

The post #Coincidences and the #Moon appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.

Thanks in shedloads

 

The Goodreads giveaway of a signed copy of ARIA: Left Luggage is over.

I am in debt to all those twitter, facebook and forum friends who spread news of ARIA’s involvement in the giveaway. Thanks a bundle!

Ken of Ontario has an autographed copy winging its way via our respective Post Offices as we speak.

If you haven’t one already the kindle version is at��smarturl.it/1fexhs

And other formats are available especially if you visit my marvelous publishers at

http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html

 

#free signed ARIA for you

For the next 7 days my award-winning Science fiction / medical mystery, ARIA: Left Luggage is in the Goodreads Giveaway. Pop over with the link below and you could be in for a chance to win an autographed print copy. Go for it https://www.goodreads.com/…/show/132885-aria-left-luggage

 

 

Highlights:

ARIA is the first and so far only book to use the concept of infectious amnesia.
Although character-led, the novel has breakthrough plot threads, making us think of what is the most important and crucial aspects of our lives. Research help and support was emailed from space! Astronaut Leroy Chiao answered my questions about the nature of the struts on the International Space Station, and wished me luck with the book.
All the places on Earth used in the book are real geographical locations, including the ���hidden��� valley ��� Anafon ��� in North Wales.
The cover art is designed by award-winning artist, Andy Bigwood.
The idea of infectious amnesia came while I was riding a bicycle up a steep Welsh hill.

You tube video trailer http://youtu.be/oh0AAXIe8VU

Facebook page for you to ���like��� if you will http://www.facebook.com/AriaTrilogy

 

A typical review of book one:

http://www.brewingpassion.com/2014/06/across-beer-bar-withumi-forgot.html

A wikia page about the ARIA Trilogy is at http://nelderaria.wikia.com/wiki/NelderAria_Wiki

 

Anyone wanting signed copies of any of the books please send me a message here in a comment or email geoffnelderATyahooDOTcom or message me on facebook.

 

 

 

Links to buy ARIA and other of my books are on my Amazon author page

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

Geoff facebooks at http://www.facebook.com/AriaTrilogy and tweets at @geoffnelder

 

http://nelderaria.wikia.com/wiki/NelderAria_Wiki

 

http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/nelder_geoff

 

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

Geoff���s Author page on Amazon UK http://amzn.to/19EtTMe US http://amzn.to/1dtGsZJ

#1812 History, Pride and Hilarity

If you ask a Briton what the date 1812 means to them they���ll respond with Tchaikovsky���s 1812 Overture with its crash of cannons and memorable theme tune, often accompanied with fireworks. A magnificent work of music written to commemorate the Russian defeat of Napoleon���s Grande Army of over half a million battle-hardened soldiers.

Ask an American and they think of the 1812 war with Britain, a war that is barely mentioned in British schools but which means much to Americans. To them they won that war after the English defeat at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. In fact the war was officially ended before that battle and yet another battle occurred later which the Americans conveniently forget: the Battle of Fort Bowyer, which the English won. It���s moot to argue who won that war because it should never have been fought. Google the details on Wikipedia or the many history forums and laughably you get different interpretations of the same facts depending on whether the writer is American, British, Canadian or a Native American. It���s one of those topics where the facts either don���t count or can���t properly be ascertained. The Americans wanted the British Navy to desist boarding American ships and stealing the crew (impressing) and they were trying to annexe Canada. America failed to take Canada but won the ending (more or less) of the impressments of their sailors.

The American regiment at Mobile, 1812

Apparently the Americans (I can be accused of generalisation here, and I���d be guilty) believe they won the 1812 war because they solidly beat the English in the Battle of New Orleans. However, they conveniently ignore the fact that the Treaty of Ghent had already been signed the previous month and so the war was already over with no one winning or losing before the Battle of Orleans happened. Funny though because the English withdrawing from Orleans sailed around to Mobile and laid siege to Fort Bowyer.

The British army in 1812

They took the fort but their celebrations were short-lived. The ship carrying the mail from Europe finally arrived with the news that the war was over in December two months earlier! The embarrassed English commanders, Cochrane and Lambert gave the fort back to the Americans with sincere apologies for the inconvenience!

��Nelder News

Kathleen Bullock (illustrator) and I (writer) have completed the first of our Scoot illustrated books for infants. It’s a surrealistic story about string with no end which they follow through their favourite shops, woods and playgrounds. Now getting the query letter ready to send to agents. Here’s the front cover

Front cover of String Theory – WIP

//

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!

Heavens Above!

geoffnelder:

Shared from fellow science fiction author and BSFA member, Rosie Oliver. Such a useful and inspirational blog here.

Originally posted on Rosie Oliver:

It���s all been happening in the heavens��� there was the spring equinox late Friday (well at least in the UK), the solar eclipse on Friday morning (it seems appropriate that Richard III should be buried shortly after the solar eclipse, given his Queen is said to have died during one)��� and for those of you who are interested there���s a science fiction story about an eclipse by Thaddeus White over at Kraxon magazine ��� see here.

���and now there���s a nova brightening up in Sagittarius!

This is where you can find it in the south eastern skies���

The nova appears to have the classic hydrogen red surrounding a yellowish centre where the explosion took place. For more information check here.

So I���m wondering if there will a short science fiction story about a nova somewhere handy���

Whatever next? A friendly alien spaceship coming our way?

View original

In a Glass Darkly #book review

Sir Terry Pratchett

starlings murmeration

This blog is published in honour of Sir Terry Pratchett, who passed away from Alzheimers��� at the early age of 66 today. I met him once in Northwich Library in the early 1990s with my son, Robert. He gave a talk about what inspired him and that he possessed too many story ideas than he���d have time to write. How true, sadly. We all like different styles in books but his first Discworld book, The Colour of Magic remains one of my favourites ��� the way he described dawn in terms of darkness reluctantly withdrawing across hills and dales inspired my own style ��� much to the annoyance of some in the Chester Fantasy Writers��� Group. I recommend too, The Carpet People. Pratchett populates a lounge carpet with tiny folk, who as in Truckers, live their lives as an unintentional parody of the human society above them. It���s this socio-political angle in his books that makes the apparent childrens��� books as most definitely for grown-ups and thinking teens.

The more poignant meeting with Terry Pratchett was experienced by my school pal, Trevor Taylor. Near his own home in the Mendips are water marshland areas such as the Somerset Levels and the Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and Trevor stood there to watch thousands of starlings doing their air sculpture murmurations. To his astonishment he realized he was standing next to a dark-cloaked man wearing a large black fedora. They talked about the starlings. I wish I was there.

I couldn���t attend the monthly bookgroup meeting so here are the notes to my reading of:

��

In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)

Notes

This classic collection of ���horror��� mysteries was chosen to be read and discussed at the Chester science fiction & fantasy bookgroup The Esoteric Bibliophilia Society (TEBS) that meets monthly in the Custom House public house.

The mysterious metaphysical with hint of paranormal cases of the German physician, Dr Martin Hesselius.

Green Tea

Rev. Jennings sees a black monkey apparition even after attempts to be ���cured���.

He kills himself with a razor.

The Familiar

Captain James Barton hears footsteps behind him; a strange little man (kind of shape shifter as a bird?) sometimes singing, ���still alive, still alive��� ��� but who is? Barton carried guilt of a foremast man Yelland whose daughter Barton appears to have had an affair with?

He dies of fright / guilt.

Another quite sad, dystopian story. (using dystopian not as a place here!)

Mr Justice Harbottle

Sentenced a forger to death but saw the man and now the judge has been charged with his murder. Judge found dead by hanging. Another sad case.

Great quote on p93 ���that ancient haunt of crutches and chalk-stones, Buxton.��� Chalk stones could be the deposits in joints from gout although the deposits are really crystals of sodium urate (diet rich in purines such as sardines and liver,�� and beer and spirits.

The Room in Le Dragon Volant

A period piece set in 1815 ��just weeks after the Napoleonic Wars in the Paris region. Based on the Mortis Imago affect where a drug induces apparent death. This idea is not new in fiction. I���m sure several ancient Greek dramas use potions to simulate death in the living. The Bruce Willis film Hudson Hawk (1991) has poison darts with curare to paralyze victims.

Young Englishman Richard Beckett falls instantly in love with a beautiful married woman who is allegedly a Countess. He is lured by entrapment to part with his money to help her by buying her fake jewels. However, a ���secret service��� man who also befriended Beckett finally outed the scam and saved Beckett from dying inside a coffin after having taken a mortis imago drug for the second time.

Great quote on p125�� ���A bald-headed little military surgeon of 60, with spectacles, who had cut off 87 legs and arms to his own share after the Battle of Eylau, having retired with his sword and saw, his laurels and his sticking plaster to this, his native town, was called in, and rather thought the gallant colonel���s skull was fractured; at all events, there was concussion of the seat of thought, and quite enough work for his remarkable self-healing powers to occupy him for a fortnight.����� (82 words!)

Although a period immediately after a war in an occupied country is fascinating, Beckett seemed too unconcerned at his dangers (compared to my dad after WW2 in Germany where occupying British soldiers and civilians had to be careful of Germans out for revenge ��� sometimes in desperation trying to find lost loved ones as I witnessed in Osnabruck in the early 1950s) and the events that befall him are too predictable for the modern reader. I was hoping for a better twist at the end. Awful POV switch when Beckett was in the coffin and so he couldn���t possibly know what was going on out of it.

Theme of an innocent in peril was popular in early and Victorian literature.

One interesting fact I learnt from this story is that nobles didn���t take their own horses on long journeys but rented them even though they owned the carriages.

Carmilla

Female vampire story where the innocent lone child, Laura, is besotted with a similarly beautiful Carmilla who has to stay at her schloss while her mother is away.

Hints of lesbianism. Again the clues are too obvious for the modern reader.

I hope this helps the book group to fill in where they gave up reading In a Glass Darkly. Apparently most gave up in boredom by halfway and so missed out on the atmospheric and more intriguing ideas in Carmilla, and in The Room in Le Dragon Volant ��� my favourite. Most of the stories were sad but the latter two at least possessed great atmosphere, a fascinating contrast read for me in sunny Lanzarote.

Thanks, Graham for suggesting it although I more enjoyed reading The Martian by Andy Weir.

Nelder News

I received my author’s copy of “Monk Punk & The Shadow of the Unknown” Edited by Aaron J French – a great collection of short horror / unusual stories including two by me. Kindle here

I should go away more often

I spent a week with my lovely wife on the volcanic island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Idea: get away from her work pressures and the frozen north of England; get me away from the web and writing. We took books both Kindled and papered and enjoyed our apartment in Arriete overlooking the sea as you see here.

Our holiday walking route in Lanzarote 2015

In fact the view is north towards the quaint village of Punta De Majeres where I stayed last June with UK Authors. Note the not-so-calm sea as the Trade Winds kept us cool.

While there I read several books, Meter of Corruption by Wolfgang Schimanski: A thriller in which beautiful women are as eager for sex as they are clever at finance, fighting and getting into trouble. A page turner for those readers liking escapism, an action book without worrying too much about cliches and odd typos. ASIN for your kindle at��B00II9LKLS

I read The Martian by Andy Weir, an interesting hard science fiction in which astronaut, Mark Watney is left for dead on Mars. He survives and so he should with his masterful engineering and botanical knowledge. I think he could have grown the legumes as well as spuds but I really enjoyed the nerdy aspects. If you think his way off and back to Earth was rather too much like the film, Red Planet (2000) then so do I. I also think Mark could have guessed he’d be watched by satellites and be able to make a radio from all the parts he had but it is a great geeky book. I would have had Martians even if like sand amoeba but hey ho.

Also read Into a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu. Liked the Conan Doyle / Walter Scott style but what might have gripped a reader in 1872, the conflicts’ resolutions are too obvious for modern readers.

Goth girl in The Horror Zine March 2015

Meanwhile I discover that my short horror story, IMPULSE, which is based on the childhood ditty, As I was going up the stair I met a man who isn’t there… A chap is so burdened with work and relationship stress he ducks it all and takes a holiday to Gozo near Malta. Except that he finds his past not catching up with him as vanishing too much! Here it is and FREE to read along with other great stories.

I also discover two marvelous reviews of ARIA. I’m tempted to be naughty and cherry pick their best bits but here they are in full.

Would Make a Great Movie! Compelling and provocative Story!,February 18, 2015

By

Mark Fine | The Zebra Affaire

This review is from:�� ARIA: Left Luggage (Kindle Edition)

A mysterious out-of-this-world suitcase found wedged on the International Space Station triggers a viral catastrophe of apocalyptic end-of-days proportions on the humans habitants on the earth below. Unlike the typical B-movie type scenarios of less sophisticated science fiction, “ARIA Left Luggage” avoids the gratuitous and the obvious–sparing the reader passages about seamy bodily fluids and dismembered limbs. Hence, I really enjoyed this book because it added such intelligence and integrity to the genre, without sacrificing drama and body count.

The fact that the alien contagion was manifested as rapidly overwhelming amnesia–is so relevant to this baby boomer generation that’s facing an epidemic of real-world diseases that impair memory and cognitive functions, such as Alzheimer. By tapping into our collective fears in this regard, Nelder certainly had my attention.

The author ably describes the consequences of losing one’s mind by describing acute scenarios; a pilot en route over the Atlantic loses his way, with tragic consequences, when he forgets the flights final destination. It was truly frightening to witness, through the author’s eyes, how civil society can so rapidly deteriorate back into the Stone Age as humanities memories fade to naught.

My personal interpretation of Geoff Nelder’s Sci-Fi allegory is a near-future modern day twist on the Dark Ages or Middle Ages–a period devoid of inspiration and culture possible due to famine and disease including the dreaded “Black Death” (Bubonic plague); it began at the fall of the Roman Empire and ended at beginning of Italian Renaissance – The Age of Discovery. Possibly the Italian doctor featured in the story triggered this thought, as well as the choice of “ARIA” being Italian for “Air” as the acronym for the virus.

This is a cerebral, thoroughly researched, and most enjoyable. The characters are vividly rendered, with their flaws and smarts displayed for all to see, making them memorable. For me it took only a minimal suspension of disbelief, and the plot felt thoroughly plausible. Just substitute ARIA for an another earthbound airborne virus, accelerated throughout humanity due to population density, easy accesses to transcontinental travel, unrestricted borders, and the potential transmission speed of the disease would be like no other time in history.

As for those interested in survivalist prepping, but with an intelligent scientific / medical twist, ARIA promises to be a satisfying read. For those fans of science fiction, here you will find an immediacy and relevance (note the recent Ebola scare) that will trigger within you all the “it-came-from-outer-space” drama and tension you’d ever desire. Character-driven and a diverse cast, plus the compelling plot, suggests ARIA: Left Luggage has the makings of a fine motion picture.

+++ Thanks Mark!

This is from Jean Gill author of One Sixth of Gill.

Just finished ARIA:Left Luggage by��Geoff Nelder��and would definitely recommend it. Here’s my review ‘Classic ���what-if��� world-threat sci-fi: What if an amnesia bug went viral? Who would remember enough to be able to fight it? What decisions would you take to survive?

Very convincing ‘what if’ sci-fi disaster novel as exciting as the classic invasions of Triffids and Midwich Cuckoos. The range of the novel shows global consequences through detail of a few places geographically��far apart (London, Houston, north Wales, Banff, Australia) A variety of characters draw the reader into everyday human dilemmas and relationships in such an inhuman situation, all very nicely done (although ‘nastily done’ is probably more appropriate).

I don���t like violent scenes but, for my taste, Geoff Nelder keeps the story entertaining, showing plausible conflicts – and deaths ��� without dwelling on gory detail. The working relationships reminded me of the petty rivalries and allegiances in any job and the wry humour lightens the depressing consequences of ARIA.

I was intrigued by the premise but what really impressed me was the detail of the way ARIA spreads and its impact. I can���t say whether the technological details are accurate but the logic, the portrayal of people and places and the twists of the narrative kept me fully involved.

My only disappointment was that there wasn���t more of a conclusion. I know there���s a sequel and I look forward to that but I do like more of a resolution at the end of a book even if some loose ends are left dangling for the next one.

 

Note from Geoff

Apologies to Jean about the ending. Always tricky to leave readers wanting more but without leaving too many frustrated loose ends. I thought I���d trodden that slippery path with an airborne device and with readers reasoning what was likely to happen to those left behind. I can assure Jean that in Book 2, ARIA: RETURNING LEFT LUGGAGE loose ends are tied up and questions are answered. Ah, but more questions bubble up, the aliens sneak in and romance crops up in surprising circumstances. Is it completely tied up by the end. Sorry, Jean ��� well there���s Book 3…

 

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!

You tube video trailer

http://youtu.be/oh0AAXIe8VU