Geoff Nelder's Blog, page 3
December 18, 2022
When luggage isn’t a suitcase
As you know Amazon.uk is for Brits, Amazon.au for Australians, etc with Amazon.com for the Americans and maybe for countries without a dot something. It’s therefore a pain to give multiple Amazon links when promoting books. However, there’s a nifty bit of coding offered by some companies to use only one link and the correct Amazon link is delivered to whatever country the user resides. I use https://booklinker.com but tragedy struck! Mybook.to is theirs.
The link I’ve been using for my Left Luggage scifi book in sometimes expensive promotions has been one with Luggage in the address. In the UK it works a charm but for US potential readers my Left Luggage book link pulled up pages of Amazon selling suitcases! Argh. It seemed the only way US readers could find my Left Luggage was to use the ISBN or the Kindle code or search through Geoff Nelder books on Amazon.
Solution: to NOT use the word luggage in any link! 
So now the correct link is https://mybook.to/ARIA-LeftL
If you’ve not read ARIA: Left Luggage then please consider doing so. It’s FREE on Kindle Unlimited anyway. Imagine if Covid spread with 100% efficiency but with no vaccine and no treatment AND if the symptoms was amnesia. A forgetting backwards by a year’s worth per week. Great fun to research and write. First released in 2012 and yet so contemporary. Enjoy.
The post When luggage isn’t a suitcase appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
November 23, 2022
New novella – Kepler’s Son
NEW NOVELLA release date 24th November 2022 in time for son’s birthday. Happy birthday, Rob.
On Earth we have wars, monkeys in government, soccer hysteria, prices up… Help!
To escape all the above, you might consider going off world – delve into Kepler’s Son, a short science fiction adventure where a handful of plucky humans use their wits to survive hostiles and strange environments in a distant galaxy. While it is the 3rd in the series there are summaries of the first two for you to catch up. *Warning – adult content, though quite hilarious.
The Kindle for the price of a good coffee is here https://mybook.to/KeplersSon
Kindle ASIN: B0BN4NCHKZ
The paperback version is there too if you scroll a little.
This series is called FLYING CROOKED. See what folks have said about the first two:
From Peter Wilhelmsen, fantasy writer: “The exploration-part, the unknown part of it all, made me turn the pages. The world building is impressive, and the way the humans interpret things makes the science behind it all easy to follow. The Keps are very alien-like, like something taken out of X-files. I enjoyed reading Suppose We immensely.”
Chris Rimell, science fiction author of Untold History: “As always you do a lovely job of describing the worlds and filling them with colour and aromas.”
Jaine Fenn: “I enjoyed Suppose We. An intriguing first contact story with original touches.”
Dr Bob Smith: The best thing about reading speculative fiction is the creative imagination of someone else, who thinks up things I haven’t. If the writing is good, I join into the author’s reality-construction while reading. Then, afterward, the new concepts challenge me. I muse over “what if” considerations, and perhaps my view of the possible is enlarged.This is why I enjoy Geoff Nelder’s writing. He and I think very differently. At first, some of his concepts strike me as bizarre — then they grow on me. (Please don’t take that literally.)
His story named after the spaceship, “Suppose We,” is just like that. The narrator, small, slight but bouncy Frenchman Gaston, is delightful. The four humans in the story have very real, contrasting personalities, leading to some fun and games, but most enjoyable is a character who names itself CAN, and then has endless fun punning on the name.
David Leaper: Geoff Nelder is a visionary writer.
Colm Herron: Our world can be a terrifying place. And the world that Nelder portrays left me fearful, gripped, and yet giddy with laughter at times. This use of humour is utterly ingenious because it serves as a release valve.
Gladys B. Hobson: An unusual, mind-blowing read.
Dr Jacques Coulardou: Imagination, when compared to life, is so absurd that it becomes fascinating, mesmerizing and even hypnotizing.
From Rosie Oliver author and aeronautical engineer: Falling Up has many forms of reality interlaced into this space opera – actual reality, surreality, the virtual reality of data, and a type of reality Geoff has invented that is all too possible in science.
The Kindle of Kepler’s Son is here https://mybook.to/KeplersSon
Nelder’s books in chronical order:
Escaping Reality – humorous thriller • http://hyperurl.co/nyjaiv
Hot Air – thriller set in Mallorca • http://hyperurl.co/di4y0h
ALIEN EXIT a science fiction first-contact novel as an ebook only https://mybook.to/alienexit
ARIA: Left Luggage – infectious amnesia scifi • smarturl.it/1fexhs
ARIA: Returning Left Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/tgtid6
ARIA: Abandon Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/26trxv
The Chaos of Mokii ebook at https://mybook.to/Kaos
Revised Xaghra’s Revenge set in present-day and 16th Century Malta and Gozo now retitled as Vengeance Island http://mybook.to/VIsland
Incremental – 25 surreal short stories • http://mybook.to/Incremental
Suppose We -science fiction space exploration • https://mybook.to/SupposeWe
Kepler’s Son https://mybook.to/KeplersSon
The brilliant cover art is by Andy Bigwood, who painted art for the ARIA trilogy and Xaghra’s Revenge
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October 12, 2022
There IS Life on Mars – and they don’t want us!
Did you know that something or someone was sabotaging space missions to Mars especially in the 20th century? Since 1960 when Russia’s Mars 1M was supposed to do a flyby of the red planet there have been 28 failures compared to 19 successes. Something spooked those early attempts, and some said it was the Martians themselves. At last we now know how—in this new novel, Life on Mars.To be fair author, Hugh Duncan, writes this QM meets laugh-a-minute novel with a wicked SOH but with such insights into the Martian characters I know he’s onto something. It all makes so much sense. IF there were sentient life on Mars then surely they’d object to their neighbouring planet trying to invade it and so hide. It helps that most of the Martians look like rocks and can remain motionless for eons. What a trick.I had the urge to ask Hugh Duncan, the Life on Mars author, James-Webb-like searching questions and cats escaped out of the bag:1)
Hugh. I love the premise of Life on Mars: life is there but don’t relish Earth people messing with them. Does this come from your own fear of strangers – especially strange writers? If not, where did the idea originate?
What a strange question. I’m a little worried about meeting you now! Seriously, in answer to your question, what have humans done? Not content with destroying their own back garden, it’s as if they are throwing their rubbish over the proverbial garden fence into the neighbours and we are filling the solar system with our space junk and who knows one day destroying it to infinity and beyond. I don’t have fear of strangers but fear the proved danger and destructive nature of our own species! We’re doing it to our own planet already! HELP! Oh, that got heavy quite quickly. Better take my medication.2)
Like myself you’ve used a teaching career to pay your way. Was there nothing else you could have done? (as I’ve often asked myself).
When I was a teenager I wanted to be a rock star, however I couldn’t sing or play very well, but that didn‘t stop me trying. Sadly the punk noises I have made have not paid for much. Not yet anyway. My dad had been a university lecturer and he said to me son don’t be a teacher and I said don’t worry I won’t! However, arriving at the end of my astronomy degree and finding no one to pay me to look at the stars, I saw most of my astronomy friends were going off to solve the shortage of maths and physics teachers. Oh, I thought, I’ll do that for a year or two as a stop gap then find a proper job. 40 years later, I was still teaching and have only just retired. I guess I have the time now to find out if I can do anything else…3)
I really enjoy retreats to write, read, layabout, etc. My favourite is on Methana. Do you have a favourite writing, thinking and spacing-out place away from home?
My only real retreat is in my head. If there is a physical place it is at my desk, headphones on with disconnecting music playing, but it has also been walking in the countryside and talking ideas into an old cassette player, or most often at the wheel of the car or in an unexpected queue or lying in bed before sleep and I escape to whatever world I’m writing about and I think about the ideas.
4
) The book that inspired me to take up writing, again, was Tibor Fischer’s The Thought Gang for its whacky but logical premise and his love of word play. Are there fiction books that
reboot your writing urges?
Of all the writers that I have grown to like, I cannot deny that I would probably look forward with most anticipation to the release of the next Ben Elton novel. I love his quick-fire humour plus his very taunting and thought provoking themes. I have even ended up staying awake to read them to the end. And each time I find myself saying, ‘I want to be able to write books like that!’ Then I remember that I can’t write like that so I adjust my cry to ‘I just want to write!’5)
Considering that we writers spend hundreds of hours writing for very few pennies, do you regret all that time you’ll never get back?
I spent decades collecting coins until I realised it was pointless. I built up a 3000 strong library of music CDs now you can’t even buy a car with a player! Drunken nights and what do we have to show for it? Life is made up of a string of activities that may seem pointless in the end, yet we love doing them at the time. I don’t regret the coins or CDs or drinking. I love writing and would continue to write, even without the pennies.6)
Pick one character from Life on Mars and have them ask you a question on their existence.
Amazing question! Did you teach philosophy? I asked my eldest daughter Anais to pick one for me and she said Quicksilver, the liquid horse.‘So Mr author how in the name of Hellas can I be alive?!’‘Well Mr Quicksilver, or can I call you Quick?’‘Sure, if it answers the question. I mean I’m a horse that’s made of liquid, mercury it seems, how’s it possible that I exist? And how can I even move?!’‘Well Quick, I’m still learning all the science of the biosphere on Mars, but you seem to be made of a kind of non-Newtonian liquid, so, by exerting enough pressure you can behave like a solid and hey, aren’t most creatures on earth just bags of liquid, mainly water and they manage to get by.’‘I suppose so… but how can part of me still function separately like Minisilver does when he’s been scooped out of me?’‘It seems to be like that homeopathic effect when a dilute part of the medicine still works like the original.’‘Oh, like a piece of a hologram still contains the whole 3D image?’‘I guess so.’‘Okay Mr Author but why do I exist in the story in the first place? What’s my purpose? And don’t say the voices in your head told you to include me!’‘Damn! That’s my get out clause! Look, you have a pivotal role in the story. How could they begin to save Mars without you?’‘Well if you put it like that, I’m glad I was there then.’‘Can I go now?’‘For now, yes, but don’t leave the planet.’Thank you, Hugh, for such gripping replies. And now for your delectation, grab that popcorn and enjoy this short excerpt from Life on Mars: The Vikings are Coming: NOTE: A previous excerpt exists on the blog of Mark Iles here
8 Dimitry the quantum tunneling worm helps the team get through a closed door
Katya realised something then fumbled in the folds of her fur, pulled out her notebook and pen and put them to one side, then rummaged further and threw out a small Martian rock, a snowball from the North Pole and then a cicada hopped out and half-flew, half-jumped across the corridor.‘It’s amazing what things accumulate if you’re not tidy,’ she said to her curious best birdies, ‘Ah! Here it is…’With that she produced what appeared to be a worm-like larva, small, off-white and segmented and it had a very slight luminous glow. It was nothing compared to her powerful, traffic light green brightness, but it shone nonetheless.‘Good job I hung onto you,’ said Katya to the worm.‘This is a vermis eorum suffodiendis cuniculis,’ she explained to her friends, ‘or Cutie Worm as it’s commonly called.‘Hey!’ said the worm, ‘I’m more than just a species!’‘Oh sorry,’ said Katya, genuinely remorseful, ‘I didn’t mean to be rude. I’m actually amazed at what you can do…’‘That’s as may be,’ said the Cutie Worm, ‘but I do have a name you know.’‘Sorry,’ said Katya, ‘please accept my apologies and do introduce yourself…’‘Well, I’m Dmitry…’‘Nice to meet you,’ said Katya.‘And don’t call me Dim,’ said the worm with attitude, ‘it wasn’t even funny the first time I heard it.’‘I shall make sure I don’t,’ Katya promised, ‘now if you’ve forgiven me, I need a favour from you.’‘Depends what it is,’ said Dmitry, ‘but I can probably guess what.’‘What’s he on about?’ asked Martin,‘Well you’d never guess what this worm can do,’ Katya started, ‘hey maybe I can show you…’‘No!’ snapped Dmitry, ‘You’re not going to do the swallowing trick. Everyone does the swallowing trick. I’m fed up with it!’‘What’s the swallowing trick?’ said Martin. ‘Besides. We’re house martins, not swallows – everyone makes that mistake.‘Okay, I won’t do the swallowing trick,’ assured Katya, then turned to her friends, ‘but it is good!’‘What do you want me to do then?’ asked Dmitry.‘Right,’ said Katya then turned to the birds, ‘well gentlemen, you remember my lesson forty-three?’‘What, about how particles can get through a barrier by letting their probability wave extend beyond the barrier?’ said Martin.‘That’s the one! Five points to House um, Martin! Well This Cutie worm, sorry, Dmitry, operates on that principle, so if I take him and push him against the door…’‘Wait,’ Dmitry started, but Katya was over enthusing about the peculiar property of this special species.‘Dmitry’s probability wave will first start to enter the fabric of the door…’‘Stop pushing me please…’‘That’s fascinating,’ said Martin.‘Yes and normally Dmitry’s too big to ever stand a chance of making it through…’‘Can you stop?!’‘But with a high enough pressure, a large enough portion of his wave function will stick out the other side of the door and if we wait long enough, he himself will suddenly appear on the other side of the door!’‘You don’t need to do this!’ Dmitry shouted.‘What?’‘I said you don’t need to do this!’‘But we need you on the other side of the door so you can unlock it for us.’‘There’s an easier way,’ said Dmitry, a little fed up.‘Really? I worked out you need a pressure of three hundred kilopascals to raise the probability to getting through in the next few hours…’‘What about exerting no pressure in the next few seconds and let me just crawl through the gap under the door…’End of excerpt. Love that sliding-under-a-door cliff-hangar, so to speak.You must be gagging to read the whole of Life on Mars by Hugh Duncan (which has the amusing anagram of haunch dung) so here are LINKSElsewhen: https://bit.ly/LifeOnMars-Vikingshttp...eBook:https://books.apple.com/gb/book/id644...paperback:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Mars-Vi... Nelder’s web pagehttps://geoffnelder.comTwitter @geoffnelderAmazon page for Geoff Nelder https://www.amazon.co.uk/Geoff-Nelder/The post There IS Life on Mars – and they don’t want us! appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
October 3, 2022
Artwork attempts by Geoff Nelder
Most of these are from 50+ years ago in watercolour and acrylic with some poster paints. I really should get back to dabbling again–so therapeutic.
Chris Lewis who now has this crayon portrait. 1963
1990s acrylic
1980s
Dad didn’t like the ‘plain’ hill but I like desolate beauty.
1980s acrylic
Reflections in a fjord
Geranium 1965
Armless Walk, Cheltenham. 1964 Dad worked in an engineering works behind me.
Geoff’s Amazon page
Amazon.co.uk: Geoff Nelder: Books, Biography, Blogs, Audiobooks, Kindle
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May 2, 2022
Using side stories for #promotion
Using side stories to help promote a main novel.
This isn’t the same as when readers of a novel urges you to write a sequel. A side story might be in the same time line and characters and settings might be referenced but it shouldn’t depend on the main story to work.
I have a science fiction series, Flying Crooked. A fleet of ark ships leave Earth and SUPPOSE WE is one which crashlands on a goldilocks planet. Sadly, the natives are so far in advance of Earth they ignore the humans appeals for help. FALLING UP was its sequel and others are in the pipeline. STEP FORTH is another ark ship so is known to SUPPOSE WE, but its AI has been corrupted. Now the ship thinks it’s human and so busily tries to eradicate what it believes are vermin on board.
I found a good publisher of webzines, Aphelion which offers free reads to the public. They accepted I THINK, THEREFORE I AM and hopefully, readers will go on to find the full novel and series.
Free read:
http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/shorts/2022/05/IThink.html?
Note: the name of the confused spaceship, STEP FORTH was suggested by author Mark Iles to go in conjunction with SUPPOSE WE the other ark ship. Hence, suppose we step forth. I liked that.
SUPPOSE WE book one of the Flying Crooked series
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April 29, 2022
Why am I answering the door to myself?
What if you open your front door to find yourself staring back? Not a long lost identical twin but a kind of doppelganger intent on doing you harm and taking your place. But why? How to keep them out of your house? Who would believe you’re the real you? Thanks to Amy Nelder when I brainstormed her with this idea in Nottingham. The story IDENTITY CRISIS was snatched up by editor Dorothy Davies for her publishing concern Fiction4All in the Other Worlds Volume 1 anthology.
Ebook initially, paperback to come. Price under £4 or coffee and cake – lasting longer!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Other-Worlds-1-Dorothy-Davies-ebook/dp/B09YVCF15T/
Nelder News
I broke my arm!! Yes, I was cycling in Warrington when a car pulled out in front of me. I hit the offside and landed on my bike on Thelwall New Road alongside the Manchester Ship Canal. Within moments five lovely local women were on me urging me to stay still yet carrying me and bicycle to the safety of the verge. Thanks ladies! Arm was in plaster for weeks and a splint support since. You like gory then here you go:
The third book in the Flying Crooked series of SF novellas, Kepler’s Son is due out later this year. The fourth volume, Vanished Earth, has been written and going through beta-readers. Thanks to Frances Gow, Mark Iles and Reb – a genius Russian émigré whose own literary fiction will be out soon. When descendants of Suppose We return to find their mother planet, Earth, it’s gone! What happened? Is that it hiding inside Jupiter? Loved doing the research for this.
Also published recently was ALIEN EXIT a science fiction first-contact novel as an ebook only https://mybook.to/alienexit
Revised Xaghra’s Revenge set in present-day and 16th Century Malta and Gozo now retitled as Vengeance Island http://mybook.to/VIsland
Escaping Reality – humorous thriller • http://hyperurl.co/nyjaiv
Hot Air – thriller set in Mallorca • http://hyperurl.co/di4y0h
ARIA: Left Luggage – infectious amnesia scifi • smarturl.it/1fexhs
ARIA: Returning Left Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/tgtid6
ARIA: Abandon Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/26trxv
Incremental – 25 surreal short stories • http://mybook.to/Incremental
Suppose We -science fiction space exploration • https://mybook.to/SupposeWe
The Chaos of Mokii ebook at https://mybook.to/Kaos
Home • http://geoffnelder.com
Facebook • http://bit.ly/2DnAmRS
Twitter @geoffnelder
The post Why am I answering the door to myself? appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
January 29, 2022
X-rays from sticky tape!
Interesting science fact of the week.
Sellotape can generate X-Rays.
Apparently when sticky tape is peeled off (not Elastoplast on a cut finger, but the tape you use to wrap my presents with) X-Rays can be produced.
Known as triboluminescence and seen in the form of light, this can occur whenever a solid (often a crystal) is crushed, rubbed or scratched. It is a long-known, if somewhat mysterious, phenomenon, seen by Francis Bacon in 1605. He noticed that smashing sugar lumps with a hammer (in the dark) produces a spark.
Perhaps when opposite charges are broken apart they emit energy in its various forms in the electromagnetic spectrum including X-rays and light. A team of Russian scientists discovered this in the 1950s but no one believed them until another team of the University of California replicated the experiment in 2007. They even found that if they put a plastic window in a vacuum chamber, they can produce an X-ray of a finger using a dental X-ray detector.
So, next time you’re tearing apart Sellotape to wrap up my presents, just think you’re generating X-rays. No one knows the complete reason why this happens. The more I know the more I realise how little I know.
Nelder News
The third book in the Flying Crooked series of SF novellas, Kepler’s Son is due out later this year. The fourth volume, Vanished Earth, has been written and going through beta-readers. Thanks to Frances Gow, Mark Iles and Reb – a genius Russian émigré whose own literary fiction will be out soon. When descendants of Suppose We return to find their mother planet, Earth, it’s gone! What happened? Is that it hiding inside Jupiter? Loved doing the research for this.
Also published recently was ALIEN EXIT a science fiction first-contact novel as an ebook only https://mybook.to/alienexit
Revised Xaghra’s Revenge set in present-day and 16th Century Malta and Gozo now retitled as Vengeance Island http://mybook.to/VIsland
Escaping Reality – humorous thriller • http://hyperurl.co/nyjaiv
Hot Air – thriller set in Mallorca • http://hyperurl.co/di4y0h
ARIA: Left Luggage – infectious amnesia scifi • smarturl.it/1fexhs
ARIA: Returning Left Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/tgtid6
ARIA: Abandon Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/26trxv
Incremental – 25 surreal short stories • http://mybook.to/Incremental
Suppose We -science fiction space exploration • https://mybook.to/SupposeWe
The Chaos of Mokii ebook at https://mybook.to/Kaos
Home • http://geoffnelder.com
Facebook • http://bit.ly/2DnAmRS
Twitter @geoffnelder
The post X-rays from sticky tape! appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
January 19, 2022
#Tsunami Risks for me
One snag I knew about before moving from Chester to Trafford in Greater Manchester is that I’ve only raised my house by 5 metres. My Chester house was at 17m above sea level. My Flixton house is at 22m asl. Hopeless for long term global warming and for tsunamis.
If all the ice in the world melted, the sea level would rise by about 70 metres. That won’t happen in my lifetime. I’m 75 this year so even if I live to a century, the sea level is only expected to rise by 0.35 metres, or 35 cm. This is being a bit selfish, since the rise will continue so the house value will sink along with the coast. Sorry kids and grandkids hoping to inherit this pile of bricks.
Watch this vid of sea level changes affecting Britain. This is How UK Looks Like If All Ice Melts – YouTube
We all hope that Greta Thunberg can persuade leaders to stop this happening.
However, tsunamis are another matter.
We’re lucky living in Britain because it is in the middle of a tectonic plate so generally only experience tremors and small earthquakes. However, the Atlantic ocean is on our western shores. In the middle of the Atlantic is the mid-Atlantic ridge: an active volcanic zone of which the Iceland volcanoes and hot geysers are at its northern end. Atlantic islands such as the Canaries is an active zone. Cumbre Vieja is the main volcano on the island of La Palma and has quaked and mini-erupted recently. It has a 1.5 trillion tonnes flank that if slipped into the Atlantic could created a megatsunami sweeping across to America and back to Europe with waves over 50 metres high, travelling at hundreds of miles per hour. See Canary Island Landslides and Potential Megatsunami | Coastal Processes, Hazards, and Society (psu.edu)
That’s just a volcano we know about. There are about 1500 dormant volcanoes on Earth and 600 active, even if in a small way. (tremors, gas and steam such as Vesuvius).
Suppose an underwater quake or volcano (Such as Tonga on the 17th Jan 2022) triggered a megatsunami across the Atlantic, are we safe here in Manchester? Not really. If Palma went it would take about a day for the wave to hit Ireland, whip around the Irish Sea and pile into western England. Much of its energy would’ve gone and possibly be only a ripple. However, if it did reach 50 metres height, I’d need to cycle fast to…where? The nearest high ground for me is Greenhill, only a 10 minute jog. It’s 30 metres tops. Not more than a 10 minutes drive are motorway flyover bridges that are about 50 metres high. But would I want to stop, possibly with thousands of others, on top of a trembling bridge while a tsunami bashed into the supports with trees, buildings and vehicles? No!
The nearest decent-sized hill is Rivington Pike at over 300 metres above sea level. Yay! Twenty miles north near Bolton, Lancashire. Ah, the route takes in the M60, M61 and the A6. Could be jammed with traffic normally let alone with a few hours notice for everyone to reach high land.
My son lives in Nottingham at 100 metres asl but 77 miles East Southeast and more motorways. If the tsunami was really slow yet inexorable then our Manchester branch of the family could invade his house.
Two things mollify this impending doom:
It’s never happened to Britain in recorded history
Tsunamis are over quickly. Maybe build an ark instead.
Nelder News
The third book in the Flying Crooked series of SF novellas, Kepler’s Son is due out later this year. The fourth volume, Vanished Earth, has been written and going through beta-readers. Thanks to Frances Gow, Mark Iles and Reb – a genius Russian émigré whose own literary fiction will be out soon. When descendants of Suppose We return to find their mother planet, Earth, it’s gone! What happened? Is that it hiding inside Jupiter? Loved doing the research for this.
Also published recently was ALIEN EXIT a science fiction first-contact novel as an
ebook only https://mybook.to/alienexit A friend, Kevin Haylett loves experimenting with abstract art and has allowed me to use this fabulous art for Alien Exit promo.
Revised Xaghra’s Revenge set in present-day and 16th Century Malta and Gozo now retitled as Vengeance Island http://mybook.to/VIsland
Escaping Reality – humorous thriller • http://hyperurl.co/nyjaiv
Hot Air – thriller set in Mallorca • http://hyperurl.co/di4y0h
ARIA: Left Luggage – infectious amnesia scifi • smarturl.it/1fexhs
ARIA: Returning Left Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/tgtid6
ARIA: Abandon Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/26trxv
Incremental – 25 surreal short stories • http://mybook.to/Incremental
Suppose We -science fiction space exploration • https://mybook.to/SupposeWe
The Chaos of Mokii ebook at https://mybook.to/Kaos
Home • http://geoffnelder.com
Facebook • http://bit.ly/2DnAmRS
Twitter @geoffnelder
The post #Tsunami Risks for me appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
December 19, 2021
Best #bizarro fiction
I blogged Ira Nayman’s BAD ACTORS this Autumn but I didn’t leave a review from my own reading. Here it is. Hang on to your hats. 
Published in October 2021 by Elsewhen Press
Strap yourself in when reading this hilarious, bizarro scifi adventurous mystery with added ‘easter eggs’ and sex-trafficking. Billions of little blue aliens on ‘Earths’ need refugee status on this Earth (Prime) when their universe dies. Luckily, we’re in a multiverse so there are other Earths to take them besides the few thousands here. Canadian and Transdimensional Authority police are called when an alien is murdered and later when others go missing. Search for Jane Fonda’s Orgasmatron, discover why there might be more than 5 original ideas (or 2 or 35) and most of all search in your reading for why Joe Mahoney and Rodney Pendleton (the first alien immigrant) have 9 character spaces in place of their middle names. Why don’t Earth vests have pockets, is a male bimbo a himbo and discover the real reason why the Eskimos (sorry, Northern indigenous peoples) have 127 names for snow. Is the phone calls with Sir Paul McCartney a step towards understanding the umbrellaist/hattite feud? No, but then “telling the whole truth can be a sneaky bastard.”
Bad actors are so called for going off script, behaving irregularly, and for storming off set leaving sparks. You’ll gush with pleasure and other stuff (mind the new carpets) when reading BAD ACTORS.
An absolute must read for aficionados of the bizarro genre and humour.
LINKS
https://bit.ly/BadActors-IraNayman
https://books2read.com/BadActors
https://bit.ly/BadActors-KindleCA
https://bit.ly/BadActors-KindleUS
https://bit.ly/BadActors-KindleUK
https://bit.ly/BadActors-KindleFR
https://bit.ly/BadActors-KindleDE
https://bit.ly/BadActors-Kobo
https://bit.ly/BadActors-iTunes
https://bit.ly/BadActors-Google
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September 21, 2021
#Parallel Universe story
Out of this world, into the next.
Are there an infinite number of universes? Possibly, or probably if you’re a quantum mathematician. If you’re a science fiction writer let’s have some anyway.
Two likely lads race up a Macclesfield sandstone knoll known as Tegg’s Nose. It looks a bit like a nose from one side. Tegg might have been a Viking settler and the area was occupied in the Bronze Age. The hill was quarried for its Millstone Grit until 1955. From the summit on a clear day you can see the cathedrals of Liverpool, the Clwyd Range, Beeston Castle and of course, nearby Macclesfield.
The lads have a rough and tumble on a flat rock near the summit and inadvertently press something. Whether that triggers a momentous rift in the sky above them or coincidence I don’t know. Don’t ask. Antonio is clever while his mate, Matt is the practical one. After a blinding light stuns the lads, they eventually awake still on Tegg’s Nose but something has changed.
The air is clean. There are no people. Macclesfield has vanished. The lads are shocked and unconvinced they are not hallucinating. Suppose they are properly awake though, what has happened? Time travel possibly but the fact that Tegg’s Nose is unchanged makes it unlikely. The future is possible except that there’d be ruins of the nearby information centre. Ant suggests they might be in a parallel universe where they are the only people and the world, or at least that area, exists as if humans had never been around to spoil things.
Hence this is a ‘what if’ scenario. What would Britain be like in this decade if there had been no humans? Over the last few millennia people have made huge changes to the environment. Indigenous trees after the last ice age (there have been at least 25) were cleared in the valleys, which were mostly impenetrable swampy, dense thickets. The lads would have to stick to travelling on the ridges and hills where possible.
What animals would they see? No sheep, rabbits, grey squirrels, fallow deer and modern cattle. They’d see lynx, wolves, wild boar, brown bears, early horses and early cattle (aurochs). After the ice age ended around 8000 years ago the North Sea was dry in many areas (Dogger Bank) permitting animals to cross over in herds. Lions also crossed but sheep, rabbits, hens and grey squirrels were introduced by Man much later.
To add another ‘what if’ thread, one of the lads is your average omnivore and so missing his bacon and chicken while the other is vegan. Partly, this is inspired by having read John Christopher’s A Wrinkle in the Skin. This is a post-apocalyptic story of Britain after devastating earthquakes. I love his writing (Death of Grass is brilliant) but he makes the error of believing even in 1965 that to have protein humans must be flesh eaters. Most survival stories assume this too (but not The Martian). To be fair it would be quite difficult for a vegan to forage sufficient seeds, berries, legumes, fungi, fruit, roots, nuts and leaves in the British Isles in winter, even in relatively luxuriant vegetation where humans hadn’t cut most of it down.
The moral here, if there is one, is that researching a ‘what-if’ story can be as rewarding as filling out the characters and playing with the plot.
I’ve titled the short story Tegg’s Nose – unusual enough I think to pique interest. Still in draft mode and yet to be critiqued in the British Science Fiction Association Orbit group.
Other Nelder News
The third book in the Flying Crooked series of SF novellas, Kepler’s Son is due out later this year. I’m now writing Vanished Earth. When descendants of Suppose We return to find their mother planet, Earth, it’s gone! What happened? Is that it hiding inside Jupiter? Loved doing the research for this.
Personal Best anthology in which is my Don’t Bite my Finger… short monk punk story. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08F6CGF9X
Also published was ALIEN EXIT a science fiction first-contact novel as an ebook only https://mybook.to/alienexit
Revised Xaghra’s Revenge set in present-day and 16th Century Malta and Gozo now retitled as Vengeance Island http://mybook.to/VIsland
Escaping Reality – humorous thriller • http://hyperurl.co/nyjaiv
Hot Air – thriller set in Mallorca • http://hyperurl.co/di4y0h
ARIA: Left Luggage – infectious amnesia scifi • smarturl.it/1fexhs
ARIA: Returning Left Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/tgtid6
ARIA: Abandon Luggage • http://hyperurl.co/26trxv
Incremental – 25 surreal short stories • http://mybook.to/Incremental
Suppose We -science fiction space exploration • https://mybook.to/SupposeWe
The Chaos of Mokii ebook at https://mybook.to/Kaos
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