Geoff Nelder's Blog, page 8
March 10, 2018
Storm in a teacup
Bénard cells in a beverage [image error]
As a teacher I relished taking unconventional steps to the delight and edification of my students. I’d be the rare teacher that would allow pupils to rush to the window to watch a rainbow, catch snowflakes, measure the acidity of rain and hurl leaves in a vortex. Why not, after all I taught weather and climate. It didn’t always produce awe. I recall taking 13-year-olds on the school field. I stood in front of them such that the sun was behind them. I knew it was raining on the hills behind me so I said to them, “You should be able to see a rainbow. Can you?”
[image error]“Yes,” they chorused. “So what?”
I tried to explain that I couldn’t see it because the sun has to be behind the viewer and the angle of sunlight to the raindrops and back to the eye has to be 42 degrees. Oh well.
Another natural phenomenon that got me into trouble once in a café concerned a storm in a tea cup. I was with my Geography head of department in a café in Church Stretton, Shropshire. We had been measure streams, vegetation and microclimate on the Long Mynd and relaxing. To my delight convection cells revealed themselves on the surface my cup of tea.
I gathered the student around and showed them. Cells of paler tea (microbubbles) were pushed up to the surface (convection) while darker lines appear where the cooled tea sinks under gravity. Cells are hidden but exist inside the cup. This phenomenon is known as Rayleigh-Bénard convection. Henri Bénard (1874-1939) described them first, Raleigh did most of the physics equations later.
Thing is, Bénard cells can occur in any hot beverage including coffee and hot chocolate, but is best observed in hot coffee. By chance, through the window were altocumulus clouds, demonstrating the same phenomenon ie the white stuff is rising moisture when the gaps between is sinking air.[image error]
One of the students said, “What’s the point?”
What’s the point????? And I’ll add !!! even though as an editor multiple exclamations are a no no.
So with heavy heart I said, “You are observing something hardly anyone notices. There’s a delight in that, yes? And there’s science to this beautiful phenomenon. It’s a show put on just for us for the cost of a drink. Not everyone can see it. You need a light – even from a window – shining over the surface of the tea – and don’t drink it too soon.
Furthermore, you can instantly wipe the Bénard cells by striking a match over them. The sudden burst of particles destroys the static status. So, I ask one of the smokers among the pupils for matches. I poise over the Bénard cells and strike a match.
It was at this point that the waitress asked me to leave.
Other Nelder News
[image error]What a turn up for the books – well, short story. I have a preposterous tale shortlisted for the prestigious BSFA Awards 2018. If you are a member or are attending the FollyCon / EasterCon in Harrogate this Easter I would be enormously grateful if you would consider voting for ANGULAR SIZE in the shorter story category. Link is here http://bit.ly/2GghsKe
FICFUN
I can recommend this new venture. It is a web-based writing and showcasing site that has already run one successful competition. I am the next honorary judge for the suspense category. If you are hard at work with #NaNoWriMo or just finishing off a novel or long story of at least 10k words and want to know what to do with it, why not enter it for
http://www.ficfun.com/act/fictioncontest
Free to enter, huge prizes
worth a look
tweets @FicFun
XAGHRA’S REVENGE released this summer. Pirates abducted 5000 people off the tiny Mediterranean island near Malta in 1551. Nearly 500yrs passed until their spirits enacted revenge with my authorial help. http://myBook.to/Xaghra
I am to do a signing of Xaghra’s Revenge at the Preluna Hotel, Sliema in April 2018. I stayed at this hotel when I did the research and even wrote some chapters there.
Run, hide! alien apocalypse.
Infectious amnesia. Free on KindleUnlimited or
99 pence/cents ARIA smarturl.it/1fexhs
My other books can be found on the Amazon Author page http://author.to/Amazonauthorpage
Or if you fancy a children’s picture book about Timmy the Tornado – a kind of social story to help children grow up and be kind. ebook 99 pence https://payhip.com/b/2aj3
The post Storm in a teacup appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
February 16, 2018
Angular Size is up for a #BSFA Award!
[image error]What a turn up for the books – well, short story. I have a preposterous tale shortlisted for the prestigious BSFA Awards 2018. If you are a member or are attending the FollyCon / EasterCon in Harrogate this Easter I would be enormously grateful if you would consider voting for ANGULAR SIZE in the shorter story category. Link is here http://bit.ly/2GghsKe
The premise is predicated on the concept of Angular Size, or the apparent size of an object. Eg the sun is the same apparent size of the moon, but we know it’s not the actual same size. Similarly there is no coin small enough that will blot out the moon, or sun, if you hold it out at arm’s length. A blouse button might do! In Angular Size, another moon appears behind our usual one. As a probe approaches the darned thing stays the same angular size. What’s going on? And why is our female protagonist obsessed by her chair? The astronomers at Arecibo are frustrated that their sophisticated instruments cannot SEE the extra moon even though all they need to do is go outside and it is there – in their face!
That’s my ANGULAR SIZE short story in #SFERICS 2017 anthology, and it’s been nominated for the #BSFA short story #Award– yeay. Not only nominated but as of yesterday it has been shortlisted. Out of dozens of nominees – all excellent stories – somehow my ANGULAR SIZE had reached the short list of five!
BSFA members will receive a copy of all the shortlisted entries free (as part of their membership), but if you wish to read it then you can buy the anthology within which it resides:
The SFERICS 2017 anthology is only £3.40 paperback and only 99p Kindlehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/SFerics-2017-Rosie-O…/…/1976143381/
Other Nelder News
FICFUN
I can recommend this new venture. It is a web-based writing and showcasing site that has already run one successful competition. I am the next honorary judge for the suspense category. If you are hard at work with #NaNoWriMo or just finishing off a novel or long story of at least 10k words and want to know what to do with it, why not enter it for
http://www.ficfun.com/act/fictioncontest
Free to enter, huge prizes
worth a look
tweets @FicFun
XAGHRA’S REVENGE released this summer. Pirates abducted 5000 people off the tiny Mediterranean island near Malta in 1551. Nearly 500yrs passed until their spirits enacted revenge with my authorial help. http://myBook.to/Xaghra
I am to do a signing of Xaghra’s Revenge at the Preluna Hotel, Sliema in April 2018. I stayed at this hotel when I did the research and even wrote some chapters there.
Run, hide! alien apocalypse.
Infectious amnesia. Free on KindleUnlimited or
99 pence/cents ARIA smarturl.it/1fexhs
My other books can be found on the Amazon Author page http://author.to/Amazonauthorpage
Or if you fancy a children’s picture book about Timmy the Tornado – a kind of social story to help children grow up and be kind. ebook 99 pence https://payhip.com/b/2aj3
The post Angular Size is up for a #BSFA Award! appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
February 1, 2018
Ambushed by Anita
[image error]There I was cycling happily along a winding country lane when a wagon forced me off road. Lying in the long grass the driver said, “We’ll let you back on the highway as long as you publish word of a fabulous new book by Anita Kovacevic.” I had no choice, but luckily she happens to be one of my favourite writerly pals. So, Anita, blow your cycle horn!
[image error]
THE FOREST OF TREES BLURB:
When a family of four faces the brutal reality of their city life, they readily embrace a complete change. Emma and David Stone, with their kids Jeremy and Dot, move to a small town with their big hopes. However, small towns have their own secrets – from urban legends about The Forest of Trees to family skeletons in closets everyone knows about.
Gradually, Jeremy and Dot make some new and unusual friends, whereas Emma and David start working again, and things seem to be going for the better. But evil never rests. The Jacksons, a bigoted and brutal family of pig farmers, however scary, are not the only ones leaning towards malice. The more new friendships grow, the more villains will struggle to retain power. Will the arrival of the newcomers tip the scales in favour of the good or the evil? And how can The Forest of Trees play its part in the solution?
The life between the legendary Forest of Trees and the small town of Tillsworth is separated only by a road. All it takes to reconnect is to take that path.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwnR-_utzJA
REVIEW COMMENTS:[image error]
‘This is not a fairy tale for children, but an adult examination of the way belief in oneself can change the course of lives. It is lovely, frightening, joyous, and painful. Anita Kovacevic can put another notch in her author’s belt with this brilliantly written book.’
By Elizabeth Newton, from Between the Beats (https://elizabethnnewton.com/2017/12/28/the-forest-of-trees-by-anita-kovacevic/)
‘Some of the parts were like the fairytale, happy and carefree, but other parts were nothing but the harsh reality.
The ability of the author to jump from one to another was so easy. I loved the beautiful description of the forest creatures, but I also loved the other side of the coin…’
Irena Cacic, on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36407464-the-forest-of-trees )
SNEAK PEEK:
From the author’s foreword:
Our lives always consist of beauty and ugliness, and if we are lucky, we get to keep the balance of the two. The good and the bad start from within us, and spread all around us. It is what weaves this world, and, I believe, all worlds everywhere and everywhen.
All fairytales consist of magic and horror. Not everyone is always good, and not everyone is always bad. Snow White faced the evil Witch Queen, Cinderella her step-family, the children and parents the Pied Piper…
In a way, this story is also a horror fairytale, but it is not for children. You may feel like reading some parts to your children, but those were the parts told by my own inner child, the one who still hopes and believes in magic. The horror in the story has nothing magical about it – it brings out the harsh reality I hated to write, but had to write out of me.
To paraphrase the words of two fascinating authors, we must write even that which we don’t want to write, because it must be said (S. King). And it is up to us which side we choose – the good or the easy (J. K. Rowling).
For myself, I admit to having both sides, but I intend to always feed the good in me – always.
CHAPTER 11 – READY?
Jeremy felt as if a gigantic troll with spiky teeth and heavy hands was pounding with a rock hammer against the insides of Jeremy’s skull. The noise of his bloodstream, the rhythm of his rage, the tremor of his fear, all were so strong that not even the school bus, hitting every single bump on the road, could shake them off. It was like his heart had been mauled from his chest by a monster claw, as flashes of the ruined canvas blinded his eyes like electricity coming on and off. Unconscious of his own actions, he reached for his chest to check, but there was no blood gushing, although it felt hot and excruciating just the same.
He wasn’t wiping off any tears, for there were none to dry. He wished there had been. He wished he could still cry about it, the way he had with his dad that day in the bathroom, and wash away the feeling of shame, guilt, filth, ruin and fury. But his eyes were as dry as the desert sand, and he stared through the bus window, aimlessly observing the scenery without actually seeing anything. He was almost numb to the outside world and the people around him.[image error]
CHAPTER 12 – A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER
I hope nobody is still out there,” Miss Pagiotti said.
The rain shower had turned into a thick curtain, masking most outer events. For a second, Miss Pagiotti thought she could see something or someone still there, so she grabbed Mr Jones by the wrist, and they both rose to their feet and walked even closer to the window.
They froze at the image they saw.
Angel’s family was walking outside in the rain, from the direction of a nearby supermarket to their lorry, parked further down the street. The group was led by the grandpa, his grey jacket drenched, steel-framed boots threading the puddles. His dark hat was tucked on his forehead, hiding his wrinkled face, as his eyes fixated on the lorry; the weather never swaying his stride, despite his limp. He walked as if the storm was merely an annoying fly to swat, and ignoring everybody behind him. Angel’s dad followed, copying his father, almost tripping as he forced his legs to adjust the pace and remain behind the pack leader. His yellow fisherman raincoat protected his body, but raindrops blinded him. His two teenage sons walked each on one side of their dad, trying not to stay behind. The two dark-haired adolescents were shaking from the cold, their hands in their jacket pockets, all wet through, skinny, grim and unhappy, faces freshly scarred from fighting or getting beaten. Angel dragged his baby brother behind the trio, annoyed at being left behind as the designated babysitter, his bald wet head glowing in the street light.
As the Jackson procession passed the restaurant, Ben’s dad opened the door ajar.
“Come inside. Get warm,” he said.
“Mind your own business, you blithering idiot. The Jacksons need no charity,” Old Jackson barked above the noise of the storm, not even looking at the man.
OTHER BOOKS BY ANITA KOVACEVIC:
Adult books: The Threshold – paranormal novella; Average Daydreamer – light romance; Versus Verses – Feel – poetry; Versus Verses – Love – poetry
Children’s books: Winky’s Colours: A Penguin’s Story; The Good Pirate; Mimi Finds Her Magic; Spikes for Hank
Contributions to anthologies:
Teaching Children from the Heart & Inner Giant; Awethology Light & December Awethology Light Volume; Twisted Tales & Crooked Tales; Looking into the Abyss; A Treasure Chest of Children’s Stories
AUTHOR’S BIO:
Anita Kovacevic is multi-genre author of both children’s and adult fiction. Her belief in the power of storytelling has been strengthened through her years of teaching and teacher training. Anita enjoys writing stories which come to her on her ‘dreamstep’, blending reality and magic, and has a quirky fondness for writing limerick stories. You can read her reviews, book news and author interviews on her WordPress blog Anita’s Haven. She lives with her husband and children in Croatia, where she graduated from university with a degree in English and Spanish Literature.
ALL MY BOOK LINKS:
Amazon universal link Author.to/AnitaKovacevicAmazon
Barnes & Noble all Nook https://tinyurl.com/ybfpg9gb
Kobo all Rakuten https://tinyurl.com/ycxuds4g
iTunes all Apple https://tinyurl.com/ydfyn8hq
Lulu http://tinyurl.com/ltbvq54
Book Gorilla http://tinyurl.com/le5h4x2
Goodreads http://tinyurl.com/jwovbbv
(find me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as Anita’s Haven; WordPress blog https://anitashaven.wordpress.com/)
Thank you Anita. May I get back on my bike now?
The post Ambushed by Anita appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
January 14, 2018
Merlin and ‘A Mind Of Its Own’
[image error]
Mind Of Its Own is a magical fantasy story featuring King Arthur’s Merlin when he was given the task to escort a teenage girl on a strange journey. It is for adults only. It is for adults with a sense of humour only. This story was selected as the Story of the month for the 2016 British Fantasy Society October Bulletin.
Mind of its Own
Geoff Nelder
Warning: this tale involves magic with a mind of its own. If you experience any personal oddities during your reading be afraid, but not very afraid. You will return to normal eventually.
Merlin scowled at his arthritis-afflicted knuckles and reached out to the campfire, careful not to knock over a pot of roots and berries simmering with impatience. He grimaced a weak smile at the woody yet fruity aroma from the burning Birch bark.
An untidy pile of brown woollen blankets agitated, releasing a black-haired young woman. Although Merlin admired her clear blue eyes, he was always distracted by a dark mole on her left cheek. Others might use such as a beauty spot but hers sprouted two black hairs.
She stood and shook off the remaining bedding reluctant to let her escape and took two metal cups to the pot.
“Why don’t you cast one of your spells to rid yourself of your pain?” Her voice trilled high as Merlin knew it would from a teenager. Even so, it rankled in his ears and he had to concentrate to hear the girl’s words. He’d been obliged to chaperone her journey between Chepstow and Denbigh and after only two days he’d used up most of his store of tolerance.
Knees creaking, Merlin sat on a fallen tree within warming distance of the fire. “My dear Elspeth, daughter of Arthur’s squire and our Queen of sighs, mostly mine, my magic is an illusion, with smoke, mirrors and trickery rather than genuine sorcery.”
She shook her head, from which a cascade of motes caught in the flames creating a coruscating display. “Last Michaelmas you used a spell to turn an attacking wolf into a timid fawn, who ran away when Mordred ran at it with his knife.”
Merlin smiled as he used a green stick to poke at the fire. “You think you saw a wolf. Darkness, flickering campfire, and a goblet of golden mead. All these components conspire against the unobservant.”
The girl used her hands to part her long black hair like curtains and threw Merlin a smile. It was lopsided, but she possessed full lips and with those large eyes smiling, he knew she wanted something. She licked her lips, making them glisten.
“Merlin?”
“Yes?”
She toyed with her hair, twirling some around her fingers. “I know you are bashful about it, but you can do real magic if you want to. Can’t you?”
He smiled at Arthur’s jibe a year back: “Magician heal thyself.”
His smile upturned to serious. “The last time I tried to use magic to cure my ills, it back-fired.”
“What is back-fire?”
“What? Oh, I sometimes have visions. Of tomorrow.” At least that was what he supposed with the flashing images in his trances of metallic contraptions travelling at shit-scary speeds through strange towns, and sometimes over the top of them. Voices too from which he learnt that objects have little value compared to human emotions, which do not change, no matter how odd the scenes he saw. “For example when I used a spell to cure an ache in my left incisor—the pointy ones—it fell out. Hence the gap. See?”
Elspeth stared at him, then up at an escaped ember looking to ignite an overhead branch.
She returned her gaze to the old man. “You are silly.”
He returned a grin even though it revealed the gap in his teeth and a flickering tongue that played with it. “Silly enough to agree with this mission.”
She leaned forward so the fire shone rosy on her face. “If you use your real magic to take away my spot, I’ll lift my skirts for you.”
“Tempting but my talents in such delights became dormant thirty years ago, and extinct these last ten years.” He sat back, lost in his memories. “Although, perhaps with real magic.”
She tossed her head back to induce a wave in her hair rippling down her back. “I don’t think, my dear wizard, that you would have any difficulty down there when my skirts are raised, do you?”
He’d like to think not but sat back to look at her face. He had to ignore her seductive leer in order to focus on her spot. “The fact that it is more a wart increases the complexity.”
She hid the spot with her hand and pouted. “It is not a wart. I’m not a hag!”
He laughed softly, his whole body joining in.
“Do not upset yourself, Elspeth. Well, it’s not in my grasp to perform two spells simultaneously so I’ll work one on your spot first and then perhaps, on my … problem afterwards.”
He thought he knew which group of intonations were required and still marvelled that from being a child he was one of only a few who could draw on an inner sense to invoke effects in living and non-living beings. However, he hesitated, torn between the opportunity of delight with Elspeth and the risk of the spell turning against him as one did before.
The girl mistook his delay. “Your wand. You need that don’t you? Shall I help you find it in your—”
“No need. I have it here.” He didn’t need a wand but people expected it, and if it aided the illusion so be it. Several visions ago he’d observed himself wearing a cloak festooned with stars and moons as if he were a court jester. He glanced at his dark, muddy cowl. Merlin loved its comforting warmth and the anonymity when inside the expansive hood. He rescued a small stick from incineration and waved it in the air. The end glowed red and released a sparkling smoke trail meandering up in the air. He knew it was merely a stick but she’d see what her mind contorted it to be.
He’d already dredged memory for a suitable spell to rid Elspeth of her wart. While she slept one night he’d rubbed her wart with a clove of garlic then buried the vegetable along the path. The wart remained but perhaps not as bad. A conjuration was required but he needed to avoid those evocations that allowed the magic to escape. He flicked the wand in her direction.
“Elspeth you are not to listen to my words. Relax, close your eyes and allow your mind to drift to your unblemished cheek.”
She sat on a boulder swaying as if in a trance. The air filled with aromatic wood smoke now combined with lavender from Merlin’s satchel.
This was to be one of his spells that mixed magic with incantation. Words verbalised, vibrating through the air not just as speech but as an alternate reality creating an effect beyond mere hearing. Indeed, the understanding is the least likely outcome of such sounds, spoken in an ancient tongue not used by common folk for millennia.
He stood and spoke silently then increasingly sharper as he intonated, “Diffinda, diffindo Durs yek Gor arrants hapaghelu, Diffinda, diffindo Durs yek Gor arrants hapaghelu.”
The mystic words left him, creating a ripple in the air that accompanied each sound as they weaved their way across the fire and brushed Elspeth’s face. She gasped then unsteadily stood with her hands caressing her cheeks.
Merlin had to rush around the fire to catch her as she fainted. At the same time ripples in the air created a purple glow travelling away towards the nearest trees.
“Wake up, girl, I need to catch that wisp and stop it escaping.”
He laid her on ferns, slung his satchel over his shoulder and ran slowly, as fast as he could, after the spell. He should have known better than to be lured by the promise of a woman’s charms, especially as he was unlikely to be able to accept her favours.
Merlin stumbled on making use of cart ruts over the rough ground to the wood. Berries turned back into flowers from where the flaw-removing spell worked on the vegetation as it wandered about a hundred paces in front. If he could get close enough he would use an entrapment counter-spell, if he remembered it.
He wasn’t used to this rushing around. Six decades of trying to please Arthur and Guinevere takes the stuffing out of any man. Yes, he’d lived many decades before Arthur was born and he possessed magic powers but look what could happen to them. Having the reputation of being able to use enchantments merely meant he was put in situations of extreme danger. Instead of rocking in a comfortable chair in front of a roaring fire in the twilight of his life, he had to ward off the slingshots and arrows of Black Knights, ugly Saxons and horned demons.
What was that spell doing? He’d made it to be rid of a spot so it had mutated, gone feral. Autumn leaves on the ground were turning green and returning, upwards to their twigs. If that was all, and only in this area, it wouldn’t be so bad, but it mightn’t stop. If he couldn’t catch and deactivate the magic it could wreck the planet’s whole ecosystem. Another word from a vision, although he knew ecosystem before as Mother Nature, whose wayward son was to be called pollution and whose charming daughters warmed the globe, somehow. Whatever their names, he worried about the future if the magic he’d released created havoc with trees being overwhelmed with their returning leaves and the soils deprived of their nourishment. All his fault.
Just as he reached within a hand’s grasp of the swirling spell seen through the rising curtain of once-dead leaves, a hedgehog shot up in the air and flew past his ear.
“No, you’ve given furze-pigs the ability to fly!” He ducked then tripped face first in a large field mushroom. He elbowed himself up. Just as he was thinking how it would be scrumptious to have mushrooms for their supper, something hard pushed into his back forcing him down, back into the fungus, obliterating it beyond consumption.
Through muddy eyelids he saw Elspeth leaping off him, her skirts flying as she chased the spell.
“Come back,” he spluttered. “There’s danger.”
She called without looking back, but waving a stick, “Don’t worry, I have the wand.”
Merlin groaned at his pains and at her naiveté as he struggled to his knees. There through the trees in the growing dawn light he spied the purple light like an exploring will o’ the wisp marvelling in its new-found world here, machinating mischief there. He’d have to rein it in, use a gathering and entrapment spell on the escaping magic before it hurt Elspeth or undid the very nature of this wood and if left to continue it might undo our Eorthe.
The magician had two chase targets. The girl had to be stopped first because he couldn’t focus while she endangered herself. He threw a hastily-contrived tripping spell that should have resulted in her falling harmlessly. Sadly he missed and an ash tree found its branches entwined instead. It released all its leaves on top of Elspeth, making her stop, fall, laugh and be caught by Merlin. He used an enchanted twine to tie her ankles.
“I’ll release you by and by.”
She sat up and screamed, “No one binds me! Let me go.”
“For your own good. That escaped magic has a mind of its own and is dangerous.”
As if it heard, the purple spell shot a spray of acorns at Merlin, reminding him of machine guns in his visions. He ducked, making the missiles destroy the base of a beech. He threw himself on top of the girl as the tree fell. Luckily it missed them although they were further covered in leaves and insects.
“See, Elspeth, the magic started by undoing a flaw in a skin imperfection, what else will it find necessary to undo?”
He shook off the living debris and leaves and gathered his thoughts for a suitable gathering spell. He had to run again as the purple dove deeper into the wood. He followed it through a dell, zig-zagged over a hilly copse then skidded to a halt on a lake’s pebble beach. Had it gone into the water? He hoped not as most spells didn’t work close to that amount of liquid. His eyesight became blurred as grit lifted from the beach and hovered in front of him. They shot upwards, followed by pebbles. Gravel moved beneath Merlin’s feet making him fall onto his back. He looked up at the sky, pink at the edges, blue in the middle but becoming obscured by the rising stones.
Now larger stones rose from the beach, some dripping from the lake, slowly at first then gathering pace as they followed the smaller particles. He saw twigs, leaves, everything loose, leaving the ground and heading upwards but where to? A pebble brushed past his ear on its way skyward, then another.
Elspeth’s tremulous voice reached him. “You can’t keep me a prisoner, Merlin. Oh, what’s happening?”
He turned to see that somehow she’d ruptured the twine at her ankles. She still held his ‘wand’. Surely it didn’t really work?
He craned his aching neck back upwards, reluctant to stand in case this falling business of his became perpetual. “I believe the magic thinks anything loose on the planet is an imperfection and is sending it all back to where it came from.”
Elspeth caressed her now smooth face. “That is so sweet, the spell wanting everywhere to be perfect. Look it is all flying, like a cloud to meet the rising sun.”
“That’s it! Of course. It thinks this planet came from the sun and so its imperfections are going back to its creator.”
Elspeth ran her fingers through her dark hair. A loose strand broke free and joined the few remaining uplifting pebbles. “I thought Eorthe came from clay in Odin’s hands, not the sun.”
“Ah, you’ve been listening to our Norse friends. It doesn’t really matter what they or we believe, but what that idiot magic thinks it knows.”
She glanced over at the trace of purple still visible in trees across the lake then smiled at Merlin. “Can you not confuse that spell further, with some artful illusions of your own?”
The magician grinned. “You genius.” He leant forward to pat her on the head but she lifted her face and kissed him full on the lips. His emotions flitted from embarrassment to wonder at the honeyed sweet wetness of her lips. How strange were the females, and what had he been missing all these years?
First the spell. He threw his hands out at the magic and created bright orbs either side of it, to create a distraction. His confidence enabled the correct gathering spell to form in his mind.
“Return Nunc revertetur ad me. Dissipantur aucturitas tua.”
To his relief the purple glow travelled across the water to his hands and dissipated.
Elspeth frowned at him. “Will that hurt you, now?”
“No, the spell is disabled and vanished.” He released a deep sigh and finally smiling looked at the girl.
No. He wasn’t sure at first and he didn’t want to worry her, but there was a black hair newly sprouting from her right cheek. A smudge grew to a spot. Perhaps she couldn’t feel it, but she surely would soon enough. His undoing of the spell had removed its power backwards to its inception. If so, that would mean… He glanced up at the sky darkening with the accelerating return of many hundredweights of pebbles, rolled on top of Elspeth and covered his head.
“Nooooo.”
Wonderful photograph of Merlin here. Photographer Julia Margaret Cameron was a Victorian who used daguerrotypes. Julia Stephen, Virginia Woolf’s mother, was a favorite model. Thanks to Dr Sharon K Califano
[image error]
NELDER NEWS
FICFUN
I can recommend this new venture. It is a web-based writing and showcasing site that has already run one successful competition. I am the next honorary judge for the suspense category. If you are hard at work with #NaNoWriMo or just finishing off a novel or long story of at least 10k words and want to know what to do with it, why not enter it for
http://www.ficfun.com/act/fictioncontest
Free to enter, huge prizes
worth a look
tweets @FicFun
XAGHRA’S REVENGE released this summer. Pirates abducted 5000 people off the tiny Mediterranean island near Malta in 1551. Nearly 500yrs passed until their spirits enacted revenge with my authorial help. http://myBook.to/Xaghra
I am to do a signing of Xaghra’s Revenge at the Preluna Hotel, Sliema in April 2018. I stayed at this hotel when I did the research and even wrote some chapters there.
Run, hide! alien apocalypse.
Infectious amnesia. Free on KindleUnlimited or
99 pence/cents ARIA smarturl.it/1fexhs
My other books can be found on the Amazon Author page http://author.to/Amazonauthorpage
Or if you fancy a children’s picture book about Timmy the Tornado – a kind of social story to help children grow up and be kind. ebook 99 pence https://payhip.com/b/2aj3
The post Merlin and ‘A Mind Of Its Own’ appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
December 31, 2017
Books read in 2017
[image error]Maybe it’s because I am in a couple of book groups requiring me to read at least two books monthly, plus what the members call ‘side reads’ along the lines of if-you-enjoyed-that-you’ll-like-this’ I have quite a long list here. In fact I’ve started more than I finished and forgotten some I enjoyed, but hadn’t written review notes. Long though this list is, the 2018 reads will outdo it because of my role as a judge in the current FicFun writing competition. For that I will read the equivalent of at least 20 novellas / novels by the end of May.
These are in no particular order – even of chronological reading. Nor do I say if I enjoyed them though books I couldn’t really finish because of the writing style or content don’t make this list at all.
If I had to pick a favourite author of 2017 it would be Claire North.
Crater’s Edge by Lucy Andrews
The Martian Job by Jaine Fenn
Descent by Ken MacLeod
Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott
The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North
The End of the Day by Claire North
The Roar of Lions by Mark Iles
The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
Finding Alison Deirdre Eustace
Gone Gods by Frances Gow
Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre
The Power Naomi Anderson
The Boldest Measures by Charlie Flowers
About Grace Anthony Doerr
Guardian Angels Dr Bob Rich
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Tamed by Douglas R Brown
The Lady of the Forest by Kevin Carman
The Codex by Helen McCabe
The Tourist by Robert Dickinson
The Christ Killer New York by Brandon S.S. Bourne
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
Anthologies
The Horror Zine Magazine Summer 2017 Ed Jeani Rector
Stories of Your Life anthology by Ted Chiang (Arrival film story within)
Book of Tricks: Six Cruel and Unusual Short Stories by B.C.Bamber
SFerics 2017 ed Rosie Oliver
Twisted Tales IX ed J Richard Jacobs
Crooked Tales ed Mark Fine, Anita Kovacevic etc
Poetry
Unmaking Atoms Magdelena Ball
Pomegranate Heart by Miriam Calleja
Making Cocoa For Kingsley Amis by Wendy Cope
Non Fiction
Write Well Publish Right by Lucinda Moebius
Memory of Water by Emmi Itaranta
Time Was (Memoir) Howard Waldman
Oxygen – A 4 billion year history by Donal Canfield
Cycling Philosophy for Everyone Ed Fritz Allhoff
The Winding Stair: Francis Bacon bio (not the artist) Daphne Du Maurier
NELDER NEWS
FICFUN
I can recommend this new venture. It is a web-based writing and showcasing site that has already run one successful competition. I am the next honorary judge for the suspense category. If you are hard at work with #NaNoWriMo or just finishing off a novel or long story of at least 10k words and want to know what to do with it, why not enter it for
http://www.ficfun.com/act/fictioncontest
Free to enter, huge prizes
worth a look
tweets @FicFun
XAGHRA’S REVENGE released this summer. Pirates abducted 5000 people off the tiny Mediterranean island near Malta in 1551. Nearly 500yrs passed until their spirits enacted revenge with my authorial help. http://myBook.to/Xaghra
I am to do a signing of Xaghra’s Revenge at the Preluna Hotel, Sliema in April 2018. I stayed at this hotel when I did the research and even wrote some chapters there.
Run, hide! alien apocalypse.
Infectious amnesia. Free on KindleUnlimited or
99 pence/cents ARIA smarturl.it/1fexhs
My other books can be found on the Amazon Author page http://author.to/Amazonauthorpage
Or if you fancy a children’s picture book about Timmy the Tornado – a kind of social story to help children grow up and be kind. ebook 99 pence https://payhip.com/b/2aj3
The post Books read in 2017 appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
December 23, 2017
Photography
My bike ride in Spain 2011 north of Benidorm
I’m inspired by my next door neighbour to blog some of my own photographs. He is Matthew Martin and his blog of inspirational gems is here.
I have to confess that I have no decent camera and lazy enough to be using my phone cam in recent years. I hope I have an eye for a ‘good’ image though and this might come across. I’ve thrown a few together from early to more recent.
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March 25 2007 Lache Lane, Chester. Accident-prone winding lane. Their mum was livid!
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Between Wetten and Hulme End in the Peak District 2011. Note altocumulus clouds rippling.
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June 2012 when I cycled over Ironbridge
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Limnisa in Methana, Greece. My fave writing retreat.
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The ‘secret’ Anafon Valley, N. Wales – setting for ARIA. I took this photo from the near the summit of Drum.
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Great Budworth took over the phone box. It’s the smallest library that has one of my books 
December 20, 2017
Crater’s Edge by Lucy Andrews
Crater’s Edge by Lucy Andrews[image error]
You know me by now, a sucker for holes – the ones in the ground. Hence my POTHOLE short story about a small hole that doubles in size every day until… argh! To be featured in my INCREMENTAL collection coming out in 2018
Then there is EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEE with its Best SF novel award (runner up) in 2008 where alien artefacts emerge from the crust leaving behind rather deep holes. Here it is
Not to forget my short story THE MEMORY ROCK when a meteorite makes a hole in my nearby village of Dodleston. A free read here http://thewifiles.com/?p=631
I wonder if this interest in earthly voids started when taking Geography students into Snowdonia and visiting various slate quarries. Especially the vast one near [image error]Bethesda. Penrhyn quarry was the world’s largest at the end of the C19th.
Let’s get right up to date with these new holes. They’re craters on a far-away planet in the far future and thought up by British author Lucy Andrews in her debut SF novel, CRATER’S EDGE published by Solstice Publishing in November 2017.
In 2235 on a distant planet, mining operations are grinding to a halt as mysterious forces, or sabotage, strange geology, or bad luck trigger accidents. Trouble-shooting engineer, Kalen, is sent to Three Craters, but nothing goes smoothly. Even his love-life takes odd turns and his suspicions of a cover-up multiplies in this thrilling page turner.
Most of the point of view is through Kalen interspersed with that from a curious young geologist, Sera. Initially, she is hateful of men—a misandrist—from past bad experiences. Even the hot-blooded Kalen doesn’t like her attitude, until circumstances forces a skin-to-skin contact, a warm one. Warmth needed because strangely on Three Craters, it is cold down the levels in the mine. On Earth temperature increases by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius per 100 metres depth, but that’s what I like about outer space worlds: they can be very different. Back to Sera, she’s religious 2235 AD style. As an atheist I shy from formal religious components in my stories, but Andrews shows how I don’t need to. Do the religious community win out in the end? They should with the God-Force on their side…
Much of the action is underground, very deep down. You start in a deep crater and get deeper. The skill of the writing is such that you can feel the thrum of the drills and the heat of the lasers through your armchair.
In fact so much action and relationship issues occur underground that the cover art could be said to be rather misleading with its futuristic skyscrapers under a blue sky. That happens too, but with tongue-in-cheek I’d suggest this image of a tunnel boring machine is more representative 
December 13, 2017
Cigar-shaped spaceship Oumuamua
[image error]
Artist’s concept of interstellar asteroid 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) as it passed through the solar system after its discovery in October 2017. The aspect ratio of up to 10:1 is unlike that of any object seen in our own solar system.
Credits: European Southern Observatory/M. Kornmesser
Summary: 100 metres long and 10 wide, rocky with a red hue.
Drifting through the Milky Way but from out of our Solar System for hundreds of millions of years, unless it is the result of a collision or eruption, which sent it zooming away in a long trajectory only to return.
NASA is studying this object. Telescopes are able to detect its hue and that it rotates on its axis every 7.2 hours thus changing its brightness. No other object has been observed coming from interstellar space and none with an elongation longer than 3 times its radius.
All things being equal, bodies in space have enough gravity to force a roughly spherical shape over millions of years. However, it’s possible for a shard or splinter from a larger object to look like this, maybe after a collision. NASA says: “Oumuamua is dense, comprised of rock and possibly metals, has no water or ice, and that its surface was reddened due to the effects of irradiation from cosmic rays over hundreds of millions of years.“
It’s travelling about 87,000 mph as it goes farther from Earth and will pass Saturn at an angle of 20 degrees to the ecliptic plane in 2019. If we want to board and investigate it we’ll have to hurry!
When it slingshot around the sun it was travelling at 197,000 mph but the sun’s gravity and drag is slowing it down.
Interestingly when the trajectory calculations were done after it was spotted in October 2017, it appeared to come from the direction of Vega, just like the aliens in the ARIA Trilogy.
Astronomers think a strange-shaped object like this might pass through our solar system once a year but too faint for us to detect them. The Pan-STARRS telescopes are designed to spot such objects so more should be spotted.
Reference to read more via NASA https://www.nasa.gov/feature/solar-system-s-first-interstellar-visitor-dazzles-scientists
Joseph Greene wrote a series of young people’s stories based on aliens with spaceships disguised as asteroids 1959-52
Greg Bear’s Eon has a hollowed out asteroid.
Captive Universe is a story by Harry Harrison where an asteroid is hollowed out.
Freelancer is a game where asteroids are used as space vehicles.
Of course it still ‘might be’ a spaceship, perhaps like the alien tube in Arthur C Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama.
Now, here’s my artistic impression of Oumuamua. Just add a few rocks and a red colour to throw off the experts
December 2, 2017
Book Group topics for Xaghra’s Revenge
I attend a couple of book groups in Chester. Often the books generate plenty of points for us to discuss, but sometimes it is useful for the publisher or author to provides questions. Many of these book group topics apply to any fiction so feel free to copy.
Possible Book Group topics for XAGHRA’S REVENGE[image error]
1. What did you like best about this book?
2. What did you like least about this book
3. What other books did this remind you of
4. Which characters in the book did you like best?
5. Which characters did you like least?
6. If you were making a movie of this book, who would you cast?
7. Share a favourite quote from the book. Why did this quote stand out?
8. What other books by this author have you read? How did they compare to this book?
9. Would you read another book by this author? Why or why not?
10. What feelings did this book evoke for you?
11. If you got the chance to ask the author of this book one question, what would it be?
12. Which places in the book would you most like to visit?
13. What do you think of the book’s title? How does it relate to the book’s contents? What other title might you choose?
14. What do you think of the book’s cover? How well does it convey what the book is about? An alternative cover had a slave girl in chains because this really happened.
15. What do you think the author’s purpose was in writing this book? What ideas was he trying to get across?
16. How original and unique was this book?
17. If you were to write fanfic about this book, what kind of story would you want to tell?
18. What do you think about the author’s research? Was it easy to see where the author got his or her information? Were the sources credible?
I’ll provide my own answers to these questions in a later blog.
Nelder News
[image error]In November I read a short story, VIEW FROM at the Chester Literary Festival to promote our Chester Writers’ Anthology 2017. You can read my short surreal story for free here
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An actress read an amusing extract from my ARIA: Left Luggage novel to camera here
FICFUN
I can recommend this new venture. It is a web-based writing and showcasing site that has already run one successful competition. I am the next honorary judge for the suspense category. If you are hard at work with #NaNoWriMo or just finishing off a novel or long story of at least 10k words and want to know what to do with it, why not enter it for
http://www.ficfun.com/act/fictioncontest
Free to enter, huge prizes
worth a look
tweets @FicFun
XAGHRA’S REVENGE released this summer. Pirates abducted 5000 people off the tiny Mediterranean island near Malta in 1551. Nearly 500yrs passed until their spirits enacted revenge with my authorial help. http://myBook.to/Xaghra
[image error]
Note the Arabic script at the heading of Ch 20 where the book travels to Libya.
Run, hide! alien apocalypse.
Infectious amnesia. Free on KindleUnlimited or
99 pence/cents ARIA smarturl.it/1fexhs
My other books can be found on the Amazon Author page http://author.to/Amazonauthorpage
Or if you fancy a children’s picture book about Timmy the Tornado – a kind of social story to help children grow up and be kind. ebook 99 pence https://payhip.com/b/2aj3
The post Book Group topics for Xaghra’s Revenge appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
November 19, 2017
Free Kafka-esque story
Geoff reading View From… at the Chester LitFest 2017
I did a reading today at the launch of the Chester Writers’ Anthology 2017 in which is a surreal short of mine called View From… Our chairperson, Stanley, called my story Kafka-esque, which is a huge compliment. The launch was at Storyhouse, a new theatre / cinema / library / restaurant cultural hub in Chester. I was nervous to read my story until I realise that it was being relayed to speakers in the washrooms! I kept thinking as I read, how bizarre that folk will be in the bogs listening to me reading live!
Anyhow I reproduce it here. [image error]
VIEW FROM…
Geoff Nelder
I refuse to open my eyes.The six-thirty alarm bleats. My arm flails in the air, but misses. My eyes refuse to open so I close my ears to the alarm.
The sound comes from the wrong direction. Perhaps it isn’t my wake-up, but Alan’s in the apartment above.
As long as I don’t open my eyes I won’t worry. I shuffle in preparation to roll onto my right side. Whoa, I can’t. My back muscles won’t cooperate.
At last I open my eyes… and I discover that I am on the ceiling.
I laugh. Nerves. Then my stomach knots. I am on the ceiling, looking down. Has Alan re-arranged my room during sleeptime in order to make it appear inverted?
I squeeze my eyelids shut then slowly re-open them. Below, covered with an untidy red quilt, is my bed. The bedside cabinet is next to it, supporting the alarm clock, which periodically bursts into indignation at being ignored.
I send my impending terror into an unused lump of brain, a trick learnt when teaching difficult classes.
Has a trickster stuck my furniture down? My right arm that had swung into action has returned up to the ceiling. Turning my head, I see the white plaster ceiling-rose. I’ve not seen my Georgian ceiling this close up. Cracks in the paintwork and plaster missing near the rose tell me that I should get workmen in. Banality subjugates fear.
I seek evidence of gravity and allow a drop of spittle to go where it will. It accelerates away to the quilt below. A dark red splodge grows like a bloodstain.
I turn my head to the left. As I thought from its soft undulations, the pillow remains behind my head. Good loyal pillow.
This is absurd. I must be in a nightmare. Nevertheless, perhaps I should exercise caution in any effort to break free from the ceiling’s suction force. What if normality returns? I’d fall at an acceleration of ten metres per second each second. Well, it’s no more than three metres so a quick calculation tells me I’d land at seventeen miles an hour. Is that fast enough to hurt? My blob of spit must have landed at that speed too. Look what happened to it.
Hopefully, the bed will be kind to my eventual return. The mattress is one of those with memory. It’s probably wondering where I am.
I wriggle again.
It couldn’t be Velcro holding me up. My arms are free but kind of floating. It’s like when I go snorkelling: face-down looking at the seabed. It’s a strange but pleasant experience in the water, but weird and worrying now. Perhaps my room is full of water.
I look for contrary evidence. On the green carpet, there’s a bedtime book, Orbital Geometry. It isn’t floating: too heavy. If I’m in water my spittle shouldn’t have fallen – unless it isn’t normal water.
A worry headache is brewing.
I scan for objects that should float. What is there in a bedroom that should float, besides a person? I assume I’m breathing, aren’t I?
“Am I dead?” I yell realizing instantly that I’d breathed to make the shout.
“No!” A female voice far down the corridor.
“In here, Suzy, but keep hold of the door frame.”
She replies, “What did you say?” Her voice becomes louder as she walks down the corridor. As I watch the mock-crystal handle rotate I wouldn’t be surprised to find her walking on the ceiling. But no, there’s her mass of hazelnut brown hair, far below. She hasn’t removed her beige raincoat. Her naked foot steps into the room.
“John, where are you?”
Why hadn’t she seen this ceiling person and scream? How to mention my predicament without freaking her out? I absently cough. Her face is a picture. The Scream by Edvard Munch comes to mind.
“What the heck are you doing up there?”
I struggle to answer.
Suzy wags a finger at me. “Get down, you goon.”
“Nothing I’d like better.”
She stands hands on hips, her raincoat unbuttoned at the neck with no visible clothing beneath, the thought wheedles into my head that she might have planned an interesting morning. Damn.
“Why did you go up there?”
“I woke up like this.” It sounds stupid but then it only confirms the perception she possesses of my propensity for finding myself in odd situations.
“Maybe I can lure you down.” She undoes a couple of buttons revealing her cleavage, which translates to part of my anatomy that finally points towards the floor.
“I am lured, but… hey, Suzy, don’t climb on the bed. This isn’t like the leaping-off-the-wardrobe scenario.”
“Idiot, I was seeing if I could reach you.”
“You know these old buildings have really high ceilings. And what if you could reach? You could have been seriously injured.”
“John, stop all this now.”
“It’s not much fun for me. Go tell Alan to turn off whatever he’s done upstairs.”
“What, you think Einstein has invented a man attractor in his apartment and it’s sucked you up? I’ll give Alan a call.”
Only when she leaves the room does my nose detect the heady aroma of Freesia. She only wore it for our romantic interludes. In spite of my increasing concern I smile ruefully then frown. It is Monday mid-morning. I should be at work, so why is Suzette here and dressed for action? Who was she expecting, and in my room. Alan?
I wriggle, but it is as if my lungs are made of iron and a powerful electro-magnet is above the ceiling. Even with both hands pushing, my back presses firmly upwards. In frustration I bang the ceiling. Mistake. White flakes of plaster wander down messing up my bed. My nose pinches with the musty aroma.
I try to think if I’ve annoyed Alan recently. Perhaps someone else.
Then there’s Suzy. The teasing raincoat and perfume for someone else.
The front door slams. Suzy must have gone outside to make that call to Alan, but she has a mobile. She must have left it in her car.
Footsteps in the corridor.
“Is that you Suzy? … Alan?”
The door handle moves, and the door cracks open, but then a scuffling noise followed by Suzy’s scream.
“What’s happened, Suzy?”
I strain harder, trying to arch my back even though it’s agony now.
A feeble voice reaches me from the corridor. “John, whatever it is holding you up on the ceiling…?”
“Well?”
“It’s spreading.”
+ + +
Nelder News
I can recommend this new venture. It is a web-based writing and showcasing site that has already run one successful competition. I am the next honorary judge for the suspense category. If you are hard at work with #NaNoWriMo or just finishing off a novel or long story of at least 10k words and want to know what to do with it, why not enter it for
http://www.ficfun.com/act/fictioncontest
#Free to enter, huge #prizes
worth a look
tweets @FicFun
[image error]XAGHRA’S REVENGE released this summer. Pirates abducted 5000 people off the tiny Mediterranean island near Malta in 1551. Nearly 500yrs passed until their spirits enacted revenge with my authorial help. http://myBook.to/Xaghra
[image error]Run, hide! alien apocalypse.
Infectious amnesia. Free on KindleUnlimited or
99 pence/c ARIA smarturl.it/1fexhs
My other books can be found on the Amazon Author page http://author.to/Amazonauthorpage
Or if you fancy a children’s picture book about Timmy the Tornado – a kind of social story to help children grow up and be kind. ebook 99 pence https://payhip.com/b/2aj3
The post Free Kafka-esque story appeared first on Geoff Nelder - Science Fiction Writer.
