Graham Storrs's Blog, page 11

Turn, Turn, Turn

I’ve just been thinking about all the technical “revolutions” I’ve lived through and, indeed, had an active part in.

The first was the personal computer revolution. This happened – to me – in the late 1970s. As a psychology undergrad, I studied computing, just for fun. I learned programming in PDP8 assembler then went on to learn FORTRAN and Algol68. Computers really did fill a room in those days, even the small ones. I programmed an analysis of covariance to do the stats on my final year project in Algol68 on an Elliott 905. This beast had its own room. It had a massive 12k of memory and, to make it run, you had to feed punched tapes by hand through its optical reader; first a boot tape; then the language compiler; then the program you’d written and, finally, the data you wanted analysing. You generated these tapes on a teletype machine, which also typed the results when you fed the computer’s output tape into its reader.

I bore you with all this detail because, mere months later, I’d joined a new psych department to do my PhD research and they’d just bought a Commodore PET 64 microcomputer that no-one had a clue how to use. The size of a typewriter, with a teensy TV on top, this little beauty had 8k of memory and used a really cool programming language called BASIC. I grabbed the machine, taught myself BASIC and started earning money writing statistical analysis software for the psych department. A year later, I got hold of a really hot piece of kit – an Apple II – and used it as the workhorse in all my experimental work, creating and displaying visual stimuli, controlling experiments with microsecond precision, and analysing the results. I loved that machine and it almost never had its lid on, I was so often interfacing new hardware to it. With a friend, I began selling my PC skills on the open market, building software for big companies like IBM, providing easily-accessible and user-friendly interfaces to their mainframe data and turning around projects in a small fraction of the time and cost that their internal programmers could achieve.

Those were heady, exciting times and, for those of us up to our elbows in silicon, we really did feel as if we were changing everything. But the next wave was already building. By the end of the 70s, the Internet had arrived and in the early 80s, I was working on hypertext systems and full of the excitement of designing arbitrarily complex, linked data structures for knowledge management and text retrieval. I remember having an email account in 1980 and having no-one to send an email to! A decade later, I had a similar problem when I got my first WAIS client and couldn’t do anything interesting with it. But, shortly afterwards, came Mosaic (later to become Netscape) and, when DEC’s Alta Vista search engine arrived in about 1995, the world just opened up. Oddly, it wasn’t until 1996 that I built my first personal websites but, within two years of that I was running the Asia Pacific Multimedia Centre for a large multinational IT company and building (more accurately, directing the building of) major corporate web businesses all over the region.

Corporate and Government Web apps saw me through to the end of my IT career – to the point where I gave it all up and became a writer. I wasn’t involved much with the mobile revolution that was taking off just as I was packing it all in, so the Web was probably the last big technology revolution I will actively participate in. Or so I thought.

By comparison to all that world-changing frenzy, becoming a writer has been quite a change of pace. Yes, I have deadlines still, now and then, and I still work, occasionally, with other people – editors and publishers – but, mostly, I sit alone and ponder. I’m not sure, but I may even be typing less now than when I was bashing out technical papers, project reports, quarterly reports, proposals, design documents, and so on, at a frantic rate, day in, day out. And yet I am still taking part in a world-changing technical revolution, albeit one that is meandering along at a rather leisurely pace. I’ve been involved with the rise of ebooks.

Back in the 70s, when I wrote prolifically on computing topics such as programming, artificial intelligence and communications, and the sale of such articles (along with my programming jobs) kept the wolf from the door while I was a postgrad, publishing was a dismally manual industry. I wrote on a computer from about 1978 onwards, first with Latex on a Prime mainframe, then using a word processor (WordStar on CP/M) but, to get my work to a publisher, I had to print it and post the paper to them. Not even the computer magazines could accept tapes or discs. It wasn’t until I was working with Macmillan in the mid-1980s that I could actually email manuscripts to my editor. Although, at work, we were doing research on knowledge-based hypertexts (including marked up video), the publishing world at large was stuck in the age of typewriters and telephones.

In 1988, I was a contributor to the 8th Edition of the Hutchinson Encyclopedia (I did all the computer and programming entries). This was published in a few formats, including an electronic version on LaserDisc. For those of you of tender years, LaserDisc was the forerunner of the CD. Imagine a 30cm CD that could play both sides and you’ve got the idea. (Don’t laugh, you’ll sound just as silly explaining flash drives as big as your thumb to your grandkids.) At the time, I was told that the LaserDisc version of this encyclopedia was the first commercially-published ebook. That may or may not be true, but it was certainly one of the first. And I was a contributor.

I pretty much gave up on publishing for the next 20 years. I almost completely gave up on my dream of writing fiction and focused on other things. I still published a lot of academic and technical papers but I stopped trying to get fiction published (except for the rare, disheartening foray) until I had an epiphany in 2008. About a year after that, I signed a deal with a New York small press to publish my novel Timesplash. It was a digital-only deal. When it came out as an ebook in Feb 2010, ebook sales were just 3% of the book market (by volume – not even by revenue) and this was a big, bold step, but I liked the idea of breaking new ground (new, even though my previous ebook had been published 22 years earlier!)

And I still do. That publisher was all wrong for my book and I soon persuaded them to give me my rights back. I then embarked on a new adventure of self-publishing and did pretty well at it. Meanwhile, I found an agent and tried to find a big however-many-are-left publisher. What she found was a new digital-only imprint of Pan Macmillan called Momentum, who were very enthusiastic about re-publishing Timesplash and its then-unwritten sequel. This is all very cool for all kinds of reasons (not least because Macmillan published my very first book – a kid’s science book about sensory psychology – all those years ago). And I still like the idea that I’m breaking new ground – this time in a wave of digital-only imprints from major publishing houses that I very much suspect could be the transitional phase for these houses to a completely digital world.

And it just dawned on me that this is my new tech revolution and I’ve been at the bleeding edge of it for over two decades as the major publishers slowly discovered the Internet, the Web, and the ebook. The difference is that I’m not making the technology for them this time, I’m putting my content out there on the front line, feeding it into the new platforms and experimental business models as a way of learning about and exploiting the changes afoot. It has something of the excitement of the earlier tech revolutions but the differences are everything, especially the difference in positioning relative to the mechanisms of change. I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman Available for Pre-Order

Peeps! I have good news! My good friend, author, and world-famous fimiphobe, Emma Newman, is about to launch her new series of fantasy novels. Some of you may already have been following the Split Worlds short stories – one of these gems was first published here on this very blog - if not, you’ve been missing out. Now the books are starting to appear, Between Two Thorns first and then two more over the next few months, all published by world-leading fantasy publisher, Angry Robot. To quote the blurb:

Something is wrong in Aquae Sulis, Bath’s secret mirror city. The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the answer to the mystery. But can she be trusted? And why does she want to give up eternal youth and the life of privilege she’s been born into?

Look, you should just go and buy these books – and everything else Emma has written – but, to sweeten the deal, there will be offers and launches and phone-ins and prizes.

Pre-order a copy of Between Two Thorns for a chance to win a great prize!

Pre-order a copy of Between Two Thorns and you’ll be entered into a prize draw. If you win, you’ll have a character named after you in “All Is Fair” – the third Split Worlds novel (released October 2013) – and a special mention at the end of the book.

How to Enter

Pre-order a copy of the book from your favourite retailer (if you pre-order from Forbidden Planet you’ll get a signed copy).

If you order from Forbidden Planet or robottradingcompany.com (for ebooks) you don’t need to do anything else – Angry Robot will take care of your entry for you. If you pre-order from anywhere else you’ll need to email a copy of your order confirmation to: thorns@angryrobotbooks.com and they’ll assign a number to you.

Here are links to all the places you can pre-order:

Forbidden Planet (signed paperback) http://forbiddenplanet.com/97907-between-two-thorns/

E-books

Angry Robot Trading company – for DRM-free ebook http://www.robottradingcompany.com/between-two-thorns-emma-newman.html

Amazon (paperback) UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-Split-World/dp/0857663194/

US http://www.amazon.com/Between-Two-Thorns-Emma-Newman/dp/0857663208/

The Book depository (Worldwide free postage)

UK Edition http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-Emma-Newman/9780857663191

US Edition (bigger) http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-Emma-Newman/9780857663207

Launches

There are two UK launches and an international one using the magic of telephone conferencing. All the details are here: http://www.enewman.co.uk/real-world-adventures/between-two-thorns-launches-prizes-and-parties

 

 

Interviewed by the Gold Coast Speckies

Just a quick note to let you know I was interviewed by a local writers’ group: The Gold Coast Speckies and that interview is up on their site today. The GCS is a fun and active bunch and the interview reflects their slightly off-beat approach. I enjoyed doing it and it presented a few challenges – not least being asked to write a three-sentence short story! If you want to see whether I managed, or if you’re just curious about my views on plotting, poetry and the role of imagination in writing, nip over to the Gold Coast Speckies site.

Windows 8 Pro Review

As a usability expert (and I really am, I kid you not), I am astonished at how bad the user interface on Windows 8 is. It’s not just a bit bad, it is staggeringly, shockingly bad. It breaks just about every principle of good UI design – many of which have been well known for the past thirty years – and not in a good way. It looks and feels like it was designed by a programmer and then given a shiny gloss by a graphic designer. I find it hard to believe that any real usability specialists were let within a mile of this abomination.

Or, here’s another way to think of it. The part of the Windows 8 user interface that is new, is a layer of badly designed, low-usability fluff comprising a whole slew of Microsoft shops and flashy but mostly-useless widgets, that stands between the user and the “real” operating system which lies beneath it. Mostly, you can get past the front end quickly and avoid going back into this nightmare layer of stupidity, but sometimes you just can’t help it. When you have to, you get blocked and delayed and misled by a noddy version of a tablet interface, designed (presumably) for the computer illiterate who just want to watch videos and use Facebook, as you struggle to get back to what you were trying to do (and which used to be so easy!)

Here’s another way of looking at it. The bizarrely childish front-end to Windows 8, uses a completely different interaction style to the entire rest of the operating system. Not only are the two styles incompatible, but, in the front end, almost all the functionality you might need is is either inconsistent (internally, as well as with everything else you’ve ever used), counterintuitive (I had to Google how to shut the thing down the first time I used it), or just plain hidden (that shut-down I just mentioned, is under the “settings” “charm” which you find by mousing into a particular corner)! Here’s all three in action. To get Windows Explorer up, you mouse into a different particular corner (hidden functionality), right-click the mouse (hidden and inconsistent), and select “File Explorer” (inconsistent). Once there, what looks like the “Home” menu pops up a ribbon which allows you to do things like cut and paste (counterintuitive).

Frankly, the whole thing is a mess. But the ugliness isn’t just skin deep. Microsoft has introduced a whole new concept – the “app”. Apps are just programs, of course, yet they behave very differently to your other programs. For a start, you download and install them through the noddy front end interface. They don’t appear  in the list of program files in Windows Explorer (or is that “File Explorer ” now?) In fact, I haven’t yet found where these files are hidden. I hate an OS that hides files from me. These app programs run only in the noddy front end. So integrating anything with other programs by, say, dragging and dropping a selection, is impossible. They also don’t behave like “real” programs. They take over the whole screen (as if multi-tasking, or windows had never been invented) and cannot easily be dismissed or minimised. You have to navigate away from them before you can even shut them down.

You can “uninstall” them quite easily (once you’ve learned the hidden trick of right-clicking on a closed app tile to bring up a ribbon at the bottom of the screen with a handful of options on it), but uninstalling an app isn’t like uninstalling a “real” program through the old “Programs and Features” window. In fact, you can’t even see apps in the “Programs and Features” window, so the only way you’re allowed to uninstall them is through the noddy front end. Yet, when you do, they don’t go away. Yes, their tile disappears from the (stupidly named) Start page, but they are still there and can be reinstated if you want them back. I was extremely annoyed when I discovered this (and it took a while, because this too is well hidden) because I’d gone to the trouble of uninstalling a lot of the crapware that came with Windows 8 and was not pleased to find it all apparently still sitting there on my disc. I had also downloaded a number of apps from the app store to try them out but had then uninstalled 95% of them because they were rubbish (and because they had advertisements in them!) but the bloody things were all still there! It looks like, once you download one of these app things, you’re stuck with it for life. Well, that will certainly stop me exploring the app store the way I have been doing. (Of course, they might not still be there at all, the noddy front end might just be making it look as if they’re still there. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no way of knowing – meaning I can no longer trust the integrity of my file system. Nice one, Microsoft.)

There is more, much more, about Windows 8 that is poorly designed and difficult to use, but I think I’ve ranted enough for you to get the message. Let me sum up what I think about this new OS from Microsoft.

No-one should install Windows 8 unless they intend to use it only on a touch-screen tablet and only for playing videos and music. Even then, you’d be far better off installing Android. Live with Windows 7, wait for Windows 9, and hope they’ve scraped all that barely-usable crap off the front end by then.

A Writer’s Interview

I’ve been interviewed a few times now. That part of my life and thoughts which pertains to writing has been explored beyond all relation to its importance or interest. It’s as if a group of botanists descends on my back yard to study it, mark out a square metre of ground and then pore over it, one by one, ignoring all the rest of the garden. And I think that, in a few months’ time, I will be asked to examine that little patch of ground again because I have a new publisher and, by then, a new book will be out.

It’s a strange phenomenon – especially for someone as private as I am – to talk about myself to strangers (this blog doesn’t count, of course, because you are all dear friends) and stranger still to keep that talk so constrained and circumscribed. Yet I am always very happy to do it because I have the fond belief that someone, reading or listening to one of these interviews one day, may just find me so overwhelmingly fascinating that they will buy one of my books before the bedazzlement wears off.

I’ve read a fair number of author interviews myself. After a while, though, they all start to feel very samey. “What’s your book about?” (“It’s an exploration of the life of a Brahmin cow who finds herself teleported into Eighteenth Century Vienna and must cope with love and loss even as she climbs the ladder of musical success in the court of Emperor Joseph II.”) “Where did the idea come from?” (“Well, I think we’ve all wondered just how much nonsense a writer of literary fiction can get away with.”) “Tell us about the protagonist.” (“Ermintrude is a gentle, gifted soul, torn between her love of grass and her need to express the music that burns in her heart.”) And so on. Perhaps there is a group of readers for which the answers to these questions are interesting. However, I think if I had a writer under the microscope, I’d want to probe him or her in different ways.

Thus, I have created ten questions that I would like to ask authors and which I hope no-one ever asks me.

If the world stopped publishing books today, there would still be so many millions of them already in existence that no-one could possibly hope to read a tiny fraction of them in their lifetime. So why add more?
A possible answer to the last question is, “Because I have a unique and valuable perspective on life that I feel would be valuable for others to be exposed to.” But isn’t that just egomania?
Writing takes up so much time, hundreds and hundreds of hours per book, not to mention all the time devoted to finding agents, finding publishers, attending conventions, online social networking, reading and critiquing for writers’ groups, and publicising books. Wouldn’t all that time be better spent with your family?
I think the reason authors have, in the past, had so much kudos, is that they have tried, and sometimes succeeded in the attempt, to say something profound and true about the human condition. If you can’t show us in your own work, insights equivalent to those in the work of Kipling, Dickens, Huxley, Bradbury, or le Guin, why do you even bother?
Given the plethora of media these days, the incredible opportunity, for the first time in human history, to create multi-dimensional, interactive, non-linear, works that exploit these new and unprecedented capabilities, why are you still plonking down words, one after the other, in strings of a hundred thousand or more, the same way people have done since Homer? Doesn’t that reveal a lack of imagination?
OK, I accept that you write just because you enjoy doing it but, given that we all know how infinitesimally small the chances are of ever making a decent income from such exertions, why do you waste your time seeking publication? Wouldn’t you be better off just doing the writing bit and buying lottery tickets?
You’ve probably started admitting to people, when they press you to know what you do, that you’re a writer. You’ve probably even written it on a form at the dentist’s. You do it with such self-effacement and even a light blush, but, in you’re secret heart, you hope that people will be impressed. There’s no question here. I just want to see you squirm.
Look, you’re a human being. Now, I’m only guessing, but I’d say you’ve walked past tramps without giving them anything, you’ve had impure thoughts about co-workers and their family members, you’ve laughed at sexist jokes, and racist jokes, you’ve said unkind things about people behind their backs, you’ve been petty, narrow-minded, jealous, shallow, and, since you were old enough to hold a magazine or a romance novel, you’ve masturbated. So why isn’t your protagonist like that?
Like many writers who are just beginning to taste success, you’re getting on a bit. Obviously you’ve had a long and successful career as a civil servant which has supported your two spouses and four children and, it’s only now that the kids – like your two spouses – have left home and no longer speak to you that you finally have the time to devote to writing but, honestly, don’t you think that shows a lack of commitment to your art? Doesn’t it seem as if writing is more like a hobby to you?
Tell us something about your new novel, “Troll Slayer of G’Mah”. Is it as trashy and formulaic as the title makes it sound, or is there a surprise in store for lovers of delicately-crafted, political allegory?

The Dunning-Kruger Effect Explains So Much

He was better than average too.

I came across the Duning-Kruger effect in a series of tweets by an amusing fellow called @GodlessAtheist who argued that it is the reason why religious people are so smug. I don’t doubt that this is true. (Have you ever heard a religious type arguing any scientific issue?) However, it seems to me that it is a much better explanation for another irritating phenomenon: the existence of vast amounts of unreadable self-published fiction.

Let me tell you more about this fascinating effect. According to Wikipedia, it is “a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average.” The idea is that unskilled individuals can’t see that they are making mistakes – because they’re unskilled. They think that competent people are no better than themselves because they are unable to see wherein lie the differences. People who are actually competent, make the opposite mistake, assuming that other people are better than they actually are. Thus incompetent people are annoyingly self-confident, whereas competent people are, equally annoyingly, self-deprecating.

To quote yet again from Wikipedia (the fount of all wisdom):

“Kruger and Dunning proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:

tend to overestimate their own level of skill;
fail to recognize genuine skill in others;
fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy;
recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they are exposed to training for that skill.”

See how perfectly that fits the writers of truly awful self-published fiction? Especially number 3? Only number 4 gives hope to the world, yet number 3 suggests that few will seek training.

It’s what we’ve all known all along, of course, but now we have a name for it!

Book Deal Announcement

Ever heard of Momentum? Possibly not, it is the new(ish) digital-only imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia. Pan Macmillan, you have definitely heard of, I assume, as it is the fourth largest of the collection of publishers formerly known as The Big Six. And why am I rambling on about Momentum? Because I just signed a two-book deal with them.

Yes, me. No need to sound so surprised.

Momentum is to (re-)publish my already-successful time travel thriller, TimeSplash, some time around Q3 this year and, shortly afterwards, will publish the sequel. Yes, for all those people – tens of thousands of you – who have read TimeSplash, there will be a sequel released towards the end of this year. I am so excited about this.

I’m within lobbing distance of finishing the second TimeSplash novel (which doesn’t even have a title yet) and I really can’t wait for people to read it. I really feel the second book is better than the first, which is personally satisfying but also makes me squee inside at the thought that the people who enjoyed the first book, a great many of whom have asked for this sequel, might not actually be disappointed with the second one. Because that would suck big time.

As ever, I will keep you informed of how the books progress as they go through the mill at Momentum, acquiring edits, covers, blurbs, release dates, titles, and so on, and I hope you will stick with me for the next few months until TimeSplash and TimeSplash 2 are launched. Meanwhile, TimeSplash has been withdrawn from the market and won’t be available again until Momentum releases it. So, if you haven’t read it yet, I’m sorry but you’ll have to wait.

Clean and Dirty

People who come here often may remember my definition of science fiction, viz.

Science fiction is a genre in which it is considered true that only reason and the assumption that the physical world is the only one that exists, can explain the universe, and in which the story typically but not necessarily, features science and/or technology.

It just struck me that there is a corollary to this which I’ve always known but can now explain; certain genre mixes involving science fiction do not work. You can have some great mixed-genre offerings that include sci-fi such as sci-fi and crime (The Caves of Steel – nuff said), sci-fi and romance (The Left Hand of Darkness), sci-fi and historical (Galileo’s Dream), and so on. However, what never ever works for me is sci-fi and fantasy. Ever. The end result is pure fantasy with some science and technology thrown in – not sci-fi at all.

It follows from the definition, of course, that this should be so. Fantasy by definition requires a story in which something more than the physical world must exist (that’s why they call it fantasy!) so if you add that to sci-fi (by my definition) you break the key requirement of the genre and no longer have sci-fi at all. It’s like clean and dirty: once they’re mixed, all you have is dirty.

Just thought I’d mention it.

Another Slaughter in an American School

OK, some twisted bastard in Newtown, Connecticut, just shot and killed 29 people – 20 of them children aged between 5 and 10 years old. It’s upset me so much that I know I won’t be able to write today, so I’m just going to vent a little and hope you’ll forgive me.

I honestly don’t know why it’s upset me so much. It’s the kind of thing that happens all over the world, all the time. Every time some bunch of thugs calling itself an “army” or “freedom fighters” lobs a bomb into a city street, children die. Every time some bunch of government-sanctioned arseholes calling themselves a “corporation” seeks to enhance their “shareholder value” by dumping their shit in the air or the water, children die. Every time some crazy bastard who believes he is “ordained” by a “church” condemns contraception, poverty is further entrenched, AIDS is unchecked, and children die.

Maybe it’s just because it’s close to home. Maybe it’s because I can see those twenty families going home to the Christmas presents they hid in the cupboard with such expectations of happiness. Maybe it’s because I can see those twenty children at their desks. Maybe it’s because I’ve met people like that dickhead with his Sig Sauer semi-automatic, his Glock 9mm handgun and his combat gear, because I see them in the street, because they are just ordinary dickheads – until they pull a stunt like that.

Maybe it’s because I used to live in Switzerland, where they make the Sig Sauer 556. I know lots of Swiss people. I still have Swiss friends. I can imagine the factory. I can imagine the workers. The Sig Sauer 556 is a very lethal weapon. Technically, it is much like that old friend of the armed thug, the Kalshnikov, only much improved by the Swiss. It’s not a hunter’s gun. It’s not a sportsman’s gun. It’s a killer’s gun. It’s the kind of thing that US SWAT teams use to kill people with quickly, efficiently, and effectively. Well, we can all vouch for the effectiveness of this splendid weapon in killing small children after today’s demonstration.

Maybe it’s because it is so obviously stupid to make weapons like this available to anybody who wants one. The killer was a 20-year-old. For all I know, you can’t even drink at 20 in Connecticut. Yet you can own a machine designed to kill people as expediently as the Sig Sauer 556 can. The reason? Because it’s in the constitution. What a fucking stupid excuse that is. Get it out of the constitution. Do it now. Children are dying! 8,800 people a year are dying! Change the damned constitution you morons. Or do you like what’s going on? Or maybe you think that if 20-year-old nutjobs didn’t have Sig Sauer 556es they’d find some other way to murder 29 people in a couple of minutes? (Well, that’s the  argument that goes, “It’s people who kill people, not guns.” Which is so fucking stupid I could scream. That’s an argument for giving Iran nuclear weapons, you idiots. No, Iran wouldn’t attack the USA with knives because they couldn’t get their hands on nukes – even though the deeply religious fuckwits in charge would dearly love to. You see? Take away their capacity to do harm, and less harm is done.)

Everything I look at today seems trivial. Everything I do seems pointless. It’s not because the world is any worse today. It isn’t. Far more children died of starvation today than were shot down in their classrooms and governments everywhere nod and smile at it just they way they will nod and smile at this slaughter and not do a thing about it. Why should a government that encourages turning food into “biofuels” and pushes up the price of corn so that America can save money on petrol regardless of the families all over the world this nudges into poverty and starvation, care about 20 schoolkids more-or less? Obama’s crocodile tears did not move me. If he doesn’t like it, he, more than any of us, can change it, speak out against it, put up legislation, get the guns out of people’s homes.

OK, that’s enough ranting. It doesn’t make me feel any better anyway.

The Next Big Thing

OK, I gave in and let myself be talked into doing another evil meme thing. This is part of The Next Big Thing series in which authors get to spruik their work in progress. Since I’m particularly excited about the current WIP, I jumped in with both feet. At the end, I’ll explain why I now regret it. Nevertheless, I must thank Marrianne de Pierres, one of Australia’s top sci-fi writers, for inviting me to take part. You can see her own Next Best thing on her blog.

What is the working title of your next book?

The book I’m writing right now is the long-awaited sequel to TimeSplash. For now, I’m just calling it TimeSplash 2. Not exactly creative but I could spend weeks getting the right title if I let myself and I’m writing to a deadline here.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Ever since TimeSplash came out, readers have been asking me for a sequel (may the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless you all) but I had a big problem with it: how to get my protagonists into deadly peril again without it seeming like too much of a coincidence. ‘Cause I really hate that. For ages I let myself believe that TimeSplash would remain a one-off. Then inspiration struck – Jay and Sandra shouldn’t just stumble upon trouble, trouble should reach out and grab them by the neck.

What genre does your book fall under?

Science fiction. Anyone who knows me, won’t exactly be surprised by that.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I have four main characters. The stunningly beautiful, kick-ass Sandra could probably be played by a dark-haired Jessica Biel (if she can do the English accent). A 15-year-old girl who, to my mind, must be played by Lily Cole. Our reluctant hero, Jay, is something like a youthful but not quite so wet Hugh Grant. And for Zak Polanski, the would-be time terrorist, we need a rangy cowboy type – take your pick!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Post-apocalyptic America is the last place Jay and Sandra want to be, especially with the biggest timesplash ever about to be unleashed and millions of lives in danger.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’m represented by an agency.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

The MS is only about half-complete but I plan to have the first draft finished and revised to final draft status by the end of February. That means it will have taken about six months in total. Quite fast, for me.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Well, the first TimeSplash novel, obviously, but, if anything, this one is even more fast and furious. Reviewers have said that TimeSplash was more of a technothriller than a typical sci-fi novel – more like a Bond movie. If so, I’m hoping people will find it is more the Daniel Craig kind of Bond film than the Roger Moore sort!

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My readers, without a doubt. I really thought TimeSplash would be a one-off, but many, many people asked for a sequel. Some said I couldn’t leave Jay and Sandra the way I left them, some were quite upset that I’d left America the way I did!

What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

While the first book was set in Europe in the late 2040s, this one is set in the USA in 2066. However, it’s an America most people won’t recognise. Jay and Sandra are back, sixteen years after the action in TimeSplash and, although so much has changed for both of them, much has also stayed the same.

So there you are. I’m having great fun writing the book and I can’t wait to get it out there.

Meanwhile, this meme thing is taking up far too much time as I’m on a tight schedule to get this book finished. And why is it taking so much time? Well, consider this. The Next Big Thing posts occur once a week. Each week, each blogger, nominates five other writers to carry on. So, in week one, there was one post. In week two, there were five, in week three, twenty-five, and so on. It’s exponential and, by week 15, over six billion people will be posting and, given all the post from previous weeks, every man, woman and child will have posted by then.

I don’t know when this all started but I’m guessing several weeks ago because, of the twelve people I approached to be among the next five, 2 accepted and 8 had already done it (the other two begged off because of some kind of pagan festival that is happening at the end of December). At that hit rate, I’d need to approach around 30 people to get the five I need. And, frankly, life is too short. So I gladly pass the baton to my friends Saul Garnell and Joyce Chng and hope you will all go along next week to see what their Next Big Thing will be.