Springing into action
A dandelion caught springing into action
In the part of the world I live in, it’s spring – and I’m springing into action. For starters, I’ve given my website a dammed good spring cleaning, I hope you like it. I’m poised to throw myself into the next draft of my new book – admittedly, I’ve been poised to do that for a while. And I have a brand new little reading for you.
(By way of a wild aside, I even have a brand new wheelie bin out in the back garden in the carport. The garbos broke my last one through all that macho-garbo rough-handling of wheelie bins as they race ahead of the garbage trucks – no doubt an apt description of garbos everywhere. The lid fell off and went into the truck’s compactor along with the garbage. But enough about garbos and wheelie bins and this wild aside.)
I will tell you more about the drafting of my work in progress in a later post. Suffice to say, I will be delving into my time as an HIV/AIDS social worker, and I plan is to stop using MSWord and give something called Scrivener a go. Exciting.
Right now though, I’d like to present my next little reading to you. These little readings are my own worked-up recordings (so be nice) of short scenes from my writing. Personally speaking, and this really is only personal, I prefer to read from a book myself, rather than listen to a story read aloud by someone else – a hired actor or the author. Especially if it goes on for a while. But I do like the idea of short snappy scenes combined with a bit of a fun soundtrack. Hence my efforts to grasp Ableton audio software – software that can be boggling, but also a great deal of fun.
The passage I have chosen for this treatment is from the first chapter of EleMental and I’ve called it ‘Focus on the V’gaming’, the opening sentence of the passage. It describes the character Zeb starting up his Magnum 50, a virtual games (v’games) console. When I do a school visit or other presentation, I often choose this passage because I enjoy describing how a v’game kicks in. (And now, I can also play them this little audio treatment.)
For those interested, I have added the words further below. Don’t forget to like it. Hopefully you will. You can also add a comment if you feel seized by the moment to say something (nice).
Focus on the v’gaming
Focus on the v’gaming. There was nothing like it. The real world could go suck.
He booted his door shut, kicked some strewn clothes out of the way and crouched before his Magnum 50, which sat on an old plastic crate near his bed. He hit the small switch on its face and waited. When nothing happened, he slapped it. ‘Wake up!’ he growled.
A dull red light flickered and a square opened at the console’s center, gaping like a hungry mouth. Digging deep into his bag, he seized the v’game. He drew it out, removed the shiny black cube from its packaging and fed it into the console.
Jumping up, Zeb dragged his bedroom’s dusty curtains closed, cutting out all light from the real world.
‘Attention Magnum,’ he said. ‘Seal room for sound and start game.’
…
A groaning sound like the bending of steel engulfed him, and the floor shuddered as a complete street scene wrenched into existence, materializing beneath his feet and stretching out on all sides.
He let his gaze wander, turning a full circle and taking it all in.
It was a bright, virtual version of a sunny day. A deserted street. Early century by the looks of things. Something like 2013 – his parents would have been kids. He squinted in the light, searching for signs of enemy activity.
(From chapter 1: ‘Attention Game’ of EleMental: A First-person Shooter.)
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