http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/ Friendly science fiction and fantasy forums, discussing science fiction and fantasy books, film, media, writing, conventions, and related subjects such as science and history. en Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:14:32 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/ http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/the-bloated-one/92-tarquin-progress.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:44:29 GMT Had a good hour of writing during my lunch break at work yesterday. Re-drafted a big battle scene with the Beatles (including Terry the fifth Beatle), Griddlebacks, Leche, Leprechauns Clurichaun, Georgia Blade, Tarquin, Jules and the rest of his friends. It must have been pretty crowded in 1963... Had a good hour of writing during my lunch break at work yesterday.

Re-drafted a big battle scene with the Beatles (including Terry the fifth Beatle), Griddlebacks, Leche, Leprechauns Clurichaun, Georgia Blade, Tarquin, Jules and the rest of his friends. It must have been pretty crowded in 1963 outside the Cavern Club that day!

And of course, there's good old Mae, the robot that thinks she's someone else. . .

Tarquin stood beside Pandora, checking his back-pack when Archie, Mae and Alice emerged from a series of framed, 1960s record album covers hanging on the wall.

"Do you realise this is the first time we’ve all been on a jump together? Isn’t it exciting," said Alice, tying her ponytail and setting her backpack on the floor.

Tarquin shook his head, laughing, “Nice try Archie, but even in overalls she’s pretty obvious.”

“What?” said Archie, wearing a look of surprise worthy of an Oscar winner.

Tarquin pointed at Mae West trotting up and down in stratospheric heels, sheathed in a ridiculously tight blue boiler suit, and manfully wielding an oversized gold handbag. She turned and tossed a lock of platinum blonde hair across her face,

“A woman is like a tea bag, you never know how strong she is until you put her in hot water,” she said, looking dismissively in Tarquin’s direction.

Archie winced. “I tried to take control, but she threatened to come up and see me sometime. I ‘ve had to let her do her own thing,” he said quietly and out of Mae’s earshot.

TBO ]]> The Bloated One http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/the-bloated-one/92-tarquin-progress.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/the-bloated-one/90-tarquin-jenkins-comes-of-age-this-year-hopefully.html Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:10:30 GMT Oh dear, I hate setting targets, but I have been travelling with Tarquin for the last 18 months and I really need to finish him off. . .Well, not end his life, but finish the first book.

I already have his second book in my head (Tarquin Jenkins & The Return of the Mummas & Morris Men), now, if only I could finish the first book. . . ]]> The Bloated One http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/the-bloated-one/90-tarquin-jenkins-comes-of-age-this-year-hopefully.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/chopper/89-im-mobile-technically.html Sun, 04 Jan 2009 10:28:14 GMT just got my first laptop. or, rather, netbook (Acer Aspire 1, Linux edition). this means Mrs Chopper can use the base unit for Photoshop stuff while i write with the mini-thing.

why Linux? so that i can't install Football Manager and distract myself from writing.....

unfortunately, i'm writing this blog on the base unit (Bloody Stupid Thing) - i don't have wireless connection stuff yet and for some reason the Aspire doesn't like my wired connection. very odd.

oh well, onwards and upwards.... ]]> chopper http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/chopper/89-im-mobile-technically.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/littlemissattitude/88-happy-new-year-blogs-are-back.html Thu, 01 Jan 2009 02:18:28 GMT It's nice to see that blogs are back. Thanks to Brian for rescuing them.

Not that I had much time to write anything while they were down. My mother's illness got much worse, and she passed away on 6 December. Since then, I've been busy taking care of everything that needs to be taken care of when someone dies (hint, if you've never been through this: There is a lot to do, a lot of notifications to make, and if you are the only one to do all that, it will take up a lot of your time).

I took the time the week of Christmas to go out of town, mostly because I couldn't stand the thought of sitting at home over the holiday staring at the walls. I don't have any family I'm close to in the local area, and my best friend is on the East Coast with her family, so I headed to Southern California and spent time with friends and family there, and just spent some alone time where I grew up.

It was a good thing for me. I feel much better now, more ready to face the world and get back to my normal routine than I probably would have if I had stayed here at home.

If it had just been Christmas, it wouldn't have been so daunting, staying home alone. But Christmas Eve was my mother's birthday, and I really didn't want to be home alone for that. By being away from home, I could remember my mother appropriately but didn't have the time to dwell on her recent passing and remembered the good times instead.

So. A new year starts tomorrow. Maybe it's a good thing that this time of new beginnings comes now, when I'm really making a new beginning. I'm learning to live alone for the first time in my life. Always before, I've lived at home or with roommates. It's still really strange for me, even though I've been living alone since my mother went into the hospital in mid-July. But it is beginning to seem more natural to live alone, to not have to make accommodation to anyone else's needs or schedule, to be able to come and go as I please.

I wish all of you a Happy New Year, a new year that is safe and stress-free and that brings you everything you need and want. ]]> littlemissattitude http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/littlemissattitude/88-happy-new-year-blogs-are-back.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/talysia/87-a-bad-couple-of-months.html Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:45:42 GMT November and December have been a bad couple of months for me. It seems like a lot of things have gone wrong all at once. I'm hoping that January will be a lot better.

A lot has happened. On top of the problems that my sister has been having, she had to spend a long afternoon in hospital after her doctor thought it wise she get checked out for appendicitis. It turned out to be nothing so serious, but it still caused a lot of worry. The family is rather close-knit, too, so I think we were almost as worried as she was.

Then the other problems began. I had a bad bout of flu at the end of November which lasted well into December, during which time we had problems with the washing machine - namely it deciding to flood the kitchen floor with grimy water. Otherwise, it would just stop halfway through a wash and we couldn't get the door open. It's working again now, but for how much longer, I couldn't say...:rolleyes:

There have been other, lesser problems which I won't go into here, but they all added up and it left me feeling rather sorry for myself for a while. My confidence took a bit of a knock, too, thanks to some rather rude people on another forum, but since I've left I'm feeling a bit better about the whole thing. The fact that this has been happening at the busiest time of the year hasn't helped, either, with all the problems of getting ready for Christmas (and birthdays - for some reason, most of the family birthdays happen in November and December).

My writing even ground to a halt. I had no inspiration again, and even worse, no wish to write anything. However, finding a book of sketches the other day has rekindled my interest somewhat. I've shelved my long term project for now, and I'm trying to focus on another idea, a more recent one. With any luck, this one will go better, and maybe I'll be able to return to the other one and complete it someday.

I do feel like things might be turning around, though. Hopefully with the new year, things will continue to improve.:) ]]> Talysia http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/talysia/87-a-bad-couple-of-months.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/chopper/86-meanwhile-back-at-the-ranch.html Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:13:05 GMT Since the site crashed, the world has turned: I've sold my first short story, written a total of approx. 50k words this calendar year, got three more shorts in various stages of incompleteness, finished an alternate history novellette for the Shared Sheaves crew, and even found time to copy-edit the anthology for my writers' groop. All that and night shifts too!

Nice to have the blogs back - although it's one more distraction to tempt me away from my wonderful OpenOffice documents....

(and because i'm the shy, retiring type, i'll tell you about the anthology etc very loudly when it comes out....) ]]> chopper http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/chopper/86-meanwhile-back-at-the-ranch.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/rosemary/85-body-parts.html Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:13:57 GMT Does anyone know where I can get some good working body parts? Like a new arm or even just a hand? Still typing with one hand! :( Still it has given me an insight into what it could be like for someone who is actually missing an arm, especially if it is the arm or hand they use the most. ... Does anyone know where I can get some good working body parts? Like a new arm or even just a hand?

Still typing with one hand! :( Still it has given me an insight into what it could be like for someone who is actually missing an arm, especially if it is the arm or hand they use the most.

Taking down notes while on the telephone, especially if like me, they cant balance the phone on one shoulder! Taking money out of purse or wallet is another example where I would use both hands, not quite so easy with one, especially at a supermarket when someone could easily grab it from the counter where I had laid it, so as to get to the money.

It's a serious situation for those that have it long term I know but beside not being able to type so easily, for the worst thing is - I can't rest the book on my left hand while I turn the pages. :eek:

I say a round of cheers for those who have to cope with things like that each day. :) ]]> Rosemary http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/rosemary/85-body-parts.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/chrispenycate/84-animation.html Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:48:01 GMT I've been writing a song for the start titles of an animated cartoon. Complicated, because it's only forty seconds, and the message (specific words they want to use) is fixed, and because, at the start they only requested a seven-footed line, to match the French, and my musician put stressed syllables at the end of every line (which, seeing they wanted "future" and "present" as accented terms, which doesn't make my job any easier) Still, I'm not one to back down from a challenge; and a first (demo) version has been sung; we'll see how the Taiwanese like it (the version in Mandarin is somebody else's problem ;))
You'd think that with that going on my muse would be happy to take a rest from rhyme. wouldn't you? But, as some have noticed, l'appetit vient en mangeant, and I exude verse in all directions.

Odd that; I hope it doesn't trigger another bout of limericitus. ]]> chrispenycate http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/chrispenycate/84-animation.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/chopper/83-write-what-you-know.html Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:02:53 GMT well, that's what They advise, anyway. which isn't a great problem unless you're writing about dragons (unless chrispy knows something i don't....)
it's a hard slog at the moment because i have a goal to reach and some unpleasant writing to get me there. the story requires cassia to have a choice between travelling with her father and travelling with the two mysterious chaps who have spirited them both out of their normal lives. the thing is that her father is (putting it mildly) an unpleasant man. very self-centered. uses his fists. this is stuff i don't have much personal experience in. i have the experiences of other people i can draw on, but a lot of those are far far darker than any place i want to go. and i don't want the guy to overwhelm the first few chapters of the book, as we won't be seeing him again.

so the going is very slow and painful. trying to write all this from cassia's POV without making her a passive victim, and not wallowing in nasty detail while also making his abusive behaviour believeable - not easy. it's tempting to leave it, skip off and write another part.
the point to this? i'm not sure there is one, but i certainly didn't set out intending to write the characters in this way - they seem to have developed into this relationship. not something that ever looked likely with the last Great Unfinished Project. but maybe that's why this one feels more complete and more challenging? ]]> chopper http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/chopper/83-write-what-you-know.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/duchessprozac/81-a-bout-of-writers-block.html Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:02:45 GMT All this month, I have been writing like a maniac. I've done two rather lengthy short stories and a couple of poems, now, however I just can't force myself to write. I've tried, believe me, I've tried but nothing good is coming out at least nothing that is willing to stick.

I'm hoping it's going to pass and is in no way related to the bout of strangeness I've been having the past few days. It's not what I'd call a depression, more a subtle melancholy.

I've been trying my hand at a few things to snap myself out of it, the main one being a project I used to do on a regular basis, which was to write an obituary for myself, but It's as though my creative gland has malfunctioned and where before the ideas flowed, now they drip out like...Something slow and drippy.

Fingers crossed it'll pass soon enough as I'm dying to create but my brain doesn't have anything to work with. ]]> Duchessprozac http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/duchessprozac/81-a-bout-of-writers-block.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/talysia/80-an-odd-time.html Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:07:23 GMT It's been an odd couple of weeks for me.

Over these past few weeks, I've had a lot of things to deal with, from the trivial to the very serious, and I'm feeling a bit drained from it all. The upside to it is that I've been writing a lot more.

My sister has been having a few problems, one of which left me with a dilemma and worrying for her. As twins, we've always been close and there are times when I just wish I could help more. The worry over that and other things has been making it difficult for me to get to sleep, and it becomes somewhat of a vicious circle. It seems as though her situation has settled down, so maybe I won't have to worry so much, either.

There have been some successes, though. My confidence has taken a knock over the years, which sometimes makes it difficult to do things (even little things, like asking people on a forum if they mind me adding them to my friends list:o). Still, this past week I was faced with a possibly tricky situation and was able to deal with it with more confidence than I've seen in myself in a long time. I feel like I may be getting my former confidence back, which can only be a good thing.

With everything that's been going on, I've found that writing is an excellent means of relieving stress. My muse may have abandoned me on my newest story, but I've been able to pick up an older one and continue with it, having previously put it away for lack of ideas. I've also started to type up some of my other older projects, although this may take me a while - for me, typing is much slower than writing by hand!:) ]]> Talysia http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/talysia/80-an-odd-time.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/perpetual-man/79-the-countdown-ticks-slowly-down.html Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:01:24 GMT Some of you are probably more than aware that Mrs Perpetual Man and myself are getting close to having our first baby. It's been an interesting 7 -8 months, with everything going just about as perfectly as it can go.

But as anyone who I chat to regularly will be aware my presence on the Chrons has suddenly become next to negligable (I do check in once in while to see what is going on!)

In the last week or so the doctors and midwives have noticed that her blood pressure is elevated, and have been wanting to keep a greater eye on her.

Suddenly our routine is ripped apart. I have to drive her up to hospital (Its about 12 miles away) three times a week; she's had to stay in for a weekend, been allowed home on the strick intstructions she does as little as possible (more for me to do!!), she gets upset that I'm doing my best to work, then come home, cook meals, clean up afterwards and do my best to get keep the house clean, and finish getting ready for a baby, not to mention the sudden cancellation of all my regular activities.

So far this week I've lost the better part of two days work, going up tothe hospital. It's annoying because all that is done seems to take about an hour at most, but is spread over six hours... six hours of sitting around in an over bright and warm waiting room, wondering if the reason it's takking so long is because they've found something serious out...

Is it any wonder her (and funnily enough, my) blood pressure is up? :mad: ]]> Perpetual Man http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/perpetual-man/79-the-countdown-ticks-slowly-down.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/duchessprozac/78-a-rant-of-submissions.html Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:07:24 GMT I've been writing like a mad woman since getting my first publishing. It's so satisfying finishing a story but I have to say I hate, Hate, HATE submitting stories.

I mean, it's not that I'm lazy, I just hate having to sift through the tonnes of e-zines scouring them for ones that may want to publish my works only to come across swathes of publishers that when I find ones that I think may publish me, one that doesn't mind a story with naughty language or mature content, it has either closed submissions or has a waiting period of several months and that they expect me to sit on the story until they can finally tell me whether they want to publish me or not.

It wouldn't bother me so much but It's all just so soul destroying and just the thought of entering the market has me procrastinating.

I am hoping that it gets easier the more I get published but right now it's such a slog. ]]> Duchessprozac http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/duchessprozac/78-a-rant-of-submissions.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/harpo/77-excerpt-from-a-forthcoming-book-on-idling-my.html Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:21:38 GMT Creativity may take many forms, affecting and affected by all ten senses – the sense of humour, the sense of the ridiculous, the sense that someone is watching you, the sense of occasion, and the non-sense. These may include such obvious forms as music, dancing, painting, and cooking, as well as... Creativity may take many forms, affecting and affected by all ten senses – the sense of humour, the sense of the ridiculous, the sense that someone is watching you, the sense of occasion, and the non-sense. These may include such obvious forms as music, dancing, painting, and cooking, as well as lesser/greater forms like kitsch-appreciation, getting away with it, juxtaposition, and the post Kool-Kat delirium.

“Let’s do a magazine” I said.
“Let’s call it GOAT” he said.
It was that simple, pretty much. We made random collages of pictures, writings, and pages from the Reader’s Digest; added a few cartoons drawn by a friend, and got 50 copies printed up. We sold one copy, and left the rest on tables and chairs in cafes, trains, and so forth.
Issue 2 was going to be all the post we received during the month of April 1987, and plans for further issues included our experimental poetry, pictures of goats, the contents of a rubbish bin, writings by and photos of a friend of ours. But we only ever actually produced that first issue.

• Creativity is often experimental in nature – Inherent within experimenting is the ‘permission to fail’. Creativity is not the same thing as success. In 2003 I had to write a handful of new songs in a hurry, one of them was called

“A Beginner’s Guide To Failure”

Let me guess - you’re a real success
Please allow me to regale ya
With a few ideas for facing your fears
A beginner’s guide to failure.

Failure’s a must for life-long lust
It’s important for your happiness
Ignore the rules they teach in schools
Indulge yourself in crappiness.

Pay no attention when I mention
People from Australia
You’re a big success, you need to mess
Around with being a failure.

Don’t see things through, I’d rather you
Be wrong at every juncture
Be off, go home, get on yer bike
I hope you get a puncture.

Every morning stay in bed
But don’t do any reading
Avoid all contact with your peers
Unless your brain is bleeding.

Burn all proof of everything you
Feel makes you a winner
Make bad choices, heed your voices
Throw up all over your dinner.

Keep your socks at half-mast, & your work half-arsed
Do nothing that is stressful
I hope this song makes your life go wrong
I hope this song’s successful.

Late last year I decided that this year (2008, pronounced ‘twenty-oh-eight’) will be the best year of my life. Then, because I wanted it to be longer than usual, I made it start earlier by adding an extra month (December, obviously) at the beginning, and then I realised this made a year of almost 400 days, so I added a few extra days at the end of November and made the entire year into an art project called “400 Days”. I didn’t make any sort of announcement in the Media, nor did I apply for an Arts Council grant, I just decided that it’s an art project. That’s all it takes. Art is anything an artist says it is, and an artist is anyone who does something and decides it is art. John Cage once said “Anything you can get away with is art”.

Cage was the first artist to base his work on chance. However, he was far from being the first to employ it; several artists had used chance at some stage in the compositional process. Mozart wrote Dice Waltzes, in which the order of musical material was selected by chance – later, in HPSCHD, Cage was to employ them – and Bach wrote a random piece. In the twentieth century Tristan Tzara put together poetry from words cut out of newspapers and drawn from a hat; Duchamp made both musical and visual works by means of chance selections.

David Revill, “The Roaring Silence”

I first heard of “The Diceman” by Luke Rhinehart in 1986 – I was advised to skip the first 100 pages and then it’s fun all the way. Since then I’ve used dice to make decisions occasionally over the years, in a variety of ways – including the way I wrote this thingummy you are reading. I’ve often used random words for singing at gigs, such as things I might find in the street (it’s easier than thinking up my own things, and it make more sense to somebody)

Founded just before punk, in 1975, the London Musicians Collective was conceived as an open-ended alternative to the existing Musicians’ Co-op (more of an invitation-only guild). British improvisational music culture had definite affinities with punk. Being such a small scene, it pioneered a do-it-yourself approach from the early seventies onwards: independent labels like Incus; samizdat publications like the ‘squabblezine’ Musics. “There were anarchist ideas floating around,” says David Toop, another LMC co-founder. Proto-punk ideas of incompetence as liberating and musical training as a shackle on creativity also circulated, filtering down from Fluxus and John Cage to inform outfits like the Portsmouth Sinfonia – an orchestra in which everybody played an instrument at which they weren’t fully proficient. Sinfonia participants included Steve Beresford, Brian Eno, and David Cunningham, who later formed the LMC-affiliated pop group The Flying Lizards.

Simon Reynolds, “Rip It Up And Start Again.” ]]> Harpo http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/harpo/77-excerpt-from-a-forthcoming-book-on-idling-my.html http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/rosemary/76-immortal-rosie.html Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:31:52 GMT That's it! I've decided that in my next life i shall be an immortal!

Staying at that lovely age of 28ish, no illness of body or mind and with the wisdom that I have now. :D

Still, I do have a lovely Saturday planned - I'm going to see my girls :) They always make me feel younger and carefree. Flying kites, building sandcastles and making a lot of mess when painting pictures! :cool: I must remember to get a special file for all the pictures they paint just for me, there's no room for anymore on my fridge! ]]> Rosemary http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/blogs/rosemary/76-immortal-rosie.html