As Rafiki once said: It is time!

Well, first of all, before I got on to the meat of today's blogpost, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the fabulous people all over the world who have been kind enough to spare a few minutes of their valuable time reading my inane ramblings - I hope that you found my observations and social comment interesting, and that my attempts at comedy and satire made you chuckle a little.
You are the best!

Right, now that that's out of the way, let's get to the subject of today's blogpost…and it's really a heads up about the fact that I'm going to blogging a lot less in the weeks and months to come.
'Oh my God, Andy, NOOOOO!' I hear you cry. 'Why are you doing this to us?'
Well, that's a good question, my friend.
It's all about time.
You see, since I finished writing Fractured Time back in May, I've had quite a bit of time available to write a post almost every day, which has been great. However, now that we're reaching the end of August, I'm starting to gear up for my new novel…or should I say novels. Yes, folks, because I'm always looking for a literary challenge, I've decided to work on two books at the same time (because I think they've both got tremendous potential) - so the next few months will see almost all of my writing time being devoted to 'The Curious Case of God vs Pratt' and 'Deus Magnus'.
This means very little time for blogging…unfortunately.
Not that I'm going to stop completely of course - oh no. I'm certainly going to keep people up to speed on my efforts to find an agent who falls in love with 'Fractured Time'; I'm also going to be sharing progress on efforts to get 'Callum's Quest' illustrated and then published. And I'll be providing an update on progress on both of my new pieces of work. And maybe some photos.
And I've no doubt there'll be a comment or two on the impending vote for independence in Scotland, and (unfortunately) I'd be more than a little surprised if we get to the end of the year without some barbaric act of terrorism taking place which warrants a rant of outrage!
So please be patient and keep checking in from time to time!

A blog about a blog

Today, a short piece I recently wrote about whether writers should challenge readers by using words that are not generally in use was posted on Autharium's blog - follow the link.

Autharium Community Blog

Great Insight from Gary Gibson

Now I don't normally link to the someone else's blog, but I'm going to make an exception in this case because I think what Gary Gibson has written in this blog for Tor Books is worth sharing.

http://torbooks.co.uk/2013/05/17/gary-gibson-on-future-thinking-plus-books-to-win/

One of the things you often hear people say these days is that science fiction is in danger of being overtaken by the sheer pace of advancements in science and technology. It’s an understandable refrain, particularly when the news is filled with reports about downloadable blueprints for building guns with those same 3D printers. The feeling that you’re living in a world co-scripted by John Varley and John Brunner tends to grow when you take a quick scan through any number of online news sites and discover front-page features on exoplanets, life extension, and NASA research into Alcubierre drives. It might seem that in the face of such remarkable advances, science fiction might no longer be as relevant as it once was, reality having in many respects caught up with it. You might think that, but you would be wrong.

In many ways, it could be argued that the great pace of technological change in our world throws down a gauntlet to the imagination of sci-fi writers, challenging them to look at what is happening now and then extrapolate that out to where it could go in the future.
That has to be exciting for all concerned.