Back to the Drawing Board

Dies Caniculares
End of Dog
The Final Days of Man's Best Friend

These are just some of the names I was throwing around inside my head last night for a short story that I wrote a few months ago about a 'canine apocalypse'.
Indeed, once I'd decided upon a title, I was seriously thinking about publishing it via Smashwords so that I could offer it is a 'free taster' of my work and hopefully entice people to download 'The Book That THEY…'
I've even got the cover ready (it's based on the new profile picture of my Facebook page, I've Read It, Have You?)

But, by the time I was calling it a day last night, I'd changed my mind.
Why?
Well, when I was reading through the story for the first time in a few weeks, building into it some really good ideas provided by, amongst others, my fellow SF Masterworks aficionado, Dan-the-Man, I suddenly began to realise that I wasn't…it took me a few minutes to come up with the right word…engaged in the story, didn't feel immersed in what was going on; it was something which the lovely Jeanne had mentioned when she had read through it a couple of months ago, but which I had only come to realise now that I had come to re-read the text with the benefit of not having seen it for a while.

Of course, there was nothing wrong with the premise - it was fantastic, naturally.
It was just the style that was wrong. I had originally intended it to be read as if reading a newspaper article, and in many ways, I'd achieved that - it was just that such a style seemed to result in too much detachment from the story.

When I'd finished reading it, I found myself thinking 'So what?' because the absence of any characters in the tale left me without anything or anyone to either have empathy for, or even dislike; that, in turn, meant there was nothing to 'pull me in'.

So, it seems that a trip back the drawing board for this particular tale is required, which may be no bad thing in the long run, if what comes off the drawing board at some point in the future is better.
I'll keep you posted on progress.

As for the free taster idea - it's something I still want to do, but instead I may have a look at my other 'long' short story, The Seven Questions of Daniel Keys.

Stardust in Newtonmore

It's been almost two months since my last post - why so long?
Well, a combination of reasons, really.
Firstly, I've been spending a lot of time on my new soon-to-be-bestseller 'Fractured Time' (which is now at 30,000 words and is currently being reviewed by Pash and Dan-The-Man to see if it's worth writing the other 70,000 or so words); and when I haven't been working on that, I've been writing short stories, such as SoRaMA which, even if I do say so myself, is brilliant!! (If anyone wants to read it (it's about 3,000 words), drop me a comment)
Secondly, work has been really bloody busy, including a week over in India with the team in Mumbai, enjoying a late Wednesday evening of spontaneous bowel evacuations...
Thirdly, I've been doing as much reading as I can...see below.
All in all, there hasn't been a lot of time to do any blogging.

So why choose today to get back on the blog-pony?
Well, as I am sat in the fantastically quirky surroundings of a converted signal box beside the main Perth-Inverness train line at Newtonmore station, (check it out at www.sykescottages.co.uk, ref 1304) looking out across the darkening fields towards the River Spey through sheets of falling rain, it felt like the right thing to do...and no, I'm not going to say anything about what's going on at Grangemouth with Ineos and those idiots from Unite!!

Instead, I'm going to reflect on the fact that I've just finished reading Neil Gaiman's 'Stardust' (one of the six books I've bought this week from Waterstones in Inverness and Aviemore) - it really is very different from the film (which was one of the reasons I wanted to read it). Did I enjoy it as much as the film?
Er...no.
To be honest, the storyline in the film is more entertaining, which is a surprise, because I often find it's the other way around. But the book is still a good read and, in a way, is all the more interesting because of the comparison with the film.
Maybe, just maybe, someone will one day be writing a blog in which they say that a film made from one of my stories is better than the book...how cool would that be?

Anyway, it's now time for a fry-up before the packing starts - off home tomorrow.

Oh Tony, do be quiet!

As the positions of the US and Russia on Syria become more entrenched, and the rhetoric of the two leaders becomes more aggressive, how comforting it is to hear the comments of former PM Tony Blair.
According to Tony, the UK is hesitant to get involved in Syria because of what happened in Iraq...though not, he quickly points out, because of the fact that we went into that war on false pretences...oh no, according to Saint Tony, it was our failure to deal with the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq that has left us hesitant.
Now, far be it for me to argue with a former PM, but I think people here in the UK, appalled as we all are by the use of chemical weapons in Syria, actually don't want to go charging into another Middle Eastern country for the following reasons:

1. Whilst it's pretty likely that Assad was behind the attack, forgive us (after Iraq) for not believing either the US or UK governments when they claim to have 'conclusive proof' of who was behind it - after all, we never did find those weapons of mass destruction or the capability to launch those weapons in 45 minutes in Iraq, did we? (But we did find a shit-load of oil!!)
2. It's a bit rich for us to one year talk about the importance of UN resolutions as a mandate for military intervention and then, because we can't actually get one (yes, Russia and China, that's because of you and you still should be ashamed of yourselves!) we decide we don't actually need UN approval anyway.
3. We are still trying to get ourselves out of Afghanistan!
4. We're sick and tired of trying to police the world, and paying for the privilege.

For the West to take sides in Syria is to try to help people who hate you win a fight against people who hate you - in the end, you just end up with even more people hating you than when you started!
So, forgive me, Lord Blair of Cheam, if I don't subscribe to the argument that we are hesitant to attack a few buildings in Syria with missiles because we don't know how to end wars; I think we're hesitant because, under your leadership, we learnt about the folly of getting involved in a war, however barbaric, which we can never really win, based on all the wrong reasons!