tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88244717527185696872024-03-24T06:24:36.206+00:00Science Fiction MusingsRobert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.comBlogger271125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-68033573139109988562024-03-24T06:23:00.001+00:002024-03-24T06:23:42.192+00:00Heaven or Hell<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">You'll find my drabble of that name in the latest offering from <a href="https://twitter.com/shacklebound?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank">Shacklebound Books</a>, available from 29th March 2024 from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWM6FN67" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWM6FN67" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPA5Oo3a5XbYWSoLrMm4gl4NYpNyXOunuOVVoMXD739dS2FTFkCSOfEJ0PpMCjDD-9zae-athvF5VXwS5r0k60dKMINauhmWVqPPD8X2CTfi94Y0wq8Pxnkuoxi8PBnst4uU2IcXAGykpntxp2_GWqqxY9d1mch-ciNlZBSiQLmlI7XdHYVLvCqLkHlw/w256-h400/Drabbledark%20(2).jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thoughts-Authorities-Calibration-Against-Societal/dp/1913726037/ref=sr_1_2?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qngLLh72suxH41FTRKn5dSUTLHpJ8kwVP99Ha6x0qTIiLy4mk5WpvdaPNWUF6Fzm58auzGu3k6_sDXSUcFAjO1OK-B6UCjFKRK4hCgixhxmvJ1L6hc5HsLFYugmOKSfm_5yPc8G6UmoAIC0GbDv4bYDbUNya3kpKhTIhGSx2KlO0FJj_Od1BV0ovg61uPTr9mtRdunmJ_5JqLrPBiSdLrdBMQxnAtWY-GX4Oqqhwf88.aiCkK948FJfiV-nUmiCLUQw8jPM1yjx4wiJD_GxUvs8&dib_tag=se&qid=1708621595&refinements=p_27%3ARobert+Bagnall&s=books&sr=1-2" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="682" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfkL_YodYtJZUI_uuKoPUcPLQ1afEoD6bYEW3J7Vc4FVEMQAkv-F4tN-8RwmIICJSnvmfPrKNbAQ-PJuy-BWnaSrnNriibw1LjTkPMoinvmAuzYXLG6mro2PDdvBWC9rt1u-2u_CcsZTFaeKWBNDVdgspnwVt6hJyF1VVqQVuqj1vhYr3PyxdJUGXFGc/s320/1704455411676-7ecf0154-e5f2-435b-901a-d2e6e890dbdd_1.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="213" /></span></a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Award-nominated science fiction and slipstream author Robert Bagnall’s second anthology of twenty-four stories, variously bleak, funny, bleakly funny or – very occasionally – optimistic.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a> <br /></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62);"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></span></b></p><div style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.<br /></span><b>“Brilliant stories, well written!”</b> (five stars, Amazon).</span></span></div></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-63821998305257595922024-03-01T14:38:00.001+00:002024-03-01T14:38:46.820+00:00AI, Robot<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>AI, Robot</i>, from JayHenge now available on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/919890762X">Amazon.com</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/919890762X">Amazon.co.uk</a>, or, well... all of them, I think. Inside you'll find my story "How Did They get You?"</span></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEidQKjDuJ0-aK2dzMJc88frJKflqdB4H7p_oYV7RgFLyqiyGSxhexiMaMJ_C7D61xrKEmhkYGBEu8zS8abPK7nUKyi--vAUSsHOIOWjWJSMO6448bZgMoqRFlZPztsK7UN7wfbbFyvV_-zvx40-n6_pi5X7nJ_51sLyKm3U4TrkTPLY18rN8tezIllb5uQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1006" data-original-width="1024" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEidQKjDuJ0-aK2dzMJc88frJKflqdB4H7p_oYV7RgFLyqiyGSxhexiMaMJ_C7D61xrKEmhkYGBEu8zS8abPK7nUKyi--vAUSsHOIOWjWJSMO6448bZgMoqRFlZPztsK7UN7wfbbFyvV_-zvx40-n6_pi5X7nJ_51sLyKm3U4TrkTPLY18rN8tezIllb5uQ=w400-h394" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thoughts-Authorities-Calibration-Against-Societal/dp/1913726037/ref=sr_1_2?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qngLLh72suxH41FTRKn5dSUTLHpJ8kwVP99Ha6x0qTIiLy4mk5WpvdaPNWUF6Fzm58auzGu3k6_sDXSUcFAjO1OK-B6UCjFKRK4hCgixhxmvJ1L6hc5HsLFYugmOKSfm_5yPc8G6UmoAIC0GbDv4bYDbUNya3kpKhTIhGSx2KlO0FJj_Od1BV0ovg61uPTr9mtRdunmJ_5JqLrPBiSdLrdBMQxnAtWY-GX4Oqqhwf88.aiCkK948FJfiV-nUmiCLUQw8jPM1yjx4wiJD_GxUvs8&dib_tag=se&qid=1708621595&refinements=p_27%3ARobert+Bagnall&s=books&sr=1-2" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="682" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfkL_YodYtJZUI_uuKoPUcPLQ1afEoD6bYEW3J7Vc4FVEMQAkv-F4tN-8RwmIICJSnvmfPrKNbAQ-PJuy-BWnaSrnNriibw1LjTkPMoinvmAuzYXLG6mro2PDdvBWC9rt1u-2u_CcsZTFaeKWBNDVdgspnwVt6hJyF1VVqQVuqj1vhYr3PyxdJUGXFGc/s320/1704455411676-7ecf0154-e5f2-435b-901a-d2e6e890dbdd_1.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="213" /></span></a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Award-nominated science fiction and slipstream author Robert Bagnall’s second anthology of twenty-four stories, variously bleak, funny, bleakly funny or – very occasionally – optimistic.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a> <br /></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62);"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></span></b></p><div style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.<br /></span><b>“Brilliant stories, well written!”</b> (five stars, Amazon).</span></span></div></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-25897889061246993332024-02-26T13:53:00.005+00:002024-02-26T13:53:49.182+00:00Auntie<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">"<a href="https://www.scifishorts.co/premium/auntie/e9e1f8eb-baaf-4353-a3e4-f864a0b0f71c" target="_blank">Auntie" - now on Sci Fi shorts.</a></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1nevV2k7as0m-zasWySjayz8bzvKcUVz50kGrzwOqbb-oPlTUIakUcqYBhD1RrcpdoAd6AAUif1aV3g5QCs9jFbkkRe0_VsjyRBOp2EgILqpC-OGuWaFRIhMWU5MzIKcpY7D5HqNHOmL34MVPzUh6IK6Z4pwgKMDuX9Tyasxq5Qn3vnPq-Fs_NBMCevI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="865" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1nevV2k7as0m-zasWySjayz8bzvKcUVz50kGrzwOqbb-oPlTUIakUcqYBhD1RrcpdoAd6AAUif1aV3g5QCs9jFbkkRe0_VsjyRBOp2EgILqpC-OGuWaFRIhMWU5MzIKcpY7D5HqNHOmL34MVPzUh6IK6Z4pwgKMDuX9Tyasxq5Qn3vnPq-Fs_NBMCevI=w400-h272" width="400" /></a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="color: #666666;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thoughts-Authorities-Calibration-Against-Societal/dp/1913726037/ref=sr_1_2?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qngLLh72suxH41FTRKn5dSUTLHpJ8kwVP99Ha6x0qTIiLy4mk5WpvdaPNWUF6Fzm58auzGu3k6_sDXSUcFAjO1OK-B6UCjFKRK4hCgixhxmvJ1L6hc5HsLFYugmOKSfm_5yPc8G6UmoAIC0GbDv4bYDbUNya3kpKhTIhGSx2KlO0FJj_Od1BV0ovg61uPTr9mtRdunmJ_5JqLrPBiSdLrdBMQxnAtWY-GX4Oqqhwf88.aiCkK948FJfiV-nUmiCLUQw8jPM1yjx4wiJD_GxUvs8&dib_tag=se&qid=1708621595&refinements=p_27%3ARobert+Bagnall&s=books&sr=1-2" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="682" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfkL_YodYtJZUI_uuKoPUcPLQ1afEoD6bYEW3J7Vc4FVEMQAkv-F4tN-8RwmIICJSnvmfPrKNbAQ-PJuy-BWnaSrnNriibw1LjTkPMoinvmAuzYXLG6mro2PDdvBWC9rt1u-2u_CcsZTFaeKWBNDVdgspnwVt6hJyF1VVqQVuqj1vhYr3PyxdJUGXFGc/s320/1704455411676-7ecf0154-e5f2-435b-901a-d2e6e890dbdd_1.jpg" width="213" /></span></a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Award-nominated science fiction and slipstream author Robert
Bagnall’s second anthology of twenty-four stories, variously bleak, funny,
bleakly funny or – very occasionally – optimistic.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a> <br /></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62);"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></span></b></p><div style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.<br /></span><b>“Brilliant stories, well written!”</b> (five stars, Amazon).</span></span></div></div></div><p><br /></p>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-4070419908299697412024-02-04T18:23:00.009+00:002024-02-04T18:25:03.048+00:00My Thoughts are with You. Your Thoughts are with the Authorities for Calibration Against Societal Norms.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thoughts-Authorities-Calibration-Against-Societal-ebook/dp/B0CS3ZWGPY/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3QNCZIMMBW5GO&keywords=robert+bagnall&qid=1707070138&sprefix=robert+bagnall%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-2" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2775" data-original-width="3796" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5vuAeoyCVKozipMk95rj00YnbLzF0Zg3JjNB3uQvDKuz4S3URW75FrDgAY55HmA0NAxQxobzJz2N4D6oWG3QBX5_z7qMwo4-mkLLv9x8noArZ1_-JcZ-_Szqh7iiEufDQpNPXoJzKdgpMGYcTEZ3merCkzZFCWC5JhK7FFBr6wefMXmLDpv-rszkKUjI/w640-h468/ac2d9db6-4084-4a93-904e-8a23f1244a45.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>Available from <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thoughts-Authorities-Calibration-Against-Societal-ebook/dp/B0CS3ZWGPY/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3QNCZIMMBW5GO&keywords=robert+bagnall&qid=1707070138&sprefix=robert+bagnall%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-2" target="_blank">Amazon </a>now.</b></span></span></p><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; color: #666666; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62);"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><div style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>“Brilliant stories, well written!”</b> (five stars,
Amazon).</span></span></div></div></div></div><div><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #0f1111; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-81533793731748117632024-01-05T11:17:00.002+00:002024-01-05T11:17:47.627+00:00End of year report<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Having tried over the last few years to submit a story a day, and having both <a href="https://meschera.blogspot.com/2019/01/end-of-year-report.html" target="_blank">missed </a>and <a href="https://meschera.blogspot.com/2022/01/end-of-term-report.html">overshot </a>that target, 2023 is the year I managed the magic 365 submissions. And, yes, there were quite a few ill-thought out scattergun pitches to keep my average up, although I'm grateful for <a href="https://www.augurmag.com/" target="_blank">Augur</a>'s flexibility over multiple submission in order to land smack bang on target <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvK9zL_F_T0" target="_blank">like a cartoon man in a chicken suit</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So, 365 stories went out, and 322 responses came back, 280 straight no's and 27 with something to say although ultimately adding up to 'no' - but 15 acceptances. At year end, 71 irons remain in the fire, though only two are formally held for further consideration and all but one date from the second half of the year, which suggests not many seeds may sprout in 2024.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But these are the ones that did in 2023:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">In January, my maternal horror <i>Wrapped </i>was taken for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_(Swedish_band)" target="_blank">Ghost</a>-inspired anthology <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/123414549" target="_blank">Tales from the Crypt</a>, which came out in July from <a href="https://twitter.com/1031NightsPress" target="_blank">October Nights Press</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjF1Hz7DmCsMJmm8ttXuo1Q20m3QyyIi13mTtUKrhmLW_hDp-4a9OsJA_Y9AL0koZWZUv1mp6FJGALWfY0htaHr0rHHAg2b03kkvkArMXymqRXjSuYFTvUfvGNeoK1ovFYdtf3HpHC4WZghg8agZqUpzWKsN7Fzj1ahLXZ2dALyY3hp-ysk36hgiA5n2FI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjF1Hz7DmCsMJmm8ttXuo1Q20m3QyyIi13mTtUKrhmLW_hDp-4a9OsJA_Y9AL0koZWZUv1mp6FJGALWfY0htaHr0rHHAg2b03kkvkArMXymqRXjSuYFTvUfvGNeoK1ovFYdtf3HpHC4WZghg8agZqUpzWKsN7Fzj1ahLXZ2dALyY3hp-ysk36hgiA5n2FI=w258-h400" width="258" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">February saw two acceptances. The first was for the <a href="http://aanpress.com/" target="_blank">Air and Nothingness Press</a>' delicately beautiful <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/133178147-gargantua" target="_blank">Gargantua </a>anthology, tales of precisely 1000 words on mega-engineering in space, <span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915;">Shellworlds, Alderson Disks, Dyson Spheres, and the like. My story, Terminal, which opens the collection, is essentially about an insect-o-cutor. No, I'm never good at sticking to instructions, am I? It was published in May.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4e_LkAoKmZP9qmb-dtu8L5UnwXpasD5HhT3s2R5bqsQTipM02dfbJyCAExHHbN8jT1SDxFCFvRcESFHOFp7B24U3DaPuq2clI91TtlWv7CjGnwEFI4pjI-7yDW1bL2vWJRlPH80tgSGjx_ICoZm3jeRQ5nFavwxyg3qLVZgcPFckXJCEFUYvxuOGePVk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="576" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4e_LkAoKmZP9qmb-dtu8L5UnwXpasD5HhT3s2R5bqsQTipM02dfbJyCAExHHbN8jT1SDxFCFvRcESFHOFp7B24U3DaPuq2clI91TtlWv7CjGnwEFI4pjI-7yDW1bL2vWJRlPH80tgSGjx_ICoZm3jeRQ5nFavwxyg3qLVZgcPFckXJCEFUYvxuOGePVk=w267-h400" width="267" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915;">The second, a weird fiction riff on whether being lucky can ever be an innate talent, was submitted for the </span></span><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The Alchemy Press Book of the Unknown which has subsequently morphed into an anthology called Shadowplays to be released by <a href="https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/" target="_blank">PS Publishing</a> later this year.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #1e1915;">Nothing in March, but three acceptances came in April. </span><span style="color: #1e1915;">Firstly, the Canadian magazine of the fantastic </span><a href="https://onspec.ca/" target="_blank">On Spec</a><span style="color: #1e1915;"> took my weird fiction grail quest satire, Knights of the Spherical Table. They've been sending me copies of their quarterly publication ever since - I hope the free subscription lasts until it's published sometime this year.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #1e1915;">Then, </span><span style="color: #1e1915;">Eric Fomley, big cheese of </span><a href="https://shackleboundbooks.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Shacklebound</a><span style="color: #1e1915;"> and</span><span style="color: #1e1915;"> one of my semi-regular customers, took my flash </span><span style="color: #1e1915;">The Interrogation of Corporal Ng for his second </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/155874398-dread-space?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=ISJOE36m0t&rank=2" target="_blank">Dread Space anthology</a><span style="color: #1e1915;">. Being fleet of foot, it came out in May.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhWg1dZvAViXY6HjCgJAEKgWcjgoRlDnKq8WVUykrizMpK8Ak-dCcZm6PsXLBfatBrtRO1uAuETCwtscy0rkF7tNS4ku19lS0iGFn04yRCvI9Bqs87g0HM_AmGyDcQvZcRgmzV2k6pVUUsHp-zpgt2wqIV_b2pW9Vn4BVkL3X5bTFAYSywb8oFB1HPKl3s" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="250" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhWg1dZvAViXY6HjCgJAEKgWcjgoRlDnKq8WVUykrizMpK8Ak-dCcZm6PsXLBfatBrtRO1uAuETCwtscy0rkF7tNS4ku19lS0iGFn04yRCvI9Bqs87g0HM_AmGyDcQvZcRgmzV2k6pVUUsHp-zpgt2wqIV_b2pW9Vn4BVkL3X5bTFAYSywb8oFB1HPKl3s=w250-h400" width="250" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br />At the end of April, Sunrunner, from <a href="https://thirdflatiron.com/" target="_blank">Third Flatiron</a>'s 2022 collection <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61460906-after-the-gold-rush?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=6SSoYP3Qml&rank=4" target="_blank">After the Gold Rush</a>, was selected as my fourth appearance in <a href="http://www.newconpress.co.uk/" target="_blank">NewCon</a>'s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/193470860-best-of-british-science-fiction-2022?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=2xmWRNXGB4&rank=7" target="_blank">Best of British Science Fiction</a>. I don't know how widely read these are, or whether their held in high esteem by the industry, but I certainly feel a small glow of modestly British pride at having appeared in four of them over just seven years. It may even mean I'm doing something right. (I also had immense fun taking part in the online launch, which you can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6jI3oIfLV8" target="_blank">relive on YouTube</a>).</span><p></p><p><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3D2gBcNCDtujN6TfEu8MXE3JEyZSy97zkCCicgohT5lpYZMk2kRWBZijD-MxiE1gXv49yS1fvMYhUYOEHh1aCdpP7ylRPVPzo__s6QyXCJJgb1ad9iE9MihxWL8dWufByIwqIUbqQRowaR2s64umOkfqf-uXj6DX_4zppxbGvHzmWhzwlq0TcgLaMDOU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="1283" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg3D2gBcNCDtujN6TfEu8MXE3JEyZSy97zkCCicgohT5lpYZMk2kRWBZijD-MxiE1gXv49yS1fvMYhUYOEHh1aCdpP7ylRPVPzo__s6QyXCJJgb1ad9iE9MihxWL8dWufByIwqIUbqQRowaR2s64umOkfqf-uXj6DX_4zppxbGvHzmWhzwlq0TcgLaMDOU=w400-h223" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #1e1915;"><br /></span><span style="color: #1e1915;">In May, I had two sales in one day. Well, I say sales: </span><span style="color: #1e1915;">Shacklebound took another story, Lacrymeter, for their</span><span style="color: #1e1915;"> </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/177521597-the-book-of-drabbles?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=X9aRRanHwU&rank=1" target="_blank">Book of Drabbles</a><span style="color: #1e1915;">, with just a free ebook as reward.</span></span><p><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaCYQaghSy6tPhH8Xm6BHesXWx67FapCLbSq4m-Itwu2zeEa5HL0bMj_w6s9ZO72UHovsi5YtWeVVfikcYpIPgUc7b3YHLamGTmEtZZi2tsc-9Eu4IeaCnTO6oUboldRawpUMsJaU5SMpRYjfxU_cFG78V-Kt_4oy-IyXLnbQqrWDq8SfAxXRrCVXkXhk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2250" data-original-width="1410" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaCYQaghSy6tPhH8Xm6BHesXWx67FapCLbSq4m-Itwu2zeEa5HL0bMj_w6s9ZO72UHovsi5YtWeVVfikcYpIPgUc7b3YHLamGTmEtZZi2tsc-9Eu4IeaCnTO6oUboldRawpUMsJaU5SMpRYjfxU_cFG78V-Kt_4oy-IyXLnbQqrWDq8SfAxXRrCVXkXhk=w250-h400" width="250" /></a></span></div><p><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Wyldblood then took <a href="https://wyldblood.com/i-was-just-doing-what-you-asked/">I Was Just Doing What You Asked</a> for their Wyldflash line, which appeared free and online in June.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi1FPpohcFo3iQbT3d-hsspYHGorSpVB7Yt_339ltAKSjlWrI5W8raa56l_QQT-63JZuRRTOOZZ53MZ_MNTBk0dEdyz8x86xqifboBCLhO2cjqcYyfaUIkPSM-tSy7aTB4mQFoZc3uZkJp6iLaxjicGCabIhYFkA0H6YKtSGBf6WxDEEb3XNZBpvYWliPo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="750" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi1FPpohcFo3iQbT3d-hsspYHGorSpVB7Yt_339ltAKSjlWrI5W8raa56l_QQT-63JZuRRTOOZZ53MZ_MNTBk0dEdyz8x86xqifboBCLhO2cjqcYyfaUIkPSM-tSy7aTB4mQFoZc3uZkJp6iLaxjicGCabIhYFkA0H6YKtSGBf6WxDEEb3XNZBpvYWliPo=w400-h280" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #1e1915;"><div><span style="color: #1e1915;"><br /></span></div>I had to wait almost two months for my next sale when </span><span style="color: #1e1915;">new website </span><a href="https://www.cosmoramaofficial.com/" target="_blank">Cosmorama </a><span style="color: #1e1915;">accepted Some of us are Going on a Bear Hunt, a flash. I haven't been paid and their previously frantic Twitter feed fell silent in September, suggesting it is no more. I'm still counting it as a sale, though.</span></span><p><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Then it was another two sales on the same day in August, but less coincidental this time as they were both reprints being taken for <a href="https://www.jayhenge.com/" target="_blank">JayHenge</a> anthologies. 2019's <a href="https://www.adastrasf.com/how-did-they-get-you/" target="_blank">How Did They Get You?</a> will appear in AI, Robot; and 2015's <a href="http://domain-sf.com/stories?gt=2000&lt=5000" target="_blank">Farndale's Revelation</a> will see the light of day again in The Kafka Protocol.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKO-YztB15JTRgFr-o5xbb0aE_AMDJaq3abHO9P7nJXt18zBazkMDXlRBt8Bn979rsELqu-y08avw2zGAVJamve76qR7XgVuC8qj-1BNVnGMr0KYJJ1qSL86v9ZZwT7cOTNIM_MDroBs6ylYpUURDOHRmUfbqcN9DVE7bUt3BEZi68cOi1Dz10xF4CNS4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="445" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKO-YztB15JTRgFr-o5xbb0aE_AMDJaq3abHO9P7nJXt18zBazkMDXlRBt8Bn979rsELqu-y08avw2zGAVJamve76qR7XgVuC8qj-1BNVnGMr0KYJJ1qSL86v9ZZwT7cOTNIM_MDroBs6ylYpUURDOHRmUfbqcN9DVE7bUt3BEZi68cOi1Dz10xF4CNS4=w260-h400" width="260" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglAclHuQha2O79POU2mKub0SmhcKkrD5OGUwRs6e6oNY136qEwSVRrqClKtakActi-5QF7gfEhvE5mE28yQZ8ngUqiSlikfmSz8prBlXDzZ1_Sj9ysRnm42yQw2bFJemotp-rkUhMTobpkKyqHFW7wnfp1Icy5Vf_Eib4be-Y8bLyCJG7UXu-x9s54cHg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglAclHuQha2O79POU2mKub0SmhcKkrD5OGUwRs6e6oNY136qEwSVRrqClKtakActi-5QF7gfEhvE5mE28yQZ8ngUqiSlikfmSz8prBlXDzZ1_Sj9ysRnm42yQw2bFJemotp-rkUhMTobpkKyqHFW7wnfp1Icy5Vf_Eib4be-Y8bLyCJG7UXu-x9s54cHg=w267-h400" width="267" /></a></div></span></div><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br />Something slightly different in September when the <a href="https://dlas.ca/" target="_blank">Delta Literary Arts Society</a>, just south-east of Vancouver, took my flash The Ultimate Vegan Curry to perform. On stage. In front of paying punters. You can see how it went <a href="https://youtu.be/brqT9QMLW-k?si=gHM9drR6umtpJ8lH" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><div><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3u1uWDgK9Wmliz84j6suynSPdu0zN8LfW8IBn850JJ78lSJ4zzz7ApgAzPU4UWyQ8v7RUJZmYzuFS3N3dAHFnuz9cBMjgmB0tu70mV9qg0UWnKiCCUjnsgn0MqxITULx9XEnRLPciDY6RbUsS3comV6jml2TpjcxdnyIugXDtZAoFD12Q9NAQIswCDiA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="1288" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3u1uWDgK9Wmliz84j6suynSPdu0zN8LfW8IBn850JJ78lSJ4zzz7ApgAzPU4UWyQ8v7RUJZmYzuFS3N3dAHFnuz9cBMjgmB0tu70mV9qg0UWnKiCCUjnsgn0MqxITULx9XEnRLPciDY6RbUsS3comV6jml2TpjcxdnyIugXDtZAoFD12Q9NAQIswCDiA=w640-h325" width="640" /></a></div><br />Early October saw Androids and Dragons accept After Abercrombie, which has already been and gone from Page and Spine, published as pretty much their last hurrah in 2022. I haven't seen a contract for it as yet, so one for me to chase. But, as I say, it meets my very low bar for a sale.</span></div><div><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Late September saw longish fantastika flash Snake being taken by Story Unlikely, but only as a podcast. It remains out there, looking for the love of a good print (paper or webpage) publisher.</span></div><div><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Lastly, mid-November saw an acceptance, like the first of the year, for an anthology based around an artist's music. Unlike January's Ghost-inspired anthology, I am familiar with the band in question - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band)" target="_blank">Nirvana</a> - even if not with <a href="https://youtu.be/tqHlYi4V9QM?si=XEufhakyRX2zDzuA" target="_blank">Help Me I'm Hungry</a>, the song I associated Science Project, my sci-fi horror with on the basis of title alone. It'll appear in <a href="https://www.bookslayerpress.com/home" target="_blank">Bookslayer</a>'s <a href="https://www.bookslayerpress.com/books" target="_blank">Negative Creep</a> anthology later this year.</span></div><div><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzczNrxIBwVyE6dIV9vnmQNsg5ox8cJ8oSSvHY3lGKobFTTKyzSWlCEnrtIwj89cGPEFq8otu1afOG0nrQ4v4235XoiHuKGJgZRgYnvPcgn2nz39E6pgfxoQEjEXwTNbW0cEVgyb0g9PNA8F6gaWIl2ykk8OfJKk97etWUk-foU4wOV7Dp9I90-lU-nLY/s1080/20231214_054814_0000.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzczNrxIBwVyE6dIV9vnmQNsg5ox8cJ8oSSvHY3lGKobFTTKyzSWlCEnrtIwj89cGPEFq8otu1afOG0nrQ4v4235XoiHuKGJgZRgYnvPcgn2nz39E6pgfxoQEjEXwTNbW0cEVgyb0g9PNA8F6gaWIl2ykk8OfJKk97etWUk-foU4wOV7Dp9I90-lU-nLY/w400-h400/20231214_054814_0000.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="color: #1e1915;">An odd way to bookend the year, don't you think?</span></span></div><div><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-59854577182260491762024-01-02T09:34:00.001+00:002024-01-02T09:34:52.303+00:00Dobro pozhalovat, Comrade January<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product/credo-of-comrade-january/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1280" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWCNduz8UzTibvlzy1xTVnQbaVUQzjEtcnfSo_w2Ugdy0W28hYxhDxOJSrl6n7jDmR1cGSb73I2NsJtU9YGRobyZLllbeR7iUEwGgyb0C4r3zKEbOoozjnpZMUpEBl7lntGsHFVZRzHWeoKUrxB-Fgn5OmPJ4nJQhDvcHxZ3ubNvTcPRodR5Dq83J33zs/w250-h400/Cover.jpg" width="250" /></a></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.786em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: center;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">What if numbers really mattered?</span></em></strong></p><div class="long-description" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.786em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Solar explosions known as "The Pulse" have rendered all electronics useless and sent Mankind back to a pre-digital age.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.786em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In St Petersburg, Alexi, an aging Russian professor of mathematics with a tragic past, stumbles on two truths: the first, the oppressive regime has been lying to the people, and the second is that, with sufficient energy, reality can be split in two.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.786em; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Alexi finds himself in a parallel ultra-modern St Petersburg, with the possibility of combining his two separate worlds — and his shattered family.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.786em; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The Credo of Comrade January, my new novella, published 28 December 2023 by Dragon Gems, available in physical and digital formats from the <a href="https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product/credo-of-comrade-january/" target="_blank">Dragon Gems website</a> or <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Credo-Comrade-January-Robert-Bagnall-ebook/dp/B0CQS7WQ8M/ref=sr_1_4?qid=1704187009&refinements=p_27%3ARobert+Bagnall&s=digital-text&sr=1-4" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.786em; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Happy New Year.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-48919996017909229582023-12-25T06:21:00.000+00:002023-12-25T06:21:17.100+00:00He's making a list, checking it twice<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">...well, probably not checking it twice, but re-reading the stories <a href="https://www.shorelineofinfinity.com/flash-fiction-competition-for-shoreline-of-infinity-readers-2023-the-final-thirteen/" target="_blank">shortlisted on Shoreline of Infinity's Flash Fiction competition, of which one of mine has made the final baker's dozen</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Happy Christmas.</span></p><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-69713289415811582842023-12-11T06:56:00.005+00:002023-12-11T07:23:18.996+00:00George Lucas, j'accuse<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It's been a while since I've pointed a finger at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lucas" target="_blank">George Lucas</a>, moved it down to get him in your eyeline, and said, "J'accuse". Okay, maybe it was <a href="https://meschera.blogspot.com/2023/09/in-space-no-one-can-read-about-not.html" target="_blank">only September</a>. Whatever.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Then, my issue was the lack of anything resembling a media presence a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, implying people do not think, act or behave like people actually do in the real world, lacking even a basic sense of curiosity or desire to be informed. QED the occupants of this galaxy may look human (when they do), but these are really characters we shouldn't expect to be able to relate to.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">This posting's charge is one of a lack of proportionality. If you think that's a bit niche and technical, you may wish to substitute laziness or stupidity, but that's up to you. <u>Your</u> choice: I'd like to make that clear to Mr Lucas' lawyers. My charge is lack of proportionality.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">What I mean by that is that things that should be quite big, aren't. Unless being big would be one of the first things on its Tinder profile. Like the Death Star. That's big. Very big. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Take Mos Eisley </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Spaceport. As Ben Kenobi says, <a href="https://imsdb.com/scripts/Star-Wars-A-New-Hope.html" target="_blank">"You will never </a></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://imsdb.com/scripts/Star-Wars-A-New-Hope.html" target="_blank">find a more wretched hive of scum </a></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://imsdb.com/scripts/Star-Wars-A-New-Hope.html" target="_blank">and villainy</a>.” I suppose Lucas imagines it a space version of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Hornigold" target="_blank">Benjamin Hornigold</a>-era Nassau. But there was a reason why the Bahamas became the semi-independent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Pirates" target="_blank">Republic of Pirates</a>, a chain of cause and effect, political, social and military, stretching between the Caribbean, England and Spain underpinning what and why that was. In Hollywood terms, it had a back story.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But, there's no basis for Mos Eisley to be that, so, instead, it's a truck stop, </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.welcomebreak.co.uk/locations/newport-pagnell/" target="_blank">Newport Pagnell services</a> at best. But, even then, it's not an intermediate point between somewhere and somewhere else, there's no city, no industry for it to support, so why is even there, full of merchants and privateers with at least <a href="https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Docking_Bay_94" target="_blank">94 docking bays</a>? Okay, you do get <a href="https://www.insider.com/most-isolated-religious-sites-world-photos-tourism" target="_blank">bonkers buildings built, seemingly without thought or justification, but they tend to be religious</a>. Build a church and they will come, whereas a spaceport... build it and it would be destined to be more like <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/viaduct-petrobras" target="_blank">Viaduct Petrobas in Brazil</a>.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Even accepting it is what it is and is where it is, it seems to have one (gay? come on, it's a bit gay) bar and a lot of (drunk? stoned?) inhabitants just wandering aroun</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">d aimlessly. This is the town where Jabba has put a price on Han Solo's head "so large </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">that every bounty hunter in the galaxy </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">will be looking for you”. That's dialogue for when your quarry has disappeared into the void, not moved from the public bar to the saloon bar. Turns out Greedo, Han, and Jabba are all within a laser-blast of each other. It does all smack of kids in the playground unthinkingly shouting out what they heard on telly last night.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I could go on - <a href="https://meschera.blogspot.com/2021/02/most-heinous.html" target="_blank">and I have done previously</a>. A</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <a href="https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dantooine" target="_blank">planet </a>is searched for a rebel base as quickly as the Millennium Falcon is searched for stowaways. Or, continuing the tradition, in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/" target="_blank">Solo</a>, Han finds it incredibly easy to have an audience with</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> the warlord who runs the planet, like my living around the corner from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/people/rishi-sunak" target="_blank">Rishi Sunak</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134263/" target="_blank">Stella Street</a>-style.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Did I mention the playground? I'm beginning to think that's hugely important. Like Stella Street, the underpinning logic of Star Wars falls between the surreal mess of dream logic and the restrictive 'that couldn't happen' of the real world. Call it playground logic - there's cause and effect, but only in the here and now, what you can see or touch. Mos Eisley a den of thieves? Fine, Luke and his friends are in danger! How did Mos Eisley come to be a den of thieves? Doesn't matter, and the kids in the playground would just roll their eyes if you pressed the matter and shut you off with a 'who cares?'. <i>Because it doesn't matter.</i></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I used to think George Lucas was reliving the serials of his youth, like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Gordon_(serial)" target="_blank">Flash Gordon</a>. He was born in 1944, the perfect age to be sitting cross-legged in front of the big wheezy thick glass screen watching both the 1930s cinema series syndicated for TV, though possibly a little old for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Gordon_(1954_TV_series)" target="_blank">the then newly-minted TV series</a>. But I don't think Star Wars is him reliving that; otherwise he would have given us <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Gordon_(film)" target="_blank">Flash Gordon the film</a>. It's him reliving <i>the next day in the playground</i>, running around, two fingers out-stretched, making laser-blaster noises, shouting out their favourite bits, vicariously being Flash, killing the bad guys and rescuing the dame, and not giving a flying toss about backstory - which, embarrassingly, he had to do with chapters 1 to 3.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Looked at through that lens explains a hell of a lot.<br /></span></span></p><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p> </p>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-31188701622597469512023-11-13T15:23:00.000+00:002023-11-13T15:23:21.056+00:00Confused of Devon<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Yes, we can all fall back on <a href="https://variety.com/2018/film/opinion/william-goldman-dies-appreciation-1203030781/" target="_blank">William Goldman's famous "Nobody knows anything", uttered in the context of the fickle nature of Hollywood</a>, to explain away bizarre editorial responses to story submissions, but sometimes the email coming back to you is so off-beam that you can't help think... WTF?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I've just had such a wtf moment - appropriately, in an alphabetic way, to WotF as the <a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/" target="_blank">Writers of the Future contest</a> has just returned my 4th quarter 2023 entry as a 'did not place'.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Now, I'm not arrogant enough to think I should automatically be at the top of the list, or even on the list, every time, but with some 75 stories published and four appearances in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/193470860-best-of-british-science-fiction-2022?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=ylh7iin0mD&rank=8" target="_blank">the Best of British Science Fiction</a> anthologies, I'm not exactly wet behind the ears at this game and can tell when a story has merit. And this one (call me superstitious, but I don't like referring to a story by name until it's sold) had been a very near miss with <a href="https://www.shorelineofinfinity.com/" target="_blank">Shoreline of Infinity</a>, liked by <a href="http://strangehorizons.com/" target="_blank">Strange Horizons</a>, and had just been let go by <a href="https://www.galaxysedge.com/" target="_blank">Galaxy's Edge</a> having been held for further consideration for 600 days. (Yes, that's not a typo - 600 days, from New Year's Day 2022 until this September.) That is not the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_cycling" target="_blank">palmares </a>of a 'did not place' story. Hence, I ask again: <b>WTF???</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I thought it may be instructive, for my sanity if nothing else, to plot out my success, or otherwise, with the Scientologists, since I made it into the final six years ago...</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-contest-2nd-quarter-2017-winners/" target="_blank">2nd quarter, 2017: finalist</a>, with a story that's been rejected 21 times since, without ever being an obvious 'near miss' for anybody other than WotF</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-contest-3rd-quarter-2017-winners/" target="_blank">3rd quarter, 2017</a>: didn't enter</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-contest-4th-quarter-2017-winners/" target="_blank">4th quarter, 2017: honourable mention</a> for <a href="https://www.shorelineofinfinity.com/product/shoreline-of-infinity-34/" target="_blank">'The King of China's Mirror', published by Shoreline of Infinity earlier this year</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-contest-1st-quarter-2018-winners/">1st quarter, 2018</a>: unplaced, with a story currently held by <a href="https://apex-magazine.com/" target="_blank">Apex</a>, albeit significantly rewritten</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-contest-2nd-quarter-2018-winners/" target="_blank">2nd quarter, 2018</a>: unplaced with <a href="https://wyldblood.com/product/wyldblood-magazine-7/" target="_blank">'Inktomi and the Skyship', which appeared in Wyldblood #7</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-3rd-quarter-standings-for-year-35/" target="_blank">3rd quarter, 2018: honourable mention</a> for a story that already had positive feedback, albeit a pass, from <a href="https://fandsf.com/" target="_blank">F&SF</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-4th-quarter-standings-for-year-35/" target="_blank">4th quarter, 2018</a>: <a href="https://www.bourbonpenn.com/issue/27" target="_blank">'The Disappearing', which later appeared in Bourbon Penn #27</a>, was unplaced</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-contest-1st-quarter-2019-winners/" target="_blank">1st quarter, 2019</a>: unplaced, with an earlier draft of my latest 'unplaced' story - they clearly don't like it!</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-2nd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-36/" target="_blank">2nd quarter, 2019</a><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-2nd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-36/" target="_blank">: silver honourable</a> for <a href="https://thequietreader.com/magazine/faivish-the-imbecile/">'Faivish the Imbecile', later </a><a href="https://thequietreader.com/magazine/faivish-the-imbecile/">published by token market Quiet Reader</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-3rd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-36/" target="_blank">3rd quarter, 2019: another silver honourable</a>, this time for a triptych of stories, the middle of which is released next month as 'Don't Eat the Bundyroot' in <a href="https://meschera.blogspot.com/2023/11/dont-eat-bundyroot.html" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white;">Ossuary Press's </span><i style="background-color: white;">Under the Stairs </i><span style="background-color: white;">anthology</span></a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-4th-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-36/" target="_blank">4th quarter, 2019</a>: an early draft of <a href="https://aurealis.com.au/store/aurealis-158-copy/" target="_blank">'Thus with a Kiss I Die', published by Aurealis in March this year</a>, is unplaced</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-contest-1st-quarter-2020-winners/" target="_blank">1st quarter, 2020</a>: 'Roadkill' fails to place, but is published in 2021 by <a href="https://www.urhi.co.uk/post/roadkill-by-robert-bagnall" target="_blank">Uhri as part of their Needle Drops' series</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-contest-2nd-quarter-2020-winners/" target="_blank">2nd quarter, 2020</a>: a novelette of which I am very fond but remains unpublished is unplaced - but given it's about cults, maybe that's not a surprise</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-3rd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-37/" target="_blank">3rd quarter, 2020: silver honourable</a> for a story that's had 25 rejections, and almost made it into <a href="https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/parsec-79-c.asp" target="_blank">Parsec</a>, but remains unpublished</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-4th-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-37/" target="_blank">4th quarter, 2020</a><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-4th-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-37/" target="_blank">: silver honourable again</a>, this time for a redrafted <a href="https://aurealis.com.au/store/aurealis-158-copy/" target="_blank">'Thus with a Kiss I Die'</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-1st-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-38/" target="_blank">1st quarter, 2021: honourable mention</a> for 'The Credo of Comrade January', which is scheduled to appear under the <a href="https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product-category/dragon-gems/" target="_blank">Dragon Gems</a> imprint before the year is out - so they assure me</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-2nd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-38/" target="_blank">2nd quarter, 2021</a><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-2nd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-38/" target="_blank">: a silver honourable</a> for my 3rd quarter 2018 story, already liked by F&SF and directly off the back of a couple of rewrites at the request of <a href="https://cosmicrootsandeldritchshores.com/" target="_blank">Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores</a>, up from honourable mention</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-3rd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-38/" target="_blank">3rd quarter, 2021: silver honourable</a> for a 17,000 word novella that remains unpublished and, having run out of obvious homes for something of an inconvenient length, remains in a drawer</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-4th-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-38/" target="_blank">4th quarter, 2021: an honourable mention</a> for a story that's otherwise racked up 20 rejections without even a hint of buy-signals</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-1st-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-39/" target="_blank">1st quarter, 2022: an honourable mention</a> for 'The Charmed', a hard-to-pigeonhole tale due to be published in the <i>Alchemy Book of the Unknown</i> by <a href="https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/">PS Publishing</a> next year</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-2nd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-39/" target="_blank">2nd quarter, 2022</a><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-2nd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-39/" target="_blank">: an honourable</a> for another squad player that has kissed 28 frogs and found none of them to be princes</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-3rd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-39/" target="_blank">3rd quarter, 2022: continuing the run of honourables</a> for a story that Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores requested a rewrite only for the next draft to be dismissed in a single line</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-4th-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-38/">4th quarter, 2022: just an honourable</a> for another story busy collecting rejection slips, although I'm particularly fond of it</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-1st-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-40/" target="_blank">1st quarter, 2023: an honourable mention</a> for a story written for <a href="https://www.clashbooks.com/clash/2021/10/29/nowhere-fast#:~:text=Submission%20email%2FQuestions%3A%20Nowherefastcoa%40,name'%20in%20the%20Subject%20box.">an anthology call from a publisher that never even bothered to respond</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-1st-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-40/">2nd quarter, 2023</a> - as if presaging the WTF direction of travel of WofT, I resubmit my 3rd quarter 2020 effort, which received a silver honourable, and <i>it doesn't just get an</i><i> unplaced</i>, it's deemed "not quite ready for us" - i.e. not even considered</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-3rd-quarter-winners-announced-for-volume-40/" target="_blank">3rd quarter, 2023: an honourable</a> for another reasonably told tale that may find a home eventually</span></li></ul><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Which brings us to my latest result, the repeat first round knockout for the resubmitted 1st quarter 2019 entry.<br /></span></p><div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So, what to conclude? Well, these may not be statistically significant, but 0% of my finalists, 43% of my silver honourables, and 33% of my honourables have been published, but the success rate for those unplaced or worse is 50%, plus other 'failures' are being held. Plus my unplaced seem to have as good a chance at semi-pro or better rates, with silver honourables like <a href="https://thequietreader.com/magazine/faivish-the-imbecile/" target="_blank">Faivish the Imbecile</a> going for a token rate.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The most statistically watertight claim may be that there's little to no correlation between the Writers of the Future contest placing of individual stories and eventual publishing success, at least when you raise the quality threshold to at least 'honourable' levels. Perhaps the acid test is to resubmit my 2nd and 4th quarter stories to see if their 'not ready to be considered' and 'unplaced' status is repeated - or else, sell them in the meantime! Watch this space.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Like the man said, nobody knows anything.</span></p><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-72230768523794522372023-11-05T16:05:00.001+00:002023-11-13T09:32:28.133+00:00Curry tonight?<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If you fancy a curry tonight, can I suggest you go to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brqT9QMLW-k" target="_blank">YouTube and watch the Delta Literary Arts Society perform my story 'The Ultimate Vegan Curry</a>'. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bon appetit...</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/brqT9QMLW-k" width="320" youtube-src-id="brqT9QMLW-k"></iframe></div><br /><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-75725236944047880572023-11-01T16:47:00.003+00:002023-11-03T10:54:34.001+00:00Don't Eat the Bundyroot!<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Yes, folks, in one month exactly you can get your hands on Ossuary Press's <i>Under the Stairs</i>, in which you'll find my story imploring you to not eat the bundyroot!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>Find them on that X-thing </span><a href="https://twitter.com/OssuaryPress">@OssuaryPress</a><span> or order it straight from </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Under-Stairs-Anthology-Homebound-Horror-ebook/dp/B0CLC9NY13" target="_blank">Amazon</a><span>.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2-Gqg96JBWjRL-uzxskWmTDqMa8V6OzNDNHlLRxkTZciIaZHQJAi79r78yeQ1t2kEBonnIBiawO4pBiTBkhOVdC-NkrleCKjBPboMaeQadpFFJXL-KBefgVrsB-kTR54Fky9Iq_jcK__br5leC8a7BGsEFecHC_5qbpxHsEGILtlPa5uqg3zqwz0_l2o/s466/71uMc4UCYyL._SY466_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="292" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2-Gqg96JBWjRL-uzxskWmTDqMa8V6OzNDNHlLRxkTZciIaZHQJAi79r78yeQ1t2kEBonnIBiawO4pBiTBkhOVdC-NkrleCKjBPboMaeQadpFFJXL-KBefgVrsB-kTR54Fky9Iq_jcK__br5leC8a7BGsEFecHC_5qbpxHsEGILtlPa5uqg3zqwz0_l2o/w251-h400/71uMc4UCYyL._SY466_.jpg" width="251" /></a></div><br /><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-89379861098132568372023-10-11T17:47:00.000+01:002023-10-11T17:47:06.555+01:00Get yourself to British Columbia!<p> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">By Friday!</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-LoWktFXQSWl7BzSiFUdVjlFH0Amz2pAgsHV1amt3L9tv_Q5gqyE5qc4n2ZzPr2PsRJBbZ2AMwNPXMC8s_uuM9XtpqZp4nt_g67N99e5VAtytpMdDohjm34AKV_-H6ntOl9X_MGN6m2NscvGywp7_g5zd2sfrNhc4YehSXtvy7MObr19RC_QOWDGpDk/s3300/KV%202023%20Poster%20with%20Logos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3300" data-original-width="2550" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ-LoWktFXQSWl7BzSiFUdVjlFH0Amz2pAgsHV1amt3L9tv_Q5gqyE5qc4n2ZzPr2PsRJBbZ2AMwNPXMC8s_uuM9XtpqZp4nt_g67N99e5VAtytpMdDohjm34AKV_-H6ntOl9X_MGN6m2NscvGywp7_g5zd2sfrNhc4YehSXtvy7MObr19RC_QOWDGpDk/w309-h400/KV%202023%20Poster%20with%20Logos.jpg" width="309" /></a></div><br /><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-1097080873968245492023-09-25T07:43:00.000+01:002023-09-25T07:43:13.758+01:00The guilty party in The Innocents<div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innocents_(1961_film)" target="_blank">'The Innocents'</a> is a 1961 British <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_film" title="Gothic film">gothic</a>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_horror" title="Psychological horror">psychological horror</a> film starring <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Kerr" title="Deborah Kerr">Deborah
Kerr</a>, based on the 125-year-old novella <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turn_of_the_Screw" title="The Turn of the Screw">The Turn of the Screw</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_James" title="Henry James">Henry
James</a>, with a screenplay smeared with the buttery fingerprints of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Capote" title="Truman Capote">Truman
Capote</a> and, to a lesser extent, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8824471752718569687/109708087396824549" target="_blank">John Mortimer</a>. The psychological underpinnings of the film's screenplay have made it the subject of numerous critical and scholarly essays, particularly in the area of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_theory" title="Film theory">film theory</a> and it was selected by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian" title="The Guardian">The Guardian</a> as one of the 25 best <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film" title="Horror film">horror films</a> ever made.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Quite a pedigree. Which makes you wonder who
the hell am I to wade in with my pennyworth.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>And it's quite a simple criticism really, having rewatched it a few days ago. And it has nothing to do with 'psychological underpinnings' (can you tell I culled much of that from Wikipedia'?) but from a writerly perspective. </span>I've mulled on why it simply does not work for me as a film (and, I seem to dimly remember, as a book). </span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There's somebody missing.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Let's just precis the first act. Miss Giddens (Kerr) becomes governess to two orphans on a large
country estate, the previous incumbent having died. Whilst her charges are
generally angelic, she grows disturbed by their occasional odd, and oddly adult, behaviour. She is also disturbed by disembodied voices and apparitions she—and only she—witnesses.
She concludes that these are the ghosts of her predecessor and her lover and are in possession of the children so they can
physically continue their relationship. She determines to rescue them from this
possession.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And therein lies my problem. What on earth would make Debs come to such a bonkers conclusion as a first guess? The kids are playing up and there are ghosts around. There's nothing, nada, zilch, zip that links the two. Not a smidgen of a suggestion unless you cook it up in your own mind.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The only way that I would buy this line of reasoning in any way, shape or form is if either she had exhausted all other possibilities, or somebody put the idea in Miss Giddens' head. It is too great a leap for somebody to make, at least in one step, and I'm not sure what the 'other possibilities' are here as I'm inclined to tick the 'unrelated' box and deal with each issue separately. Which makes me think we need somebody whispering this concept into Giddens' shell-like.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Okay, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces" target="_blank">Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces</a> was published decades after James wrote his story, and wasn't the go-to in Hollywood when the film was made as it was when, say, Star Wars was being story-boarded, but even so... it describes established story elements rather than inventing them afresh. The mentor has existed for ever.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Without a <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/heros-journey-meeting-with-the-mentor-31349" target="_blank">mentor</a>, possibly an unreliable mentor, to plant the idea of possession in the governess's mind I'm just left unempathetic and unengaged as she goes off on a bonkers one. Maybe that's the idea: horror movie as clinical observation of somebody's cheese sliding off their cracker. But I always regard the main character as being my proxy in the storyworld, as the eyes I see that world through. <i>Their </i>going mad means <i>my </i>going mad. That makes it <i>my </i>cheese sliding off <i>my </i>cracker. No dice.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">When I first learnt story structure under <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1498330/" target="_blank">an Oscar-nominated screenwriter</a> (okay, a writer of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0188667/" target="_blank">an Oscar-nominated short</a>), one of the many things that stuck in my mind (far less red wine had flowed under the bridge) was that protagonists' thought processes must be clear and reasoned, even if, say, driven by gut instinct, whereas antagonists can display leaps of logic worthy of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxia" target="_blank">wuxia </a>hero. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond" target="_blank">Bond </a>must show his workings, whereas only <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Stavro_Blofeld" target="_blank">Blofeld's </a>allowed to act like a loose cannon.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">How much better, then, to have a mentor figure whispering in Miss Giddens' ear: <i>when the children act like that, they're not the children, they're possessed by the spirits of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint,</i> and for Miss Giddens to come to think, slowly, over the course of the second act: <i>that's ridiculous, but wait, that does accord with what's happening, and there it is again, that's the only conclusion, it can't be anything else, the children... they're possessed, I have to help them...</i></span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Truman! Truman!! We're gonna need a rewrite...</span></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div></div><div style="background-color: white; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-40626138733312975132023-09-24T15:13:00.250+01:002023-10-23T07:12:43.277+01:00In space no-one can read about not being able to hear you scream<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">As if the transition from summer to autumn isn’t bad enough, we’ve decided to make this year’s even more painful by revisiting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lucas" target="_blank">George ‘you can never have too many cute furry things’ Lucas</a>’ <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars" target="_blank">Star Wars</a></i> ennealogy (go on, look it up; I had to). Yes, it's a classic, but not only have we lost the middle chapters in their original form and now have to put up with ‘improved’ versions - improved like when your kid brother improves your mint <a href="https://www.fastlanecars.com/vehicles/400/1972-dodge-challenger" target="_blank">1972 Dodge Challenger</a> with go-faster stripes using permanent marker - but, most crucially, we have the initial ‘is the hor d’oeuvre meant to taste of sick?’ barrier to vault named Jar Jar Binks.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Not that this post has anything to do with Jar Jar, but it’s a hobby horse I like to exercise at any opportunity. Consider its legs stretched.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">No, this post is nothing more than a simple observation on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate#:~:text=The%20term%20Fourth%20Estate%20or,)%2C%20and%20to%20the%20proletariat." target="_blank">Fourth Estate</a> and its role in the Star Wars storyverse: it doesn’t have one.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I don’t know about you, but I’m swimming in a media world. I check the headlines on my phone each morning whilst making tea; I’ll read online news with a mug of the aforementioned char in bed; and something news-related will play on the television at some point in the day, every day. And I don’t think I’m at all unusual in this (apart from the working-at-home luxury of being able to take my tea back to bed of a morning). In fact, I’ll contend I’m behaving like the majority of people from Vladivostok to Tierra del Fuego. I’d also argue that if you took away access to news, as happens in the less enlightened parts of our planet, people will react in a variety of ways, including seeking to overthrow you with extreme prejudice.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But none of that happens in the Star Wars storyverse. Which, when you think about it, is weird.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">That means of communication exist is clear - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holography_in_fiction" target="_blank">grainy blue holographic images</a> play out in real time from travellers who only left days or hours before throughout, so there’s every opportunity to dispatch the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Adie" target="_blank">Kate Adie</a> of a long time ago and a galaxy far far away to report back. <a href="https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Viewscreen#:~:text=A%20viewscreen%2C%20also%20known%20as,aboard%20its%20Lucrehulk%2Dclass%20battleships." target="_blank">What few screens they have don't appear to be any good for, say, watching a decent sci-fi movie in high-definition</a>, but given the ability to produce starships and huge cities, the infrastructure of broadcast media must be easily within their grasp. But even without screens, they've surely invented the printing press. Or does moveable type post-date faster than light travel in this world? Only that would help explain why <a href="https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/124349/if-queen-amidala-had-signed-the-treaty-would-the-republic-senate-recognize-it-a" target="_blank">the Senate need a commission to be sent to Naboo to establish the facts of the invasion</a> rather than simply turning on a tellybox to get minute-by-minute coverage.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There appear to be no newspapers, television, nor equivalent of an internet. Nor is there anything in the way of advertising or marketing (compare and contrast with <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/billboard-advertising-in-the-city-of-blade-runner-76581404/" target="_blank">Bladerunner's prescience</a>), even though every third person is some sort of vague 'trader'. And there seems precious little interest from the populace in information of almost any kind, from baseball results to celebrity gossip.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Which makes them strange, parallel creatures to us, the humans looking like humans but clearly under the skin lacking some basic human circuitry...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Oh, hold on. I just remembered. It's all a fiction created by someone who will only worldbuild what's directly necessary to the story - social structures, faster-than-light travel, tax laws, TAX LAWS! - even if the other stuff talks to basic human wants and needs, and its absence creates a screaming, inexplicable void.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But cute, furry creatures... you can never have too many of them.</span></p><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p></div></div><p><span lang="EN-US" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: verdana; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: verdana; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: verdana; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><br /></p>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-36995010169859340482023-09-18T18:09:00.010+01:002023-09-18T18:11:17.972+01:00Medium rare<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I've been published, I've been podcast, and now - a whole new medium - I'm going to be performed on stage...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Actually, I don't know if I'm going to be performed proper, or just read out with immense panache, but either way, the <a href="https://dlas.ca/" target="_blank">Delta Literary Arts Society</a> have taken my flash <i>The Ultimate Vegan Curry</i> for their "horror/sci</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: white;">-fi themed dramatized event, </span><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: initial; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Killer Verse" </i>and will do with it as they ple</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">ase. Something wonderful, I trust.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And, in case you're wondering, the delta in question is, I think, of the <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ladner,+Delta,+BC,+Canada/@49.0962583,-123.1019422,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x5485e0b948bd805f:0xeb11fcb6792bb4c7!8m2!3d49.0900961!4d-123.0819988!16zL20vMDUwcjR2?entry=ttu" target="_blank">Fraser River</a> just south of the (genuinely, I'm not just saying it) wonderful city of Vancouver.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">If you go, let me know how it goes.</span></p><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); direction: ltr; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-91954100625803675432023-08-31T10:28:00.000+01:002023-08-31T10:28:21.392+01:00An end to history<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">A meta-posting today: a post about and that leads you to another post, in this case <a href="https://publicdomainreview.org/essays/" target="_blank">the Public Domain Review's essays</a>, and specifically <span style="box-sizing: inherit; transition-duration: 0.3s; transition-property: all;">Thomas Patteson</span> and <span style="box-sizing: inherit; transition-duration: 0.3s; transition-property: all;">Deirdre Loughridge's </span><i><a href="https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/cat-pianos-sound-houses-and-other-imaginary-musical-instruments/" target="_blank">Cat Pianos, Sound-Houses, and Other Imaginary Musical Instruments</a></i>.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Not just because it deals with <a href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/fantastika" target="_blank">fantastika</a>, and therefore falls under the very wide, though not always watertight, umbrella of this blog. And not simply because the Public Domain Review's essays are consistently engaging and thought-provoking and deserving of your attention. But because it throws up an odd parallel with the world of science fiction.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">You see, there was a time when there were sounds we had never heard, sounds that could not conceivably have been heard then. <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/inventing-musical-instruments-1992156" target="_blank">Every time a new instrument was invented</a>, it created a new, never-before-heard, sound. Hell, if you want to be impossibly fine-grained about it, every time a new instrument was <i>made</i>, it created new sounds.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Even in my lifetime - and I think <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-birth-of-the-minimoog-moogseum/BwWxC5g1sP9LAA?hl=en" target="_blank">RA Moog Inc must have been hard at work on the Mini Moog Model B prototype</a> when I took my first breath - each new wheezy analogue or early digital device like the <a href="https://www.katebushencyclopedia.com/fairlight-cmi" target="_blank">Fairlight</a> had a specific recognisable sound quality, a warmth or a iciness or a razor-sharpness, that gave bands distinct identities. But now, digital synthesizers (are they even synthesizers given that suggests processing pre-existing elements?) can create any sound imaginable, starting as they do from abstract parameters. All of Patteson and Loughridge's instruments - we can hear them now, and without having to stick needles into felines to boot.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And what does this have to do with science fiction, other than I'm very fond of a bit of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krautrock#:~:text=Krautrock%20(also%20called%20kosmische%20musik,late%201960s%20and%20early%201970s." target="_blank">kosmische musik</a> burbling away as I write? Well, we live on a planet with pretty much every square metre of dry land now explored. Maybe there is a lost city or two under jungle vines, but no undiscovered continents or even islands. We know what's over every horizon. In space, too, we know the Moon and Mars are just rocks and dust, and the ones too far to ever reach are balls of frozen methane and ammonia. There's nothing out there. We are alone. We have been everywhere we can ever go, just as we've heard every sound we can ever hear. My lifetime has been one of closing down possibilities, an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_history#:~:text=The%20end%20of%20history%20is,final%20form%20of%20human%20government." target="_blank">end to history</a> if not the end to history.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Which is, I continue to tell myself, why I write speculative fiction because that's the only place left for adventure and am not, say, training to be an astronaut.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2731; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p></p><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; direction: ltr; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-84033500275005274102023-08-15T14:54:00.004+01:002023-08-15T14:55:48.648+01:00Tell Nietzsche that I'm just doing the plumber<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">There's been a lot of heat and noise created over the last few months by artificial intelligence in general, and <a href="https://chat.openai.com/auth/login" target="_blank">ChatGPT</a> in particular. That's certainly true from the perspective of one who pitches speculative fiction tales into the mouth of the beast that is semi-professional publishing - every site has suddenly started asking for confirmation of the author's humanity - but, whatever your point of view, AI is probably upsetting the apple cart, then picking the least bruised ones off the floor to eat whilst grinning at you in a way that says there's damn all you can do about it and you both know it.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Like mushrooms or Hitler, ChatGPT has sprung up and made its presence felt in a shockingly tight timescale: it was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT" target="_blank">only released on the last day of November 2022</a>, and by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/20/openai-ceo-sam-altman-says-hes-a-little-bit-scared-of-ai.html" target="_blank">mid-March 2023 the CEO said they were "a little bit scared" of what they'd created</a>. I'm that far behind with even my most up-to-date podcasts - what will the world be like when I get to listen to this week's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qshd" target="_blank">More or Less</a>?!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But I think we've been here before. Whether the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Nasties:_Moral_Panic,_Censorship_%26_Videotape" target="_blank">video nasty hysteria</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction" target="_blank">mutually assured destruction</a>, or the seemingly permanent occupation of the number one spot by the ghastly <a href="https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/30-years-of-everything-i-do-i-do-it-for-you-five-chart-facts-about-bryan-adams-record-breaking-single__33536/" target="_blank">(Everything I Do) I Do It For You</a>, it only seems bad because we can't yet see the light at the end of the tunnel. But, in this case, I'm not even sure we're in a tunnel.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">You see, I argue we've actually been in a world of machines that can speak intelligently for some time, and to a degree that may surprise. Calling the first (and, to be honest, only) witness for the prosecution... <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche" target="_blank">Friedrich Nietzsche</a>.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now, say what you like about about bonkers Freddy - being dead, it's not as if he's going to sue - but </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">there does seem to be a consensus that the guy was a genius, with </span><a href="https://shuru.co.in/blogs/the-top-50-smartest-people-on-the-planet-with-their-iq" style="font-family: verdana;" target="_blank">an estimated IQ of 180</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. And, as a genius, we should dwell on his pronouncements and consider them deeply. Words such as these, </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">picked pretty much at random from his masterpiece, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51893.Thus_Spoke_Zarathustra" target="_blank">Thus Spoke Zarathustra</a> (GD's review: "It's like Jesus, but cooler"), which I'm currently working my way through:</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">"I wish that the earth shook with convulsions when a saint and a goose mate together."</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">"And when all footholds disappear, you must know how to climb upon your own head: how could you climb upwards otherwise?"</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">"They have put all the faults and weaknesses of mankind between themselves and me - they call this a 'false flooring' in their houses."</span></li></ul><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now, I don't know about you, but I don't think these are qualitatively different from the drivel called 'predictive text' that we've had to battle against for years now. T</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">he one that sticks in my mind was when I texted the good lady wife with 'I'm just doing the' - washing-up, I think - and my phone's best suggestion follow up word was 'plumber'. QED: genii produce gnomic </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">bollocks indistinguishable from mobile phone predictive text.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So, what to conclude? Maybe we're actually regressing? Perhaps it's actually taken years to produce levels of artificial intelligence on a par with most humans, because whilst we may not have IQs that'll <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darts#:~:text=The%20highest%20score%20possible%20with,of%20180%20in%20exuberant%20style." target="_blank">win world titles when consistently produced by three darts</a>, our intelligence is of a messy, hard-to-describe as an algorithm sort, coloured by random noise, gut feeling, emotion, sentiment, cognitive bias, and an ability to compensate and make allowances for all those self-same things in our fellow human beings, the ones that don't run like machines.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Or that bonkers Freddy was actually bonkers and if it sounds like gibberish, it's just that. I know which one I think is true.</span></p><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; direction: ltr; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-49828108172682454602023-07-23T14:55:00.004+01:002023-08-10T16:55:16.658+01:00Four out of seven ain’t bad<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>A couple of weeks ago a small package wrapped up in brown paper came through the letterbox and turned out to have a couple of complementary copies of the latest edition of <a href="http://www.newconpress.co.uk/info/book.asp?id=227&referer=Catalogue">NewCon Press’s <i>Best of British Science Fiction</i></a>. And very nice to see my name at the top of the list, even if only for alphabetical reasons. </span><span>Regardless, it does give me a small tingling of pride and assurance I must be getting something right some of the time. </span><span>My fourth appearance since the series launched in 2017 (with the 2016 edition; I still find the retrospective titling confusing - the </span><a href="https://www.worldcarawards.com/web/eligible_vehicles.asp">Car of the Year</a><span> gets announced that April, and if a sci-fi best of can’t be forward looking, what can?). </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The book launch will be live across Planet Earth on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/P6jI3oIfLV8?feature=share" target="_blank">YouTube at 7.30pm Tuesday 25th July</a>. Hope to see you there.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbvg_OYhhCpwyKG3PyIiylCaE1AHXW3mqj2kMnYfLnOO2E_unRsdHk8acKgTcASSAh4JfuhM-vglkUxi8llKa-5YiG8weVgu_KKSR5nKDTiskGtVVtYl11i9xngADuEbMIqcOpCmur3nBcm_cYyId0Q_I7uQbLnzXbHu5q5tnald_s5e3zxDqjSIMJdlg/s3264/F39EB54B-B482-4912-96EE-86F7E805A206.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbvg_OYhhCpwyKG3PyIiylCaE1AHXW3mqj2kMnYfLnOO2E_unRsdHk8acKgTcASSAh4JfuhM-vglkUxi8llKa-5YiG8weVgu_KKSR5nKDTiskGtVVtYl11i9xngADuEbMIqcOpCmur3nBcm_cYyId0Q_I7uQbLnzXbHu5q5tnald_s5e3zxDqjSIMJdlg/w300-h400/F39EB54B-B482-4912-96EE-86F7E805A206.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; direction: ltr; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-size-adjust: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-83383235358190281322023-07-18T12:32:00.001+01:002023-07-18T12:32:25.906+01:00New Kids on the Block<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Apparently, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmorama" target="_blank">a cosmorama is an exhibition of perspective pictures</a>, typically of famous landmarks or cityscapes, a sort of static Imax cinema screen image from when cinema was just misspelled Ancient Greek. Who knew?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But Cosmorama is also a <a href="https://www.cosmoramaofficial.com/fiction" target="_blank">new online magazine</a> that's been putting short speculative fiction for free on their website since late last month, and my story, <i>Some of us are Going on a Bear Hunt</i>, of how Kamala, a call centre operator, outsmarted the bigots, has been selected to join them. Look out for it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I wish them well.</span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; direction: ltr; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-10824883691801732862023-06-26T19:54:00.003+01:002023-06-26T19:54:47.718+01:00The winner or the game?<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">You know that feeling when you realise other people, who look and act much like you, are utterly different on a fundamental level, and you never even suspected? I’ve just had one of those moments.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">It came, in part, after reading this gambit on a post by Michael J Moore on the SFWA’s <a href="https://www.sfwa.org/category/information-center/craft-of-writing/page/3/" target="_blank">ever-excellent ‘The Art of Writing’ blog</a>: </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); text-size-adjust: auto;">“</span><a href="https://www.sfwa.org/2021/09/21/think-like-a-horror-writer-to-create-better-villains/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); text-size-adjust: auto;" target="_blank">You write speculative fiction for the same reason you’ve read or watched it your entire life. There’s something inside of you that craves tales of relatable characters overcoming adversity.</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); text-size-adjust: auto;">”</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">MJ, if I can call him that, just throws it out there as a given, as so obvious we can all sign up to the sentiment and have fun developing the argument from there. But for me the words rang false. There’s an insecurity, a sense of needing affirmation, seeking it out vicariously through stories, in his claim that I don’t recognise, at least not in myself. But who’s the odd one out here - MJ or me?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Putting aside that the claim doesn’t say anything special about <i>speculative</i> fiction - <i>all</i> fiction should be about main characters overcoming hurdles - I write (but, to be honest, barely read) speculative fiction because of the <i>ideas</i>, the what-ifs, the how the world may switch if you altered a line on the list of ingredients. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Lies_the_Wub" target="_blank">Dick’s ‘Beyond Lies the Wub’</a> is a perfect example. The relatable character overcoming adversity bit is just a vehicle for more fundamental philosophising. Which is rarely there. Hence my general reluctance to read things which are more-often-than-not overwhelmingly ho-hum, making me turn instead to things like non-fiction which prompt the disquieting speculating which drives my writing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The other prompt for this posting comes after watching the comedy <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5433138/" target="_blank">Fast and Furious 9</a> (it is a comedy? yes? there are police vans with ‘Interpol’ on them). In this, two characters - don’t ask me who; there’s a <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004874/?ref_=tt_ov_st" target="_blank">Vincent Diesel</a> (nominative determinism?) involved, and neither were him, that’s about all I remember; I slept through bits - speculate on why they’re still alive after so much jeopardy and danger. They fluff they opportunity to conclude they must be recurring characters in a movie franchise - the braver, meta-, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1431045/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_deadpool" target="_blank">Deadpool</a>-alike choice - and simply decide they’re invincible. So arrogant, so brash, so… American.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Maybe that's the difference?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); text-size-adjust: auto;">Here in Europe, we watch America in much the same way as we rubberneck accidents on the motorway: with a sense of grim, morbid fascination, knowing we shouldn’t be looking and that it slows our own journeys, but also that we didn’t ask for it to happen, so if fate and fortune throw a blackly, bleakly comic carnival sideshow our way, what are we meant to do? </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); text-size-adjust: auto;">I’m all for putting up screens so you can’t see the gory details. Would work for traffic accidents too.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Most of those involved in speculative fiction are American: that’s who publishes most stories, that’s where I mainly submit - and, without going back and checking, where I have most success. But I refuse to write like an American, except in a basic sense - 'realize', 'hood', 'trunk', and so forth, but I have learnt that a demi-john is a 'carboy' (who knew?).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Looking back at editors’ feedback, I can’t help but sense occasions where culture clash has come across as po-faced literalism, preventing someone ‘getting it’. <a href="http://meschera.blogspot.com/2022/01/end-of-term-report.html" target="_blank">Remember that story</a>, the one the (American, SFWA professional-rate) publication hated with the feedback:</span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #666666;">"<i>I'm sorry, I found this story unsavory and unpleasant with a disturbing ending. I think at certain points it was attempting to be clever or rough-edged but was just distasteful. </i></span><i style="color: #666666;">Written with undeniable skill, it is nonetheless full of nasty, evil people. While it is a good set-up, unfortunately they win, going against the sort of story we prefer, where evil doesn't win."</i>.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">even though one of the characters was written with <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0924210/" target="_blank">Ben "Paddington-fucking-Bear" Wishaw</a> in mind to play (in your head, obviously.) Well, it's coming out later in the year through the well-regarded British outfit <a href="https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/" target="_blank">PS Publishing</a>. Looks like they got the joke - and the fact that the end was meant to be disturbing: if evil never won, it's meaningless when good does so.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">As George Bernard Shaw said, we’re <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/04/03/common/" target="_blank">two countries separated by a common language</a>. To Americans it’s all about the winner, to Europeans - the British, at least, or maybe just me? - it’s about the game. In speculative fiction, just as in the rest of life. Yes, it's a gross generalisation, but one that captures a truth, I think.</span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; direction: ltr; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: black; caret-color: rgb(62, 62, 62); color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-size-adjust: auto;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-49935501976977551182023-06-16T10:57:00.001+01:002023-06-16T10:57:19.864+01:00I Was Just Doing What You Asked<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> Today's <a href="https://wyldblood.com/i-was-just-doing-what-you-asked/" target="_blank">Wyld Flash </a>from <a href="https://wyldblood.com/" target="_blank">Wyldblood Press</a>, by little ol' me.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://wyldblood.com/i-was-just-doing-what-you-asked/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="750" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAF0WWz-sG54pZAF9yxk_51j4t0nGnUXI-L5OzsfxzCXrbsUHnyoK7vfdihVRg1zerKLbUJVN1hvdJZOBVwJ5KnL2JvwHjHc_oN10HKWDwWpSU-LSSuvkDalmUwH9gMaBdQRAXTcIZSXU0wMVCPal7CfK1Z_yQp5VrQc3-hq5rT4ORrbH0XNPzgNOZ=w400-h280" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; direction: ltr; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-71082851998702393742023-05-26T10:08:00.002+01:002023-05-26T10:08:30.396+01:00Chairman of the bored<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I don't choose what to watch or read with a view to posting on this blog, but given I've set myself finding something to say twice a month, sometimes you sit down and think <i>oh good, I'll definitely have something to say about this...</i></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Which brings me on to <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6710474/" target="_blank">Everything Everywhere All at Once</a></i>.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">That's <a href="https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2023" target="_blank">winner of seven Oscars</a> <i>Everything Everywhere All at Once</i>. The best written, best directed, indisputably best film of 2022, <i>Everything Everywhere All at Once. </i>You know, the one with three of the best four performances of 2022. Yes, that <i>Everything Everywhere All at Once.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And... And... To be honest, I'm struggling. Struggling to make sense of it, but not in a peeling back the layers of metatextual meaning sort of way, more in a poking its amorphous mass and wondering is-that-it sort of way.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Don't get me wrong: it's very well acted, and fits together amazingly, and the effects are what we've come to expect as the second quarter of the twenty-first century comes into view on the horizon: seamless and mesmerizing. But it has minimal story, and the continual balletic fight scenes were done way better in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1899353/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520raid" target="_blank">The Raid</a>. Plus who the baddie turns out to be felt tonally clunky and made the whole thing cartoonish, so much so I could imagine this being a Jim Carey vehicle thirty years ago. In fact, is it a comedy with insufficient laughs?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Or is it the diverse casting that has everyone wetting their pants over this? Is that still a thing worth commenting on? We've had Oscar-winning <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_parasite" target="_blank">Parasite</a> and a Black president. Don't we all know that you don't have to be white or male or straight to be talented? Hasn't this all drifted into the world of 'so what'?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Which is what I've filed this under. Sorry.</span></p><div><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; direction: ltr; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div></div></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-62601459705485994702023-05-02T15:18:00.002+01:002023-05-02T15:26:32.427+01:00Ring of Fire<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">...stop sniggering at the back - <i>my</i> story isn't about the morning after the phall before - and <a href="https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/shop" target="_blank">go and order one</a>, using the code <span style="background-color: white;">NR2023 to get 15% off.</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.wolfsingerpubs.com/shop" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2775" data-original-width="1875" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDROL1JD9qtMRW1x8xmw7TVx7MyV2rCzQ7_tJchoMxsJ6S7ih9Iw08uUkl_5LM1KSylCdST7YS8KGnDynB5KOnp22WTCLXQ5el2mfAOm3XswF6lEpKm_gHV0Thjh_JoO093T8MlgryO4Ev1OZThptOgWEKcClimUcwfuXc8ZLULkCDE91no73eci8A/w270-h400/Ring%20of%20Fire%20Cover.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; direction: ltr; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-72008642607570294122023-04-23T07:19:00.002+01:002023-04-23T07:19:17.585+01:00No, not a bear...<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">...perhaps something much worse.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.underthestairsmag.com/about" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2304" data-original-width="1728" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL0hvfDQI23pkZETKQ34MxRnM4Z65SfkDMw-3Sl3OXJER8XOESFkoxRsZW0YdT9Twu0rRX7o8UE1GqGN8JGBii4n9jtIKYMKmjt6MVZw1xwLCMR5rCpv5hjQ5x9flN8p_h2rQ0IxlKZKN4vc4Wf6J8wjBSDfG5cfpoEecApvrcB9UlqNmkNo5yQzTU/w300-h400/Under%20the%20Stairs.png" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; direction: ltr; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8824471752718569687.post-51636859025198806122023-04-14T18:25:00.004+01:002023-04-23T07:08:55.153+01:00Why not seeing something coming is not necessarily a good thing<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Contains spoilers.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Okay, so I'm about four months behind the curve - but isn't speculative fiction about the future meant to comment on the present, so why can't my blog post in the present comment on speculative fiction about the future from the past? - but I have a couple of things to say about the ending of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b1v2" target="_blank">BBC/HBO adaptation of Philip Pullman's <i>His Dark Materials</i></a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I did read the books, oh, the best part of twenty years ago. To be honest, so little of the latter half of the narrative has stuck with me, other than the faintly farcical image of animals on wheels, that I had no idea what was coming. And little more of what just happened when it did. Apparently, it was a fairly faithful telling. I may go back and re-read them to see if I can make sense of them now.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The series <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/his-dark-materials-ending-explained-land-dead-mary-metatron-abyss/" target="_blank">tied many storylines up around Christmas</a> and apparently left </span><a href="https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/will-lyra-deserve-other-his-dark-materials-fans-devastated-series-finale-ending" style="font-family: verdana;" target="_blank">many fans distraught</a><span style="font-family: verdana;">. I think I fall more in the mildly irritated camp. Not that the two young lovers weren't allowed to get together, but the manner of the insurmountable barriers in their way.</span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/will-lyra-deserve-other-his-dark-materials-fans-devastated-series-finale-ending" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="447" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEih45KPlxcXyrZamy4nOHP8PrQp-XgzXh8zToRpTbtc56e-mKRhKBGElawdlAUlGGtBy9mKEvkcj-AU1pT1WrDVUDG4NUBQnvZmuGK9l3xjcDnXIyMICaXT6d0_k1X3gbkf04cTnz4W01sNOanBZY1ygqQqi8xFVExxIGHG6GGaE99Bd_1xiO-YXgXz=w400-h356" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">My issue revolves around <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreshadowing" target="_blank">foreshadowing</a>.</span></p><p>Foreshadowing is not merely one of the basic tools of the writer, setting things up to be explained later in an emotionally or intellectually satisfying or elegant way, but also a kind of writers' law of thermodynamics. Every action leads to an equal and opposite... you get the idea.</p><p>There's a bit of the former in my gripe, that not every storyline arced. I would love to have seen what happened to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cosmo" target="_blank">James Cosmo</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/36Lb2fkBnZkkYMtq3t55Hc1/ma-costa">Anne-Marie Duff</a> and the other <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/his-dark-materials-gyptians/" target="_blank">Gyptians</a>. But maybe it's right that their lives and those of the leads intersected for a moment, and then went their separate ways. That's life. There's no breach of a fundamental law there.</p><p>But there is in introducing a new rule of the game <i>just before the final whistle</i>. That we learnt in the final reel only one window between worlds could remain open was fine - we had seen the chaos and carnage caused by dust moving between worlds. That's foreshadowing. But the rule that nobody could remain safely in the world into which they were not born, hence Will and Lyra must separate forever... absolutely no ground work was laid for this, no sense of looking back at previously inexplicable symptoms or behaviour that could now be understood. Just a witch's pronouncement and a lame, 'oh alright then'. Which makes it nothing more than a thinking person's deus ex machina. Sorry. Not good enough.</p><p>Of course, given this was scripted by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thorne" target="_blank">Jack Thorne</a> who has a strong and deserved reputation for knowing what he's doing, it's entirely possible I missed all the clues and I've just made an arse of myself by writing this blog post. But, looking back on the narrative, in this case, I think not.</p><p>I sympathise with those wanting Will and Lyra to have ended up together. I think they are asking for some kind of cosmic benevolence. I'm looking for something a tad more fundamental: cosmic order.</p></span><p></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">#</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Click on the images or search on Amazon.</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">You're here, so surely you know how to do that?</span></i></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ML4VS16/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i4" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm8x_XGNRk5oC7oP3TF6eDjxzu1M2N5KNzMDhyiZ9XLS4imQafGrnkH2auEiTtH4Ufv9KHEqhYv7kbTJzFcJM89FTNih10Sc2a0EFcIupXPTGkqhpnf3vOzgO52Pqgr-xovEA_p66CLk/w201-h321/Cover.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08937LMHJ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i5" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchutx9VUTSyD2Bgiai_0g8TeOmbG0Z15_0bKuUh0mkjlJHy16hd4y4324UOD701RcA__uvyl9a2X8FXCqBnuLTUeHadMg9azh_a1vp3iVyBJT67GNcOiGlgHyYmWa4LsYcIEVQ2dmyIg/s320/9781913726010.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084 - The Meschera Bandwidth</span></b></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p class="XzvDs _208Ie _1atvN _2QAo- _1iXso _3_La3 _1atvN public-DraftStyleDefault-block-depth0 public-DraftStyleDefault-text-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #666666; direction: ltr; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 2; margin: 0px; min-height: var(--ricos-custom-p-min-height, unset); outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="vkIF2 public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; direction: ltr; display: block; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 10;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;"></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2084. The world remains at war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the Eurasian desert, twenty-year old Adnan emerges from a coma with memories of a strictly ordered city of steel and glass, and a woman he loved.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The city is the Dome, and the woman... is Adnan's secret to keep.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Adnan learns what the Dome is, and what his role really was within it. He learns why everybody fears the Sickness more than the troopers. And he learns why he is the only one who can stop the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Persuaded to re-enter the Dome to implant a virus that will bring the war machine to its knees, the resistance think that Adnan is returning to free the many - but really he wants to free the one.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">24 0s & a 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="EN-US">Twenty-four slipstream stories. </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Frequently absurd, often minimifidian, </span><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">occasionally heroic.</span></span></p></div>Robert Bagnallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07412192893448775892noreply@blogger.com0