Consistent Writing and latest history of SF TV series.

Its safe to say that I have had my most productive week to date, which on Sunday morning saw me write 1400 words to complete the first draft to a short story I had been working on last week.

Most writing manuals will advise writers to write every day and to read every day. Now I have had no issue with the reading every day. I get an hour lunch at work which is always spent reading. Writing though, thats a different ball game. I know this is very wrong of me, especially if I want to be serious about my writing and be taken seriously about my writing. Not making excuses, but fitting in my running, work, family time and writing can be tricky. But when I comes to my writing, I need to treat it like my running. Don’t put myself under pressure to do large amounts every day. Just be consistent.

I read an excellent blog by a guy who simply aimed to write 500 words a day. He may have the odd day where he didn’t make that target or even start it. But he knew there would be days where he would do much more than that target. So I followed suit and have found it works. My average is more than 500 words and I’m enjoying it.

This of course is also helped by the support I get by my wife. We are both spiritualists. Not trying to sell it as a religion/faith - its simply our belief. She went to a medium we go to who told her, my late dad said I need to have a kick up my ass and get writing. I’m good at it but have become lazy! So even the spirits are telling me off! My wife said, she will tell me every day to get writing. This gave me a huge lift.

The draft I completed is basically rubbish. Now to non writers this would seem a very pessimistic comment to make about one’s writing. But every writer creates a rubbish first draft. Its in every writing manual worth its salt. The good writing comes with the countless re-writes and editing that follows. I have a story, it even has some logical structure and I am optimistic there will be a very satisfactory story at the end of the process.

Although, whether it passes my late dad’s critique is another thing!  

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Over the weekend I watched the first part to a brand new BBC TV series called ‘Tomorrows Worlds - The Unearthly History of Science Fiction’.  Its a five part series with each episode a different part of the genre.  Episode one covered space and science fictions relationship with it. 

I was very wary of it, wondering if it would be just the usual popular culture bullshit  that is viewed as SF.  And by starting with Star Wars and Star Trek, my worries were confirmed.  Nothing wrong with either, but to a non SF fan, this is what they believe the genre to be.

However during the episode, it started looking at the high concept of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, the non gender specific aliens of ‘Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin’ and the sociological politics of ‘The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson’. 

This is a series of great promise, that realises the genre is so vast and every fan has their own view of it, that you simply can’t cover it all.  So recognise the popular culture side of it but also pass tribute to the deeper more meaningful commentary of real life found in the genre.

Next week is all about alien invasion in SF.

Interstellar - epic science fiction at its grandest level.

It may just be a coincidence, or planned, but it is interesting that the release of Interstellar came only a few days before the landing of a robot on a comet. Both show humanity's thirst for exploration, to find our position in the Universe, with Interstellar using the medium of film and the ESA using the very real world of science.

I’ll get this out of the way straight away, I loved Interstellar and the only reason I am not calling it my favourite movie of all time, is simply that I want to see it again.

There I said it.

It is the science fiction movie I have been waiting for since I first started reading hard science fiction novels and short stories. This is a high concept movie, full of ideas, themes and very real scientific theories. It is not science fiction for someone who simply wants to be entertained by big fighting robots or huge space battles (nothing wrong with this form of escapism, I hasten to add). You need to be prepared to become emotionally tied to the movie, and think a lot more. Luckily you don’t need to have a degree in physics to understand the theories involved, but equally, you can’t let your mind wonder.

I won’t go over the plot and the premise of the movie, due simply to the assumption you are reading this having watched the movie. Its not a critical review. I love the movie too much to be objective, so its more of a tribute. Any quotes from the movie will be very much a case of paraphrasing.

I first became aware of Christopher Nolan as a filmmaker with Batman Begins. I was blown over by his gritty realistic take on one of my personal favourite comic book characters. The sequels helped create, in my mind, the finest movie trilogy. After Batman Begins, I discovered his skill for creating huge and interesting visuals in Inception - the bending of the city is a shot that will stick in my mind for a very long time.

So, when I read he was going to try his hand at science fiction, I was very pleased. When I heard he was planning to use real theoretical physics (by Kip Thorne), I became very interested. When I heard this involved wormholes and a huge journey across time and space, I became very excited. Add in a black hole and a story using the time dilation effects of interstellar travel and I was completely sold.

Already it was sounding like a film version of a novel by Alastair Reynolds (he uses real physics theories, issues with time dilation and in Revelation Space, a Neutron Star).

It turned out, I wasn’t far wrong in my prediction. It also contains a far more plausible Dystopian future than The Hunger Games, shown both frighteningly, and in an eerily possible way, in the teacher-parent scene, when we discover the children are being taught that the Apollo moon landings were faked for propaganda purposes so as to bankrupt the USSR into a space race they could never afford.

The movie is an emotional journey of sacrifices and survival. As humans we have always looked to expand, from leaving the valley in caveman times, to Christopher Columbus sailing to prove the world was round to sending probes out into the solar system. Whilst other life on Earth evolved due to their surroundings, we have changed those same surroundings to meet out needs. Much like the dinosaurs, we will reach our end one day on this planet, and be but a fossil, a minor memory in the vast history of this planet. Interstellar explores this as we look to other worlds to colonise and stop our inevitable extinction. “Mankind wasn’t meant to die on this planet,” one character muses.

The future, as depicted in the movie, is one of backwards thinking, of returning back to our hunter/gatherer past. We no longer worry about technical leaps, or engineering skill, only basic survival and not running out of food. I’ve never been a huge fan of how a dystopian future is depicted in a lot of movies and books, it always seems too over the top and too out of line with todays society to have a believable and logical link between the two. Hence my earlier comment on The Hunger Games. Last years Elysium did it wonderfully by having the rich and powerful living in a huge Iain M Banks style orbital habitat with the poor living on Earth. Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, examined this style of a future society in both The Long Walk and The Running Man (a far better story than the movie). Interstellar may not have the large rich/poor divide, traditionally found in Dystopian fiction, but it is a bleak future with no optimism. One big reveal admits that the whole plan is to populate another world with fertilised eggs and leave humans on Earth to die out within a couple of generations. Luckily, as with all dystopian futures, there are a few who won’t give up and will find a way to understand the physics needed to save mankind.

This is lead by Murph, the daughter of Cooper, the pilot on board the ship travelling to far away worlds. As a parent myself, the movie does a very good job of dealing with the relationship and bond between a parent and their offspring. I simply couldn’t imagine having to leave my son at home, to go off and explore new worlds, knowing that he will have aged a lot faster than I will have when I hopefully return. But Cooper has to do this for the good of humanity, and for himself, a man born to explore, “born forty years to soon or too late” as his father in law puts it. He has to make that sacrifice.

One criticism I have read on more than one online post, is that Cooper uses love as a mystical force to resolve matters. The reason for the criticism is simply that this is a hippy way to resolve the issues in the movie, and that trying to make out love can be explained in scientific terms is incorrect. It is almost as if these posters have not even seen the movie. Yes, love is a huge theme. Yes, love is the motivating factor to keep Cooper going. But it isn’t love that allows him to move books, or hands on the watch from inside the Tesseract. It is gravity. These posters must have nodded off when Brand was describing how time could appear to a “higher being” - going back in time would be no more different than us climbing down a mountain. They must have also been asleep when we discover that it isn’t some alien civilisation that have been trying to help us, but a future version of us that transcends both time and space, who created the Tesseract as a time portal and a way to move backwards in time, among other things.

Interstellar is on hell of an emotional roller-coaster ride. Due to the time dilation effects of being on a planet too close to a black hole, what feels like a couple of hours for Cooper and his team, is actually twenty three years on Earth. It is very hard to grasp how that must feel for a parent, knowing your children have lived almost a quarter of a century in a blink of an eye. This sequence is shown via videos sent from Earth via the wormhole and we see as Cooper does what any father would in this situation - he breaks down in tears.

Of course the movie allows Cooper to answer the one question, asked of parents with more than one kid, who is your favourite? Cooper blatantly decides who his favourite is! But joking aside, his almost blase approach to his son, is simply that he knows and trusts his son is now a man and that he can let him go to make a life of his own. His daughter though is younger and in need of a fatherly figure. She also doesn’t understand that he is leaving. One moment, via the video, she pleads with him to return due to now being the same age as he was when he left, a promise he gave her. Of course, they do eventually meet again, when at the end of the movie, Cooper returns to find his daughter is an elderly woman on her death bed. When asked how she knew he would return, she simply replies, “my daddy promised me.” Again, as a daddy myself, the promise made to your son or daughter is legally binding. It is also another case of love, keeping both Cooper and Murph alive, feeding the basic survival instinct we all have. As Dr Mann says, “the final thing you see before you die is your children.”

As a movie, Interstellar is as near perfect as possible. It is probably the best chance, we as genre fans have, for a science fiction movie to win best picture at the Oscars. In fact it could quite conceivably clear up with acting awards going to Matthew McConaughey as Cooper & Ann Hathaway as Brand, both exceptional performances.

Finally, nothing is perfect, and my one gripe was the very end. When Cooper launches from the new home of Earth, Nolan missed a great opportunity for a “money shot”. He could have mirrored the ending to Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds, when we realise just how immense the structure the humans are in. But Nolan does like to leave some things to the imagination of the audience, especially at the end of a movie, so I can see why he resisted. This though is minor. The exploration of what makes us human is handled beautifully.

Survival, love and the need to explore and further ourselves are big parts of what makes us human.

Dr Who latest season thoughts

I’ve been pretty busy at present, training for a half marathon this weekend, being a father and husband, writing and working so the blog has kind of been shoved to the back yet again. If it helps I have read some very interesting blogs over the last few weeks.

I have looked in to whether it is a good or bad idea to transfer over to Wordpress. Partly due to the future possibility of having a proper grown up website as well as the blog. But at present I am happy with Blogger due to being linked to my other Google apps.

Completely off track, but my near 14 month old son has just farted. Well I hope thats all it is! (only parents will know the fear that goes through you when you hear an infant fart)

I was very excited by the landing of Philae on to a comet. The technical and engineering skills required to land an object on a lumpy, unstable piece of rock, minute in cosmic terms, travelling at 36000 miles per hour is nothing short of profound brilliance. Forget what we learn now. Its the potential of mining on near Earth comets/asteroids that excites me. The mining of these objects has long been a passion of mine and one that will help us to take the tentative steps into expanding the Human civilisation into outer space. We have an ever increasing population and resources on Earth are not going to be here for ever - we need to look at space to ease both problems.

Of course critics look at the public money being spent, and point out it could be used elsewhere. But look at what technological advances have been made by NASA (funded by US tax payers money). Besides I believe large multinational corporations will finance the future of space exploration.

I’m fairly confident it was just a fart.

Finally some thoughts on the latest season of Dr Who. I’ve spoken in the past about both my love for the show and of my confidence in Peter Capaldi.

Capaldi himself was nothing short of brilliant. Everything I thought he would be. Arrogant, , judgemental, quirky, eccentric, wise and childlike at the same time. However, I had to keep checking I wasn’t watching “The Clara Show”, as yet again the companion becomes the main character. I get that the original premise was that we the audience experienced the show through the eyes of the companion. But when the companion (Clara) starts becoming the moral compass for the Doctor, acting very childish and arrogant herself, it gets too much. I actually enjoyed her “impossible girl” story ark with Matt Smith, and this may be another issue - she suited Matt Smith, but just doesn’t work with Capaldi. She is supposed to be leaving at Christmas, so hopefully they will find a more suitable companion.

They had a good ready made one in Osgood, the UNIT scientist. But she was killed off. It would have made a change to have had a companion who was his intellectual equal. Hopefully it wasn’t a “fixed point in time” so we can have some timey-whiney stuff!

A female Master was certainly a nice surprise (I kind of guessed, but also thought The Rani may be a good option). I can buy this. The Master is always looking to get one over The Doctor, so changing gender would definitely be up there with fooling our hero. Besides, Michelle Gomez was wonderful as the iconic villian, bringing the right mix of over the top campness, insanity (well bananas in her case) and megalomania. Just a shame her “death” was a little underwhelming. We all know she isn’t dead but The Doctor would normally react a lot more than that (see John Simm refusing to regenerate).

The Brigadier was back! And he was saluted by the Doctor. He may have been a zombie cyberman, but it was still very cool.

I would have loved to have had a “Thick of It” reunion between Chris Addison and Capaldi, but at least we got a reference with The Doctors pyscho paper being full of swear words.

We will never mention the Robin Hood episode again.

There is only one Mr Pink.

Hopefully with a new companion and Capaldi fully in the swing of things the next season will be back in track. 

Falling in love with, moving apart, rekindling a love for U2

Although expected to be released this year, it came as quite a surprise that U2 released their latest album “Songs of Innocence” free of charge via ITunes. In fact there was no waiting - the announcement was made, then it appeared in all 500 Million Itunes users’ “Cloud”. There are arguments for and against the almost forcing of users to have an album by a band that separates many music fans and are possibly the most marmite of bands (fans worship them, others hate them for various reasons). But thats for another day. This is more about my love of the band (no I won’t try to sell you into the cult of U2 where we all worship at the feet of our God Bono)

I have been a fan for almost 20 years. They weren’t the band that got me into music. That was Queen and Status Quo (I can’t quote remember whose greatest hits my mum got me as a 10 year old in 1990 first). My first taste of the band was my mum having a rather childish strop when their song “Desire” knocked a song by her then favourite band “The Hollies” from the number one spot. Then in 1992 I watched as they played the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert (albeit live via satellite) but there was still no inkling to discover more about them. But in 1995 I was looking for new and different music to listen to. I’d missed grunge, although I loved my Pearl Jam and Nirvanna cassettes (showing my age somewhat!), and Britpop, although fun, never quite pushed me musically.

In that same summer that brought us the big Blur V Oasis debate, U2 quietly released “Hold me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me,” a song used for the “Batman Forever” soundtrack. I randomly purchased the single (again, hard copy CDs is showing my age!) and instantly fell in love with the cyber punk/rock n roll/techno fuse of 90s U2. It must be said that I learnt not long after that this isn’t a typical U2 sounding song - but what is? After that, I became an instant fan, obsessing over them like other big fans. Over the coming years I purchased their back catalogue and old concerts on VHS (there I go again!) and was lucky to see them at Wembley on the 1997 PopMart tour. I was even more lucky to see them in Dublin in 2005 (having seen them in Manchester 2 weeks before) and again in Cardiff in 2009. But then I seemed to have lost a little interest in them.

For long periods of my life, U2 were a constant companion. If I was feeling down, they were there musically for me. They represented the single me. Yes, I had relationships during this time, but hindsight being what it is, they were never going to last for one reason or another. And guess who were there to pick the pieces up like the musical mates they were? U2.

In 2009 I met the girl that I went on to marry and start a family with me. I took her to see them in Cardiff, making her a fan in the process - as she says, the haters need to see them live before giving a music opinion on them. And this is the thing. They were no longer needed emotionally. The married me didn’t need to lean on U2 musically. My musical tastes changed somewhat. I’d always been a Metal fan, but now I was actively seeking out Metal acts. Although earlier this year I rediscovered Bruce Spingsteen after a long absence and this should have given me the inkling of a return to the Dublin band I loved for so many years.

And this is a long(ish) way of saying, after a few listens, this album has made me re-fall in love with U2. It wasn’t that I no longer needed them musically because they represented the single me. It was that, like an old married couple we grew apart. But now we have rekindled that love.

The new album itself has also shown that U2 are still a innovative band. They could easily become a Rolling Stones style greatest act (Nothing wrong with that). But they still aim to be relevant both musically and commercially. I mentioned buying CD singles. Well this was back in the days when the usual cycle for a band was create the album, release a single and get plenty of air play on the radio, release the album and one or two more singles and finally go on a big year long tour. Then repeat. But with the onset of Itunes, Napster and Spotify (to name but a few), people get their music differently via downloads or streaming. The humble single and album is no more. Yes bands create albums, but now people decide the single themselves by downloading it (I know some bands still “release a single” digitally). Commercial radio hasn’t quite got the listeners it once had as people stream music from Spotify or Google Play. So bands have to sell their much differently to sell the tickets for tours and remain musically relevant. This is the genius behind U2 giving away the album free for a month via Itunes. Apple get exclusivity, U2 get the album out to people who wouldn’t even think of buying it and then they become fans. In theory of course. But to me its a great way for an established band to bring their music to new fans.

Musically it has hints of the classic U2 sound. If there truly is a classic U2 sound. It is 26 years since they last did a classic 80s U2 sounding album. And even in the 80’s their sound went from naive new wave punks to a more American sound. The 90’s brought them more to an electronic sound - dance fused with rock with more than a subtle hint of Madchester with clear Happy Mondays, Charalatans, Stones Roses and Primal Scream style music in there. The 2000’s brought a more commercially friendly U2. The big anthems were still there, but the flirtation with DJs was over. But even then, they showed hints with a return to that sound in 2005 and 2009. Now this new album seems a more updated version of the 90’s sound with one of the producers being Danger Mouse. Its Zoo TV/Actung Baby if they recorded that album now. And this is the thing, what is the U2 style of music, if not a look at what is current and putting their spin on it. At the most its the driving bass of Adam Clayton, the drumming of Larry Mullen Jr, the effects laden guitar work of The Edge, backing poetic emotion filled lyrics song with passion by Bono. All with the epic feel of a stadium friendly sound that could equally be intimate.  

The cold truth of the latest social media viral challenge

The Ice Bucket challenge has swept the world of social media like a plague of locusts through a cornfield. The basic premise being that you video yourself either throwing or someone else throwing, a bucket of ice water over your head. You then ‘nominate’ others to do the same. This is done to raise awareness for charity or people donate to the charity.

There is some debate over which charity ‘owns’ the challenge, but my understanding is that it started in America with the ALS, a charity that help sufferers of Motor Neurone disease. Macmillan (a UK based nationwide hospice) have also joined the MNDA (the UK version of the ALS) in being affiliated with the challenge. It was done by celebrities but has now swept everyday people and my Facebook feed is full of videos!

In theory, this whole viral social media based charity campaign does a world of good. It raises awareness for charities with people who may never have heard of the ALS and MNDA now fully aware of what they do. People are also donating to these great charities, which is a great thing.

However, there is a murkier side to the whole challenge. As I mentioned above, there is some debate over who the challenge ‘belongs’ too. Technically it doesn’t belong to one charity, but accusations have been flung the way of Macmillan for jumping on the bandwagon and stealing the limelight from lower profile charities who have used the challenge earlier. It can be noted that if you type ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ into Google, the first result is a link to the Macmillan Ice Bucket challenge, which implies they have paid top dollar to ensure this number one search result. This is a shame as Macmillan are a fantastic charity and don’t really need to do that or even be involved in the challenge.

The ALS have also allegedly got links to animal testing with Pamela Anderson being the highest profile person to refuse the challenge.

It is also coursing harassment issues and at its worst cyber-bullying, with those not taking part after being nominated being made to feel guilty or boring. My wife turned down a challenge due to the animal testing links and was swore at on Facebook after explaining her reasons. For the record, me and my wife donate monthly to the NSPCC (A charity helping protect children from abuse). We also sponsor people where we can with a recent example being for a charity helping parents who are grieving due to a stillborn baby - a woman in our running club ran ten lots of ten kilometer laps at the Thunder Run 24hour event. How people choose to donate to charities and what charities they donate to, is their own personal choice. They shouldn’t be dictated too.

Finally, the Challenge is clearly a bandwagon. Its snowballed to the point that the original reasons for starting it have been diluted. People are now doing it purely for a bit of fun, enjoying nominating people to ‘wind them up’. If you say no, you are boring or too serious. Some people are introverts, others are extroverts, and the introverts may just feel awkward and uncomfortable taking part. Everybody has fun in different and varying ways. I find watching my 11 month old boy eating spaghetti hilarious. Others may see it as being silly.

People struggling in drought hit countries, may view the throwing of precious water over oneself/someone as being a waste of something they are in desperate need of.

Update.....

It has been a while since my last blog. However, for once I have tried to be a little more productive. After trying to work out in mind what I want to do with my writing, I decided to just bite the bullet and actually start working on a novel.

The idea had come to me after me and my wife looked after a stray cat before the owner came forward and like a huge alarm, the idea came to me! It is a simple idea, based on a real life situation, with a “what if” to keep the story moving.

Over the past few weeks I have been reading a lot of Stephen King, including his “One Writing” writing masterclass. It may be a little over the top to say this, but I believe in years to comes, I will look on it as the most important thing I did in my early writing career. It is that's good.

For anybody who has read it, you will know once of the key points he makes, is that the story is the most important part. He writes this many times, in many different ways. In fact he hammers it home so hard, I have probably started muttering to myself “its all about the story” over and over again, before smashing my way through a wooden door, shouting “Heres Johnny!”

Of course, having digressed a little from my original point, reading “One Writing” has given me the confidence to give my novel a go. Its early days, and its very much writing by the seat of my pants, much like Stephen King does, but I’m enjoying creating my story.

Finally, having used my laptop for 7 years, it has become clear, I am need of a new one. Its processor had one core in Silicon Heaven and its RAM was getting forgetful. The purchase of a new laptop was needed and typing this blog on a machine that doesn’t need a large cup of coffee to get it started is a joy.

My MS office 2000 also needed upgrading, and after looking at MS office 360 or 2013, I posted in one of the many excellent writing communities on Google +, asking a question on one of the T & Cs for Office concerning commercial use and writing. A reply came back, suggesting a piece of software called “Scrivener” which was created for writers in mind and allows the user to project manage their writing, be it a novel, script or an article. It sounded perfect and so did the cost. A fraction of MS office or Word as a standalone download (which was approx the same as Office it self!).

This small act confirmed my feelings when I joined Google +. Of the three main social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter etc) this was the best for me as a writer to utilise.

One last, final (this time it really is!), my wife did a great act and moved my desk into the conservatory to move me away from the distractions coursed by having it in the living room. Stephen King talks of his wife being very supportive so its good to know I also have that similar support. Now if I can write stories as wonderful as his, I’ll be a very happy writer.

The delights of being a father

I have spoken in the past of my delight at becoming a father for the first time, but I have so far held back from a regular blog or even just a small update.  The temptation to write a cliché filled “new dad” blog, full of stories of being pooed/puked/peed on (or all three) and suffering with sleep deprivation could be too much.  This has been done countless times.  But, becoming a parent is a unique and different experience for each person.  Ultimately, parents to be will always appreciate any helpful advice – I know we did.

Rhys is now coming up to 7 months old and after appearing 5 weeks earlier than planned, he is showing no signs of being a premature baby.  In fact he probably looks a bit older than his age!  A gardener doing work for my in-laws commented that his dad must be a rugby player.  That’s his five foot six inch, nine and a half stone dad.  I would be torn apart if I attempted a game of rugby.  So must be something he has got from his mummy.  I gave him my looks - the poor little thing.

With this size, comes a large appetite.  He definitely doesn’t have a problem eating and is now enjoying solids.  As parents, the wife and I have agreed to a healthy and less lazy option.  He doesn’t have baby food jars, we cook meat and veg and are trying to instil a healthy lifestyle in him.  In fact, when we were in Manchester for the marathon, we gave in and used jars as we couldn’t cook fresh food for him and won’t trust restaurants to leave added salt and sugar out.  Problem was, Rhys has become used to good fresh food, and actually turned his nose up at the goo we tried to feed him.

What shocks me is that there are parents out there who don’t care what they feed their babies.  Laziness takes over, which is pointless as we just cook a little extra for Rhys when cooking our own food (remembering to leave out salt when boiling pasta, rice and veg). I know of one parent who, in the last couple of weeks, has fed their 11 month old baby a MacDonalds and a Chinese take away!  Now I know being a runner I can be a bit “over the top” with eating healthily but common sense tells you that isn’t good for a baby.

Now, what I am about to write, we make us instantly hated by a lot of other parents.  Rhys sleeps through, and rarely wakes up.  I know, it’s just not fair.  He usually settles down about half seven and won’t wake us up till around half six in the morning, when I am just going out for a morning run.  Occasionally, if he is suffering with a cold, he will wake up in the middle of the night and come in with us, but this is very rare.  And he doesn’t scream or cry, just baby talks - which is very cute, just not so much at four in the morning!

My favourite moments are when I come home from work, or from a run and his face lights up. He smiles at me and holds his arms out for a cuddle from daddy.  Of course, the flip side is when I leave for work and he looks quite sad to see me leave.  At that age he can’t even begin to comprehend the importance of working to feed and keep a roof over our heads.  But as other dads will testify, it still makes it very difficult.

Now though, it is all about movement and exploration.  He can roll on to his tummy and has started to try and crawl.  To be honest, he hasn’t quite grasped the art of crawling as he uses his head and not his arms to drag himself along.  But he doesn’t get upset, so we leave him to develop the skill himself.  Until frustration gets the better of him and he has a small temper tantrum.

Being a dad is a very rewarding experience.  It is a challenge trying to juggle work, running, writing and being a husband.  But I have the greatest wife, who makes it work for us.  Though I always have time for my little “baba”, which is why I will be posting this blog with nothing more than a quick glance, so I can go and feed him!

The Greater Manchester Marathon

Last weekend saw the culmination of two stories of blood, sweat and hard work.  One personal, and the other from the wonderful, over the top pantomime like entertainment that is WWE wrestling, which I will talk about in a later blog.

My story is one that in some ways was 20 years in the making.  As I finished the Greater Manchester Marathon in a time of 3 Hours 4 minutes 22 seconds, and in doing so recorded a, to be confirmed, “good for age” marathon time for London, it was as much a victory for me as it was the 14 year old me, who was unfit, physically lazy, picked last for sports at school and couldn’t run more than 50 meters without dying of exhaustion. 

Even after completing a fair number of triathlons since taking up the sport in 2009, including the toughest of them all, Ironman, I see this as the greatest sporting achievement.  A triathlon friend of mine once pondered, what is more difficult – the marathon at the end of an Ironman or a standalone, ran as hard as possible, marathon?  I tend to say the standalone is harder. 

An Ironman marathon is pure survival and you run it at a gentle pace.  You are only concerned with finishing (unless racing).  Whereas with a standalone marathon its all about time (quick disclaimer, I appreciate most marathon runners only care about finishing and not what time they finish as they run to raise money for a charity or to just do a marathon, but this is aimed more at “racers”).

Last September I ran my first standalone marathon in Wolverhampton in a time of just under 3 hours 26 minutes.  I was pleased, but felt I could get faster with some good training.  I targeted a sub 3:10 at Manchester and trained for it, running 50-60 miles per week, all at varying intensities.  But 4 weeks ago, during the Ashby20 mile race, I realised I could go faster after running at marathon pace, but discovered I went faster very comfortably.   Having figured I would need a year to get to GFA (good for age) pace, I had a decision to make – stick to the original plan or take a gamble.  I went with the gamble thinking to myself you only live once!

The race strategy was simple; run at 7 minute per mile pace for as long as possible, and see how long I can hold on.  This is not the correct way of pacing a marathon.  You should hold back a little, run comfortably, and then if you can, increase the pace at the 20mile mark where the race starts.  However, I know from experience, a set pace is going to be ok after one mile if I am feeling comfortably and not working hard.  This was very true at the marathon so I carried on running at that pace. 

At the halfway point I was starting to tire a little, but physically felt ok.  I think my baby boy waking us up at 4:30am may have been the reason for this!  I even posted a PB for a half marathon.

It was mile 22 where it started to get hard; it is a running cliché, depending on who you talk to, but the marathon either doesn’t start until mile 20 or is only halfway at mile 20.  I was fine at that point, still running around 7 minutes per mile, then mile 22 hit and the last 4 miles suddenly became absolute torture.  Perhaps my pace had been just a tad too hard, maybe my inexperience at the marathon came into play (this was my second standalone and third in total) or maybe it is always hard at mile 22! 

I had to dig deep, I had to work very hard and I could only really afford to drop to 7:20 to 7:30 min per mile pace to get the GFA time.  I was over taking a lot of people, so the drop in pace wasn’t as bad as I thought – in fact I believe taking over people so easily had a adverse effect on me as I wasn’t “racing” anybody to keep my pace up.

The last half mile was unbearable but having seen my family and then having complete strangers cheer me on, I managed to drag my sorry ass to the finish seeing the time on the line and knowing I had done it.  Echoing my favourite wrestler Daniel Bryan, I side stepped to the finish line, arms pointing skywards, shouting YES repeatedly.

This would mirror Wrestlemania in the early hours of the following morning when the very same Daniel Bryan achieved his goals (in both storyline terms and probably real life terms too).

Post race I was knackered.  I had left everything on the course.  I could hardly walk and felt sick.  Racing a marathon is very demanding, both physically and mentally.

In fact 5 days later, I have a cold.  Undoubtedly due to having a weakened immune system but I am also thinking about the future. 

My time is good enough to get an automatic entry to next years London Marathon in their “good for age” entry system.  However, last year they changed the entry time from 3:10 to 3:05 after Manchester meaning a fair number of people missed out.  So hopefully they don’t do that a second year running!

I am planning to run the Robin Hood marathon in Nottingham in September, with the aim at present to pace it better and get another marathon under my belt.  I am tempted to go for a sub 3 hour time, but we will see.  I have a fair number of shorter races with my club this summer which should help get me faster.

But for now, it’s all about recovery.  And rest, plenty of rest.

changes....

Writing has seemingly taken a back burner these past few months.  Becoming a father, changing jobs and training for the Greater Manchester Marathon have all been a factor – but ultimately I feel I lost my mojo a little.  I don’t think it was recent knockbacks, more a case being not really sure where I wanted my writing to take me anymore. 

This blog has always been focussed on science fiction writing due to this being the genre I wanted to write.  But I have started to wonder if I am actually suited to it.  I always feel forced when writing science fiction which is not a good thing.  At first I thought it was that I started writing for all the wrong reasons.  Being unhappy in my last job pushed me into writing.  I had always wanted to write, but being unhappy in a job meant I probably saw writing as my “meal ticket” out of a boring, stressful job, instead of writing for enjoyment and seeing how it went.  But now in the new job, which is less stressful and more enjoyable my writing cut back. 

However, I fell upon an article.  I can’t remember where I read it and how I discovered it.  Twitter or a writing magazine I assume.  I will even be honest and admit I only half read it and it was only digested a few days later.  The gist was simply saying that if you are stuck in a rut, maybe a change of genre or market is the answer.  Bingo.  Or Eureka.  It came to me; maybe science fiction isn’t for me after all.  So I started thinking of other genres to try like horror, mainstream or contemporary? 

I had read some Stephen King in the last year or two and used to love Nick Hornby.  I know they are two very different writers, but also two authors not writing science fiction (well in Stephen Kings case, not SF in the classic sense as some of his stories may have SF in them). 

So I started to experiment a little.  There is a competition in the latest SFX magazine where you enter a 1500 word zombie short story and I wrote a first draft in an hour or two.  It wasn’t great, but it seemed easier and more natural to write.  A rewrite has brought about a short story I’m rather pleased with.  It is raw and needs tidying up, but it isn’t far from being a finished story and one I am happy to send in.

Last weekend, I sat and simply wrote what would be the opening chapter to a novel.  No planning, just an opening scene to an idea I have had for a while now.  I again felt a natural flow to my writing.  It was again more horror based with a brutal scene.  I’ve kind of worried myself that I have a bit of a sick mind to come up with this scene, but maybe that is a good thing, my imagination is better suited to that than a future history or SF in general.  But it has potential and when reading it back last night, it doesn’t need much of a rewrite – which I was very pleased with.  I need to plan a novel before I actually carry on writing it, but as an experiment it worked.

Finally, I also got round to carrying on with the writer bureau course.  I will admit that I am finding non fiction tedious and in hindsight should have done the fiction first, but felt non fiction would be easier to get published.  With some help from a Triathlete buddy of mine, I have done a first draft and a rewrite.  Its almost there, but the by having lots of projects I can keep writing regularly – whist I give is a day or two before checking, I can work on something else.

I feel now, my writing mojo is back and I’m doing it for the “write” reasons (sorry, poor pun!) – For enjoyment.

Rejection

In the past week I have received two rejections and am still unpublished.  One for an article about my Grandfathers exploits as a prisoner of war in World War 2 and the other a science fiction short story.  This is not a whinge or a moan about being rejected.  I just believe that you shouldn’t just talk about your successes, but also your setbacks.

If I am honest I was a little disappointed the article was rejected, especially after having positive emails from the publication in question.  But as my mother told me, it isn’t the staff member you have to impress but the editor!  The positive thing to come out of this is that I worked with a staff member of a magazine, swapping emails and following the whole process from start to finish.  Before submitting the outline and query letter I had never experienced this and now have the experience to look back on.

The short story though was always going to be a tough ask.  Science fiction is a hard genre to sell, and the market I chose to sell to has a reputation for a very high quality of writing.  Of course the positive side is that at least I can simply submit to another publication; the article would have to be rewritten to fit a particular style for a magazine but at 3000 words I will find plenty of opportunities to submit my short story. 

Finally, I have to remember that all the great writers have been rejected early on in their writing careers.  The great Iain M Banks was rejected a handful of times before finding success – in fact there is an idea he discussed in an interview that you have to write a million words of rubbish before being successful.  So I may have a while to go!

Does “copying and pasting” a word a million times count?

Christmas Dr Who, Elysium & The Mars Trilogy

It has been a while since my last blog, but with the changing of my job, Christmas, training for a marathon and spending time with my wife and baby boy, writing has taken a back seat.  But with the new job being a lot closer to home, with less commuting and less hours I expect to be back writing.

I’m still ploughing through the Mars Trilogy, which is very epic in scope and ideas, however it is very long winded and technical in places.  The writing though is nothing short of brilliant and as I type this I am only 200 pages from the end of the third book.  I believe I am in the process of a very rewarding experience – but it is definitely not a trilogy to read when tired with a new born in the house!

The wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas Dr Who and the last appearance of Matt Smith as the iconic character.  Although, I still feel David Tennants’ regeneration was done better due to being very emotional in places.  It seemed a little rushed at the end but the build up was very good and the way they dealt with him reaching his maximum number of regenerations was everything I wanted it to be, although I still don’t think they should have counted David’s hand becoming a copy of him as a regeneration! 

The actual episode did occasionally go into Christmas story territory, which they seem to do too much for my liking.  I appreciated its on at Christmas, but does The Doctor always have to have a Christmas adventure?  The highlight though was undoubtedly the aging of Matt Smith as he protected the planet he knew he would die on, over hundreds of years.  I don’t know if it was intentional but he seemed to look a lot like William Hartnell when he had aged.

Ultimately Matt Smith will go down as one of the very best actors to play the part.  He brought a lot of energy and slapstick comedy, whilst appearing to be a very wise man in a young mans body.  But as I have said in the past, I am very much looking forward to Peter Capaldi who from the few seconds at the end appears to be going old school on the part and channelling the doctors of old.

On my birthday we also watched Elysium, the Matt Damon staring movie.  It is set in a future where Earth is ravaged by war, where society is divided into two classes – the rich who live in a huge habitat orbiting Earth and the lower working class who live in an Earth where petty crime is rife and medical care is near none existent.  Matt Damon has a terrible accident leaving him with days to live and has cyborg parts attached to him to do a job for a local gangster and he has one goal, get on to Elysium (the name of the habitat). 

When this was initially released, I wasn’t sure, mainly due to a strange dislike for Matt Damon in any kind of action movie (well the Bourne movies) and also due to the mocking of him in Team America! But I have to say I very much enjoyed it.  There was some kind of irony that the habitat looked like a smaller version of the orbitals from Iain M Banks culture novels, a series of books whereby the culture live in a Utopian existence, and nobody is poor, yet in Elysium, the majority of Humans are poor and in need of help and the privileged minority live in luxury.  The very liberal Iain M Banks would have probably found similarities in todays society if he had seen this movie!.