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!.  

Dr Who 50th anniversary thoughts - contains some spoilers

With an explosion of greatest hits for the new era, but with enough homage to the classic era to keep long term fans happy, the 50^th anniversary special of Dr Who launched onto our screens.  The show was a big part of my childhood and even in adulthood it is as important in my life as it was back then with its ability to inspire, entertain and teach us all about morality, whilst never getting boring due to an unlimited scope for adventures in time and space and a lead character who can change his appearance as a way to beat death.

Since the show was brought back in 2005 there have been references to the time war, a huge war encompassing the whole of time and space between the Time Lords and the Daleks.  The Doctor was dealing with the genocide he brought on his own people and the Daleks to save the whole of the Universe.   He killed to save countless more.  Through the years since 2005 we have been fed little tidbits to put together piece by piece, always wondering at the grandeur of that immense war.  Would we get to see it?  I had often thought we would see a spin off movie of the time war done as a prequel, designed more for the American audience with huge special effects and either a returning Paul McGann or even Christopher Eccleston. 

But we did get a returning McGann for the 50^th anniversary special for the small teaser mini episode that showed McGann regenerating into John Hurt and the reasons behind it.   This was a very exciting moment, but also reminded me that McGann never got a fair crack at the whip in regards Dr Who.

The Main 50^th anniversary episode was a superb culmination to the Time War story ark, but also carried it on with a poignant ending of hope and a whole new and exciting story ark.   A friend said they were disappointed because it wasn't a one off adventure but another part to a continuing story and though I see her point, I was happy with this and in fact it is probably the one part of the new Dr Who that I prefer to the classic era; long term plot-lines and story arks.  This one even explained a particular ending to an episode from 2007.

With three doctors, including David Tennant coming back for another stab at the part that he always seemed tailor made for, and Legendary actor John Hurt playing a previous unknown Doctor who fought in the Time War joining Matt Smith, this harked back to the anniversary episodes of the classic era by having more than one Doctor.  With even Billie Piper returning as Rose – well sort of.  She was immensely popular as a companion in the first two series since the comeback; however I found the romance angle a little wrong for the show and always preferred Catherine Tate as Donna, who was simply a friend to the Doctor.

Clearly from the scenes together, Matt and David had a lot of fun working together and playing a kind of one-upmanship with each other, especially with the Zygon/Queen Elizabeth scenes.  Bring in a more serious, grownup, but still dry, John Hurt to counter the almost childish antics of the other two and we had some great moments on screen.  In fact, as with Paul McGann it seems almost a shame we probably won’t get to see more of John Hurt in the part.  His was a very dark doctor, a warrior to end the biggest war in the history of the universe. 

Surprises were plentiful and it was a credit to the makers that in the days of the Internet, nothing major really leaked.  We were treated to a great pay off with all doctors helping to save the day, including a nice teasing debut for Peter Capaldi.  This in itself was enough in some ways, but then they moved the dial up to 11 with Tom Baker as ‘The Curator’.  Was he a later version of the Doctor, having reached the end of his life, choosing to travel through his past in his favorite body, guiding previous incarnations like a Mafia consigliere?  This was hinted at when Matt Smith said he would love to be a Curator.  The Final scene with William Hartnell looking on at all the doctors was also a touching moment that brings shivers to me even as I write this.

Of course this was not a perfect episode as nothing is perfect.  It would have been nice if Christopher Eccleston hadn't seemed to want so desperately not to be connected to the show and just agreed to a minute or two broadcasting time by showing the complete regeneration of John  Hurt into his doctor with a simple proclamation that he had been “fantastic!”  This though is a very minute issue and at least Eccleston is honest about his time on the show, he could have gone through the motions, making enough money to be made for life, then left, but he didn't want to do that.

Of course, the BBC didn't just celebrate the 50^th anniversary with this episode; they threw everything at us, including the kitchen sink.  There were two excellent documentaries, a rebroadcasting of the first ever story (all four episodes), and a very emotional docudrama that showed us how Dr Who was first made, and the first three seasons, following William Hartnell as he went from a minor character actor, type cast in certain rolls, to the biggest TV roll in British television.  It was brilliantly made and actually quite sad at the end when you realize how much Hartnell loved playing the character but the tough schedule simply became too much for him and he was let go.  There were a couple of Turkeys – One Direction, why!?  The top ten countdown for the greatest monsters looked great on paper but was ruined by showing only episodes from 2005 on-wards and even second or first parts only in two part stories.  It would have been better done as a top fifty show over one night.  Or with a different presenter, due to the one they chose, clearly not a fan with his stupid jokes.

With the 50^th anniversary show closing with the start of a new story ark – the doctor trying to find Gallifrey and the knowledge that Matt Smith is stepping down to regenerate into Peter Capalidi, the show will again, reinvent it self whilst keeping the same themes that have served it well over the last 50 years.

Here’s to another 50 years.