This is a (very) short piece of fan fiction for the upcoming online game Shroud of the Avatar. It can have wide appeal as it isn’t strictly fantasy despite the game’s obvious setting. Check out the story and comment below. Also check out the game if you are into MMOs. 
Also posted on the Shroud of the Avatar forums.
Now available as spoken word (free!) at The Caverns.
I recently read that economist Paul Krugman was a fan of science fiction. I can recall him citing Charles Stross when he blogged about Bitcoin but I was unaware that he was a fan of the genre. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but rather I figured that Stross was a fan of Krugman rather than the other way around. It may be mutual fandom, and I’m sure the two are politically aligned.
Continue reading Science fiction is more than just economics
I’ve had quite a long break from creative writing and finally catching up this weekend. Not actually writing but typing up notes and finally released my first short story collection to Smashwords. The last time I wrote creatively was my failed attempt at the NaNoWriMo. Since then I’ve mostly done technical and discursive writing. This post covers my thoughts on the differences in motivation and thought processes between technical and creative writing.
(note: Long read. Actually ended up longer than intended.)
Continue reading Reflections on technical, discursive and creative writing
TL;DR: Telling a reader what to think will just irritate them.
On morality in fantasy and science fiction
This a repost of an article I did that evaluates morality /ethics in science fiction and fantasy. The same lines of argument can be applied to any genre but my knowledge is in SFF. This is the moderately less contentious and shorter version. 😉
Ultimately, you want readers to buy your book (really just a consumer product although I secretly pretend it is a work of art) and it doesn’t matter what their views are as long as they buy your book. Not everyone like it, but hopefully some will love it. Under no circumstances would I ever recommend talking down to the reader, any reader. Soap boxing your political (e.g. moral) beliefs is really a no-no. Make the readers emote but do not irritate them.
In this essay I review the judgement of morality as given by the author from the evidence of their texts. I will state my own preferences and understanding of the texts used, and come to a conclusion that is consistent with my appreciation of said texts.
This is a sci-fi short that is set in a universe I created more than a decade ago. There is an unfinished novel sitting on my hard drive that takes place in the same universe but I’ve never been able to find the motivation to finish it. I think I’ve been trying to run before I can walk. So about a year ago I decide to create some prequel short stories that will explore and fill out the background of my universe. The aim is to self-publish about 5 of them as a compendium.
I wrote this story on paper about a year ago but never typed it up. As part of a drive to get my work published / read I’ve decided to share my work with more people. It is pointless to write stories that are never read. I do try to edit as a type but I’m sure there are a few rough edges to clean up but certainly not the worst thing you’ll read this year.
Enjoy and comment below.
After chatting about FTL and time travel on Twitter I reminded myself about the phrase “Deus Ex Machina” (literally, God from the machine). From Wiki: It is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.
Please, no, don’t do it.
I wrote this short piece for the Shroud of the Avatar (new MMO, see previous post) writing competition, it was mostly rushed so not as polished as it could be. I still like the idea so I may re-write it or edit for use elsewhere. The concept was that the piece had to be about the underworld in the mythical realm in which the game is set.
I was aiming for something dark but not horror or gore. Enjoy!
While I’m writing this blog I figured I’d give a heads up to Shroud of the Avatar. A computer game (hopefully) coming out in late 2014. Created by Richard Garriott and his team at Portalarium. Check it out!
The team ran a successful kickstarter campaign and continue to allow new subscribers to join on their website.
“Journey to the world of Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, a computer role playing game created by Lord British (aka Richard Garriott), creator of the genre defining Ultima series of computer games, Starr Long, director of Ultima Online, and Tracy Hickman, author of the Dragonlance series. It combines rich story, like those of the single player Ultimas, with deep and varied multiplayer experiences, like Ultima Online.”
I love a bit of Conlang! I even wrote about it before on this website (see the other section of my site: Constructed Languages). They are an almost essential part of any sci-fi or fantasy universe. Sometimes they are over done but when done correctly they bring a lot of added atmosphere.
Creating a new language, even a simplified one, is much tougher than I first thought. I experimented with creating one for my first novel but it felt too clumsy and amateurish. At some point I will try again but I think I’ll start from scratch and try to make it more logical!
See this TED talk where John McWhorter discusses Conlangs!
Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na’vi real languages?
48 65 6c 6c 6f 20 57 6f 72 6c 64 !
First post on this new part of my website, think I’ll just keep this first post but edit it… and yes that’s Hex for Hello World. 😉 This part of my website will be a simple blog for tracking my progess / updates for my creative writing efforts. While my first pieces were written at school (which included some fairly sizeable make-believe universes) I would say that my first proper attempt to write prose was about 10 years ago. At school I had to write short creative stories for exam work or under exam conditions, none of those were serious efforts. What I consider to be my first attempt is the novel I started to write 10 years ago, but like many aspiring authors it was never finished.
A novel is only worth writing if it is shared with others. Most of my work never gets further than a couple of friends or family members. I think it would be a regret to go another 10 years and never share my work with a wider group of people. If my work is never professionally published then that’s fine; while it would be nice to be published by one of the big companies, I would be content to self-publish and just have my stories on Smashwords or Amazon. Going to avoid using hashtag yolo… uh… oh wait… [email protected]!..
The first novel was a fantasy novel that covers a boy’s coming of age. Not unique by any means but it was fitting to my place in life at the time. It is perhaps little more than cliched fantasy but I enjoyed writing it and I think the story would appeal to all fantasy readers. That novel is almost complete and one day it will be. 😉 That would be my famous last words. This novel will be explored in a later post.
Before that work is published, or even finished, I intend to complete a newer work. The second novel I worked on is sci-fi and in some ways it is older. The original idea for my sci-fi novel came from an RP game that I created with friends back in high school (around 13 years ago now). I created most of the background setting and was the guardian of all the notes. Eventually I started to turn it into a novel about 8 years ago (roughly). As with my first novel it was never completed, at the moment it is somewhere near the half-way point. However, since then I started to work on a set of prequel stories which I plan to make my first publication. This will be a compendium of roughly 5 short stories set in this sci-fi universe. More to follow!