Bob Lock

Eclectic Sheep That Androids Never Dreamed Of

2012-01-22T17:07:00.004Z

I've quite a few Science Fiction short stories that I've written over a long period of time and thought I would put a few into an e-book and let them loose on the unsuspecting world.
Therefore I present to you - 'Eclectic Sheep That Androids Never Dreamed Of' a collection of sixteen sf shorts of mine, some previously published somewhere, in print or on-line and some never before seen. The collection will cost the VAST amount of 99 cents (about 58p in real money) but you can get it for FREE until 1st February 2012 by putting this magic code - KS67B into the required box when you check out your cart on Smashwords
The book is in a load of different formats, Mobi for Kindle, Epub (Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others) PDF as well as many others.
The stories are a mixed bunch meant to make you laugh and, perhaps, cry. I just hope you do both in the correct place!
BTW, I'd be interested to know if you did upload the book and in what format and if it worked ok or not, oh, and any review would be appreciated :)

SHEEP WANTED!

2012-01-10T11:55:00.004Z

Fairly soon I'll be releasing a collection of some of my science fiction short stories for the Kindle, it will be a free e-book, yep, won't cost a penny, a dime or whatever currency happens to be yours.

I am trying to sort out a cover for this e-book and have decided to give everyone a chance to participate and have something of theirs on it, namely, sheep, hence the title of this blog post:

SHEEP WANTED!

The more disparate in design the better and you haven't got to be an artist to send one in, you haven't even got to be good at drawing, just be enthusiastic! All sorts are needed but all must be drawn by yourselves and not copied and pasted from any source such as clip art etc. To give you an idea, this is the sort of thing I'm hoping for:
I don't know what sort of response I'll get for this but I'm optimistic that I'll get enough for the cover. If I can I might even mention your name in acknowledgements but it will probably be too difficult to link each sheep to each name. There will be no payment for the sheep used as the e-book is free but they will be well fed and shorn when necessary...

This will be advertised on my Facebook page and you can send me your sheep drawing through that using a personal message, if you aren't a Facebook friend of mine, why not?
All sheep should be in jpeg format please. Get drawing!

Merry Christmas 2011 and a Happy New Year 2012

2011-12-24T21:52:00.003Z

Hello everyone who takes the trouble to read my blog, may you all have a lovely Christmas 2011 and a Happy and Healthy New Year 2012. As a little gift here is a link to Steve Upham's Christmas edition of Estronomicon where you'll find a little festive short story of mine called 'The Advent Calendar's Last Window' amongst a load of other creepy and fantastic stories guaranteed to make you wonder or send shivers down your spine. Enjoy!

Estronomicon

2011 Interzone Advent Calender

2011-12-01T10:34:00.003Z

It's December the first and that means the first flap on your advent calendar can be opened and you can enjoy the treat that's nestling inside. If you haven't got a calendar however don't despair as the good people over at Interzone have your treat just waiting to be read. Furthermore, one of those little flaps will contain a story of mine, I don't know what date it will be on so can't let you know in advance, but be aware, it's a little risqué :)

Ray Cluley's story is the opener today and it's a chilly one, wrap up well and go here to read it:

Advent Calendar

Halloween Horror from Screaming Dreams

2011-10-31T15:40:00.003Z

Steve Upham of Screaming Dreams has produced a Halloween edition of his ezine, Estronomicon.

Contributors and their stories are as follows:

A Gathering of Ghouls by Charlotte Bond
The Apple Tree by Johnny Mains
The Man Who Killed Halloween by Mark Howard Jones
Biting Back by John Forth
The Maniacal Grin by Bob Lock
Church Hill by Simon Marshall-Jones
The Fun House by Terry Cooper
Young at Heart by Neil Davies
Looking Glass by Marion Pitman
All These Friends and Lovers by Stuart Young
Mr Pastry by Trevor Denyer
Gravefingers by Jennifer Williams
From Chattterton Hill by Carl Barker
Grandpa's Chair by Paul Kane
Among Flames, Darkness by Frank Duffy
A Footstep Away by Andrew Donegan
The Psalm by Simon Bestwick
Roam's Halloween Lesson by Ian Hunter

The pdf can be downloaded HERE for free and probably Steve will have a page-flipping version available pretty soon too, enjoy!

Review of The Savage Knight

2011-10-27T21:55:00.003Z

Regular readers of my blog will know that now and then I’ll review a book that I’ve read and put in my tuppence-worth (that’s two bits for American readers!) for anyone interested. I tend to review only the books that I’ve enjoyed reading and can recommend. I don’t review books that just didn’t ‘do it for me’ so I’m pleased to say that Paul Lewis’ The Savage Knight (Malory's Knights of Albion) is one of those tales that did ‘do it for me.’

It is said that King Arthur chose a round table around which his knights could congregate because there would be no head of table and therefore his knights, mostly all barons, would not argue over who sat where as no one would be sitting in a higher or lower position to his neighbour. This would have meant nothing to Lewis’ hero however, as Sir Dodinal (the Savage), was no baron but a lowly young peasant who had been taken into the round table’s fraternity when he was discovered exacting bloody revenge on the Saxons that had raided his village and slaughtered his family.

Lewis puts flashbacks to good use to explain Dodinal’s violent and bloody past, his uncontrollable rage, the strange attunement he has with nature and how he has earned his sobriquet ‘The Savage Knight’. These are just some of the reasons why he is the troubled man he is even after many years fighting at Arthur’s side. Now he has decided to leave Camelot and return to his place of birth, Wales, for Dodinal is looking for something but even he does not really know what that is, whether it be a final quest, a need to return to his roots or a honourable death. That something calls him to a little village on the Welsh Marches where he saves a strange young boy from a pack of hungry wolves and sets in motion a series of events that will test even the most bloodthirsty of the Knights of the Round Table.

Published by Abbadon Books The Savage Knight is 284 pages of daring do, chivalry and dark adventure.

Paul Lewis has written hundreds of comedy sketches for UK network TV, including Spitting Image, as well as radio sitcoms and plays. Paul co-edited the Cold Cuts horror anthology and is co-author of the novels The Ragchild and The Quarry, several novellas and numerous short stories including a Doctor Who contribution for BBC Books. Paul works as a journalist and lives with his wife and son in a village near Swansea, Wales.

Excellent review of The Empathy Effect

2011-10-11T09:17:00.003Z

I'm really pleased with this review of The Empathy Effect over at Creatingchildhoodmemories.com by Alena who I think is American (which is a bonus for me as TEE is a story peculiar to and based in Swansea, Wales, so for a non-UK reader to get the feel for the story and the in-jokes is great.) If you want to see the review then follow this link but be aware there are some little spoilers in it but they don't give away too much of the plot.

LINK

They Feed On Flesh - Zombie Stories on Kindle

2011-10-06T09:17:00.005Z

A couple of years ago I entered Nanowrimo the National Novel Writing Month just to see if I could discipline myself to write something under pressure and within a time limit. I surprised myself by actually completing a novel within the allotted time. I called it They Feed On Flesh and it is a series of zombie stories which start with an explanation of how the zombie plague started and the best way to survive it. Then the stories go on to individual accounts of various survivors and how they cope (or not) and finally end up in the far future when the plague begins to spread through the solar system and even through time itself. The original series has been expanded slightly and one of the stories was published in Holiday of the Dead which contains stories by big guns such as John Russo and Tony Burgess. As I've been converting some of my stuff to Kindle format I thought I'd do the same with this novella and so, today, it's gone 'live' <-- play on words :)
It's on Amazon UK and Amazon. Com but on Amazon Com you can 'click to look inside' and read a chapter or two directly on their site, or you can download a sample from either place to your Kindle/phone/PC for free to see whether or not it's worth the couple of quid to download.

Here are the links:

Amazon UK
Amazon Com

Ok, everyone say 'Uuuuunnnngg...' and drag your leg/stumble/crawl/totter your way over and give it a free look!

Short Story

2011-09-26T19:23:00.002Z

Here's a short of mine that was published some time ago but probably hasn't been seen much, hope you enjoy it :)

Dawn’s Kiss

Yet another dawn filters through the bars of our cage and I know that this will either be the last one for me or for my only remaining brother. Once the first rays of the sun warm the chills from our bones the alien will arrive... as she has done for what seems an eternity. She will either choose me or my brother who lies huddled in the furthest corner away from me. His legs are drawn up tight to his body and his head is turned away. He won’t meet my gaze any more and he won’t answer my soft call to him. I fear that what we have gone through has caused him to lose his mind; I can’t blame him as I think I am slowly losing mine. We’ve watched helplessly whilst our friends, our neighbours, our family have been taken one morning at a time and put to her test. Each one has failed and the results of their failure lie in silent testament across the floor outside of our cage. Bodies crushed and battered. When she comes again I will be taking the test... or my brother will. If he is chosen and fails then I will have one day left to live until it is my turn. Then my crushed body will join all the others unless by some twist of fate I am the one she has sought all along and will pass her test. But I doubt it. I do not feel ‘special’ in any way and don’t believe my brother is either. He moves quietly and I look up.
‘Are you awake?’ I ask.
‘I haven’t slept,’ he answers.
‘Neither have I,’ I reply and am shocked that he has responded for he hasn’t spoken to me since our father was chosen and put to the alien’s examination.
‘We shall have sleep soon enough…’ he says and tries to crawl farther into the corner.
‘When she comes this time I think we should try and escape.’
‘Why bother?’ he replies, ‘it didn’t work for any of the others.’
I shrug but he doesn’t see it.
‘Perhaps one of us is the one she is looking for…’ he murmurs softly.
I know he is only trying to keep his morale up but I can’t help but snigger, ‘yes, perhaps…’
‘Do you have a plan?’ He asks. I guess his morale isn’t all that high anyhow.
‘Not really,’ I reply, after all, what plan could possibly work? The alien is much larger and more intelligent than us. But what choice do we have? Should we just sit quietly and await our fate? ‘But we may as well try something... anything.’
‘Ok,’ he sighs, ‘what do you want to do?’
‘The next time she opens the cage I think we should both rush her. You jump high and I’ll go low. She’ll have to go for one of us and perhaps the other will have a chance, a slight chance I’ll admit, but…’
‘…it’s better than nothing…’ He finishes my sentence for me.

***

A ray of sunlight creeps across my leg and its warmth begins to soak into my flesh, blood and bones. I stretch and flex my limbs. They are still stiff from the cold night but I know I need to be ready and so does he.
‘Get up and move around. You’ll never get past her if you are all stiffened up. You’ve been stuck in that corner for I don’t know how long.’
He does and I’m surprised by how thin he has become. I wonder if I look the same. Silently we stretch and shake ourselves in an attempt to become more mobile, but we might have left it too late. A sound from outside freezes us on the spot. She is coming. The warming rays of the sun are blotted out by a vast shadow whilst our cage vibrates to her footsteps as she approaches. My brother whimpers quietly.
‘Be ready!’ I whisper hoarsely and he nods as the cage is opened and a giant hand reaches in.
‘Now!’ I croak and my brother leaps high whilst I scrabble beneath her grasp and almost get out.
‘Oh no you don’t!’ The alien says and sweeps me back into a corner with a careless flick of one hand as she grabs my brother with her other. He looks down at me in fear and resignation as she raises him to her cruel lips.

***

I’m alone now. She has gone. My brother’s small body lies pitifully discarded amongst the others outside my cage. Another crushed corpse. Another failure. Tomorrow she will come for me. Tomorrow I will be put to trial. However, if by some chance I do pass the alien’s test, if I do transform into this ‘prince’ creature she is searching for then I will exact a dreadful revenge upon her. I will seek retribution for all the lost friends, lost family, lost neighbours, every last one of us that she has ripped from our pond…

Gary and Beckie's Wedding

2011-08-18T17:02:00.002Z

Haven't updated my blog lately, been a bit busy doing other things. One of those other things was my nephew, Gary's wedding to his school sweetheart, Beckie. It was a lovely wedding and the two are very well matched (as you can easily tell from the photos) Congrats to you both :)

I'm a guest over at Steve Lockley's Blog

2011-06-22T08:52:00.004Z

Steve Lockley the famous Welsh writer/editor and the first person to accept a story of mine and publish it (yes, he's the one to blame) has had guest bloggers over on his site during the month of June and will continue to do so into July. Today, 22nd June he scraped the bottom of his apple barrel and instead of finding Jim Hawkins hiding there came up with me. So, if you want to find out what makes me tick them pop over to here and find out: Steve Lockley

N.B. He's got a fresh barrel of apples now so don't worry :)

Flames of Herakleitos on Kindle

2011-06-07T19:31:00.002Z

For all you techie-types, 'Flames of Herakleitos, my first novel, a dark fantasy set on our world and a parallel world ruled by mages and their golems can now be downloaded to your Kindle. I've tried it on my Android phone too and it works pretty well. The first few chapters are free to download and try, Go here: KINDLE VERSION

My Desert Island Discs

2011-06-01T16:14:00.004Z

I was on the TTA Forum and one of the contributors there, Mike Alexander mentioned that The Beeb were asking people for their eight Desert Island Discs and he had uploaded his and had also put them on his blog. I thought it was a great idea and so did the same. Here are my eight and some of the reasons behind their choices.

1/

Rondine al nido is about a little swallow that returns every year
at almond blossom time, but Pavarotti sings that his loved one
has left and never crosses the seas or mountains, like the little swallow -

Mia piccina, fosti tutta la mia vita;
My little one, you were all my life

Sei fuggita e non torni piú.
You have fled and return no more.

This is a beautiful song that tears at my heart when I listen to it
but a song that I would gladly take with me all the same.
Like Juliana, my daughter, Pavarotti died of pancreatic cancer too.

These others are in no particular order:

2/

Springsteen the poet, I particularly like the lines:

Beyond the palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard
The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist
I wanna die with you Wendy on the streets tonight
In an everlasting kiss

He is The Boss :)

3/

Bridge over troubled water - Anna and I played this album non-stop when we were courting all those years ago. Simon and Garfunkel, masters.

4/

This is I Pooh an Italian group which we fell in love with when we lived in Italy.
This group started in 1966 and I think they are still together, making them one of the longest lasting pop groups ever.

5/

Nils Lofgren's Black Books. I've always liked Lofgren, especially Shine Silently but when I heard this on an episode of The Sopranos I was blown away. Another poet like Springsteen and his guitar solo on the end of this is superb If ever I aspired to playing a guitar it would have to be as good as this or it just wouldn't be worth bothering. Marvelous playing, bloody marvelous!

6/

Okay, this could be cheating a little but I can't pick just one piece of music from Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds although Forever Autumn is certainly a favourite. This album witnessed the growing up of our children and was something we'd settle down to listen to with the lights out and the curtains drawn whilst outside it blew a gale. Juliana my daughter took me to see it performed live in Cardiff for my 60th birthday even though she was so very ill.

7/

Emerson Lake and Palmer's Lucky Man was mind-blowing, great lyrics, fabulous tune, excellent guitar, fantastic drums and 3.23 minutes in the first Moog solo ever recorded and I remember thinking 'what the hell is that!' when I first heard it and the sound of it buzzing from left to right speaker!

8/

It was hard to find this particular recording of Shenadoah (Across the wide Missouri) by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir but find it I did and it is well worth a listen. There are other arrangements but this full orchestra/choir version I think is outstanding. I am not particularly religious-minded and I'm not a Mormon but you've got to hand it to them, they can certainly sing. BTW, I have no idea who the people in the video are but I'd like to thank them for uploading that version of Shenandoah to Youtube and wish them my best, they seem a nice American family.

Finally I think you are allowed one luxury item to take with you on a desert island. Hmm... I think I'd like to take my trusty metal-detector (solar-rechargeable) so that I can spend my days looking for Captain Flint's buried treasure :)

What are your Desert Island Discs?

Hay-on-Wye Festival

2011-05-31T19:13:00.002Z

Took a run up to Hay-on-Wye today for a wander around the town and the festival. Was pleasantly surprised by the great organisation of the event. I thought there'd be queues and bottle-necks, especially with the traffic but found a £3 parking spot in a field right next to the show and it only took me two minutes to walk to the entrance. Most of the show is under cover and has raised walkways but the central area which was grass was dry and when meeting up with my sister Sue, brother-in-law Tony and niece Holly we were able to sit on the grass for our picnic lunch. Then it was time to spot the celebs. First up was The Princess of Wales, Camilla (who I nearly walked into until I was politely ushered to one side by a body-guard). Next was Susannah Reid the newsreader who was having a quiet coffee with her three young boys, I was tempted to ask for an autograph but didn't want to bother her (and look a nerd) :) Then I spotted Maureen Lipman who saw me taking her photo and from the look on her face must have thought I was a stalker...
But the highlight of the day was when we were browsing through some books in the festival my sister found a copy of 'The Empathy Effect'! Now how weird is that! But weirder than that was when she started waving it around and shouting for me to sign it and the puzzled looks that the people around us gave her...
Finally we had a stroll around the town and visited some of the fine bookshops there, the castle bookshop is a magnificent old structure (much like myself) but I couldn't find anything that tempted me. A great day out, go if you can, it's on until Sunday 5th June.

Hay Festival

Abercrombie's The Heroes

2011-05-25T21:09:00.002Z

The Heroes Video

If you are watching GRR Martin’s A Song Of Fire And Ice and enjoying your foray into the world of fantasy then you’ll need to get your chain-mailed arse down to your nearest bookshop and get Joe Abercrombie’s ‘The Heroes’ as it is a cracking good read. Yep, I’m blogging about someone else’s work again and not my own, but it is such good work I need to spread the word around so others can enjoy it as much as I have. Some time ago I was lucky enough to have Joe answer five questions on my blog, something he did which much aplomb, even though the questions were way... way... way... outside the norm he didn’t flinch and answered them in good spirit. Much like some of his characters in ‘The Heroes’

When I bought the book I imagined it was his main protagonists that The Heroes referred to but I was wrong. The Heroes is a group of standing stones atop a hill under which there is the suggestion that great men are buried. Much like Hamburger Hill in Vietnam this particular hill with its eerie set of standing stones, which I imagine in my mind’s eye to be similar to Stonehenge, is occupied by a party of men fighting for The Union, one side in a war that started in his previous books, The First Law Trilogy. Trying to take this hill and its standing stones is Curnden Craw and his crew who are fighting for Black Dow who has proclaimed himself King of the North the other side in this conflict. Against a background of bloody battles fought by men who are lead by incompetent leaders, who have no thought to the cost in lives that taking and maintaining this hill and its surrounds will demand, more than a couple of times I was reminded of the catastrophic leadership in World War One and the terrible losses incurred.

The Heroes is a fast-paced novel that you’ll have to wear running shoes to keep up with, you’ll have to wear eye-protectors because of its gritty and bloody fight scenes and you’ll have to have loads of coffee at your bedside because, if you read in bed like I do then, you won’t want to put it down and sleep.

I just wish I could write half as well as this, and then I’d be pretty happy...

Review of Mira Grant's 'Feed'

2011-05-11T20:25:00.000Z

Regular visitors to my site will know that now and then I’ll blog about a book, magazine or author that I’ve read and enjoyed. Some of those in the past have been people like, Neal Asher, Joe Abercrombie, Interzone, and Black Static etc. Now I have another book to recommend, it’s ‘Feed’ by Mira Grant and is basically a ‘zombie book’ but an interesting one and, as I’ve been writing a few zombie stories myself (I’m in the new zombie anthology Holiday of the Dead, with the great John Russo, co-writer of Night of The Living Dead) quite appropriate.
Feed is set around the year 2040 where everyone will ultimately become a zombie when they die, whether you’ve been bitten or not the virus is in your body and will mutate you upon your death and you will re-animate. This has to be the best and most convincing way to explain how zombies can exist that I’ve read so far. In 2014 two cures were found. The first was a cure for cancer; the second was for the common cold. However the combination of the two cures succeeded in making the human body hard to kill, in fact it resurrected it after death and gave it the urge to... feed.

The other thing I enjoyed in the book was the way blogging has become the top-of-the-food-chain method of reporting the news and the two heroes in the book, brother and sister, Shaun and Georgia are at the pinnacle of that food chain, but whilst reporting on an up-and-coming senator who is hoping to be the new president of the USA they unknowingly put themselves in harm’s way upon discovering the truth about the zombie outbreak. One little quibble I have though is that the bad guy in the story is easily discovered, but... this could be a trick on the author’s part as Feed is just the first book in a trilogy and I’m sure there are certainly more villains to be discovered.

The Hub's Review of The Empathy Effect

2011-04-18T18:52:00.004Z

This has to be the best and most indepth review of 'The Empathy Effect' I have seen upto date.
The Hub is a reputable ezine that has been around since December 2006, comes out weekly and can be sent to your in-box for free if you sign up, something well worth doing. It has been backed by Orbit, HarperCollins and The Arts Council England so has a great pedigree.
The reviewer is Keith Harvey, an American writer and my thanks go to him for the time and effort he put into the review :)

The review is in PDF format and can be read here: The Empathy Effect Review

The Big Man

2011-04-07T22:54:00.003Z

I've been reading a lot of Lee Child books lately and enjoyed the Reacher character immensely, so much so I messed around with an opening of a story which involved a larger-than-life character just to see how it would pan out. Here's the opening scene, does he intimidate you? Hehe :)

THE BIG MAN

The big man’s eyes flickered across the top shelf of the well-stocked bar and he raised an eyebrow when he spotted a favourite label.

‘Two doubles of Chivas Regal, please,’ he said nodding towards the furthermost bottle. The bartender, a tall youngster – who seemed barely old enough to enter licensed premises let alone serve behind bar– poured two glasses and set them down on the mahogany bar top.

‘Water with those, sir?’

The man frowned. ‘You’re new to bar-tending I guess?’ His voice sounded like gravel being rolled around in a bucket.

‘Sorry, sir?’ The bartender replied, his face flushing slightly.

‘Son, either you’ve got no idea what you’re doing or you just want to piss me off and I’ve been pissed off enough today by your local hospital. You don’t water-down twelve-year-old whisky,’ the big man said angrily and then downed one of the glasses. He exhaled slowly and his eyes closed in pleasure. ‘Give me another double.’

The bartender looked flustered then replied, ‘you still have that one, sir.’

The man sighed, ‘that’s Tom Morgan’s.’

‘Tom Morgan’s?’ The bartender asked and then, ‘but Tom’s in hospital. Another car accident, I heard.’

The big man nodded, ‘I know where he is,’ then his eyes narrowed, ‘another car accident? His wife said she was worried about him but she didn’t mention any previous accident. What happened?’

The bartender poured another double as he answered. ‘Tom was on the way back from the Colonel’s when a truck nearly ran him off the road. That was a couple of days ago.’

‘And he crashes his car today and ends up in a coma in your pitiful excuse for a hospital.’

The bartender looked around nervously. ‘It’s the only hospital for thirty miles, sir. If it wasn’t for the Colonel we wouldn’t even have that one.’

‘The Colonel? Who the hell is this Colonel? I seem to hear him mentioned quite a lot around these parts,’ the big man asked and this time he took a slow, savouring sip from the refilled glass.

The bartender swallowed noisily, glanced around again at the other patrons and said quietly, ‘he owns most of the town. A lot of the surrounding ranches and land, oh... and of course, the private hospital.’

‘Figures, Tom’s wife said ‘someone’ connected was trying to bully him into selling up his place. Now he’s locked up tight in what looks like that ‘someone’s’ private hospital. Seems a little too neat to get almost driven off the road and then a few days later crash your car due to a mysterious brake failure,’ the big man said then finished his drink. One of his huge, scarred hands rubbed the stubbly bristles on his square chin and he said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, ‘perhaps I’d better give this Colonel a visit, see if there’s any fresh brake fluid on his drive...’

Sings - 'We're all going on a zombie holiday'

2011-03-28T18:49:00.003Z

Wild Wolf Publishing is releasing a whopping 600 page Zombie Anthology in June 2011 based on a zombie holiday theme and I pleased to say one of my short stories is in it. My effort is called 'The Zombie Whisperer' and the title says it all. There will be about 38 stories in all from various authors and I'm in some pretty good company here. For example:

A special short story by Night of the Living Dead co-writer, John Russo
‘The Walk-In’An exclusive excerpt from the screenplay for the forthcoming film sequel to Pontypool written by Tony Burgess

So keep your eyes open for 'Wish You Were Undead!' stumbling and groaning its way to your local bookshop in June!

Orbus Review

2011-03-26T08:42:00.003Z

Browsing Neal Asher’s blog I noticed a review he’d posted of his novel Orbus and remembered I had also done a review when it was first published but never posted it on my blog, so here it is.

Ok, get the following ingredients: someone who’s been an engineer, a barman, a skip lorry driver, a coalman, a boat window manufacturer, a contract grass cutter and a builder, then mix them all together and you should have... Neal Asher, science fiction novelist.
I gave it a try and all I ended up with was this horrible slurry of blood, flesh and bones, I must be doing it wrong...

Review of Orbus by Neal Asher

Centuries old, Captain Orbus, infected with the Spatterjay virus which virtually makes him immortal, has taken a position onboard The Gurnard, a cargo vessel which is hoping to trade its wares in a part of the universe called The Graveyard. This is basically a no-man’s land (or no-crustacean’s land) where neither The Polity nor The Prador (huge, nasty crab-like creatures with a tendency to rip off human heads and limbs and eat them first before asking any questions or even being introduced to their next meal) have control and only entrepreneurs with the nerve and fire-power to keep themselves alive and safe rule. Orbus is trying to escape a violent and sadistic past and hoping to forget his penchant for torturing and causing suffering to almost anyone he comes into contact with. Traversing space with Orbus is an old shipmate of his called Drooble, who is himself another virus-infected individual or, Hooper, as they are known and his tastes have more of a masochistic flavour in that he actually enjoys being tortured by his old captain. Add to this strange pair, the Polity war drone Sniper and his faithful sidekick Thirteen (a sub-mind of the previous Spatterjay Warden A.I. that’s shaped like an iron seahorse with topaz eyes) who are stowaways on The Gurnard and you have The Four Musketeers From Hell and they certainly need to be as once in The Graveyard things escalate from just trading wares to fighting for their lives against a rapidly mutating Prador Vrell, an angry Prador King and his entourage, the Golgoloth (a monster that even the Prador are frightened of) and finally something that has laid dormant in the Spatterjay virus for five million years just waiting for the opportune moment to return. And guess what?
That moment has just arrived...
This is one of those books that you’ll want to read in one sitting and once finished you’ll clamour for more. Neal Asher at his bloodiest and best. Get it!

Am now reading The Technician by Neal and am just a few pages in but it looks promising

Thank you, everyone.

2011-03-18T21:38:00.003Z

And so, yesterday, Anna my wife, Gareth my son-in-law and I said a final goodbye to Juliana amongst over three hundred and fifty (perhaps more) family members, friends and old colleagues who attended her funeral... who attended the celebration of her life.
The service at Lifepoint Church in Swansea was filled to capacity and the Pastors, Mike and Mick and the congregation were matchless and, for a person such as I who cannot claim to be profoundly religious, I have to say I was genuinely moved by their generosity of heart and their deep sense of family spirit.
The day passed for Anna and me as if we were floating through a dream and although I looked over the crowd of people from my viewpoint on the rostrum when I gave the eulogy I have to admit that I cannot say that the faces which looked up at me registered. I know I missed thanking many of you for attending and I apologise deeply for that. I also missed many who didn't go to the church but attended the crematorium, which again was full to capacity and had people overflowing into the foyer and to the outside. Once again I apologise for not thanking you personally. Between our house, Gareth's, my mother's house, my son Steven's and Rob and Wendy's we have had hundreds of condolences cards, I've had numerous phone calls, emails, Facebook comments and postings on my blog, and yet again I thank you all deeply from the bottom of our hearts for the love and comfort you have shown us.

Funeral Details

2011-03-10T22:11:00.004Z

We have the details of the funeral arrangements of our beloved daughter, Juliana who passed away 4th March 2011. There will be a celebration of her life in the church she became a member of and embraced when she married her husband, Gareth.

The church is The Lifepoint Centre, Ffynone Road, Uplands, Swansea, SA1 6BT - MAP

The church service will start at 10.30am Thursday 17th March 2011 and then onto Morriston Crematorium for a short service at 12.30pm.

There will be refreshments back at The Lifepoint Centre after. As per Juliana's wishes there will be a bouncy castle for the children in either the garden or, should the weather be inclement, arrangements will be made to have it inside.

Family flowers only but, should you wish to, donations to Ty Olwen Hospice, Morriston would be appreciated. St.James Funeral Home are available to receive donations and will forward them onwards.

Anna, my wife, and I wish to thank all who have sent their condolences and comforting words on this blog, on Facebook, by email, by card, by telegram, by phone and in person. You are too many to thank individually but please be aware that we appreciate your kind words and they have helped sustain us through this terrible time.

Juliana Elizabeth Cartwright nee Lock R.I.P.

2011-03-05T23:39:00.003Z

I sit at my keyboard tonight writing the most horrific thing I have ever and will ever write. Last night 4^th March 2011 at about twelve midnight our darling daughter Juliana died. She was thirty nine. Too young to die, too young to have suffered as she did and undeserving of such a terrible death. Ju was such a stoic and stalwart person and she fought her pancreatic cancer with such ferocity that she turned the months that she was given into more than three years. You may wonder why I would write this, I do it to celebrate her life and her courage and to give courage to those who are walking along the same path that she did. Some people say that you cannot battle against cancer, this may or may not be true but I can only speak from what I witnessed our dear girl manage to do and, damn did she fight it. Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to win that battle over as when symptoms begin to appear the cancer has taken such a hold that it is very difficult to contain, add to that the fact that the pancreas is not an easy organ to get to.

Ju noticed a swelling on her right side of abdomen late in 2005 but thought nothing of it until the summer of 2006 and when having it checked out was told that it was a benign serous cyst, the diagnosis was shortly changed to a solid-pseudopapillary tumour, again benign and medical opinion was to leave it alone as the operation to remove it was a major one. However as time passed and Juliana fell pregnant with her third child, Raphael (Raffy) in 2007 she started to have major problems, jaundice, weight loss, pain. She was advised to abort the foetus but that was an impossible thing to ask of our daughter and although she was in extreme pain through blocked vessels leading from the pancreas/spleen/gall bladder, was actually losing weight through the pregnancy and not putting weight on, she went to almost full term until she finally had to have a caesarean as there was risk of both her and the baby dying. Raffy was born safe and sound 14^th December 2007 and is the loveliest of grandson. Juliana got worse and finally a decision was made for her to go in for surgery, two months after the caesarean, on St.Valentine’s Day 2008. The procedure is called The Whipple Procedure and took approximately eight hours and entailed removing the benign tumour. However, upon removal, the surgeon discovered a malignant tumour that had been hidden by the cyst (a number of biopsies had been done and all came back as benign) and upon identifying it was distraught to realise that the malignant tumour was also present. He removed as much of it as possible as some of it was around the portal vein, an almost octopus-like vein which carries blood to the liver from the digestive system. It was too delicate and too intricate a place to remove the entire tumour and some had to remain. She also had to have a vein taken from her arm and grafted to where one was too badly damaged. He also removed some lymph glands from the area as a precaution. Then she underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiotherapy on the area and the outlook was fairly optimistic. Her children were enthralled with the 44 staples she had across her belly that looked almost like a zipper, but she was sad she couldn’t wear a bikini anymore.

Recovery from the operation was hard as she had already depleted her reserves of energy by the pregnancy and caesarean, also add to that the fact she caught C.difficile whilst in hospital. But the worse news was twelve days later when pro-op biopsies showed there were signs of the cancer in adjoining lymph glands. However she continued with the chemo and radiotherapy and looked into changing her diet, less red meat, no sugar at all (cancer loves sugar) lots of fruit and veg (a lot juiced) tried to change her PH from acid to alkaline as cancer prefers an acidic environment, she also tried to get more oxygen into her system as cancer progresses quicker when oxygen is lacking. She started to put weight back on and feel a lot better and we were all so excited by the prospects of a remission or at least some extra time for her to raise her three children and spend time with her loving husband, Gareth.

But just before going on a holiday to Menorca with the family in May 2010 she had results back from a check-up that showed tumours in the lungs and elsewhere, the news was devastating but she still went and gave the kids a great time but was experiencing the beginnings of the pain that would stalk her until the end. Gradually she began to lose the weight she had fought so hard to win back and was told it was due to ‘cancer cachexia’ which is a wasting disease that end-stage cancer patients tend to suffer from. From what we investigated (we were both trawling the internet in the hope of finding something that would help) we found that it stops the body absorbing the fats and goodness needed to put weight on and actually takes from the fat and muscle stored in the body. We understood that the cancer more or less extracts the glucose from the tissue and leaves a by-product of lactic acid, the liver converts the lactic acid back into glucose and the cancer extracts it again, a vicious circle that cannot be broken, we tried supplements and changed her diet to include foods which would help her with energy reserves but she continued to lose weight and stabilized at 7 stone, however she was now a shadow of herself, bodily but not mentally, she would still thrash me in online games such as Warcraft etc (hi guildies!) and even in her last days beat me to a pulp in Scrabble. But the time came when however hard she fought to contain the disease the disease fought harder. But that did not deter our lovely girl. Even in horrendous pain she booked a holiday to Barbados just this last January 2011 for herself, her husband Gareth, Anna my wife and her Mum, Joseph her eldest son, Summer, her daughter and Raffy her youngest son. I didn’t go because, forgive me Ju, I have an extreme fear of flying and didn’t have the nerve to go. Upon return to the UK Juliana deteriorated and was taken into Ty Olwen Hospice to help with her medication and pain relief. She told me she was frightened that this time she would not be leaving; I said she was being silly, but she was right, as usual, and after two weeks of escalating pain and the subsequent pain relief medication to alleviate it she was sedated to help cope. Last night Anna, Gareth and I sat by her bedside as she slept and held her hands and told her to let go, she had fought long and hard and was continuing to fight with such a determination that I feel ashamed that I can be so scared to go on such a simple thing as a holiday whilst she battled against a foe that is the cruelest imaginable. Finally, in her sleep and without fear she breathed her last and left a void in our lives that all the words that have been written or could ever be written would never fill. Sleep peacefully now our darling Juliana; you deserve it, and much much more.

Love, Dad and Mam

I’d like to thank the staff of Ty Olwen for their love and kindness they showed to our daughter. I’d like to tell anyone that reads this and is a sufferer too that things are not just black and white, there are shades of grey. Research what afflicts you and try making your body an environment that cancer does not enjoy inhabiting. Juliana found out late but what she did to fight it I am sure extended her time and she used that precious time to give her love to her children and husband.

I am no cancer expert, I am no doctor, I am no expert at anything; I’m just a Dad praising his beloved daughter.

Asher Antique?

2011-02-12T13:39:00.005Z

Clearing out my computer room today I came across an old Third Alternative magazine (now Interzone/Black Static/Crimewave) from winter 94/95 with fiction by Mike O'Driscoll - Rick Cadger - Mark McLaughlin - Wayne Edward - PJL Hinder - Julie Travis - Tim Lebbon and a guy named Neal Asher. I asked Neal if this was his first publication as I knew he started off in the mid 90s and in an email back to me he said:

I think it was my second or third publication. My very first was in Back Brain Recluse in 1989 – a short story called ‘Another England’

Neal's story in this is entitled Cavefish and is perhaps more horror than sf but you can see the beginnings of his love of strange aquatic creatures starting to flower.

Oops forgot to mention artwork by Dave Mooring and poetry by Joel Lane - Andrew Jordan - Peter Crowther and AC Evans

Guest Blogger - Steve Lockley

2011-02-03T10:59:00.005Z

Well I promised you a guest blogger and here he is, safely esconced in my green leather wing-backed chair with a cup of tea and a plate of jammy-dodgers on a small table at his side. I've spent all morning cleaning the place and turning the heating up as I mistakenly thought he was doing the blogging naked but now realise I was thinking about Angelina Jolie who is my next guest...

So, without more ado and fantasy imaginings (not about him naked...) I introduce you to Steve Lockley, a most repected writer of dark fiction and the man responsible for publishing my first short story and setting me off on the writing road.

Hi, Steve :)

Hmm don’t know where Bob got the idea that I would be blogging naked, or even that he needed to tidy up.

I’ve known Bob since Paul Lewis and I edited the first in the Cold Cuts series of horror anthologies back in 1993 and I accepted his story ‘The Leaf in the Stone’.

The idea of those anthologies would be to promote some of the horror writers based in South Wales that were just starting to emerge. This seems like a good time and place to look at who has survived from those days and is still carving out a career as a writer.

It has taken far too long for Bob to start to break through, but in the last couple of years he’s seen a couple of books out from Screaming Dreams and his work is reaching a wider audience at last.

I’ve worked on a number of projects with Paul Lewis since that first anthology including the novels The Ragchild and The Quarry along with a handful of short stories many of which are due to be pulled together in a collection from Gray Friar Press. His first solo novel, his Arthurian tale The Savage Knight is due out in September.

Rhys Hughes seems to have so many books coming to fruition that it’s hard to keep up with him. Rhys ploughs his own furrow which rises above the commonplace if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphor and produces work that never ceases to challenge as well as entertain.

Neither Gary Greenwood nor Mike O'Driscoll is anywhere near as prolific as they should be but their work regularly appears in the most enviable places. While others like Brian Willis who edited the award winning anthology Hideous Progeny are far too quiet.

TV and film writer Steve Volk has been getting the recognition for his short fiction which has been long overdue while Tim Lebbon has the Midas touch at the moment. A new novel or TV/film deal seems to be announced every few months. He’s worked hard for it and his success is much deserved

Publishers have come and gone. Razorblade Press is no more, and Sarob Press has relocated to France, but the aforementioned Screaming Dreams along with Pendragon Press and Mortbury Press all based in Wales publish some of the best Horror and Science Fiction around.

And me? In addition to the stuff I’ve done with Paul Lewis, I’ve returned to writing short stories on my own, finding a freedom that I had lost for a while. There’s also a new series of supernatural mysteries featuring forensic investigator Sally Reardon that I’m working on with Steven Savile which has been gaining a certain amount of attention. The latest, ‘Missing’ is only being published electronically, so all you good folks who’ve had a Kindle or similar device for Christmas could do worse than get hold of it. That’s after you’ve bought a copy of The Empathy Effect of course.

http://stevelockley.blogspot.com/

Watch this space for guest blogger!

2011-01-28T10:17:00.003Z

This will be a first for me and my blog as at the beginning of February I'll be hosting a guest blogger. I've hoovered around the place and dusted, will have tea and biscuits ready for him and a comfy chair. Don't know exactly what he's going to blog about but he's a writer and has hinted he's going to blog naked... watch this space!

Another review of The Empathy Effect

2011-01-07T17:17:00.004Z

This review is by Terry Grimwood of Exaggeratedpress and I'm so pleased to say it is yet another favourable one, some of what he says:

There is a hint of Michael Dibdin’s Dirty Tricks here, and a distinct nod towards Leslie Thomas’s Dangerous Davies. But Cooper Jones most definitely Bob Lock’s own excellent creation. It is a bright, satisfying meld of thriller and comedy. Cooper is amiably disreputable and hapless. I can see this working as a one-off television film, the pace and plot construction lends itself beautifully to the visual medium.

Woot! now I've not only been mentioned in the same sentence as Dean Koontz but Michael Dibdin and Leslie Thomas as well! COOL! He goes on to say:

The Empathy Effect then, great , brooding cover art, a neat twist-and-turn plot, murders, psychopaths, nasty abductions, edge of the seat cliff-hangers and compelling characters , what else could you possibly need?

Full review can be found here: REVIEW

200th Post and the first of 2011

2011-01-01T22:53:00.002Z

Well 2010 has been and gone and I can't say I'm sorry to see it go. It wasn't a very happy year, especially the last of it. However, 2011 has arrived bearing glad tidings and I hope it is an omen of good things to come.
Two reviews of my work have made me extremely happy, the first is in Grim Reviews and it picks Null Immortalis as being in its top three supernatural books of 2010 and says of my story:

Bob Lock's "Haven't You Ever Wondered?" stars D.F. Lewis himself and Null Immortalis as meta-fictional constructs threatened by inter-dimensional interlopers. This is an inspired and unusual sci-fi story that is especially pleasing to longtime Nemonymous devotees.

Full review here>
http://grimreviews.blogspot.com/2010/08/nemonymous-ten-null-immortalis-reviewed.html

Second review is of The Empathy Effect and can be found over at the Morpheus Tales website where the reviewer actually says:

Lock’s book rivals Koontz’s Odd Thomas and provides a wonderfully subtle and engaging story, and with Cooper Jones, a unique voice and a character you can’t help but love, along with the irresistible Alby (The General), creating a winning formula. . This story definitely deserves a sequel.

Wow! To be mentioned in the same sentence as Dean Koontz is one thing but to be compared to him is the highest of praise, I'm blushing :)
NB The Morpheus review does contain many spoilers.

Many thanks to both reviewers :)

My lovely dog, Nia, died today.

2010-12-29T15:23:00.003Z

Nia's heart finally beat its last today at about 12.30pm and she died as she lived, quietly with no fuss or bother and with a dignity that I find hard to explain. She was only about nine, quite young for a dog, but she had an enlarged heart which only manifested itself last spring when after returning from a walk she had a very bad coughing fit. I thought she'd swallowed something but upon visiting the vet's the under-lying problem was discovered. Part of her heart wasn't functioning at all well and blood was backing up and pooling in her stomach area causing her to not breathe properly. For many months she managed to cope pretty well on the drugs that were prescribed but eventually they began to have little effect and this morning she died in my arms. She was such a lovely dog, never growled at anyone, never bared her teeth, very rarely barked and was always obedient and full of love for everyone in the family, even for Sheba our other dog who used to pester her and tended to want to rule the roost, even though she was a third of Nia's size.
This is the last photo taken of her on Christmas Day 2010. I can't begin to tell you how sad I'm feeling today, I know, she was only a dog, but WHAT a dog.

Christmas Estronomicon 2010

2010-12-24T22:52:00.002Z

Steve Upham of Screamingdreams has just released his Christmas Estronomicon 2010, a free on-line magazine of horror/fantasy/sf which is in both pdf format and Issuu format which is quite neat, a page-flipping version and can be found here and on page 60 you'll find my contribution which is called 'Ecstasy' hope you get the time to take a look.

Merry Christmas 2010!

2010-12-24T19:16:00.001Z

Best wishes to you all this Christmas 2010

The Empathy Effect Review In Black Static

2010-12-12T11:13:00.004Z

Black Static (what a great name for a magazine) is a sister-magazine to the world famous Science Fiction publication, Interzone and the December issue (No.20) features an in-depth review of my latest offering, The Empathy Effect.
The reviewer is Stephen Theaker (he of Theaker's Quarterly & Paperbacks) a well-established ezine and one I've had some work featured in.
Stephen's review is quite favourable and he's treated me kindly over-all (thanks Stephen), it's always scary picking up a review of your work and reading whether or not the reviewer enjoyed your tale or not!
Copies of The Empathy Effect can be ordered from Screamingdreams or you could just pop over to the website and read the first chapter for free.

I'm entry number four in Interzone's Advent Calender

2010-12-04T08:40:00.003Z

This time of year it is always a treat to visit the Interzone website where they host a free advent calender of short stories. Each story has been previously published somewhere and features main-stream writers and 'little' writers like myself that have contributed to their forum over the years. I'm pleased to say that I am day number four (today 4th December 2010) and my story is entitled: 'A Zombie Is For Life, Not Just For Christmas' and can be found here: ADVENT I hope you enjoy it and take the time to read the other offerings.

The Empathy Effect gets a good review :)

2010-11-14T22:54:00.002Z

I'm so chuffed with this review of The Empathy Effect from the celebrated SF author Neal Asher :)

REVIEW

Mother, please don't cry for me

2010-11-11T09:39:00.003Z

Mother, please don't cry for me, for I have gone
My pain's embrace has left, though you feel it still
Turn your anguish to joy, for I am at peace
In our trench's arms I lie; a sweet release

And softly the tender rain falls like blood
Upon our upturned faces that see no more
Lovingly sweeps the red mud from sightless eye
With purest tears wrought from God's own summer sky

And our trench fills with a profuse torrent then
Carries remains of its hopeless protection
Earthen walls, sandbags and bodies, everyone
Seeks to escape the carnage we have become

We're but empty vessels of our former selves
The flow that seeks to wash away our remains
Blushes as it turns an even redder hue
Shamed witness of those, who know not what they do

Mother, the foe were like us; all someone's child
No malice in their hearts; there was none in ours
Around their feet I beg you let no blame pool
Cheap were our brief lives; sent here by those who rule

We were as but leaves on a great tree grown old
But as the leaves fall, so shall the strong oak too
Weakened, helpless to stand against folly wind
Roots consumed from within by men who have sinned

Leaders who knew the cost in our blood and lives
At their spotless boots must all blame be now piled
Vain, they called the piper, but bade us pay the tune
In granite should their shame be forever hewn

So... to grave we go; I hope for the best cause
As symbols of the imprudence of conflict
Peacefully safe with our friends, our enemies, men, brave and true
War, that took so many...

... Begun, by so few...

Bob Lock

Poppy photo:

Halloween, unlucky for some?

2010-10-31T18:20:00.002Z

An insistent little kid turned up twice tonight, tricking and treating. I got fed-up and closed the door abruptly, on his foot. He went down screaming so we had to help him inside and let him sit down while we checked his foot. One of our dogs took an instant dislike to him and started barking. The kid, instead of keeping still, tried to hobble out of the house, the dog bit him on the arse.
When we finally managed to separate the two and calmed the kid down we thought it prudent to stock him up with a few lollipops to shut him up. It worked better than I thought, he choked on one of them and we are now trying to bury him under a rose bush in the garden whilst it is still dark,

but don’t tell anyone....

Back to the grindstone!

2010-10-19T21:20:00.003Z

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was short-listed in The Golden Blasters' Script Competition which was part of Octocon 2010 (The National Irish Science Fiction Convention) that took place last weekend. Unfortunately I didn't win however, but it was a buzz being one of the final nominees. The winner was American screenwriter Stuart Creque (well done Stuart) for his script 'He Knows', here are the short-listed scripts:

1) The Special By Ruairi Moore

2) An Other Woman by Alexander Major

3) He Knows by Stuart Creque

4) City of Vampires by Niall Byrne

5) Meeting Amadeus by Bob Lock

6) The King of Nowhere by Thomas Mulhall

Oh well, no fame and fortune, no option to buy 'Meeting Amadeus' by Spielberg or Ridley Scott, back to the grindstone then... hehe

Other news:
Had a great review of one of my short stories that is in DF Lewis's Null Immortalis. My story is called 'Haven't You Ever Wondered?' and Peter Tennant of Black Static and Interzone said:

Bob Lock knows how to
pander to the vanity of editors, with not
only Tullis but Lewis himself as a character
in ‘Haven’t You Ever Wondered?’ and the
whole Nemonymous project reified as a
matter of multiversal importance in a witty
and cheekily audacious story that delights
with its playfulness.

Meet The Author - Alastair Reynolds

2010-09-30T21:04:00.004Z

I attended a 'Meet The Author' night tonight at Pontardawe Library and met Alastair Reynolds who gave a talk on SF in general, his work and how it all began.
At one point Alastair handed around a folded notebook made from A4 paper upon which was written (in felt tip) his first ever SF story. It was also illustrated by him too and when one of the audience asked how old he was when he wrote it I was very tempted to shout out 'twenty-five!' for a bit of a laugh but managed to control myself :) I was only twenty years out, he wrote it when he was five!
He spoke of how he was first published and I wasn't surprised to learn that the first story he ever sold for 'good' money was to Interzone, something he was very proud of and went on to say that:

Of all the SF magazines around, Interzone is designed by someone who has a clue about what they are doing

After the talk I managed to get him to sign two books of his that I have in my collection, get a photo done with him and pick his brains about a problem I have in a SF novel I'm writing about folding space and wormholes. He was very patient and helpful and the evening was an enjoyable one.
He said he'd be attending BristolCon in November and hopefully I'll be able to have a chat with him again (unless he sees me first and does a runner!) hehe :)

The Steam-Powered Singularity

2010-09-21T17:57:00.004Z

Charles Babbage was the first to translate himself into the vast Matrioshka Brain that enclosed the young star in its ironclad Dyson sphere grip. The giant leap in computing power required for this happened accidentally when his Difference Engine was left running un-supervised over the weekend. It had overheated, and had somehow spewed out the blueprints for a Mark Two version of itself. Enthralled with this accidental discovery Babbage tried to duplicate the action by purposefully running the Mark Two Engine beyond its safe working parameters.
It worked.
Exponentially.
Time and time again.
He started thinking about the possibility of creating a Singularity.

***

Sometime later, in the cold, hard vacuum of space.

Huge plumes of superheated steam crystallized into diamond droplets of water immediately upon being expelled into space from the city-sized vents as the furnace, deep within the Singularity’s centre, chugged-away happily consuming the star’s inexhaustible power.
A vast improvement upon the prototype coal version, Babbage thought.
However, as the last human being on Earth was finally uploaded, and the ravaged planet, which the uncontrollable landslide into the Industrial and Technological Age had generated, was finally returned to Nature, no-one was left to notice that the Niagara Falls-sized water tube (which showed the boiler’s water level) was not as full as it seemed. The gargantuan glass was stained at the full mark by the oxides in the water. The tube was actually empty and the boiler was burning unabated. Yet another overheating problem that the genius had overlooked. The last thing that went through Charles Babbage’s virtual mind before the Matrioshka Brain went supernova was:

‘Is it hot in here... or is just me?

By Bob Lock

The Empathy Effect - Audio Taster

2010-09-16T20:04:00.005Z

Here is the first couple of chapters of The Empathy Effect, narrated by yours truly. It will take a minute or two to download, just enough time to get the cotton-wool :)

If you don't have the Apple Quicktime Plugin then try this, it should allow you to either download the mp3 file or select a media player of your choice:

The Empathy Effect

Warning: Contains bad language

Hoping to 'Kindle' some sales!

2010-09-06T20:54:00.004Z

Messing about on Amazon a couple of days ago I managed to upload 'A Cloud Of Madness' to the Kindle zone of both Amazon UK and Com. It is £2.93 (cheap as chips!) and is a SF novella with robots/a nasty virus/a comet/a post apocalyptic Earth and Native American Indians :) and can be bought here:
LINK

Coming Soon! - The Empathy Effect

2010-08-07T09:23:00.005Z

"Cooper Jones is an alcoholic with a super-power,
he is an Empath, almost able to read minds... almost!
He's also a Swansea traffic warden and doesn't have
to read minds to know what people think of him.
However, he had no idea how hated he was until
he was bound to Mumbles Pier and left to drown."

Based in Swansea, Dylan Thomas' 'lovely, ugly town', The Empathy Effect is an urban fantasy that will be in print soon and can be purchased from my publisher
SCREAMING DREAMS
and probably Amazon and Barnes and Noble,
and who knows, perhaps from a bookshop near you!

Cover photograph 'Hands' by Christer Austad
End photograph of Consitution Hill by Bob Lock
Cover designed by Steve Upham.

"Allow Bob Lock to turn the key in the lock of imagination
and throw wide the gates of wonder -- if you pass through you'll find the journey
more than worthwhile!"
Rhys Hughes

Happy 10,000 to me!

2010-07-15T18:13:00.001Z

Just checked my blog and I've had 10,000 visitors since its creation, who'd have thunk it eh?

Null Immortalis Lives!

2010-06-30T22:49:00.003Z

Today I received my complimentary copy of D.F.Lewis's Nemonymous 10 - 'Null Immortalis' -, his last anthology and I'm really pleased to say that I'm in it with a little story entitled 'Haven't you ever wondered?' There are about twenty-six short stories in this tome and if they turn out to be as good as previous Nemos then they'll be a real treat to read.

Copies can be bought here: NULL IMMORTALIS so get ordering and be part of an end of an era!

An elf and a vampire walk into a bar...

2010-06-09T14:50:00.002Z

Just a quick script:

‘So, you’re an elf?’

‘Yes, Elvin’s the name, and you?’

‘Vladimir.’

‘Foreign are you?’

‘Not in the country I was born in.’

‘But here you are. You don’t look like an elf. Really tall and your skin, it’s so white. You an albino?’

‘No, not an albino but I suppose my skin is rather white. ’

‘So, what’s up?’

‘Out for a drink. You? What’s a plump little elf doing out alone?’

‘Just up to mischief, usual stuff. What sort of drink are you after?’

‘Oh, a short seems preferable.’

‘I don’t drink spirits.’

‘Neither do I.’

‘But you just said...’

‘I know.’

‘... am I really plump?’

‘Yes.’

‘Perhaps I need to slim down.’

‘I can help with that.’

‘Oh? How?’

‘Let me see your neck...’

I'm in Null Immortalis!

2010-05-05T19:45:00.003Z

I'm so pleased to announce that my short story 'Haven't You Ever Wondered?' has been accepted by D.F.Lewis for inclusion in his last ever Nemonymous anthology
- NULL IMMORTALIS -
It sadly brings to an end a run of ten anthologies that have broken the mould in many, many ways.
Des' Nemonymous series will be remembered as the world's very first multi-authored anthology specifically collected as anonymous stories. However, Null Immortalis will end the run with all the authors having their by-line alongside their stories, they will not be anonymous.

This last edition is scheduled to be published this September.

The Campaign For Real Fear - My rejected story :(

2010-04-29T09:08:00.002Z

Maura McHugh and Christopher Fowler have had a Campaign For Real Fear competition going on where you have to write a really scary story in 500 words. The top twenty stories will then be published in Black Static and some of those will also be turned into audio and be downloadable as podcasts.

I sent off mine - A Matter Of Taste, but unfortunately it was rejected. However, a group of us rejects have gotten together and posted our stories anyway on the TTA Forum site. The stories can be read for free here and the site also has links to some of the other rejects, they are pretty good, makes you wonder what the ones getting chosen must be like!

A MATTER OF TASTE

‘Well?’ he asked, the empty fork hovering in Gail’s line of sight, ‘am I right? Does it taste delicious or not?’
She wanted to vomit. To spew it back into his face. To rub it into his eyes. To claw those eyes out and grind them into the worn carpet with her bare feet. She smiled.

‘I take it all back. I’ve never tasted anything like this before. It was out of this world. Fabulous. Devlin, you are a genius. What’s next?’

The man’s face simply beamed with delight. His furrowed brow smoothed out and his eyes twinkled upon receiving the compliment. The fork lowered. She relaxed a little and waited.

‘Right. Something special next. It’s a Czech dish, one my grandmother used to make; it’s called Jatrov Knedliky. The broth just has to simmer a little longer. Meantime please help yourself to some finger dips. That one is asparagus guacamole, it’s quite a delicate flavour and the other is honey mustard. You might find it a little zestier. Please, enjoy.’ He pointed to them with the fork and she tried not to flinch. He turned his attention to the saucepan simmering away and for perhaps the hundredth time she tested her bonds. They did not budge. Apart from her right hand she was totally secured to the chair. If he would allow her to use a knife perhaps she could try to cut through the wide leather straps holding her down, but she had no knife and she dreaded to think what he would do if she attempted to escape again. It would bring forward her turn to cook for him and that paralysed her with fear. He turned suddenly, as if tuned in to her thoughts.

‘Come on slow coach,’ he said, grinning. ‘Tuck in.’ He moved the sauces and the finger dips closer to her and waited. She took one and dipped it into the honey mustard sauce. She imagined it would have the strongest flavour. A flavour which would mask everything else. Gail bit into it. She had to bite hard. She had to chew vigorously. She had to force it down her throat.

'Lovely,’ she said, keeping it down.

***

The Jatrov Knedliky proved to be chopped liver dumplings in a chicken broth. How he’d managed to remove part of his liver she couldn’t imagine. The first course, the prairie oyster appetizers, was easier she thought. Although the removal of his testicles must have smarted. The remaining thumb and finger of his left hand seemed adequate enough for him to continue cooking with, but it definitely impeded him. She needed a way out before it was her turn to cook for the madman and have to carve into her own body.

She smiled at him. ‘Do you know what I really enjoy?’

He clapped enthusiastically. ‘Oh do tell!’

She blushed. ‘I have a terrible craving for brawn cooked in white wine sauce.’

‘Terrific!’ He cried and ran off to get his electric saw... and a mirror.

Pass me the baby oil, it's time to massage my ego :)

2010-03-26T12:13:00.003Z

Some time ago I filled in a questionnaire compiled by The British Science Fiction & Fantasy Association which consisted of approximately eleven questions, ten of which were a repeat of questions for a similar survey carried out twenty years ago by Paul Kincaid for the Mexicon Convention in 1989. I forgot all about it. Today I received a free contributor's copy of the book that Paul Kincaid and Niall Harrison have compiled and I'm quoted in it three times! I find myself amongst 84 other contributors who responded to the survey, BIG names such as Joe Abercrombie, Brian Aldiss, Iain Banks, Neil Gaiman, Paul McCauley, China Mieville, Michael Moorcock, Richard Morgan, Charles Stross to name but a few, but ALL of them heroes or heroines of mine in the writing world. And I'm in there with them! My name's in the middle of this prestige bunch of scribblers on the back cover! So, from now on I'm going to say 'Yes, I've been published in a book with... ' and name drop the other eighty four writers :)

2010-03-19T17:26:00.004Z

Imagine.

On your life’s journey you have somehow happened upon a strange page of script, will it entice you to read on or just close the book and once again continue on your way?

Who knows?

Only you can decide.

Or rather, it should be you who decides.

However, imagine this, just for a moment…

Much like a camera hovering omniscient over a scene from some old black and white television show, late at night, you gaze down at a man hunched over a keyboard. His fingers shake as he struggles to type and his eyes narrow as they scrutinize the words that appear on his flat screen monitor. The room is dark, quiet, except for the almost insectile scrabbling of his typing and the occasional low mutter or expelled pent up breath from his mouth, which seems to be working constantly spelling out each word as it appears. It almost looks like an incantation.

Intrigued, the camera, or shall we say, you - for are you still listening? Alternatively, perhaps the story is unfolding with no witness to see or hear its conception? Whether or not it is observed or heard the story now unravels of its own accord as if knowing that someone somewhere will fulfil its need to be set free. The writer glances round, the camera pulls back but we are not seen and with a shuddering breath the man’s attention is once again drawn to the glowing screen where his words appear as if by magic and not by the input of the keyboard. We are drawn down to the luminous square of light that absorbs his awareness much as a moth is drawn to the flickering dance of a naked flame, seductive but ultimately pernicious. Finally, we are close enough to look over the man’s shoulder and are able to see his musings… and we read…

‘I despise myself for doing this to you, but it has become too much to bear. I thought I was a strong person, but my shortcomings have been shoved in my face. If there had been any other alternative then I would have grasped it with both hands, believe me. But there was not. Please forgive me. Perhaps I should start at the beginning. I will try to explain why I resorted to telling you all this; why I just didn’t let it run its course and let it all end with me. There is no excuse. I was too weak.

About four months ago, I would have been prepared to just sit at my computer and write with the hope of one day being published but that was before I walked into an antique shop in a very small village situated in a remote part of Wales. Rummaging through some of the items there, which were mostly rubbish, I came across an old book. It spoke of ancient Celtic legends and myths. There was no date on it, but by its method of manufacture, I guessed that it was aged. The covers were old black leather, cracked and mildewed with time. The spine of the book was broken and almost coming away; the pages were yellowed and age-spotted. I bought it for a very cheap price and the shop-owner seemed glad to get rid of the smelly old thing.

That night I set about cleaning it and checking that all the pages were intact. On starting to remove the spine-cover so that I could re-glue the pages, imagine my surprise when a slip of paper fell out. It was a hand-written note and started by begging the reader for forgiveness. Enthralled I could not do anything other than read further as it carried on explaining that the writer had imprudently disturbed something from its slumber; a something that was far beyond the writer’s control.

The name given to that something or entity was Samhain and it was known as the Celtic God of the Dead. Fascinated, I read on as the writer explained that he was a Druid and had thought himself wise in the knowledge of the occult. So much so that he had a vast collection of books on the subject and would secretly experiment in magic. One night he had dared summon Samhain, thinking he would be able to control the entity or if needs be, reverse the process. It was not to be. Soon, he found that once summoned the being would remain until it consumed anyone who had invoked it.

The Druid at first thought the summoning to have failed as nothing untoward or strange had happened. However, it wasn’t long before he started experiencing the sensation of being watched. Strange movements seen from the corner of his eye would make him turn quickly, but there was never anything to see. Time went on, and after a few months people commented on his loss of weight, the pale pallor of his skin. Day by day, he grew weaker as if his very soul was being ripped from his body. A darkness he could not fathom had begun to overshadow his life.

Then, one day, he found the answer. After much research, he finally found the only way to free himself from the curse. He wrote a note to a friend of his and begged him to read it to the end. The note explained what he had done and why he was suffering so. It explained that the only way for him to save himself was to pass the curse on by getting someone else to read the invocation; be it knowingly or unknowingly it did not matter.

The friend, not realising what he was doing, read the note, and unintentionally became the invoker. However, he was not as psychologically strong as the Druid, and within days degenerated into a witless imbecile. His heart gave out after less than a week and the curse was lifted. Samhain was placated. The Druid had saved himself but at the cost of his friend.

Distraught and unable to forgive himself the Druid decided to write out a confession and submit himself to his order for trial. Somehow, I don’t think he ever managed to find the courage to do so. How else could the confession be where it was? As I think the confession is the very note that fell from that book.

Amazed, I immediately started researching on the internet into the background history of Celtic folklore regarding this little known entity. I found that to most historians it was no more than myth. Being a strong-minded person, and not prone to believing in myths and legends too deeply, I accepted the writing as being the figment of a distraught man’s imagination. Witchcraft and magic were rife in those times and people could easily convince themselves that they had been cursed or haunted. However, now we are in the golden age of science and technology; in the twenty-first century, such things are easily dismissed.

Then I started noticing strange occurrences happening around me. I could be writing at my desk, intent on getting my formatting correct, when suddenly I would experience a “presence.” Turning quickly I expected to see my wife or perhaps one of my dogs behind me but there was never anyone there. Friends started remarking that I had lost weight or that my colour had become very strange. I looked strained as if over-worked or exhausted. Not feeling particularly well I went for a check-up, but my doctor found nothing unusual. The feeling of being constantly watched continued. My dogs, who normally sit near my desk in the evenings as I write have abandoned me and are reluctant to enter my bedroom, which serves as an office. If you could observe me now, writing this, you would see me alone and guarded. Even whilst writing this I feel as if someone or something is peering over my shoulder and I fight the urge to turn around.

It has taken me until now to realise what has happened. The curse is still active and somehow, unwittingly I have invoked the creature once more. I delved through the Druid’s note and realised that somewhere within it lay the answer. Then it came to me, in his explanation he had somehow erroneously included the summoning words.

As I have explained, I thought myself a strong person, able to combat this terrible thing and not involve others, but I was wrong. The spectre that was just beyond my range of vision had grown and soon will no longer hide from me; it is terrifying and I am not able to fight it any longer.

So I beg your forgiveness as I finish telling you this tale, as within these few paragraphs, I have incorporated the invocation, and as you finish listening, I begin at last to register a lessening of the oppressive feeling that has plagued me since finding the Druid’s note.

Now I am finally free.

But I am so, so sorry…’

The camera pulls slowly away, but the screen does not fade to black, Rod Serling doesn’t explain that what you have witnessed is just a story. However, we do hear a sigh from the hunched man as he stretches and smiles. It is as if a burden beyond human endurance has been lifted from his shoulders. And so, the story has run its course, the scene has been played, the trap set. If the story has been read or listened to then the trap has been sprung, only you, dear friend can confirm this. Perhaps the wind has picked up, is that why the curtain moved? Or the creak of the floorboard is just the settling of the house or the passing of your cat… oh, you don’t have one.

However, in the beginning I did say…

imagine…

3am and all's NOT well

2010-03-12T17:08:00.002Z

As a writer (well ok, as a wannabe writer) I make stuff up. But sometimes reality kicks in and proves that it can be stranger than fiction. Yesterday (Thursday) morning started a sequence of events that proved that.

I was sleeping soundly, only to be woken up at 3am with a pain in my left side (I suffer from diverticular disease and IBS) and I imagined that one or the other had decided to ruin my night's sleep, so I pulled back the sheets and started to get up and get my tablets and a hot water bottle, only to discover the pain was a hell of a lot worse than I was accustomed to. In fact it doubled me up and had me panting like the best Lamaze student ever. I couldn't straighten up, I couldn't take a deep breath. I checked if my wife had stabbed me during the night but no blood. My yelling woke her up. She phoned the ambulance. I panted, sweated, swore and waited. Five minutes later the paramedics arrived, excellent service. I was still in the feotal position with my knees pointing to the ceiling, wearing just a T shirt and boxers (I don't like sleeping in jammies) and looking for all the world as if on the verge of giving birth... to what felt like a calf. The paramedics were two women...
One of whom I knew, some mickey was taken... After determining that it probably wasn't a heart-attack they gave me a morphine injection so they could straighten me up and get me downstairs. Two minutes later the pain, which on a scale of 1 to 10, was off the scale but dropped to about five and I ended up in the ambulance. Where the pain returned. They gave me another morphine injection, then gas and air. However, by now my mouth and throat was so dry I could hardly inhale the gas and air, which had to be by mouth.
Got to Morriston Hospital by about 3.45am and got tested by the A&E doctor, given another injection, given a prostate examination, ouch... a suppository and put on an intravenous drip. The pain began to decrease. Next stop was an Xray. The drip was taken off the electric dispenser and laid on the bed, got the Xray done and was moved to the ward where they decide if an operation is needed. The drip wasn't re-attached, I asked if it could be. During the next six or seven hours I asked again, about four times. About 2pm they finally got it going again. By then I was as dried as a prune. No water, no food, no intravenous fluid. Results came in on blood test and Xrays. All pretty normal. I could eat and drink. I could go home later that evening if the food and water didn't cause any more problems. If I didn't explode. A doctor came and looked at me. He asked if I was always that colour. As I didn't have a mirror to hand I couldn't really say. Another doctor, a young Indian lady asked to see my stomach. Pressed it a few times and asked it my stomach was always that shape. I looked down at my small paunch and said yes, and that my six-pack had been a twentyfour-pack for sometime now. She apologized. I smiled, wanly.
5pm I was allowed home. Before leaving I asked what the pain had been. The doctors shrugged and said it could have been the diverticular disease flaring up, the IBS, renal colic or perhaps a kidney stone. They asked if there had been any blood in my urine. I said I couldn't really tell as doesn't blood sometimes not show up but could still be there? They asked what the urine test results had said. I asked what urine tests? They said, oh... can you do some wee for us? I had just wee'd, I was wee'd out. They said never mind. Drop some into your doctor tomorrow, ask for it to be checked for protein. It's an easy test, just a paper test.
Got home, phone my surgery and tried to setup a urine test for morning. Receptionist said sure, you got the paperwork? What paperwork?
Ahh.... Okay... drop some in anyway and I'll get the nurse to check it out.

Wee'd in a jam jar this morning as we had nothing else and took it to my surgery. The job's worth behind the desk informed me that I needed paperwork. I explained the situation. A couple of phone calls later she decided I could leave my jam jar, along with a letter of explanation and my hospital wristband and it would get tested. She gave me a sealed plastic bag to put my jam jar in. My jar was too big. However I inserted it and... I put it into the wrong part and it went straight through and fell onto the floor...
It didn't smash! First bit of luck in hours.
Got to wait now for results.
However, my side and left kidney still hurts. There is the spectre of another attack lurking at the back of my mind and I'm scared... really scared.
Now, how's that for a horror story?
And I didn't even have to make it up!

Impish Stories

2010-02-25T16:55:00.002Z

Just found this site called Storyimp which, if you join, allows you to upload your musings for review and makes them a target for tomato throwing. As I'm not wasting enough time on Tweets, Blogs, Forums, Facebook, Myspace and loads of other stuff I thought I'd join this too.

A new short short of mine is there, so go get your tomatoes!

The Steampowered Singularity

Read It Swap It

2010-02-09T17:32:00.003Z

I found a neat little site (thanks to Holly) that will be of interest to readers, it's called Read It Swap It. You join and upload a library of books that you have and no longer want to keep, other members might browse through your library (or find it due to searching for a particular book which you may have) they then send you a request to swap that book and show you what they have in their own library. You decide if there is something of interest that you like and agree to the swap (or not). If it is agreed then you just post your book off and wait for the one you swapped it for to arrive. I've just done my first swap and have been told the book should be here about Thursday, cool!
You can also search for titles that you want, make a 'want list' and if they should appear on someone's library list you will be informed. Very handy little site... and free!

SF Sonnet

2010-02-05T22:18:00.002Z

Tidying up my bookshelves I found a little chapbook that I have a poem published in and that I'd forgotten about. I'd even forgotten the poem! It was interesting to discover it again, especially as I didn't have a copy on my PC (must have been on a hard-drive that blew up) so I thought I'd post it here.

It's from The 2nd Annual SFPA Poetry Contest (USA) where it was in the top 26 sonnets entered.

It's called

Orion's Lost

Are we to be known as Orion's Lost?
For upon his belt our star-ships but dream
Relics on whose shells our names are embossed
Scant reminder of Earth's last dying scream

Distant stars we sought, the last trace of Man
As our globe we'd squandered with sparse regard
For we would conquest worlds! (That was our plan)
But we have barely left our own back yard

Our foolish grasp exceeds beyond our reach
And so here we rest as if to gather breath
Whilst our engines slumber and we impeach
The fickle fates that sent us to our death

The galaxies heave a relieving sigh
With a thousand year blink, wish Man goodbye

Time to whip off the mask and admit that I was...

2010-01-25T18:50:00.002Z

...the writer of 'Cerne's Zoo' in Nemonymous 9 (Cern Zoo) edited by Des Lewis. Yes, all the anonymous contributors to this fine anthology can now lay claim to their story. My contribution was a little more laid-back from my Cone Zero one which was pure fun and sf.
Cerne's Zoo is a more contemplative piece where I delve into the prospect that humans are not the only creatures walking upon the Earth that have souls and the possibility of going to heaven upon their demise, could animals possess them too? And if so what does that mean to us, to those who capitalize, abuse and give no regard to them as fellow inhabitants of this little globe that we stumble around upon in the vastness of the universe?

Here are a couple of reviews where Cerne Zoo was mentioned:

Cern Zoo review by The Author of 'Salmon Widow'

Cerne’s Zoo: Animal souls slip through a gentle one. And - like “Devourer of Dreams (yet again!) - it’s a gift that keeps on giving. A little charmer.

Cerne's Zoo reviewed by D.F.Lewis

"...Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, among others who have contemplated the possibility that souls exist in not only people..."

Another important story that has so far escaped under the radar. A touching and original ghost story about Zoo creatures and the death-bed confession of Cerne Lincroft (Christened thus as he was said to be conceived under the aegis of the Cerne Abbas chalk giant) who once smuggled an elephant with him on an aeroplane between USA and UK because the elephant felt home-sick. However, the story is far more tender and serious than that implies. It has a telling connection with THEORY, too, vis a vis its take on Animism

Cerne's Zoo reviewed by Nick Jackson.
There is good characterisation and some humorous scenes in “Cerne’s Zoo”, a strange story about a man who is capable of communicating with animal spirits and his friendship with a young journalist.

One excellent thing that has occurred is that Steve Duffy has announced that his story 'The Lion's Den' from CERN ZOO has been chosen for Ellen Datlow's up-coming anthology THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR, VOL. 2. This is exciting news and I congratulate Steve on a fine story and a well-deserving place in the upcoming volume.

Next announcement is that a Mr.Tullis has won the competition of naming the anonymous authors in Cern Zoo (he had six correct) as therefore will have his name immortalised in the next (and final) Nemonymous 10 which will be called :

NULL IMMORTALIS

I hope to be in it, the final Nemomymous!

It's only took me sixteen years to discover this!

2010-01-13T15:13:00.004Z

In 1993 I had my first short story published by Alun Books in Wales. The story was called 'The Leaf In The Stone' and was featured in an anthology of supernatural/horror stories edited by Steve Lockley and Paul Lewis called Cold Cuts. However, it's only recently that I discovered that the story received an honourable mention in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's
'The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Seventh Annual Collection in 1994!
It has only taken me sixteen years to discover this and as you can imagine that's sixteen years of bragging I've lost... d'oh!

quote: The writing quality is high although the stories aren't all that original. A few standouts by Bob Lock, Christopher Evans, Jane Del-Pizzo, Steve Lockley and Catrin Collier.

Who said I'm slow?

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year 2010

2009-12-23T11:49:00.005Z

Well I've finally got over the swine flu, but I did have to go back to the doctors where I was diagnosed as also having pleurisy and finally, pneumonia! I was given another course of even stronger antibiotics to take for a week and I'm on my last two today, thank goodness. I haven't been able to have a beer or whisky for weeks as alcohol inhibits the work of the antibiotics. Never mind, I'm sure I can catch up over Christmas :)

So, to all my relatives, friends and readers (I won't say fans, I'm not that good a writer!) of my blog, I'd like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and hope that 2010 brings you all that you could hope for.

Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

Oink oink

2009-12-14T12:06:00.003Z

Just a quick update on why I haven't been blogging or on message boards for a week. I've got the pigging 'Swine Flu' and it has really knocked me for six. Temperature, short of breath, cough that won't shift, crackling lungs, headache, aching muscles and bones, even what hair I have on my head aches. My moustache, which I've worn for nearly forty years, succumbed to it and in a fit of anger I shaved it off as it aggravated me so.

I'm going back to my sty now but hope to be cured shortly once the 500x3 of Amoxicillin daily takes hold and saves my bacon. (A prize for those who spot all the puns)

Oink Oink

Bob

I'm in an Advent Calendar!

2009-12-05T11:15:00.004Z

I'm day five in the Interzone's Advent Calendar with my Pixelated Pixie story that was published by Geoff Willmetts' SFcrowsnest (an excellent on-line SF site) in 2006. There are no chocolates however, and, if Pete is reading this, no socks...

Interzone was founded in 1982 by David Pringle, John Clute, Alan Dorey, Malcolm Edwards, Colin Greenland, Graham Jones, Roz Kaveney and Simon Ounsley. It has been, is, and I hope will be for a long time to come, Britain's best SF magazine. It's a magazine that I've tried to get published in a few times but so far have been unsuccessful, but when you see some of the names they wield then I don't feel too bad, these are some mentioned on their site:

Terry Pratchett, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Moorcock, Greg Egan, Aliette de Bodard, Tim Akers, Will McIntosh, Jason Stoddard, Jason Sanford, Hannu Rajaniemi, Leah Bobet, Kim Lakin-Smith, Tim Lees, Karen Fishler, Nina Allan, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Gareth L. Powell, Mercurio D. Rivera, Jamie Barras, Suzanne Palmer, Carlos Hernandez, Daniel Kaysen, Grace Dugan, Rachel Swirsky, Benjamin Rosenbaum, M.K. Hobson, Gord Sellar, Al Robertson, Neil Williamson, Tim Pratt, Matthew Kressel, Sara King, Paul Drummond, Vincent Chong, David Gentry, Warwick Fraser-Coombe, Jim Burns, Christopher Nurse, Richard Marchand, Lisa Konrad, Dave Senecal, Geoffrey Grisso, Kenn Brown, Daniel Bristow-Bailey, John Picacio and many more, apologies to those I left off!

So, even though I'm not in the glossy magazine at least I've infiltrated the website! If you have time, go read and if by some chance you do find chocolate then don't tell anyone (if it's socks then forward them to Peter Tennant, I hear he is in desperate need)

The Pixelated Pixie

NaNoWriMo WinNer!

2009-11-27T17:07:00.003Z

Whoohoo! I did it! They Feed On Flesh finally ended on 50,893 words and took my zombies from the initial outbreak of the plague (discovered in an unknown tomb in The Valley Of The Kings in Egypt) to Britain, then the rest of the world, onwards to Mars and finally back in time to another version of Earth.

Phew... the most I've ever written in one go and now I need to go lie down in a dark room for a year or two...

Anyone out there interested in publishing a zombie romp?

:-)

Just 5 days to go!

2009-11-24T22:22:00.002Z

Well I've managed to get 41,307 words down in my NaNoWriMo story and have got five days left to get the other 8,693 so I might even do it! My zombies however have now left Earth and are on Mars (ran out of ideas on Earth) and soon they will be reaching for the stars!

Squid Attack!

2009-11-20T19:24:00.003Z

RevolutionSF had a draw-a-squid competition to help promote Jeff VanderMeer's new book Finch. In a moment of madness I entered, but believe it or not I was one of the runner-ups with this magnificent beast:-

The winner and other denizens of the deep can be found here: RevolutionSF

Will I? Won't I?

2009-11-20T19:18:00.001Z

Uploaded 32,333 words to NaNoWriMo tonight and have got ten days left to find another 17,667. Will I make it!

Mired in the mud of writer's block

2009-11-18T19:16:00.002Z

Argghh!! I'm struggling... I've got 29,284 words written and uploaded to NaNoWriMo but I'm beginning to fizzle out, to get a stitch in the side of my inspiration. I'm hoping to get a second breath and plough on to the line but it will be close!

Halfway there!

2009-11-15T16:57:00.001Z

Word count on day 15 of 30 is:

25,467

At this rate I might just scrape through!

A Cern Zoo Story - Fanblade Fable

2009-11-13T19:16:00.003Z

D.F.Lewis (Des) has been writing a number of interesting and surreal short stories as a tie-in to his well-received anthology, Cern Zoo (Nemonymous 9) and all day I've had an idea rattling around my head for a short of my own set in his world. So, as a break from NaNoWriMo today and my zombie-fest of shorts I wrote one for Des and he's kindly published it on his website here:

The 90th Intervention Of Natural Webster

I hope you enjoy it and also Des' too

Word count on day 12 of 30

2009-11-12T17:13:00.002Z

NaNoWriMo Word Count

17,957

Well, we're twelve days in to NaNoWriMo and I've managed to get 17,957 words done, that, in itself, is a record for me as I am a very slow writer and prone to getting distracted. The main problem for me now is keeping the pace up as ideas are beginning to dry up.

Estronomicon Sketchbook Edition

2009-11-09T20:04:00.003Z

Steve Upham of Screamingdreams has a special edition Estronomicon out entitled The Sketchbook Edition. There are a couple of formats available but I quite like the Issuu one which is a page flipping version and can be found here: Estronomicon for those who prefer pdf then go here: PDF Version

I'm pleased to say I have a short story of mine in this edition.

It's called 'Man Of Stone'

Monday Word Count

2009-11-09T20:01:00.001Z

NaNoWriMo Word Count

14,376

Saturday Word Count

2009-11-07T15:04:00.002Z

NaNoWriMo Word Count

9,930

I've slacked off a bit over the last day or so, firework party and this afternoon

Wales play rugby against The All Blacks!

I can't write when that's on!

COME ON WALES!

Wednesday Word Count

2009-11-04T18:31:00.001Z

NaNoWriMo Word Count

8,217

Word Count

2009-11-02T16:04:00.000Z

NaNoWriMo Count

7,593

And I'm off!

2009-11-01T12:01:00.003Z

Okay, uploaded my first couple of chapters to NaNoWriMo this morning along with the opening few lines of the first chapter. The site tells me that I've done 520 words, I'll need to do around 1,800 daily to reach the target... ouch!

If you want to check me out I'm here: They Feast On Flesh!

I'll try and update the word count at least weekly if not every few days, I've put a widget in top right corner of blog but it doesn't seem to be working. Either I've done it wrong or the NaNoWriMo site is overloaded!

NaNoWriMo HeRe I CoMe!

2009-10-26T21:43:00.003Z

It usually takes me ages to write something a little longer than a short story, I am very undisciplined and envious of writers that can get up in the morning and write to order, each and every day. I have no self control, look! I'm blogging now when I could be writing! So, in an attempt to gain some discipline and kick the habit of procrastination I've enrolled in this year's NaNoWriMo event. That means starting November 1st 2009 I am going to attempt to write a novel of 50,000 words or more in thirty days... yes, you read it right, thirty days. Okay, you can stop laughing now, I know it will be probably more like thirty months than days! But I'm going to give it a go.

The story I have in mind is a zombie one, the working title is

'They Feast On Flesh'

and it's hopefully going to be a compilation of individual stories with an anchoring thread running through them all. Then in the final chapter I hope to have them all tie together... we shall see!

If you're interested in my progress or just want a laugh at my pitiful attempt at reaching the 50k target then you can check in on me here:

They Feast On Flesh

A cloud of madness - SF Novella now available

2009-10-10T11:41:00.006Z

I've had a SF novella floating around for a while and a few people wanted a printed copy of it so I thought I'd have a go at doing it myself and the results are much better than I expected!
Amazon now offer a POD service via their sister company Createspace. You write your masterpiece, convert it into pdf format and upload it to their site. You have to be very careful to stay within the parameters that they require or they bug you with emails explaining that your file isn't 'quite' right... yeah I had a few *cough*
Then you have to design a cover (which I gave up on as my graphics looked like a five year old's) and so I trawled the web for something suitable. I found what I wanted on deviantART , an abstract design of a comet (the story is about what happens when Earth encounters a possible KT-Extinction Event - like the one around the time of the dinosaurs) the artist is Jan Mullins an Australian lady who kindly did not ask for payment (who, however, will want a share of proceeds if the book is turned into a film by Spielberg)

*please insert your flying pigs here*

Thanks Jan!

So, once you have your pdfs sorted out and Creatspace no longer bugs you with emails saying that you dpi is too low etc, then you are ready to apply for a proof. Mine came last week and I was thrilled with the quality (well, of the production at least, my readers will have to decide on the story... ahem...) and gave them the go ahead to commit to print. Within hours the ebook version was available here and a few days later the print one went live here.
At the moment the only drawback I see with the system is that it is only Amazon.com who do all the printing and stocking of titles, awkward for UK customers, but from what I can understand they will be extending into affiliate countries in the future.
So, if you like end of the world scenarios, comets, mad killer robots, Navajo Indians then this might be for you!
You can always read the first two chapters here and see what you think.

Free SF Short 'To sleep, perchance to dream...'

2009-09-11T21:27:00.003Z

Here's a free SF short of mine called:
To sleep, perchance to dream...
it's about brane theory and the large hadron collider

Open publication - Free publishing - More short story

Peter Tennant @ Black Static

2009-09-04T21:32:00.003Z

Just had this remark made about my little robot story, 'The Cone Zero Ultimatum' which features in Cone Zero (currently still in the running for best anthology of 2008 over at The British Fantasy Society), by Peter Tennant the editor of Black Static:

Stories by Bob Lock and Stephen Bacon in Cone Zero were among the very best I read last year

Wow that is such a great accolade to receive from someone as accomplished as Pete. Many thanks Pete! And congrats to Stephen too!
The full review can be found here: Peter Tennant Case Notes

Neal Asher's 'Orbus'

2009-08-18T09:35:00.003Z

I've been fortunate enough to receive a few Neal Asher books, courtesy of Chris Teague of The British Fantasy Society on the understanding that I will write reviews on each one. As one of the books was a limited edition of only 240 uncorrected proof copies of 'Orbus' his new Spatterjay novel you can imagine how pleased I was!
I was even more pleased when I started reading it and more than satisfied. much more, when I finally finished it (in almost one sitting!) as it is a great romp of a book and a must-have for any Asher fan.

A more comprehensive review should be over on the BFS site shortly but if you like nasty giant crab-like aliens, that are particularly prone to eating humans for lunch, quirky battle-drones, space battles and a SF tale with twists and turns aplenty then watch out for September 4th for that's when Orbus should be in the shops.

Review at Sfcrowsnest of Cone Zero

2009-07-29T14:53:00.003Z

Geoff Willmetts over at Sfcrowsnest (one of the biggest and best SF sites on the web) has done a great review of Cone Zero and even better than that he's picked out a few stories from the anthology which he thinks works for him and one of them is my own The Cone Zero Ultimatum. Here's the link to the review: LINK

But basically here is what he said:

'Cone Zero Ultimatum' is a future where the AIs of future household appliances seek their own freedom in something resembling 'Watership Down'. It was only towards the end that I noticed the similarity. Most of the time, though, this story speeds along with some funny dialogue and funny AIs as they seek release from oppression from their flesh owners. The ending could have been sharper but its author shows great promise.

Cool! Thanks Geoff!

Black Static interview of D.F.Lewis and Cone Zero

2009-07-19T10:38:00.003Z

That great teddy-bear wrestler and wrangler, Peter Tennant, has interviewed Des Lewis about his feelings on having Cone Zero in the shortlist for The British Fantasy Society's award for best anthology of 2008. Slightly unsual interview this (as befits something regarding Des!) as Des has elected to have contributors to CZ (I am one of them) to ask him questions which he answers on the Black Static site. Some very astute and informative questions were asked and one which warmed the cockles of my heart was this:

A.J. Kirby ('How To Kill An Hour'): Some of the stories in Cone Zero are obviously filmic - and I'm thinking a Dreamworks adaptation of 'The Cone Zero Ultimatum' here or a Kubrick-esque version of 'The Point of Oswald Masters'. With this in mind, would you ever consider a future Nemonymous anthology which contains short films as well as short stories? Perhaps a Nemonymous gallery, with real or imagined installations and films showing all over the place... A Nemonymous world, if you will?

DFL: Your story in Cone Zero would make a good film, too. I'm not an expert on the cinema and rarely watch films these days (except Death in Venice) but your ideas sound wonderful. I'd need help, though.

The cockle warming is due to me being the author of The Cone Zero Ultimatum :)

Oh, and Dreamworks, I am open to considering my story being made into a film, by the way...

Another interesting thing was Des's answer to a question about an author that even now remains anonymous... go take a look at Black Static and the TTA Forum thread for more on this mystery!

Here is the Black Static interview.

Here is the TTA Forum thread

Don't forget that voting on the BFS Awards closes on 1st August 2009 and YOUR vote is needed!

Also, a little reminder that Des is still open to receiving entries to guess the writer to the story of this years Cern Zoo anthology and the winner will be immortalised in the next Nemonymous book due out in 2010.

Fibonacci Poetry @ Fib Review

2009-07-16T17:30:00.003Z

Some time a go I mentioned a type of poetry that I'd turned my hand to and that was the Fib or Fibonacci poetry. Well two Fibs of mine are now on
The Fib Review's 4th Issue
and can be found here: Fib Review
For an in-depth explanation of how Fibs work here's a link to the Wikipedia page explaining them.

There can be only one!

2009-07-05T09:46:00.005Z

IMMORTALITY!

Do you want to live forever?
(well, within a book at least)
Do you want your name immortalized like that of Connor MaCleod of
the clan MaCleod who was
born in the year 1518
"in the village of Glenfinnan on the shores of Loch Shiel?"

The Highlander

Well Des Lewis is offering everyone a chance. Cern Zoo, Nemonymous Nine is now out and as usual the authors in this fine anthology are anonymous (I'm one!) and every year Des holds a competition where readers are challenged to put the authors' names to the correct stories in the book. The winner of this year's competition will have his/her/its name featured in every one of the short stories in the 2010 Nemonymous edition. It might even be included in the title (this has yet to be decided)
However, here is your chance to be famous and all you have to do is enter the competition and Des doesn't even require you to buy a copy of Cern Zoo (you could borrow one from your library!) to enter, it's all free!
Just follow this link to win THE PRIZE!
and remember, there can be only one (winner)
Just...
Don't lose your head...

First review of Cern Zoo here:

quote:-

Cern Zoo is a banquet. A cornucopia of flavour and texture, of many courses and layers. Just beware of the cockroaches lurking in the salad.

Order it here.

We kicked our way through autumn leaves

2009-06-28T11:56:00.004Z

As a birthday treat my daughter took me to see Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds on Wed 24th June 2009 at the Cardiff CIA and it was a brilliant performance and night. Can it really be thirty years since we came back from Italy (where I worked for three years) and sat in the dark in the evenings listening to this iconic musical rendition of one of the best SF stories ever told? It only seems like a few weeks ago. Time and the human memory are strange things indeed. My children must have sat through dozens and dozens of performances of this double LP set until the records became so scratched I finally superseded them with CDs. The cast did an admirable job, including the stand-in Parson Nathaniel who took over the role at short notice as Shannon Noll had a family emergency I understand. Justin Hayward's voice was just as I remembered and as he sang 'Forever Autumn' the air was filled with multi-coloured paper tissue leaves as they dropped from the ceiling onto the crowd below, a nice touch! We managed to scrabble a few away for posterity. Then later on in the night when the Artilleryman had finished singing about 'A Brave New World' and he realised that his digging tunnels for the future of Mankind was futile, he threw a handleful of playing cards out into the audience and we both had one each. Jennifer Ellison impressed me with her singing and she played the part of Beth very well indeed. Chris Thompson (The voice of Humanity) gave a powerful performance too and on checking up on him I found that he used to be in Manfred Mann's Earthband. The musicians were spot on, especially the soloists and Jeff Wayne's conducting showed what energy the guy has. Finally, hearing Burton's voice and seeing the enhanced computer projection of his face just seemed to confirm what every Welshman knows, there'll never be a voice like his again. His opening lines never failed to send a shiver down my spine 30 years ago and I have to say that they did again the other night...
bwyso i mewn dangnefedd, Richard.

I'm a Guest Writer on Wilywriters.Com

2009-06-20T20:31:00.004Z

Some time ago I was invited to join and write on an American writers' site called Wilywriters.Com which is a speculative fiction site that has both free and donation-enabled stories in text and audio. You cannot send in submissions to them, it's invite only.

My story is available for free in both versions and can be found here:-

'But Everyone Is Different!'

It is well worth listening to the audio version!

The site has been set up by Angel Leigh McCoy who is a writer and games developer (Guild Wars™ 2). Thanks again for the invite, Angel.

The narrator is Nathan Crowder who has done a superb job and to say I'm extremely pleased is an understatement! Many thanks Nathan.

The cat-girl graphic (Dasha) was done by none other than Steve Upham, thanks Steve.

I hope you enjoy it.

I AM PHARTICUS! .... No! I am Pharticus, No I am Pharticus!

2009-06-12T15:14:00.004Z

Tomorrow, 13th June will be my birthday and as a surprise present my brother-in-law Tony Harwood, has made a model of my character in World of Warcraft which stands about three inches high and guards my computer desk with his might axe. His name is Pharticus and he is a Death Knight. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm much too old to be playing games like this but even though on the outside I might resemble a shrivelled prune I can assure you all that inside I am like a fresh grape (all green and full of pips)...

Thanks Tony!

British Fantasy Awards Shortlist

2009-06-08T16:24:00.003Z

The BFA has announced it shortlist for this year and I'm very pleased to say that Cone Zero is up there with five other books fighting for Best Anthology. As you all probably know, I have a story of mine in this fine anthology called - (The Cone Zero Ultimatum) which is about the revolt of sentient household appliances against their 'Flesh' masters - this is what Peter Tennant (famous writer, editor and teddy-bear fancier) of Black Static said (in haiku form!)

longest and the best

chock full of fun and a treat

from first word to last

Thanks Pete!

Steve Upham's Screamingdreams is also shortlisted, as is one of his writers, Allyson Bird who is in both Best Collection and Best Short Story - Good Lucky Ally!

Chris Teague's Pendragon Press is also well represented in the shortlist too in various categories, nice one Chris!

An exciting time for all involved, now get over to the BFA site and vote, vote, vote! :)

(no expenses were claimed in the writing of this blog...)

Estronomicon Spring/Summer 2009 Edition

2009-06-01T18:35:00.003Z

Steve Upham of Screamingdreams has uploaded his newest edition of Estronomicon and it can either be found on his website here: LINK or you can read it in the full flip-book version over on the excellent Issuu site by clicking on the magazine below:

Open publication - Free publishing - More stories

You'll find something of mine in this issue too. It's called 'The Devil Went Down To Swansea' and is a change from my normal fantasy or sf in that it is a factual piece. I hope you enjoy.

I have been and always shall be your friend...

2009-05-16T23:33:00.002Z

... especially if you read everything I write !

Stumbled upon this ST thingy and just had to mess around with it :)

The Guardian Poetry Anthology

2009-05-16T11:33:00.003Z

The Guardian has decided to publish an anthology of poems chosen from a number sent into them by readers over the last year or so. Billy Mills, who instigated Poster Poems on The Guardian site, and Sarah Crown who is the editor of Guardian.co.uk Books are the motivating forces behind this venture. Sarah also reviews poetry regularly for the Guardian Review. Anyway, I've always enjoyed sending in some of my poetry to this particular venue, and low and behold, two of my poems have been chosen to go into the new book!
The first is called 'Home thoughts from another planet.' and, as you can probably guess is a SF-based poem! Woohoo! The other is called 'Celsius reaches double figures' and is about spring and the promise of summer (that's the couple of days a year we get when a big yellow thing appears in the sky!)

I Boldy Went To The Cinema!

2009-05-13T10:35:00.004Z

Last night I bit the bullet and forked out to see 'Star Trek' in The Vue in Swansea. Between us (myself, wife and brother-in-law) we spent about £30 for a couple of hours sitting in the luxury seats drinking a couple of Cokes and eating sweets, but I have to say, I'm glad I went to the cinema to see it.
The large screen and great sound set-up is what this film needs, the scenery and effects would probably be lost on anything other than a big screen.
The storyline was very well done and I won't go into details as I wouldn't want to spoil any surprises for those who haven't seen the film but will just say this, it has opened a whole new future for the ST franchise and I could easily see this film spawning yet more films or even a new series.
I thought Chris Pine did a fine job portraying the young James T. Kirk but I would have liked to have seen him mimic Shatner's weird phrasing of sentences just once or twice. Someone who did seem to capture his previous character well was Karl Urban who played 'Bones', even managing to get in a 'I'm a doctor not a...'

I was disappointed with John Cho who played Sulu and Anton Yelchin who played Chekov and thought Simon Pegg could have done better with his attempt at being Montgomery Scott.

However, hats off to Zachary Quinto who played the young Spock, he was excellent and for me was the one who not only resembled his character the best but was what I imagined a young Spock to look like and also captured his characteristics the best. I did think I wouldn't be able to get Silar from Heroes out of my mind but within a minute or two Quinto had me convinced he really was the young Spock.

Zoe Saldana played Uhura and yet again I didn't think she captured the essence of the part but I did enjoy her performance all the same and considering the way the story goes thought that in the end she made the part her own.

Leonard Nimoy made a guest appearance and when I saw him amongst the young and vibrant new cast it just made me realise how long Star Trek has been around and how time waits for no man or Vulcan...

Cern Zoo Cover

2009-05-04T10:19:00.004Z

Des Lewis has released a graphic of the cover for the upcoming anthology CERN ZOO and here it is:

There's also a list on the reverse of all contributors, oh wait, who is that at number five?

:)

We're all going to the Zoo...zoo we're all going to the zoo (Cern Zoo) Nemo Nine

2009-04-06T18:20:00.002Z

Had a great bit of news last night from D.F.Lewis that he wanted to publish the story I sent him in his next Nemonymous Edition which is number Nine and will be called Cern Zoo and hopefully will be hot off the press in July 2009. Des had hundreds of submissions sent in and out of those he has chosen 24 authors to feature in the anthology. As with all Nemonymous books the authors will be named but you will not know who wrote which story until some future date. So, everyone sing a long please- *We're all going to the Zoo..zoo.. we're all going to the zoo!*
This has to be the anthology to get this year, any dis cern ing reader will know that...

British Fantasy Society Long List

2009-04-04T19:01:00.003Z

The long list for the 2009 British Fantasy Society Awards are out and I'm pleased to say that Cone Zero has made its way into it as a candidate for best Anthology and also has two stories in it on the list for best short. The authors are Kek-W and Neil James Hudson, good luck to them both.

Steve Upham of Screamingdreams has a couple of nominations as Best Small Press and Magazine.

More details of the long list can be found here: BFS Long List

Oh... and BTW, should you think my own, The Cone Zero Ultimatum deserves a vote you can always write it in *cough* <- damn flu...

SF Short 'The Hundred Year Climax' on SciFi Uk Review

2009-04-02T10:31:00.002Z

Richard Hawkins of SciFi Uk Review has published a SF short of mine entitled 'The Hundred Year Climax' If you'd like to read it for free then follow the link. Be aware however, that it contains a lot of swear words and the subject matter is risqué.

Here's the link:

The Hundred Year Climax

Hope you enjoy!

Review of 'Flames' over on SciFi UK Review

2009-03-30T18:00:00.003Z

I've had quite a good review over on the SF site SciFi UK Review of 'Flames of Herakleitos'. Here is a link should you want to see what Richard, the site's owner thinks: REVIEW

Adieu Battlestar Galatica

2009-03-25T10:44:00.004Z

CONTAINS SPOILERS!

Last night was a bitter/sweet moment as the last episode of Battlestar Galactica aired. It was like one of the books that you are desperate to read to know the outcome but you also know you’ll be finishing something that you’d like to go on and on.
BSG, for me, has been the best thing on television since I don’t know when, and furthermore it was SF!

Even non-SF people I know enjoyed the series, for it just wasn’t the typical Space Opera with gigantic monsters that popped out from the dark shadows to scare the crap out of you. I was a hugely character-driven series which had you twisting and turning with your allegiances to the cast. Initially I couldn’t stand Katee Sackhoff (Kara Thrace) as Starbuck, I thought they’d shot themselves in the foot by casting a woman for this part. But I gradually warmed to her and was totally freaked out with her finding her own body on the ravaged Earth that they found.
James Callis had a peach of a part playing Gaius Baltar and I have to admit I despised the character from start to finish, but hey, that’s exactly what the writers and the actors wanted, surely? Well, with me they succeeded, however, I could just be jealous that he always seemed to have his lips around Tricia Helfer (Six) who, considering wasn’t really a well-known actress, gave an excellent performance.

However, if I had to name my favourite in the series then I’d be stuck deciding between Edward James Olmos (Adama) and Michael Hogan (Saul Tigh) both of whom were outstanding. I suppose I first saw Olmos in Bladerunner and liked him from the start, then he popped up in Miami Vice and his quiet strength of character had me hooked. His role of Adama was so believable that even a wimp like me would have stepped over that red line on Galatica’s deck to go on the last mission the ship would ever take. Brilliant casting, excellent acting.
Finally Hogan’s Saul Tigh, yet another character that had my feelings in turmoil. Once again I initially disliked the character quite a lot but as the character grew and became more ‘fleshed-out’ my feelings changed and I began to understand why he was the way he was. Then the hammer blow of finding out he was a Cylon! Unbelievable! Of all the characters in the show I would never had guessed that he’d be one, primarily because he just hated all the frakkin’ toasters so how the hell could he of all people be one? Brilliant twist in the tale.
So, which one would I choose as the best in the series? Has to be Edward James Olmos for me, he was the patriarch of the survivors and such a motivating force within the series. Michael Hogan comes a very close second.

All the other actors and actresses in this series were outstanding and I’d like to mention them all but this post has become long enough, so, although I haven’t mentioned them I still think they all did a fantastic job of convincing me of their parts in this great story.

I doff my hat to Ronald D. Moore and David Eick for an enthralling series that will be remembered in years to come. Just as Bladerunner was a classic and matured over time like a fine wine I feel so will BSG in the future. I look forward to uncorking the blu-ray discs of this and once more savouring its quality.

So say we all!

Converting a short story to a script (Meeting Amadeus)

2009-03-17T10:35:00.005Z

I have a short story, 'Meeting Amadeus' which is a little SF tale and I've toyed with the idea of converting it into a script for a play or other visual format. I've finally done it and don't know whether or not it is done correctly or even makes sense in the way that I've done it, so, take a look and see what you think! Let me know your opinions or if you think it could be done any other way.

I've uploaded it to Issuu because it is easier to convert to that format as copy and pasting the Word file into Blogger is a right pain in the bum, it won't keep the formatting correctly.
If I've done it right then you should be able to read it here or click on the link to go to the Issuu page.

Who was that masked man?

2009-03-05T17:48:00.004Z

The day has finally arrived for me to whip off my mask and announce that I was the anonymous writer of The Cone Zero Ultimatum in D.F.Lewis' Cone Zero - Nemonymous Eight

"The Fathomless World" by Colleen Anderson
"The Point of Oswald Masters" by Neil James Hudson
"Cone Zero" (page 23) by Sean Parker
"Cone Zero" (page 33) by Kek-W
"Cone Zero, Sphere Zero" by David M. Fitzpatrick
"An Oddly Quiet Street" by Scott Tullis
"Always More Than You Know" by John Grant
"Cone Zero" (page 129) by Grant Wamack
"Going Back For What Got Left Behind" by Eric Schaller
"Cone Zero" (page 147) by Stephen Bacon
"The Cone Zero Ultimatum" by Bob Lock
"Angel Zero" by Dominy Clements
"How To Kill An Hour" by A.J. Kirby
"To Let" by Jeff Holland

I have to say I've been really pleased with the comments that both my story and the anthology have received.

Here's a few quotes from reviews:

KidShirt Blog
Like I said: hop on board! In 10-20 years time people will be talking about stuff like this as being the beginning of something new, and tatty old copies of Nemonymous will be selling for stupid amounts.

Charles Tan Blog:
Cone Zero combines not just good writing but stories that are simply fun.

Magicrealism.co.uk
The Cone Zero Ultimatum' is an inspired and hilarious tale about sentient household appliances making their way to the mythical haven of Eden to save themselves from the 'Flesh', who guard their monopoly on sentience jealously and would rather get rid of any evidence that might challenge it. The story breezes by, switching from first- to third-person narration so effortlessly that I didn't even notice at first; and raises many a laugh along the way—even the punning names of the appliances are genuinely funny. An excellent contribution.

The Fix (I'm so pleased about this one!)
The next story might have been called “The Appliance Rebellion” or “Revenge of the Droids,” or even “The Brave Little Toaster, Take 2,” but instead, the author named it “The Cone Zero Ultimatum.” The characters are so well-drawn, with distinct personalities, that I found it easy to forget that they were mechanical. It’s a fun read, and I think it would make a great animated film.

Most of the story is told from the point of view of newly sentient Arnold, a washing machine whose recent chip upgrade allows him to communicate with the other appliances, as well as accessing the Internet. Sentient AIs are a fairly recent phenomenon, and their masters, the “Flesh,” seem determined to track them down and lobotomize them before they gain too much power. The refrigerator-freezer has already escaped, and most of the other appliances in Arnold’s home are considering doing the same, with the notable exception of the curmudgeonly cooker. There’s a place of refuge available: a biodome named Eden that has become contaminated with a virus lethal to Flesh. The sentient WWW, to which all the aware AIs are connected, has provided the location of this place of safety, and the biodome’s AI stands ready to let refugees in.

The AIs learn that their master suspects Pete, the repair droid, of encouraging the rebellion of his appliances. He plans to lure Pete to his home and illegally tap into Pete’s memory, which could prove fatal to the droid and would probably result in the identification and destruction of the sentient appliances as well. The appliances have to warn Pete. Hickory, a digital clock, volunteers to undertake the dangerous journey. There are plenty of chuckles along the way, as Hickory uses a downloaded alarm to frighten off a (flesh) dog and is befriended by a walking pizza delivery box, who shelters him from a sudden rainstorm. They successfully reach Pete, who returns home with them while the master is still sleeping, and uses his technical skills and gadgetry to help them. There’s plenty of suspense as the appliances make their perilous journey.

SFrevu
A story with staying power, despite some erratic moments in editing that jolt the narrative flow, is "The Cone Zero Ultimatum" – with a fun premise and an ending that really makes the reader stop and think, it also uses humor effectively, and introduces a most unlikely but engaging pair of friends: "a damaged pizza box and a paranoid clock."

Paul L. Bates – distanceswimmer blog
“The Cone Zero Ultimatum,” decidedly the longest story of the batch, might have been inspired by watching “The Brave Little Toaster” while casually inhaling nitrous oxide. CONE Zero, an anagram for Consciousness of Non Entities—Zero, is a new law the Flesh have implemented after their appliances and other machines are given sentience by the World Wide Web in the not too distant future. Arnold Washiator, the self-aware washing machine and his motley band of mechanical friends must surreptitiously make their way to Eden, a bio-dome in the northern UK that has been contaminated by a virus released by human terrorists lethal only to humans. Escaping the dangers of the Flesh, their killer Doberdroids, bad puns for names, an elevator of questionable gender, sophomoric humor and other machines speaking English flavored with an assortment of thick accents and attitudes native to their country of manufacture, the machines deal with tragedy and success en route to salvation. This one never lets up.

The Future Fire (Terry Grimwood)
For lovers of Toy Story we have the marvellous 'Cone Zero Ultimatum' in which a herd/swarm/pack of abused household appliances escape and set off on a perilous quest for Eden. Great fun, and utterly compelling.

The Workshop of Filthy Creation
The Cone Zero Ultimatum: D F Lewis Publications meets Disney/Pixar in this one, and it’s tremendous fun!

Set in some undefined future, household appliances have become robotized and – to a point – autonomous; they’re thinking for themselves. With this new awareness, some dissatisfaction has set in. After all, they’re doing all the work, and the Flesh won’t even acknowledge their sentience. A new law has come into being, the law of Cone Zero, which is an acronym: Consciousness Of Non Entities – Zero,

With the dawning awareness of their slavery, which comes to them with their connection to big WWW, some of the machines have rebelled, even – like Cool Boy Chiller - escaped, and now surly Ramsey the cooker is chained to the wall in case he decides to make a break for it.

The narrator of the tale is the newly aware Arnold the Zanussi Washinator. There are some horrendous punning names here, like Frank the Zapper (who’s in a perpetual state of huff because she’s been named after a brilliant male guitarist who was around in the late 1900s).

The worst thing that can happen to the machines is that the Flesh recognize their sentience and rebelliousness and fry their memory chips.

But there is hope, a place to run where the Flesh can’t follow. Eden is a place intended to contain all environments possible on Earth. But some viral-based genetic weapon planted by terrorists now contaminates Eden. The Flesh can’t enter it or clean it out. But for the machines that can make it there, it’s a haven. This is the story of how Arnold and his companions make the perilous journey to Eden.

This one isn’t just a collection of puns and amusing speculations; it’s a genuinely entertaining and involving story. At 40 pages, it’s the longest story in the anthology. I think it’s also one of the best.

*******

Well enough of the trumpet blowing, but as you’ll have guessed by now I am over the moon with the reception Cone Zero and my contribution to it has received. Now all I have to do is hope that someone in Pixar gets his hands on a copy and who knows!

Hi ho Arnold Washinator... away!

Who was that masked man riding on that washing machine?

Estronomicon Progress Edition 2009

2009-03-03T00:45:00.002Z

Steve Upham of Screamingdreams has released his first edition of Estronomicon 2009 and it's called Progress Edition. Steve has a PDF version on his website and also has the ISSUU version which is the page-flipping style I've mentioned before.
One of my stories is in this edition and it's called 'The Finiteness Of Anagrams' take a look here:

Don't forget there is still time to vote for best author and best artist for 2008 on Steve's site!

Four Days To Zero Hour!

2009-02-28T11:45:00.004Z

On March 4th 2009 Des Lewis (DF.Lewis) will be announcing who the anonymous contributors to Cone Zero are. His competition is still ongoing for whoever can guess who-wrote-what and the first prize is a nice crispy fifty quid! Can't be bad even if you just write the names and stories on pieces of paper and draw them out like a lottery. Won't cost you a thing, only an email to: COMPETITION

The authors in a random order:

Neil James Hudson

Colleen Anderson

Jeff Holland

John Grant

A.J. Kirby

Eric Schaller

Kek-W

S.D. Tullis

Stephen Bacon

Sean Parker

Dominy Clements

Bob Lock

Grant Wamack

David M Fitzpatrick

The story titles:

"The Fathomless World"

"The Point of Oswald Masters"

"Cone Zero" (page 23)

"Cone Zero" (page 33)

"Cone Zero, Sphere Zero"

"An Oddly Quiet Street"

"Always More Than You Know"

"Cone Zero" (page 129)

"Going Back For What Got Left Behind"

"Cone Zero" (page 147)

"The Cone Zero Ultimatum"

"Angel Zero"

"How To Kill An Hour"

"To Let"

Got to be worth a go, or don't you need fifty quid?

Flipping Estronomicon!

2009-02-17T10:06:00.003Z

After uploading a novella of mine (A Cloud Of Madness) onto the new page-flipping website Issuu, I mentioned it to Steve Upham my publisher (Screamingdreams Publishing) and he took a look and was impressed, so much so that he has uploaded his 2008 issues of Estronomicon to the site and you should see them, they look very good indeed.

I have an example here, it is his 2008 Halloween issue (which also includes a story by me). I really like this format and it is so easy to use and much kinder on the eyes.

Steve will also be uploading a number of Ebooks in this format and all new Estronomicons as they are published. Look out for his next one which is due out soon and has a stoy of mine in it entitled 'The Finiteness Of Anagrams' If you like creepy, bloody stories - this this one for you!

Time is running out for voting on The Dead Of Night Award on Steve's site too, this is a vote for the best author and artist of the year, needless to say, a vote for me as author would be appreciated :)

Bob Lock

Eclectic Sheep That Androids Never Dreamed Of

SHEEP WANTED!

Merry Christmas 2011 and a Happy New Year 2012

2011 Interzone Advent Calender

Halloween Horror from Screaming Dreams

Review of The Savage Knight

Excellent review of The Empathy Effect

They Feed On Flesh - Zombie Stories on Kindle

Short Story

Gary and Beckie's Wedding

I'm a guest over at Steve Lockley's Blog

Flames of Herakleitos on Kindle

My Desert Island Discs

Hay-on-Wye Festival

Abercrombie's The Heroes

Review of Mira Grant's 'Feed'

The Hub's Review of The Empathy Effect

The Big Man

*Sings* - 'We're all going on a zombie holiday'

Orbus Review

Thank you, everyone.

Funeral Details

Juliana Elizabeth Cartwright nee Lock R.I.P.

Asher Antique?

Guest Blogger - Steve Lockley

Watch this space for guest blogger!

Another review of The Empathy Effect

200th Post and the first of 2011

My lovely dog, Nia, died today.

Christmas Estronomicon 2010

Merry Christmas 2010!

The Empathy Effect Review In Black Static

I'm entry number four in Interzone's Advent Calender

The Empathy Effect gets a good review :)

Mother, please don't cry for me

Halloween, unlucky for some?

Back to the grindstone!

Meet The Author - Alastair Reynolds

The Steam-Powered Singularity

The Empathy Effect - Audio Taster

Hoping to 'Kindle' some sales!

Coming Soon! - The Empathy Effect

Happy 10,000 to me!

Null Immortalis Lives!

An elf and a vampire walk into a bar...

I'm in Null Immortalis!

The Campaign For Real Fear - My rejected story :(

Pass me the baby oil, it's time to massage my ego :)

3am and all's NOT well

Impish Stories

Read It Swap It

SF Sonnet

Time to whip off the mask and admit that I was...

NULL IMMORTALIS

It's only took me sixteen years to discover this!

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year 2010

Oink oink

I'm in an Advent Calendar!

NaNoWriMo WinNer!

Just 5 days to go!

Squid Attack!

Will I? Won't I?

Mired in the mud of writer's block

Halfway there!

A Cern Zoo Story - Fanblade Fable

Word count on day 12 of 30

Estronomicon Sketchbook Edition

Monday Word Count

Saturday Word Count

Wednesday Word Count

Word Count

And I'm off!

NaNoWriMo HeRe I CoMe!

A cloud of madness - SF Novella now available

Free SF Short 'To sleep, perchance to dream...'

Peter Tennant @ Black Static

Neal Asher's 'Orbus'

Review at Sfcrowsnest of Cone Zero

Black Static interview of D.F.Lewis and Cone Zero

Sings - 'We're all going on a zombie holiday'

Converting a short story to a script (Meeting Amadeus)