First review of 'Flames'

Just had my first review of 'Flames' and boy oh boy was it a great one! And I need to thank Garry Charles for his kind words. The full review can be read on the Whispers of Wickedness site.

Flames of Herakleitos eligible for Welsh Book Of The Year 2008

I'm not going to get my hopes up but can't help but feel a little excited to see that 'Flames' is eligible for The Welsh Book Of The Year 2008 and is listed on Acamedi's site : Academi

I'm in the March list and numbered four. It's early days yet, probably many more books to be added and already there are some tough books to beat and some pretty big names in there.

How it all works is a mystery to me, I don't know if it works on sales or if there is a voting system. Unfortunately, if it is sales-based I think 'Flames' will struggle as it will be difficult to get it stocked in bricks and mortar shops due to publishing costs and the discounts that the big shops expect. However, it seems to be moving quite well on Amazon, so who knows?

The continuing story of Swallow Doretti – STT 24

It didn’t take me very long to realise that perhaps I had bitten off more than I could chew with this endeavour. I’ve always tinkered with cars (old ones – new ones are best left to robots and computers) and had got my TR4 back on the road after buying it with a seized engine, so thought, ‘what the heck? It’s not all that bad… hmm’
First thing to do was power wash the whole thing to try and get rid of the dog poo smell. It didn’t work; the bloody thing seemed to be ingrained into the metal. I tried to leave most of the car outside on nice days, just to air it. Even took the partially stripped chassis to Singleton Park in Swansea where they have a Classic Car Show in May. It brought many enquiring people to its side, mostly asking what the smell was…

With the car dismantled and the engine sent off to be stripped down and examined by a professional -- I know my limits-- I began to do what I could in my single garage. The chassis was in very good condition, due to the aforementioned chrome-molybdenum steel which doesn’t rust. Superficial dirt and detritus was wire-brushed off and soon bright metal showed underneath. This was rust-proofed (just in case) and then the chassis was painted with black Hammerite (great stuff). The chassis out-riggers were mild steel and they had to be cut off and new ones made up and welded on. I treated myself to a MIG welder and found out the hard way never to weld lying down with the weld seam dropping bits of red hot metal down your neck. The inner body shell was also mild steel and so were the floors which had rotted away completely. Fortunately enough, TR2 floors were very similar in shape and were available as new parts. Two were ordered and fitted, with some adjustments made. Other pieces were cut back to sound metal and new panels and pieces were let in. Steering was TR2 so all those parts were renewed as was suspension. The petrol tank was mild steel and was like a sieve, however it was used as a template and I had an engineering company make me a new one in stainless steel, you can see my old Jack Russell guarding it in one of the photos (gone now btw, great dog he was). Ohh! The red car on the cover of the magazine near the tank is… yes, a Doretti.

The doors were pretty sound, but the skins were in bad shape, so I chiselled them off and once again used them as templates for new ones. They were made in mild steel, even though all other outer panels were aluminium, because of the possibility of them taking knocks during their lifetime, aluminium although being light and rust-proof is very easy to dent. Ahh, I said rust-proof, well actually is does rust but in its own way. I think perhaps it’s some kind of oxidisation, or whatever the term is, because where the panels fitted to the mild steel body there was a weakening and even holing of the metal. I was told this is due to some sort of electric charge that happens between the two metals; perhaps it’s true, too technical for me. Where necessary this was patched and strengthened by a professional aluminium welder, again something that a specialist needed to do.

At last the car began to take shape. The mild steel inner body had been bead-blasted and primed, pieces added and primed and finally offered up to the chassis and it all fitted very well indeed.
The inner bodywork I painted myself in my garage as much of it wouldn’t be seen anyway. Then the outer skin went on. Once again it went together much better than I imagined. By now I had received the re-built engine (crank reground, new bearings, four new piston liners, four new pistons, new valves, head skimmed etc etc) so I had fitted it in place before putting the body on, however the body slotted over with no problem. It was only later that I realised the engine couldn’t stay in situ because the bloody engine bay was going to be sprayed with the rest of the car… everyone say d’oh!

And so STT 24 began looking like a car again, petrol tank went in, I started trying to find a source for a new windscreen (old one was cracked) and took the seats to an old guy in Swansea who did car re-upholstery, also took him the old hood which was so moth-eaten it had begun to look worse than my bank balance…
Next instalment will be added sometime soon. How will the re-spray turn out? Where will I get a wiring loom from? How the hell am I going to get the engine back into the engine bay without a crane? Why does my bank manager want to see me?

Why isn't stuff researched a little more, or am I too fussy?

I enjoy watching SF stuff (films, series etc etc) and also reading the same. As you probably know I enjoy writing it too. Although I haven't an academic or scientific background I try my best to be accurate with what I write and usually research the subject. Therefore, when I see(and it's mostly through that medium and not books that I spot the flaws) things like in the last Doctor Who, where the hospital is transported to the moon, the Doctor explains that they are within a protective force-field and that's how they can breath, how come he didn't explain why the gravity seemed to still be Earth-standard? How when the alien space-craft landed and the aliens marched across the moon's surface you could hear their stomping boots? Okay, you might say, well Doctor Who is aimed at kids, point taken. But what about last night's Battlestar Galactica (spoiler here) 'A day in the life' where we see Cally and Tyrol working in a damaged airlock only to find out that it's still leaking atmosphere and it automatically shuts them in to protect the rest of the ship. So how can they escape? By blowing out the main airlock doors and getting shot out into space and then captured by a shuttle holding position outside. Their protection? Little face masks like the ones that drop out of airplane ceilings just before you kiss your arse goodbye. From how the episode ends it looks as though they survive with nothing more than a couple of burst blood vessels in their eyes. Now, I thought, but I admit I'm no expert, but shouldn't rapid decompression affect you a lot more than that? Doesn't even being in space for a few seconds mean that because of your internal body pressure you suffer ruptured organs, boiled blood, frozen extremities? Oh well, perhaps I am being too picky...

But I certainly would have wanted to wear a space-suit

First Swallow of the summer

This time of year always makes me think of my old Swallow Doretti which I discovered tucked in the back of a garage in Swansea in 1989. It was in a very poor condition and served as the sleeping place for a Doberman (and also it's toilet) At the time I owned and drove a Triumph TR4 (will do a story on that in the future) which I had to sell to make room for the Doretti as I only have a single garage. My wife thought I was mad when I got the car (if it could be classed as one at that time) home. It was stinking of dog poo, old oil and quietly rusting metal. However, I knew it was a rarity and well worth the trouble of restoring, six years later I was finally proved right, but it was a long, hard six years. The Swallow Doretti was designed back in the 1950s by an engineer named Frank Rainbow for The Swallow Sidecar Company, which evolved into Jaguar.

Only about 290 were made and many of those went abroad, mine was chassis number 1181. Dorettis have an aluminium skin over steel frame and a chrome-molybdenum chassis which was very, very strong. The running gear and engine was TR2 1998 cc straight four. If I've imbedded a flash slideshow correctly you should see some photos of the car before restoration work took place. Over the next few days I'll update the blog with more photos of how the restoration went and how the car finally turned out. As you can see, when I started the work I still had my hair...

Poetry site updated

Somehow my poetry site got deleted this week (someone trying to tell me something?) However, I think I've got it sorted now and the link should be working again. Here it is, and if you don't like it just say so, don't go deleting it again!

http://www.celt.org.uk

News and photos of the booklaunch

The launch of 'Flames of Herakleitos' took place last night (Friday 23rd March) The event was opened by David Woolley, published poet and director of The Dylan Thomas Centre and I then gave my opening address welcoming quite a large number of guests, old and new friends. Music and song was supplied by Franco Rinaldi a Welsh/Italian singer/musician and then a reading was given from my book by my niece, Holly. Who, I have to admit, did an excellent job, much better than I could have done. However, I didn't get away with keeping a low profile and gave a rendition of two poems of mine, Follicly Challenged (sub-titled- to all the curls I knew) and was assisted by my daughter, Juliana who supplied the last line, here is that poem:

This barren dome, damned cranium bare
That once so flowed with lustrous hair
You betray me with your flashing beam
That startles horses when I’m seen

Those lovely locks so careless shed
Found on my pillow and not on head
I mourned them all as their life did wane
And swirled round sink, disappeared down drain

“Comb over” I tried, to hide the loss
Made jokes of rolling stone and moss
But in my room I cried alone
When finally threw out my faithful comb

And shaved off the last few failing strands
That clung to scalp with desperate hands
Then heard the words I do most hate
As my daughter slapped my naked pate.

“Hi baldy…”

Holly then recited a poem of mine entitled 'In your hand' and then Rhys Hughes was kind enough to give a rendition of poem of his which drew the audience into a surreal world where Vikings invaded his bedroom ( we all waited with bated breath to see if he was either ravaged by them or forced to join in with their Abba songs) Finally Holly read my 'Magic Colouring Book' poem and I ended the reading session with ' Mother please don't cry for me.' The evening was rounded off with a mixture of music and singing ranging from old Neapolitan songs to Tom Jones's Delilah.

Some of the literary, artist, publisher, musician guests included: Mike O'Driscoll - Steve Lockley - Paul Lewis - Chris Teague - Brian Willis - Rhys Hughes - Ian Simmons - Steve Upham - Tony Harwood - Stuart Ross - Monica Konggaard - David Woolley

Thanks to everyone who attended and made it the happy night that it turned out to be :)

More photos on Flickr - click on photo for comments :)

First book has arrived!

The first copy of ' Flames of Herakleitos' burst through my letter box and set fire to my hall today and I can't say enough good things about how the finished product looks. I'd heard that the printers, Diggory Press, had a good reputation for delivering the goods on time and for the quality of their work but I was pleasantly surprised to find it better than my expectations.

Here I am doing a 'look at me I'm an author pose and I also eat spectacles'

(I won't post the photo of me holding the book upside down...)

Diggory's site says the book will be available from them this Saturday 10th March for the rrp of £9.99 and P&P within Europe of £1.99 I'm not sure if it will also be available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble etc on the same date, but it should be in the near future. I also think Steve Upham will be selling copies from his Screamingdreams site too. If you go to your local bricks and mortar bookshop and quote the ISBN 978-0-955518515 they'll be able to get you a copy too.

UPDATE: Amazon has it listed here

Whispers of Wickedness

Whispers of Wickedness, an online, and printed magazine of Dark Atmospheric Art and Fiction have appointed me as their Poetry Editor. Their original poetry editor John Saxton has gone AWOL it seems, so for the time being I've taken on the position. Let's hope I prove to be up to the challenge!
Whispers of Wickedness

A new constellation is born in the firmament of Welsh SF/F/Horror

The writers, Steve Lockley, Paul Lewis and myself were talking about the lack of any Welsh group or method of meeting like-minded people in Wales whilst we were supping a few beers in The Old Inn in Penllergaer a week or so ago and Steve thought of starting things off with a Yahoo group.
The name chosen for this distinguised collection of people is SOUTHWALESFANTASISTS and it can be found on http://groups.yahoo.com/ . As suggested by the title of this post, it is populated by only the brightest stars in the Welsh SF/F/Horror heavens, okay, there might be a black-hole or two and a stray brown dwarf, but as they say, that is another story....

Happy St. David's Day!

March 1st in Wales is our patron saint's day, St. David. It's a day when most of Wales's natives can be seen out wearing our national flower in their lapel, the daffodil. It's the time of year when minds turn to springtime and the promise of summer. Our daffodils with their yellow nodding heads seem to confirm that winter is almost over.

Bore da!

'Flames' is smouldering... combustion date 10th March 2007

Just a quick update on the book. Diggory Press have now shown it as available for purchase from 10th March 2007 on their site. It will also be available from FROM LEADING WEBSITES SUCH AS AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE, PLAY.COM, POWELLS.COM, TESCO.COM,WH SMITH.

Flames of Herakleitos

Steve Upham and I will be approaching bricks and mortar bookstores too, however, you should be able to quote the ISBN number to them and order it, even if it isn't on their shelves.

Which Science Fiction Writer Are You?

Thought I'd give this a try and here's the result :-

I am: Frank Herbert His style is often stilted, but he created what some consider the greatest SF novel of all time.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Ahh... if only I have the talent that this guy had in his little finger, then I'd be more than happy :)

Paul: What do you call the mouse shadow on the second moon?

Stilgar: We call that one Muad'Dib.

Blurb on Sfcrowsnest

I've been lucky enough to have a bit of blurb on that most esteemed SF/F Site http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/which reports on the upcoming book launch and other authors who are getting work published by Screamingdreams. Thank you Geoff :)

Youwriteon Book Of The Year Announced!

The first Youwriteon Book Of The Year has been announced and my hearty congratulations goes to UK's Guy Saville for his story, The Africa Reich. Second place went to Patricia J. Delois and third to Michael Alan. YWO also decided to make a children's book award and first place for that went to, H.J.Windsor, second place to S.Star and third to Bob Burke, congrats to everyone listed and good luck with placing your stories.
Flames of Herakleitos was in contention but once agreements were made with Steve Upham of Screamingdreams that the book would be published by him it had to be withdrawn.

YWO has proven to be a great help to all budding novelists. Feedback from the writers who contribute has been outstanding and, in my case, a great help in smoothing out kinks in the plot, grammatical errors etc. The site boasts a hell of a lot of hits per month which demonstrates its popularity and best of all, IT'S ALL FREE! so get over there now and take a look!

There is some blurb on the BBC page too and here's a link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6336701.stm

My first ISBN!

Well the ISBN for Flames of Herakleitos has come through to Steve over on Screamingdreams. It's the first one for me (I have been in a few anthos and shared ISBNs but this is mine, all mine!)
Editing the damn thing is scary though, I'm on my third PDF from Steve and hopefully the last. It's really surprising how you still come across errors even after reading through your manuscript loads and loads of times. I think the writer must see things more in his mind than what is actually on the page and accepts what he thinks is right even though the text is actually wrong. For example I found I put from instead of form, yet I must have skipped over that mistake at least a dozen or more times. Oh well, fingers crossed, this might be the last edit...

The Lost Room

Well had a nice surprise tonight watching The Lost Room. It went out on Sky One and I quite enjoyed it. It looks as if there will be a conclusion too as there are only 3 episodes, which is refreshing. I could never get into Lost and glad that I didn't, too many damn episodes and still no-where near what it's all about... or so I've been told.

Anyway back to The Lost Room, written or created by Christopher Leone - Laura Harkcom - Paul Workman - don't know of any of them but I'll certainly be watching the next two episodes, great entertainment.

Spoiler follows:

Joe Miller a detective is searching for Objects to use as tools in rescuing his daughter, Anna, who disappeared inside the Room. These Objects have magical, some say miraculous qualities. The key to the room, for example, it will open any hinged door with a yale-type lock anywhere in the world, turning the door into a portal accessing the room nevermind where that door would open normally. Then when you leave the room, it opens not to where you originally entered from but to any door that the holder of the key has in mind, or to a random door if the user doesn't focus.

This is just one of the Objects shown tonight, others are a pen that can microwave anyone it touches, a nailfile that makes you drop off to sleep and a bus ticket that teleports you to a highway miles away from your original position. Heady stuff and extremely well done, can't wait for the rest!

Flames of Herakleitos website

With the book due to be released in March and the book launch in The Dylan Thomas Centre on the 23rd March around 7ish in the evening, I thought it a good idea to buy the domain name.

http://www.flamesofherakleitos.com/

I've managed to upload a flash powered website which I cobbled together myself, it's still under construction but viewable. Hopefully when I get the ISBN and the Amazon listing etc I can include a purchase link :)

Grow your own Earth!

Here's a SF short story of mine, hope you enjoy it.

Dormitory 736 Block C
Alpha Module,
Pleiades University,
Sirius Orbiter 4



My dear Professor Toopha,

Many thanks for you recent correspondence; I am well, thank you, and so is my symbiant. I hope this finds you and yours in good health too.

As you will see from my enclosed holograph crystal; the project you gave me is reaching a major point in its evolution. However, I feel it only fair to warn you that things are not going as well as I had hoped.

Although the image that you are looking at now seems to portray the Earth in my study-room as being in a stable condition it is far from being so.

As you well know the Pre-Cambrian era went very well and the cooling down process and the forming of the oceans was spectacular, I stayed up overnight just to watch the incredible fire-work display.
The Palaeozoic week was pretty boring and that’s why I didn’t send you footage of that particular period, the only thing I found of interest was when the fish left the water and became land animals.

My favourite was definitely the Mesozoic era, especially the dinosaurs. I was really impressed with them; the birth of the small mammals interested me too but I had no idea at the time the importance of what I was witnessing.

I feel at this point that I should apologise on behalf of my friend Pleeba Delmot. That evening we had both been out partying and when he was incapable of finding his own dorm I foolishly allowed him to stay at mine.
It was only the next morning I found out that he had poked his tentacle into the globe and had caused the vast climate change which lead to the extinction of so many species. It’s rather a pity as I am sure that the dinosaurs had real potential. Please accept his apologies; he was under the influence and not aware of what he was doing.

Finally, as you know from the footage I’ve already sent, we are in the Cenozoic era and I can’t help but wonder if Pleeba’s tentacle has caused more trouble than we first imagined. Let me tell you why.

Around the Cretaceous period of the Cenozoic era, just about the time of, shall we say “Pleeba’s Event”; I noticed a new species emerge. We named them mammals. Normally I don’t think these little creatures would have lasted all that long. Most just provided a nourishing snack for the smaller species of carnivorous dinosaur; but the “Event” took place and the dinosaurs just couldn’t adapt to the climate change. But believe it or not Professor, the little mammals did!

During the Tertiary period of this era they evolved in leaps and bounds. That was about a week ago for us, millions of years for the little planet.
One particular species, the primates, became quite ingenious. Even with the handicap of only an opposable thumb instead of tentacles they soon started to use tools; this was something that no other creature had done before. Now, here is where it begins to get scary.

Within a matter of days, these primates had begun to develop quite an intelligence; I was amazed. Their technology even made me have to install dampening fields around the globe as their emissions were beginning to disrupt my music system next door!
Finally, they even attempted to leave the globe itself and therefore I had to vector into the system a mass hypnotic state to make them believe that they are really living within a genuine universe. Now they think that their machines have even left the planet to explore their solar system and more. Many of these beings, that we named Man by the way, imagine that some of them have actually visited a small, nearby satellite which they have named the Moon!

However, I fear by the time you read this, the project will be over. I thought the dinosaurs were violent but these little biped humans are incredibly vicious.
Not only do they kill, and I don’t mean just for consumption or preservation, the lower species with no regard whatsoever, but they also slaughter themselves on the slightest whim!
For example; they have this thing called War; which I first mistakenly took for some kind of sport, but it is far from it. They have wiped out billions and billions of their kind with this strange act. But that is not all; they do not seem to be content with destroying themselves and every other living creature on the globe. They have now invented thermo-nuclear devices and the planet is absolutely littered with them. It seems they are now attempting to destroy the globe itself!

I tell you my dear Professor, this is the best project you have given me yet; I only wish it was not reaching the end so soon. This has been one of the most enjoyable months I have spent here in Pleiades University. I had hoped that you would get back in time to see the little planet in my study-room before it is too late; but I fear within the next few hours the creatures called Man will succeed and destroy both themselves and the fragile world before you return.

With this in mind I beg you to procure another “Grow your own Earth” kit from the University Supplier as I would dearly like to see what happens when the dinosaurs evolve alongside the mammals.
However, this time I think I will keep Pleeba well away from my study!

Your most humble student,

Kloompa Teabod

Release date and book launch for "Flames of Herakleitos"

Good news, managed to organise a book launch for my debut Dark SF/Fantasy Novel 'Flames of Herakleitos' in the Dylan Thomas Centre on the evening of 23rd March 2007. Free admission and there will be free wine and no obligation to buy the book! Steve Upham of Screamingdreams is publishing the book and is also the owner of Estronomicon a SF/F/Horror Ezine that's well worth a visit.


Synopsis of 'Flames of Herakleitos'

What if you were a four year old child who in 1969 witnessed your father die through Spontaneous Human Combustion?

Imagine if you knew the reason behind SHC but could not explain it.

What if you then lived in fear of it happening to you for over thirty years, until one day, it almost does?

How would you feel if you finally realised that your father's death, even though was due to SHC, was engineered by a creature from a parallel world and he was not the only one?

If you were given the opportunity to visit that world and seek revenge, would you go?

All these questions Lucy Fenton must resolve in my novel ‘The Flames of Herakleitos’

It’s 1969 and a four year old girl witnesses the terrifying death of her father, which is attributed to Spontaneous Human Combustion. The child is unable to explain what she saw, and shortly after the incident, whilst in hospital, almost suffers the same end as her father when she is attacked by an unknown entity, but she survives.

Thirty years pass, Lucy Fenton, has grown into a writer of horror stories and star of their film versions. She is haunted by the morbid feeling that the entity has not yet finished with her. It turns out to be correct and once again it visits her. This time, however, she manages to not only fight it off but pursue it. It does not lead her to anywhere that she knows. In fact it isn’t even the same world, but a parallel one where everything she has ever known is turned on its head.