Carrie Fisher

Image linked from www.imdb.com

I remember when I watched Star Wars in the summer of 1977. It was at the Odeon in Worcester when they still had one massive screen, and the seating was divided into smoking and non-smoking (people were stupid in the 70's).

I had just finished reading the Hobbit and starting on the Lord of the Rings. Now I was about to experience the greatest science fiction / fantasy ever to hit the screens. It blew me away and has stayed in my psyche ever since. The trio of Luke, Leia and Han was perfect, but it was Leia who connected with me most strongly. Few of us had ever seen a female character throwing themselves into the action with so much energy. She was far from the typical damsel in distress.

She even managed to kick-ass in the sexy slave girl outfit (which is also seared into my memory for other reasons) and embarked on an impossible love affair with the "scoundrel" she ultimately couldn't live with. A master stroke from J.J. Abrahams (a director I don't normally rate) in The Force Awakens.

Without Leia we wouldn't have Sarah Connor, Ellen Ripley or even the new Icon Rey. I can't think of any other actress who could have played such a diminutive character, with such drive, determination and sass.

I shed a tear when Leia arrived on that troop carrier in The Force Awakens. Not from some sense of nostalgia, but through pure love for the character and Carrie's perfect portrayal. I'm so looking forward to seeing her for one last time in the next installment, although I'm going to need a box of tissues at my side. I'm afraid I'm sobbing even as I write this.

Some actors and actresses hate being typecast but Carrie lived her role and connected with the fans with such good grace, that there will be few sci-fi fan's who don't catch their breath with pangs of sorrow.

The Universe will be a dimmer place without you. We all felt the tremor in the force.

General Leia Organa, the Rebellion salutes you.

X

Fantasy Opus - Tropical Paradise

Hi again!

I've now topped 153K words having had some time away in the tropical paradise of Costa Rica. I was very luck to go so near to Christmas and it's the last tropical holiday for a while. My wife tell's me we're going to Scotland next!

I've been working on a fairly tricky section where action takes place in several places simultaneously. The stakes are now very high for our illustrious heroes.

I've also had a couple more story ideas. Another fantasy and a Sci-Fi. I think they're both original but I need to do a bit of research just to make sure.

Most won't make the grade, but there's probably another novel in their somewhere.

Looking forward to Christmas.

That's all for now.

John Howes.

Fantasy Opus - The Escape

Well I've finished bashing Humans and I'm back to the fantasy novel (Fantasy Opus is just the working title).

I'm hoping to write as much as possible this month, over Christmas.

While I can't really share too many details, I can give some hints.

• There are up to 30 main characters, which can become quite a challenge to deal with.
• Characters in total, there are around 200! Most of these are support characters and many are just mentioned.
• The Fantasy world includes several religions.
• There are no Elves, Goblins, Gnomes (What was Terry Brooks thinking) or Dragons. However when you read the books you might think I'm stretching the truth 😏
• I had the original story idea between 15 and 20 years ago. 
• The section in chapter 8 was the first idea I had which eventually led to the whole story.
• I've sketched many of the main locations just to help me visualize the action. This is one of the locations coming up:

Some of the main characters include:

• A young man (no surprise)
• A middle aged woman (one of my favorite characters).
• A Knight
• A non-human warrior
• A mythical creature from northern European folklore.
• Several creatures from British folklore.

I've also been thinking again about cover art and whether I should engage a cover artist or have a go myself. I think I might try to do my own first and see how it looks.

Current word count is 143986 which is just more than Tolkien's "The Two Towers".

I think I'm probably 50% through now. I'm aiming for completion by Christmas 2017.

That's all for now,

Cheers,

John Howes.

Channel 4 - Humans: I Really want to like it but....

Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com

I was about 50% through writing Zero Magenta when the UK Channel 4 launched "Humans". The story of advanced robots "waking up".  At first I was nervous that I might copy some of the story line, even subconsciously, but I needn't have worried. Humans takes a more traditional view and throws in enough cliches, plot holes and enough bad science to sink a battleship.

I hate being negative about another writer's work, they were clearly aiming high, and I really wanted to like the series, but it annoys me more than it entertains. Sorry.

I've long been disappointed by how we use our technology in such banal, trivial ways. A modern smart phone has more computing power than an entire room filled with computers back in the 1970s. So what do we do with this modern marvel? Maybe we join all these computers together to find the cure for cancer, maybe we can plot the course to Mars and build a working EM Drive, or maybe we just bring all the people together to stop all wars. Nope! We play Candy Crush, post cat videos on YouTube and brag about the Skinny Latte we've just enjoyed at Starbucks on Facebook.

This is the reality of technology in the 21st Century. It came to me when my wife and I went to Dinner with some friends, and their son was playing with an iWatch. Our Shiny Technology is just a toy.

New advanced AI robots wouldn't be working in our factories, or helping in complex surgery or engineering. They would be expensive baubles that we could impress our friends with. Somebody to play Candy Crush with. They'd be purchased by the same taste vacuums who buy Lamborghini's and Bugatti's.

So back to Humans. What's wrong with it? SPOILER ALERT.

We'll let's start with the good. One story line stands out above all the other. Series 2 Episode 5: We learn that the character of Renie pretends to be a robot (or Synth) because her father doesn't care about her. She's hiding behind another character. It's a fantastic story element, I only wish I'd thought of it myself. There are a few other flashes of brilliance, but they're drowned by the cliches and bad science.

First there are the cliches:

• Mad scientist embeds an "awakening" code in a few of his creations
• A young hacker can apparently rewrite the most complicated computer code ever created.
• The "Father" in the family unit is an idiot.
• Synths are the most complex, technologically advanced creations in history, but people still drive around in old petrol powered Saabs.

OK, there's not too many. It's the bad science that really makes me rage. Of course Humans is not the only TV show to talk down to its audience, but I was hoping for much more.

Bad Science:

• The laptop I'm writing this on, gives out a lot of heat. Now imagine how hot a full sized robot would become. Apparently no-one notices when they touch one.
• They would be very, very heavy. Even using the lightest weight materials and batteries they would still weigh twice as much as a human. Again nobody seems to notice. They would also make an audible servo sound, It might be quiet but you'd still hear it in close proximity.
• Any of the Synths are capable of "waking up". What? So the company that engineers these products decides to put in a processor with 10 times the required processing power just in case the Synth develops AI? I've worked in Industry long enough to know that most products are under engineered.
• They can be recharged with a mobile phone charger. Err Nope!  A standard USB port can charge at up to 1.5 Amps. With the gigantic battery required for a synth, that means it would probably take at least 24 hours for a full charge. Furthermore, the high power drain would require a charge every few hours with such a low charge rate.
• When a synth wakes up (E.g. the bloodthirsty Hester) they can remember nasty things done to other standard Synths and they become angry about it. That's akin to a Robot becoming self aware and feeling sorry for a toaster.
• The software code in a synth is like the holly grail even though it was created by a well trained software engineer using a standard code language. So complex that only a school girl can understand it.
• Any synth can be hacked using a windows tablet PC. Nope! An advanced AI would need to be running a very high speed RTOS (Real time operating system). A simple USB port would not give access to all the running code. It's also unlikely that conventional code would be sufficient for an AI of that capability.
• When the evil corporation finds a woken Synth, they can't find out what's special about it to create others. WRONG! If they really are just running code, all they need to do is download it and read it! Apparently this simple debugging technique is abandoned in the future.
• Last but not least (and this one is also a cliche), Robots will replace everyone in every job. If that did happen, nobody would have enough money to buy anything made by these Synth armies and the global economy would crash. Maybe Human's is set before that realization, but the idea that Robots will replace us all is nonsense.

Well there it is. You may agree or disagree. I'd be interested to hear if you have any of your own thoughts. Or maybe you don't care and enjoy it because it has a cute cast.

Bladerunner it isn't.

Enough ranting for now.

Cheers,

John Howes.

Support Characters are Everything

I've just attended my first Comic Con (Birmingham England) in cosplay, and had great fun. I went as Colonel Stars & Stripes from Kick Ass 2 and my wife went as Lara Croft from the latest games.

I learned one valuable lesson. I'm very old!

All the young girls were dressed as plinky-plonk or pinky-pie or whatever else the brightly coloured anime characters are called. It's a world that's closed to me, thankfully.

I did find one Cosplayer in an awesome outfit. I don't know this ladies name, but she's dressed as the sassy Vasquez from James Cameron's Aliens. One of my all time favorite support characters.

These characters often capture the imagination far more than the principal players. Characters like Wedge from Star Wars.  They give us the freedom to imagine their back stories and invent our own fantasy worlds.

Gonna need a bigger gun, mostly.

Fantasy Opus - Gods, Monsters and Poetry

Hi there,

The writing pace has slowed a bit but I'm still going. December is the anniversary of my first book but the Fantasy Opus (not the real title) isn't even half done. I'm hoping to have it done before the end of 2017.

Currently I'm at 137,856 words. This is how it compares to some other weighty tomes (I'm afraid Excel doesn't paste into blogger very well):

Title	Words
Fantasy Opus	137856
The Hobbit	95022	More
Fellowship of the Ring	177227	Less
The Two Towers	143436	Less
The Return of the King	134462	More
Game of thrones	298000	Less
Twilight	118501	More
The Philosopher's Stone	76944	More
The Chamber of Secrets	85141	More
The Prisoner of Azkaban	107253	More
The Goblet of Fire	190637	Less
The Order of the Phoenix	257045	Less
The Half-Blood Prince	168923	Less
The Deathly Hallows	198227	Less

So where are we in the story?

Well our main character is just starting to find out some hidden secrets and I've inserted a poem.

There's some simmering romantic tension and an old man playing a dangerous game.

I've also started experimenting with cover art design. I'm trying to stay away from the fantasy cover cliche's - Hooded woman, hooded man, hooded elf, hooded soldier, etc.

That's all for now.

John Howes.

Fantasy Opus - Maps & Stuff

Just topped 102,000 words, and I've written the cardboard and blu tak battle! (See the previous post).

It was a bit of a brain dump, and will probably need some heavy editing when I get to the first big read-through. In fact, I might be looking for volunteers.

I did say a few months back that I would upload the world map onto this blog, but I then read something scary about google owning the copyright. I've since found out that's not right. I automatically own the copyright to all original material posted on this site, regardless of who hosts it.

So I've decided to put the map on the site (when it's finished) along with some background details on some of the characters and places.

I do have a few other sketches, but after seeing the great Potter sketches from J.K.Rowling, I'n not sure mine will be up to scratch. I freely admit I can't draw.

Maybe more?

I'm barely a third of the way through my fantasy opus, but I've got another story idea starting to coalesce. It's hard sci-fi, more like Zero Magenta, but it's further into the future and includes space travel.

Anyway, I need to finish this one first.  There's quite a bit of action at present and some secrets are slowly being revealed.

That's all for now,

Cheers.

John H

Fantasy Opus - Paper & Blu tack

I've topped the 97,000 word mark which puts me in LOTR territory.

I think I've now got the first book roughed out and I'm into the second.
Several battles take place across the saga and I'm just planning one using bits of card and blu tack (no really). I do wonder if Tolkien ever did such a thing.

It's pretty hard to write battles which are very visual feasts, but I'm having a go.

Like cardboard chess:

Next I'll be using string and sticky backed plastic.

(A blue peter reference for Brits of a certain age).

Oh, also I've decided on two characters who aren't going to make it. It was a tough decision but it drives some of the final elements of the story.

That's all for now.

John H.

80K and rolling

Working title: "Fantasy Opus"

So I've just past the 80,000 word mark and I'm coming up to a decision point.

Do I:

• Release the story in several parts (probably three), releasing the first part soon?
• Complete the entire story then split it up into three parts for release?
• Create just one big story?

Most readers of fantasy are familiar with never ending saga's (GOT, Dune, Discworld, etc.) however my story has a definite ending, more like LOTR.

At present I'm just not sure, so I'll keep writing.

Methodology:

I was asked recently if I storyboard my novels. The simple answer is no.

I know the story, where it starts, what happens on the way, and where it ends. The rest comes to me as I write. I find it much more fun to discover the story as if I was a reader. Planning every detail leaves me cold.

One thing I have done is to create around 180 character names. Most I'll use, but a few are currently spare.

This is an example of how I write:

This short starts with a man and ends with an explosion. I don't know anything else until I start writing: I'm making this up as I go along - honestly :-)

Light from the station flashed between the carriages as the train passed, scattered like diamond facets through the rain.

He looked at his watch. Ten past midnight. It still wasn't time. But there was time to turn back. Time to take the short stroll to his car, close the door and leave this place. No-one would know, but thousands would die.

Why did he open that letter addressed to his dead wife, and why should he care? Is it truly bravery if nobody knows your name, or maybe that's the greatest sacrifice.

Twelve minutes past midnight and still the freight train is rolling past. Stacked double, with graffiti daubed, rusting containers it creaks and clatters over loose railings. The destination is Boston, but the last carriage?

Fourteen past and it's almost there. A single carriage with a single blue painted container. Conspicuous in its fresh gloss, the rain bounces off the dust free surface, and the station light scatters over the field.

Just a little nearer.

He fumbles in his back pocket and swipes to unlock the phone. Two is already set to speed-dial and all he needs to do is hit it.

"I'm sorry Martha, I should have believed you".

The key is pressed and there's no going back. A chain reaction is unleashed and in just ten seconds it would be done.

A flash first as the container top is blown off, followed by a boom that shakes the pillar where he's stood. Then the cargo ignites and an explosion of white sparks cascade from the truck like a roman candle.

The train continues until the sparking last carriage disappears from view. He tucks the phone back into his pocket and wipes the rain from his brow.

I'm no hero he thought, and walked slowly to his car.

That's just a bit of "making stuff up" and nothing to do with any story I'm writing.

If you'd like to suggest a topic (start and end) I'll have a go, as long as it isn't something stupid like: "starts with an election and ends with Donald Trump as president". It has to be credible!

Fantasy Opus - Chapter "I've lost count"

I'm now up to 65,000 words and the story is probably less than a third through. My current thinking is that it could well end up as a trilogy with each book at around 100,000 words. Well the Hobbit has 95,000 and the first Harry Potter book has 76,000 for a comparison.

I'd love to give out a few details but I can't think of anything that will not uncover the story. Here are a few cryptic clues.

The story contains:

• A creature from English folklore
• A creature from Eastern folklore
• Several human type creatures from European folklore (I'm for staying in by the way!)
• A place name inspired by a famous physicist (no really!)
• A mythical tree.

Zero Magenta

I've been asked a few times recently about releasing Zero Magenta in paperback. I'm seriously considering it. There's an Amazon service called Creatspace which makes it relatively painless. I've also been investigating cover art for both Zero Magenta and the new novels.

I have a short list of two cover artists I would like to use but they both seem to be ridiculously busy. Probably because they're very good.

I've decided to have another go at creating my own, using some much better stock images. I'll only use them if they turn out ok.

That's all for now.

John H.

Fantasy Opus - Chapter 19

It's true to say, it's taking me longer to write this one than Zero Magenta. Possibly as I'm creating a world rather than borrowing an existing one.

I've just gone through the 50,000 word mark (Zero Magenta has approx 75,000), and I'm not even a quarter into the story so this will be much larger than my first. It could even be more than one book, although it seems that fantasy must either be (a) a single book, (b) a trilogy or (c) a never ending saga that the writer never completes (Game of Thrones anyone?).

However it turns out, I'm writing the entire story in one hit. My small brain can't split it into chunks before I've completed it.

I've finally discovered another writer who writes in a similar manner. Jed Mercurio, the writer of the excellent BBC2 drama: Line of Duty, writes each episode before moving onto the next, and discovers the full story as he goes.  I think it's much more fun to discover the story unfolding as the characters do.  Of course I do have an overarching narrative, and I know where the story goes, but the details will come to me.

I tend to think in terms of key moments. I have around ten key moments in my head that lead to the end of the story. The fun starts when I join them together. I've currently created over a hundred characters, but many are merely mentioned or a just bit players. E.g. a bar maid or a farmer etc.

I've just added a female character who is likely to become one of my favorites, and contrary to the usual fantasy stereotypes, she's not a twenty five year old blonde elf with a massive chest.

There are no Elves in the story (or are there?).

That's all for now,

John H.

Zero Magenta Secrets

A few hidden secrets and Easter Eggs buried within Zero Magenta.

Here

Strictly for nerds.

Fantasy Opus - Chapter 12

I've just hit the 30,000 word mark (before editing) and coming up to another touchstone moment in the story. This is me, very hard at work writing:

I'm sorry but they are palm tree's behind, although it could of course have been photo-shopped!
I could tell you it's my home above, but alas it was just a week in the sun, then back to freezing cold Britain. It's cold and grey as I look out of the window writing this.

Okay, here's another snippet from the book.  I created this character design in a game called Dragon Age Inquisition (I'm a bit of a gamer - don't judge me!). I liked it so much I wrote her likeness into the story. Despite the pointed ears, she's not an elf.

And finally a big thank you to all those who have purchased a copy of Zero Magenta. The feedback has been great, and it's really spurring me on to write more.

Bye for now,

John Howes.

Fantasy Opus - Chapter 6

The main characters are on the move and starting to explore the world. There are secrets, lies, a hidden past and an uncertain future.

I've still no idea how big it will end up, but I've just bust the 10,000 word mark.

(The Fellowship of the Ring has 187,000 words while Game of Thrones has 298,000!).

The biggest challenge for me is creating a believable world.

Here's a small snippet of the map I'm using.

It's in pencil and didn't scan very well. The tiny dot at the top with the smudged name is where the story begins.

I aim to do a full colour map eventually and put it on this blog.

That's all for now.

John Howes.

B'inazine plen

Dlen finst tu'vel aeon'tla

If you understand that it means you're in my head, and that really would be scary :-)

You can go the full Tolkien and create an entire language from scratch, then only use a handful of words from it in your book, or you can create enough for the areas you need it.

To be honest I'm thinking more the latter, although I've created some basic grammar rules. I've noticed that unless the language has a basic structure it does look like you've just thought it up on the spot.

More to come,

Bye for now.

Fantasy Opus - Chapter 4

In reality I haven't started chapter 4 but I've put in the page break :-)

The story has a large number of keystones in my mind and we've just reached the second. This moment has been in my head for over ten years, probably nearer twenty. It's strange to finally commit something to word that's been locked in your mind.

Of course these chapters could be very different after editing. I'm at the stage described by one writer as the "vomit draft" i.e. just splurging what's in your head onto the page and worrying about the grammar and other points later.

Here's another clue:

I've just been watching the "Real Marigold Hotel", a BBC documentary. The subject of the Indian caste system was discussed. The idea that you are defined by your birth i.e. if you're born to a cleaner, then you too will be a cleaner etc. It's a fascinating and disturbing subject, that for some their lives are not their own.

Some are forced to live a lie.

Bye for now,

John Howes.

Fantasy Opus - Chapter 1

I'm now well into my second novel and it's likely to be much bigger than the first. In fact it may even spread to more than one book.

I don't know how writers like George R.R.Martin can plan to split a story into multiple books, as I only discover the full story as I write it.

I remember when I was at school we had an English teacher who told the class that all books were split into three sections: The beginning, middle, and end. I also remember being totally turned off by this notion. My writing doesn't come that way.

I love to discover the story as I'm writing it. I keep the whole story idea in my head, but some of the most interesting aspects come to me as I'm writing on the page.

In Zero Magenta the connection between Dimitri and Philip only came to me as I was writing, and it's one of my favorite parts of the story.

The bones of the new story are in my head now (I'm getting a right headache!) and the working title is "Fantasy Opus". One of the biggest influences on the book so far comes from a famous poem that I heard when I was about eleven years old:

"Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveler,   

   Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champed the grasses   

   Of the forest’s ferny floor"

Extract from The Listeners by Walter De La Mare.

That's all for now.

John Howes.

Writers block of work

...See what I did there?

I'm really pleased with the response to my first novel on the kindle store here.

Having now created my first I'm onto the next.

Firstly it's very, very different to Zero Magenta. It's a fantasy set in a fantasy world. It indulges the second of my literary passions, but in the same way that Zero Magenta isn't your typical sci-fi, the new book will stray from some of the fantasy conventions, while embracing others.

I remember reading an article many years ago where a so called "serious" writer dismissed fantasy as "easy". Certainly from my perspective I can tell you that the opposite is true. The amount of world building required is immense. The huge cast of characters, races, places and the history and backstory needs to be created from scratch.

I normally carry the story in my head, but this one has spilled out onto a spreadsheet!

I'll leak a few crumbs during the year, but for now this is a flavor of my thinking:

I don't believe in the simple "good versus evil" I'm far more interested in shades of grey, and why people become who they are.

Have a good new year - bye for now.

John H.