The first issue of the Escape Velocity magazine that Robert Blevins in Seattle and I, in the UK, edited is proving popular with the readers and writers. So much so we at Adventure Books of Seattle are putting together the next issue as we speak. (I’m using my left hand to type this as my right is working on the mag, and my other hand grasps a peanut butter sandwich).  So we have enough sparkling stories for issue #2 so come on writers, add your words for the next volume! Check here for both readers and writers! And the price has gone down again! Check too for the competition. If you don’t feel like writing a whole story we are happy to publish your letters. Any aspect of science fiction and aspects of science will be considered.

In our issue #1 I’d written an article about the thoughts offered to me on a writers’ course from sci fi writer, Jon Courtenay Grimwood. In a private session he’d looked at some of my science fiction stories and after I’d sent him Exit, Pursued by a Bee, now going to be published by Dragon Dreams Publishing, Jon sent me a quote I can use on jacket covers:

“Geoff Nelder inhabits science fiction the way other people inhabit their clothes.”

Thanks Jon. That’s a compliment I can throw on my shoulders!

As the solstice approaches the days are too short to mount long cycle rides or hikes, which is a shame since I have several in mind. The odd thing is that the temperature today in Chester hovered around freezing all day with freezing mist adding to the discomfort. Yet last Tuesday I was in colder temperatures on top of Foel Fras and Llywtmor and feeling cosy! A combination of dry air, blue sky and the heat generated by the exertion kept me warm for 24 hours.

I collected my new bike today. A Dawes Super Galaxy and it looks great. I eagerly wheeled it out of the shop and realized the saddle was so low I’d knock myself out if I rode it home, so I wheeled it back in. Moments later I had it outside again, threw my leg (just the one) over the saddle and along the very wide pavement, with no pedestrians in sight, I started pedalling. Two revolutions later I dismounted and wheeled it back in the shop. They’d fitted the panniers too close to the pedals so my shoes were hitting them. The new panniers had a locking device I wasn’t familiar with so I couldn’t adjust them. Minutes later I was outside again and this time travelled 100 metres before turning to re-enter the shop. I’d never seen gear levers like them! Marvelous isn’t it? Buy a new car and you get a handbook of instructions, tools and friendly advice on how to get in and drive.  Spend a thousand pounds on a new bike and you get no instructions, no tools, no drinks bottles (although the shop did give me those after all), no lights, but you do get a bell that makes less noise than my creaking knees! Nevertheless, I’ll enjoy riding it, once I’ve adjusted the seat, handlebars, pedals…

My legs are reluctant to cooperate today on account of me overworking them yesterday with a 15 hilly miles walk.  I’ve been waiting weeks for a clear dry day in order to walk the mountain ridge perimeter of the Anafon valley in North Wales. I use the valley in my Left Luggage sci fi novel and although some of the characters go on patrol up on the ridges I’d not actually been up there to verify what they would see. OK I’ve been up some of it but not all the way around and not Moel Llywtmor,  the summit of which I’ve been keen to see. There is the remains of a second world war bomber up there.

I caught the train from Chester 60 miles away at 0732 only to find it clicketyclacked really slow. The driver announced to frustrated passengers: “We’ve been trying to overtake a slow moving cargo train but we’ll have to wait until we reach Rhyll!” Surely I wasn’t the only one with a smile at the idea of our train nipping out to overtake?

The station at Llanfairfechan (try repeat saying that!) is at sea-level and my first 7 miles was uphill. I wasn’t sure of the path and asked a postman. Instead of the lyrical Welsh accent he was a Cockney and had started there only last week! With friends such as John Marchant I had hiked up to Drum and Foel Fras earlier this year but it was too foggy to risk going further then. Today, there was ice and snow on the summits but clear on top. I had to cross a col between Foel Fras and Llywtmor that I knew was going to be boggy, but luckily it was so cold that most of the boggy bits were frozen – yeay! By the time I was halfway up to the summit of Moel Llwytmor my legs said they didn’t want to go any further knowing, as they did, that we’ll probably have to return the same way with climbing up Foel Fras and Drum again. However, I said: “How hard can mountain walking be? It’s only putting one foot in front of another.” So onwards. I reached the summit.

Photographs of my walk are here. 

I rewarded myself by opening my flask of hot water and making a hot chocolate drink. It was so windy up there that my right hand became covered with hot chocolate, so I licked it off. I poured over my Ordnance Survey map to decide whether to retrace my route, as my legs feared, or to go on. Going on westwards meant all downhill the nearly 900 metres height back to sea level but with no footpath and so possible dodgy steep slopes. I had two hours before the winter sun set. Nevertheless, that’s what I did and all went well until I met the river Afon Goch. A thin footpath seemed to follow my side of the river but only in places. It might have been a sheep track or made by the dozen or so feral ponies that eyed me and kept their distance.  Following the river made sense because they eventually reach the sea. Then I remembered this one becomes the high waterfall, Aber Falls! I found another track but missed its proper route and ended up slipsliding down a gully and crunch sliding down a screeslope. Eventually I made it to a decent path and met a man with a border collie.  I asked if he knew where the local bus stop was to Llanfairfechan so I could catch the train back. He offered me a lift to Conwy instead. Great! Until he was caught in a traffic jam and I saw my train whiz by. Sometimes a stranger kindly performs a favour you’d be better off without! So from Conwy I walked another mile to Llandudno and caught the train home. Phew.

Hooray, the rain slowed today sufficient for me to leap on my bicycle for a between the showers ride to fetch a morning paper. Because of a dislocated finger last month and the rain, gales and busybusy life, I’ve not had a chance to do any long hilly rides, so I rode slowly. I’d forgotten how exhilirating it is to cycle through the countryside, challenge and beat the hills and freewheel down them. I think it was President Clinton who once remarked that cycling was one of the few simple pleasures everyone should experience regularly.

I’ve also been busy writing and editing. Also I’ve had the pleasure of critiquing several short stories at Cafe Doom a great crit site mainly for horror writers. Many of us there write in other genre too but generally in a noir fashion. One aspect of the stories I critiqued intrigued me as it is true of many of the submissions I’d read for the Escape Velocity magazine. Many writers are great at describing what they see, and often have good characterization and dialogue but forget to engage all the readers’ senses. I recently read two 10,000 word stories neither of which had any smells or tactile experiences to offer. Along with taste, odours and feel are part of the way we use SHOW instead of TELL. Allan Guthrie of Hardluck Stories, once showed me that where I’d written about a man sat next to a rancid tramp on a train, I could convert it to real show by adding – as if a pint of sour milk had been poured over him. Excellent. Doesn’t your nose wrinkle now? Hah.

I’ve been having fun revisiting an old favourite article of mine lately. I’ve been asked by Marilyn Peake to contribute a couple of articles for a print version of a newsletter she is publishing in 2008 on writing issues. In 2004 I was commissioned to research and write an article on why dogs bark at and chase bicycles. I used Yahoo and other forum groups to ask basic and then more specific questions to groups of dog owners, cyclists and sound engineers. I’d received over 2000 responses along with long correspondance with ethologists. I’ve always intended to write an article on how I did that research including some amusing aspects and so the draft is done.  I’ll read it again in the next few days and send it off. Peter N. Davidson took some great photographs for me and I’m hoping one or two will be used again. Here is his gallery.

Good news from our forum members of survivors from Christopher Hill’s crashed Literary Agency. As time heals our wounds, more of us are writing again and gaining recognition. Gladys Hobson wrote a romance novel, Awakening Love, which has won a highly commended award at the London Book Festival this week. Well done that lady! A link to her books is here.  Others in the group have made progress too, including Lanaia Lee where her ‘Of Atlantis’ has released a YouTube video here. Another member, Brian Withecombe has his The Seagull & Le Corsair book published here

http://tinyurl.com/276fup

Other members are singing like Elvis! Well done, Bob Taylor >>>
http://www.myspace.com/tuesdaynightatthebootandshoe

It really is worth listening to. Congratulations Bob.

My contract for my sf novel Exit, Pursued by a Bee is with Double Dragon Publishing in Canada now, so I look forward to working with J. Richard Jacobs my editor.