Entertainment meets Astronomy

You have to watch this. Rapper Milky J is a HUGE fan of the Hubble telescope (‘cos it’s silver and everyone loves silver) and worries over its demise with the coming of the James Webb telescope. So Milky goes along to the Goddard Institute with a film crew and grills them in the most hilarious way.

Thanks Maria Ayres, who works at the Hubble Telescope (so to speak) for this link. Maria is a contributor to Escape Velocity, our magazine at Adventure Books of Seattle.

Link to Milky J’s defence of Hubble http://bit.ly/cLYp8c

Astronomy will never be the same.

Struggle to reach Escape Velocity

In spite of excellent reviews and  at least good UK scifi coverage, sales of Escape Velocity  magazine of science fact and fiction are far  too lowly to be viable. It could be that the model of us (Adventure Books of  Seattle) using Lulu.com as the printer / distributor of the magazine is faulty. Sometimes I find the Lulu website is slower than a snail  travelling uphill. I wonder  if others  find the  same  problem?

The link is here http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1727255

Please try it, even if only to grab a free ebook download.  We are  considering  a) closing down or b) using Kindle format as the only output and then via Amazon. c) Open to suggestions.

It would be a shame to close Escape  Velocity. It is a vehicle for both new and experienced writers, a goodly mix of fiction and fact, open to experiment and apparently well-liked.

Some folk have advised us to reduce the A4 format, partly to make it more shelf-friendly and pocket-sized. Also to stop rewarding contributors with copies since most would be happy to buy their own. We would continue to  pay contributors. Thoughts on these and more are welcome.

UKAway 09

I’m off to Cyprus soon for a residential writers’ workshop and relaxation. I normally work from home and frequently distracted by seeing chores to do, answering the phone and door, and preparing meals. Being away  allows us to focus more on writing and reading. (I’ll still be distracted but by more pleasurable pursuits. It is organized through UKAuthors.com and I’m helping to run it this year with John Goodwin (our Cyprus member) and David Gardiner. That’s no big deal because apart from daily get togethers in the evening for an hour or so reading and critting each others’ work, we are free to spend the day writing or sight seeing. I’m hoping to finish the last two chapters of Xaghra’s Revenge; write a couple of shorts; and rent a bike to explore western Cyprus. Some of the latter will go into a contribution to Cycling World. While we’re there we are visiting the local writers’ group in Paphos. I’m taking a handful of my books and Escape Velocity mag to sell.

For writers of the Whittaker Prize competition that is currently running, I’ll be picking up the entries while on Cyprus. Just think that I’ll be in a good mood grading your stories while basking in the warm.

Back to packing.

Escape Velocity #4 is here

After a delay through the latter half of 2008, we at Adventure Books of Seattle are pleased to announce the release of Escape Velocity magazine of science fiction and fact. It’s a lovely glossy covered 100+ pages mag.

There is an interview with Stefan Arngrim from the Irwin Allen TV series Land of the Giants. Sonny Whitelaw of Stargate novels fame submitted a story. Photo features include ‘Flight of the Phoenix – The University of Arizona Goes to Mars’ and many historical photos from the infamous NASA ‘G.R.I.N’ files. Nine other sci-fi short stories, science articles, Jasper Fforde and lots of other great stuff.

To purchase visit http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=1727255

Note to contributors: payments in process. Please be patient, especially for contributors’ copies.

Phew, that’s another signing over with. I arrived late because of road works in Chester I hadn’t expected, but soon established two sets of my books on the table set up for me near the book. Location advantage: everyone coming into the shop saw me; disadvantae: With the air temperature outside at 6C I soon developed hypothermia. Shivering within a few minutes of setting up, i set off for the Starbucks within the store for a hot Americano. The queue there made me think there was another road works at the counter but eventually I had a bucket of coffee, Starbucks call regular.  On my way back to the refridgerated table my daughter met me and said there was a crowd at the table and to hurry up!

There was a crowd too. Thanks so much to Silky (John Silkstone) who’d driven since yesterday to attend my signing. Also there was Gladys Hobson and her charming husband, Ralph, who’d  journeyed from Cumbria for the weekend. Then there was my daughter, son-in-law, and a mystery woman lurking nearby. I was so busy signing, my pen ran out of ink – or it was protesting because I never made it write more than one signature an hour before. Expecting a slow session I’d brought my Sony Vaio with the intention of writing another chapter of Xaghra’s Revenge, but I was pleased beyond expectations at these internet friends coming to see me. Gladys and Silky are both with me in the Beyond Hill yahoo group: a group of former clients of the defrocked Hill & Hill Literary Agency. Ironically Gladys is also a member, though inactive, of a great ideas4writers website and forum. So is Brian Lux, I mentioned yesterday, who was signing his books in the childrens section of Borders.

Geoff Nelder at Borders

My daughter took this snapshot. Note my laptop on which I did manage to write about 500 words in between signing 18 books – 16 copies of Exit, Pursued by a Bee and 2 of Escaping Reality.

Maria Ayres at our Escape Velocity Mag forum suggested I wear brightly coloured clothes and smiled a lot. Hah. I found this red shirt so I hope that’s OK. I also put out white chocolate Maltesers because they were the only sweets (candies for Americans) that could represent the metallic spheres featured in Exit.

The mystery lady in the crowd was Eleanor Crampton, a former pupil at Queen’s Park High School. It is so rewarding nattering to former pupils and seeing how they’ve developed careers and their lives.

I could have sold my laptop at least three times, and one chap nearly bought Exit, Pursued by a Bee because he thought it was about bees! Hello too, to Jenna of Whitchurch, and Jim of Llangollen. Andrea Skinner, who is poorly though recovering came and gave me a hug – cheers. Also, thanks to her friend, Lisa, and Rob, her hubby.

So 18 books isn’t a huge heap, and my body leaked too much heat, but meeting so many good people warmed me nicely.

FantasyCon 08

I’m taking a break between packing boxes of books and mags for FantasyCon in Nottingham this weekend. If you are attending, come over to the Screaming Dreams table. I only realized when I packed my Exit, Pursued by a Bee books (published by Double Dragon) and Escape Velocity Magazines with copies of Dimensions (from Adventure Books of Seattle) that I could have filled a dealer’s table by myself! But it will be a blast to share a table with Steve Upham’s small press Screaming Dreams and his newest published author, Allyson Bird who is launching her Bull Running for Girls (what a great title). Also there is Screaming Dreams other 2008 book, Dragons in Manhattan by the Fantasy legend, John Grant.

My pulse is already up – I hope my blood pressure can stand it!

I should have packed last night but I remembered in time to attend my local writers’ circle in Chester. I’ve been a member for at least 5 years but keep forgetting to go.  At least four people there recognised me and I knew the names of enough so as not to appear a complete stranger. They are a friendly group and contain gifted poets and fiction writers. I am honoured to be among them during the Chester Literary Festival next month at which I’ll be reading an extract from Exit.

Back to FantasyCon in Nottingham this weekend. It is an oddity in some ways that many of the members of the critique group of the British Science Fiction Association also meet at FantasyCon. Not officially; it just happens that many BSFA writers also write or read fantasy and live near enough to Nottingham to make the trip a great social event. This is usually in a large room where the bar also happens to be. Not that I’ll be drinking much: I like to keep a clear head when gleaning tips off agents, publishers and fellow writers.

The other good aspect of being in Nottingham is feeling the spirits of medieval England, Robin Hood (if he actually existed is immaterial) and the Sheriff along with merry and unhappy men and women still roam the streets. Better still, my son lives and works in the city. My selling books and networking with the fantasy greats is spiced with being able to be dad again. Especially as this will be the first time my wife and I are visiting son’s fiancee in her own home and visiting her parents. How much better can it get? Well, daughter’s baby had its 20 week scan this week. It’s a boy and already riding an invisible bike!

More of my time each day is spent on promo than in writing. This isn’t good. To be fair much of the promo is in email and forum chatting to efriends and real friends so it isn’t unpleasant but still reduces the progress in the writing of Xaghra’s Revenge. I spent a couple of hours travelling out to the nearest Borders with a copy of Exit, Pursued by a Bee. They have copies of my Escaping Reality on sale or return so I hoped to persuade the buyer to order Exit. Really I needed them to place the order with their wholesalers because otherwise the price would have to be too high. The buyer was in but too busy so I have to make an appointment tomorrow. I’ve packaged a copy of Exit, press cuttings to show I can do promo and a sheet of information such as ISBN and contact information.

The promo workload is going to worsen. I was sent a copy of the contract for my Hot Air thriller last night. Wuacademia, an arts academy in the Netherlands, are publishing it with a launch date in December.  Excellent. I recall with exhiliration the party in Groningen when I accepted the Silver award for best unpublished novel, and my daughter came along to make sure at least one person was there in the audience to applause. There will be a launch party not just for my book but for other writers, artists, poets, singers, drummers and dancers.

Another blogger popped into the Escape Velocity forum today. Seaserpent otherwise known as Kate – or is it the other way around? Congratulations, Kate, on having your story accepted for publication in issue #4 of Escape Velocity. Kate’s bright and cheerful blog is http://www.scribblingseaserpent.blogspot.com/

Issue #3 of our science fiction & fact magazine is now out check it out here!

Yesterday morning’s earthquake in Illinois worried me. My literary agent lives west of Chicago and I needed to ensure my Left Luggage scifi manuscript survived safely. I needn’t have worried. Although skyscrapers swayed and roads split, my agent had a martini in his hand and so the quake served a useful purpose.

The list of friends I have on Facebook is growing. Many of them are fellow writers, family members and former pupils from Queens Park High in Chester. Some though, are folk I’ve never met in real 3D life nor virtually. These are friends of friends who feel we may have something in common, and that’s cool to meet new people. I have to watch though, as we all do, for those who curry favour in order to sell something. I thought that might have been the case yesterday when MEAT appeared in my intray. As a vegan I thought someone was attempting to wind me up, especially when I saw it was a book with the very old catchphrase: You are what you eat. I noticed that the MEAT author, Joseph D’Larcy, and I have a scifi author friend in common so I dug deeper. Yes, Meat is a horror book, another of my genre, though not for a year or so. It seems Joseph has written a fascinating tale with gory cover and premise, but it is far from glorifying meat, so I agreed to being a friend. His book is at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meat-Joseph-DLacey/dp/1905636156 and doing well since its February 2008 launch. Good luck, Joseph!

I’m not religious, but I’m still a jolly good person
Our local bishop has told us all for Lent this year to think of global warming and turn off a light bulb for a whole week.
So tomorrow I’m nipping around to the cathedral and unplugging the fuse box – he he.

Many congrats have been deluging my inbox over the release of our Escape Velocity magazine’s second issue. My first copy arrived today, and it looks fabulous.

 Today I trampled mud and leaves, dodged off-road cyclists and narrowly avoided a stampede by two horses. Yes, an exhilirating hike in Delamere Forest with Deb, a walking companion from a new promenading group in the Chester area. Delamere is mixed woodland with several meres (ponds), and the woodland tracks cross over seven old brick bridges across a railway that cuts through. We stopped on one of the bridges as a train rattled underneath. I waved at the driver, but judging by his face I have a horrible feeling he was expecting me to lob a brick at him instead of a helloooo. I saved the best bit of the walk until last – the cafe on the edge of the forest, but damn it, a house is there instead. I nearly knocked on the door and asked for two teas and toasted teacakes because I’d worked up a fair appetite.  A brilliant hike. Thanks Deb.

I am really touched by my e-friends this week. I’d disappeared off the Internet radar while New Year visiting relatives in far flung Gloucestershire and notices were posted at the Cafe Doom and ItsYour Turn, and other websites asking if folk had seen me!  I’d taken wise advice from security-conscious friends to keep my being away from home a secret. It makes sense not to tell all the burglars that no one is at home. Having said that, there is always the chance my kids would be at home even when I’m not. Also our burglar alarm is reinforced by two Akita Shepherd dogs next door who bark at butterflies. Hopefully, they’d scare the pants of housebreakers too.

The weather in the UK over Christmas and New Year was pale compared to the heavy snowstorms in Canada and northern USA, but miserable enough to keep me from long walks and bike rides. However, I’ve been busy promoting Escape Velocity magazine issue #1 and reading / editing more science fiction stories for the next issue.

My Xaghra’s Revenge fantasy novel has made slow progress this winter solstice. One reason in the Double Dragon Publishing competition / anthology in the next Twisted Tales collection based on pure fear. It occured to me that a most fearful place would be to be abandoned on top of a very tall tower crane when a) a storm brews, b) the area around the base floods, and c) your wife leaves you for the site foreman, who is climbing the crane to put you out of your misery! I enjoyed the research – did you know that they still have men in cabs over 450 feet in the air? They deserve medals for bravery along with their huge pay packets. Naturally, I’ve thrown in a few spanners but I decided to slow the pace to the M R James style I’ve been told I can do well. Whether DDP accepts it depends on whether I’ve pitched it right, and so I’ve submitted it to two critique groups: the BSFA Orbiters group and Cafe Doom. Come on fellow writers, do your worst!

Gary Hicks sent me this wish so I’ll it on – apologies to friends who’ve seen it:

My Wish for you in 2008

May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your
debts. May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet of  £20 notes.

 May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your
lips!  May your clothes smell of success like smoking tyres and may
happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.
May the problems you had forget your home address! In simple words
…..

May 2008 be the best year of your life!