Digital Film School and other distraction.

It's been difficult getting back into the writing in the last few months, partly due to my latest ACL resconstruction (6 weeks ago) and partly because I'm taking a digital film course from the Open University (T156) that's taking more time that I had thought it would.

Why take it? Well, I think that digital film is an increasingly important marketing tool and means of expression. For example, book trailers are a relatively new thing that I'm sure will become increasing important, especially as e-books begin to incorporate images and video as extra content.

The course seems to be a good course covering aspects of filming and of creating less film-oriented content, say, for slideshows, demos, etc. Of course, the principles of film production are the same, the main difference between the two directions is the different technology required.

It is, of course, suggested that we do the weekly video-creation tasks, and I've been posting mine to my YouTube account. Check them out if you want and feel free to leave comments (I just ask you try to be constructive).

The latest video, as of this post, was a piece to camera climate diary. It's rather awful, made only a bit better through editing. It's made me realize how bad I am at speaking to the camera (primarily with regards to focusing my thoughts), something I'd like to change. So I'm going to try streaming a short vlog on Justin.tv as soon as I get the tech up and running. Feel free to check it out at:

www.justin.tv/eternaltherapy/videos

Anyway, despite this, I am trying to get back to writing. My two goals for year end are to write the new script and to rework the first 3-4 chapters of my conspiracy novel. Being as it's almost November, perhaps that's a little too ambitious? We'll have to see.

Post-apocalyptic Future UK Flood Map

In the process of preparing the backstory for one of my works (I won't say which), I've produced what could be a post-apocalyptic future UK map. Combining a city map with a relief map (with some tweaking) has resulted in the following:

From the upper right scale you can see this essentially highlights the separation between lowlands--grey--and highlands--green to red. One this to note is that the 'lowlands' on this map are still up to 50m above sea level. I intend to use this as a map of future flooded UK, where the lowlands are submerged. Obviously, in addition to polar ice cap melting, this would require some seismic event.

Regardless, the results are interesting, suggesting that England is most vulnerable of the three UK countries and would be most changed by such a series of events, while Scotland and Wales would be almost unaffected. In fact, England would be reduced to a peninsula off Scotland, an island in the southwest, and a small archipelego. The seat of power would possible shift to Birmingham, as London would be underwater and Southerners have very little respect for Northerners, in general.

This new geography is ripe for stories, suggesting many questions about a shift in the balance of power. For example: Could England remain in control or would Wales, and especially Scotland, reassert their power vying for independence or sovereignty over the new British Isles? How would the surviving cities, most now becoming coastal, adapt? What type of society would arise now that the seat of power (government and monarchy) has been destroyed.

So much food for thought :))

Back in Business

My knee is getting bearable and almost walkable again, so time to get back to business. I'll be updating you on some of my novel and script-writing progress (and any short stories, if I get to them).

My latest news is that I've heard from BBC on my first script: a form letter rejection. Oh well. At least I've got a baseline now. I've set myself 3 more scripts to reach some acceptable level (approx. 1/6 months). The next script I'll aim to send by the end of the year.

Oh, I've found an excellent resource on CafePress for universe / empire planning: a map of stars within 30 light years, set in cartesian coordinates with links between close stars and stars with potential habitable zones indicated. I think it will be a great resource for planning my Gateway series.

That's all for now.