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.

Taking stock as Q4 approaches

I guess I should stop saying 'it's been a while since the last update' since that seems to be the perpetual state this year. I was kicked out of my routine early this year by medical issues and haven't succeeded in returning to it yet. As it's so easy to become caught up in the negative, I've decided to focus on the positive, on what I have accomplished for the year so far, and what I plan to accomplish in the next few months.

So, although I've had to re-evaluate some of my goals for the year, I am still on track for others.

1) Script Writing
I finished, revised and sent off my first complete script to the BBC in June, received the acknowledgement card a week later and have been waiting since then (possibly 6 more weeks to wait). In the meantime, I've come up with the basic stories for the next three scripts in my 2-year plan and I'm brainstorming the one I plan to finish for year's end (submitting it after I hear back from the first one).

2) Reading
My goal was to read at least one book a month--often challenging while trying to keep up with my vast number of other interests. Still, so far I have managed to average at least one book read per month (not including graphic novels, scripts, anthology edits, and manuscripts). The latest book, and older one by Roger Zelazny called 'Eye of Cat' will be particularly useful with the background in the novel I'm currently working on.

3) Blogging
This has been a mixed success. I managed to initiate a regular blog for Utility Fog Press (Utility Fog Blog) with three other writer/editors and there were regular entries for a while, however, it has slowed now and the last entry was in July! There are only two of us now doing anything regular with it so it--so if anyone reading this is interested, let me know (and send your writing/publishing background)

As for this blog, it's obviously been less than regular. A priority, post-knee surgery, will be to arrange the management of my internet resources much better, including websites and blogs, hopefully even setting up some for bringing in affiliate money.

4) Novel Writing
This is the goal that has suffered the most. I have been unable to get myself into a regular writing routine and even abandoned the revision of a novel--although that was because I felt I had learned as much as I could from it, and it would take more time to get it where I wanted it than I was willing to spend. It sounds like I abandoned the novel when the going got tough, but I don't believe that's so. This was never 'that' novel, whereas I have at least 4 others that are and I just got antsy wanting to work on them everytime I started on the other.

But, on the positive note, I have started formally compiling world info for two of the novels and have decided which one I will focus my energy on now. The current goal is to rework the first four chapters, and build the history, for the end of the year and then go full on next year, to finish draft 1 by the end of Q1.

5) Publishing
No new anthologies for Utility Fog Press this year--well, one that I requested submissions for, but is not going anywhere. I have, however, learned a lot about compiling epub e-books and have, finally, put together the e-books for Farspace 2 and Assassins' Canon, which are now available on Apple ibookstore and Lulu.com.

Also, I have some plans for a new anthology (for next year) and a regular multimedia event.

So, all-in-all, not a stellar year, but not a complete waste so far. Some failings, but enough successes to be reasonably happy (I've also managed to improve my Starcraft 2 ladder ranking significantly over season 1--I'm out of bronze league--drop me a e-mail if you want to play). Now I just have to get back to the writing!

Update

It's been a little while since the last post so I thought I'd update things.

Not too much has been happening, however. Medically things are going well with the visits to Leeds. And my foot is doing well with the inserts the podiatrist made. Unfortunately, the orthopaedic surgeon strongly advised having another surgery on my right knee to tighten the 15-year old graft. That will be in August, close to exactly 15 years after the last one. The funny thing was that he told me the surgery was much improved from when I last had it, then proceeded to describe exactly the same procedure. Even the rehab is the same. The only difference will be that the graft is taken from the opposite hamstring, for the obvious reason that taking another graft from the same hamstring would unduly tax that muscle (especially because it never fully recovered due to my negligence with physio).

So, not looking forward to a month of pain/crutches and a year of physio.

In other news... I managed to submit the script originally titled 'Absolute Power'. I changed the title after Charlotte brought it to my attention that AP was also the title of a recent UK political comedy series. Too bad, I really liked the title. Maybe I could sell it in the US?!

Anyway, the BBC has already acknowledged receipt, so now I have up to 4 months to wait for their comments, if any.

I've made the conscious decision to put Mindform Ascension on hold indefinitely. The amount of work the story would take to get it where I wanted it to be was more than my interest level. Originally I started the story only as a fun thing to see if I could finished a novel. Now I can see so many directions it can go in I'm worried it's turning into something completely different from what I wrote. One possibility I'll think about is to rework it into the fun story it seems and save the commentary and philosophical insights for another story. In the meantime I'm going to work on something else...

yep, planning to go back to Gateway finally. I want to start a formal treatise of the Gateway universe so that I have a framework to build a series on. Meanwhile I'll take the advise I received at the First Impressions workshop at Eastercon and try writing some short stories to play with voice and character development. They will be set in the same universe so that I can also develop the Gateway lore.

I'm also planning the next script. One of two ideas, not sure which I'll do yet.

Apart from that, Utility Fog Press has openes submissions for the next anthology: Tales for Travelers, a micro-fiction anthology designed as easy reads for commuters. I'm aiming to publish in e-book formats first, the prepare a POD pocket paperback.

And that really is all for now. Other than the business venture I'm planning... more on that later.