I haz a podcast

The guys at Cast of Wonders, the up and coming audio magazine for Young Adult readers, have been fooled/bullied/convinced to feature my short story 'Jack in the Box'.

This story has almost done the full round: its been published, reprinted, podcast - now all I need is some to buy tv and film rights and I'm sorted.

Grand Plan Replanned

Can't remember who said this. Probably Sun Tsu, or somebody like him. "No military strategy survives the first encounter with the enemy".

Based on that, I think the Grand Plan did OK. I wrote three outlines; one as a sequel to Aphdrodite's Dawn, one as the second book in the Warrior Stone trilogy, and a steampunk/urban fantasy mash with a working title of 'Amunet', so I guess I met the first half of the objectives.

Writing the three shorts was not so easy. I have finished one, and its currently out for peer preview. But then I got some comments on another story I wrote a while back. I never put it out for publication as I was never totally happy with it. Not the 'fussing with it ad absurdium because I can't let it go' thing, but just a feeling it was missing something. The comments gave me an idea and I've just launched into a total rewrite of a 100k word novel. Did I hear somebody at the back scream 'insanity'? Perhaps.

So I have no idea how long that's going to take, but I figure that's got to be worth two short stories? Mmm?

Last stop on the Blog Tour

Courtesy of Mr Jonathan Pinnock, of 'Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens' fame. Drop by here and take a look.

Of course, the down side of this is that I have to start thinking of interesting things to put here now. Sure, I think of something. Somehow :)

New stop on the blog tour

This time I have the great pleasure of working with Rev Wayne Austin Goodchild. Pleas go here and take a look. Its rather amusing.

Blog Tour

I've been lucky enough to be invited to post on the blog of the Queen of Vampire Fiction herself, the inimitable Sam Stone. You can see my post here.

Sam is a wonderful lady. I've met her a number of times at conventions, and I think I've read all of her published stuff. I've even reviewed a couple of her books earlier in this blog. If you haven't tried her Vampire Gene series, its well worth a look.

Blog Tour: Rosie Oliver

Rosie Oliver has kindly volunteered to be the next host for my blog tour.

Rosie is a fellow member of the BSFA 'Orbit' crit groups, and writes SF so hard its  Brinnell number is higher than rhenium diboride

On Giving and Taking Offense

Heard something on the radio this morning. It wasn't a 'news item' as such, so there may be a touch of the apocryphal here, but here goes. Apparently, the bus drivers of Brighton and Hove have been advised - on pain of disciplinary action - that they are not to use term like 'love', 'darling', 'babe' when referring to customers.

This is based on one (I'll just say that again - 'one') customer reporting that she felt offended being addressed in such a way.

I can almost guarantee that said bus driver was not going out of his (or her way) to offer a calculated insult by looking at this customer and thinking 'I bet I can wind her up if I call her "babe"', and its has to be better than the surly grunt we get seem to get of so many bus drivers. Can you blame them?

OK, there are times when its appropriate to use one form of address over another. I would expect to be addressed as 'sir' in most shops, but on the street, I bump into somebody (or vice versa) 'mate' is perfectly acceptable, as is 'love' or 'darlin'. So I am confused what this woman who complained wanted to be called. 'Miss' is now considered an insult, 'Missus' is considered derogatory to younger women. 'Mzzzz' perhaps? Or maybe 'Citizen'?

Somebody posted something recently on facebook - I wish I could remember who so I could give them full credit - that very much addressed this sort of thing, and I support the concept totally. Isn't it long past time we all stopped looking for things we can take offence at, and instead decided to take offence only when offence is intended?