The subjectiveness of writing and reading.

An interesting thought occured to me today whilst answering an email. What happens if an Editor completely misses the point with a piece? If it gets criticised not necessarily because it is a bad ending, but because the Editor misses the point of what the final paragraph is saying? Now you may say that if the Editor doesn't get it then are the general readers likely to get it either? That would be a fair point, but in this case I'm not so sure. I did explain in my reply what the last bit was actually meaning, and it did cross my mind that maybe it was glaringly obvious to me because I had worked in the particular business the story was about for over ten years. Does this knowledge and experience blind me?

On the other hand, I probably ought to add that as the Editor had taken a long time to respond, I had sent the story out to a website that publishes short story. And they liked it a lot. So it is in print because a different Editor did get it. It only goes to show just how subjective writing actually is. It reminds me of a documentary where they interviewed some of the time wasters literary agents who rejected the "Harry Potter" books. Why did they miss out on a licence to print money? My favourite is because they just did not read the manuscript when she sent it to them. Well, their loss. Did they learn? No.

Bringing home the stars

I've finished my new short story, though it won't be going up on the website for a while because magazines like exclusivity for the period that their current issue is running for anything that they publish. That's fair enough. I'm passing it over tomorrow to my resident editor because, like most Authors, I find it very hard to edit my own stuff. Then it will be into the rounds of sending this thing out and trying to find a magazine interested in it. I have three good magazines that I can send it to, although for one of them their hard maximum word limit is only 10,000 words so I will have to lose nearly 1,850 words from the story to make it fit their limit. The other two are more generous and will take up to around 15,000 word stories, so that's okay.

The next story I am going to work on is planned to be a short flash fiction piece of maybe around 1,500 words (you can never really predict with any great accuracy the final word count). It's a hard sci-fi idea I had a few weeks ago, so I thought I would get it out of my system. After that I am toying with a more conventional short story that is just literary fiction highlighting the interactions of native communities with immigrants when they arrive, displaced by war. It will be a genre change for me from what I usually write, but it was such a good idea that I should at least give it a go. It may be though that I ditch it in favour of something else; that happens every once in a while.

I'm pretty pleased that I've written this large short story straight out of the back of writing my novel. If I can keep this pace up I shall be very happy. I still need to get the second draft of my novel done though, so that may come after the flash fiction piece, or even instead of it if the idea doean't work in the end. Only time will tell.

State of the Jenny address.

I suppose I should write an update here. My publisher likes the idea that I can chat and provide 'vaguely witty comment on the World' as some kind of oblique way of selling more books and upping my profile. Well, that's nice.

I suppose there's a mystique to keep up. All writers are supposed to project an aura that the public are supposed to believe. I'd love you all to think that I'm some kind of diva and goddess who spends all their time surrounded by flunkies and bathing in Ass' milk. Well, thankfully I'm not. I'm just another person with a boring day job that isn't quite as boring as a lot of other day jobs that I could have had. I write when I have some spare time, and - shock horror - I write because I just like writing stuff. It's kind of scary to think that some-one somewhere might just read some of the stuff I write, but they do.

It's been a busy old week. Having worked three twelve hour shifts on my three days at work, understandably there hasn't been much time to put fingers to keyboard, but I've done a little. There's a few short stories polished off and sent out to magazines. No doubt, as is usual these days, more than 90% of all I send out will be rejected. There's nothing new in this. It is an unfoirtunate fact that the biggest bunch of timewasters short of lawyers (sorry Zoë), politicians and estate agents are literary agents. The number of times a piece gets sent back rejected not because it isn't any good but because the workshy timewaster whose desk it landed on couldn't be bothered to even read it is beyond count. But it isn't just me. Even the greatest writers have suffwered such rejections throughout their career. Joanne Rowling, Enid Blyton and Stephen King are the three who readily spring to mind. It's nothing personal, just the unfortunate way that the publishing industry works.

The other two days in the week were spent in Durham. I had to go up there to pick up some wedding dresses. Long story - in essence if you see the dress that bowls you over, don't waste your time forever searching in lots of other bridal shops. Follow your heart and just go with the one that bowled you over. That meant that thursday and friday were taken. So that just leaves today for writing. Well, it is going well. The short story with no name is reaching completion. Hopefully it might be able to be passed over to be edited by the end of today, or maybe tomorrow at the latest. Good news I feel. I really ought to think of a title for it. It's sci-fi horror, as I'm sure that I mentioned before. I must have a think about it.

As a final oblique thought, I filled my car with petrol yesterday. Now, I don't usually do a huge mileage any more. In fact I usually only fill the car up once a month, and even then it is rarely less than half full. The trip to Durham used a reasonable amount and I am horrified to find that ten gallons now costs over fifty pounds. What kind of daylight robbery is this? Especially as much more than half gets thieved off as various taxes to be frittered by the government. Where is the good public transport alternative we were promised? No sign of it materialising around here.

Harumph.

How do you shit some-one's pants effectively with the written word?

The title says it all really. I'm writing horror seriously for the first time ever. Okay, it's sci-fi horror, but it is still a new venture to me. It's been born partly out of an idea I had many years ago long before my first book was published. I had an idea for a creature that was very scary, developed with the idea that monsters that you either see or that resemble a man in a rubber suit suck big time. I wanted to get away from the lame monsters of Hollywood horror. Well, in writing my new short story this idea came home to roost blended with a second idea I had that came from a Mary Celeste themed dream.

Of course, even if an idea is good, you still have to keep the reader guessing and not 'show the monster' too much or too soon, as Zoë often puts it whilst lamenting the questionable quality of some of the Russell Davies era Dr Who. So I've already had to rewrite a couple of bits to build the suspense, but I think I've got there. Part of the best way to scare people is to leave them expecting something of a horror nature, then sprinkle in a few false turns. I've done that a couple of times, and building their horror level each time. I've just written one mscene now that reveals the after effects of the 'monster' without specifically drawing attention to the monster. I think I've succeeded. At any rate, it has upped the ante and progressed the mystery of the story along to a new level.

I'm very minded of the fact that I have only around 10,000 words to play with, plus or minus ten percednt, so I have to be very economical with what I write. That all goes back to what I talked about in my last blog post. I think I can do it though. It is certainly slow going though, not helped in part by working hard on other non-writing stuff, and this being a new venture for me.

I have another longish short story to be edited and I'm hoping to get this sent to Asimovs in America some time during this week. I'm also aiming for this sci-fi horror story to be done and ready for editing by the end of this week too. Then my next project will be a short fiction piece provisionally called "The longest Summer" though don't quote me on that title. I have a flash fiction idea too called "The walls have ears" that will probably be a flash fiction (approximately 1,500 word) piece. We shall see what this week and next week brings, but I am starting to really get my writing output pushed up.

Less is more

Writing is a curious business. Short stories are harder to write than books, a lot of the time. You see, if you have the ability to write and getting the words on the page is not a problem then a book is just so much easier to write than something a lot shorter. 80,000 words plus gives you a lot of room for development. You can explore interesting ideas that suggest themselves during the writing and develop all your charectors and ideas very effctively.

In short stories you do not have that luxury. Short stories quickly become long stories if you start developing sub-plots, and that is bad if a short story is what you are after.

Keeping everything within 10,000 words can be quite a challenge, expecially as a short story still has to have a beginning, middle and end and draw the reader in. However 10,000 words is still not as tough as flash fiction or micro fiction. Flash fiction is around 1,500 words, and that can be very tough indeed. It has to tell a story to completion, draw the reader in and yet has very limited words to do it in. It is only a certain type of story that would be any good to work at this kind of short length. Flash fiction, of around 150 words is much harder still. 150 words is not much at all, and I've only ever managed one piece of micro fiction this short. I have to say it is a length that I don't like at all. Quite apart from being the most difficult to write well, the results always feel like the Banana Republic of writing. They're a con; so short they leave the reader wondering why there is no more.

Books are always going to be my favourite to write. I just like developing ideas and constructing intricate worlds. I think the fact that I've had five published, with at lweast one more done and on the way plus several others that were discarded after being finished. Some people might baulk at the idea of writing something so massive as a book, but I tell you that it is so much easier than a short story. If you can develop ideas and get the words out on the page, a book will always be the easier to write. After all, if you struggle to get more than a few words together before you run out of puff and inspiration, then you need a lot more practice at being a writer. Because practice is the key to everything.

Nothing dates faster than the future

Sci-fi set in space can be a difficult thing to write. Let's get one thing straight: all sci-fi, no matter how convincing it may seem, has to be made up. That means everything you see from a Star Trek episode to a copy of 'Rendezvous with Rama' had to be made up. It is a cunning mind that can create a convincing world that seems totally plausible yet is not real.

Of course, sci-fi has been around since at least the nineteenth century. Possibly something similar existed before this, but that was when it got its official genre title. That means that almost everything now is influenced by something else; it is almost impossible to come up with something that isn't a reinterpretation or a retelling of at least one aspect of something that has gone before. That's not to say that sci-fi is plagurism, because it is not. But it is very hard to get a truly original idea when imaginations have been hard at work for nearly 200 years at least.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the future was done with miniskirts, bakofoil and robots with personality disorders the size of a car. Computers were huge and strangely required spinning tape reels on the front, despite this being the future, aparently. Sci-fi is always influenced by the real world of the time it is written. Nothing dates quicker than a vision of the future, which is why sci-fi has quite a limited lifespan, especially hard sci-fi. The real trick in writing sci-fi is in recognising what might be the future and what certainly will not be the future. Also, think big. History shows that if a piece of technology is good it will catch on, spread like bacteria, and get smaller with more functions very quickly.

It is one of the important things I strive to in my writing that the future, that things are believable and not overly influenced by the real world at the precise moment that I am writing. Of course I have failed at times. There are books I wrote over ten years ago that have never been published that when I look over the manuscript I shudder and wonder what the hell I was thinking. Most sci-fi from the 50s, 60s and 70s is now truly unreadable, even some of the ones that were considered classics. Some books are champions of the greatest sci-fi and will live forever. 'Rendezvous with Rama' by Arthur C. Clarke is certainly one of these. However even Mr Clarke is not immune to the dated sucky bakofoil version of the future phenomina as 'A fall of moondust' shows. Philip K. Dick had some wonderful ideas, but occasionally was thwarted by ideas whose expression dated not so well. I love 'Flow my tears, the policeman said' but 'Time out of joint' is not one of my favourites.

So I hope my writing might come at least in a small way closer to the good stuff. I shall promise to not have my charectors wear bakofoil, dress like 1960s fashion rejects or fire phasers/lasers/disrupters/flange guns at Aliens from the planet ZZxpter 9 who mysteriously look like other humans in rubber suits.

As a final unrelated thought, did you ever see a bathroom on the Enterprise? Does anyone ever go to the bog on that thing?

le sigh

Well, it finally happened. In my currewnt short story, I've sort have started going metric. I never will fully, and resented the undemocratic attempts of an unelected unaccountable group of faceless beaurocrats in another country, aided and abetted by a group of faceless idiots in the UK government and civil service to make illegal my culture and free will to use whatever system of measurement I chose. I actually find imperial easier to understand, for a variety of reasons that explain why imperial came to exist over hundreds of years of refinement.

That's by-the-by now. I've used the measurement of metres per second for the first time, because metric is, at least, the measurement system of physics. So be it. I suppose it would have come eventually. Call me stubborn, but it would have come a whole lot quicker if I hadn't had undemocratic beaurocrats who most people alive and of voting age today never got a say on trying to make imperial measurements illegal to use. When there is so much serious crime in the World, what kind of a bunch of cretins instead ignore solving and prosecuting real crimes but instead hound a grocer in sunderland because he sold apples in pounds and ounces at the request of his customers who wanted to buy them that way because it was easier for them to understand?

Röyksopp's night out

We've had visitors this weekend, so there hasn't been a lot of time to do writing related stuff. I have, however, prepared a short story that has been sent in Saturday's post to Interzone - a very influential sci-fi/fantasy magazine in the UK. Fingers crossed that this might just get published. It follows on the heels of a short story sent to Alienskin in the US.

Today I have prepared two more short stories for possible sending off during next week, so I need to look up some other magazines to send to. I've found it hard to get into any big new project, so I seem to have instead tied up loose ends. With the second edition of 'Daytrippers' finished on Friday, I've returned to 'The Atlantic Connection' and re-written the synopsis to reflect the changes that have happened in the plot when I went on to write the second half. With this done, all that is left is to get my partner to read through and edit as necessary.

I find editing my own work very hard, as it can be very difficult to detach myself from the creative process. I've heard this said by other writers too. We look at our own work and think "What's wrong with it? I can't see anything to change." Perhaps we are blinded by having written it and been too deeply immersed in the creative process? Who knows.

This week I'm quite busy with lots of other things, so I doubt I will get too much writing done. Ideally, I would like to do a short story, but the biggest problem is, as always, finding inspiration rather than the writing process itself. I'm still developing that sci-fi/horror idea I had, and one thought is to see whether I could write it initially as a short story that if prooved successful I could expand and rewrite later to become a full book. It is a thought.

Finally, the title of this post is a not-so-cryptic reference to what I am listening to. It's something that I sometimes get asked about as to what the hell my story titles and chapter headings mean. They rarely refer to the text and can be quite abstract. Well, often (but not always) they are a subtle reference to the music I am listening to at the time. Of course, I have a lot of exceptions to this rule, but it seemed as good a process as any for coming up with titles. Now I bet you would never have guessed that if I had not have told you.

Is there anybody out there...

Just a quick note. If you're reading this blog, then feel free to post a comment to say hello. I don't like to feel that I'm all on my own talking to the ether.

Formatting and second edition of 'Daytrippers'

A new edition of 'Daytrippers' is now available. Follow the appropriate link from the Bibliography section. This is the first book to be released in the standard UK 7"x4¼" format rather than the US format that my books have previously been in.

'The Atlantic Connection' (the name of the new book) should also hopefully appear in this sized format too.

And..... relax.

Hot on the heels of my last post, I've finished the first draft of the new book. Phew! It's come out just shy of 80,000 words, and I'm going to put it to one side now whilst I get on with doing the edit of a second draft of 'Daytrippers' that I've been meaning to do for a while.

I find taking a break like this then coming back to tweak and edit helps a lot. Sometimes you need the break away to clear your mind and come back with a new look on the text. So despite the manuscript now being finished, it will still go through at least a week's hard work, maybe in a fortnight's time.

Strange really, as I hadn't thought I would be getting it done until the end of the weekend. But I settled down to do a little bit of writing this afternoon, and things just clicked into place. Sometimes it just goes that way. Inspiration strikes, and you cannot ignore inspiration when it happens like that. I'm going to take a breather now, and maybe do some of the household chores that have been sidelined a little whilst I have been hard at work writing. My cooker hob looks a little grim after the messy Italian I made the other night (it does splash so) so maybe I should celibrate by getting out the Jif, or whatever lame name they've rebranded it to and scrub away.

When the book starts writing itself

I have always found that when it comes to books, there are easy and hard stages of the writing. First of all, the starting can be hard. Just building up the momentum to get over the first 5,000 words can be hard work. However then, I find that the next 50% of the book is generally okay. You get the story idea all mapped out and generally write all the immediately obvious fun bits. Then the next 30% is harder. This is where you fill in the bits that are necessary for plot progresion, but aren't as much fun to write. This is probably the point where a lot of people who try and write a book find their enthusiasm for the project fizzles out and they give up. Finally the last 20% pretty much writes itself. This is where new sub-plots and cunning ideas suggest themselves, and the book suddenly gains momentum again and writing progresses rapidly again. Often in this final stage, the book lengthens and develops beyond the original synopsis. It's a good stage of the writing process, and one which I do like.

Currently I'm in the final 20% stage of the book. It's nearly finished, though by adding in little bits here and there, it's growing in size. I'm going to take a break today, not least because I got up late (I didn't get to bed until 4:30am last night) and I'm out to visit some people for a meal this evening, and I've been asked to go around from about 4:00pm. I'm going to walk there, as it is only twenty minutes' walk away, and this means that I can safely have a drink of wine whilst there.

This evening I'm going to be starting discussions over what the cover art should be like. I have ideas in my head, but it will be interesting to see what the graphic designer makes of it all, especially as they haven't read the book (well, technically only I have read the full thing at this point, because I'm still writing it).

I'm hoping that by the end of the weekend, I can have this book finished and can put it to one side for a week or two whilst I do some other work then I'll return to it for the editing process.

Flash fictional attempts

I had a few spare moments to idle through before grabbing a bite to eat and then off to work. I was sent a recomendation to submit to a magazine that was looking for under 1,000 word flash fiction in the genres of sci-fi, fantasy and horror. Now, flash fiction is something that I have usually considered a little too short for my liking, but I've given it a go and submitted a short 640 word sci-fi piece. I'll wait and see if they like it or not, so fingers crossed.

Flash fiction is an interesting length to write. You don't have much room for development, so the story has to be particularly tight and to the point. I think I've managed to achieve that nicely. We'll see what happens.

All in all, quite a productive day I feel. Now for the mundane day (or should that be night?) job that helps pay the bills three nights a week. Well, it gets me away from the keyboard for a bit and out of the house.

Pictures and postcards from the desk of an Authoress

Today has been spent back working on the new book. I like to keep regular progress up. It is one big thing that I have often noticed that if I do not make myself stick to my daily schedule, it quickly becomes easy to slip far, far behind. I don't want to take a day or two off and suddenly find that several months have disappeared without trace without doing much. It does happen, I assure you!

I've done the writing quota, and I am getting quite pleased even if I admit myself. I've tied off a couple of loose plot ends, and really have only the end of one chapter and a tiny linking chapter to do. I've also spent a little time reading back through and doing a spot of editing. This has led me to believe that actually there isn't really as much editing as I was fearing to do.

I took a break and started picking out pictures for the cover artwork. Zoë Robinson is going to be the cover artist for this book, as the previous cover artist who did a wonderful job on the cover of 'Syndicate Dawn' is unable to do this one due to work commitments. I will be using a couple of spare pictures from one of Sarah's photoshoots though. All the other pictures come from the Westwood picture library, which is a photo library that I put together whilst briefly working at an ad agency in Manchester in the late 1990s. You would not believe what Hulton and Getty picture libraries were charging for random pictures of stuff™ so I took the decision to go out with a camera at the time over several weeks and make my own. Pictures from this library can be seen forming the basis of my first four books, as well as in the photographs section of my website.

I've begun development of a new book idea. Yes, I know I said I was going to stick to short stories for a while rather than books, but this one is screaming out to me. I may start it as a short story that I can develop later and try and get the short version into something like Interzone or Asimovs. Watch this space, though no promises on timescales.

Writing output and targets

Today the weather is wonderful. In an unusual move for Britain in the Summertime, the sun is shining. Trust it, however, to pick a day where I am due to rig jockey my way up to Carlisle and back. Nevermind. At least I can top up the tan on my right arm.

I've been developing the new idea that I spoke briefly about yesterday on the blog. Namely, the sci-fi horror. Developing stuff, for me at least, means thinking about it a lot and sleeping on it. If it is the last thing I'm churning over before I fall asleep, then I'm one of those people who can influence to some extent what they dream about.

In the case of this idea, it's coming together and I've got the 'alien' or 'monster (whichever you like to call it) worked out. The trick with good horror of any kind is to hide the monster as much as possible and leave a person's imagination to fill in the gaps. It's more efective that way. Take, for instance, Jaws. Quite scary until you see the shark then it just sucked. Well, in my opinion. I've come up with the perfect monster that you never quite see, only see the effect of. It's a simple idea, but until I've started writing it down I'm going to keep it to myself. Ain't I a stinker?!

A few people have asked me about my writing output; what it is and do I have targets. Today being a work day today, I only aim for 1,000 words instead of the usual 2,000 to 3,000 that I would like to get done on a day that is entirely devoted to writing. I find that these targets are actually pretty easy for me to acheive. I have been known to get up to 8,000 words written in a day, but usually I only exceed my target by a couple of thousand if I exceed it at all. I find having this daily goal does help motivate me to write. Howevert, I never force myself to write just to reach a target if there is simply no motivation. Rubbish written material isd no use at all, so I might as well just take a break instead and go and read a book or chill for a bit.

Whilst my writing output per day may sound pretty good, I do discard or rewrite a lot of stuff. Some days may also be spent, in between books, developing ideas and plots in my head rather than sitting typing. I also tend to take a month off the targets in between projects - whilst I will write in this time, I don't aim to complete anything.

After the current book is done, I'm going to look at doing a few more short stories. I think I already mentioned this in a previous post. A short 1,500-2,000 word story I can get done each day, and the longer 10,000 word ones can be easily done inside of a week. I must admit that I quite like this idea as a change, as it will let me try out different styles and genres that otherwise would be difficult to do if just writing books.

Loneliness of the long distance trucker

There's a new short story gone up on the Portfolio section of the website. The link to go direct and read this is given at the bottom of this post.

Inspired in part by the rather unusual part time job that pays the bills, and is a bit of a change of tack from my usual sci-fi and fantasy fayre. I must admit that short stories are an ideal format for experimenting with new styles. Hopefully when I eventually finish writing the new book I'll have a little more time to try out a few other short story ideas I've got. One in particular promises to be fun if I piece it together: it's a sci-fi horror thing, set in space.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Trucker

Music and aesthetics as inspiration

There's a fair bit I've been thinking about talking about here, but the one that immediately springs to mind is the mechanics of writing. To those who don't write, writing may appear like a bit of a black art. In fact, I can only assume that it is viewed in much the same way that I might view the process of writing music. That is, easy if you know how to and mystical if you don't.

I have several techniques that work for me in aiding writing. The first is the layout of my office. I like neat, tidy and efficient. I cannot work in a place that is dirty, a tip or is obviously a temporary location for the computer. Get these factor's sorted, and we're a long way on the road to effective writing territory. Remember: it's not about magic inspiration from the surroundings, but more making sure that nothing extraneous bothers you and causes a distraction whilst you are trying to write.

The second is music to suggest a mood. I know that other writers vary on this one. There are some who cannot write with music on and others who prefer it. I'm one of those who definately prefers it. I suppose writing fiction is more tolerant of having music playing around me. I use it for two purposes: to set the mood of the piece I am writing, and to screen out annoying background noises like other people moving around in the house, or playing GTA or Guitar Hero downstairs.

Some music just suggests a basic mood and acts as a screen to these background noises and does very little more than this. Most music would fall into this catagory. However there are certain albums that I play a lot and will actively put on when the topic I am writing suggests a need to be influenced whilst I write. There's a track by The Flaming Lips called (from memory) "Ascending Pavonis Mons by balloon" which is perfect for a scene I wrote involving a speedboat cruising around a coastline. If you don't believe me, find this music, listen to it and see what I mean. There are also a couple of Jean Michel-Jarre tracks that are good for writing scenes in a setting of industrial decay - "Ethnicolor", which is from the LP Zoolook is one I use a lot. Another LP I never grow tired of is "Shine" by the Space Brothers. I received two promo copies of this album in 1999 on double CD and triple LP and I have never grown tired of listening to them. There are also other groups such as Rammstein, Cranes and Delerium that work well to set a mood. Much of "Orb of Arawaan" was written to the sound of MCMXCAD and Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi! by Enigma a lot of the time.

The final thing that aids my writing is my keyboard. Call me weird (and many probably do) but I cannot write without having a keyboard that feels just right. In practical terms this means the cheap-ass Mitsumi keyboard that was new back in 1998. The whole point of this keyboard is that I can ignore it and just concentrate on my writing. Any other keyboard leaves me aware of the keyboard's feel and unable to concentrate fully as a result. It requires an adapter these days to plug into modern computers, as the AT port is no longer used. I even bought a spare identical make and model one off Ebay a couple of years ago just in case I ever have this one break. Luckily my sweat is not very acidic, so the keys are not too worn and I can still roughly see where the letters are.

I've finished editting another short story called "Loneliness of the long distance Trucker" and hopefully that will be being uploaded to the Portfolio page later today, so look out for it. The current book is going quite well, and the first draft is almost complete; I hope to get it done by the end of next weekend. After that I will just put it to one side and get on with editing the second edition of "Daytrippers" before returning to it after the break. I find this time away from a book can help in the subsequent editing process for the second draft.

Rap and takin' a hood, homie

I've been spending a lot of time playing Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Actually, we've had this game on our PS2 for some three or more years. It's the game that keeps on giving, and we're still playing it. I think we're near the end. At any rate, we're taking the hoods for the second time, and popping a few bullets in rival gangs' asses.

As much as a part of me abhors this kind of violence were it to happen in real life, I find playing this game perfectly acceptable. I can safely draw the distinction between fact and fiction. There's something about doing fictional drivebys on fictional computer sprites that is good to destress. I can do this safe in the knowledge that this is a game and nothing more. It annoys me when people who cannot get the distinction between fact and fiction try and ban such things for 'glamourising violence'. I seriously don't think GTA San Andreas does. True, there may be other games that cross the unwritten line and take things too far, but this isn't one of them.

Anyone who has played this game will know that there are quite extensive radio stations that play whilst in vehilcles. I started out listening to Radio-X and the DUST, because of my preference for rock tunes and classic dad metal. However, after three or so years I've started to listen to some of the others during the game just for a change. One of these is full of gangsta rap tracks, and I must admit I don't find some of them too bad. It made me think about all the hoo-ha about Jay-Z being booked to headline at Glastonbury.

Many years ago whilst working on the radio I used to get sent records on the promo list. I'd get tons of stuff several months before they were commercially available. The promo companies knew what shows I did, yet I'd still get the odd way-out thing that there was no chance of me ever playing. I mean, since when would gangsta rap appear on a rock show or a classical music hour? Well, most of these I just gave away. Some few I saved and shoved away in my spare bedroom record collection.

After all this fuss over Jay-Z, coupled with a faint memory of a white label double LP that I remember filing away when it arrived on the promo list in 1998/9 sent me searching. It appears that I hadn't filed it under 'J' so I ended up looking in amongst the 12" singles. Result! There it was after all these years. I've been listening to it for the first time whilst writing this, and I have to say it's not too bad. It's called "Vol 2 - Hard knock Life" according to the reaction sheet tucked into the sleeve (it is in a blank sleeve with blank record centres because it was pressed long before they finalised the album artwork it seems).

So what do I think about Jay-Z? Well, not exactly my favourite genre, but it's growing on me. I would have prefered Dave Gilmour performing 'Dark side of the moon' at Glastonbury, but then again, I never go. I think he'll do alright in the end. If it's got a good beat then the hippies will sway to it no matter what by day three.

Bah Humbug!

With both the first half and the last quarter of the book finished and the third quarter largely mapped out, some might say that I'm well on my way to getting this book finished.

Unfortunately, I seem to have hit a wall of apathy towards ideas. I just can't seem to get the inspiration to write much. Every idea I try falls deadborn from the keyboard after a few hundred words, and I'm left deleting stuff and going back to where I started.

A part of me just wants this book finished. I have other things to move on to, and I want this out of the way so I can give 'Daytrippers' a spruce for a second edition (which should take no more than a couple of days' work) and a few short story ideas. Unfortunately, I find it very hard to move on until I've finished what I'm working on. Having 'Syndicate Dawn', for example, in a state of unfinishedness for nearly nine years niggled a lot. I don't want to get within dashing distance of the finishing line for 'The Atlantic Connection' and have the damn thing languish for nearly a decade. I need to get it sorted and published.

Last week and the week before I was going so well, then the inspiration ran out on Friday and I'm left just milling on the page. I hope it's only temporary and the inspiration will pick up again soon. I can but hope.