Laying down the (underwear) lore.

I've been debating merits of underwear (don't ask because you won't be answered!) and it seems that there is a big divide between those who wear boring cotton panties and plain t-shirt bras, and those who don't. I always find it as odd the number of women who seem almost scared of actually owning and wearing nice underwear. It's one of those things that women get an advantage ovger men in: our underwear can be just so much better.

I find the plain underwear brigade quite strange. Especially when they complain about having boring underwear (bear with me - these conversations do exist on other parts of the internet!). So why don't they just go out and buy some better stuff? I've seen the relevent shops in the high street. Heck, I've even shopped in them.

When I was little my Mother always used to try and inspire me with confidence about leaving the house by calling out: "Have you got decent underwear on? You never know when you're going to be run over by a bus." How inspiring. That really makes me want to leave the house. Do I care what my underwear looks like if I've just been squashed by a bus? And if I have been squashed, is my underwear really going to still look so good regardless of what it looked like before?

Still, it made me make an effort, such was the impressionability of the early version of me. Ever since my teens, I've always owned matching sets, and woe betide me ever wearing non-matching underwear. You're allowed to admit you like lacey and complicated underwear if you're a woman? I thought that was the deal? So over time I grew to like three part sets a lot, along with basques and French knicker/camisole sets. I wear them because if you are going to wear underwear you might as well make an effort and have fun over it. Even though pretty much most of the time no-one ever sees it, it still makes me feel better to know that I'm wearing the sexiest and nicest smalls within two hundred feet.

It still amazes me when other women just don't know how to make an effort. It isn't hard: start in Contessa and work your way from there.

A little change goes a long way

There's been a few little things on the website that have been a filler from when pages were put up that until now I haven't got around to sorting out. One of these was the biography page. I was supposed to provide a sample to the web designer building the site, but missed the deadline so she just rote in the 1,000 ninjas thing for a joke. However as some jokes do, this one stuck for a little longer than expected. Actually I like the little tale of the ninjas. But a real Biography was needed. So as of today, there is a new Biography page that leads off the original ninjas one which I decided was too good to delete! There are some new pictures on here, which as opposed to the ones on the photography pages are more relaxed ones taken at home, events, and caught off guard in the net-model photoshoot. I rather like them.


Other changes have happened, and I've talked about the new short story in the Portfolio section in another specific post. There have also been changes on the Photo albums as there was one picture I hated, so have replaced, and added two more. They're still going to raise an eyebrow, but hey! I have an interesting sideline as a model so bite me.

The Booth

The website has been updated at last, and I've a few new things to mention. For the sake of neatness, these are going to be done in seperate posts.

Firstly, there is a new short story on the Portfolio section of the website. It's been nearly a month since I last put a story up here, so I thought this little short one would do. It's called The Booth and is a sci-fi flash fiction piece.

The idea behind it is the progression of narcotics along with the steady march of technology. At the end of the day, with virtual reality and better means of interaction with computers, who is to say that the line between narcotics and computers won't become blurred?

You could say that "Better than Life" from Red Dwarf has had some influence, and I would have to agree at least in part that the basic idea is going to be common to a few things. And yes, I have read "Better than life". But this is something more rooted in the tangible technological advances extrapolated into the future. At any rate, it was a short idea that seemed to work okay.

See what you think.

A third, a third and a third makes a lot of books.

I'm having a great time going through books and DVDs. It's actually amazing how many books the average person buys and never gets around to reading. Is it a little scary for me to admit that I estimate nearly a third of all books I have bought I have not even tried to read? I would also say that a further third of the books I have bought have turned out to be utter crap that I could not get into so have also not been read beyond, at most, the first couple of chapters. Given that I do own thousands of books, that means that there is a huge number of books that are just taking up shelf space and that I have little or no idea about what is contained within them.

So I've been investigating some of these ignored third. So far I've tried to read "Dancers at the end of time" by Michael Moorcock. I have to admit it isn't gripping me, despite my having been very impressed by his book "Behold the man". It just goes to show that even the greatest author's might have 'off' days. I also started reading "Jem" by Frederik Pohl. Now this is a book with more promise. I'm also looking forward to delving in to a trio of unread Philip K. Dick books. Though, going off previous experience, one will be great, one will be okay and one will be unreadable on average. Still, one out of three isn't too bad, and hey, I might get lucky and get three good ones.

On the DVD front I've been watching the A-team just for a little escapism. It provides almost no inspiration to my creativity, but I like it. I do want to see what sci-fi and fantasy films I can go through from our vast collection. Maybe over the next few days I'll find a few. Also other genres can provide some very interesting stuff with good dialogue and the like which I also find good to watch.

I've had a rearrangement of furniture upstairs in our house. The comfy chair (nothing to do with the Spanish Inquisition!) has been moved from my office into our bedroom. This means that my office is huge again with a lot of open carpetted area. I rather like it. I'm thinking of getting something like a bean bag, perhaps, to go in the middle and provide me a 'thinking chair'.

And finally, our little cat finally ventured into the back garden almost all the way to the gate for the first time today. She has been a house only cat since being a kitten (not my idea) and is the bossiest cat there is within the confines of the house. However she is a scardy cat when it comes to anything a little different. However, it is a good sign that she is becomming more comfortable with the idea that there is something beyond the front and back door. Hopefully in time she can be introduced to the outside World on a more regular basis.

Mojo recharging while-you-wait

It struck me the other day whilst watching the new Batman film in the cinema, that perhaps what I have been lacking is inspiration with my writing. Let me explain: it is said that all writers who are good writers should actually read far more books than they write. This is very true. Writing is a job, like any other, and you get better at it both with practice but also by seeing how other people do it.

When I write stuff, I have in my head an image of the scenes and charectors that I want to write that is not dissimilar to a sort of cinama projection of the work all acted out and on location. I suspect that other authors are much the same. That's why watching films can be as good inspiration as reading. Of late though I just haven't had the time to do much reading or watching, and I think this has been to the detriment of my creativity. The books I have been reading have been the full set of Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" series (there are about twelve books in the series, and personally I find the first one boring, but the others marvellous). It's all very well to read what are excellent children's books, but I do not write children's fiction. I really need to have a read through some of the sci-fi masterworks books I have sat on the shelves downstairs.

However, I do find that some books can be very subjective indeed. The sci-fi masterworks are a set of books numbering 71 at the time of writing that are supposedly the best ever sci-fi books written. But so many are stilted, waffly and downright boring to read. I guess some sci-fi does not date well, but on the other hand not everything that is considered a 'classic' by the in-crowd necessarily is all that good. So many people, for example, cannot stand Macbeth by Shakespeare. "The English Patient" as a film is the most mind-numbingly boring film according to all those I know who have seen it.

That's not to say they are all bad; far from it. Some are the most outstanding books I have ever read. "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arther C. Clarke, "Behold the man" by Michael Moorcock and "Flow my tears the Policeman said" by Philip K. Dick to name but three are truly outstanding. However I still cannot finish "Blood Music" by Greg Bear and "The forever War" by Joe Haldeman is dire in my opinion yet is number one in the series. How does that work?

I think I need to settle down and watch a few DVDs if I get some time to myself. I should also but aside for a while my own writing work and spend a week doing nothing but reading other peoples' work. In that way and only that way I suspect I can 'recharge my mojo'

Of progress and the boom/bust cycle of creativity.

Today is a rare thing these days: a day off! I cannot believe just how quickly time marches on. Unfortunately, there hasn't been all that much in the way of writing. You see, writing, like the economy, has its own boom and bust cycle. I've always found it this way. As far back as I can remember, there have been periods of my life of intense creative productivity, and periods where very little at all happens on my computer other than reading the internet (and there's a lot of it to read!)

This year, all things considered, has been very productive so far. I've had around seven months of intense creativity culminating in: one book written from start to finish; a second draft of aforementioned book; a revised edition of another book; more than a dozen short stories. On top of this list, I've also been helping Zoë with scripting two different comics, and am rather pleased with a couple of the scripts I gave her the ideas for. Of course, "All over the house" has yet to appear in public properly as a syndication deal is still being sought. The life of Nob T. Mouse has, however, been appearing very regularly, and I'm pretty proud of Zoë's hard work and dedication. I like to think that in some small way I am helping her keep her productivity up.

So what of the very near future? I'm sort of in limbo around 3,000 words into another long short story (is there officially such a term?) and it has all but stopped for the moment as I take a break. I have a little editing to do, and a revised edition of "Countdown to Extinction" procedes slowly. But for now, I feel that a little bust period has appeared in my creativity. Not to worry - there's always another week. If I can get another book well on its way before the turn of 2009 then I'll be happy.

Is daydreaming tax deductable and other stories.

I've been really busy the last few days, which has rather kept me from updating this blog. However, I am at least content in the knowledge that this must mean that I have a life beyond the computer screen! All too often in this day and age is it easy to reach a point where you realise all your 'friends' may as well be living inside your computer for what you actually see of them. So many people have online friendships these days without ever or rarely seeing the person in question.

I'm in the development stage of writing work at the moment. That's the bit I'm sure I mentioned a while ago on here, where a lot of time is spent staring at the ceiling and in effect daydreaming. It's how plots and storylines are developed, and it is a legitamate enterprise for any writer to spend hours just mulling stuff over in their minds. The bigger question though is: "Is this time tax deductable?"

I've been travelling a lot of late. This week alone I've been to Enfield and back in North London twice as well as Bicester all in just three days. That's a lot of mileage, especially as on the first trip to Enfield I drove just shy of 500 miles that night. Out on the roads I am appalled at the lack of intelligence or skill of a large number of drivers. Is it me or have standards dropped like a stone? Favourite crap driving techniques include leaving headlights on full beam and fog lights on so that it is rather like being passed by the Star ship Enterprise. I've taken to flashing my headlights at these prats in a hope I can dazzle them back. Or at least get them to shut down their extra lights. Middle lane hogs - these people are as low as estate agents. Driving at 50mph mile after mile hogging the middle lane oblivious to the traffic chaos their selfish incompitance causes. And finally, the tosswits who drive slowly until a vehicle pulls out to overtake. They wait until the new vehicle is alongside then speed up to avoid being overtaken. Then they slow down when the overtaking vehicle gives up. People with this level of selfish lack of driving skill really should be banned for life from driving. There are too many idiots who drive like they are the only person on the road.

I believe there should be a seperate and rigerous test to allow drivers on the motorways. I've been saying this for over ten years. Quite clearly so many people have no clue of how to drive safely without endangering other people around them that a seperate licence is necessary before people are allowed on the motorways. I've seen too many people injured by the criminal incompitance of others on Britain's motorways.