Sunday 25 June 2017

New Back Blurb

This is my edited text for the back blurb:

Chawbury is a pleasant English market town in the heart of the English countryside. It has a medieval cathedral, Georgian town houses, the ubiquitous range of satellite estates and to the east, a gleaming, ultra-modern biotech laboratory.
But the beauty of Chawbury was of little consequence to C16, a synthetic hominid designed for experimentation. Death by slow torture seemed to be her inevitable fate... That is until local schoolboy Michael Gowland gets a summer job in the animal pens. 
Science Fiction for Young Adults

Does that look better?

Saturday 24 June 2017

My Original Word Processor...


Dad purchased one for me and one for my brother in a Rymans sale back in the 1970s. At full price, they would have been £30 each at the time but dad got them for us for £5 each. He thought they would be a five minute toy for us and for my brother, it was, but I used mine until I purchased my first computer.

I wrote my first short story on it in  1974, aged 9, it was called "Albert Hall's Adventure in Wilderland". I have used it for every story until 2005, when I got my first PC, but I still make a point of typing my poetry on it.

I had it completely overhauled by the excellent George Blackman at Bexhill on Sea. It is amazing to think that I have been using it continually for 46 years!

The Probonid was originally typed up on this and it took me three months of evenings to type it up in electronic format so that I could get it ready for Createspace and Kindle.

I love the modern convenience of my laptop and desktop, but I miss the therapeutic clack clack of typing with this and the swing of the keys.

The Probonid


Just uploaded my book to Createspace and ordered copies for proofing. They are going to take a while to arrive though as they are printed in the USA. Apart from proofing the book myself, I am going to pass around a couple of the proof copies for feedback.

Here is the proof blurb from the pack of the book:

Chawbury is a pleasant English market town; medieval cathedral, seventeenth and eighteenth century town houses surrounded by satellite estates, and to the east, a gleaming, ultra-modern biotech laboratory.

But the beauty of Chawbury was of little consequence to C16, a synthetic hominid designed for experimentation. Death by slow torture seemed to be her inevitable fate... That is until schoolboy Michael Gowland gets a summer job in the animal pens.


Farcebook

 I have never used Farcebook before and it looks like I will continue to not use it. I set up an account, and it got instantly locked because they think I am not a genuine person... Ho Hum.

Prelude

Back in 2002-3, I wrote a novel...

It was intended to be part of a trilogy and by the time I had finished writing book one, I had completely planned book two and had mapped out book three.

Unfortunately for me, also by the time I had finished book one, a film had been released that had so many similarities that if I hawked it around, it would only have been viewed as a pastiche of the film. So for the last fourteen years, the novel has sat on a shelf in my office, gathering dust, while I got on with other projects.

Then a few months ago, I decided that perhaps enough water had passed under the bridge that it might now be read. And with the advent of Createspace and Kindle, I thought I would self-publish the book and see if anyone likes it.

It is called "The Probonid" and I suppose would fit into the genre of BioPunk, but I aimed the book at an early to mid teen audience.