It's late, and strange things are amusing me. Working hard on the new book, which will no doubt please Christian over at Black Flame!
Spam is one of those relatively new phenomenon that seems to have really caught on in my email in-tray. Junk glorious junk. 70% of everything I get is an invite to extend, drug out, perk up, borrow money, refinance or warn me that my education needs falisifying while offering me new watches and tipping me off that my online accounts have been hacked... In the immortal words of Monty Python: Spam spam spam spam :)
We needed something lighter after mowing down Jesus with a bus, right?
Well, yesterday was politics so it seems only fitting that today should be about religion. I am a big fan of anyone who has the conviction and cajones to do something like this - you know, bearing in mind that anyone capable of doing it really ought to be convicted...
Now, having enjoyed a little blasphemous whackiness - part two of The Steel Man will be appearing somewhere on the site over the weekend. Get ready for the Easter Egg hunt...
You know, sometimes you just don't want to make any kind of political statement, and other times you just feel the need... I've never been a fan of the current American regime, it seems a little too schizophrenic for my personal taste, a little too totalitarian with its new Homeland Security show. I mean, I have been fingerprinted twice in my life, both times when entering the US in the last twelve months. I have worked in government, with military liason and other classified jobs before resigning and becoming a school teacher - never before have I been printed. What would it help if I were up to no good? Well, you'd be able to say "yep, sure, he came in right at this moment..." not exactly rocket science stuff, is it? Would it stop a suicide bomber? hmm nope. Would it stop someone intent on doing harm? Erm... nope again. So it is all for show, right? An erosion of civil liberties to put on a decent show. Nice. Then again, what do you expect when the monkeys are running the asylum? You doubt me?
Then enjoy the wisdom of Bozo:
I promise, hand on heart, I won't turn this into a platform for political waffle - sometimes you just want to hilight the genius that is Dubbya.
It's worth letting this bad boy buffer before you press play - trust me it's worth it. The soundtrack is class - watch those bad boys and girls of World of Warhammer bust a move!
And in other news - nose is firmly fixed to the grindstone, working on Slaine: The Exile at the moment and revving up for the final edits on my Dr Who story Falling From Xi'an (got the edits in this morning with some bits needing to be cleaned up for the BBC Worldservice regulations) and polishing off a third pass on Dominion before it hits the galley stage at Black Library. So it is busy, busy, busy.
Fighting a deadline on that secret project Stel Pavlou and I have been cooking up. We're on a fever pitch crusade against the twin evils of the word processor and sleep here, but we're winning. The detailed synopsis is done, and chapters one through four are in the bag, meaning it's off to the agent and the long wait begins. This one is something utterly different for both of us.
Wish us luck -
Not that we need luck because we have The Ultimate Smackdown on our side -
I haven't embedded this one - it is too good and NEEDS to be seen on a full screen to be truly appreciated - so, enjoy!
Okay, there's a method to my madness - well, all apart from the Hasselhof, which is just part of the grand madness that was once Michael Knight - I write SF and F, so all of these video snippets have something, in some microscopic way, to do with my day job... Gaming, pitching manuscripts... ok, I don't actually touch dead people, but that was just funny.
So, for Monday, what better homage to the SF world than Star Trek, non?
Only not the Star Trek we grew up with. Scottish Star Trek, where the wee laddies boldly go where neebody's been afore.
Rock City, home of the kitsch Fairytale Grotto with its black lit gnomes and Mother Goose's hideous fairy tale village, Fat Man's Squeeze and the swinging bridge out to Lover's Leap... it's an interesting place - imagine I am saying interesting the same way you say special when you say: Steve is a special boy... I found it almost impossible to picture Odin and the old gods gathered to face the new gods of technology in a fight to the death... makes me wonder what Neil was thinking about as he skulked along the Enchanted trail.
Admittedly the views are quite spectacular in that you can stand at one point and see seven different states - and boy are they flat - but does the place really need 800 signs across the US proclaiming SEE ROCK CITY?
Probably not.
Well, back to work - have to have the second chapter of the secret project written before I go to bed so Stel Pavlou can deliver it to his agent supreme... wish me luck!
So, sat here in Chattanooga with Mary and her husband Rob, about to embark upon a mighty trip to Rock City. For those of you that don't know what Rock City is Neil Gaiman immortalised it in his novel American Gods, where it was the kitschy setting for the grand finale of the war between the old gods and the new ones. I'm really hoping Odin is still sitting around up there in the Mexican restaurant - I promise to let you know.
We had a little writers' retreat over the weekend with Eric Tomblin, Chesya Burke and Toni Stauffer from the shocklines messageboard joined Alethea, Mary, Rob, Nia Stephens and myself in Woodthrush Woods, a wonderful house in the middle of nowhere that could easily be the setting for a psycho serial killer movie where a bunch of tearaway teens are stranded in the middle of nowhere just waiting for the Big Bad to come and hunt them dowwn...
Highlight of the grounds has to be Moodusa - an iron cow sculpture with snakes for hair...
Mary is a puppeteer and has worked on Sesame Street, the Elmo movie, and is currently neck deep in Lazy Town, which is film out near my neck of the woods in Iceland.
Now, a parting gift for the day - does something smell off in your kitchen? Is there something wrong in your neighbourhood? Who you gonna call? Well, take a look see...
