Hope drawn from the ancients.

Human beings do not change that much. I have been researching various ancient European cultures and I am struck by how similar they are to our current society. Technology has advanced. particularly in the field of medicine and warfare. The rights of women and minorities have also move on. Mostly in a good way. There are many things that have not changed.

People are born. They grow, wonder at life and they struggle. Humans fall in love, grieve lost ones and we all have to face the consequences of lost opportunities. We live in the same world as our ancestors and we are bound by much the same limitations.

Studying the past does not mean I want to live in the past. I believe that humanity can progress to a better state. The energy of the Celtic monks and later the Vikings in braving the might of the worlds oceans is still with us today. The ingenuity of the Egyptians in building the monuments of their civilisation is burned into our DNA. The evil of the past can be defeated. The challenges of the time ahead are nothing compared to the struggle our ancestors faced in the last ice age.

We will survive and prosper.

I think that each one of us is responsible for our own actions and for the overall well being of our world. If every individual puts their life in order, consider the impact of his or her actions on others and looks for positive outcomes then there is always going to be hope.

Better times are ahead. I have faith in humanity.

Time for new beginnings

The snow is being shrugged off the trees around my home in Stroud. The English winter is coming to an end. The sun is out and there is a chance that things will improve.

Lets hope so.

Nature inspires some of the best writing. I just love the way that despite the fact I have lived where I am now for years I still notice something new every day. The seasons change and reveal even more to me every year that passes. Living like this is good.

Spring time marks the start of my writing year. I never can get much done during the dark sober days of the winter but when the evenings draw out and light levels improve my spirits rise and I hit the keyboard.

2013 promises to be a bumper year. I hope to finish 'Children of the Storm' and my other work 'The Keodu Sequence' will move closer to first draft completion as well. I have plans for a interactive fiction book or series of books. That may wait until next year but the planning and ground work will happen sooner than that. Lots to do and much to anticipate. Good.

So I hope that this year marks a productive time for you as well. Lets all enjoy the promise of good weather that may soon come and the improvements in our spirit and material situation that I hope will accompany it. There is no point in looking back. The past is gone.

Here's to the future.

Putting stress where it belongs.

We all face pressure in our lives. Welcome to the twenty first century. In truth stress has been a part of the human condition since our species climbed out of the trees. The reaction we have to circumstances in which we are either unable to avoid or to deal is common to every single person on the planet.

Anger, anxiety, depression, insomnia, fatigue, physical pain... The list is long one. The human stress reaction grips us all at some point.

I have learned that this is driven by the mind subconsciously instructing the body to react in a certain way, the body responding by producing chemicals that make the brain malfunction.

Break the cycle.

If you suffer from a bad stress reaction there are a number of ways to tackle the situation. physical exercise is good. exposing yourself to positive stimulus is also useful. I often spend a few minutes on my  Pinterest site looking at good, wholesome images. Laughter is brilliant.

I have also discovered that I can sometimes simply 'instruct' my mind and body to stop 'playing silly buggers.' I just simply clear my thoughts. Order my brain to relax my body. Remind myself that the headaches and fatigue is an illusion. a couple of minutes will past and loo and behold the headache is gone and I am (usually) bursting with energy once more. Magic? Rubbish. The body can release chemicals to counteract the chemicals it had released previously.

Mind over matter does work.

I have suffered from immense stress with the family problems I have previously posted about. I hope some of this helps you. It applies to everyone. Life is full of choices. Some triggers can never be avoided. Human beings are strong whether or not that particular individual considers that to be the case. Make a choice.

Take control.

Being more Agile.

Books take much longer to write than to read. That is an eternal fact. I would like to get potential readers a little more involved in my creative process so that the story becomes more 'real' to more people for longer.

I have been thinking about the concept of being more agile with my writing. Agile Publishing sounds quite interesting. I would publish an interim draft of a chapter or scene, ask for feedback and then based on what is said (And my own judgement of course) amend the section accordingly.

I am going to attempt this with my second draft of 'Children of the Storm.'

If this works I will do it more regularly. If not I won't. It is that simple.

My other idea involves crowd funding. I have some fantastic ideas for content rich e-books. I would have to distill these into a concrete project plan but why not use sites like Kickstarter, Indigogo etc to pitch the idea and find out early whether anyone would want to read them?

It is a challenge to move beyond the point where a writer is creating stories for him or her self and then has to         share his or her vision with the general public. That has always had to be faced at the point of publication. With agile publishing or crowd funding all that is happening is that this point arrives earlier.

So I will give it a go.

If I am any good it might even work hey?

Tell a good tale.

What is your earliest memory? The one you you associate with the beginning of childhood.

For me it is Star Trek.

I love science fiction. Weren't Kirk and Spock great? Saving the galaxy, fighting off wonderful nasty monsters and meeting beautiful space princesses. Fantastic stuff. A bit later on I saw the Star Wars trilogy (Wow) and more serious material such as 2001, Silent Running, Blade Runner (My favourite film of all time) and many more mind expanding pieces of fiction.

At a similar point I was reading Tolkein and CS Lewis and many other brilliant speculative fiction authors. Whether it was Han Solo, Dave Bowman or Frodo Baggins I was seeing characters that inspired me.

These kind of stories are liberating. They should provoke new thoughts and ideas. They must entertain. I had a happy childhood thanks to those wonderful men and woman who wrote, acted and directed in them.

Thanks guys.

Maybe I can carry on this tradition. To do 'good work' with my creative writing is my top objective. The best thing any writer can do is to inspire someone else.

Wish me luck.