If I were...

Borrowed from Kat and Robynn in turn...

If I were a month, I’d be February, because I'm a child of summer.
If I were a day of the week, I’d be Saturday, because good things happen on Saturdays.
If I were a time of day, I'd be 11 P.M. because it's late enough to be interesting, but early enough to be awake.
If I were a planet, I’d be Earth, carrying much turmoil but ultimately the spark of life. Or maybe on my off days Eclectia, a little more volcanic.
If I were a sea animal, I’d be a Shapeshifting Octopus.
If I were a direction, I’d be Up.
If I were a piece of furniture, I'd be a fold-out couch.
If I were a liquid, I’d be black tea with milk and honey.
If I were a gemstone, I’d be a Lapis Lazuli, like they used in paintings in the Renaissance, and it was more precious than gold.
If I were a tree, I’d be a Pohutukawa. But I don't just come out at Christmas, in fact rather the opposite.
If I were a tool, I’d be Pliers, and don't forget the No. 8 wire.
If I were a flower, I’d be an Iris.
If I were a kind of weather, I would be Wind, huffing freshness in your face to wake you up.
If I were a musical instrument, I’d be a synth with a thousand voices. No, that's not enough... They have tens of thousands these days, so I'd want a hundred thousand.
If I were a color, I’d be right between royal blue and royal purple.
If I were an emotion, I’d be swinging wildly and completely unpredictable.
If I were a fruit, I’d be a Feijoa, that guava-related local that tastes sort of like banana and sort of like pear.
If I were a sound, I’d be drum 'n' bass that you can feel through your feet and into your insides.
If I were an element, I’d be Silver.
If I were a car, I’d be an old-style campervan with murals on the outside.
If I were a food, I’d be an avocado, surprisingly versatile.
If I were a place, I’d be a wild beach: cliffs, sand, waves, wind, feeling alive.
If I were a material, I’d be polar fleece.
If I were a taste, I’d be Manuka Honey: Slightly sweet with a strong dark undertone, too much for some, but very good for ya!.
If I were a scent, I’d be cider: fruity, tangy, and just a little tipsy. Yes, the smell.
If I were an object, I’d be a glass and copper candle-holder: older than I look, fragile, and holding a light safe from extinction.
If I were a facial expression, I’d be enthusiasm (whatever that looks like).
If I were a song, I’d be “Open Road Ahead.” (today, anyway)
If I were a pair of shoes, I would be Jandals (flip-flops, for the rest of you).

If I were an item of clothing, I'd be a thick sleeveless fleece with loads of pockets.

If I were a computer, I'd be a battered ThinkPad with faulty memory.

If I were a book, I'd be Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead.

If I were chocolate, I'd be Rocky Road.

If I were a cloud, I'd be Cirrus, because in my mind I fly high and cover a lot of area.

On bad typing and how not to work

I can't type very well today. I keep on making silly mistakes and having to fix them. This is a problem when my work efficiency depends on fast and accurate typing as the meaning flows into my eyes, through the translation matrix and out my fingers. I spend enough thought on the translating as it is, without the typing being messed up. And no, you do not want to know how many times I hit backspace in this paragraph.

It's 8.30 PM and I've had all three meals of the day, been to the beach and shopping, made ebooks, chatted a little online, worked on a story that's due this weekend, and generally enjoyed myself. Now we get down to the real work. I'd like to polish off a couple of thousand words of translation tonight if I can, knock the remaining total down to 11500 or so. Yes, tonight.

Windup...

Partly against my better judgement, I have just accepted a translation job of over 13,000 words. Due June 5th. Heck, what can I say, I need the cash, and it's definitely more than doable. Don't let me push it all to the last day or two this time, or I will almost certainly be dead on the 6th.

What's the bet I'll get more done alongside it than I would have without? Ebook formatting and upload, a book launch party, critiquing, finishing a serial episode for Digital Dragon, reading 17 books, reading submissions, organising the Avenir project, preparing two anthologies, and hopefully a little exercise while revisiting Season Two of Doctor Who. All that plus the builders hammering around in my basement and a flatmate moving out on the weekend, not necessarily conducive to getting lots done.

I must be nuts.

When I See You...

When I see my friends online, that little green dot, so tantalising, my finger itches to click it. We could be changing the world right now if we talked! If only I didn't have this other work to do. And the day's so beautiful. I should go out for a walk, gain some refreshment from the sea air. Again, the work stops me. And I want to talk - always, always talk - but I don't want to bother anyone, get in the way, or discover I'm in a mood that doesn't benefit you in the exchange. So I leave you alone, for now, but mark my words...the time will come.

Truth and Fiction

Recently Episode 10 of my serial story Comet Born went live at Digital Dragon Magazine. In it, an airliner gets into dire straits when its nose wheel fails to deploy. I wasn't sure if that particular mechanical error was likely to occur in real life, but the news got ahead of me when that very thing happened to an Air New Zealand plane. It subsequently landed in Blenheim with no injuries reported.

So I'm glad for that bit of realism that found its way into my episode. As for the superheroes who then rescue the aircraft, that's another story!

Read Comet Born Episode 10: Rough Landing

Read the New Zealand news story

Video of the landing (amazingly smooth!)

CyberDublin: Blurb

Imagine a not-too-distant future where world commerce runs from one huge hyperserver: Oodles. Wallscreens and podphones connect to the all-powerful hub’s online personal computing applications and data storage.

Not only that: Oodles has bought out television, communications, shopping, banking and social networking, as well as the entire Internet. The economy is digitised and cash has become a collector’s item, but in one corner of Ireland the old ways fight to survive.

Enter Rachel, part-time Oodles sysadmin, about to launch into her university career. Her Da, shocked at the Oodles takeover, reveals she’s adopted. Questions plague her. Who are her real parents? Why did they give her up? And why did her Da wait so long to tell her?

Rachel, determined to leave home, rents a big old house near the city. She and her friend Talitha find strangers willing to share it: Bethany, the snarky librarian biker chick; Louise, the fish-and-chips diva with a pregnant tomcat; and Zehrani, the queenly African from the high echelons of Oodles Security.

But all is not rosy in Cyberdublin. Oodles introduces holographic status graphs to display personal information to the world. Rachel, disgusted by the invasion of privacy, refuses to wear it in public despite her Da’s peculiar liking for the new social technology.

Then there are the ragged religious saboteurs, convinced they can delay the end of the world by destroying the dominance of Oodles. But somebody else is quicker. The churchgoers find themselves acting against their own would-be ally after discovering what lies behind the plot. What will Dublin—and the world—look like without the cyber?

Follow Rachel’s search for identity in the midst of global crisis, as the sabotage mystery unfolds with a twist she’d never dare imagine.

With today’s cloud-computing technology, this scenario is possible even now. Cyberdublin will appeal to the Celtic fascination within those of Irish descent and those who wish they were. Web users will find laughs aplenty, too.

Book Lowdown - CYBERDUBLIN

This survey is going around amongst my writer friends at the moment and I thought it looked like fun, especially since I just got some major work finished on my next novel, CyberDublin. So here goes...and I've taken the liberty of deleting those questions I didn't like.


1. What’s your word count? 57,000

2. How long until you finish? A few more tweaks, maybe another scene or two.

3. If you have finished, how long did it take you? I wrote the first draft in one month - yes, in Ireland. It then languished for over two years until I finished it last week - finished as far as I know.

4. Do you have an outline? Yes, but I changed it SO much as I went - when it proved boring.

6. How many words do you typically write a day? During the stint in Ireland I did about 5k a day - three in the morning, and two in the evening.

7. What was your greatest word count in one day? Dunno, maybe 6k.

9. What inspired you to write? Google. Not a search, but the business entity itself. Plus my devious mind.

10. Does your novel have a theme song? Be Thou My Vision - drum and bass version by Clank. Hang on, let me grab it for you. Have a listen to this while you read the rest of the post.



11. Assign each of your major characters a theme song.

Rachel: All Shook Up (Elvis)
Talitha: Lean On Me (DC Talk version)
Conor: Not Afraid (Eminem)
Louise: A Hard Day's Night (Beatles)
Zehrani: Material Girl (Madonna)
Bethany: Signs of Life (Steven Curtis Chapman) 

12. Which character is most like you? Rachel

13. Which character would you most likely be friends with? Talitha

15. Who is your favorite character in your novel? Conor, actually.

16. Have your characters ever done something completely unexpected? You bet. Conor was meant to be the bad guy, but he absolutely refused.

17. Have you based any of your novel directly on personal experiences? Mainly the settings around Dublin from time spent there.

24. What is the best line? 

I threw the book aside. My task was real. Not fantasy. And here was the wannabe hero, reading of magic and monsters. Some good that would do. I sat there for the longest time, until the last sip of cold coffee trickled down my throat and the light of morning announced itself at the kitchen window.

God help us all.

28. Summarize your novel in under fifteen words. 
The all-encompassing cyberworld crashes, causing chaos in its Dublin heart and in personal lives.

29. Do you love all your characters? Yes, except maybe Sweeney.

32. Describe your main character in three words. Longings, questions, determination.

35. How many romantic relationships take place in your novel? One.

36. Are there any explosions in your novel? Only the virtual kind.

45. Who has pets in your novel and what are they? Louise has a cat she thought was a tom but then turns out to be pregnant and the household ends up with four kittens.

46. Are there angels, demons, or any religious references/figures in your novel? Nothing supernatural this time, but references, yes.

51. Is there humor? It's Irish, for goodness sake! It better be funny.

52. Is there tragedy? Only in economic terms, mostly for big business.

57. Has your novel provided insight about your life? I suppose so. I certainly built in lots of intimate encounters with actual locations I experienced.

58. Your personality? Perhaps. Whenever I got bored, I switched POV, which may or may not be a good thing.

59. Has your novel inspired anyone? Not yet as far as I know. Maybe this year. But don't anyone go sabotaging the Internet, now! It's more of a light-action humour fling than a deep-and-meaningful thing.

68. How would you react if your novel was erased entirely? Not happening, because so many people have got copies of it :)

71. What advice would you give to a fellow writer? In writing this book I learned to have fun in the process. If you're forcing it out, it's probably not good writing.

72. Describe your ending in three words. Housewarming. Confession. Hope.

75. Was it worth it? Of course!