So.........no new updates for a while, thats not cool
Just a quick one - amended the sample chapter on the website - Hope you all enjoy! D.T.
0 Comments
Hey everyone,
As my novel Central Locking is free on Kindle Store/Amazon for the next few days though I might just take the time to put up a short post about some of the ideas behind it and some of the themes involved, just to go past the book blurb a little. The idea for Central Locking started in my head after seeing a TV segment on a popular car program. The piece featured an Audi racing round a track with no driver involved. Straight away this fired up the idea for the book in my head, because I'm weird like that, lol. The impact of such technology on all our lives if it were to become mainstream, and the challenging questions it would throw up for society were clear to see. Beyond the base premise of a guy getting taken prisoner by his malfunctioning vehicle, another idea that gripped me was the idea of the ostensibly perfect system, as the Transport Network is portrayed in Central Locking, and how far people might go to cover up any glitches that may be present in the system when there is a LOT of money involved. One aspect of the book which I feel provides a lot of tenseness is the survival aspect of things. The main protagonist Jack is stuck in his car for some considerable time with very little supplies to rely on. To try and illustrate accurately the mental and physical effects of such an ordeal I did quite a lot of research into how a prolonged lack of food and more importantly fluids can negatively effect an individual, and tried to get across the crushing claustrophobia of the situation and the moments of panic an delirium. Hope that comes across for the reader too! There are also parallels to be drawn between Jacks ordeal, trapped by the machine and taken against his will across country, and his life in general, with Jack trying as best he can to deal with the demands of his life and a job he despises, which have for long periods taken him away from the important things in his life. There is also a love story in there too, although not your typical Hollywood fodder. Quite often you see the guy in the book/film realising he has messed up, and much of the piece is about him sorting out that mess, with the pay off being the often ostentatious, very public reconciliation. With Jack and Kate I wanted to try looking at something different - like what happens after the big romantic gesture when the hard work starts. At the beginning of Central Locking Jack has just been accepted back into the family he once discarded to concentrate on his career, but there is still a lot for him still to do to make it up to them. What I wanted to show was the frustration of a man who gets his second chance, only to be then spirited away just as he tries to make good. I tried to convey the random unfairness of it all and hope I succeeded to some extent. Remember guys, we're free until Sunday - if you get chance I would really appreciate it if you had a look. Also if you do take a look, any feedback would be welcome D.T. HI All,
Just thought I'd put on a quick update about how day 1 of my free event for my book Central Locking is going so far A good few hours in, uptake and downloads have been fair so far but by no means spectacular. I'm hoping as the days go on a bit of momentum is going to kick in to drive downloads up a little more. One thing I have been pleased with however is the generosity of other authors on twitter in re-tweeting my tweets to help get the message a little further out there. It is much appreciated guys. As it is Friday I'm also looking to utilise the #freebiefriday and #freefriday hash tags to reach out to those markets also. So far much of my promotion is centred around twitter, but hopefully some of the free book sites I have submitted to will get on message soon and give me a bit of a plug also Anyhow - should probably get back to it - until next time! D.T. Hi Guys and Happy New Year!
Speaking of new year, its a time when we are all usually making plans, which prompted me to think about a book I read recently - How To Write More Words More Easily by Terrance Field First off, I'm not usually one for self help books or books offering writing advice, but as the book was free and only 52 pages long I though I'd give it a look. I must say I am very glad I did. Orwell Said the best books tell us what we already know, and I'd say that is the case with this book. As you can imagine from a 52 page book the advice is straight to the point and direct. There is no magic formula here but what there is there is a simple plan, a scalable model to be applied to any gestating novel. It makes sense. Reading it I was thinking to myself "well yeah that's obvious"...but as obvious as it all may be I certainly haven't been doing it so far! Previously I have been of the belief that people can either write or not, and that if you have at least a little talent, you can improve it by working at it. Mostly I am still of that opinion...but I'm now going to graft onto that that a little more planning doesn't go amiss (obvious right?) For myself, like many aspiring writers my time is limited and sometimes it can seem as though you are getting minimum returns on the time you spend. Having a detailed plan of each chapter of your novel and racheting up the 'crisis' throughout to keep up the pace, I feel will really help my progress. I am definitely going to make it my new years resolution to apply this books techniques and tips to keep my next book on track and to help me deliver a quality novel hopefully more quickly than the first one I would definitely recommend it to other aspiring writers and even if you don't find it useful, hey its only 52 pages! D.T. Hi Guys,
Today's update is about 3D printing, something that really intrigues me (as you will have seen if you ever check out my Twitter feed!) 3D printing, or the printing of objects rather than paper matter is a pretty new development that has only come to my attention at least over the last 3-4 years. I think its important to put a pretty big disclaimer out there at this point that I am no expert on the subject (no kidding?) but it interests me none the less and think it will be a thread that weaves through a lot of my future writing efforts. That said, although very niche at the moment, I think 3D printing could end up having the same ubiquitous effect on all our lives as the internet has over the last couple of decades. Although you could currently stop many people in the street who would have no idea what 3D printing was or could be soon, its applications can go right across the board, from novelty items right up to very heavy and serious applications which have the potential to change our society fundamentally. As such it is one of the topics I think we should be asking some pretty probing questions about. Obviously it has some pretty far reaching consumer applications. As some people already own them I don't think we are far away from a home tech boom in 3D printing where such a printer could be the must have new gadget . Once you have a basic model in situ though what could you use it for? One home application could be in plastic products, such as purchasing and downloading a plan for a phone case or the latest toy and printing it off at home, rather than buying it from the shops. This could probably be said for most homewares, consumables and clothes some day. This could significantly reduce the amount of packaging and fuel we use, which would obviously have a very positive impact on the environment. Such a scenario however could cause much uncertainty also, as you would be pretty much tearing up the retail and logistics rule book as we know it. What would these changes mean for the jobs in this sector? If I am paying for the design for my new table vase online and printing it off at home, what do I need the guy in the shop for,? Or the dude driving the delivery truck for that matter? The technology also has some pretty far reaching implications for heavy industry also, such as in the automotive industry, where all parts could be precision engineered from a master template, all exactly the same, time after time. Here too there could be further job implications in industries where automation has already cost so many people their jobs. What are we all going to do once technology finally puts us out of work? Its a serious question. Another issue would be product/template piracy, whilst the idea of being able to print off a workable firearm in your home,(possibly without anyone knowing, as some people have done already) is a very unsettling one to me. 3D printing could also revolutionise the healthcare industry. We are already seeing 3D printing being used in surgeries such as facial reconstruction and hip joint replacement, the bonus being to be able to get a precise and exact match to the mapped original, thus better and more aesthetically pleasing results. In due course we could see printed replacement organs, perfect matches for the individual which would eliminate the chance of rejection or the need for expensive drugs. Could you imagine the impact on the millions of people worldwide who's lives are spent waiting for an organ donor? We may too also see the end of the pharmacy, with our doctors sending our prescription direct to our printers, with all our myriad of medications being delivered in one daily pill. Here of course in healthcare the need for vigilance for abuses of any new system are even more vital. Just one more - a personal favourite of mine. The impact 3D printing could have on space exploration is mind boggling. Already we have seen NASA 'emailing' a wrench to the ISS for them to print off in space. It was a small but very significant development. One major factor holding back our expansion into space is the sheer expense and logistical strain of basically blasting vast tons of supplies into orbit. If we could instead print these off (which we have proven we can), what implications could that have long term? We know the vast mineral resources of the moon. Every country and his dog is eyeing up the resources to be mined there, along with big business. Once we go back there, say with a pretty significant industrial 3D printer or ten, whats to prevent the team up there using them and the moon rock to establish our first off world base? Then whats to stop it becoming a city in due course? A whole off world colony in time? Utilised to fire us further out into space (via the lower gravitational pull). I find such an idea coming to fruition in my lifetime both amazing and terrifying. We have seen throughout history the unsettling effect on politics of opening up a new sphere of influence that every state wants its own piece of. And what about when the Moon colonies end up having their own 'Boston Tea Party' - what then? As I say, I'm no expert and could be off on all counts - but it makes you think doesn't it? D.T. So, No updates for a while then...
Like many of you out there (I hope), I've been enjoying the festive period with my family. I hope you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to the new year. To kick off the new year for me, I'm running a Kindle Select promotion for my novel Central Locking. As I'm already priced below the minimum price for the countdown deal option I'm going with using 3 of my 5 free days between 12AM pacific time on Friday 2nd January and the same time on Sunday 4th. That's right - between these days my novel will be completely free to anybody who wants to download it, and I hope that anyone reading this will take a look. Why would anyone offer their ebook for free you ask? They do say after all if you're good at something, don't do it for free (although the jury is certainly still out on whether I am or not!). There are certainly a lot of articles out there on the web about whether being subscribed to kindle select is advantageous to an author or not and the relative pro's and con's of each promotional tool. I'm not trying to get into that in this blog post, I'm firstly letting you all know what I am up to in advance, and looking to illustrate my reasoning behind it all and what I hope to gain from the whole process. Firstly, to speak candidly, although some authors may be worried about the effects such free days may have on their sales/rank, this is currently not an issue for me. I doubt I am going to be missing out on much over the three day period of my promotion in all honesty. What I am hoping to gain however is some much needed further exposure in a very crowded and noisy marketplace. I've previously described trying to promote your kindle ebook on social media etc. as shouting your wares whilst stood next to a running jet engine, (possibly whilst some of your colleagues stood beside you from the erotic fantasy genre utilise their megaphones - just kidding guys!). Previous free day events I have run have helped to get the message about my book out there a bit more, boosted my sales a little and helped to grow my twitter presence. I'm hoping this upcoming promotion will boost me up another level and move things along another increment (here's hoping!) Most of all I'm hoping to gain a few more reviews from those who might take advantage of the promo. Reviews of course can be a double edged sword, but feedback is always beneficial in the long run, even if you don't like the taste of it in the first place. That being said, anyone who wants to go all in with five stars and gush with the superlatives, don't let me stop you! Once the promo has run its course, I might do another post about how it went, until then if you do take advantage of the offer most of all I hope you enjoy the book! D.T. So...Just finished reading The First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument Of Kings) by the brilliant Joe Abercrombie and I must say it was absolutely magnificent.
I would imagine my experience of it however was quite different to most other readers. This is all my fault of course. I am no stranger to Abercrombie's sterling work, having previously read two of his other novels Best Served Cold and The Heroes. Although these are stand alone novels completely separate from the First Law trilogy, they do both occur after it in the same 'world' and contain many of the same characters. For me this meant I experienced the trilogy more as a prequel, which of course it was never intended to be. Ah well. I must say however this did little to dampen my enjoyment of this fabulous work. For those who enjoy their epic fantasy in the traditional style, full of gloriously noble knights on pristine white chargers, conducting heroic quests set against romantic backgrounds and with well defined, malevolent antagonists, perhaps Abercrombie's work is not for you. The keyword you will always hear about his work is 'Gritty'. This is true, but for me this leads to a greater level of realism as well. The battle scenes are visceral and savage, blood soaked and terrifyingly real. The scenes involving 'The Bloody Nine' take on an almost grisly poetry in places. The realism too stretches to Abercrombie's characters, including the main point of view characters who despite being skilled in their own way, are by no means in control of their own destiny and for the most part morally ambiguous. They are all beholden to a higher power, pulling their strings no matter how high they may rise, and some rise very high indeed. Throughout the three novels there is a feeling of the main protagonists being dragged along by a tide which they have no control over, and just trying to make the best of it, which for me has a greater parallel with real life than you usually find in the genre. They just try and roll with the punches as best they can. One other aspect of Abercrombie's work that I enjoy is the dark humour present in all his novels. It is almost black in places, with a thread of gallows humour running throughout. It is something the British do very well I think. The Northmen in particular are a sarcastic and surly joy. Ultimately the trilogy as a whole keeps you guessing and on the wrong foot throughout, constantly driving forward to the next cliffhanger or twist. Some characters do some very bad things for the greater good, whilst some others carry out thoroughly heroic acts, perhaps only to further their own ends. You are always left guessing at everyone's true motivation all the way along (one character especially!). Even by the end it is hard to be sure who has won the ultimate victory and if the world Abercrombie has created is any better off for the sacrifices that have been made. I imagine that this was exactly the authors intention. Overall I heartily enjoyed the whole thing, and would imagine that anyone left a little underwhelmed by George RR Martin's most recent efforts (when judged against the unbelievably high standards of the earlier books in the Song of Ice and Fire Series) or are getting tired of waiting for the next instalments to be written would enjoy this series also. I could also see a quite fantastic film franchise with a very dark edge in the near future, with any luck. But then, 'You have to be realistic about these things' D.T. So then, self driving/autonomous cars
They are the main focus of my book Central Locking. Set in the near future, driving is a thing of the past, with people being chauffeured about on their daily commutes, the car taking all the strain. Behind the sereneness of each trip however sits a vastly complicated Transport Mainframe reliant on advanced SAT NAV, multiple close range cameras and other advanced technologies. Accidents are almost none existent and the whole transport system is able to run much more smoothly. It seems like science fiction (it is, after all) but most experts in the automotive field agree that it is a case of when, not if we will reach this stage. Parking assist, cruise control and collision prevention technologies are fast becoming standardised across the industry and there is much to suggest these developments are just the thin end of the wedge. It is highly likely that the technology for a fully autonomous vehicle requiring little or no input from its owner will be ready long before the legal system will be ready to allow it on our roads. Road testing has already begun in some areas of the US and the UK, but there is much to sort out before society catches up with the technology. What happens if the system goes wrong (as it does in Central Locking) and who would be held responsible? Will the system be able to make the right choices when presented with more than one outcome, both of which are unpalatable? What will autonomous vehicles mean for the thousands employed in driving related jobs? When will people be able to let go of control and trust The Machine? Or should they even? Much to think about then... D.T. Just a quick one to get started guys
Phew what a day! First up, decided to change the name of my debut novel from the original working title ://AUTO to Central Locking (its about a self driving car that takes its owner hostage - get it?) All joking aside it wasn't a decision I took lightly. I liked the title, but I don't think the special characters at the beginning were doing me any favours on amazon/kindle. Also ://AUTO got bundled in with all the Autobiographies as well. Long and short of it if you put your book title in exactly and it comes up as the 233 result, something isn't going quite right. Hopefully Central Locking will treat me better. Whatever happens i'm not changing it again. The places you have to change it once it is out there! Also, the website. people have been telling me for some time that I should get one. Hopefully it will be a good place for people to learn more about me and my writing. I'm sure there will be some teething problems but bear with me and hopefully we can grow it together. Any feedback, good or bad just let me know your thoughts. Now I'm going to bed D.T. |
BlogThis is where I will put semi regular musing about things that interest me. I cannot guarantee they will do the same for you guys Archives
May 2022
Categories |