And this being Jules Verne’s birthday, why not go and reread one of his books – or watch a movie basedon one of Verne’s books?
And KeithTaylor mentioned Michael Strogoff, and that’s quite a nice choice for Karavansara: an adventure yarn, set in the heart of Eurasia, and featuring chases, swashbuckling, heroics and derring-do.
All in a neat package, courtesy of one of the fathers of science fiction – but here applying his skills to a spy thriller of sorts.
It is also one of the titles on which my generation cut its teeth as readers. But we’ll get to that. Continue reading
Two writing issues
Yeah, I know, I know… I’ve been told years ago that writers write, they don’t talk about writing.
But you see, I spent some time yesterday discussing with a young author1 about two issues I never considered issues in the first place, when it comes to writing:
- Basing the main character on ourselves
- Taking responsibility for what we write
I was rather surprised by the responses of my counterpart, and in the end I think he was rather annoyed by my position, so I thought I may as well annoy you guys. Continue reading
Buster Crabbe’s 110th birthday!
What a coincidence!
The 110th birthday of the man that was Flash Gordon, and Buck Rogers AND Tarzan.
We want to remember him like this…
Gordon’s Alive!
Yeah, I know, the title’s not that original, but let me explain.
I am not a huge fan of the Flash Gordon movie. As I said in the past, I much prefer the animated feature, or the original Alex Raymond comics.
And if it’s the comics or the animation, then I love Flash Gordon.
I was therefore very excited when, back in GenCon 2016, Shane Hensley of Pinnacle Entertainment announced that there would be a Savage World of Flash Gordon RPG.
I waited with growing anticipation, and I was ready to back the Kickstarter, but my bank had other ideas, and only now I’ve been able to get my hands on the actual thing. And boy is this thing a beauty.
Van Maanen’s Star
Star Eagles is a game created by Damon Richardson and published by Andrea Sfiligoi’s Ganesha Games.
Humanity faces an alien menace in this fun, easy-to-learn game of space battles.
I’ve been lucky enough to be involved very marginally in the project when I provided a few short snippets of fiction to spice-up the game handbook.
And as it usually happens, I found the universe interesting and worth exploring, and two characters, Tam and Lol, that would make it a fun thing exploring it.
So I asked Damon and Andrea for permission, and they allowed me to play in their backyard. The result is a story – hopefully the first of many – called Van Maanen’s Star.
My first ever military SF story is currently available in multiple formats through Gumroad. It will also go up on Amazon, but it will take a little longer for the oompa-loompas to do their job.
Check it out.
ADDENDUM: the oompa loompa were as fats as hell, and now Van Maanen’s Star is also on Amazon.
Game, Set, Match
So, basically – I’m about to do a series of posts on the three Harry Palmer spy movies, The IPCRESS File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain, and the novels they are based on.
I’ve been a long-time Lee Deighton fan, and his books are certainly an influence on my writing – and my cooking!1 – and I’ve always loved the Michael Caine movies.
And while I was looking online for resources for those next posts, I found out that you can view the whole 12 episodes of Game Set & Match on Youtube.
And so I said to myself, why not make a post on that, too? And here it is. Continue reading
Karavansara 