Hens Are Seasonal Too

When I started to move to more locally grown food, as a way of reducing my carbon foot print (and I do wonder if it should be called a carbon foot print at all, because it’s more about the damage I do to the planet rather than just the carbon I produce), I understood that some of the things I’m used to eating would have to go (or be reduced) and I’d start to learn more about how modern food is made. What I never expected is to have too many head slapping moments, when something very obvious is pointed out to me.

Groceries

This week I have come to understand two things: in the natural world, chickens want a break from laying eggs; the way instant coffee is made seems to be energy heavy.

With regards to the latter of these mini revelations, I still need to do some more research, but I think the upshot will be that instant coffee is band from the house. There is a coffee percolator in the kitchen so it shouldn’t be too difficult to get fresh coffee, or even the beans to grind. All it’ll mean is that a cup takes a bit longer to make.

The first point, that hens don’t lay eggs all year round, surprised me. I’ve lived my life in modern countries and while I knew about all those chickens packed together in sheds, being forced fed and having their eggs carried away on conveyor belts. Heck, of course I know that some plants and animals go into hibernation during the cold months, yet it never occurred to me that those little hens don’t want to lay eggs every month. Not until the lady I get the eggs from every week said that she’d run out that Friday because the hens were malting and not laying as much.

Now I feel bad for the little blighters so I’m going to think of ways I can live without eggs (for months on end it seems). It’s either that or I make plenty of cakes and freeze them. Oh, but that uses more energy. Damn.

Rum And Uncanny Tune

Probably not David Bowie’s fault, I just don’t like the song.

As some of you know I have music playing randomly via an FM transmitter so it can be picked up by a radio anywhere in the house or garden. [look here] I own quite a bit of music and tend to forget a lot of it. Sometimes I’m surprised by what I hear.

If the truth be known, I do like bits of the song and I suspect others do as well. It’s just that other parts of the song wander off and I find it as odd as a Four Tet track.

This week the strangest thing was:

Song Name: The Alabama Song
Band Name: David Bowie

Writing Wednesday – Flash Fiction

I’ve mentioned #FridayFlash before and the fact that for me it started a bit before I found out about this group of writers.

Writing

When I set out to write a piece of fiction each Friday I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. Now I have more of an idea. I’ve set myself a target (oh, how I like targets and challenges); I will keep writing these little stories for at least a year.

Yes, they’re a pain, and yes, sometimes they get me stressed, but I like them and there are proving good for my honing my skills. So, for at least the next ten months, the flash fiction will be rolled out every Friday. Some will be will be straight fiction, some will be horror, some will be fantasy and a lot will be science fiction. The one thing that will remain the same is that each one will be based on something in the news that week.

More Writing Wednesday posts.

Downloading Not Always Cheapest

I went hunting a copy of Lord of The Rings Online as my love affair with City of Heroes (the MMOG I’ve been playing for the last four years) has come to an end.

On the web site I found a wide selecting of offers, ranging from the basic game and some free online game play, to all three of the current sections of the game (Shadows of Angmar, Mines of Moria and Mirkwood) with no online time. I was about to pick one of these when a friend suggested checking some of the normal retail stores (both on the internet and bricks and mortar ones).

It was in one of these that we found the first two expansions and thirty days worth of game play for half the price it was available for online. Not only is this a lot cheaper but it has the advantage of avoiding a big download (although there are plenty of patches to install).

The one downside is that I’ve ended up with another box full of game DVDs and manuals (something I’ve been trying to avoid for many years), but that hardly seems to matter when I’ve got the game this cheap.

New Music Monday

A city full of owls? No, it’s just Owl City with a new song and a cool video.

Okay, so this is never going to be John Peel or Zane Lowe, it’s just a tune (new or old) that I’ve found in the last week and taken a fancy to. Enjoy, comment, recommend.

Would being hugged by a load of fireflies hurt?

Track Name: Fireflies
Artist Name: Owl City

Character or Plot First

For me it’s the idea, the plot, even the ending (although not all that time) that comes first. After that I start to fit the characters around it. It is likely that as I mull over the story some characters will come to mind straight away. They are the ones who fit natural into the surroundings.

Writing

If it’s a murder mystery, for example, it is almost always the case that the protagonist will pop into my head just after the vague outline of the plot. Someone to track the killer down will more than likely appear just after this.

A great example of how this works is the way I came up with the idea for the flash fiction piece Just One Drop. Initially I got the idea of someone looking for power (a form of starvation), almost straight away it seemed right that this would be a woman with a pet that she thought of as her baby. After that the location came about (the fact that she would be running from a war, that there needed to be a physical barrier between where she’d come from and where she was going to) and the rest just fell into place.

So, basic idea, main characters, other parts of the story, other characters. That’s about the order it happens in my head. Other writers have told me they work the other way around. They think of a character first, then come up with the situation that person is in and then let them get out of it. That’s never worked for me, but who knows, maybe one day I’ll think of a character that I just have to do something with.

Is Some Science Fiction Really Fantasy

I like science fiction, mostly what is called hard sci-fi, and I tend to shy away from fantasy, but recently I’ve begun to wonder if some of the science fiction I read isn’t any more fantastic than the stories that are inhabited by Elves, Dwarves and magic.

Books

Novels that are based on the science we currently have (sometimes extrapolated) could well be a lot closer to the true idea of science fiction than those that work with ideas that could never happen.

Teleportation and hyperspace are a couple of good examples. Man’s current understanding is that these things will never be possible (wormholes are a slightly different matter). Therefore, is it right to have them in science fiction stories? What’s the difference between a technician flicking a switch so the main character is transported to somewhere else on the planet and a mage calling out an incantation to achieve the same result? I suggest that there is nothing, other than the clothes the two scenes are dressed in.

By that reasoning, should true science fiction be limited to those stories that take a current theory and work it into a plot?

I’m not entirely convinced, given that I do like space opera I would rather not file it in the same category as sword and sorcery, but it’s certainly food for thought.

A Good Time To Be A Struggling Writer

Is it better to have been a writer in the 1980s, the 1950s, or even the turn of the last century? More to the point, is it easier to get published now than it was thirty or sixty years ago?

Writing

I’m not convinced there is a way to answer this as, essentially, every published author has a slightly different story of how they got there. What I can say is that there are now far more options open to those who want to write than there were in the past.

I can currently give the world access to the stories I write, and while the world may not be interested in them the odd person could (and fortunately does) give them a passing glance and therefore I get some feedback. Not only this, but I can make contact with other writers across the planet, learn from them, and throw in my own experiences.

Go back to the 1980s and none of this was around. There were (and still are) local writers groups, but the cross section of skills on show, interest for work outside of an attendants genre, and knowledge of the industry, is very restricted. If I was trying to become a writer back then I would most likely be ploughing away in a world of isolation, pouring through ‘how to write’ books and then sending my stories off to magazines, agents and publishing houses.

Now days I have all of this as well as all the extra things a worldwide contact list gives me access to. The only downside is that there are far more people who can be inspired into wanting to become a writer than their used to be.

Rum And Uncanny Tune

Captain Kirk is trapped in an awful song (although the video made me laugh).

As some of you know I have music playing randomly via an FM transmitter so it can be picked up by a radio anywhere in the house or garden. [look here] I own quite a bit of music and tend to forget a lot of it. Sometimes I’m surprised by what I hear.

This week the strangest thing was:

Song Name: Where’s Captain Kirk
Band Name: Spizzenergi

Writing Wednesday – Short Stories

Much like I did with the novels, I was going to offer up a list of short stories I am currently working on, but as it is rather large, and changes on a week-by-week basis, there seemed little point. Instead, here’s a rough sketch of what I’m doing with the various short stories.

Writing

Sat in my pending section there are currently ten ideas. These are the sensible ones, or at least those I can work with. There are others, but they are either one line notes, or thoughts I’ve had that I’m not sure what I want to do with. The ten stories I’m currently working on are the ones that I have at least a draft of the plot, rather than just a theme.

When I’ve written each of these I will make a decision on whether to start hawking it around magazines of the relevant genre or publish it on my web site.

That choice will be based on a number of factors, but mainly on how good the idea and story are, and if I think there is a market for it.

As the months roll by I would like to keep adding to the collection I have online, mainly because I enjoy reading what other people have offered up for free and therefore I would like to give something back. With those stories that do get published in magazines I will also make links available online, whenever possible, and if I retain the rights they might even appear on my web site at some point.