Sunday, November 06, 2011

Resolutions

A lot of people tend to make New Year resolutions but for me it’s becoming the ‘back from Crete’ resolution. After my initial greedy splurge on the Internet, reading sometimes as much as seven months’ worth of various blogs, and discovering as always ‘same old shit; different month’, I resolve not to spend quite so much time on it. However, that’s just the same as my, ‘I’m never drinking again!’ after a particularly bad hangover.

Resolutions I will stick to are these: I will continue with my twenty sit-ups and twenty press-ups every morning, I’ll cycle during from Monday to Friday as much as weather permits, and I’ll do two weight-training sessions a week. Another thing I resolve to do, because I was lazy this summer in this respect, is spend one hour a day learning Greek. I want to return there (unless of course it becomes dangerous to do so) with at least every single phrase from my Rough Guide imbedded in my mind. Starting Monday I’ll get my head down with Jupiter War, finishing working backwards through it, and writing the rest of the chapter starts and inserting all of them. After that I need to write blurbs for Zero Point, and perhaps a synopsis, then it’s either time for some short stories or work on Penny Royal.

Another thing I’ll have a pop at will be more of those video clips I did last year, with you providing the questions and me either answering or muttering my way out of trouble. To that end please start asking your questions in the comments section here. Try to be precise and try to bear in mind stuff already known, like, yes I am returning to the Polity – I said so in the paragraph above.

10 comments:

Darren Goldsmith said...

Returning to The Polity: check. And yay!

But will we get more Spatterjay? Please say yes. :)

Friso said...

Do you plan to introduce any other extant alien races into the Polity universe apart from the Prador?

Xanares said...

Is raki a good source of inspiration? :)

Neal Asher said...

Keep 'em coming!

Jay said...

How was your experience self publishing with Amazon? Do you think you'll keep at it.

Lord Weh said...

Do you keep a file or notebook to keep track of details in your polity works (or owner, or other works), or do you do it mostly from memory?

For example, do you have a notes of polity planets, details about the characters, etc, or do you find it easier to 'free-form' it when writing and work from memory?

Laszlo said...

The Departure came out early Semptember in the UK. It was available in all formats, but since getting a Kindle this summer, I wanted to grab the electronic version. While it's right there for purchase at the click of a mouse on amazon uk, on amazon.com and amazon.ca, as i'm in canada, it wasn't (and still isn't) available. At the same time, days after it's UK release it was available for download for free off the net. As a huge fan of your work, having purchased so far everything it is so extremely disappoiting to see that in the 21st century with all this technology, I could not legitimately buy and support your work with a couple clicks of the mouse, but i sure could be reading your book in a couple clicks going the illegal way. Has the publishing industry not learned anything form the lessons of the music industry of the past decade? Anyway, just thought i'd get your take on it, as an "insider" to the publishing world and it's workings. Laszlo from Brampton, Canada (a fan who'll gladly pay for your work :) )

2theD said...

What's your personal stance on the Fermi paradox and how is this reflected in your writing? I've always thought that true aliens would be exactly that... too alien to communicate with.

Phil M said...

Welcome back, to (ha,ha) civilization.

Who chooses the book covers and how did Jon Sullivan get involved?

What made you pick Crete for a summer residence?

Anonymous said...

Have you seen/read Ghost in the Shell? And if so, have you enjoyed it?

With any media, at what point does bad writing / campy or terrible special effects outweigh the quality of a good story? I do mean this for all sorts of media, what makes you put down a book despite wanting to know what happens next? (ex-I have tried to watch Red Dwarf, but everything is so immersion-breakingly bad I can't stand it.)

How do you prefer to imbibe your raki?