Writing Update

Right, good stuff: I’ve edited my way through the three books while turning chapter notes into synopses along the way. As I have mentioned before I can firmly say that the books are called Penny Royal I: Isobel, Penny Royal II: Room 101 and Penny Royal III: Spear & Spine. Next I’m going to focus on Isobel and do further editing, first working my way backwards through it: I read a paragraph at a time from the end of the book, which keeps me from getting involved in the story and enables me to pick up more errors. I’ll also write a selection of cover blurbs for it. I want to get this book sorted because I promised it to Macmillan in September. After that I’ll do the just same with the other two books, and they’ll probably be ready to send off over the ensuing couple of months. What next?

While writing these books I extracted a whole plot thread concerning a character called Tuppence, his sidekick troodon dinosaur (who used to be an exotic dancer) and a being called ‘the client’. This I then turned into a novella I sold to Asimov’s called The Other Gun and which was published in the April/May issue of that magazine this year.

When I removed the Tuppence thread I also removed a thread about another character called Dr Whip (and no, he’s not into SM). I in fact dumped both threads into one file before later separating them. So next it will be time to get to work on the story of Dr Whip, a man who has been radically altered by Penny Royal. I’m looking forward to letting myself go with that once I’ve finished all the drudge work on the three books above.

Memories of Earth

Quite a while back I wrote a short story, based on the Owner trilogy, to be used in publicity. It wasn't used so I retrieved it and dispatched it off to Asimov's. Thankfully it was accepted and published in this issue. Sorry about how blurred this is, but it was the only cover picture I could find. You might also be interested to know that you can subscribe to Asimov's via Kindle.

Here's one review of my story I found.

All of which is by way of a preamble to say that I would have been disinclined to like anything I read, but I found Asher’s story a clever one indeed. The set up is quick (it’s a shorter short story) and the main character interesting – due to an alien attack, he’s left grounded planetside, no longer connected to the vast web of knowledge and technical support that gave him what was tantamount to godhood when up is space.

Ban It!

Something I’d been thinking about, and considering writing a blog post about, was nicely summed up by Rich Daniels on Facebook:

Anti-smoking activists remind me more and more of the AGW crowd. They have a principled goal of saving lives/the planet. They posit a solution, don't smoke/don't emit so much CO2. Then some smart arse comes along and solves these problems in such a way as to give them their solutions without really altering our lives, and they fucking hate it. We are doing what they demanded without doing what they told us. The seething must be awful to behold.

So so true. Fracking has drastically reduced America’s CO2 levels:

The reduction is even more impressive when one considers that 57 million additional energy consumers were added to the U.S. population over the past two decades. Indeed, U.S. carbon emissions have dropped about 20 per cent per capita, and are now at their lowest level since Dwight D. Eisenhower left the White House in 1961.

Yet activists don’t want us to do that here. We have to build windmills and pay double or treble for the energy. We must ready ourselves for power cuts every time the wind stops blowing. WE MUST DO WITHOUT.

Next we come to the e-cigarette. Here is a device that in just a few years has taken 1.3 million people partially or completely off cigarettes in Britain. This is something that the ban on smoking in public places completely failed to do, as will the cutting of cigarette displays or the proposed introduction of plain packaging. Yet e-cigs must be legislated against and if possible banned. They must be stopped! No matter that they are saving lives. Ban them. No matter that they are no more harmful than a cup of coffee. Ban them!

Why is that? I submit that it is due to the puritan and punitive instincts of many ‘activists’ who are no better than proselytizing religious zealots. In a transition to a green renewable energy culture the hair shirts must be distributed, to be worn over bodies already self-flagellated by sustainable birch twigs. You must go without cars, beef steaks and must sit shivering in your house squinting at the latest Greenpeace pamphlet in the light of a low-energy bulb, if the power is on. If you’re a stinky smoker then how dare you find a way to avoid all the dangerous aspects of smoking and still enjoy its pleasures! You must suffer all the torments of withdrawal, or become a medicated patient of the NHS and suffer the humiliation of quit-smoking classes for your instruction, and only then, when suitably chastened, are you fit to join the company of your betters.

And, of course, in both cases: ONLY THROUGH SUFFERING CAN YOU ATTAIN REDEMPTION!  

Book Sale 3.1

Here's an update of the list:

Book	Detail	Number	Price
Brass Man
MM paperback	UK Sullivan cover	5	£8
Trade paperback	USA	21	£10
MM paperback	USA	16	£6
Polity Agent
MM paperback	UK Old cover	1	£4
MM paperback	UK Sullivan cover	7	£8
Prador Moon
Trade paperback	US Night Shade Books issue	17	£10
Voyage of the Sable Keech
MM paperback	UK old cover	3	£4
MM paperback	UK Sullivan cover	4	£8
Cowl
MM paperback	US	3	£5.50
Trade paperback	US	7	£10
Shadow of the Scorpion
Trade paperback	UK old cover	3	£12
MM paperback	UK Sullivan	4	£8
The Technician
MM paperback	UK Sullivan	5	£8
The Gabble
MM paperback	UK old cover	3	£8
The Departure
MM paperback	UK Sullivan	6	£8
Zero Point
MM paperback	UK Sullivan	6	£8

Contact me at the email below my biog on the right if interested.

Cigarette Sales Down (because of e-cigs)

Despite Best Efforts of Anti-Smoking Groups, Cigarette SalesWere Down 600 Million Units in First Quarter of 2013

Despite the best efforts of many anti-smoking groups, cigarette sales were down 600 million units in the first quarter of 2013. Why? Because electronic cigarettes competed successfully with tobacco cigarettes and drove their sales down.

Utter madness of the anti-smokers: they would rather people died than found a viable alternative to smoking, because it looks like smoking. Incidentally today I've been off the roll-ups an on an e-cig for one month.

Calorie Counting

So I have decided to try bringing my weight down. On Monday I ate nothing at all and that brought me down from 13 stone 9 pounds to 13st 4lb (I weight myself at exactly the same time in the morning, after a shower, after having drunk just one cup of tea). Of course I’m aware that I hadn’t actually lost 5lbs of fat and that it was more to do with fluid and other processes going on, but a good start nevertheless. The next day I just ate veg and a couple of hard boiled eggs in the morning, then a meal in the evening with cabbage supplanting the potatoes. Next day my weight was 13st 6lb and on the ensuing day I did the same and my weight remained unchanged.

By this time a lot of people were telling me to count calories and, since I’m a bit anal about this sort of thing, I started looking up some stuff. On the internet I found that the amount of calories I need to maintain my weight ranges from 2300 to 2800. I mean, is cycling 8 miles 3 times a week, and weight-training for half an hour once or twice a week, moderate exercise? I don’t know. Anyway, to lose 1lb a week I needed to reduce my calorie intake by 500 a day, apparently, so I started counting up. By my calculations I consumed 2090 calories on Thursday and that was really hard work with me spending most of the day feeling hungry.

The result this morning was a weight of 13st 7lb. No matter – I know that when you start doing this your weight can yo-yo but that it is the average that counts and, thus far, my average weight is sitting at 3.5lbs below what it was last week. Of course I can’t judge any of this on just a few days dieting and one day counting calories but … but I suspect that my maintenance need is at the upper end of the scale and that a sensible weight-losing calorie count for me is about 2300 or maybe a bit more. Seriously, cutting out the food to the extent that you end up sitting on the sofa in the evening eyeing up your wife’s leg and thinking of mustard is maybe just a bit extreme.   

Weight-losing Time!

So, when we went off to Crete in April my weight was hovering at about 13 stone 3 pounds. I know this because I’m quite anal about this sort of thing and record my weight in my journal just about every morning. I even did a graph of it last year… Anyway, that weight wasn’t ideal. It didn’t pass the shop window test i.e. when I saw my reflection in a shop window I was horrified and immediately attempted to pull my gut in. I expected to lose some more weight on Crete because we’re more active there and the heat operates as an appetite suppressant. I soon became fitter because of the gardening, extra walking and then swimming a number of miles each week when the sea was warm enough. My gut receded quite a bit too. However my weight climbed to 13st 6lb. This is a case of fit fat man: I built up muscle and tightened everything up but lost none of the original fat.

Next, because of an accumulation of small facts about our own health and that of others around us, a tipping point being us coming back to England so Caroline can go into hospital, we decided to give up smoking. Now I damned well knew my weight was going to climb as a result of this but didn’t mind too much if I could manage to kick the habit. Well I have kicked the habit and my weight has duly climbed, but perhaps not as much as expected because I got straight into cycling and weight training, plus a walk at the weekend, the moment we got back here. However, it now stands at 13st 9lb and I don’t pass the shop window test even if I prepare beforehand by sucking in my gut (and yes I’m sucking in my gut in the picture here).

Time to lose some weight.

My approach to this is probably not the best and I know that some tut-tut about it when I talk about it. It is surely unhealthy, completely the wrong thing to do etc etc. Bollocks. I occasionally have days off – days when I eat nothing at all. I find it easier to do this than eat a small amount. No no no, cry the diet experts. I think they’re talking out of their backsides. In evolutionary terms fat goes on to get us through times when there isn’t much food available. The simple fact is that the less you put in your gob the less ends up around your waist. Also, I find that after the ensuing night’s sleep I feel no hungrier in the morning than usual, which brings home to you how hunger is just a mental thing.

The other thing I do is cut out four main carbs: potatoes, pasta, rice and bread. What I do is go out and buy cabbage. Savoy is my preference though red cabbage is good too. Then, instead of those carbs I have a pile of boiled cabbage. Spaghetti Bolognese? Yup the meat sauce goes on the pile of cabbage. Steak? Pile of cabbage where the chips normally sit. I also eat slowly, finish hungry and wait. The hunger passes in half an hour. Sometimes if there’s an oversupply of veg available – runner beans, courgettes or whatever – I just double up on them instead of the cabbage. But you get the idea.

This all starts today. Caroline is going on a shopping trip to Westfield and will be eating out. I’ll take my eight mile bike ride to my mother’s and, when back here, try to eat nothing at all. Maybe I’ll fail but even then I’ll try to make that failure an apple or a raw carrot.  

Day 24 on the E-cig

Day 24 of not smoking today. My slight sore throat has passed as has the wheeziness and I now put them down an adjustment period or leftover ill effects from the real cigarettes and not something permanent. I’m also sleeping a lot better – the amount of sleep I’m getting stabilizing where it was before at about 7 hours. Though I did have some cravings during the first week or so, they have now completely gone. Also my ability to concentrate is returning and I’m getting back to some work. And again I seriously think this is it: I’m finished with tobacco cigarettes.

Meanwhile I’ve been discovering more about e-cigs and the quite ridiculous reaction to them. A number of train companies have banned them, Wetherspoons has banned them (and will never again receive one penny from me) etc. And why? Well, the only reason any of these seem to be able to give is that e-cigs might encourage the chiiildrennn to think smoking is okay. Since when has that been their business? Our government and the EU want to legislate them out of existence too. It’s madness. There are people out there who put anti-smoking ideology before public health. There are people out there so determined to totally ban cigarettes or anything remotely like them that they are prepared to let people die to forward that goal. It is estimated that 1.3 million people are now using e-cigs in Britain and I submit that most of those are erstwhile smokers. I further submit that the majority of them will be back on ‘real’ cigarettes if e-cigs are strangled at birth.

Then there is the negative propaganda being spread about e-cigs. In some e-liquid antifreeze glycol was found, so the idea is propounded that they all have this in. There are some bad things in them and this is focused on, and the fact that the same things are found in conventional NRT and that the quantity is so vanishingly small as to be irrelevant is ignored. Normal cigarettes are sold everywhere yet something that can get you off them and does not contain the 20+ carcinogens, the arsenic, carbon monoxide, cyanide or supposed 4,000 active and potentially nasty chemicals must be controlled, legislated against, stamped on?  

It is an unfortunately reality that many people hide their dictatorial instincts under the guise of concern for you. Something out-field like e-cigs comes along and whips away their camouflage to show us what they really are: autocrats, little tin-pot Hitlers and righteous prigs.

Vaping on the Thames

We took a boat trip on the Thames yesterday. This came about because neighbours of Caroline’s parents had booked the Pocahontas out of Gravesend for a birthday party trip and because couple of people had dropped out we were invited along to fill the gap. Why not, we thought, boat trips are always enjoyable. We took a coach from Althorne – just down the road from us – to Gravesend, this took about an hour and a half, and off we went. I was a bit worried because looking at the others I was a bit underdressed in cut-off jeans shorts and a sleeveless top, but it was very warm and I was glad of the choice. It was enjoyable, with a ploughman’s lunch aboard and a few glasses of wine. I filled up the memory card of my camera, but mainly with a few video clips that don’t look too hot. Usual pictures were taken of Westminster, the Dome, Gherkin, Tower Bridge, Tower of London etc. but it’s the less commonly seen views that interest me more. Here’s a few of them:

While aboard the boat I was of course vaping, especially when I had a few glasses of wine. I still feel a bit wary of doing this in areas where you are not supposed to smoke and I guess I should have a bit more of a ‘fuck you’ attitude, but this was someone else’s birthday party and being a last minute stop-gap guest I didn’t want to end up arguing with anyone. But in reality that’s not likely because you don’t smoke these things like a cigarette – you feel the urge for a toke, have one, and before anyone really notices the thing is back in your pocket. A few who did notice were curious about the device, and one or two smokers were very definitely interested. It seems that a lot of smokers have encountered e-cigs like the plastic Vapestick you can buy in Tesco but not the thing with the ‘clearomizer’ or the idea that you can buy e-liquids that work out a lot cheaper.

Continuing with the subject of vaping, here’s a few things I’m noticing: Alcohol doesn’t fuck me up as much as before. Expected hangovers are not arriving. Before, when I’ve had a few glasses of wine throughout the day like I did aboard the Pocahontas, I’ve always been weary and a bit red-eyed come the evening, but I was fine. The skin of my face is now a lot lot clearer. I suffered with acne rosacea over a few years, which gradually moved away from my nose to form spots on my cheeks and where my sideburns would be if I had them (these ones particularly being the ones that bleed). They’re disappearing and my skin feels tougher. Yeah, I’m liking this a lot.

Note: For those who have been ‘quittin’ with Asher’ – some even using the same e-cig as me – here’s something else I’ve found out: The e-liquid I first bought was 18mg USA mix from Hangsen. It was good, did the trick, but tasted slightly medicinal to me. I’ve since tried one from the same maker called Red Tobacco and it’s much better.     

Day 16

Well, it’s strange to realize that it has now been two weeks and two days since I smoked a cigarette. I am also finding it difficult to say that I have given up smoking when I’m puffing on an e-cig. It’s far too much like the real thing and using it has made giving up the real thing far too easy. But face facts: while vaping I’m now just taking in nicotine, water vapour and glycol. It is also the case that I’m naturally taking in less and less nicotine as time goes on. Today, for example, I chewed a 4mg nicotine gum in the morning and now at gone midday haven’t felt the need for anything else.

Now, about the e-cig: the thing may have its adverse effects. The glycerin or propylene glycol dries out your mouth and your throat and, since using the thing, I’ve had a ‘bit of a throat’ – that feeling you get when you’ve either smoked too much or have a cold coming on. I’ve also been wheezy a few times and have found myself coughing up phlegm. However, I wrote ‘may’ for a reason. I recently read an article detailing similar effects from an e-cig and how, after a couple of weeks, they die off, but I’m also aware that in stopping smoking my susceptibility to colds and other bugs has gone up, and that, after decades of smoking, wheezing and coughing are going to be constant companions for some time yet. In essence all the symptoms I'm feeling might have nothing to do with the e-cig at all.

Update: I've just learned something. If any of you have got the same e-cig as me with the EVOD battery you need to know that the battery has to be turned on. You click the button five times within two seconds to do that.  

Zero Point in the US

Nice mention over on Io9!

And for your delectation here's the US cover of Zero Point:

Mods in Maldon

On Sunday we drove to Maldon to the take a walk along the prom. Annoyingly, living in a village in Essex means there’s nowhere to take a walk unless you get in a car and drive first. Pavements end outside the village and beyond them there’s nothing to keep you safe from white van man. In the winter the field edges are quagmires and in the summer occupied by waist-high weeds. Anyway, I digress. The walk is pleasant, involves a whippy ice cream on the way and tea, coffee and a tea cake just before heading back to the car. This time, during the walk, we noticed that the mods and rockers had arrived at the sea front.

There wasn’t any fighting going on between them. Most likely they were discussing the best supplements for prostate problems and moaning about the behaviour and ridiculous fashions of the yoof of today.