July 2019 Facebook Posts

July 1st
Here we go. I have photos now. This was the beach in front of Revans back in April.



July 2nd
And the path home. . .
















July 4th
2,000 words this morning (the 'short story' is now at 26,000 words), 15k kayak this afternoon followed by two beers. I may snooze on the sofa. . .

July 5th

And another project to keep me from getting bollixed on my terrace in the evenings. Expats Tim and Helen had some work done on their house and took off some extremely rotten shutters. Coincidentally they had some hardwood shutters on their woodpile. I'm combining the two. . .

July 6th

Just rescued a lilo from a trip to Libya. People don't get sometimes how strong the wind is here, especially further out to sea. I'm waiting for someone to claim it, else it goes to Kostis and Niki for their daughter Maria.

July 8th

‎Lee Harrington‎ to Neal Asher

Thank you for the Facebook connection. I am in Australia. I am new to your books and this is my current read:

July 9th

More work on shutters. I took the morning off writing to get this done and tidy the garden. I'll have a pop at my 2,000 words this afternoon/evening if I'm not too knackered (as usual).

Garden now. I've already munched through lettuces, onions and radishes and now the tomatoes are coming. Still some pots to fill.

July 10th

July 11th

And another shutter for inspection after, I assure you, I did my 2,000 words. How much rotten wood do I need to cut away to get to something viable?

...

Um. That much.

Okay. Bugger that. The waves out at the point and beyond are a bit silly even for me. I turned round and came back surfing part of the way. Maybe a swim instead.

July 13th

Okay, the 'short story' has now slid past 30,000 words. Accelerated evolution, nanosuites possibly AI, polity weapons development (maybe) . . . It's all getting a bit to interesting to wrap up at magazine length. Yup. Looks like another book.

July 14th

Final two shutters done but for a bit of cleaning up. Glad to remove all the pieces of wood from my terrace, but now I must sort out the pile of tools in my spare room . . . until next time of course.

And here, because it fascinates me, we have an orange tree in the process of being turned into a lemon tree.

Sea a bit too rough for kayaking and probably not that pleasant for swimming. I think I may head back home for a snooze. Still mulling over the idea.

July 16th

Well this is bloody annoying: middle of July on Crete and it looks like it's going to rain.

Okay, time to bring the laptop down. It seems the edits for The Human have arrived. End of word counts for a while as I engage with them. That being said the 'short story' just slid past 40,000 words.

Sitting in the Stratos For the first time in a few years. Definitely the 'hot' chicken wings, followed by the roast lamb. Got to keep built up for the kayaking.

Ah what the hell. I can always delete this later if I've been premature. Here's the US cover of book 3 of Rise of the Jain: The Human.

July 17th

I woke to rumbling thunder this morning. Really poured down with streams running down the village paths. All gone now and back in shorts.

July 18th

Blimey. Actually cold enough up in the village yesterday to put on jeans. Down here in Makrigialos the waves would have flipped me in the kayak or done something untoward to a slightly dodgy back if I'd gone swimming. Constructive day anyway spending hours going through the editing of The Human.

July 19th

In glorious Technicolour here's the cover of the UK rerelease of Cowl:

And in further glorious colour here's the cover of the UK rerelease of The Technician:

July 20th

Uhuh. So 3+ hours kayaking is certainly a way to cure a hangover.

But the problem with 3+ hours kayaking as a hangover cure is I need a couple of beers to get over it. Mark this as the beginning of a steady cycle of self-destruction.

July 21st

Good grief. Four years ago. And I'm still using sunglasses I bought along with those here (which along with the hat are at the bottom of sea).

July 22nd

Well nothing much there has changed, but for the state of mind of the writer.

3 years ago

Neal Asher

22 July 2016 · Sitía · 

Brain forced back into gear by self-disgust and other ... elements. 2,000 words written of a short story which, after nameless things dropped into my mind in an afternoon, formed while I was trying to sleep, and required excursions from bed to make notes.

Καλο βραδυ!

...

Edits for The Human dealt with and dispatched to Macmillan. Time to get back to writing the new thing again, though I think I'll start out with a catch up blog post.

July 23rd

Okay, pretty good one today. 2,000 words written, chillies planted around the garden, 10K kayak and a 2K swim. I deserve this, so there!

Just heard about Boris. 'The End is Nigh' placards will be out. Meanwhile I'm guffawing.

I do like it when life's most critical decision of the moment is, have another beer or not.

July 25th

I did like that cover.

2 years ago

Neal Asher

25 July 2017 · 

Hey US readers. Do any of you have Gridlinked, The Skinner or Brass Man on kindle? - Trying to get to the bottom of something that's going on with those books...

...

Feeling rather chuffed here. As mentioned before I recently got a story taken by Azimovs. Now (contract yet to be signed) Analogue have taken a story. Quite a long one too - novella I think.

Some brain twisting work this morning. The short story I started, which has now grown to 40+ thousand words, consists of lots of segments concerning the colonisation of a world (and other prador war related stuff) whose chronology is all over the place. Trying to impose some order is not easy. I'm thinking the 'all over the place' won't change much. Still, it's been done before to good effect: Use of Weapons by Banks.

As Winnie the Pooh would say, 'It's a blustery day'. I'm in the Stratos to eat what I firmly intended to eat last time: beefstekia. This restaurant is, incidentally, where the proprietor Dolores runs her 'spot Neal Asher' competition from when I go past in my kayak.

July 26th

Oh bloody hell. Not much achieved this morning. After that meal in Stratos last night I stopped off in Revans for a quick drink, and didn't leave till 3.30 in the morning. I now intend a thoroughly punishing run on the kayak to burn the shit out of my body.

Okay, the hangover seems to have been banished. Fruit juice only today and back to read my ARC of the next Hamilton book. Sensible behaviour now . . . for at least a little while.

July 27th

Nice.

Okay, my intention to be good lasted until I got back from my kayak run. On my second beer now. But then I have walked 12k written 2,000 words and kayaked 10k. Surely I'm allowed some leeway here?

July 28th

And another satisfying day: 12K walking in the mountains, 2,000 words written and kayaking . . . well, I don't know how far though in the region of 15K - I was gone for over 3 hours. They didn't notice this last in Revans, despite talk of sending out a rescue boat or getting me to pay my bill before I head out. 🤣 But they were overrun with weekend Greeks.

The Revans Bar collection at present. I've found it's better not to sign them or they disappear. For those who have taken my books here and not returned them, may swarms of cicadas fly up your nostrils.

July 29th

Ah bollocks. Short kayak today. A few waves here on the beach to start with but getting rougher the further I went. Turned round at the end of the next point along. Going directly into the waves was hard but doable, but going along sideways by the coast to them a good way to find myself upside down on the rocks.

Just heard that the Coastguard here had to go and retrieve someone in a kayak off Sitia. I have reassured Kostis that he can sell my Ipad to pay my bar bill at Revans if I get lost at sea.

Video of me kayaking by Ricardo Graves.

Big waves, damp South wind. The first three crisps out of the bowl were crunchy. One minute later they were like wet cardboard.

July 30th

Hell. You know when you've had a proper massage - when you feel like you've been worked over with a baseball bat!