Facebook Posts January 2022

 1st Jan

January 1st 2022. If previous years are anything to go by, and ignoring the viral push to be frightened of leaving the house, gym attendances will be up this month. Booze will also be capped and hidden away, or given away or discarded. Last cigarettes will have been stubbed out. Waistlines will be inspected, diet sites visited and promises made will be looming. As much as it is sneered at by many, the transition to a new year is a watershed and resolutions are a thing.
Have you made any resolutions, and dare you write them down?

2nd Jan

I've felt I've been getting slack on the writing front lately what with a lack of self-motivation and other factors. Yesterday (a day of sloth watching The Witcher) I decided it time to enact the physical impossibility of kicking myself up the arse. Reading science articles, learning Greek, reading a book and gym time went on hold today. I got up, showered and dressed, made a cup of coffee and went straight to my desk. I'm now out the other side of eight hours working on the book and feeling pleased with myself, though with neck ache and gritty eyes. Same again tomorrow.

 

4th Jan

A bit of sleety snow coming down earlier, which seems appropriate weather what with me feeling as rough as a pineapple today. I suspect 11 days of keto, plus going to the gym for an hour most days, lowered my immune system. As all colds seem to start with me, it's entry point was my left eye, making that sore and gummy with sneezes and snottiness ensuing. This does make me wonder about 'ketogenic diet benefits' since it's been all negative thus far and I should be getting through the worst of it by now. I'll see how I feel after this cold has passed (usually gone in a day or two but with eye gumminess lasting longer). If I'm not seeing benefits soon I suspect I'll be falling headfirst into a packet of crumpets and a malt loaf.

6th Jan

Toy purchased. Now why is it that when my brother Bob visits I often end up spending money?

7th Jan

Ah that's better. Sometimes you need to get proactive to blow the dregs of a bug out of the system. 20 minutes HIIT on the cross-trainer followed by 40 minutes sweating with weights. Feeling good now. Cup of tea time.

7th Jan

Damn, after using my old Ipad then having to resort to a Samsung tablet for some things no longer supported on it, it’s a pleasure using this new one! But what the hell do you do with an old Ipad? Put a hammer through it and bin it?

10th Jan

Meh, continuing dodgy throat, runny nose etc. I suspect I went back to the gym too early. But Paracetamol and Ibuprofen do the job and, as far as colds go, I’ve had worse.

11th Jan

Yay! The postwoman found me! (FB Memory)

Okay, my cold has diminished and suddenly I’m finding energy to clear out cupboards, tidy stuff up and even a shopping trip. But I must resist the temptation to hit the gym and go buggering myself up again. Steak, eggs and vegetables today - at least I managed to stay strict keto despite the urge for comforting carbs - and continued relaxation.
How is your day going?

13th Jan

Medical profession and Big Pharma still want to capture ecigs, while idiot bansturbators want to be rid of them and to continue with methods of smoking cessation long proven to fail.

14th Jan

Buggeration. I’ve been a bit bollixed over a couple of weeks and am only kinda out of it now. It started as a cold whose method of entry (as usual for me) was through my left eye. I felt a bit rough for a day or so, it then seemed to go away so I did some weight training over two days. It came back with feverishness, sore throat and a runny nose. I took it easy and now it’s past. What variety of virus it was I’ve no idea.
Today started with my second covid jab whereupon I returned anxious to get on with some work. I have page proofs of Weaponized to go through, which I thought needed to be done by the end of the month. I was wrong as the email said ‘early this month’. I started looking at these and things hit me in the eye right away. I don’t know whether it’s my state of mind or what but I want to make lots of alterations. I now need more time for these or, as advised by Bella Pagan (Macmillan), to wait until my mind is firing on all cylinders.
I really should trust my past self, who has been through this manuscript a number of times, but I don’t - that guy is a dodgy bugger.

19th Jan

Damn, time for a dirty fast transitioning into a clean fast to give me a boost towards weight loss. With one or two lapses I’ve been eating keto in a narrow eating window but my weight has gone up. This is probably due to weight training because I am taking on the physical characteristics of a brick shithouse. But sadly none of the fat is going away. Lesson learned: a fat adapted keto diet is not the answer for me.

21st Jan

Ooh shiny.

22nd Jan

The ‘plant based’ fashion and virtue signal eh? Meanwhile one must remember that sugar, white flour and seed oils are plant based.

25th Jan

Bits of me aching and sore since this is the second morning I’ve pushed myself to go on a 7 - 8 mile walk. Yesterday, after doing this, I followed up with 2,000 words written, an hour of Greek, an hour in the gym and cleaning and tidying in the house. It’s a reality that when you push yourself to do more you find yourself inclined to do more besides that. It is also a reality that sloth is a downward spiral leading to ‘what happened?’ days at the end of which you find you’ve done bugger all. I now resolve to get things done that have dropped by the wayside during a crappy January.
How’s this month been going for you?

26th Jan

And if kids were taught how the tax system works, fewer would go through the socialist delusional phase of life, or grow out of it more quickly.

At last: a combination of eating keto previously and, each day over the last two, walking 7 miles and spending an hour in the gym, and now 36 hours fasting has put me firmly into ketosis. The strips are into the purple, the breath meter is reading 3.7mmol/L and I’ve dumped 6lb of water weight. Bit of advice here for those who want to try fasting: do it clean. Even a bit of milk in tea is enough to kick in hunger pangs and lead to failure. Been doing this for years and I still need that fact tattooed on my forehead.

I’ve not really been following this but what is the situation regarding Putin and the Ukraine? I got the impression that he was getting tetchy a while back because of US armament/missiles there. If this is the case then all the sabre rattling in Europe and the US at present is hypocritical, since his response precisely mirrors US tetchiness about Cuba 60 years ago.
What do you think?

27th Jan

Just past 60 hours fasting and laughing at the red screen on my ketone breath meter. It’s evident it was manufactured on the basis of medical opinion sans any knowledge of nutritional ketosis - the myth that ketone level can be equated with ‘ketoacidosis’ while leaving insulin out of the equation. Now I’ll go for a 7.6 mile walk to burn off more of my waistline fat roll, in the firm knowledge I could live off my body fat for months without harm and with great benefit.

29th Jan

Excellent stuff. I fasted for 72 hours while walking and weight training each day. Keto stick went to it’s darkest while the breath meter reached 8.3mmol/L at one point. On the evening when I stopped I ate a load of nuts, cheese, meat and raw veg and ketosis continued just below 7.0. The next day I ate two meals: sausages, veg and mushrooms, and meat, cheese and raw veg. Ketosis still stuck at between 6.0 and 7.0. Now this morning it’s still in the ‘red zone’ between 5.0 and 6.0. I’ve dropped about 5lbs (not water because I’m now in a fed state). I may continue today. Certainly I’ll get another walk in and a gym visit.

Just appeared on Twitter. Seven years and eight books ago!

 

Facebook Posts December 2021

 Damn, previous ones were in reverse order. I'll do it the other way round now.

1st December

I wonder if medical exemption from wearing a mask can include: allergic to tinpot Hitlers, scared sheep, medical profession rentseekers and authoritarian cunts?
Just asking.

3rd Dec

Blimey I'm knackered. After various gym sessions culminating yesterday in another half an hour of HIIT I slept 8 hours last night. This morning I got up, showered, drank a cup of coffee, then slept for another 1.5 hours in my armchair. All this exercise is good, the question I have is whether the addition of HIIT will increase my CV health and core strength, or lead me to being stretchered off to the hospital.

8th Dec

This article was 10 years ago and since then it's become increasingly clear that MORE salt is better, yet still the myth persists of salt being an unnecessary condiment that raises blood pressure. The fucking NHS is still coming out with that bollocks. Mentally hard wired 'medical professionals' are sorely in need of a kick up the backside.

Guy fell off a gym machine today and bashed his head (I saw the ambulance leaving as I arrived). Two and a half hour wait for an ambulance, apparently, while he was losing his memory and in a bad way. What did the intrepid medics do the moment they arrived? You guessed it: gave him a covid test.

9th Dec

Nothing quite like slumping in an armchair, weary of mind and body, with all the day's objectives achieved. I'm really going to enjoy this cup of tea.

13th Dec

Hmm, that's good: today is my 100th day of zero booze. I seem to have gone well beyond any inclination for it, but won't relax my vigilance.

22nd Dec

So often I see memes or 'accepted knowledge' that pet owners are 'nice' people and you shouldn't trust people who don't like animals. Bollocks. Many pet owners are the most inconsiderate and selfish people around - oblivious to how the yapping and whining of Rover affects other people, oblivious to how Fluffy digs up and craps over other gardens, when not murdering local wildlife.

26th December

Time for a bit of thinning out of the 'friends' list. So many people on here I have no interraction with - people just gathering numbers. If you find yourself removed and it bothers you, then message me.

27th Dec

Meh. Ketogenic eating is difficult, not because of hunger or carb cravings - I can happily fill up with fat, meat and veg - but the mental aspect. My concentration and motivation are shot. This could be related to the brain missing the punch of easy glucose and serotonin, lack of salt and/or dehydration. Not sure. I do know I feel better mentally with some carbs in my diet, but worse physically. I'm hoping the present malaise is just the set of symptoms called keto flu and will pass. Damn it, it better - I've got work to do! I need focus to fully integrate a thus far 120,000 word manuscript in my skull and finesse a critical theme throughout.

 

Facebook Posts November 2021

 19th November

First time back at the gym in over a year and a half.
Ouch.

8th November

Looks like I'm all Jacked up.

7th November

Bye bye.

4th November

Sea like a millpond, warm and lovely down at Revans and soon I'll set out on the kayak. I can see that the weather is going to be really nice over the next days, just to give me a departing middle finger as I head for the UK.

 

Facebook Posts October 2021

 29th October

I briefly wondered at 4.00 this morning if an earthquake had woken me. Something was wrong. I drifted in and out of sleep but could not get comfortable. It finally impinged this was because I was sleeping on a slope. Why my bed decided to collapse on one side in the early hours I have no idea, certainly not for reasons I would enjoy. 🤣 Wood working tools, screws and wood glue out this morning.

27th October

I got a message request from someone this morning, who went through all that effort to swear at me. Apparently I'd blocked him because of a 'Bernie joke'. This is highly unlikely considering my opinion of that politician but, whatever. Brings home that people are more reactive to a 'public figure', more likely to have their noses put out of joint, more likely to be offended. If people block me I don't even notice - I've got stuff to do. Anyway, I don't block people anymore. If stuff they put up is irritating I do the 30 day shutdown. If the irritating stuff is constant I unfollow. If their comments on my posts start to irritate, I unfriend so they can't comment. Social media: both a boon and a curse. Weeding is necessary so as not to get sucked into constant negativity.

23rd October

In Greece they have an expression 'kala na patheis' which means 'you get what you deserve'. This certainly applies in the case of a self-righteous Hollywood wanker doubtless working on a film glorifying the firearms he apparently abhors. But then one has to step back from the amusing memes and remember that someone died.

20th October

Yup. It's always nice to meet people I've met before: 'Hello Neal, how are you?' 'Hi there! (Who the fuck are you?) I'm fine, how are you?'

13th October

I was taking a look at Instagram, since it is mentioned so often. Kinda looks to me like an app for people who have less attention span than the average Twitterati. Am I wrong?

12th October

FUCK! Now that was an earthquake that had me running for the door! And some cracks in the house just got bigger!

5th October

Over the last week the temperature dropped here from just wearing a pair of shorts in the house to jeans, socks and pullover. Down in Makrigialos I lost the inclination to swim and then after kayaking last time felt cold and didn't want to hang around, also hunger kicked in and I started eating everything in sight. Couldn't get warm today, ate like a pig, napped and then woke up feeling warm, which isn't usual after a nap (while napping is something I haven't needed to do for a while too). Internal thermostat adjusted. Makes sense, since your calorie burn is 50 to 80% BMR and a lot of that is body temperature. I've also been in calorie deficit for a while with a minimum of 2 to 3 hours heavy exercise each day. Much bigger adjustment coming next month in the UK. I'll probably walk out of the airport going, 'Fuck! Fuuuck!'

Facebook Posts September 2021

 1st September

Y’know this Biden character is reflected to greater and lesser degrees throughout the western world. Demagogues and idealogues who prance on the world stage intent on solving problems that exist mostly in the minds of the media, chiseling ‘post-normal’ scientists and internet ‘activists’. They never focus on their job, which is doing the best for their country and the people within it and, disconnected from reality by ideology, simply fuck up when reality becomes gnarly. They also don’t seem concerned about the consequences of their actions beyond the back-slapping of those in their bubble, the media response and/or their term of office. I see much larger clusterfucks down the road than what is happening in Afghanistan.

6th September

Meh. Mood plummeted this morning as an outfall of alcohol the afternoon before last. Some comfort in knowing what my neurotransmitters are doing and what poisons my body is expelling, but I still felt shit. Lesson learned yet again. Observations: I transitioned into asshole mode, interrupted sleep, got out of breath during my swim the next day and had to stop briefly, itching returned to one arm, nagging pain in the chest, upset stomach and squirts, return of some anxiety and depression.
I’m just going to have to ramp it up now. If I lapse again I’ll have to abandon kayaking and swimming and switch to mountain walking, and stay out of bars. Enough.

Okay. New car acquired and I’m loving it!

7th September

lack figs! The tree outside my house is producing nicely but, with my recent stomach upset (still ongoing) I can’t decide whether eating them is a good idea. I may never get out of the house!

8th September

Nice new shiny car and almost inevitably, within a couple of days of buying it, the sky starts clouding up ready to rain and dump Sahara dust on it. That’ll teach me.

9th September

Okay, I got rained on while kayaking today. Summer draws gradually to a close and maybe time to look at booking a flight.

11th September

Since it’s only six or seven months till I have to deliver the next book I’m upping my word count each day. At present it’s up a couple of hundred above the 2,000, but I may aim higher. I’ve never been this far behind before. I’m kinda finding the (self-imposed) pressure invigorating.

17th September

Oh well, bit of an off day today. I got a few lttle jobs done but not the main one i.e. writing 2,000+ words. I think to myself that I’ll do them later, but I’ll probably be knackered and slob out watching You Tube videos. No matter, since I’ll write over the weekend, but still annoying. Analysing, as I do, I can’t put my finger precisely on a cause and, thinking back, reckon the black dog visits me periodically just for shits and giggles.

22nd September

Double prawns again at the Gabbiano Restaurant-Bar.

23 September

Well, lazy day today. It’s been grey and drizzly up here in the mountains (though maybe not bad on the coast) and seemed like a good rest day – besides the kayaking I have been swimming a mile a day for over a month. No swimming and no kayaking today, just some weight training, Greek and reading thus far. Also a visit to couriers in Sitia to pick up a new cover for my Ipad and a bathroom fitting. Oh, and dealing with some NDA stuff I can only shout at the mountains. Now I’ll start writing. Been a good week this far with 7,267 words done and I want to keep on track with that. At 25,000 words into the new book it’s time now to put in page numbers, divide it up into chapters and start a contents list. This, while deciding where to take the story into a particular interstellar war. . .
How has your day been?

24th September

Oh well, now I know why my screen washer wasn’t working: mice had chewed a hole in the pipe in one place and right through it in another. I’m shortly off to get a repellant spray for them, now I know where to buy it. Cheers Mark and Alison Perry.

Facebook Posts August 2021

Not bothering with reposts or pictures here. This is just me storing a few of my old Facebook posts. If you want more detail, then go and find them there! 

11th August

Oops, I didn't realise the time when I went out and swam round the little island. I think the returning pirate ship diverted to avoid me, whereupon a guy onboard whistled to get my attention and waved me towards the beach. I got out of the way sharpish and will pay more attention in future but, hell, would have looked good on the death certificate: run over by pirate ship. 🤣

17th August

Funny how people say you can be tracked by your phone. I got myself a new Samsung to take both my Greek and English sims. It frequently tells me I'm in Agios Stephanos - a village I haven't been to in years. Obviously Papagiannades is too difficult for the poor thing.

25th August

Well well. After having a few drinks at a wedding celebration (and I mean a few - not a few gallons) my count of days without alcohol ended at 71. I started at 1 the day after again but then yesterday I had one beer. Why? Was it because the momentum was gone? Was it because the alcohol was getting its claws back in? I felt great so it wasn't to make me feel better. Did I allow the push of others to affect me? In the end I think it was just one of those 'fuck it' moments. 

Ignore and move on since I won't have negated the positive physical and mental stuff of those 71 days. But I note a couple of things: I didn't like the taste, asshole aspects of my character started to rise, physical control diminished, I had to push myself to get some things done afterwards, rather than simply enjoying them, and I started to feel down as the alcohol went away. Good reminder of why I stopped, and now the count begins again.

29th August

Y'know, I'll often get caught here behind 50-year-old trucks that are half the age of their drivers, and that's okay. The vehicle is probably at maximum velocity and, seriously, you wouldn't want most of them going any faster. But the ones that really boil my piss, here and in the UK, are the coffin-dodgers trundling along in state-of-the-art fat-tyred lumps of tech capable of 0 - 60 in less time than a quack-fart. Listen mate, I know you don't want to wear out your tyres, you want to keep fuel consumption in the green virtue zone and stay at a speed ready for that sharp turn into the cemetery, but some of us have stuff to do, so get the fuck out of my way!

My willpower waned and I bought a loaf of bread. A shitload of cheese-and-onion sandwiches ensued. I guess it's good that 'naughty' for me now is a lapse into carbs and not headfirst into a beer barrel, or inhaling half a bottle of bourbon.

52 Days Dry

Many years ago, when I was sixteen, the landlord of our local pub came down for a weight-training session with my brothers and I in my parent’s garage. It came out that it was my birthday, whereupon he said, ‘I didn’t hear that’. I’d been having the occasional beer in there from the age of 14, and the quantity had increased over the next year once I got a weekend job. From that point on I was a drinker. Pubs were where I went, playing pool and darts and chugging back booze. In my late 30s I hit the point of having a few blackouts from booze – around about the time Stella Artois and Diamond White arrived. When I hooked up with Caroline, pubs ceased to be so interesting, but the boozing continued at a lower level at home. It increased again when I entered the publishing world and my first editor introduced me to good red wines. But I drank everything: bottles of whisky, gin and tonics at one time out of pint glasses, sherry, craft beers – name it and I’ve drunk it. When we got our place on Crete even more drinking kicked in: chilled white wines, Metaxa, raki included with all the above.

This continued for a few years but, as with smoking, I was starting to feel the negative effects. With smoking I started with unfiltered roll-ups, moved to filtered when I started to get chest pains in my 30s, then in my 40s tried giving up or delaying the first cigarette with NRT when the pains returned. By the time I was in my fifties I was using inhalers often and perpetually fighting to stop. All change occurred when Caroline got ill and died. We found ecigs and were quitting – a hiccup in that occurring while she was dying. After that I went back on ecigs pretty much full time – barring occasional depressive episodes. The drink I stopped directly after the cremation because it seriously exacerbated depression and anxiety. I started walking then to ameliorate that too – going from a few miles a day to 7 or 8 miles a day. In that first year I walked over 3,000 miles. 

As the depression and anxiety faded, the booze oozed back. A year and a half after the death, I experienced ‘delayed onset grief’ and stopped it again. This finally passed and I went back to it but at a fairly low level. I was also doing a lot for my health. I was still walking a lot, I started weight training, on Crete I would often swim for miles over a week and I took up ocean kayaking and now, in the summer, do 10Km every day. I experimented with fasting, fisetin megadosing, nootropics and supplements. For three years I stopped going to Crete and during that time had a non-drinking girlfriend so pretty much stopped then too. Returning again, I started sliding back into my old habits. I knew now it was stupid; that the hangovers were getting longer and that I certainly must be damaging my body. It was ridiculous that I was doing so much good for my health then screwing it with this one habit. 

For the last couple of years I recorded how much I drank and frowned at the result in my journal. It was pretty much constant – periods of more than a week sober being rare. This year, in the middle of last month, I went out on the kayak then came back and had a beer. I didn’t enjoy it – in fact for some time my enjoyment of it had been diminishing. Instead of beer I next had a glass of red wine because, well, that’s what drinkers do. This then proceeded into three half-litre carafes of wine. Over the next three days I felt like shit: depressed and anxious, acid stomach, no motivation etc. And once again I laughed hollowly at my ‘never again’ attitude. However, this time it stuck. I recorded the days of zero alcohol. A week later I had a severe stomach upset – 3 days of diarrhoea lost me 5 kilos of weight. Everyone said it was a bug but, reading up on this, I discover an interesting fact. You perpetually damage your guts with alcohol. When you stop they start healing and this can result in precisely what I had. For a few days I had periods of low mood at about the time I would usually have had a drink. That passed and I just kept stacking up the days.

One thing that had been holding me back from doing this was that I kayaked from a beach bar – Revans. What would I drink there? Fruit juice is bad for you and I had convinced myself that it was equivalent to drinking beer in terms of negative effects. This was bollocks, as I was soon to learn. I drink melon juice, cold coffee, orange juice and soda water. The visit to my favourite restaurant the Gabbiano worried me, but turned out to be fine: I drank water. I also learned that Marco – the guy who serves the booze – hasn’t touched it in years. Today, I will be writing in my journal ’52 days zero alcohol’, and now it’s time to talk about the results of that.

Last year I got incredibly itchy skin on my arms and shoulders – an itch so intense I could have stuck a knife in it to make it go away. This year it had started again. I of course researched this and connected it with sun damage and maybe pinched nerves in my back from kayaking. Funny how we delude ourselves. After a week of no booze it went away and has not returned. Pretty obvious really, the itchy skin liver connection. I also used to get a lot of spots on my back and shoulders. They have faded away. I often suffered from a bloated belly. It’s all but disappeared. I often suffered with insomnia and would wake in the early hours of the morning, then struggle to get some more sleep after being up for an hour or two. That’s stopped. I sleep for six to seven hours straight through. Frequent urination as of a prostate problem has gone away too. I’ve got my shit together. Sorry, it is what it is: clear distinct turds in the toilet bowl water rather than dissolving cow pats. I have more energy, every day.

Other effects have been on mood. Anxiety and depression have been with me for years. I would have periods of low mood and low motivation I normally cracked with exercise. They still occur but are less frequent now. Anxiety always took an opportunity to rise. Just doing my accounts and dealing with mail from my accountant would bring it up along with a reluctance to face doing what needed to be done. This is simply disappearing. I just get on with things and have gained perspective on it all. Why the fuck am I worrying about paying more tax and getting involved in more tax complications when they’re actually the result of me earning more and more year on year? My thinking is a lot clearer. This is also having an effect on the writing, on learning Greek, on dealing with shit. I’m writing more, I’m learning more, I feel like I’m making progress and not spending time alleviating the pain of existence. I feel a lot stronger both physically and mentally.

Of course now I must do the ‘however’ though it is probably not the one you would expect. In some respects here correlation is not causation. When I didn’t like that beer in Revans and when I stopped after those three carafes of wine, was I already undergoing the mental changes I detail above? I’ve been watching self-motivation/lifestyle videos on You Tube as a result of dissatisfaction with my life as it is. Maybe a portion of the mood effects are connected to that – not all of them. Maybe the time for change had simply arrived. But I cannot deny the physical effects. 

Anyway, I will continue. I am not going to bang the temperance tambourine and say I’m never drinking again. I’ll just say that I am a work in progress.

Cheers!     

The Human - Kindle Deal

 Okay, from today until the end of the month The Human is on a Kindle deal for 99p in the UK.

Where to find 'Snow in the Desert'.

It’s really great to see the reaction to Snow in the Desert in Love, Death and Robots on Netflix – brings home to me that many fans are as invested in my work as me, if not more so. When I saw it (Tim Miller sent me a link to watch it early) I initially noticed the holes, since it has been abridged to fit into the 15 minute slot. I hadn’t expected that. It has been years since I read the story, maybe decades, and I expected to feel about it as I did about the first season of Altered Carbon: couldn’t remember the story so just enjoyed the ride. But it seems that having written Snow it’s somehow imprinted on my back-brain. It took subsequent viewings for me to fully appreciate what had been done: the superb production values, the detail and the captured essence. I would still like it to be longer because certain elements of the story really needed longer to soak in. But, as ever, I go back to the dictum that no matter what film producers do with my stuff, the stuff itself will always exist in written form. And fuck: one of my short stories on the TV – available to 200+ million subscribers!

Part of the reaction to it has been from people who simply haven’t read the story, or have maybe forgotten that they had. This story has been around for a long time – written when the Polity was just starting to form out of my short stories. My recollection is vague but I do know that I wrote most of it in one long session doing about 7,000 words in one day. I’m pretty sure I did it before I wrote Gridlinked so sometime prior to 2000 – maybe the early 90s or late 80s. It was first published in 2002 and I’ve had to take a look at my website to remind me of where and when: 

SNOW IN THE DESERT: (11,000 words) Snow is an albino, immortal, very dangerous, and someone wants his bollocks. Spectrum SF 8 (2002), David G Hartwell’s & Kathryn Cramer’s Year’s Best SF 8 (June 2003). 

It was subsequently published in the Czech SF magazine Ikarie – maybe a year or so after this. If you want to read it, it can be found in my collection from Macmillan The Gabble.

It can also be found as a ‘shortread’ on Amazon for 99p

 

Here are some of the comments on the TV version on the first day of airing:

Martin Finkelmeier
Ok that was awesome, now i just want more... spatterjay series would be awesome in this quality.

Steve Bland

Finally sat down with Love, Death and Robots S2.Totally not long enough lol. We need that animation quality and The Skinner (or Gridlinked).

Peter Nock
Was good but too short! I also wanted to see more of the crab birds!
 
Hugh Bourne
Bloody loved Snow! Don’t want to post any spoilers but the animation and rendering were frankly breathtaking. Waaaay to short as well. I would love to read the original story…. Is it available somewhere?
 
Grant Bourdot
Watched "Love, Death and Robots," (part 2) last night. Thoroughly enjoyed it! All the episodes! "Snow in the Desert", although they've shortened an already short story, was excellent! Having read it before and an inside knowledge of the "Polity Universe," enhanced the experience. Kudos!
 
Hans Jorgensen
It was amazing!
 
Michael Diamond
Just saw it. Enjoyed it! Great story and they did a great job putting it on the screen!
 
Richard Hands
Loved it Neal, thank you 
 
Aaron Spuler
Watched it this afternoon! I can see that things were left out from the short story, but it was nicely done. I enjoyed it
 
Nick Clarke
Really great to see your writing up there on the screen. What a great 50th birthday present for me! I knew it would translate well, and loved seeing a peek of that familiar universe made flesh, so to speak. Onwards & upwards Neal, thank you! 

Russell Ess
Finally watched it tonight. Loved it - and there were parts where I was truly unsure I was watching CG.
 
Bill Crane
Watched it all. Will watch a few more times.
 
Thomas Morris III
Excellent short! They did a good job on the story. 
Congratulations!
 
James Brooke-Cowden
Well done mate - watched it - loved it (was there ever any doubt) - fantastic adaptation, made easier by the rich source material - your stuff looks good on the screen, Mr Asher!
 
David Nelson
Just watched Snow in the Desert. Not bad at all. 
 
Darren Hickmott
I think as a fan i was kinda predisposed to enjoy it, but fuck me that was good 
 
Andrew Quinto Venn
Loved 'Snow...' but couldn't help thinking of Monty Python's Black Knight at one point. "Tis just a flesh wound"
 
Philip P Talbot
Just finished watching Snow In The Desert episode of Love, Death + Robots and was very impressed with the way it was interpreted into video form. Makes me want to watch Ian Cormac et al on the big screen...
 
Adam Fairchild
I’d love to go get a bite someplace & something great like Snow is on the screens instead of boring sports.
 
Gilbert Miller
I just watched Snow. Great piece. 
Congrats
 
Josh Hayes
Neal, just watched it. I loved the story! Very well done, sir!
 
Henry Wolfe
Watched Snow, I think they did a great job, they especially captured the Asher brutality of the weapons, no Geneva Convention in the Polity it would seem with limbs being blown off etc, still it is as in the books - good job.
 
Adrian Kelland
I enjoyed it, over too soon though. Sigh . I've read the story and having seen the animation, I can see why Tom Cruise thought it would make a longer film. Great animation. I wonder if it might lead to more Polity animations. I hope so.
 
Alan Bret Wolf
I’m planning my entire evening around this....
Making a T bone steak with Brussels.....
Lights low
Sound system on
 
Bill Crane
Watched it, now I have to read the story.
Michael Dirk Thalman
My pal, Neal Asher , who just happens to be one of the top sci-fi authors of our time, has a story that's been adapted for the new season of Love, Death, and Robots.
Good on you, Neal. That's awesome
Edited: his story/episode is Snow on the Desert
 
Daniel Habib
I can't get over it, it was too awesome. More please.
 
Tony Brown
Just watched it, brilliant, we must have more Asher on the screen.
 
Steve Maller
Good production values too.
 
Martin Dudley
I hadn't read the story, but this was great.
 
Nik Long
More! Very impressed!
 
Eric Jones
That’s was a pretty good adaptation and I don’t think it takes away from the original story. Congrats, it was great!
 
Greg Wright
Just finished it. Stellar as usual. For the fucking life of me I can't figure why someone like Neflix or Amazon doesn't pick up the Polity Universe. Like, for the love of God pick ANY book.
 
James Devine
It’s awesome, really hope it catches some streaming exec’s eye- the Polity needs to be on screen!
 
Tony Sinai
Excellent series. Original content and superb Production.
 
Jools Enticknap
Wow, just wow  Watched it this morning.
 
James McCormick
Just finished watching yours. 
 
Jools Enticknap
Looking forward to see this more often  Masons rats next please.... pretty please.
 
Matt Lucas
Yes, nailed it.

ckolonn
Awesome on all counts.

Jon (Sullivan - previous cover artist for my books)
Neal Snow in the Desert was fucking awesome. Congrats. At last they have noticed. Now lets hope they have the guts to take it to the next level.
 QUALITY!

Scott Steensma
Enjoy! I watched Harlan Ellison's one too, and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest.

NDC2018
#snowinthedesert #polity #earthcentral Wow … found myself grinning and going oh yes… golem chassis, ceramal, golem 28 style with a Memcrystal… was hoping for an attack ship to drop its chameleon ware as its powered away from watching over…

steve f
Just watched Love,death and Robots adaptation of Snow in the Desert. Bit short but must say I was impressed. Didn't realise they had done it but soon as I started the episode I knew it was yours.

jacqui 
@netflix and @nealasher go well together. Just watched Snow in the Desert, which makes a very good short film of a dystiopian future? Let's have more.

Steve Hearne
Really enjoyed Snow In The Desert. It must be daunting to capture the atmosphere you create in your writing and all the details you add to build the world but they did a great job building the tension and told the story well given the time constraint. Looked damn cool too!

D McNamara
Really liked it. Good adaptation. Is it weird that Snow looked familiar?

Andrew ten Broek
Just finished watching it myself, very awesome to see how they adapted it for this series!

Harlow Smith·
An excellent adaptation, if a little abridged. And like I’ve always said, animation is the only way to do justice to space opera.

Dennis Hinkson
Of course it was too short but I loved it.. Animation and writing team did great work..

AlistairC
Four episodes of #LoveDeathAndRobots down. Highlight so far was "Snow in the Desert" based on the work of @nealasher. "Pop squad" comes up second.

KJ Mulder - Worlds in Ink
Finished LOVE, DEATH AND ROBOTS S2. Way too short. Not as many stories that hit the mark for me, but the 3 that did was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! SNOW IN THE DESERT - Does
@nealasher
's universe much deserved justice. ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE - Christmas will never be the same.

Jeremy BLAIN
It's excellent . Just watched it and loved the look and feel of it. Think they did a good job there. You happy with it Neil?

Living on planet Swearth
Ok, that was brilliant!! So many little teases to the Polity and I wish it’d been longer! If they ever adapt more books, this would be the perfect way to do so!
@nealasher
what do we have to do to get it done?!?

Paul 
Just watched it and wow!!!!. Did cheer when I head 'Earth Central' mentioned. Also the animation is fantastic, so much detail but loved it when the birds covered up during the day.

LubertDas
I've only watched Snow in the Desert so far, but it appears to me that Snow is the most realistically animated episode, and it's featured a LOT in the trailer. I'm so happy to see that they did such a good job adapting your story.
I just watched the Snow in the Desert episode of Love Death + Robots, and it was incredible! The animation was so incredibly realistic! I thought they did an outstanding job of translating the kinetic action of a Neal Asher story to the screen. What's next?!?!?!

TRV2
Snow's lover looked totally real. Animation was amazing.

Herman Adriani
@nealasher brilliant story again for @netflix #lovedeathandrobots2 “snow in the desert”

freegnu
Binge watched the whole season. Good to see your work on the screen.

Emil van Dam
Currently watching it and it’s awesome!

M.T. Preston, Jr. 
Thoroughly enjoyed it! Hopefully more to come.

itkovian-11
I loved it. Hoping to see some more adaptations in the future.

Laszlo Brety
You should, it really is decent. It may not be reinventing the wheel but as long as you know that, its an entertaining 2 hrs. And just watched Snow...the animation is quite superb. There were moments when I was questioning if they were real actors or not.

_Celtic_
Just watched it - very impressive. It must be a thrill to see your imagination come alive on screen like that. It's now long enough since I read it that I remembered the background (the remote desert setting) but not the detail of the plot, so could enjoy it fresh.

And more are coming in all the time. . .