2010 September | The Rising Tentacle

Latte In A Glass – Nooooooo!

By: admin

26-09-2010

Harold struggled with the concept of the handle not being in the centre of the glass. It was placed in the lower half, near the base. ‘Why?’ he thought ‘The balance was all wrong. It was only a matter of time before the glass would over-balance, spilling hot coffee all over the table and floor. Why would people design something like that, letalone make it available for general use, as a recepticle for hot coffee?’

It’s a simple concept.

Cold drinks – glass

Hot drinks – porcelain

See?

The Detail Is In The Surface

By: admin

21-09-2010

Authors

Iain M Banks is appearing at Forbidden Planet Bristol on Tuesday 2nd November 12:30 – 13:30 to sign copies of his new book Surface Detail.

A Little Bit of Egypt

By: admin

20-09-2010

Book, Egypt

Portal

Research started in earnest today. No, I don’t mean the place Earnest (there must be one) or in the location of the physical person named Earnest. I mean it started with dedication. We went to the Bristol Musem, specifically to the Egyptology section.

The Land of Sand

Sekhmet

: Hapy

Bristol is famous for the investigation into the mummy – Horemkenisi via TheBristol Mummy Project. The mummy was deteriorating and rather than just letting it rot away, the curators opened it up and had a look inside.

It’s a very atmospheric (read: dark) place but this gives it a real mood. It’s a place where I can write. I gathered quite a lot of information in a short time so I was quite pleased. I shall return!

The plot for Part III of The Rising Tentacle is developing and I’m finding a lot of humour in the Egyptian setting. I just hope everyone else will!

Now If I Was A…

By: admin

16-09-2010

Book, Location

I’ve finished Part II of The Rising Tentacle and my thoughts are turning to Part III. Part III will be set, for the most part in Egypt.

Now if I was a published writer, in the ascendant, I would be visiting Egypt. This would have been funded by my making a watertight case for the need to get the feel of the place, its essence, see for myself first hand!

As it is, I bought the September issue of National Geographic (it’s not cheap!). It has an excellent article on Tutankhamun with stunning photography. But this is a good thing. I’m not flying anywhere, overly contributing to global warming.

You see, in my fiction I can capture the flavour of the place from magazines, DVD’s, TV programmes, newspaper articles. It’s a comic representation, a collage, a fantastical stage backdrop I’m looking to make. I’ll set my characters out and weave my story around it all.

But if I went to Egypt I’d be able to get the feel of the place, its essence, see for myself first hand!

I could build a pretty watertight case…

Chapter 2 added

By: admin

14-09-2010

Book, Characters, Humour, Location

Chapter 2 added 13 September 2010.

Chapter 2 sees Harold take a trip to the University library. I needed a name that sounded similar to a well known fictitious university and struck upon ‘Muscovado’. This took me down the road of sugar. It also introduces a second character, Bernard. I also introduce what I’ll call a preamble. That’s the itallicised bit at the beginning of the chapter, I will be adding one to each chapter. Chapter 1 didn’t warrant one as it had the Introduction. My aim is to make them standalone introductions to each chapter but for them to also work as a story when read together.

Through Learning To The Bra’s is a corruption of Per Ardua ad Astra and I imagined Harold converting Latin ‘on the fly’ and with an imperfect command of the language, getting some of it wrong. Per Ardua ad Astra is the motto of the Royal Air Force and means Through Adversity To The Stars. An alternative corruption which I quite like and could have used would have been Through Adversity To The Stairs. Totally frivolous, no other meaning intended.

The idea of using similarly named supporting characters is borrowed from Manga (where hundreds of characters are called the same name, well two) and other sources like opera.

The embarrasment in the library is something I can relate to. I hate loud people (I love loud music though).

There are other side references to unimportant things and I may expand upon them some time in the future. For now, enjoy Chapter 2 and come back on 13 October 2010 for Chapter 3.

Manchester – IABF

By: admin

12-09-2010

Authors

In Manchester this weekend and got to go to the IABF

IABF

Last time I was in Manchester, this place was just about to open. It is now open and it’s such a fantastic space. It houses Anthony Burgess’ personal book collection and look what’s in it!

And this!

Brian Aldiss – Heliconia Spring & Summer and William Gibson – Mona Lisa Overdrive are in my collection too!

There is a performance space and a food space that is operated by The Modern Caterer. I had the largest home-made granola, Greek yogurt & honey and coffee for breakfast and loved it.

the international Anthony Burgess foundation