In Railroaded I thought of an easy way people could exchange personal information with mobile phones.
The other day I came across the ‘Bump‘ iphone app that now does exactly that. Instead of pressing a button you simply turn the app on and ‘bump’ the phones together.
I admit their execution is better but I still prefer my name for it!
Just downloaded it onto my iPhone, now I just need to find a willing victim to bump with…I mean ‘exstrange’ with.
Mr Salmon Rushdie uses it and say it’s his favourite app, maybe that’s how he pulls all those good-looking, tall women?
Below is the relevant bit from Railroaded, Chapter 1…
“Look I’m getting confused here. Things aren’t adding up. Why don’t we ‘exstrange info’ then we can see where we are.”
‘Exstrange Info’ was a term used to exchange personal information on mobile devices. Each person would hold their mobile device close to each other; press a button at the same time for one second and all relevant information would be stored in each other’s mobile device, therefore rendering each other ‘ex-strangers’.
Isaac apologised and said he didn’t have a mobile device.
I’m a science fiction fan but not a die-hard nerd so I had never heard of the sub-genre of ‘Mundane Science Fiction’.
Probably not a positively eye-catching sub-genre on the face of it but the idea behind it is it only uses science and technology that is either acheivable or extremely, very nearly acheivable.
I like this idea.
Spaceships, aliens, living on other planets, sentient robots, time-travel, etc are all sci-fi mainstays but they’re also way, way, way into the future…and that’s if they’re actually physically possible.
Mundane Sci-Fi deals in facts and near future, Earth based science fiction. The wikipedia page is good, listing a few ‘laws’ of mundane sci-fi.
There’s also a great blog, Mundane-SF that keeps you updated with non-lightspeed based science fiction. On that site I found this speech which is a great intro into mundane science fiction – ‘Take the Third Star on the Left and on til Morning!’ by Geoff Ryman
Railroaded is near future based in 2066 and I consciously stayed away from flamboyant flights of fancy and extrapolated every piece of technology on something existing today. I found it keeps the story more believable, helps shape it more realistically and therefore makes it better alround.
So I think I’d firmly place my sci-fi scribblings into the mudane category…you know, unless I think of a really great way to execute the aliens escaping from robots through wormholes idea.
The pain! The humiliation!
The second rejection for ‘Railroaded’ plus a rejection for a short story just to twist the knife a little more.
I’ve just finished another short story and going to start another one this weekend…because I just can’t get enough rejection in my life.
I got my first Asimov magazine and in it there is a novella and a couple novelettes. Not knowing the difference between all these varieties I fired up the old searching fingers and consulted the great internet for some answers.
Dearest Google, what the hell is the difference between a novel, novella, novelette and short story?
Of course Wikipedia came back with a page that nailed the answer by using the definitions as set by the Nebula Awards, which are;
- Novel = a work of 40,000 words or more.
- Novella = between 17,500 and 40,000 words.
- Novelette = between 7,500 and 17,499 words.
- Short Story = under 7,500 words.
So it’s strictly down to word count…or how arsed a writer can be with their idea…I jest!
Are there any other literary forms? Surely a mammoth text of 200,000 words deserves its own category?
Just thought, Flash Fiction is another one. Accordingly, Wikipedia says there is no defined length but normally less than 1,000 words.
Thinking about it, I think 5 seperate forms is enough otherwise it’ll get stupid with every 1,000 words constituting a change of definition for your work.
“What do you think of the novel?”
“Well, first things first, technically it’s a ‘Flash Novella Postcard’.”
“Oh…is that good?”
“O’yes, it’s this year’s ‘Nanonovelette Vignette’.”
“Oh.”
I recently read a good short story in the July/August edition of Interzone Magazine called ‘Silence and Roses’ by Suzanne Palmer but it’s not online anywhere for you to read it. So if you can’t buy that edition of the magazine then visit her website here just to say hello.
Instead, here’s a brilliant short story from the master of robots. I first read it a couple of years ago and it blew my small, little mind to bits. Don’t read the last bit…whatever you do, don’t read the end first.
Apparently it was his favourite short story.
Read it here – ‘The Last Question’ by Isaac Asimov.
Just before I left for work I saw a London postmarked envelope that didn’t appear to be a bill, so I opened it.
Only my first rejection! I’m so chuffed!
OK, I’m gutted that they didn’t say yes but you gotta take positives from it.
- The submission found its way to the correct person.
- I got an answer in less than a week! (That could be construed as a bad thing, but I ain’t even going there).
- The submission was deemed worthy enough to actually respond to.
- Even though I guess 70% of the letter was part of a form letter, he did actually say ‘the premise was interesting‘ and that ‘you write very well‘. I’ll take those comments at face value and deposit them in the old ego bank.
- I spotted an error in the letter, it’s missing the word ‘with‘ in the second sentence (if you’re reading this). Spelling Nazis ftw!
I’m not going to put the letter up or say who it is as I haven’t asked permission, but it was a very nice rejection letter. I’m sure this guy’s ex-girlfriends have been dumped very kindly, maybe over dinner whilst he tenderly held their hand and let a tear form in the candlelight.
Of course, after the 57th rejection letter I probably won’t be feeling so forgiving but my first time has been a pleasant one.
Onwards and upwards. I’m going to have 5 submissions on the go at any one time, so that’s one crossed off the list, time to get another one sent out tomorrow.
With all this talk of Railroaded and writing, I haven’t actually put any of my writing on the blog (blog posts don’t count). All talk and no writing makes Ben a…non-writing boy.
So here’s the first chapter of my novel, Railroaded. It’s a little over 4,000 words.
The hand of a lady, aged by time and paled by death, stood up on its own severed wrist, hermetically sealed within the vacuum of a bell jar. Cradled in the grip of an assistant, the outstretched hand rose above the watching audience as though attracting someone’s attention with a wave.
“£18,000!” A bidder’s voice sternly announced from one of the phones situated to one side of the auction hall.
The lifeless hand was succeeding; it was holding everyone’s attention.
I’ve only gone and posted the bloody thing to some right old proper people!
Over the weekend I put together 5 packages and popped them in the post this afternoon so they are winging their way to 5 agents in London as I type…be safe my pretties, don’t be scared of the dark and when the nasty person starts laughing at you and chucks you in the bin, take solace in the fact you’ll be recycled and live again, hopefully finding your way into a successful writers printer this time.
(I don’t why I’m blogging to my letters, lol, what an idiot! They can’t get the internet in a post office sack).
One part of writing Railroaded I really enjoyed was trying to come up with new technologies, or at least butchering emerging new technologies.
It’s set in a UK with higher sea levels so global warming has really affected the country and they combat that by becoming carbon neutral, this means the whole transport infrastructure needs addressing.
Here’s a little taster of what I wrote…
Amy’s car, as all automobiles and trains, are ‘levitated’ via electro-magnetism to greatly reduce drag; the base of the car ‘floats’ upon a bed of opposing magnetic forces from the road, both powered by an electro-magnet plastic, PMP (Photovoltaic Magnetic Polymer), road that generates its own power from the Sun. Once levitated the car is powered laterally by compressed air jets located around the car.
There’s been much made about James Murdoch’s speech for the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV festival which has led to a #welovethenhs style campaign on Twitter – #welovethebbc – and Robert Peston losing his rag so I can’t add much about James Murdoch blatantly trying to give Sky an easier ride into mindnumbing, advertising driven TV hell.
He consistently calls the BBC ’state-sponsored’ which may partly be true in that they do receive government funds but only a small percentage of total revenue, the licence fee funds the majority of the BBC (about 75%). That means; you, me and all the other licence fee payers fund it, not the government. Saying it’s state-sponsored makes you think it’s a distance relative of North Korean TV. It’s not directly linked to the government, The BBC Trust is the middle man between The BBC and the UK government and UK licence fee payers.
He also said a much greater deregulated media industry without The BBC is giving consumers what they want. A few years back James Murdoch said;
