Thursday, August 10, 2006

Welcome to my blog.


Hi there. This is my first entry while I get all my stuff together to put my own site on the net. When it's up, I'll add a link.


Basically I want to sell my science fiction novels and songs on the internet (novels as ebooks and as print on demand books, and songs as downloads, and possibly as a CD). But to do that I have to entice you first. So, I will publish a SF short story monthly (starting with two, plus three literary short stories) and hopefully, I'll have a poll so you can tell me what you think of them. What's holding me up is the cover artwork. I'm not an artist and photoshop has a huge learning curve. I'll also offer a free download of the first chapter in the ebook format I've come up with. It will be a pdf file and I've set it up in a landscape format for viewing on the screen.

My first novel is the first in a trilogy. It's a hard SF/adventure/romance set several hundred years in the future. The three books are The h'Slaitiarr Conspiracy, Rodan's Enigma and Pyran's Dilemma. I plan to publish them on lulu.com ('cos it's free) with all three up by the end of the year. I've actually written four novels complete, well almost. I just have to give them a final revision based on a slight shortcoming in my style that was highlighted in my last manuscript assessment for The h'Slaitiarr Conspiracy (it was my first novel after all). The problem wasn't so pronounced in the second and the third and fourth should only require minor revision.

Songwise, I have fifteen songs completed, a new one in progress and an old one that I'm rewriting the lyrics (a major rewrite). The music is good, but the lyrics didn't work. I work with a local Adelaide musician who is also a producer. He was my guitar teacher, then I moved to songwriting and kept up the lessons, more as a hobby, but in the last few years I've gotten more serious. He casts a very, very f*$%^g critical eye over everything I do, right down to individual words and notes in my mixes. Mostly my songs are pop/rock/ballad songs with a few other styles. Once I've selected some suitable sites to put them on and that offer mp3 downloads, I'll put the links here and (hopefully) if you like the 30-45 second snippets, you'll buy some.

I admit this is basically a marketing tool, but I'll comment on whatever takes my fancy in the world of writing, music, science and technology, and just maybe it might also be funny, witty and entertaining. Well at least as funny, witty and entertaining as an old fart and the world's dummest genius can make it.