Shores of Night

Shameless stolen from Jonathan Green's blog, I thought I'd post this:   http://steampunkworkshop.com/nine-novels-defined-steampunk?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SteampunkWorkshop+%28The+Steampunk+Workshop%29 It's a list of nine novels that define steampunk as a literary genre and it's interesting to see what makes the list. I feel it very much underscores the differences between the genre and the subculture.

I love the city I live in, over the past decade it's become my home. I love the buildings, the strange mixture of old and new; the way the Digbeth Dalek dominates the view as you approach the city centre. The old Victorian brick of end of Corporation Street with the law courts fills me heart with joy as I walk down it every morning, it's so beautiful. I love the old buildings, though criminally I hadn't realised how much of the city's architectural heritage remained until I visited Leeds (where you're hemmed in by old buildings). I even have a soft spot for the old library, which is a big slab of Brutalist architecture, an industrial ziggurat reaching up into the sky. In addition to that the location feels so much better than where I lived before, for someone who's Chinese horoscope suggests a need for water in my surroundings I really don't miss the sea (but then I lived in Southport, I never saw the blessed thing!) and I like the feeling of being central...

Tonight's gaming was board gaming, as our Shadowrun GM wanted a week off to take stop after the first part of Harlequin, which we completed last week. So we played Great Fire of London and Pandemic, and it was the first time I'd played either of them. My initial thoughts on Great Fire of London are that it's a good game but a little difficult, with hard choices for the players. It felt very easy to lose your pieces to the blaze because it was very hard to be everywhere at once. I think you have to take the view you'll lose some buildings and hope for the best, though it was a little galling to lose one of the special buildings I had to protect in the first round, though I did feel a bit better when I used my last move in the game to destroy the last of the six point buildings. Pandemic was a different kettle of fish, I'm not really sure I enjoyed it and can't put my finger on why. The game seemed a little pointless, and whilst I liked the co-op style of pl...

This is how we met our second cat. For a long time we'd been concerned about the boy cat, he's one of those rare gregarious felines who seems to struggle being on his own. We thought he needed a companion, a little kitty friend who could be all his. So we started to plan to get a second cat. At one point we took him down to the RSPCA to see how he got on with other cats, specifically queens. That ended up with a scared tom cat being bullied by girl cats, whilst the staff said confidently that he was quite a submissive cat, and whoever we took home would rule the roost (how wrong they were). We didn't take any of the cats we saw there home, to be honest whilst there were a lot of nice cats none of them were what we looking for. That summer we went back again, this time without Mr Fish. We looked up and down, seeing many lovely cats but my attention was attracted when I thought I heard Eve say 'Dita?". Upon investigation she'd actually said Dee Dee (wh...

This weekend is the UK Games Expo, in what I think is becoming one of the biggest gaming conventions in the UK. This year sees it open up in a new home, abandoning the Clarendon Suites and shift to the Metropole Hilton by the NEC.  Despite the new home it seemed busy, bustling with people and traders. It was, perhaps, a little less crowded than it was before but not so you'd notice really. This year I had no money, the downside of having overspent earlier in the month (depression's not good for that sort of thing - buying shiny things like Journey into Mystery graphic novels with the wonderful kid Loki). So, aside from a ring and a copy of My Life with Master, bought by my lovely Evie, I came away with nothing more than a shopping list and a burning desire to get rid of more games I won't play so I can get new ones; shifting from RPGs to board games for the most part. It was good to see Pookie, even though he was rushing off to a meeting (actually I'm really happy t...

It's Friday and, like most of you, my enthusiasm for this week was limping at about 9.00 am Monday morning. So let's do music and ease ourselves into the long weekend. ... I promised you apocalypse stuff didn't I? We can do that. I have a deep and abiding love of post apocalypse books and films, I've done quite a few reviews of novels set after this or that disaster (and have a long list of books to read still). The appeal of the genre lies in seeing people survive against all odds and reading the ways in which society distorts to cope with great pressures. My background's in social science and I find it fascinating to see what writers and other artists come up with. This kind of horror and science fiction really throws a mirror up to society, reflecting its fears. I must confess that it frequently fits my mood, the idea that we can rip up the world and start again is a tempting one. Its interesting to see how the nervousnes...

I started writing this when I was in a bad mood... It shows. The word falls from your lips, And my heart dies a little, Turns from warm and full, To cold and brittle. What a slimy, shifting word, Devoid of all meaning, A linguistic chimera, A false, shining seeming. A traitorous turncoat term, Does it mean yes, or no, I fear we all know. So why not just say so? Have you no conviction, Are you so determined to please? That you hide your meaning Behind your damn maybes?

I came to a realisation about myself a few days ago. I've stopped caring about what people think, for the most part, and have become increasingly ambivalent about the must have, must see things the world tells me are important. I know what matters to me and that's enough.  I feel no need to traipse after the latest gadget, especially if the thing I have works; I've not bothered with the Wii U for instance, the Wii (and Gamecube for that matter) still work so why would I need a new console? Whilst I'd like to travel, and see more of the world, again I don't feel the need to compete. I'll travel for myself, not because everyone else is. Perhaps more oddly this feeling also embraces culture, I find I'm not bothered by 'water cooler' moments; whole series of apparently gripping television has passed me by like ships in the night. This does mean some of my conversations with friends have become strained. In many ways the old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon ...

Last month it was the 5th anniversary show of Enchanted Burlesque, which started off at the Flapper as the Silk Stocking Striptease Show. The team that run the event laid on a dazzling night, inviting back old friends and providing an exciting evening of entertainment. It was sad, however, that Angel LaVey was unable to perform. In some respects it would be right to call it their gala show, breaking out the best talent in a grand celebration. This included bringing back Mysti Vine and Mr Joe Black, who are both talented, intelligent, sometimes challenging, performers. Terms of Unnervement, Joe Black's new burlesque double act performed two short skits, both challenging and slightly sleazy, though what left the most impression on me, aside from the cleverness of the acts was how well Aran tucks! Joe went on to perform some of his own songs later on in the show, an area that he's focused on a good deal more recently. I think some of my fellow audience members were a little per...

Well good evening, This weekend has been one of housework, writing and baking. I've broached my story for this year's Asylum anthology, a sequel to Prometheus Enslaved, where I've had to do some serious rethinking about the story I want to write. I've been quite worried that I'll end up writing a carbon copy of the first story. I think that I've worked out a way to avoid that, one which involves expanding my protagonists' repertoire; from mere resurrections to alchemy and strange elixirs. I've also settled on the people they're dealing with, eschewing the military option, partially because I found out that the American Civil War was about ten years before the original story and since neither Pinter nor the Doctor are time travellers (it's not that Doctor) that's obviously beyond their reach. In addition the long, dragged out American Civil War seems to have become something of a cliche so I abandoned the idea in favour of something else....

I've spent most of the day trying to write a story and it's resisting so I'm not going to do much of a post tonight. What I am going to do is give you a link to a friend's tumblr blog; Fuelled By Tea. http://fuelled-by-tea.tumblr.com/ I'm supremely honoured to know the lady in question and think her work is beautiful. Please go and enjoy her work and we'll get back on track tomorrow.

Yes, yes I know... this was meant to be post apoc music videos wasn't it... We'll get to that... later. Promise. Maybe.  I said I was making this up as I went along remember? Anyway... Before I turned Goth I was an Indie kid. That probably sounds like an unhealthy move, Indie to Goth, but the stuff I liked as a teenager was probably more angsty than the music I listen to today. Remember that Thom Yorke was considered the singer most likely to commit suicide after Kurt Cobain died and I loved Radiohead's first album, Pablo Honey. The bands I liked weren't really 'mad for it', nor were they shoegazing, pseudo psychedelic types with big coats and bowl haircuts. The closest I got to liking the Manchester scene was James; a band my sister introduced me to when she was at Uni. If I recall right she gave me a mix tape with them on, along with a load of other bands, most of which I don't remember. Other than that, well, I was weird enough, tightly wound enough;...

When we met our older cat, the boy, for the first time he lied to us. We had gone down to the local RSPCA, about twenty minutes walk from our house, to look at cats. We'd finally bought our house and one of the first things we wanted to do was get our own cat. This was partially because we both wanted one but also because we had mice coming into the kitchen, which was disturbing. We would find the soap chewed on the windowsill and mouse droppings on the worktop. We were not happy bunnies, by any stretch of the imagination. It's a sad fact that fewer black cats are adopted every year than any other type. Even needy, whingey Siamese get more love than the humble black British shorthair. I've no idea why that is, but it's something that saddens me deeply. We were quietly determined to get a black cat to make up for it, something we've done  twice and it didn't happen either time. The staff at the Barnes Hill were friendly and let us look at the cats they h...

Before we get started; Spoilers Ahoy! The third of the Iron Man films and the first of Marvel's Stage 2, I was unsure about this movie for a while before going to see it. I enjoyed the first film and very much enjoyed Robert Downey Jr's performance but the sequel left me cold, using a poor pair of villains (Whiplash and Justin Hammer are distinctly D list) and really seeming to serve as a vehicle to expand the Marvel film universe and introduce SHIELD as a major player, as well as setting up things up for Captain America. Given how unimpressed I was with Thor (same weak plot, with a cast that mostly left me cold; apologies to the people who enjoyed it but I don't really see the appeal of either Tom Hiddlestone or Chris Hemsworth), I was unsure about this film, worrying it would stick to the tried, tested... dull plot line that's come to characterise so many of superhero films. Having been to see it tonight, I can safely say that I needn't have worried. It...

Tonight's a busy one for me, I'm either gaming (playing an Ork Face in Shadowrun for those of you that follow such things... everyone else, don't worry it's a roleplaying thing) or writing short stories for a couple of anthologies I want to send stories to. So in the grand tradition of UK children's television programme Blue Peter , 'here's something I prepared earlier' (did anyone actually believe that the presenter had had anything to do with preparing it?) This is a vampire poem I wrote a long time ago (it's at least fifteen years old, probably older) and I've never done anything with. I don't consider myself to be much of a poet but I think it's okay. Enjoy and I'll try to put together something more substantial tomorrow. Immortal Kiss I watch you across the room Your face so filled with shade Perfect, flawless You’re everything man made I watch you light a cigarette Obscures your form in gloom Vulne...

One of the things I'm trying to do is put up some groups for British investigators to be part of in Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. Characters in this game often find they're dependent on family and friends for leads into adventures and, given the somewhat fatal nature of the game, it starts to stretch credibility at times. Groups also make it easier to add new characters when the worst happens, and can galvanise a game at the start as it gives characters a reason to work together without the horse trading that can happen when you're trying to put a game together. The group I've linked to is a club or foundation that investigates strange phenomena, collecting information for the Foundation. https://drive.google.com/?tab=wo&authuser=0#folders/0B-t2fYiUiWIpaXdGZktNNWV6MzA Unlike the Farnham Circle, I feel this may need a little more expansion, so I may be adding a second document in due course. In the meantime, I hope you like it and find it useful for ...

This week Ray Harryhausen, the stop motion animation wizard whose work was a feature of so many fantasy and sword and sandals films of the 1960s and 70s, passed away. I don't remember which of the films he worked on I saw first, probably Clash of the Titans as that was always on telly when I was a kid and I remember it fondly. I don't want to say too much about Mr Harryhausen or his life, the people who knew him can do that, and my information would probably end up coming from Wikipedia (bad of me I know).  Rather, I want to say a little about  the reaction that surrounded his death on sites like Facebook. Most, in fact all, of the reactions I saw related to his passing reminded me uncomfortably of the response to Ray Bradbury's death last year. People seemed not only upset that he'd died but also seemed to think that it was a terrible thing, which given that Mr Harryhausen was 93 seems a little odd to me, and frankly, a little selfish. By any account 93 (or 91 in...

I work best to music, it's my preferred option. Silence is too all consuming whilst spoken word is too distracting, I focus on the words being said not on what I'm writing (of course despite saying that I'm typing this with Radio 4 Extra on in the background). The music I like tends to be dark, sometimes its funny but I fled the cheese pop factory in my early teens and never went back. My teenage listening was indie, usually bands like Kingmaker and the Manic Street Preachers. When I became a Goth in some ways I took a step towards a less self loathing kind of music! As I'm feeling lazy tonight I'm going to post links to five of my favourite songs and perhaps give you an idea of why I like them (gosh its like a sadder, more pathetic version of Desert Islands Discs isn't it?) Anyway let's get it on: 1) The Cure: Burn   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzbRSD_rM1A The Crow is one of my favourite films, it's beautifully shot and wonderfully poeti...

I picked this supplement for the Laundry Files by Cubicle Seven up from my Friendly Local Spider um Gaming Store yesterday and now that I've had a chance to look at it thought I'd throw some stuff together for it. First off this book is a big step in the roleplaying game, bringing it in line with the latest novel in Charles Stross' Laundry Files series, the Apocalypse Codex. As a result it gives you details of the events of the novel as well as an insight into External Affairs and the series' bete noir among the various occult intelligence agencies the Black Chamber in addition to some other goodies. The write up for External Affairs gives an overview of this part of the Laundry, going into a great deal of detail about their status and operations and how to best use them in your campaigns. The chapter on the Black Chamber gives them a detailed history and organisational insight into how they work. Worryingly there are also details for running Black Chamber campaign...

Welcome to the start of 30 Blogs of Night, an attempt to blog every day for a month. No idea what I'm going to talk about (well a few ideas, but a lot of this is going to be making up stuff as I go along... which my gaming group would define as 'business as usual' I imagine). Night is a funny time, one of mixed emotions for me. Ian Marchant in the pitch for his book 'Something of the Night' (available in all good bookshops I'm told) talks about the wonder of night, how it's a transformative time. You can be anything in the night, a hero, a villain; a rock star, anything you like.  I see that now, but when I was young my experience of night was a little different; one of fear. As a child I swore I saw a woman fly past my window in a basket. In hindsight it was probably the influence of too many fairy tales and the workings of an overactive imagination, but when you're a toddler you don't really discriminate about this kind of thing, you run to you...

Hello, hello. Sorry, got caught up again, I really must try to blog more (more on that later). My hand in for my Fiction coursework is Wednesday, but I am aiming to get it in on Tuesday, gods willing, fingers crossed and with a good wind behind me. Honestly, short of a massive panic induced rewrite the stories are good to go and the commentary just needs me to go over it a couple of times. Next up I have two short stories to write one for Fringeworks Raus Untoten collection, a story of zombies at Stalingrad which I suspect will be taking a different tack to what the editor's going to get otherwise and a follow up to last year's Asylum story. If you've read Prometheus Enslaved, I'll be picking up some of the characters from that story and taking them to America, where other dangers await. Also, starting this week I'll be starting a concerted attempt to blog everyday, for a full month, in a so called 30 Blogs of Night. I'll be making it up as I go along so...