tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31007636445922492232024-03-05T08:09:47.869-08:00By Rite of WordWhatever catches my mind's eye.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-41056785602669638942018-07-24T16:38:00.000-07:002018-07-24T16:38:06.056-07:00Background to the Cortii<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<![endif]--><i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/background-to-the-cortii/" target="_blank">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br /><br />The Cortii are mercenaries. As we meet them in the Cortii series, they’re the descendants of a mercenary cult that has existed for more than eight millennia, since the pre-spaceflight era. As far as the humanoid population goes, the Cortii are deeply embedded in the popular consciousness. <br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>'</i>War, therefore, is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.' ~Carl von Clausewitz </blockquote>
<br />The Cortii have been bodyguards, armies, spies, and assassins. They’ve toppled governments, supported rebellions and been hired to support – and prevent – some of the greatest crimes in humanoid history. They’re banned from active recruiting in Federated Planets Alliance space, the Nasdari government is wary of them, and the Atari ignore them unless or until popular opinion becomes vocal on the topic. <br /><br />Beyond that, all the Cortiian fighters, the deriani, who are the only members of the force that the public has much to do with, have a mandatory minimum telepathic rating. Humanity as a species has a high percentage of members with some minimal extra-sensory talent, but that percentage is still a fraction of the general population, and there is widespread social distrust of those with some extra-sensory ability. <br /><br />The majority of the humanoid governments embrace a peaceful ethos. FPA and Atari citizens, certainly in the central planets, see violence as anathema. However, at their borders, their armed forces are frequently engaged. Beyond that, information gathering, executive protection, and shipping security are still required, and the majority of central worlds citizens are unable to shake their early conditioning against violence. This means that the Cortii are, depending on cultural background and personal inclination, either a source of covert fascination, a menace to public security and personal privacy, or a necessary evil. <br /><br />The Cortii are not the only mercenary force in space; there are a number, ranging from informal groups working highly localised missions to organisations that rival the Cortii in numbers, if not reach. Most of the other mercenary forces of note are drawn from frontier worlds and space outposts, and are by and large fully human, which the Cortii are not. <br /><br />Every Cortiian, whether they meet the requirements to join the ranks of the deriani or not, is physically based on an artificially grown body. The historic intent was to have the Cortiian frontline force be based entirely on clone-type, replaceable fighters. However, despite several millennia of research, limitations on these artificially grown fighters remain. Most problematic from the point of view of the Cortii is a lack of ability to think beyond pre-defined strategy – or, to put it bluntly, they’re deficient in crazy. <br /><br />The Councils of the magaii, the commanding elite of every Cortiian Base, therefore adapted the strategy. Rather than a fully artificial fighter, they use the artificially grown bodies to ensure that basic standards are met, but overlay those bodies with a partial genetic map and a personality and memory imprint from people showing a promising mix of attributes. Most of the time, the people from whom these imprints are taken are not aware it’s been done, and standard practice is to use children below the age of twelve, both because social conditioning has not yet been fully absorbed and because any stray memories of the process the donors may keep are more likely to be discounted. On rare occasions, the Cortii will accept adult volunteers, who are told that they will undergo genetic modification. However, the same technique is used on those adults, and the original bodies are disposed of. <br /><br />The Cortii are additionally the only mercenary force also recognised as an independent government. Cortiians are not citizens of whichever spatial sector their Base happens to be sited in, and the Councils function entirely autonomously of local government. Attempts to bring Bases forcibly under the authority of the local government have historically never been met with success. Unsubstantiated rumour indicates that all Base Councils report to a central Council, but if this is the case, the secret of where this Council is housed is one of the best-kept in space. <br /><br />The Cortii work on a set structure, which is the same on every Base. Each Base is commanded by an Inner Council, composed of five magaii, and an Outer Council of twenty-five. They are protected, and their orders are enforced, by a unit known as the akrushkari, whose numbers are variable but whose role is always the same. Directly beneath the Councils are unit commanders, or Cortiorai, each commanding a Cortia of twenty-four deriani. Cortii are further split into five sub-units known as Cantai, each under the orders of a Cantara, who reports directly to their Cortiora. Canta units can and do work independently of the rest of the Cortia for long periods of time, and solo assignments for individual deriani are not unknown. For those who don’t meet the required standards to join the deriani, Cortiian Bases require specialists in everything from inorganic chemistry to psychology to information infrastructure. These specialists rarely leave their home Bases; however, Cortiian citizenship is irrevocable, and deserters are hunted down until death can be proved beyond all doubt. There is no way to resign from the Cortii.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-85487871140158695712018-07-22T16:23:00.000-07:002018-07-22T16:23:06.676-07:00Websites 101<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/websites-101/" target="_blank">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br /><br />Unless you live under a rock somewhere, you've accessed a website. They're almost impossible to avoid. If you're an indie anything, in my case author, having one of your own is almost a requirement if you expect to channel readers to your work without relying on the altruism (sorry, bug in my throat) of Facebook or Amazon.<br /><ul>
<li>The good: You can build a website without having a clue about what happens behind the pretty pictures and clicky things that take you to more shiny, interesting places.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The bad: Ignorance, say of something like the lovely new European data privacy laws (<a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">GDPR</a>), is not a defence.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The ugly: If you don't know what's going on with your own site, you can't fix it when it goes wrong.</li>
</ul>
Website building is one of the instances where more knowledge can mean saving money. For example, my two domains hosted with Jollyleaf, plus basic SSL and all the webmail addresses I can eat, costs me $3.99 US / month (2018). The equivalent plan from Wix would set me back $10 to $14 per month, and that doesn't discuss email.<br /><br />So here's the basics that I found out that I wish I'd known when I started setting up my website.<br /><h3>
</h3>
<h3>
The magic words - key things to know</h3>
<em>...'please' and 'thank you'. Seriously, I thought I was kidding about growing up under the rock.</em><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong>Domain name</strong></a>: You need one of these. An IP address is a string of confusing numbers and decimal points, and, like Vulcan planet names, no-one can remember that shit easily. A domain name is like a custom licence plate for your car - at the most basic level, it's a custom name that humans can remember, linked in a database to the actual IP address where your website can be found.Pro tip - make it easy to remember, and make it logical. I'm an author writing as J C Steel, and my domain is jcsteelauthor.com. Simple, right?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Domain registration</strong>: This is how your domain name gets linked to your IP address. Generally, your hosting provider (keep reading, grasshopper) will handle this part for you, acting as a domain name registrar. <a href="https://www.icann.org/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">ICANN is the Men In Black-style organisation</a> behind domain name registration that you may want to read up on if you want to know more.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Web hosting provider</strong>: You need one of these, too. They're the people who rent you a certain amount of space on a physical server to actually store the images and information that make up your website. I use <a href="https://jollyleaf.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Jollyleaf</a>, but I recommend that you do some pricing and feature comparisons online (PCMag often has handy 'top ten' lists), and figure out what you need and how much you're willing to pay for it.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Website creation tool, aka website builder:</strong> Unless you're a whizz with HTML (in which case, why the hell are you here??), you're going to need one of these, too. Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Wix, Weebly - again, I recommend <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2484510,00.asp" rel="noopener" target="_blank">going and doing some hunting</a> and figuring out your ideal features-to-competency comfort level.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Internet connectivity:</strong> ...yeah, if you're reading this, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you know about this one. You need it to build your masterpiece and access other peoples'.</li>
</ul>
If you have all of the above, you're ready to get started with your new website. If you're only in need of one site, and you aren't building a newsletter, doing any direct selling, and really just want an online presence you can put on your business card, you can go from there.<br />
If you want to delve into the arcane and macabre, keep reading.<br />
<br /><h3>
The arcane and macabre for websites 101 and beyond</h3>
<ul>
<li><b>CMS</b>: it stands for content management system, and it governs, usually via a template (see 'theme'), how your website looks and behaves. WordPress will try and jam their favourite themes down your craw - don't feel obliged, there's a multitude to choose from out there. I use <a href="https://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Divi</a>, which lets me do (almost) anything I want, and leaves me swearing helplessly the rest of the time.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>HTML</b>: Yeah, unless you know exactly what you're doing and have hours to spend debugging lines, this is the 'oh-ha-ha-no' difficulty level. HTML is one of the basic programming languages underlying much of what you see online. Unless you happen to be an HTML expert, trying to code your own site from scratch will leave you with one of those lovely yellow text on deep blue background sites that screams 'someone tried to party like it was 1999'. <a href="https://www.deaninfotech.com/blog/cms-vs-hand-coding-right-choice-build-website/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">More detail on HTML versus CMS can be found here</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Child Theme</strong>: Don't try to create one of these without backing up your site first. Really. A child theme will batten off your principal theme, and update with it, but maintain your custom elements (a custom copyright footer notice is a common use-case) through each update.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Custom email address</strong>: Not a must-have, but a nice way to brand your business communication. A lot of people will rely on Outlook 365 for this - personally I don't recommend it, it's expensive as hell and you can't download emails from there to storage or elsewhere in bulk. A lot of hosting providers will offer webmail on the side, and often for free. It's worth checking out, because it will save you money that you can then throw at something else, and you can still have your branded email address.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>SEO</strong>: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and at the simplest level, it's key words - the terms people are likely to type into a search bar to find you, your website, or your work. You want to make sure that when a search engine crawls your page, the key things you want to appear high in search results for are basically sending up flares and generally making themselves obvious. As I'm <del>shite</del> making progress on my learning curve with SEO, I'm going to suggest you type 'SEO' into a search engine and learn from people who actually know what they're talking about.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>phpMyAdmin</strong>: Up top, I mentioned web hosting in terms of someone renting you space on a server for the files that actually make up your site. phpMyAdmin is one of the common database frontends (see also SQL) that stores and organises those files so that you can access the files when you need to. The function of the database itself is the internal referencing of your files so that when you click 'contact', you get the contact form of your site, and not a page advertising mail-order brides.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>SSL</strong>: Means <a href="https://www.digicert.com/ssl/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Secure Socket Layer</a>, and short-form it's security that lets people clicking on your site have reasonable certainty that it's you. It's part of what governs the 's' in 'https', and the behaviour of that padlock symbol at the beginning of the website address. An SSL certificate is nice-to-have on a basic site like a blog, and becomes a must-have if you're planning something like direct sales, where you're handling financial information.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Add on domain</strong>: Now we're getting kinky. Basically, a domain works very much like a folder structure (you've set these up on your computer, or in your email client, yes?). For example, your root domain (dear Aussies and Kiwis, please don't get too excited here) would be your 'Documents' folder, and then when you open up 'Documents' you'll have 'Letters', 'Legal', 'Renos', which would be sub- or add-on domains depending on set-up. An add on domain can be accessed completely separately from the root domain from the perspective of the end-user. I have a root domain, accessed with jcsteelauthor.com, and an add on domain, byriteofword.com, both of which have a separate file structure and are accessed separately by users. Courtesy of Bluehost: <a href="https://my.bluehost.com/hosting/help/255" rel="noopener" target="_blank">An add on domain is a domain name which points to its own folder within public_html and appears as a separate website</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Site back-ups</strong>: I really recommend doing these. Your hosting provider may do them automatically, but 'doing' and 'giving easy access to' are two entirely different animals. I use <a href="https://updraftplus.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Updraft Plus</a> for my WordPress sites - it gives me complete control over how often I back-up, where the back-ups are stored, and best of all, hassle-free file re-install as soon as I install the plugin. Oh, and the basic version is free.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Images</strong>: I use Pixabay, Pexels, and UnSplash for free images (donations optional). It's not a good idea to simply nick shit from Google Images - it may be tempting, but first, you're very likely trampling someone else's copyright, and also the images are likely to be crappy resolution, which will make you look like an amateur. If you don't mind shelling out some cash, <a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/home" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Shutterstock</a> and <a href="https://www.123rf.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">123rf</a> have a wide range.of images.</li>
</ul>
<h4>
</h4>
<h3>
That's all, folks</h3>
Well, no, of course it isn't. But if you've read this, and looked at a few of the linked articles, you should have at least a basic understanding of what you need and why in your website, and where you can go to learn more. Depending on your hosting provider, you may be able to drag and drop elements - Wix is good for this - or you may need to know everything from how to set up an add on domain to setting a POP3 email account.<br /><br />In general, I support knowing what you're doing. It reduces the chances of you getting screwed on price, and it helps you understand what you can do, what you can't do, and what you really shouldn't do without making a full back-up first.<br /><br />Happy webbing.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-50998817426991514922018-07-20T15:59:00.000-07:002018-07-20T15:59:06.016-07:00Spatial politics and the Cortii<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--><i>First seen on the Space Trash Blog.</i><br /><br />...because you really can't call it geo-politics when it concerns a sizeable chunk of the galaxy. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIMZsJDwaDimpazzZqxH5iOtTFA31piOcf1SMHU8ljrqXrnc7EE3EedOT9ToQ-2QAgTKe7aIxtq-9kTgBZgcTWzikTt60UQBtxMgtpBgMMuTNWgP0nNOaMU1yoK79hXE4PhDs8ZegAo7GH/s1600/wormhole-2514312_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIMZsJDwaDimpazzZqxH5iOtTFA31piOcf1SMHU8ljrqXrnc7EE3EedOT9ToQ-2QAgTKe7aIxtq-9kTgBZgcTWzikTt60UQBtxMgtpBgMMuTNWgP0nNOaMU1yoK79hXE4PhDs8ZegAo7GH/s320/wormhole-2514312_1280.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3>
Setting borders </h3>
Borders in space are tricky bastards, because you're defining a volume rather than an area. Setting borders in space is the art of picking your battles wisely, and the Cortii have been making a very healthy income from variations on that theme for a number of millennia. <br /><br />To define the problem a little more precisely, habitable worlds are light years apart. In multiple directions. Add to that the fact that the deepspace drive used by most of the species in what we're going to loosely term 'civilised space' essentially bypasses normal space and goes from Point A to Point B, and 'border' becomes an increasingly stupid proposition. <br /><br />
<h3>
It's all about location </h3>
It's possible to track a ship while it's in realspace, via any beacon or station or satellite close enough to get a ping off it. It's possible to eyeball the thing by actually physically getting it in scanner crosshairs. Locating a ship in deepspace has long been the wet dream of various militaries, and so far no one's reliably managed it. <br /><br />This means that while spatial governments will map by sector (volume), the real power lies in the inhabited systems. No one in their right minds is going to take a deepspace jaunt to nothing, so logically, they'll pop out somewhere. When they do, they'll show up on a locator grid - as something. Just because the Ore Scavengerdropped into deepspace by Sector 14 Outstation doesn't mean you won't get the Peace of the Starsarriving in Core-Galax orbit. Juggling IDs is a favourite sport of any pilot who prefers to keep their business their business, and the more generic the hull and load-out, the better it works, because as long as the various militaries are foiled in their aim to track a ship through a deepspace jump, the more they focus on making a positive ID at Point A and Point B. <br /><br />
<h3>
Snags with spatial exploration </h3>
Humanoid expansion began from what is now known as Central Worlds. There are four worlds that claim the honour of being the original human homeworld, and while it's pretty obvious which one actually is, sharing the honour - and the expenses - has historically been the way to go. The four worlds in question are spread across three systems, all within ten to twenty light years of each other. They were all human-settled before the first deepspace colonisation wave, they're all rocky planets more or less in the habitable zone, and if one or more of them was terraformed, it was successful enough, and long enough ago, that ruling it out of contention for the honour of being a homeworld would be tricky to prove. Also, not really in anyone's best interests. <br /><br />Once deepspace drive got off someone's to-do list and into actual use, there were a series of colonisation waves. Given astronomical distances, untried tech, and an excess of optimism, most of the first Colonial Fleet vanished into the silence between stars and was never heard of again. Every so often, someone either terminally lost or scouting frontier worlds comes across a drifting wreck, a primitive humanoid settlement with no logical connection to the rest of the planet's biosphere, or a sizeable crater somewhere with odd trace elements welded into it. <br /><br />
<h3>
Secession and profit </h3>
The Second Colonial Expansion was a bit more modest, a lot better controlled, and formed the basis of society as it is today. From Central Worlds, scoutships were sent to most of the nearby systems, looking for habitable planets, planets that could be terraformed, or systems that were completely uninhabitable but which had enough resources to make an artificial habitat worthwhile. <br /><br />Because the kinds of people willing to head out into the void and try to start some kind of settlement generally have a strong independent streak, Central Worlds stopped getting much more than lip service from a number of their further colonies no more than a few generations to a few centuries later. Their desire to do something about this led to one of the earliest interstellar deployments of Cortiian forces on record, often on every side in the conflict. <br /><br />When the dust settled into a stable orbit, Central Worlds and about fifteen systems formed the Federated Planets Alliance (at that point, pretty much a cake-slice-shaped sector of space with Central Worlds at the narrow end). The Atari Sector had hung onto a deep arc of territory fanning out and down from that narrow end, and the Hejjin'in Empire had claimed a chain of systems from Central Worlds that was more a crooked line heading out at at oblique angle to Galactic core than an actual sector. <br /><br />
<h3>
Cortiian expansion </h3>
Since exploring brave new worlds is a chancy business even when people aren't trying to shoot your ass off, all three of the governments periodically hired Cortiian units aboard to do their dirty work. Above and beyond those contracts, the Cortii had a workable fleet, and turned the fees they made into more ships. During this period, they gained their first footholds in the various sectors, in exchange for services, or, not uncommonly, because they settled somewhere and proved far too expensive to dislodge. <br /><br />
<h3>
Latecomers and interspecies alliances </h3>
The Nasdar Quadrant split off the Hejjin'in Empire about fifteen hundred years after the original split; in short, a do-over of the initial Sector War. The military was heavily concentrated in the outer borders of the Hejjin'in territory, and when they hit critical mass of younger offspring sent to cool their heels in the outer systems, the military seceded from the Empire - very successfully. <br /><br />The Kendazi Union is an even more recent addition to the humanoid governments. It's also the government with the strongest interspecies links, since it was an non-human species that negotiated a deal with the Atari to exchange workers able to tolerate conditions and extract resources in various systems Corewards for tech and rights to the planets. <br /><br />Until the Kendazi alliance, relations with the various non-human species was patchy at best. The Atari and the Cortii historically had the best luck with establishing relationships, and this was more or less because both have a high incidence of the various Abilities in their populations. Cortiians have a mandatory telepathic minimum for anyone serving in an active unit, and the Atari, culturally, are the most receptive towards Abilities, Ability research, and training. <br /><br />Very much in brief, communication is highly reliant on perception. Molecular structure may be universal, but how it's perceived and described turned out not to be, and early attempts at communication started a number of rifts. In some instances, mental contact turned out to be equally fatal, but usually only to the participants. By and large, the success rate was notably higher, something which eventually lead to the formation of the cumbersomely-named Independent Extra-Sensory Regulatory Organisation, where species is optional provided you have the Ability range in some Ability or other to deal with contact with other species without stroking out.<br />
<br />
In short, ambition, aliens, expansion, and politics, oh my.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-77459783540805989852018-07-17T15:54:00.000-07:002018-07-17T15:54:29.629-07:00A Book Geek<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/random/book-geek/" target="_blank">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br /><br /><h3>
Just what exactly would a book geek do, if one won the lottery?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqxo8n5eSHULYvQrsdV1OHPFvzUNtlEfd4nKhY4w-nG0WHGb2HaqNKCsbID_f6LIrBn5M1ACMPXqU5QsSgdHeXJpLaFY7ly6vNo6eSOwTNDpKDnd4mcyxOJy8cn5EJojfnDWKFd575-xbG/s1600/Book+binding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqxo8n5eSHULYvQrsdV1OHPFvzUNtlEfd4nKhY4w-nG0WHGb2HaqNKCsbID_f6LIrBn5M1ACMPXqU5QsSgdHeXJpLaFY7ly6vNo6eSOwTNDpKDnd4mcyxOJy8cn5EJojfnDWKFd575-xbG/s320/Book+binding.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
</h3>
Honestly, I might well start a bookstore. Except it would be an awesome bookstore. There would be a new section, a used book section, and there would be classes somewhere in book-binding, old-style press printing, and even manuscript illumination if I could find someone able to teach it. Papyrus-making. The works.<br /><br />The bookstore part would look like a Hogwarts set, and there'd be tourist attractions like 'Print your own "WANTED" poster!' going on to lure people in and get them to buy books, read books, and play with books. There would be absolutely effing zero kitschy cushion displays and God-awful scented candles that smell of the wide-open chemical vats.<br /><br />...I realised at this point in my daydream that I was probably a book geek. Possibly even a book junkie. Don't judge me.<br /><br />I got hooked very young. I remember reading those truly terrible 'Learn to read' books from Ladybird - 'Peter and Jane saw a BUTTERFLY!!' is permanently scarred into my long-term memory from those - before my third birthday. I'd graduated to Barbar the Elephant and Wind in the Willows before age four, and George MacDonald Fraser and J.R.R. Tolkien by seven (explains a lot, if you think about it...).<br /><br />Not completely illogically, one of my few fond memories of boarding school was the library. First, it was generally avoided and abhorred by the cool kids, and as a bonus, it was full of books. It was also in the oldest part of the school, and had been put together sometime in the 1800s. Some of the books dated from then as well. Before anyone asks, if there were ghosts I never saw them.<br /><br />To keep the books that weren't actually antique, but were falling apart, in shape, a book binder would come in every so often, and open up a room which was normally locked. In there was all the paraphernalia needed to stitch and bind books, and if you showed a capacity to sit still and not break things, he would teach you book binding. Beyond the lure of being something to do with books that I hadn't known existed, book-binding also wasn't one of the school-approved 'hobbies' we had to spend 90 minutes doing on Saturday afternoons, like silk-painting, or photography. While it didn't get me out of those, it did interest me much more.<br /><br />Shortly after I met the book binder (dayum, there should be a horror story in that line), I started surreptitiously writing. Very surreptitiously, in the back of classrooms as the balled-up bits of paper and flying elastic bands of an orderly academic environment ricocheted around me, and under my covers by torchlight after lights-out.<br /><br />These days, I publish my books electronically, and most of my readers buy them electronically, but I've never quite lost that fascination with seeing a heap of pages turn into orderly sheaves, get stitched together, and gradually get turned into a book.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-63244345502523737182018-07-15T15:31:00.000-07:002018-07-15T15:31:03.866-07:00Weapons in the Cortii<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/cortii/weapons-in-the-cortii/" target="_blank">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br />
<h2>
So, what constitutes weapons in the Cortii? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</h2>
Personal loadout, for some reasons I hope will be obvious, isn't usually made public. No one who survives Cortiian basic training underestimates the value of surprise in a fight. However, there are some standard items. Uniform regulations dictate a hand laser and a stunner on the belt; every Cortiian in an active unit will carry them, in addition to anything else.<br />
<br />
<h3>
A laser is a distance weapon </h3>
The regulation-issue hand laser is a Cortiian model, and the grip doubles as a basic ID system; no one who isn't Cortiian can take the weapon and use it. That safety feature isn't a lot of use on a Cortiian Base, but off one, it's worth having. The weapon weighs about 500 grams, most of which is the power pack housed in the grip. The power pack is good for thirty single shots under normal conditions, and can be recharged from heat, which is convenient for a belt weapon. <br /><br />It can be used as a cutting tool, but only gives about five seconds' worth; enough for a field amputation or to make basic door security seriously unhappy. It's fairly short-range (shooting anything much further away than ten metres with it will lose you power and accuracy). For anything between zero and five metres, and not wearing a personal shield, it's accurate and lethal. Current models, and anything issued in the last couple of decades, are shaped to be fired via a stud at the top of the grip that you depress with the thumb. <br /><br />
<h3>
You can't stun with a laser </h3>
Contrary to popular belief, you can't recalibrate a coherent beam of light to stun. For occasions where prisoners are needed, deriani also carry a stunner. Again, the most common models are Cortiian-issue, and the exact specifications aren't available, but effectively, they use sonics as a short-term, short-range knockout. <br /><br />The Cortiian models are more powerful than similar weapons in human space, mostly because Cortiians are both tricky and hard to put down. Turned on a standard human type, a Cortiian stunner will cause unconsciousness on the close range of an hour, and leave the target disoriented for some time after that. It will also quite possibly cause nerve damage, and it will almost certainly do damage to the bones of the ear. Turned against a Cortiian, half an hour's unconsciousness is about the best you can hope for, and an indirect shot or long distance will be result in less. The closer you are to your target when you set it off, the more likely it is to result in disorientation. Five metres is about the stunner's best effective range; slightly less in thin atmosphere, slightly more in denser environments. <br /><br />
<h3>
Up close and personal </h3>
Because lasers can be disrupted by any of a range of personal shielding devices, most Cortiians also carry edged weapons. <br /><br />Fighting knives of various designs are common, as are throwing knives. Longer blades are used, but less commonly, as they become increasingly hard to hide. Most deriani lean towards a dull finish, and dark alloys on their blades. By far the most common preference is for double-edged blades, but beyond that there are a number of options. A personal shield will not stop a blade; they move too slowly and the approach is wrong. You can expect any Cortiian to be a proficient knife-fighter; the majority will also be good with longer blades. The Cortii are fairly equally divided on the topic of custom blades; the main argument for is that they're harder for someone else to turn against you, and the main argument against is that if you become too used to fighting with a custom design, you become less accustomed to using a knife you can take from anyone else or a standard dispenser. <br /><br />Some deriani also carry blunt weapons; mostly these tend to be pocket-sized, as, again, a full-length staff tends to be noticed. As staves of various sizes are both common and easy to fabricate, however, expect most Cortiians to be able to use a staff weapon. On a Base, the most common variants tend to be worn across the knuckles, or a weighted or telescoping cosh of some kind. Variations on two heavy weights with a thin filament connecting them are also common; if the weights aren't getting the job done, there's always the chance of garroting your opponent. <br /><br />
<h3>
Hand-to-hand </h3>
Every Cortiian will be proficient in empty-hand fighting. In this area, variation is key, and the more obscure the fighting style, the more likely you are to be able to come at an opponent in a way they don't expect and will have to invent wildly to counter. If there can be said to be a common hobby in the Cortii, hand-to-hand is probably it. It will be practised daily as part of any deriani exercise routine, and most people will have at least two styles that they're expert in, as well as a basic understanding of as many others as they can. It's one of the areas where real-world experience is invaluable, because a holosuit can only throw up combinations that already exist in its programming. <br /><br />
<h3>
There are no rules </h3>
The Councils have no interest in intervening in casual violence. The Councils will step in only if the situation looks likely to cause expensive damage; anything else simply saves them the trouble of weeding out the unmotivated, the unintelligent, and the unskilled.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-81574894237374415732018-06-03T15:40:00.004-07:002018-06-03T15:40:53.746-07:00Help, I'm a pantser<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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...in the beginning, there was a thought.<br /><br />And the thought would not go away.<br /><br />And the thought took root and multiplied.<br /><br />And people in meetings spake, and asked: what were you drawing in your notes?<br /><br />And lo, you woke up in the night, and the thoughts bore fruit.<br /><br />And the next day, you started writing and didn't stop for air.<br /><br />Writing as a pantser is actually pretty much exactly like that. Especially when your characters happen to be elite mercenaries, with years of training in breaking down defences. Mine progress remarkably quickly from polite reminders that it's been a while since I wrote to sleep deprivation techniques.<br /><br />
<b>But 75,000 words' worth?</b><br /><br />Actually, yes, surprisingly easily. Most of my manuscripts, after all the various levels of edit have been applied, work out to 85 - 100K words. I have no idea how someone can sit down, figure out exactly what is going to happen in a book...and then write a full manuscript despite that. I write books because I want to find out what happens, and the only way I can do that is to start writing. Well, that, and it's the only reliable way to make the voices in my head shut up.<br /><br />A lot of people figure that pantsers don't plan and outline because they're either lazy, and will never finish a book, or because they're inherently disorganised and their books will be chaotic.<br /><br />Would it perhaps surprise you to know that J. R. R. Tolkien was a pantser?<br /><br />I think it's highly appropriate, therefore, that a quote from J. R. R. Tolkien pretty much describes how I feel about writing: Bilbo's walking song.<br /><br />“The Road goes ever on and on<br />Down from the door where it began.<br />Now far ahead the Road has gone,<br />And I must follow, if I can,<br />Pursuing it with eager feet,<br />Until it joins some larger way<br />Where many paths and errands meet.<br />And whither then? I cannot say.”<br /><b><br />But, as a pantser, how do you keep track?</b><br /><br />Oh, I have some notes. But when I say 'some notes' I mean about a page and half of Times New 12pt, for things that keep showing up but I can't be bothered to devote brain-space to - Khyria's ID code is one of those things. Much easier to pull up a notes file, and copy and paste the darn thing. Then I don't drop consistency errors all over my readers, and I don't have to re-read my entire series again to track down one elusive reference.<br /><br />Fine. I don't have to re-read my entire series often to track down one elusive reference. Happy?<br /><br />Being a pantser does have one massive drawback. I hate SEO. I loathe it. If you want to write truly effective posts for SEO, or even something like a bio, you have to plan it. you have to have a list of keywords, and you have to have a system for getting them all in there without keyword stuffing.<br /><br />I've compromised. That compromise is that I will never be great at SEO, but I will continue to enjoy writing.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-18175575888624880262018-04-15T14:11:00.000-07:002018-04-15T14:11:21.386-07:00Books and authors<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/books-and-authors/" target="_blank">Space Trash blog</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<h4>
<em>...lying on my back on the library floor, staring blankly up at my bookshelves, I realised two things.</em></h4>
<br />
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First: it's not hoarding if it's books; second, that I have a lot of series by female authors. Given all the unmitigated crap that occasionally hits the airwaves about 'women ruining science-fiction', and given the amount of sci-fi I read, it took me rather by surprise. I didn't, in fact, set out to collect books written by women authors. Actually, if I'm completely honest, unless I'm looking for some more of someone's work that I've already enjoyed, the author's name tends to be about the last thing about a book that I look at.<br />
<br />
Generally, if someone's unwary enough to let me off my chain in a bookshop, my method of picking out books (yes, it's never 'a' book, kindly don't blaspheme) is to wander along the sci-fi and fantasy shelves, picking up random books that look interesting and reading the first few pages.<br />
<br />
I like that first few pages, I buy the book - simple. If I like the rest of the book, when I've got it home and devoured it, <em>then</em> I'll take notice of the author - so that I can go and see what else they've written, and hang out in their metaphorical garden hedges watching to see when the next book may come out. Yes, I author-stalk. (<a href="http://www.rabiagale.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Rabia Gale</a>, I'm looking at you. <a href="https://oldmenandinfidels.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">W. Clark Boutwell</a>, you too.)<br />
<br />
From my unexpected vantage point on the floor (I was trying to clean - don't judge), for the first time in my life, I counted fingers and realised that, having used that method of book selection most of my life, I really do have a lot of books by women authors. <a href="http://www.cherryh.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">C J Cherryh</a>, <a href="https://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Lilith Saintcrow</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26.Anne_McCaffrey" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Anne MCaffrey</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dorothy-Dunnett/e/B000APE786" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Dorothy Dunnett</a>, <a href="http://www.patriciabriggs.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Patricia Briggs</a>, <a href="http://robthurman.net/new/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Rob Thurman</a>, <a href="https://michellesagara.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Michelle Sagara</a>, <a href="http://www.annaguirre.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Ann Aguirre</a>, <a href="http://www.lauraannegilman.net/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Laura Anne Gilman</a>...I could keep going. I was almost relieved to come across half a shelf of <a href="http://jack-campbell.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Jack Campbell</a>, a complete shelf and a half of <a href="https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Terry Pratchett</a> (all hail to Sir Terry), a clump of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jack-Higgins/e/B000APFXYS" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Jack Higgins</a>, the full <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6252.Robert_Jordan" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Wheel of Time</a> series, some <a href="http://www.jim-butcher.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Jim Butcher</a>, a bit of <a href="http://simonrgreen.co.uk/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Simon Green</a>, and...yeah, I read a lot.<br />
<br />
Basically, I like good writing, by which I mean a writing style that doesn't make me roll my eyes on page one, characters that aren't two-dimensional, and a plot that actually, well, has a plot. I don't select my books based on the shape of the author's genitalia. <br />
<br />
Something that pisses me off no end is the sheer number of individuals (insert epithets of choice here, I'm a dirty-word intellectual trying hard to keep my blog mostly PG) going around claiming that 'men can't write fantasy' or 'women can't write science-fiction'. I call bullshit. J R R Tolkien, for example. C S Lewis. C J Cherryh, Octavia E Butler, Anne McCaffrey. I suffer violent urges when I read that J K Rowling is J K because someone told her that she'd sell fewer books as Joanne Kathleen Rowling.<br />
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I think at heart I feel that the only criteria that a book should be judged by is the quality of the writing. A good cover and a good blurb may well help to attract the reader's attention, but ultimately, you can have the best cover in the world, and unless that excerpt makes me want to read more, you're going back on the shelf.<i><br /></i>Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-92154496598625794532018-01-28T16:45:00.000-08:002018-01-28T16:45:15.614-08:00How (not) to write a series - a pantser's guide<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</xml><![endif]-->How not to plan </h4>
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Definitely, at all costs, avoid the planning. With this one simple tip, a writer can avoid months or even years of worry, save themselves from the dreaded note cascade whenever the cat crosses the desk, and, best of all, begin writing sooner. <br /><br />As award-winning authors Claire Buss and J C Steel can attest, it is hard to over-emphasise the savings in time spent not writing your next masterpiece this one piece of advice can provide. Please note, when we say ‘don’t plan’, we do indeed mean no series arc, no tedious deciding in advance whether your protagonist should have a mole somewhere interesting, and most certainly no poring over a map trying to figure out why cities that famous people are born in exist at the top of mountain plateaux with no nearby water. <br /><br />Complicated things like these tend to take care of themselves. You had no plan for book one and everything worked out just fine. Repeat this method when writing subsequent books and in no time at all you'll have a multi-book series and maybe even a box set. Planning takes up valuable time when you could be inventing twenty new characters who bear no relation whatsoever to the main characters in your first book. It's important to keep things fresh and interesting. <br /><br />Planning is one of the secret tools of procrastination. Authors who swear by it are really admitting to be closet-procrastinators and they probably don't even like cake. <br />
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How not to world-build </h4>
J C Steel maintains that it’s possible to learn everything you need to know about your characters and your world-building by climbing a mast, wedging yourself comfortably above the radar, and chatting with the voices in your head. Not only does it pass the time when the yacht isn’t going anywhere, but when you do this regularly, the character, the secondary characters, and the world they live in become so internalised that the entire setting and cast is ready for you when you reach deck level and reach for your pen (or keyboard, or magic wand, or inscription instrument of choice). Better yet, again, no notes required. <br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Health and safety tip: Of course, for the younger writer, it is important not to confess to anyone that you are, in fact, chatting with the voices in your head until you reach the local age of indiscretion. Otherwise adults (defined as those who have been doing it wrong longer) have a tendency to over-react. </i></blockquote>
<br />There is no need to re-read your previous book(s) and re-familiarise yourself with the existing world you built. After all you wrote it in the first place and you never forget salient details, ever. By continuing to have regular chats with your characters you will have an in-depth understanding of their personality and why they react to things the way they do. Seeing as you have all this information at your fingertips it will become obvious to the reader as well, this is down to secret osmosis of thought. That elusive yet unique connection authors have with their readers which allows them, the reader, to understand every nuance, every subtlety and every hidden meaning. That connection is so strong there is no need to describe buildings, cities, infrastructure or even what your characters look like. All those world-building aspects come under planning and as stated previously, there is no need to get bogged down by any of that. <br />
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How to not delay the writing bits </h4>
So how does one get from chatting with the voices in your head to successfully writing a series? You may well ask. We feel that the key ingredient for this harks back to our very first piece of advice - don't plan - freeing up more time for actual writing. Bum on seat and fingers on writing implements is how the words are made to go. A pantser is, therefore, always at a near-infinite advantage. While the plotter is still working out whether using shell pink Post-It notes for the kinky scenes is too precious, the pantser has already powered through that all-important opening scene and is trying busily to get their characters to slow that duck down so they can write down the awesome one-liner someone yelled halfway through the last chase. <br /><br />There is no need to worry about subsequent books making sense with regards to the entire series or indeed as stand-alone novels. Readers will, of course, read each book in the series in the correct order and will have already established their psychic link with your inner monologue and completely understand all the back story you've thought about and not yet written down. This means, again, the pantser wins at writing as they do not have to delay getting on with the actual writing. <br /><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Health and safety tip: We refer you to the great Oscar Wilde on the importance of making time for what is most important to you -“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.” </i></blockquote>
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How not to get buried in the details </h4>
Detailed descriptions are so last century. Your enlightened reader just wants the juicy bits, never mind sixteen pages detailing the lavish surroundings your average planner has constructed. Which by the way, took them two weeks to thrash out while you, the pantser, released four novellas. <br /><br />It’s absolutely true, the Devil’s in the details. In case no one has ever imparted to you the key to lying successfully (and what is fiction writing, if not the art of lying to better convey meaning?), it is Keep It Simple, Stupid – also known in professional circles as the KISS and tell principle. By avoiding the wall covered in sticky notes, and the ensuing panic whenever the air, the cat, the offspring, or the summoned entity moves through the room, we have also successfully avoided not one, but two story-killers; the smothering alive of the story pacing in irrelevant detail, and the trapping yourself in a plot web of such intricacy that the temptation to disprove the old adage that the pen is mightier than the sword is put to extreme test. <br />
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How not to listen to advice on how to write </h4>
Last but not least (by far not least) it is vitally important to ignore other people telling you how you should write. What works for them is highly unlikely to work for you, and as we’re looking at not just a flash fiction piece, a novella, or a single book, but the writing of an entire series...it is extremely important to settle on a method that works for you over weeks, months, years, and even more importantly, a method that doesn’t get in the way of your writing, but which facilitates it. So planners - plan to your little heart’s content and pantsers - blag it all the way! <br /><br />The related ability to ignore people, no matter what the topic, is another that we highly recommend to aspiring series authors. In fact, it is a skill that will generally make your life better all around. Most great artists became famous long after they were dead, so it stands to reason if they’d listened to the people telling them how bad they were while they were alive, they would never have persevered until the very end. <br />
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<h4>
Meet the authors </h4>
<b>Claire Buss: <i>'Books and cake.</i>' </b><br /><br />Claire Buss is a science fiction, fantasy & contemporary writer based in the UK. She wanted to be Lois Lane when she grew up but work experience at her local paper was eye-opening. Instead, Claire went on to work in a variety of admin roles for over a decade but never felt quite at home. An avid reader, baker and Pinterest addict Claire won second place in the Barking and Dagenham Pen to Print writing competition in 2015 setting her writing career in motion. <br /><br />You can follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Grasshopper2407" target="_blank">@grasshopper2407</a> and visit her website <a href="http://www.cbvisions.weebly.com/" target="_blank">www.cbvisions.weebly.com</a> for more information about Claire and her writing. <br /><br /> <b>J C Steel: <i>‘Knives, spaceships, and dirty fighting – who says a mercenary cult can’t be fun?’</i></b> <br /><br />Born in Gibraltar and raised on a yacht around the coasts of the Atlantic, I’m a writer, martial artist and introvert. In between the necessary making of money to allow the writing of more books, I can usually be found stowing away on a spaceship, halfway to the further galaxy. <br /><br />Find out more about the author and the series at <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/">jcsteelauthor.com</a>.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-86260845815716048382018-01-17T12:30:00.000-08:002018-01-17T12:30:26.955-08:00Etymology Excavation: quixotic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/etymology-excavation-quixotic/">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br />
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<b>What is etymology, and why are you excavating it?<br /><br />Etymology is like the archeology of a language (definition: the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history).<br /><br />In this series of posts, we're going to look at some of the English phrases, like 'at full tilt', 'toe the line', 'when push comes to shove' that are commonly used, and have an interesting history - and that people often get wrong.</b><br />
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Seems as if once you start a good thing, the ideas just keep rolling. Today's excavation concerns the word 'quixotic'.<br />
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It's a fun dig. Let's start off with the dictionary definition as used today, courtesy of the <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/quixotic">Cambridge English Dictionary</a>: 'having or showing ideas that are different and unusual but not practical or likely to succeed'.<br />
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The origin of the term dates back to 1605, and the work of fiction written by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes">Don Miguel de Cervantes</a>, El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha. It's more commonly known in English as Don Quixote. It's a pretty lengthy story, but the basic idea concerns a nobleman (you guessed it, Don Quixote) whose brain has slipped a few vital gears and who thinks he's a knight in the chivalric tradition. Amongst his antics are included tilting at windmills, which he mistook for giants.<br />
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As a point of general trivia, he names his long-suffering horse 'Rocinante', also the name given to <a href="http://expanse.wikia.com/wiki/Rocinante">the Mars ship used by James Holden</a> and his crew in the TV series 'The Expanse'.<br />
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Quixotic, and quixotically, are words which I feel deserve more use than they get. They also have a wide range of definitions; I used the Cambridge one as it sums it up well, but the word can be applied for anything from 'odd' to 'quirky' to 'flaky' (in the sense of someone not to be relied on).Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-32370490249630280772018-01-14T08:30:00.000-08:002018-01-14T08:30:25.287-08:00Colonisation fleets: Successful, semi-successful, and completely unsuccessful<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/colonisation-fleets/">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br />
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Colonisation and the Cortii<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Given the generally cold and occasionally fissionable-hot relationship between most of the humanoid governments and the Cortii, it may not be immediately obvious that there were Cortiian units on a lot of the early colony ships. And then, if you think about it a bit more...humanoid governments had been hiring Cortii to do their dirty work since long before the colonisation waves, and dealing with new things is inherently risky. Having some heavily-armed, survival-trained, and cynically-minded mercenaries aboard to drop out of the airlock first can pre-empt so many problems.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'A testing environment solves many problems.'~Training of a Cortiian</blockquote>
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Initially, there were the interstellar drives - sub-lightspeed, <a href="https://www.space.com/36273-theory-special-relativity.html">because lightspeed, increase in mass to infinity, etc., etc</a>. From whichever of the Central Worlds was the original homeworld (no one really wants to solve that argument), exploration ships took the long trip at somewhere between half and two-thirds of light-speed to other rocky planets in the original solar system, and set up bases, experimented with air scrubbing, water recycling, and food production until they got good at it, and finally took the sideways step into terraforming - with more and less successful results.<br />
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From there, with a lot of the basic experimentation done, colony ships were sent to nearby solar systems. Since absolutely no one really wants to settle once and for all which of the four Central Worlds was 'the' Central World, stick a finger in the hologram on whichever you like. Those ships also had Cortiians aboard.<br />
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At some point after that, researchers stopped banging their heads on trying to solve infinite mass versus propulsion, and had a breakthrough that resulted in point-to-point travel, or as it's more commonly known, deepspace drive.<br />
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This resulted in the First Colonisation Fleet, which would fall firmly into the 'unsuccessful' category of colonisation attempts.<br />
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'In the hands of a fool are all things foolish.'~Sayings of the Wise</blockquote>
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The First Colonisation Fleet</h3>
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Given primitive humanoids and their tendency to breed indiscriminately, it shouldn't be a surprise to hear that a lot of the incentive behind the development of the original deepspace drive was to solve a massive overpopulation problem. Population-wide contraception actually preceded it by a few generations, but by that point all the Central Worlds were pretty much teetering on the point of not being able to support their populations.<br />
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With the advent of the deepspace drive came another massive incentive: hail conquering heroes, go forth and be granted as much surface space as you can possibly manage. The governments of the time didn't need to resort to deportations - they had more volunteers than they could build hulls and suspension tanks for. Private initiatives sprang up across Central space, building deepspace ships and offering space aboard.<br />
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Records of the time, given the sheer numbers of parties involved, are contradictory, but somewhere between six hundred and thirteen hundred experimental ships vanished into deepspace over a period of a hundred years, each carrying several hundred to several thousand aboard.<br />
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Even some of these had Cortii aboard, due largely to hazard bonuses and pre-payment contracts. Even the healthiest culture of cynicism is soluble in enough credit.<br />
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However, given experimental drives and the fact that the numbers of ships leaving Central Space in every direction vastly exceeded the number of planets about which long-distance research and exploratory probes had more to say then 'we're pretty sure there is something there', only a fraction of that First Colonial Fleet actually resulted in stable, high-tech colonies.<br />
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Miners and scout ships in remote locations still occasionally trip over drifting wrecks, and first contact teams have discovered several humanoid populations on outer-system planets with some interesting gaps in their fossil records, a really big impact crater, or stories of ships that carried wisdom from a distant land.<br />
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'Coincidence is the crutch of optimism.'~Training of a Cortiian</blockquote>
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<h3>
The Second Colonial Expansion</h3>
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...might fall into the semi-successful category. Much better controlled, with destinations that at least rated a definite maybe on being terraformable, or stable enough to support a station habitat, twenty systems were selected for the initial wave, reconnoitred on a detail level, and finally approved for colonisation.<br />
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Not to mention, the deepspace drive had had a couple more centuries of fine-tuning. All twenty ships made it, one got blown away by defences the probes had missed, two turned out to be station prospects rather than terraforming prospects, but overall it worked. Most of those twenty ships carried one or more Cortii aboard.<br />
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In the interest of accuracy, it should be noted that the defences the probes had missed were in fact Base Zero; the Cortii had a sizeable fleet of their own and substantially less bureaucracy. The Central Worlds government declined to believe that there was a Cortiian base already in the system, but their ship went in heavily armed nonetheless. In the event, not nearly heavily enough.<br />
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Those colonies, in turn, spread, and split over time into the various political factions that form the basis of current Cortiian employment - pardon me, today's civilisation.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-91887937971593449792018-01-11T05:30:00.000-08:002018-01-11T05:30:24.448-08:00New urban fantasy WIP!<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/difth/death-living-prologue/">Space Trash Blog</a>. </i><br />
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<h3>
Death is for the Living - Prologue:</h3>
<br />Everything was dark, but this time, she was sure she was awake. There was a damp breeze on her cheek, and a soft surface under her. By contrast, her body was burning. The air smelled of earth and rot and wet leaves, and it was silent except for her own raucous breathing.<br /><br />She lay there until she began to wonder if it wasn’t another fever dream, and then flinched as a voice broke the silence a little way away.<br /><br />“And she was the only one, you sure of that?” It was a woman’s voice, with an Islands accent, slow and unhurried; not one she had heard before.<br /><br />There was a pause, one that reeked of reluctance, and a male voice replied. “Alone and unbound, and several kilometres from the house. I thought she must be a fledgling, but...” his voice trailed off, a faint French accent evocative enough that she could almost feel the shrug.<br /><br />“Not yet,” the woman’s voice agreed, and her tone was darker, grimmer. “You think she has the strength for this fight, boy, or are we just saving trouble for later?”<br /><br />“I think she will stop fighting when she is dead, this one,” the man’s voice said. There was rock-solid certainty under his tone, such utter surety that she wished, briefly, that she were that sure. Absent memories, vision shut down, and fever tearing through her, fighting seemed about as impossible as levering her eyelids open.<br /><br />Her throat was bone-dry, and she longed for liquid even through her throat and neck felt as though they had been savaged. She couldn’t remember why that might be.<br /><br />She was suddenly aware that there was a presence beside her, blocking the flow of air, and a hand clamped onto her shoulder. It triggered a flash of rage and thirst combined, and it was enough to let her move, to flinch away, swing her arm. She had almost bitten him, and couldn’t remember why that would be a bad idea.<br /><br />He was long gone by the time her retaliation completely failed to connect, the cooling breeze again moving over her face. It made the thirst worse.<br /><br />Through the pounding in her ears she heard his voice: “<i>Tu vois</i>. She fought; she did not bite.”<br /><br />There was a rustle of cloth. “Indeed I see. Make sure it her struggle you see and not your own. If she survives she may not thank you for it.”<br /><br />There was a longer pause, as her heartbeat slowed and the lancing pains from the movement quieted with it, and she wondered absently why he didn’t just walk out. His desire to do so was almost as thick in the room as the smell of the jungle.<br /><br />“Then let her choose,” he said at last. “She has earnt that much, at least, <i>non</i>?”Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-13694219937840192532018-01-08T07:30:00.000-08:002018-01-08T07:30:26.329-08:00Etymology Excavation: fascinating<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/etymology-excavation-fascinating/">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i></div>
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<b>What is etymology, and why are you excavating it?<br /><br />Etymology is like the archeology of a language (definition: the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history).<br /><br />In this series of posts, we're going to look at some of the English phrases, like 'at full tilt', 'toe the line', 'when push comes to shove' that are commonly used, and have an interesting history - and that people often get wrong.</b><br />
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Well, I haven't done an etymology excavation in quite some time, and it occurred to me that now would be a good time, because I recently found out where the word 'fascinating' comes from...or at least, I think I have, and it's epic.<br />
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So why 'fascinating'? Usually I look at phrases, where they come from, how they could be adapted to fiction, how they often get misused...well, I reckon actually that you may be misusing 'fascinating' without even knowing it.<br />
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Fascinate is originally from the Latin half of the English language, from fascinare. Feel free to run that through a few web searches, <a href="http://latin-dictionary.net/definition/20325/fascino-fascinare-fascinavi-fascinatus">but originally to bewitch</a> (or to hex, curse), to irresistibly attract, and also to deceive or to obfuscate (hide). You can see how that set of meanings vaguely relate to each other.<br />
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So that's what the origin word meant, and how it got used down through today, when it's used pretty much interchangeably with 'interesting'.<br />
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However, I put it to you that fascinate shouldn't actually be used as a conversation-stopper when whats-his-face will not STFU about whatever...fascinate deserves much better than that, and here's why: I feel there is a solid argument to be made that fascinate, and fascinare, come from the name of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascinus">an ancient Roman deity, Fascinus</a>.<br />
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If you're thinking that a fascinum amulet looks startlingly akin to a donger with wings on, well, you aren't wrong. Ancient Romans, eh. Very similar to modern culture in so, so many ways...<br />
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But long story short, unless whatever you're saying is fascinating is at least as good as a flying penis that wards off the evil eye, you're probably using it wrong and blaspheming to boot.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-83049852611733936552018-01-06T14:02:00.000-08:002018-01-06T14:02:09.407-08:00How do I get started writing?<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/how-do-i-get-started-writing/">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br />
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Get started writing - how?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every writers' forum I've spent time in has had someone, sometime, show up asking 'how do I get started writing?' At this point I always find myself needing to take my hands off my keys and wrestle down a sarcastic response like 'Start typing'.<br /><br />After a few months of feeling vaguely guilty every time the situation occurred, it came to me that while the question that kept triggering my sarcasm reflex was a dumb one, there were possibly a few underlying questions more worth offering time to.<br /><br />Ignoring the fact that some people really do show up on forums and ask stupid questions simply for attention, writing a book can be overwhelming. Here are some thinking points to make it more overwhelming.<br /><h3>
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Hubble, bubble, boil and trouble</h3>
If I were to write a <i>101 Guide to Getting Started Writing</i>, some twenty years of fiction writing later, I'd have to say that there are a few vital ingredients that need to be tossed in the pot if you hope to make the magic happen.<br /><ul>
<li>A dash of crazy.</li>
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<li>No sane person decides to write a book, spends a year or so of their lives writing, editing, and formatting it, and does all this knowing full well that they'll never get paid for their time.</li>
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<li>A heaping teaspoon of inspiration.</li>
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<li>You're crazier than I am if you'll waste months or a year of time for no remuneration and without something to write about that gets your blood pumping, whether it's space battles or how to come up with the perfect hall decor.</li>
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<li>A solid dose of grammatical understanding (substitute a silly amount of money here if you have it).</li>
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<li>If you can't be bothered to learn or look up basic grammar and punctuation rules for your language of choice, or don't want to pay someone who does to edit your work, stop writing now and back away from the manuscript slowly. There's a difference between idiot savant and idiot.</li>
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What genre should I write?</h3>
Doesn't matter, it's not catching.<br /><br />If you have a good story to tell, it doesn't matter if it's about terraforming Mars or a half-siren 'acquisitions specialist' being paid to acquire the Peaches of Immortality. Good story-telling never goes out of style. On the topic of trying to follow writing 'fads', check out '<a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/writing-myths-slay-dragon/">Writing Myths: slay the dragon</a>'.<br /><br />I know someone who manages to mix <a href="http://www.rabiagale.com/">sci-fi, steampunk, and fantasy</a> and I can't put their books down. I also know someone who invented the <a href="https://annalsofgentalia.wordpress.com/">entire genre of elfrotica</a>.<br /><br />If you want to know more about genres of writing, I suggest you pull up a search engine and dig in. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_writing_genres">Wikipedia</a> is always a good place to start. If someone's harassing you to come out of the writing closet as a certain genre, I suggest smiling sweetly and telling them that you aspire to be original.<br /><h3>
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But which writing house will the Sorting Hat put me in?</h3>
Writers tend to gravitate to one end or other of a spectrum that ranges from 'pantser' at one end to 'plotter' at the other. Read on to discover which school of writing wizardry best suits you.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
To avoid any embarrassing misconceptions, it may be important to note at this point that 'pantser' in this context refers to one who flies by the seat of their pants. It does not necessarily relate to their state of dress or undress whilst engaged in the practice of writing.</blockquote>
<br /><b>You may be a pantser if </b>you have voices in your head, a setting, and no idea in the world how it's all going to end, but you can't stop thinking about it and you've already had detention for drawing spaceships in class.<br /><br /><b>You may be a plotter if</b> you have a ton of post-it notes arranged in careful patterns on your wall, detailing the main idea, the sub-ideas, the plot arc, the chapter beats, the sub-arcs (with the kinky bits inserted on the hot pink notes) and have a file on your protagonist detailed down to their first word and the exact position of the mole on their arse.<br /><br />Which is best? That's the great thing - there is no 'best'. There's the approach that works for you, and the others, which don't. Most people fall somewhere in between.<br /><h3>
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<h3>
Give me facts! I cannot make bricks without clay!</h3>
The fact is that the amount of actual money to be made from writing hit rock bottom about a decade ago and then started burrowing. Think I'm kidding? These guys did the math: <a href="https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/the-wages-of-writing/">The Authors' Guild - The Wages of Writing</a>.<br /><br />Additionally, traditional publishing houses are taking on fewer and fewer new authors, while trumpeting ever louder that independent authors, or 'indies' are the leeches on the underbelly of professional writing. Therefore, starting to write books with the idea that fame and fortune await is delusional, so you'd better have another reason for doing it (see the heaping teaspoon requirement).<br /><br />If those facts haven't put you off, then at least you've got the dash of crazy. Congratulations (...I think).<br /><h3>
</h3>
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<h3>
So how will I know if I'm doing it right?</h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Assassin</b>: "Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember..." <br /><br /><b>Initiate</b>: "Nothing is true."<br /><br /><b>Assassin</b>: "Where other men are limited by morality or law, remember..."<br /><br /><b>Initiate</b>: "Everything is permitted."</blockquote>
<br />This quote is particularly applicable to writing. The way I do it won't be the way you do it. The way J. K. Rowling does it will be different from both of us. None of the three of us is 'wrong'. Some people use a pencil, others touch-type at 100 WPM, others again dictate to voice conversion software.<br /><br />Write whatever way blows your skirt up. There is no set of commandments. The only restrictions are your imagination and your writing ability.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-39116016705160240282017-12-02T11:49:00.000-08:002017-12-02T11:49:45.040-08:00Elemental Conflict release day!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/elemental-conflict-release-day/">Space Trash blog</a>.</i></div>
<br />There's a question I like to ask other authors, and it's 'Would you live in the world you've created?' A lot of people - more than I expected, if I'm honest - say 'No way, José.'<br /><br />Being contrary by nature, I absolutely would live in the world I've created. Admittedly, I might not live very long in it.<br /><br />It's finally release day for Elemental Conflict, and I'm a little bit mindblown. Exhausted, happy, and staring at a row of four books attached to my name, which feels distinctly surreal.<br /><br />Writing is my daily dose of escapism, and my sci-fi world is where I go when I day-dream. it's something I enjoy enough to still do after a long day in a stressful job and an hour or so stuck in commute hell. I may not work out, I may not stop long enough to cook healthily, but most days I'll make at least some time to write.<br /><br />So release day is always a moment of combined 'Huh. Did I do that?' and 'Damn, it's over...' That latter sentiment is what always founders my good intentions to go and actually tell people that I released a new book - as soon as I switch on my computer, I get promptly shanghaied into starting the next book.<br /><br />So, before I go and write more (yes, it already happened) of the next in the series...go and make a starving, exhausted author very happy and check out Elemental Conflict. It's up on pretty much every major book e-tailer for your reading pleasure ;)<ul>
<li><a href="http://smarturl.it/eccu" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Amazon</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/elemental-conflict-j-c-steel/1127548841" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Barnes&Noble paperback</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/761655" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></li>
<li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/elemental-conflict/id1317752417" rel="noopener" target="_blank">iTunes</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/elemental-conflict" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Kobo</a></li>
<li><a href="https://play.google.com/store/books/details/J_C_Steel_Elemental_Conflict?id=FC0_DwAAQBAJ" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Google Books</a></li>
</ul>
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<br />Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-34376957300667255082017-10-20T15:45:00.000-07:002017-10-20T15:45:03.755-07:00Chapter Quotes<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/the-chapter-quotes/">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br /><br /><h3>
Why add chapter quotes? Where do you get your chapter quotes from? Aren't chapter quotes hell to format?</h3>
<h3>
</h3>
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<br />Me, personally, I enjoy chapter quotes. <a href="http://dunnettcentral.org/dorothy/books">Dorothy Dunnett</a>, <a href="http://seananmcguire.com/incryptid.php">Seanan McGuire</a>, and of course <a href="http://www.dunenovels.com/author/frank-herbert">Frank Herbert</a> are all awesome examples. If you've never read any of these authors, don't tell me because I will get very judgy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Facts are a commonly accepted interpretation. Truth is a commonly argued fiction." <i>A Planet's Philsophy</i>, Ankara Zaneth (From book 8...yes, I'm way ahead of myself.)</blockquote>
<br />They're an insight into the world backdrop, a good laugh, or a context-setter, depending on what the author is doing with them and with their book. I put them in because, well, I'm a pure pantser. I don't outline. I generally have no idea what my characters are likely to do once I've dropped them into a scene. I find out when I write it down. As you can imagine, therefore, I usually end up writing my chapter quotes well after the fact. They're actually help me in the editing stage, because they act as a kind of focus mechanism for me when I'm editing a chapter. I can stare at the chapter quote for a bit when I get stuck, remember the awesome thing I was trying to do in that chapter, and return to hacking and slashing motivated and refocused. (Hah.) At least, that's how it sometimes works.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Modesty is like arsenic: safe only in small doses." <i><a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/fighting-shadows/">Sayings of the Wise</a></i>, Olar Fantoml</blockquote>
<br />As I kind of gave away in the last bit, I don't get my chapter quotes from anywhere. I make them all up. My father, who had very serious tastes in most of his reading, and considered sci-fi to be an extreme form of escapism, never actually read any of my books - but he would steal them from my mother when she was reading them, and he would read my chapter quotes. I still regret that I never really asked him why, because I think the answer would have been interesting.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Avoidance requires continuous effort. Confrontation merely requires standing still." ~ <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/elemental-conflict/"><i>Universal Truths</i>, Jahira Suran</a></blockquote>
<br />And yes, sometimes, depending on the platform, chapter quotes can indeed be hell to format. Kobo, for example, thinks my chapter quotes are a whole separate page unless I spend hours tickling it with an ostrich feather while immersing it in chocolate. (Kidding. I had to get much kinkier than that.)<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Training is not a substitute for experience; it is merely easier to survive." <i>Training of a Cortiian</i>, Nadhiri Longar (Yeah, Book 8 again...working on it.)</blockquote>
<br />As to what my chapter quotes are supposed to achieve other than providing a focal point for my edits - I mostly leave that up to the reader. If they're something that you just skip on your way to the main events, no worries. If they make you grin, or start an interesting train of thought, then I'm happy. I frankly suspect most of mine actually come from Khyria's choices of reading matter. Most of them are downright cynical and sound like the kinds of things she'd remember.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-9024270573481879662017-10-16T15:19:00.000-07:002017-10-16T15:19:51.773-07:00Writing Myths that need slaying<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/writing-myths-slay-dragon/">Space Trash Blog</a>. </i><br />
<h2>
Writing Myths that need slaying</h2>
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<h3>
I must write something other people will like and approve of.</h3>
<br />
No. A thousand times no. As Oscar Wilde put it “You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies.” Write your truth. If it pleases everyone, chances are high you’re doing something wrong. Offend people. Make them think. Challenge their beliefs. Challenge your own. The world is too full of people tiptoeing carefully through their existences without ever standing up for themselves or what they believe in. If everyone is comfortable with your words, you’re using the wrong ones.<br />
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<h3>
I must write at a level everyone will understand.</h3>
<br />
Don’t insult the intelligence of your readers. Don’t be complicit in the dumbing-down of society. Write to the level that your book demands and your characters dictate. If you have a story able to reach out and grab your readers by the balls, they will find themselves a dictionary if they have to. Don’t lessen your work or yourself to please the masses - because often the ‘m’ is silent.<br />
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<h3>
I must write something that will sell.</h3>
<br />
Why? Are there writers who seriously go in expecting to get rich from their work? Write what pleases you, because the trending genre this month will have blown away with the autumn leaves next month. Write what pleases you, because forcing yourself<br />
<br />
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to write what everyone else does will be a brutal exercise in boredom. If no one else is ever to read your magnum opus, you had best make certain it enthralls you. Be original. Be yourself. No one else can be.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Writing is a slog, a chore. Writing is like giving yourself homework every night for the rest of your life.</h3>
<br />
Writing is an adventure. Every time you pick up a pen, sit at a keyboard, you create a world that only you can; live for a while with the only people you’re willing to invite inside your head. Writing is an addiction and a cure. Writing is an antidote to the tedium of life that was the same today as it was yesterday, as it will be tomorrow. Writing should make your heart beat faster and the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Writing should be what gets you through the things you 'have' to do; the thing that wakes you up in the night with the next scene more alive in your head than the walls around you.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-69389363548488595622017-07-19T11:30:00.000-07:002017-07-19T11:30:11.799-07:00Character Interview: Anst an Nabat<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/character-interviews-anst-nabat/">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br />
<h2>
A Cortiian and an author sit on the side of a large fountain... (not the start of a bad joke)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</h2>
<br />
J C Steel: Nice touch of paranoia.<br />
<br />
Anst an Nabat: It's a nice fountain. Care to tell me why I'm here?<br />
<br />
JCS: I take it Khyria delegated.<br />
<br />
AAN: She mentioned something about this being an assignment I should be able to handle alone.<br />
<br />
JCS: Ouch. One unarmed human asking questions. Nice burn. I told her the people who read our stories like sound-bites. Interviews. You're who turned up.<br />
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AAN: ...Interviews. Not that I don't enjoy your company, but what am I going to tell you that isn't already in one of the books? I've lost count of how many indiscreet confessions you must be privy to by now.<br />
<br />
JCS: It's a thing. Not a thing I really understand, but what I understand about book marketing could go on the back of a postage stamp and leave lots of room. Try this one: what does Cantara rank mean, in the Cortii?<br />
<br />
AAN: Seriously? A Cantara commands five riders, or a Canta. They report directly to the Cortiora when the whole Cortia is present, or operate independently when necessary.<br />
<br />
JCS: And the Cortiora and Cortertia technically also command Cantai of their own, right? Any special roles within that structure?<br />
<br />
AAN: Cortiora holds overall command. Cortertia is second in command, and traditionally responsible for information-gathering. It's not a hard and fast rule. Third Cantara mostly takes responsibility for standard training and evaluations. Fourth Cantara tends to be the social one - generally something like this would be a Fourth Cantara's problem. Fifth Cantara is flexible. Often mission requisitions, supplies, and stray bureaucracy.<br />
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JCS: What's the oddest thing about Earth, to you, Anst?<br />
<br />
AAN: Do you want the list alphabetically? ... I assume you don't mean the things it has in common with almost every other human-governed world I've seen. Probably the levels of environmental damage. Even the most over-populated Central Worlds would be surprised by the scale.<br />
<br />
JCS: So you'd be even more surprised to hear that there's a sizeable amount of the population that prefers to believe that man-made environmental damage is a myth.<br />
<br />
AAN: Actually, denial is common human trait, so no, not particularly.<br />
<br />
JCS: Favourite Earth food to eat?<br />
<br />
AAN: Roquefort cheese. It'd be considered a biological hazard on more advanced worlds, so I can honestly say it's got a unique taste.<br />
<br />
JCS: ...could you have picked something a little harder to spell? Not a question. Can you tell me something about your name?<br />
<br />
AAN: It was computer-assigned when I was recruited, based on my ID code. It sounds Kihali, but Hejj'in's a big swathe of space.<br />
<br />
JCS: Any plans to go?<br />
<br />
AAN: To Hejj'in? It's a long way from FPA space. I'm more curious about Atari, if I were planning to spend a lot of a leave on a space liner.<br />
<br />
JCS: Why Atari?<br />
<br />
AAN: It's not FPA space, there are some interesting stories about Atari worlds, I haven't been there yet - pick one.<br />
<br />
JCS: Favourite thing to do in your free time?<br />
<br />
AAN: Be transported halfway across the galaxy for a chat about cheese.<br />
<br />
JCS: ...arsehole. Anything else?<br />
<br />
AAN: I enjoy riding. Horses tend to be undemanding company.<br />
<br />
JCS: Anyone taking bets yet on when or if someone's going to make first move for an official First Contact on Earth?<br />
<br />
AAN: I'm sure they are, but anyone with a standard lifespan isn't likely to be around to collect. The Nasdari and the FPA are unusually unanimous on letting someone else step in on this planet.<br />
<br />
JCS: What are the main concerns for an alien government?<br />
<br />
AAN: There's a list. Geo-political instability, if I had to guess, would be near the top. You've got a lot of little countries, and no real single place where a First Contact team could set down without being shot at, or where negotiations could begin without offending some other minor government. The shooting wouldn't worry the Nasdari, but stopping it would take time and credits with no real return on investment in sight.<br />
<br />
JCS: Right. Is anyone else likely to step in?<br />
<br />
AAN: Not that we know of, but the universe is a big place. The more likely alternate scenario is that you bomb yourselves out of existence and both the FPA and the Nasdari blow thrusters trying to stake a claim first.<br />
<br />
JCS: Hah. Yeah, that scenario is amassing more and more voters. What fact about the Cortii do you think would surprise most humans?<br />
<br />
AAN: ...sometimes I can go minutes at a time without planning how to kill them.<br />
<br />
JCS: Funny. Try this one: what do you think about the way your character is written in the series?<br />
<br />
AAN: I'm really not that narcissistic. You probably write me as more patient than I actually am.<br />
<br />
JCS: OK, poor choice of question. What do you think of how the Cortii in general are written?<br />
<br />
AAN: Given how very few facts we can let you actually publish, I'd say you've captured it with a certain nasty accuracy.<br />
<br />
JCS: What do you think of writing, as an art form?<br />
<br />
AAN: It's not one I'm very familiar with. If anything I do ends up written down, it tends to be reports. Cortiians in general tend towards more physical art forms, if they practice one at all. I'm getting to the point where I can appreciate what you do, but reading as a pastime isn't something I'd be likely to indulge in on Base.<br />
<br />
JCS: Speaking of, I'm not too sure on interview protocol, but standard North American attention span is currently rated at about 6 seconds, so we'd better wrap this up.Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-84716952105832999952017-07-16T11:20:00.000-07:002017-07-16T11:20:04.132-07:00Cortiian Word of the week: Akrushkar<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/cortiian-word-of-the-week-akrushkar/">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br />
<h2>
Akrushkar, pl. akrushkari<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</h2>
The akrushkari come up a lot in the books based on the Cortiian Base. They're the Councils' enforcers, bodyguards, and most of the rank and file of the Cortii know almost nothing about them beyond their function. Think of them as military police with a tendency to shoot first and ask questions never.<br /><br />The word comes from old Cortiian, based on krushkar, or slave - one without free will. You'll see the 'a' prefix in a lot of Cortiian words as well, like 'asra', 'as’sri’atan’si' - it's a submission prefix, an acquiescence.<br /><br />So essentially 'akrushkar' means a slave obedient to orders. In this case, to the Councils that command the Cortii, who make a lot of despots look like underachievers. Because an akrushkar acts under the direct orders of the Councils, or, under a very limited set of circumstances, a Cortiora, they're essentially untouchable - raising a hand to an akrushkar is defying the Councils, and the fact that their personal bodyguards are called slaves should give you an idea of the Councils' views on disobedience.<br /><br />To understand the akrushkari a little better, let's take a side-trip and examine the Councils for moment. Two levels to this structure: Inner Council, all five of them, and Outer Council, traditionally twenty. Outer Council numbers, unlike Inner, can vary, although it's rare. You'll note the Cortiian preference for fives running right through the command structure.<br /><br />If you're on the ball, you'll already have realised that new Council members, or magaii, must come from somewhere. The Councils recruit from the top units on their Bases; Cortii who've reached Blue rank or higher, and the Councils are only open, by invitation, to Cortiorai.<br /><br />So if a Cortiora accepts a place on the Outer Council, what happens to their command? There are a lot of rumours on Cortiian Bases, but the information isn't made common knowledge, and new appointments to Council happen so rarely that most Cortiians simply don't know.<br /><br />However, the answer is simple and very practical: the Councils can't risk having high-calibre mercenaries roaming around loose with a powerful link to a magai.<br /><br />Some are offered the honour of a place among the akrushkari, and undergo intense telepathic conditioning as well as memory blocks. Others end up as fodder for the Councils' experimental labs. A very few of the really lucky ones are assigned as solo agents somewhere that their Base needs long-term eyes. Some wind up as Instructors, also after having their memories edited. It ensures that no magai has ties to a serving unit, and that no Cortiian likely to ever spend time on Base again has any potential hold on a magai.<br /><br />What happens to the Cortiora who accepts a place on Council, of course, is something only known to the Councils. No one has ever successfully infiltrated the Councils.<br /><br /> Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-58220566231821443592017-04-14T12:28:00.002-07:002017-04-14T12:28:39.252-07:00Author: Implosion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Author implosion may be a little over-dramatic. A little. I didn't wake up next to anyone I didn't recognise, I didn't wind up in the drunk tank, and no one had to call emergency services.<br /><br />So why, you may well ask, have I been completely absent from my writing, my websites, my social media...my life?<br /><br />Fair. It's been a very busy few weeks - actually, a very busy month since I was last able to really put on my author hat and have fun. This is largely due to my day job, where things unfolded very favourably (for me), in that I landed a very cool new job inside the company, with a lot more actual involvement in the day-to-day business and far more responsibility. I'm thrilled. But, while I've been teaching myself a new and very responsible job, I've also been maintaining half of my old job, meaning I've been crawling home with my head spinning and barely the energy to fall flat on my face.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Work is the curse of the writing classes." (<a href="https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/o/oscarwilde128424.html">Misquote</a>) Oscar Wilde.</blockquote>
<br />There've also been the renovations at home. Also a very good thing, as I found an awesome contractor (a species in amazingly short supply in the Greater Vancouver area), and all our bathrooms now have actual, working doors on them. (Ever tried to used the facilities while being stared at by a curious cat? Can be very off-putting...) But, also something that requires organisation, talking to people, and playing Russian Roulette to determine who's going to take a day off work this time and let people into the house.<br /><br />Plus, and possibly the most devastating to the fragile system which preserves my author time in the wild, we finally bought a gaming computer and rigged it up into the media system downstairs. The combination of the opportunity of all my favourite ways to blow shit up in full surround sound and coming home brain-fried has contributed to some record-breaking shootouts and zero writing happening. (<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/">Steam</a>, I'm looking right at you...)<br /><br />However, I finally have some vague clue what I'm supposed to be doing at work, the snow has finally melted and stayed gone, and the cherry blossoms are out, meaning that my favourite time of the year is here. (No, I do not suffer from hayfever. Feel free to hate me.) I also have four days off work for the Easter weekend, so I'm hoping that I will have the time and energy to make the rounds of my online hangouts, buy everyone a round, and get dug into the final third of my sci-fi sequel. Maybe I'll even get back to my Welsh language course. (Do not ask why Welsh.)<br /><br />May the chocolate-depositing bunny be good to you.<br />
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Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-6980713897048867732017-03-03T18:56:00.005-08:002017-03-03T18:56:54.570-08:00Get Inspired: Week 9<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/get-inspired-week-9/">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br />
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<b>Dreaming of reality (Get Inspired, week 9)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</b><br /><br />It's cute how people try to break everything down into manageable chunks. It's like watching a five-year-old doing a jigsaw, and turning that last piece of sky around five times to get it to fit in a four-sided hole.<br /><br />I especially love listening to them on the science of dreaming. 'Dreaming is a mental filing system.' 'They're metaphors for your repressed sexuality.' 'Did you know that every face you see in a dream is the face of someone you've seen, at some point in your life?' Actually, by sheer dumb luck, that last might be the one point they aren't wrong about.<br /><br />I suppose everyone has to get lucky sometime...there's a thought I'd've lived happily without.<br /><br />Anyway, thank the Consciousness, dreaming isn't a mental filing system, so I won't have to face the images that calls up some night.<br /><br />Dreaming is what the conscious mind remembers when you travel between realities. There you go. The big secret, Guide for Dummies style.<br /><br />Because the human mind is basically an thin skim of intelligence (very, very, very thin in most cases) wrapped around a consciousness that started out remarkably recently as a kind of slime with ambitions (you've heard this story, yes?) - essentially, it can't contain and process what it experiences.<br /><br />When you fall asleep, you travel between realities. It happens to everyone. Your only solution is never to sleep again, and we know what the experts say about that.<br /><br />Ever had to deal with people who can't remember to how to tie their shoes or that they had an appointment scheduled? Chances are good those people are falling through this reality, have no idea why they're here or what they're supposed to be doing, and consequently aren't coping well. (Don't worry, they'll wake up - with some odd memories about odder dreams.)<br /><br />On the flip side, if you're one of those people who has dreams like immersive films, complete with sound, smell and every other sensation, and you can actually remember them once you wake up...well, you're wasting your life at whatever you think you're doing. Give me a call, we'll do dinner. If you're one of those rarities, you have the ability to travel realities intentionally.</blockquote>
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<br />Seriously, give me a call. We need you.</blockquote>
<br /> <i>This one turned up because I talk to so many people who can't remember dreaming, or dream in black and white (I remain impressed that you can do that, when you see in colour), or whatever. Maybe it's a side-effect of writing too much (not actually sure that's possible), but dreams are hella fun if you're me. Knife fights on the back of old-style steam trains, tigers in storm drains, fighting giant robots, and storming alien factories are just some of the awesome shit that happens when I go to sleep.<br /><br />Since the usual explanations bore me, I figured I should come up with a better one. </i>Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-5817448206487037882017-03-01T19:05:00.004-08:002017-03-01T19:05:44.994-08:00Get Inspired: Week 8<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/get-inspired-week-8/">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><br />
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<b>Invocation error (Get Inspired, week 8)</b><br /><br />Error: you have cast an undefined invocation.<br /><br />"Told you the pentagram was too wiggly," Toluk muttered. I glared in his general direction. The damned neon error message that had engraved itself on my retinas meant that I didn't have a precise directional lock, but I did my best to sight back along that self-righteous comment.<br /><br />"You were the ass who said clockwise, schmockwise."<br /><br />Frankly, anytime I actually need the blood of a real virgin for something, Toluk's the one I'm going to use. With that attitude, no way he gets laid. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure I'd have queues of volunteers to hold him down.<br /><br />Anyway, the decidedly icky topic of Toluk's virginity aside, I wasn't any closer to Frogs in the Bogs. The way this invocation was going, I might just about manage to give someone with a particularly bad case of diarrhea a mild French accent for half an hour.<br /><br />Whichever idiot said magic was a shortcut should try powdering bulrushes; I swear I laminated my sinuses with them after the first few minutes.</blockquote>
<br /> <i>Oddly enough, this one was inspired by work.:)<br /><br />Yeah, no, my work isn't that interesting, but like pretty much every other company we have a team who looks after our computers. They call it upgrades, I call it bi-monthly opportunity to find out about error messages that I didn't know existed. Including: 'You have cast an invocation in error. Please contact your administrator."</i>Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-71165637403383274392017-02-17T07:00:00.000-08:002017-02-17T07:00:10.741-08:00Get Inspired: Week 7<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/get-inspired-week-7/">Space Trash Blog</a>. </i><br />
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<b>Valentine's colours (Get Inspired, week 7)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />I hate those pink and white balloons in the stores around Valentine's Day. They always remind me of blood on the snow.<br /><br />I was trying to run, but the snow was so deep that all I was doing was exhausting myself. Now, that memory feels like one of those dreams where you can't move, and all I really have are flashes; the metallic taste in the back of my throat; the dark splashes that could have been shadows, but were my twin's blood; and the sound of my lungs clawing for air.<br /><br />I'd found the note in her schoolbag. An anti-Valentine, if you like. It had probably seemed funny to whoever had stuck it in there, because I was the only one who knew that Carrie had been cutting herself for months. It was the only outlet she had for the defiance, the anger, and the bone-deep exhaustion that she sometimes showed only to me, her brother. Everyone else, because my sister should have been in goddamn Hollywood, just thought she had a thing for retro bangles to the elbows.<br /><br />By the time I finally found her, she'd stopped bleeding. Because we were both just fourteen when she died, I didn't go to jail for what I did to that boy. It would have been a waste of time, anyway. I know what I did was wrong, and I don't regret it.</blockquote>
<br /><i>Yes, I am a real cynic when it comes to Valentine's Day. At best, it's a way for Hallmark to make money. At worst, it could be renamed Singles' Awareness Day. Like diamond engagement rings, to me it feels like a 'buy me things to prove you love me' exercise. While I'm fully aware this is a really unpopular viewpoint, if you need diamonds and pink bows to prove you love someone, you may have bigger relationship issues. </i><br /><br /> Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-72339447276471199272017-02-11T09:30:00.000-08:002017-02-13T14:18:50.017-08:00Get Inspired: Week 6<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/get-inspired-week-6/">Space Trash Blog</a>.</i><b> </b><br />
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<b>Commuting. Always a problem (Get Inspired, week 6)</b><br />
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<b><br /></b>Ever had to queue for a bus while the Wild Hunt rides through? Not a metaphor.<br />
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They say that if you can't see the Hunt, the Hunt will ignore you, but there's only so much interest I can pretend in Facebook at the best of times. Even when I really need an excuse not to get chatted at by the guy ahead of me who inflicts his conversation on everyone unfortunate enough to get within range. Even when not seeing the things I'm not supposed to be able to see has saved me thousands in medical bills.<br />
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While that guy really does annoy me, I'm not sure he deserved the sword stroke that lopped the bald top of his head off like the top off an egg, leaving a gray fringe of hair around exposed gray matter.<br />
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The moment of frozen shock saved me, because I blinked, and the man ahead of me was perfectly whole again, the undoubtedly girly scream still trapped in my throat. Unfortunately, blinking hadn't made the hunter who had coalesced out of the half-seen, half-felt stream of shapes whirling around and through the bus exchange and the buses any less solid. If anything, he and the Hunt were becoming more real by the second, while the hunched shapes of my fellow commuters drained of colour around me.<br />
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The flat of the sword was very real under my chin, reeking and sticky with blood, forcing my head up to meet the narrow stare of the rider. It certainly felt solid. Unlike the eyes of the hunter looming over me, which were empty holes in his head.<br />
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"As you wish, so mote it be, my lord, Lucas Main, otherwise Lugh ap Gywn," he said. "The most determined of us can only deny our true selves for so long."</blockquote>
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<i>Like almost everyone with a full time day job, I commute. Like most people commuting on public transit, I've occasionally entertained less-than-charitable thoughts about idiots who will not STFU, or who really think that their testicles are so impressive they require them to spread their knees across three seats. This one showed up in my head when I was standing amid my fellow zombies commuters, watching the crescent moon over the trees, and thinking about Celtic myths, because by and large those are preferable to thinking about Monday in the office.</i>Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-49185236252047434712017-02-05T14:16:00.000-08:002017-02-05T14:20:41.413-08:00Get Inspired: Week 5<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/get-inspired-week-5/">Space Trash blog</a>.</i><br />
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<b>What they don't tell you about biometrics (Get Inspired, week 5)</b><br />
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My boss was lying on the floor. Not a problem in and of itself; given the layers of security on this station, it should be reasonably unlikely that anyone who didn't know her would be in a position to report her to the powers that be.<br />
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The pool of blood and the missing hand, on the other hand, were problems, and unfortunately they were all mine.<br />
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I rechecked my helmet display, admiring the clueless series of green reads. Whatever or whoever was in here collecting body parts was apparently something completely outside our security program's experience. It seemed like a lot to expect that my heads-up display wouldn't be equally clueless if my mystery guest decided to add my head to their collection.<br />
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Happily, unlike my very ex-boss, neither my head, my hands, or anything else I need to do my job are vital to getting into anything important. I'm a firm believer in the first rule of biometrics: never use a part for identification you can't do without. I slid out of my boss's office, heading for the only thing on this station worth this much trouble, carrying the largest bit of my own personal collection out and ready for use.<br />
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My name is Shayanna Willow Anstrim, because three of my parental units were dancers. I chose the Special Forces, instead.</blockquote>
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<i>Believe it or not, this snippet showed up in my head by way of my job. I work for a financial institution, and there's currently a lot of noise about biometric identification being the wave of the future. The largest part of the enthusiasm sounds rather like 'because there's no way some idiot can forget their own fingerprint'. <br /><br />The flipside to that is, to my sci-fi inclined mind, that the future of the annoying bastards who currently only hack files for passwords, birth dates or PINs, will likely at some point progress to hacking fingers, or eyeballs, or whatever else secures something they want badly enough. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3100763644592249223.post-81194765384330694822017-01-28T11:18:00.000-08:002017-01-28T11:22:55.982-08:00Get inspired: Week 4<i>First seen on the <a href="http://jcsteelauthor.com/books/get-inspired-week-4/" target="_blank">Space Trash blog</a>.</i> <br />
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<b>I'll take Death over the Tower any day (Get Inspired, week 4)</b><br />
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My living room windows blew in, less than a second after I hit the deck under my table. <br />
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Sadly, this kind of thing happens often enough that my reaction is reflexive. The howling and the light show, those were new.<br />
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I should stop reading the Tarot. I tell myself this often - almost as often as I read the damn things. The problem is, I have to wonder, if I didn't read the cards...who's to say the same crap wouldn't still happen, but without any warning?<br />
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I'm Maurice Ferland. I read the Tarot. I also listen to the dead (try and get a word in edgeways and you'll see why I put it that way), know enough about herbs to sound convincing, and can draw really cool shit with coloured chalk. Because I'm...who I am, these things are a little more effective for me than the other gris-gris totin', rum-drinkin', chicken-frightenin' types you can find taking easy money off tourists.<br />
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They say my grandmother sold her soul to the Devil, but frankly, I doubt it. A devil, maybe. The Devil has nearly as many layers of flunkies between him and the public as the President, and I doubt grand-mère would have had the patience. Still. I wish the old bastard a good morning every time I turn over his card...just in case.</blockquote>
<i>So where did this come from? </i><br />
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<i>Spending my formative years in a well-run boarding school ensured that I made the acquaintance of the Tarot, ouija boards, and almost anything else that was forbidden by the school rules on a regular basis, and the Tarot have always struck me as a goldmine for an author looking for trouble to get into. Pick a card, and you have the germ of a story right there.</i>Fuck youhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06718709454598601540noreply@blogger.com0