Books, writing, recording, editing and reading

Hi,

I've now gone the best part of a month without producing a new episode of Terra Incognita for Podiobooks.com and I'm feeling exceptionally bad about it. In my defense, there's not a great deal I can actually do at the moment. Kevin (the Narrator) has returned from his travels in the US - that accounts for the bulk of the last month. Unfortunately as he has been away from work for so long, he's now in greater demand than ever before and he needs an extra twelve of fourteen hours a day just to keep up with everything.

That means that he hasn't had the chance to record anything for me since he's been back in home. On the upside, I'm going to be getting a shiny new PC this week - specifically for doing the audio work required for Terra Incognita. So that should help with the processing and editing of audio for each episode; when Kevin gets the narrative recorded.

I've also asked a few friends to read through the XXth draft of Terra Incognita and be as harsh as they want to be with the syntax and spelling - and it really does need it! I've also been in email contact with John Jarrold, who is a rather good editor and Lit Agent. We have come to terms and I'll be emailing him the XX+1th draft of Terra Incognita to him as soon as I am able; and I'll sit here, exceptionally nervous until he has finished his work on the mss.

I read Blindsight by Peter Watts over the weekend, it is a very, very, very good book and I couldn't recommend it highly enough to anyone who's considering buying it. The story deals broadly with a first contact between humans and an alien species, as well as the nature of consciousness and evolution. It is an interesting story and definitely worth the time to find, buy and read. I enjoyed Peter Watts' work so much, that I've asked the local book shop to order the other four of his published books for me.

I've just started re-reading The State Of The Art by Iain M Banks, another of my favourite authors. It was actually whilst starting this book, today, that I was reminded of John Jarrold; with whom I was in email contact at the end of last year when the Christopher Hill Literary Agency evaporated - but that's a story for another day, if ever. Iain M Banks has a wonderful flare for naming conventions for the star ships in his Culture stories. A full list can be found here.

With winter drawing in, I'm looking forward to the return of Doctor Who, Torchwood and Battlestar Galactica to our TV screens. All three are exceptionally good and (thankfully) have escaped the normal fate of TV programs I enjoy: Farscape, Firefly, Invasion, Threshold - all axed far too soon...

I've had a few conversations this week with both Tony and Ciaran from Starship Sofa, which have both been kind of fun. The Good Ship Sofa rolls ever onwards into the celestial firmament of the Science Fiction genre. This week, we were treated to the first of a multi-part Podcast about Walter M Miller.

Cheers,

Gary

Well that'll be England out of the RWC, then won't it...

Unless, of course, they can beat Samoa and/or Tonga - a little unlikely I think. I'd have to say that I think this is going to be an antipodean final, SA are playing well; but I'm not sure they can beat either Australia or New Zealand... Still it'll be interesting to see what happens!

I've just finished Aldous Huxley's Brave New World - interesting book, if a little dated - but it was written seventy-five years ago... Moving onto Use Of Weapons by Iain M Banks, the third Culture novel. I found The Player Of Games a little hard going at first, but have been getting through the other Culture novels at a rate of knots.

It looks like the next version of Mac OS X - Leopard, is due for release next month - a fun, short round of upgrading the operating system is in order me thinks - although nowhere near as painful as a Windows upgrade...

I've been at the alter of StarShip Sofa this morning, as Tony and Ciaran began a two parter on Vernor Vinge. An interesting, as ever, look at a science fiction writer; if you've not heard any of the StarShip Sofa podcast and like science fiction, they you really should check it out...

Episode 13 of Terra Incognita was send to Podiobooks.com yesterday and should be available from there soon. It's also available on Podshow and also listed at the BritCaster.com site.

Cheers,

Gary