Welcome to the year of the Rat (nearly)

Christmas is over, New Year is done with - until February 7th that is! After much fafing about I have finally got down to editing more of TI, (episode 25 is now available through Podiobooks or my web site here) and should be getting episodes 26 to 29 finalised this week.

We're now (temporarily) without a DVD play - the surround sound DVD play we have decided on New Year's Day that it didn't want to play any DVDs - and only two weeks out of warranty... Luckily the X-Box 360 isn't so bloody minded ;-) Should find out on Tuesday how much the DVD player will cost to repair, just what's needed in January - an unexpected bill!

Mentioning the X-Box, I've been spending a huge amount of time since Christmas playing Bioshock, Halo 3, Prey, PGR 4, Forza Motorsport 2 and most recently Sega Rally and I've come to the conclusion I need more time and a force feed-back steering wheel (for the driving games)

I'm hoping that the Writer's Strike in America is resolved soon - they are holding up the production of the last series of Battlestar Galactica! Although, I completely agree with their point ;-)

In the mean time, I have a few books to read - thanks to Christmas...


I'm not sure which one will be read first...

Jeremy Clarkson can be very funny, and I do have a tendency to agree with a lot of what he says...
...especially when he was in Grumpy Old Men.


Terry Pratchett has been (and is) one of my favourite authors, so it may be Making Money before the dry wit and observations of Mr Clarkson...





Then there's always Robert Rankin - the man who has written such wonderful books as Armaggeddon The Musical, Nostrodarmus Ate My Hamster and Raiders Of The Lost Car Park...














So many choices, and so little time! Terra Incognita takes priority, of course, but I have a couple of weeks free at the end of this month, so I may yet catch up with my reading! Add to that, the StarShip Sofa boys are ploughing ahead with episodes - this week we have an episode about Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It's an exceptionally good read and well worth the time :-) Peter Watts, author of Blindsight, has also recorded one of his short stories (The Second Coming Of Jasmine Fitzgerald, a PDF of the story may be downloaded here) for Starship Sofa; and that should be released in the next few weeks - it is a rather good and thought provoking story :-)

Cheers,

Gary

Terra Incognita (and the years) rolls ever onwards

Okay, so I haven't got as many episodes done this weekend as I'd intended! Episode 22 and 23 have been uploaded to Podiobooks.com and await the tender mercies of the guys to massage them both onto the Terra Incognita title page.

There's also a new page been added to my Web Site that links to Variant Frequencies' The Failed Cities Monologues: Hath A Darkness.

Also been listening to some new music (well new for me anyway)

John Barrowman portrays Captain Jack Harkness in both Doctor Who and Torchwood.

His latest album - Another Side - has recently been released and from the brief excerpts available to listen to at his web site it sounds like a very good piece of work.

Admittedly John Barrowman isn't my regular 'kind' of music (Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Coldplay), but the man has one hell of a voice and I have to say that this is worth a look.







I've also been listening to Rogue Traders. They are an Australian band who I've recently become aware of through Doctor Who - strange how that program seems to link to other things...

For those who watch The Doctor, the song used as the Toclafane descend from the rift in the sky is Voodoo Child from the album Here Come The Drums. Drums being something of a constant torment for The Master since childhood...























This weekend I'd intended to complete the long job of cutting Praedari, the sequel to Terra Incognita, into dialogue sections ready for recording next year. Didn't get that finished, although I did manage to do five chapters, leaving seven to do.

Another job I wanted to get done was producing the audio files (mp3, stereo, 256Kbps @ 44.1Khz) for Terra Incognita. Podiobooks.com requires 128Kbps @ 44.1Khz Joint Stereo and as I'm creating a complete set of audio CDs for everyone who leant their voice to a character, I want to do a high quality version ;-) Unfortunately, I only got seven episodes of that done :-(

Most of this has been the result of watching Doctor Who Series Three and 2/3 of Torchwood series One. Although I have found time to listen to the StarShip Sofa Spider Robinson interview - very good. If you've not come across StarShip Sofa and like science fiction, I'd highly recommend checking the Podcast out!

And finally... Battlestar Galactica: RAZOR is due to air on Tuesday. It's a bit of a tough one that as I really do want to watch it, but to see it all in one go - on air - will mean that my other half will have to wait at the airport until it's finished. Somehow, I suspect she won't be pleased with that. So it'll be recorded and we'll have to watch it later off air.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Cheers,

Gary

Too much coffee, audio editing, Terra Incognita, Praedari and Christmas

I've managed to drink too much coffee today whilst editing the narrative for episodes/chapters 21, 22, 23 and 24 of Terra Incognita. The practical upshot of that is that whilst I feel tired, I know I can't sleep (perhaps that's self fulfilling?) But, such is life! Episode/chapter 21 of TI has been uploaded to Podiobooks.com and should be live on the site in the next couple of days. I've also uploaded it to Podshow.com, as with all the other episodes, and it can be downloaded from there - each of the episode/chapter pages on my web site has a link at the bottom to the mp3 for that episode/chapter hosted on Podshow.com.

I'm hoping to get at least another three chapters edited together this week, and Kevin has reiterated his desire to complete the narrative recording before Christmas. With any luck, and a following wind, all thirty-six chapters will be complete by 31st December 2007 and released on an unsuspecting audience... That means a fun schedule to complete fifteen chapters in twenty-one days. Not too bad, editing the narrative for each chapter takes around forty minutes and editing that together with the dialogue and sound effects takes another three to four hours for each episode/chapter :-D


When TI is complete, I'll be taking a break from audio editing for a couple of month - I could do with a bit of a break from constantly thinking ahead to the next episode/chapter and the one after that and the one after that and... This will also give Kevin a fairly good chance of getting a fair chunk of the narrative pre-recorded for Praedari, although it will mean I'll have a bit of catching up to do. Thus far, everyone who's voiced one of the major characters has agreed to reprise their roles for the sequel. I've also had a few offers of extra voices, which will help a great deal.

I'm also going to be investing in a new bit of kit for the PC...

This is a XENYX 1204FX Premium 12-Input 2/2-Bus Mixer with XENYX Mic Preamps, British EQs, 24-Bit Multi-FX Processor and USB/Audio Interface and it is what I would have bought this year for recording TI, if only I'd known it existed... The major advantage (for me at least with this bit of kit) is that it has XLR connectors for microphone input and the output is a standard computer USB - so no more line noise. Although I suspect I'll be needing some new XLR audio cables as well :-( This is a Behringer bit of kit and more details are here.

So come February if anyone reading this wants the 4 channel mono mixer I have and can give it a good home...

This isn't a bad bit of kit by any means, I'm simply looking for an upgrade ;-) and will pass this one along to a good home. I bought it from Maplin here in Ireland and it works nicely - line noise being a function of cables without enough shielding!

The page on the Maplin web site for the mixer is here...




Praedari picks up the story started in Terra Incognita a couple of months later, I'm hoping that I'll be able to release it through Podiobooks.com under the Creative Commons License (as with TI). I'm also going to be having the manuscript for TI professionally edited and reviewed by John Jarrold. It's kind of a deeply seated hope that John will be interested enough in TI to consider it for representation... But that is in the future and as we all know, there are no guarantees in life!

I should mention that both of the images used for Terra Incognita and Praedari are the work of Peter Sharpe who is an exceptional digital artist. His web site is full of examples of his work and it may be found here.




I'm now officially excited about Christmas, all the money is spent, the cats are enjoying redecorating the front room with the Christmas tree as well as the wrapping paper that was until recently securely around presents... As a result, I'm starting to get into the spirit of things ;-)

I read on the BSG Wiki the other day that the intention is to finish the series at the end of season 4. A great shame, but infinitely better than continuing and being axed before the end of the story may be told to everyones' satisfaction (Farscape and Firefly are two that spring readily yo mind). Still there's always Tony and Ciaran at Starship Sofa to roll out the science fiction in the weekly Podcast. The Geordie Duo have a couple of stories by Michael Moorcock for download (mp3 format) and they are both pretty good to listen too ;-)

I finished Eifelheim by Michael Flynn the other day, very good read and an intriguing idea. Really enjoyed the book, although I was a little miffed at first with the alternating to present day, until that plot thread began to link in a more defined fashion with the core of the story. I'd highly recommend it as worth reading; although I do have to say that it comes (for me at least) a very good second to Blindsight by Peter Watts. I've now moved onto Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5. I've not read any of Mr Vonnegut's work before so it promises to be an interesting experience!

Best get on and get some sleep, the working week is fast approaching!

Cheers,

Gary

Christmas comes but once a year...

The season of cheer and good will to all is almost upon us once again (why is it that there's a season for cheer and good will?) - and credit cards all over the world will be getting an annual hammering over the next three weeks or so! I am extremely pleased with myself as I've all but finished Christmas shopping, I have a few bits to arrive from internet purchases and that's the lot :-)

This all means that it's almost time for Battlestar Galactica to start season 4 over here and the Doctor Who Christmas special is fast approaching. I think we'll probably watch The Great Escape over Christmas - don't know if it's on or not, but we have a copy on DVD; so that particular 'tradition' may continue!

Terra Incognita has had another couple of episodes uploaded to Podiobooks.com, they should be live fairly soon (or there's a direct download link from Podshow.com on the cast pages for each episode on my web site) I'm intending to get episodes 21 and 22 edited and mixed together tomorrow (Sunday) and uploaded to Podiobooks.com by Wednesday.

I've been getting back 'into' Iron Maiden over the last couple of months, kind of return to teenage years. I must be getting old as the Garda (Police) are beginning to look younger and I'm fairly certain that 'they' (whoever 'they' may be) don't make very many good TV programs these days - having said that there is BSG (Battlestar Galactica), Doctor Who (David Tennant is very good as The Doctor) and Atlantis (spin off of Stargate SG-1, and Amanda Tapping is in it :-D)


I see that a new BSG mini-series is to be released soon (26/12/07) called Razor. It's the story of the Battlestar Pegasus. The story is outlined thus at the Razor web site:

On the eve of the devastating Cylon attack, officer Kendra Shaw reports for duty on the Battlestar Pegasus. When mankind's future is forever changed on that fateful day, Kendra is reshaped into a "razor" - a tool of war - under the ruthless guidance of her commander, Admiral Cain. Battlestar Galactica: Razor tells the untold story of Pegasus and provides chilling clues to the fate of humanity as the final chapters of the Battlestar Galactica story unfold.

It would appear that the BSG story is drawing to a close, perhaps a five year story arc was (and is) the intent...




I've also finally got started reading Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. Only a few pages in as yet, so I can't really comment on what the book is like. Even so, thus far I'm enjoying it - which is always good.

Cheers,

Gary

Terra Incognita competition winner...

A few weeks ago I set up a short competition based on the Terra Incognita Podcast. The prize the entire Podcast on audio CD. The question to be answered was:

Who is the child in the photograph that Governor Valtor was looking at in her office?

Chapter 16 is now "live" on Podiobooks.com and so it is time to name the winner...and so, with no further a-do...

Joan Laing

Joan provided the following answer:

My guess is that it is a picture of Cole as a child, that she is the Governor's child left at the government nursery (I'm guessing that she gave birth to Cole without a license, left her anonamously at the government nursery and couldn't reveal herself as Cole's mother, especially in her position. I think that's why she arranged for Cole and Trent to get out of the city dome, and why she willingly scarificed herself to the "secret entity" in the hidden room.

Congratulations Joan! I'll post a set of Terra Incognita audio CDs to you before the final episode of Terra Incognita is released ;-)

Cheers,

Gary

Terra Incognita - continues at last...

I've just spent the bulk of this weekend editing together the next three episodes of my Terra Incognita Podiobook. It is rather a lot of work for the end result of one hour audio - but most definitely worth it! This means that the 'real' episode sixteen will be live soon on Podiobooks, along with episodes seventeen and eighteen - and that marks the half way point for the story!

Kevin and I have worked out a far better method of recording - which actually involved doing the recording, although none of the delays have been his fault... So episodes will be released far faster than before.

In the brief time that I haven't been sitting at the computer editing audio material, we watched Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End - very funny and well worth watching. Also got Wild Hogs to watch - which looks kind of fun.

Back to work tomorrow - deep joy - although I may take a few Iron Maiden albums in to listen to during the day ;-) But before that, I really must get the web site updated with the cast list for episodes sixteen, seventeen and eighteen. Also got an update to do for Janetta Maxwell, she has her own web site about the work she does - it's here.

The StarShip Sofa guys have interviewed Michael Moorcock; I have to admit that I haven't listened to it yet, but judging from the photos on the web site, Tony and Ciaran look to have had a good time in Paris with Mr Moorcock...

Cheers,

Gary

Terra Incognita...

Schizoid image used by kind permission of
Peter Sharpe
Peter Sharpe Digital Imagery

Another week and weekend has come and gone, Kevin (the narrator) has been round and we've managed to record the narrative for the next six chapters of Terra Incognita - which will take us up to Chapter Twenty-One. With any luck, and a following wind, I should be able to get most of those chapters edited together and up loaded to Podiobooks.com

Over the weekend I put together a pseudo-episode of Terra Incognita, it's a recap on the story so far as the last episode was released well over a month ago. It should be available here soon, I've tried once again to register the Podcast XML feed for Terra Incognita with iTunes a couple of times now; but it doesn't seem to be wanting to work at the moment - such is life!

We bought a new Windows Vista PC specifically to do audio work with. As is the way of such things, I've already discovered that it needs more memory and hard drive space; but it does the job nicely for the time being...

All of the prep work needed for the remaining twenty-one chapter has been done; 'only' need to get all of the remaining narrative recording, add sound effects and we'll be done! Having said that, with the recording we've completed today, there's only fifteen chapters of narrative to be recorded. I'm guessing that with the prep work done, it should not take more than two hours to finish each episode off.

The annual festival of the Credit Card Binge (Christmas as it is otherwise known) is almost upon us and I'm already sick to death of all the hype and marketing garbage littering the TV channels and shops - sad isn't it?


The lads from the Sofa have been in Paris for a few days recently - interviewing Michael Moorcock. This week's episode, which at the moment I haven't listened to, is a Discussion of Terry Pratchett's work - should prove interesting...

Anyway, best get back to editing!

Cheers,

Gary

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

They Came, They Saw, They Conquered

Victorious South Africa start celebrations as they win the 2007 Rugby World Cup. England beaten 15-6 a few short weeks after the worst defeat in English International history; at the hands of South Africa.

RSA have played well and deserved the win, having set themselves as The team to beat. And so the Web Ellis Cup returns to South Africa after an absence of twelve years, when South Africa won the RWC for the first time in 1995.

That's it for another four years :-( Well until the 6 Nations start next year, I've heard rumours that Argentina may be invited to join the 6 Nations - making it the 7 Nations - if they are able to secure grounds in Spain to use for home games.

I've been working on tightening Terra Incognita up and am looking at self publishing it; either through Lulu.com or possibly setting up as a publisher myself and taking the Lightning Source route - daunting stuff! On the subjest of TI, there has been a considerable delay in episodes for the Podiobook, as Kevin (The Narrator) has been out of the country for the last three weeks being indoctrinated with the Microsoft Way - congrats on the MCSE!

Anyway with Kevin now back, he has promised to get back to recording as soon as possible; that should (hopefully) mean that at least chapter 16 will be available on Podiobooks.com before the week is out. I've also been working on Praedari, the sequel to Terra Incognita, and getting that into a format for everyone to reprise their roles from TI.


Cheers,

Gary

Last day of September - winter is nigh!

The final day of the RWC Pool stages dawned bright and clean. The sun is out and all's right with the world...

Except if you happen to be Welsh, and possibly Irish (at the time of writing this, Argentina are ahead 5-0) - given the rather large score line target that Ireland have to reach in beating Argentina today...we shall see how things develop. Still, if Ireland don't go through, perhaps the Welsh will share the aircraft home with them. Scotland are through to the Quarter Finals, as are England - personally, I don't think England should have made it through. Their performance seems to have been rather lack-luster and almost "too little, too late". There were far better teams in the England Pool who deserved the chance at the Quarters.

Episode 15 of Terra Incognita has been uploaded to Podiobooks.com, and is awaiting the tender mercies of that dedicated team, who give their time freely, to build and maintain the Podiobooks.com site and community. Kevin, the Narrator, has gone to the US for a couple of weeks training - anyone seeing him in Texas, make sure he gets on a flight home before too long.

A very good friend of mine, Geoff Nelder, has an anthology of science fiction stories (Dimensions), co-written with Robert Blevins and published by Adventure Books Of Seattle. I'm recording/editing the intros and outros of Dimensions, ready for submission to Podiobooks.com - these are good stories and well worth listening too, or even buying the book and reading :-)

I've spent a lot of the last week playing with web site design, and would really appreciate any comments on the lay out of my web site - or for that matter if all the links are working correctly. I think they are, but there are an awful lot of them and it is possible that I've missed one or two. I've added a link to the Creative Commons Licensing site, and it's now on here as well :-) If you've been listening to the Terra Incognita Podiobook and you're enjoying it - let me know and rate it on the Terra Incognita page at Podiobooks. I'd really like to hear what listeners think of TI ;-) If you're enjoying TI, let your friends know - ask them to subscribe and help move the Podiobook onto, and up the Podiobooks.com Chart...

I've also been listening to the work of my fellow authors on Podiobooks.com, specifically J.C.Hutins' 7th Son Book 3 - Destruction, M Darusha Wehm's Beautiful Red, Mike Luoma's Vatican Assassin and Timothy Callahan's The Arwen (Season 1 & Season 2). I'd highly recommend them all as being well worth listening too.

And today, StarShip Sofa released Episode 59, about C.M.Kornbluth. Tony & Ciaran at The Sofa talk about a different science fiction author, film or magazine each week. Essentially the format is a brief bio of the author, or principle persons in the film or magazine, and from this they move into related fields - who the author worked with, their most well known books. StarShip Sofa is available from iTunes, or for download from the SSS web site, there is also a fairly active forum in which all things science fiction, and a few non-science fiction things are discussed - check it out ;-)

And finally... For the past few weeks, the TV has been carrying 'adverts', possibly better stated as 'requests' for World Vision Ireland. This page gives a far better idea of the work they do, than I could. The monthly sponsorship is €25 - four packets of cigarettes to make a difference to someone's life.

Cheers,

Gary

Podiobooks, Books and Rugby World Cup 2007...

England managed to pull themselves out of the quagmire that has been their Rugby performance thus far in the RWC 2007. Better late than never, but perhaps a little too late... They have yet to face Tonga, who gave South Africa a run for their money today.

Rounded off Joe Haldeman's Peace And War last night - 700 pages of science fiction, deep joy! This is an Omnibus edition that contains The Forever War, Forever Free and Forever Peace. Now moved onto a Jeremy Clarkson's Born To Be Riled for a change of pace before getting back into the science fiction vein.

I'll be getting myself into trouble very soon when I get to the local book shop - have Sandworms Of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson to collect and I'd ordered Eifelheim by Michael Flynn and Blindsight by Peter Watts. Eifelheim won the Hugo Award this year, so I'm looking forward to having a copy in my grubby little mits!

I've been listening to 7th Son Trilogy, Book 3 - Destruction by J.C.Hutchins and Beautiful Red by Darusha Wehm. J.C.Hutchins' 7th Son is a great story, start with Descent - which is Book 1. Darusha Wehm's Beautiful Red is Cyberpunk and another good story. Both are available for free subscription from Podiobooks.com - as it Terra Incognita...

Episode 14 of TI is now available on Podiobooks.com, episode 15 will be following on this week ;-) I've been thinking about producing Praedari - the sequel to Terra Incognita - as a Podiobook as well. Thus far, the core cast from TI have agreed to reprise their characters for the sequel; which is a very good start!

I have the first eighteen chapters of Praedari almost ready to distribute to the cast, but Kevin (the Narrator) has asked to have all the narrative first, so he can get a head start on everyone else. So I think I'll need to complete converting the novel into distinct character or narrator parts before that goes any further...

It looks like a good friend - Geoff Nelder - is going to have his co-written science fiction anthology Dimensions released by Podiobooks as well. I've offered to put each episode together for him, as in mixing his recorded reading with music (from MagnaTune) and intro and outro title piece - should be fairly straight forward as I've built up a reasonable amount of experience with the TI episodes...

Best get on - things to do (as ever!)

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

World in Union, with some upsets...

Wasn't that a fun weekend of Rugby?

It would appear that it is the Southern Hemisphere teams who are the best prepared! Watching the England v USA game I found myself rooting for the Eagles from about fifteen minutes in, they played amazingly well and, for me at least, won the game - although the score line didn't reflect that. Apparently the USA Eagles have set themselves a target of getting out of the group stages at the next world cup. If it wasn't for the South Africa in the group, I suspect they may have achieved that target this year...

Episode 12 of Terra Incognita has now been completed and uploaded to Podshow.com and Podiobooks.com. I'm aiming to have Episode 13 completed before the end of this week... There's an extra 'little' bit in Episode 12, which will also be in Ep13, 14 & 15, this is a trivia competition. The prize is a complete set of audio CDs of the entire Terra Incognita Podiobook, the details are here.

Cheers,

Gary

The Time Is Nigh...

...for the Web Ellis Cup to depart for sunnier climbs and head back to the Southern Hemisphere.

The Rugby World Cup started yesterday with a marvellous clash between France and Argentina. It got to be edge of the seat stuff as France attacked and were rebuffed by Argentina time and time again. The Argentinian boys played very competent, controlled rugby and France simply couldn't get their game together. On last night's showing, Argentina are the team to beat in that group.

Today has a grand set of games:

New Zealand v Italy
Australia v Japan
England v USA

Tomorrow, also looks like a serious set of game:

Wales v Canada
South Africa v Samoa
Scotland v Portugal
Ireland v Namibia

We have a sweep stake running at work, I drew Namibia - so that may well be an interesting game to watch...


In last week's episode, Tony Smith and Ciaran O'Carroll - the Master Minds and guiding lights - of Starship Sofa mentioned Terra Incognita. If you haven't had a listen to The Boys From The Sofa, all their previous episodes are available for download. There's also a fairly lively forum for all things Science Fiction and that can be found here.

I'll be getting Episode 12 of the Terra Incognita Podiobook together and uploaded today. I've also decided that a trivia quiz on Terra Incognita may be a bit of fun, so have set a question here. The prize is the entire podiobook on CD, when it's completed of course. Depending on how this goes, I may do another couple of trivia competitions. I've also been speaking to Kevin, the Narrator, we will be aiming to release two episodes a week from now on - hopefully this will work out!

We have also been talking about an added 'bonus' episode when TI is complete. This will most likely be a Q&A style thing - any questions or comments, email me at gary@gary-hicks.com - we may also include a teaser for Praedari, the sequel to Terra Incognita, but that really has to be worked out in a bit more detail as yet ;-)

September has arrived, where has the year gone?

Time seems to have flown past this year What with writing, getting a web site together, this new thing of blogging and (of course) the Podiobook. I've even found time to read a fair amount and occasionally attend work and earn a crust or two :-)

I've just completed and uploaded episode 11 of TI to Podiobooks.com and updated the StarShip Sofa Reading List. We've just had a week off on holiday, family visiting from the UK - need another week off now to recover, but no rest for the wicked - back to work on the 'morrow :-(

Watched Big Fish over the weekend, very good "feel good" kind of film direct by Tim Burton and written by Daniel Wallace. It's well worth taking an afternoon to watch the film...

Cheers,

Gary