Sunday, July 10, 2005
Thursday, writing and Utopia

The three things that are on my mind right now...

Thursday for obvious reasons, I got on the tube at about 08.30 headed for King's Cross and for some reason I got off early to walk. I would have probably been ok anyway but you can't help but wonder. The first thing I knew about it was getting a phone call to make sure I was still alive. The rest of the day was a bit fo a blur to be honest.

I've had a non-fiction article accepted, it's another paying mag so I'm very happy indeed. I enjoyed writing it too so I might have to try another.

Utopia rocks! The game I mean. The new age has started and I'm rapidly building an impressive province. My only problem is that it is played in real time so sometimes you really have to wait when you want to be active... Ah well such is life!

Posted by Martin Austwick 2005-07-10 18:28:40

Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Tag you're it!

I was tagged by Juzzza so here's my contribution.

Total number of books I own.

The books are jointly owned in my place. S and I both love them and we’ve both been collecting for a while. Also we trade in used and antiquarian books so we tend to have quite a lot just kicking around in boxes. I’d guess about 1200 in the house at the moment.

The last book I bought

Charters of the Manor of Ropley, Hants for a Non-fiction book I am currently researching. If you mean Genre then Crash Deluxe by Marianne dePierres.

The last book I read.

Completely? Toujours Provence by Peter Mayle. A lovely sequel to A year in Provence. Utterly worthy of every ounce of praise it as ever had.

Five books that mean a lot to me

1) The Crow Road by Iain Banks. I love this guys writing and I adore this book. It was my introduction to him and I was hooked from the opening line. If you haven’t read it then you should. Go buy it now.

2) The Bafut Beagles – Gerald Durrell. My dad works in Africa and when I was young he gave me this book to read. I fell in love with the world it showed me, it made me feel like I was in Africa too.

3) Time Enough For Love – Heinlein. A book about a incessantly grumpy, depressive, man. Full of incest and homosexual relationships. A truly beautiful book.

4) The Hobbit – Tolkien. Yeah I know it’s trite but I love this book. In a lot of ways I prefer it to the LoTR. It’s the dwarves you see. I love the history and mythology of the dwarves and to be honest I find the elves a little insipid… Maybe it’s just me.

5) Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K Jerome. This is the most lovely book I have every read. Simply the story of three men (an one dog) on a boating holiday but told in such an enchanting way I can see why it is a classic.

Tag three people to do the same in their blogs…

Owen, JamesL and Zanzibar

Posted by Martin Austwick 2005-06-22 10:41:28

Sunday, June 19, 2005
Random thoughts.

S and I went out today, we decided to drive across to Bodiam Castle in East Sussex. It was absolutely glorious and apart from the fact that my "hanging out the window as I drive" arm is now hideously burnt we both had a great time. On the way back we got caught in the traffic from the London to Brighton bike ride, as a junction neared I turned to S (who incidentally is a pretty good navigator for a girl) and I said "Where abouts is Worthing?" I assumed as she had lived in the area all her life and used to hang out in Brighton she might be able to give me a vague idea. Her respone however was more than a little puzzling.

"Never Eat East of Brighton," she said.

As I'm sure you can understand we didn't take the turning.

The other thing I wanted to say was English Heritage Rock! We go to a lot of castles and were bought membership as a christmas gift. Everywhere without fail the staff are friendly and the information about the site is great. National Trust on the other hand suck. Bodiam, despite being one of the most complete moated castles open to the public had one, I repeat ONE display board with a basic map. My Chav magent was working at full power and on one or two occasions (most notably when the old guy stepped out into the spiral staircase and stood staring at me refusing to move) I had to restrain myself from throwing them in the moat.

Posted by Martin Austwick 2005-06-19 15:02:02

Sunday, June 5, 2005
Keeping busy

It's been quite a nice weekend. Not too busy, not too stressed. I've pottered about the flat tidying up trying not to disturb the revising troll that livesunder the table. I've managed to spend quite a bit of time online chatting to one or two people getting some stuff sorted. The Ratcatcher has finished the editing process, I never realised quite how much work went into such a short piece. I've also agreed to do a few reviews and the items have arrived. I don't seem to have enought time to read them. I guess the two hours a day on the train will come in handy somehow...

It looks like we're going to have another Short Story Competition as well. The rough details have been hammered out and the submission process seems to be perfect now. We've got to get a few more judges and the exact rules sorted but I reckon it'll be up and running in the next week.

On top of that S and I are moving to Plymouth in a month and as yet we have nowhere to live and I don't have a job. I've been browsing job vacancy sites and I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go back into Healthcare for a while. If I go for the private sector I could earn enough money to make it worth while. I just have to convince myself I want to now... It's dificult to think of it though when everything is focused around the fact that S has her finals this week.

Oh, I should mention that my heart went out to Lollo after the Lions match. I'mglad Lewsey managed to impress but for one of the worlds best players to go out like that is devastating.

Such is life.

Posted by Martin Austwick 2005-06-05 13:19:54

Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Too many broths spoil the cook?

So what is the record for the largest number of novels on the go at any one time? At the moment I have six.

One grand space opera set against a background of interstellar war.

Onehistorical fiction following a group of medieval pilgrims

Another historical fiction set in England during the Civil War

A futuristic humourous cyberpunk set on an interstellar cruise ship.

A dark post apocalyptic tale of survival against the odds

And a modern day voyage of discovery for a young man estranged from his family.

To be honest I wish I'd done this before. There is pretty much always something I can get into. My problem before was always not being in quite the right frame of mind to work on the current project. Now it is just the fact that I am having trouble putting Crash Deluxe down.

Oh yeah. I kinda bought one of these the other day.

It makes the most amazing noise. I have always been an acoustic guy but I'm hooked. This ROCKS!!!!!

Posted by Martin Austwick 2005-06-01 16:22:39