Revenge of Mr Dumpling

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Writing tools for the Modern Geek

Apr 11

Posted by David in Geek, Writing | 2 Comments

All my friends know I am a geek. I don’t care, there is no point denying one’s nature. And this is a great time to be a geek, the amount of technology around us constantly growing and changing. While there is much debate about the future of publishing and the impact that technology will have and is having on books, there is plenty of ways in which a writer can benefit from tech at our fingertips.

Many of you will have already heard of, and used, a lot of these tools but I thought I would run through a couple of things I have found incredibly useful, just in case you have missed them.

Scrivener – Mac/PC

Pretty much the reason why I bought a Macbook instead of a Windows PC (back when it was limited to OSX), Scrivener is an incredibly useful tool. There are far better posts floating around about it, but essentially it allows you to take all the disparate elements that make up a work in progress (text, research, outlines, drafts) and organise them in one place and when you are done spit out a manuscript ready for subbing. It has endless features, like full screen writing and customisable backups, which would take me hours to outline. Check out their site, or this excellent third party blog.

Dropbox – The Cloud

Ah, the Cloud. I am so sick of hearing about the new grail of IT in the meetings I have to sit through at work, but I can’t deny it has its uses. There are lots of cloud applications floating around (couldn’t resist, sorry!) but I am currently using Dropbox. After installing the application on my Macbook at home and my work laptop, I now have a folder that synchronises between them. It means I can be working on something at home, click “save”, and then when I am eating my lunch at my desk at work start working on it again.

The fact it is all stored online means that my greatest fear, that my laptop will explode or be stolen or eaten by alien goats, is no longer an issue as my work is safe from harm! Plus, I have set up Scrivener to save its automatic backups to the Dropbox folder when I close a WIP, so it adds to my redundancy. 2gb of storage is free, and if I get to the point I need more I can always purchase it.

www.duotrope.com – Web based

Duotrope is a web based service that acts a marketplace for short stories. People putting together an anthology or those running a recurring magazine or site will place advertisements that list what they are looking for, the compensation offered and their submission guidelines. It has a number of other handy features, such as a deadline calendar and submission tracker.

Duuotrope is free, but if you have any spare cash throw some their way, as this the sort of service that is invaluable to an aspiring writer.

Story Tracker – iOS

The only issue I have with Duotrope is that you can only track submissions for markets on their site. As some of the markets I have submitted to are outside of Duotrope’s coverage I wanted a way to keep them up to date. Story Tracker is an app for iPhone and IPad that allows you to do so, and obsessively check things like how long a submission has been pending. The developer is very approachable, and there is talk of an OSX native version, which would be great. You can try a trial version for free.

WriteChain – iOS

Another groovy iPhone app, WriteChain allows you to record the amount of words you have written in a day or session. To encourage you to do so regulary, it creates a “chain” that gets broken if if you go a set interval without writing a certain number of words. The challenge is to have as many “links” as possible and is a great way of setting goals. And, it’s free!

Google Reader – Web based

If you are anything like me, you would have lots of blogs and news sites that you follow, both to keep up with what friends and peers are doing, and for those little snippets of news that might inspire a story. However, I struggle to remember to check sites regularly, and I was finding myself getting behind. Google Reader aggregates the RSS feeds of whatever sites you specify, collecting all the updates in one place.

Byline – iOS

While their is a Google Reader client for iOS, I have been using Byline for news on the go. It syncs with your Google account but has the advantage of caching all the articles for later viewing, meaning I can download my news in the morning on my WIFi and then browse them later, even when not connected. The full version is pricey for an app, so you may decide that, like me, you cna handle a few banner ads and use the free one.

Stanza – Cross Platform

I quite like Kindle, but I use Stanza for non Amazon books. It allows a direct plugin to repositories like Project Gutenberg and can read almost any ebook format. It is lacking a way of organising your library, hopefully they will address that soon. Considering it is free, it is hard to complain too much.

Any other useful tools that I should check out?

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Fan Fiction or Intellectual Violation?

Feb 22

Posted by David in Faith, Geek, Writing | No Comments

There are numerous POV’s when it comes to fan fiction, from authors who fiercely protective of their work and forbid it to those who love it and allow open season when it comes to their mythos and characters, and everything in between. There is some high quality fan fiction out there and even people who have landed book deals on the back of their achievements, but my opinion has always been that is you are going to write 20,000 words why not put it towards your own manuscript and vision?

As a fan, if I knew that an author didn’t want fan fiction featuring their work I would refrain, from a simple sense of respect for them. Writing it anyway, out of some passion for their characters or world, would be sort of like stalking a girl who didn’t want you in her life to show her how much you cared! If I ever got to the point of inspiring people enough to have them write fan fic based on my work I would be flattered, but where I might get a bit protective would be if people were using my ideas in a way completely contrary to the spirit of what my work stood for. I think that is pretty wrong, and not something I would ever do to anyone or want done to me.

That is what I feel is happening here:

Well, there’s two sides to every story, or to quote a less banal maxim, history is written by the winners. That’s the philosophy behind “The Last Ringbearer,” a novel set during and after the end of the War of the Ring (the climactic battle at the end of “The Lord of the Rings”) and told from the point of view of the losers. The novel was written by Kirill Yeskov, a Russian paleontologist, and published to acclaim in his homeland in 1999. Translations of the book have also appeared in other European nations, but fear of the vigilant and litigious Tolkien estate has heretofore prevented its publication in English.

In Yeskov’s retelling, the wizard Gandalf is a war-monger intent on crushing the scientific and technological initiative of Mordor and its southern allies because science “destroys the harmony of the world and dries up the souls of men!” He’s in cahoots with the elves, who aim to become “masters of the world,” and turn Middle-earth into a “bad copy” of their magical homeland across the sea. Barad-dur, also known as the Dark Tower and Sauron’s citadel, is, by contrast, described as “that amazing city of alchemists and poets, mechanics and astronomers, philosophers and physicians, the heart of the only civilization in Middle-earth to bet on rational knowledge and bravely pitch its barely adolescent technology against ancient magic.”

I know this sort of revisionism is fashionable, but it does leave a bad taste in my mouth. Personally, I can’t see an issue with stories of “Good vs Evil”, and while there is definitely a place for more nuanced works with shades of grey and moral ambiguity (George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series is one of the greatest fantasy works ever written), why not write your own instead of leveraging off the work of someone who set out to create a particular type of writing?

I have read all the criticisms of LOTR, that it is sexist and racist and reactionary, but I don’t agree. You always find those things in anything if you look for them, and there is no doubt Tolkien was a product of his time. But, if you actually read the books, the heroes are not the aristocratic white powerful males, the heroes are people like humble and small hobbits or the woman who refuses to be bound by the roles foisted upon her by her society and destroys the most dangerous creature in Middle Earth. The established order is powerless to stop Sauron, and the whole theme of the book is of change and of the old order passing away…hardly reactionary stuff. It is a story where individual choices matter, where there is not simply some elite that determines the course of the world but where anyone, no matter how inconsequential they might seem, can make a difference.

LOTR is a revolutionary book, and I think it is under appreciated as such. It is not some vastly powerful magic wielder or muscled barbarian or extraordinarily disciplined army or the intervention of capricious Gods that brings down Mordor, but the values of love and loyalty and altruism and compassion. Imagine if any of those who had the chance had given Gollum what they believed he deserved, instead of the compassion Gandalf spoke of?

The science of Mordor and Isengard was not the sort of science that seeks to understand the world and to be good stewards of it, that seeks to make life better for all people and bring enlightenment and understanding. It was the science that dehumanises, that doesn’t consider the consequences, the science that seeks to bend everything to a political end. Both Sauron and his pale imitator, Saruman, seek to remake the world in their own image and absorb the individual into the collective. The Ringwraiths are the eventual fate of all those under the Dark Lord’s dominion, and it is why we don’t see the Orcs as individuals, because they labour under the tyranny of Sauron’s will.

It’s a fascinating concept, I guess, and I will probably read it. But, I know who I think deserves higher praise out of the creator and the corrupter of the breathtaking vision that is Middle Earth.

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For the Doctor Who fans

Feb 10

Posted by David in Geek | No Comments

I couldn’t work out how to embed this, sorry, but if you ever need to explain the Whoniverse to the uninitiated then it will come in as handy as a bag of jelly beans!

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Real Life Super Heroes

Nov 10

Posted by David in Geek | No Comments

I am not sure whether these guys are simply try hards, or are in fact RLSHs, but let’s be honest here. Every geek has dreamed off doing something like this, and wondered what it would be like to equip oneself with cool gadgets and go out and smite evil doers.

Yes, there are real-life superheroes. And no, we’re not just referring to firefighters, paramedics, and other heroic people who we’re used to seeing coming to the rescue of others. We’re talking about costume-wearing, identity-concealing, cool-name-having people who fight crime, pollution, or other evils in their own communities, on their own time, and at their own risk. Many of them actually patrol the city streets, ready to intervene if they see trouble brewing – and being ready includes having the right tools. Given that none of these people have Bruce Wayne’s budget, however, their gadgets tend to be less like Batmobile clones, and more like… well, read on and see for yourself.

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BITING THE HAND THAT…MADE IT?

Nov 8

Posted by David in Geek | No Comments

This cannot bode well for Mankind’s future:

But when some smart aleck reporter placed his hand in the robot’s omnivorous clanking jaw, he was identified as bacon. A cameraman then tried and was identified as prosciutto.

Oh, yes please…

Oct 5

Posted by David in Geek | No Comments

Now, this sounds awesome..

Deadline’s Mike Fleming has the scoop! As probably should’ve been expected, Warner Bros. has brought together its two geek-friendly visionaries – Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder – to reinvent what should be the studio’s most valuable franchise after the HARRY POTTER series concludes. It’s hard not to get giddy at the thought of a Snyder-directed, Nolan-produced SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL. The screenplay is being written by David Goyer, and it’s expected the film will be completed in time to clean up during the 2012 holiday season.

Looking over the directors who were allegedly in the running, it appears this gig was Snyder’s to either lose or turn down. Though I would’ve been interested in seeing what Duncan Jones, Darren Aronofsky or Matt Reeves might’ve done with the character, the studio needed a filmmaker both comfortable with working on a large scale under crushing expectations, and capable of delivering tentpole production value. That’s why this was only ever going to go to Snyder or Tony Scott – with Jonathan Liebesman lurking as a dark horse (provided BATTLE: LOS ANGELES lives up to the Comic Con hype).

And, apparently Zod to be the villian? I hope so, I have said it before (and I will say it again) a superhero movie needs a super powered villian, otherwise it is ALWAYS a let down.

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AUSSIECON 4 (or why I am a slack blogger)

Sep 8

Posted by David in Geek, Writing | 1 Comment

Well, the past week or so has been crazy. Surgery (again) last Tuesday, then the extraordinary madness that was AussieCon 4. I had an incredibly good time there, which I will go into further, but I am absolutely exhausted. Who knew geeks could party like that?!

I have also received a rejection notice for a short story I submitted more in hope than anything else, and a rewrite request for an anthology I desperately want to get into. It’s long odds, but there were (as far as I know) approximately 170 stories rejected in the first round, so I am happy to get a chance to submit a revised version. The challenge, of course, is balancing how much I want to get published with maintaining the integrity of the story.

AussieCon was my first major convention, and I really did have a blast. The funny thing was that I only actually made it to two of the panels for the whole event! But, I certainly don’t think I wasted my money, because it was the activities that surrounded the Con that really made it a truly memorable experience.

For a number of years I have been a member of a fan group for the author George R.R. Martin. This started when I started reading his “A Song of Ice and Fire” series and went looking for some information online. I stumbled across a fan run message board called Westeros and discovered a massive online community of fantasy and science fiction fans (15,000 plus). While it was ostensibly about GRRM and his works, there was discussion of every author imaginable, and huge debates about politics and religion. I made a lot of friends there and for a number of years was very active. I credit my exposure to so many diverse view points and some of the most intelligent people I have ever spoken to with honing my skills as an apologist, because in those debates if you didn’t know what you were talking about you would get torn to pieces. Lazy arguments were punished the way they deserved to be.

While as life moved on I cut down on my day to day posting, I still maintained the relationships I had formed, because these people meant a lot to me. Anyone who doesn’t understand that online friends can be just as important as ones you see daily probably should stop reading now! But, I had always hoped to meet some of them, and I knew there would be a fair few at AussieCon, and that GRRM would be there as well.

The fan group (the BWB – Brotherhood Without Banners) prides itself on its profile at conventions. and usually throws at least one party for the entire Con and organises a chance for the fans to meet GRRM. As someone “on the ground” I was involved in organising things in the lead up, like buying supplies and finding a venue for dinner the first night. Unfortunately, surgery meant I couldn’t be as useful as I had hoped! But, I managed to get the things done that were needed. It meant a fair bit of running around t, but I certainly didn’t mind that. The amount of pleasure I had gotten from GRRM’s writing and from my involvement on the board meant whatever help I could give was a privilege.

On the Thursday night 25 of us met with GRRM and his partner Parris for a private dinner at a pizza place in Southbank. It was incredibly exciting to get a chance to chat to one of my favourite authors, and over the course of the Con he gave  us all plenty of his time. In fact, I cannot speak highly enough of their attitude to fans and how accessible they made themselves to us, even in the last stages of the Con, when they must have been exhausted. The way they treated their fans was in stark contrast to some other authors who were there, including one very big name, who I will refrain from identifying!

Obviously, GRRM is someone I have always wanted to meet and I really did feel honoured and privileged by the amount of time I got to chat to him one on one. Not only at the dinner, I also shared a cab with them when taking them back to their hotel. I am, however, terribly embarrassed by the fact that I really did babble like the rankest fan boy each time! He was also very kind about my very modest writing achievements (which I couldn’t stop myself from telling him about) and left me inspired and encouraged to keep going with my dreams in that area.

But, as much as meeting George was the fulfilment of a long held dream, I have to say that I enjoyed just as much the chances I had to chat with Parris, and getting to hear about her fascinating life. She really is a lovely person, and she really made us fans feel important and valuable. I just can’t say enough good things about her (my wife thinks I have a bit of a crush on her because of how much I have talked about how wonderful she is, and maybe she is right haha).

On the Friday night there was a Con party, and I spent a lot of time talking to my fellow BWBers, and before I knew, it was 4:30am. After taking a few pain killers (due to the surgery after effects) I crashed and didn’t get back until late afternoon. Saturday was taken up with organising the finer details for the official BWB party we were throwing. We had to make a last minute venue change, and ended up hiring the VIP room at a Crown nightclub. I have to say it was a interesting experience going in and out and walking past the line of 50-100 people waiting to get into the actual nightclub to flash my ID and have a bouncer lift the ribbon and gesture me through with a “This way, Sir”!

The party was a huge success with hundreds of Con attendees turning up, and again we got a chance to see more of GRRM and Parris. We also raised a significant amount of money for charity. As fun as the party was, my glimpses of the nightclub itself reinforced my lack of interest in such things. No one out there looked like they were having much fun. My opinion of nightclubs is there are only three reasons to go…to drink, to dance and to pick up. As I don’t drink, I can’t dance and am very happily married it doesn’t really appeal to me at all!

Again, I got home in the wee hours of the morning only to discover I didn’t have my house keys. My wife reacted surprisingly well to being woken by my tapping on the window!

Sunday night we had more of a private party with GRRM and got to go on a traditonal BWB quest. Everyone just sat around and chilled, getting to talk to GRRM about all sorts of subjects. Monday was a sadder day as everyone began making their goodbyes, until finally there was only a few of the overseas visitors, the driving force duo from WA and myself left, sitting around reflecting on the wonderful time we had all had.

Aside from meeting one of my inspirations and spending time with people I had wanted to meet for years, I also got to make a lot of new friends (people who had started using the board after my time there had lessened). You couldn’t meet a  better bunch of people, and I will be endeavouring to catch up with them as soon as I can. And, the Con allowed to me to find out what some of the resources available to me as an aspiring Australian writer are, and caused me to sit down and set some real goals for the next few years.

I will probably post more on the Con in the next few weeks, but right now I am still recovering from all the excitment!!

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ZOMBIE ANTS

Aug 20

Posted by David in Geek | No Comments

Just a reminder that truth is always stranger and that Nature is capable of horror far beyond our imagination.

The oldest evidence of a fungus that turns ants into zombies and makes them stagger to their death has been uncovered by scientists.

The gruesome hallmark of the fungus’s handiwork was found on the leaves of plants that grew in Messel, near Darmstadt in Germany, 48m years ago.

The finding shows that parasitic fungi evolved the ability to control the creatures they infect in the distant past, even before the rise of the Himalayas.

Doesn’t this sound like a great plot for a novel?

The fungus, which is alive and well in forests today, latches on to carpenter ants as they cross the forest floor before returning to their nests high in the canopy.

The fungus grows inside the ants and releases chemicals that affect their behaviour. Some ants leave the colony and wander off to find fresh leaves on their own, while others fall from their tree-top havens on to leaves nearer the ground.

The final stage of the parasitic death sentence is the most macabre. In their last hours, infected ants move towards the underside of the leaf they are on and lock their mandibles in a “death grip” around the central vein, immobilising themselves and locking the fungus in position.

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TOYING WITH STAR WARS

Aug 17

Posted by David in Geek, Pop Culture | No Comments

There are always those willing to take shots at those have been successful, and often it is hard to separate the chaff of sour grapes from the wheat of genuine criticism. But, this interview seems to me to be pretty spot on, and it confirms my observations of the Star Wars movies and their artistic curve.

“Star Wars” was born a long time ago, but not all that far, far away. In 1972, filmmakers George Lucas and Gary Kurtz were toiling on “American Graffiti” in their San Rafael office when they began daydreaming about a throwback sci-fi adventure that channeled the old “Flash Gordon” serials as opposed to the bleak “message” movies that had taken over the genre.
“We had no idea what we were starting,” said Kurtz, who was the producer of the first two “Star Wars” films and also a second-unit director. “That simple concept changed Hollywood in a way….”

There was a bittersweet tinge to Kurtz’s voice, and it’s no surprise. This year is the 30th anniversary of “The Empire Strikes Back,” the “Star Wars” sequel that many fans consider the pinnacle moment in a franchise that has pulled in $16 billion in box office and merchandising. But 1980 was also the year that Kurtz and Lucas realized the Jedi universe wasn’t big enough for the both of them.

“I could see where things were headed,” Kurtz said. “The toy business began to drive the [Lucasfilm] empire. It’s a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It’s natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that’s not the best thing for making quality films.”

He added: “The first film and ‘Empire’ were about story and character, but I could see that George’s priorities were changing.”

I have always considered Empire Strikes Back to be the best of the films, but I won’t pretend that I haven’t enjoyed all of the movies. I did cringe through the love scenes with Anakin and Padme (“Your skin is smooth like silk…not like sand, which is rough” haha) but there was always enough action and sword fights and sweeping alien vistas to make me feel like my admission cost was well spent. I even loved the Ewok movies as a child.

But what is apparent is that, whatever Lucas may claim, the series was not planned out meticulously from the start. Like a politically driven education curriculum, there has been a great deal of revisionism and forcing things to fit into one narrative. Unlike many movie makers who often have to ignore or gloss over unfortunate omissions and mistakes or inconveniently incompatible plot points when making a sequel or prequel, Lucas can afford to go back and digitally edit out the things that give a lie to his claims of consitency. In fact he is slowly eliminating the need for actors! From digitally enhanced acting in the movies, to his moves to animated and CGI series, the moment he can convincingly generate a human voice there will be a lot of people out of work!

As for the claims that merchandising influenced the plot, may I introduce Exhibit A: Jar Jar Binks? What other purpose did that character serve than to give children something to laugh at, well other than to drive adults mad with frustration? It’s harsh but when he got his tongue stuck in the pod turbine I was so hoping it would get turned on and he would be shot out in a ball of green slime. Exhibit B would be the Ewoks, after all it was originally meant to be the Wookies in Return of the Jedi but they aren’t quite as marketable.

Saying all that, you can’t diminish the success or the entertainment value of the Star Wars franchise, it has brought a lot of joy to a lot of people. My problem with Lucas is his claims that it is something it is not (oh an the truly horrendous and evil philosophy underpinning the mythos…but that is a post for another day, when I will attempt to prove the real villain is Yoda).

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REVIEW: EX-HEROES

Aug 10

Posted by David in Geek | No Comments

EX-HEROES – by Peter Clines

When I read the blurb for this book and saw it was super heroes vs zombies, I have to admit that I didn’t expect much in terms of quality. I thought I would read the sample chapter and then forget about it. Never have I been happier to be proven wrong. Not only did I buy the full copy and devour it, I have read again since and it is one of my favourite books.

Most zombie novels tend to dwell on the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse and with the day to day life of those who survived, but the author cleverly uses flashback chapters to illustrate the extent of upheaval of society, without letting it bog down the main story. It also fleshes out the characters, so instead of two dimensional comic book heroes you get a real sense of personality and of strengths and flaws.

While the heroes do echo some of the more famous ones you would have been brought up on they are not just fascimiles slightly modified to avoid copyright infringement. They are cleverly constructed and would be worth a comic book of their own.

There is definitely no shortage of action, and not just fights with standard zombies, it is more than just a splatter fest. You really get a sense of their rising despair as the heroes fought to stop the zombie plague and save the world, their regrets at failing, the cost to them as heroes and as people. But, you also will end filled with what super heroes are all about, hope.

I will be going into this further in a future post, but there is one speech which really shows that the author understands what a hero is, and what they symbolise.

The book features some clever twists in the plot, the origin of the virus for one, and some bits that will make you laugh and some that nearly made me cry.

If you love super heroes and zombie novels and well written books…buy this book. I really want to read more set in this world, so hopefully there will be a sequel soon forthcoming.

The author, Peter Clines, also has an excellent blog on writing that is well worth checking out.

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