Midweek meanderings
I posted a stream of consciousness blog with thoughts about modern life compared to when I was a kid, concluding it was just different; not saying better or worse. It's had a remarkable life in the last three days when compared to my earlier posts.
Generally a post of mine gets into the teens when it comes to views and takes a couple of weeks to do that. I guess this blog isn't all that exciting. Ah well.
Not Sunday though. Sunday's blog entry has had 33 views - more than any other I've done by a way. Considering it was long and mostly irrelevant to anything it surprised me. Maybe that's what I should always do. Anyway - this one is going to meander a little but it will mostly cover some writing and then a couple of odd thoughts about life
------------
I've not tweeted for two days - and I've not written a single word of new fiction. I've been concentrating on getting a third draft of the bawdy science fiction novel No Man's Land completed so I can submit it.
I'm currently halfway through converting chapter 4 into third draft. It's tough going. I have pages of print out annotated with red pen all over and I'm redoing huge sections. It will make it better and a little (little?) smuttier but it's tough and slow going. I think if I manage to sort out one chapter a day (into final copy) I will be doing well. And there's no chance I'll be able to do this every evening. I do have a marriage to maintain after all. Tonight though my wife is out doing her music thing so I have some time.
On another submission note I received an email today from a publisher who like the sound of my horror novel Mr. Stinky and wanted the full manuscript. So that's duly sent off. That mean each of the books I've been submitting has had at least one full ms request. I guess they can't be totally awful.
Celebrating by keeping the music to an M theme. Lots of Magenta to start the evening and now moved onto Magellan. Yes, I will admit they were next to each other on the shelf so when I put the Magenta back I only had to slide my hand a few CDs across to find the current one playing - Impossible Figures.
------------
Chapter 4 of No Man's Land is in 3rd draft. Boy that was tiring. It was harder to revise than it was to write it in the first place. I have notes for chapter 5 written up but that's a matter for tomorrow.
------------
Here is an observation on life; or rather on a rather specific little detail of modern life that is known as IMDB. I don't watch all that much TV. Tonight for instance we watched one episode of Crossing Lines (a pan European crime series based out of the International Criminal Court in the Hague - or den Haag if you prefer the Dutch name).
Anyway at the weekend we were watching an episode of a show that I will not name (not because it is embarrassing but because it might give away something about the plot). This is another series we are catching up on, having completely missed when it was aired originally.
Now we saw a character turn up in this show that we both liked and who, it seemed, was being hinted at as becoming a regular character or at least a regular irregular. Now being impatient we headed straight for IMDB to see if the actor was going to appear in more than the two part story we were watching.
Up pops the good news. The character is in many, many episodes. However then there was the bad news. You see it listed the number of episodes that the other actors feature in and one of our favourites only has two more episodes to go before they hit the number listed.
This then led to two completely different reactions from me and my wife and it kind of ties into a science thing I read about different people.
My reaction was to then avoid anything else that could give something away about the next two episodes. After all I might know they are only there until the end of this season but I know nothing about how they are to leave. I like the surprise. My wife though, heads onwards to read the synopses of the episodes and has less surprise coming.
So, how does this relate to science? Well, the study I read about discussed spoilers and it seems there are many people's whose enjoyment is increased when they have an idea of what's coming. Heightens the anticipation or something like that I guess. Or maybe they just like being the one with the extra bit of knowledge that others lack.
Whatever it has been shown to be a real thing. Interesting. It's still not going to make me stop avoiding spoilers. I like the surprise. Even if I do guess the ending more often than not.
----------------
Onto another part of my psyche; the part that makes me collect things. I collect old books. Mostly science fiction, horror and fantasy books but I have been known to pick up other stuff. And I'm not counting my reference library. I keep books I think might be useful - they don't count as collecting. I'm on about buying purely to collect such as my desire to own every cover of Fahrenheit 451 or Asimov books in every language.
I've been keeping a tumblr account for a little while and I tend to post old book covers on it. If you want to go check it out it's at
http://edmundlester.tumblr.com/
Right - are you back? Let's get to the point then.
I have gaps in my collection. Let's take the Clifford Simak section for an example. I've just put Simak into an eBay search and it's return over 400 matches. Many of these I would like to own. There's a really nice copy of City in the Prism cover series I love. I have the book - I want it again if I find this cover. Have I mentioned before I might be a little mad? I should've if I haven't
Anyway I could buy it. Likewise I could buy Highway of Eternity in Prism cover. I don't even have any copy of that, no matter one in my favourite cover. But it feels a little like cheating. To me collecting is as much about hunting for things as just buying them. Typing in a few words into an internet site and entering my PayPal details seems to be more about possessing than collecting.
I want to find these books. I want to go to a second hand book store (if I can find any left) or into a charity shop or round a car boot sale, or a jumble sale, a book sale, etc, and find them. That feels like collecting to me.
I will use online stores to buy books. Today my copy of Robert Charles Wilson's Affinities arrived (an early birthday present for me). New books seem okay to do this and some of the rarer books do too. My copy of Isaac Asimov's Annotated Don Juan was ordered online.
But regular science fiction paperbacks, such as my beloved Mayflower/Panther/Granada paperbacks of the 60s, 70s and 80s I want to find.
Like I said; I might be mad.
Generally a post of mine gets into the teens when it comes to views and takes a couple of weeks to do that. I guess this blog isn't all that exciting. Ah well.
Not Sunday though. Sunday's blog entry has had 33 views - more than any other I've done by a way. Considering it was long and mostly irrelevant to anything it surprised me. Maybe that's what I should always do. Anyway - this one is going to meander a little but it will mostly cover some writing and then a couple of odd thoughts about life
------------
I've not tweeted for two days - and I've not written a single word of new fiction. I've been concentrating on getting a third draft of the bawdy science fiction novel No Man's Land completed so I can submit it.
I'm currently halfway through converting chapter 4 into third draft. It's tough going. I have pages of print out annotated with red pen all over and I'm redoing huge sections. It will make it better and a little (little?) smuttier but it's tough and slow going. I think if I manage to sort out one chapter a day (into final copy) I will be doing well. And there's no chance I'll be able to do this every evening. I do have a marriage to maintain after all. Tonight though my wife is out doing her music thing so I have some time.
On another submission note I received an email today from a publisher who like the sound of my horror novel Mr. Stinky and wanted the full manuscript. So that's duly sent off. That mean each of the books I've been submitting has had at least one full ms request. I guess they can't be totally awful.
Celebrating by keeping the music to an M theme. Lots of Magenta to start the evening and now moved onto Magellan. Yes, I will admit they were next to each other on the shelf so when I put the Magenta back I only had to slide my hand a few CDs across to find the current one playing - Impossible Figures.
------------
Chapter 4 of No Man's Land is in 3rd draft. Boy that was tiring. It was harder to revise than it was to write it in the first place. I have notes for chapter 5 written up but that's a matter for tomorrow.
------------
Here is an observation on life; or rather on a rather specific little detail of modern life that is known as IMDB. I don't watch all that much TV. Tonight for instance we watched one episode of Crossing Lines (a pan European crime series based out of the International Criminal Court in the Hague - or den Haag if you prefer the Dutch name).
Anyway at the weekend we were watching an episode of a show that I will not name (not because it is embarrassing but because it might give away something about the plot). This is another series we are catching up on, having completely missed when it was aired originally.
Now we saw a character turn up in this show that we both liked and who, it seemed, was being hinted at as becoming a regular character or at least a regular irregular. Now being impatient we headed straight for IMDB to see if the actor was going to appear in more than the two part story we were watching.
Up pops the good news. The character is in many, many episodes. However then there was the bad news. You see it listed the number of episodes that the other actors feature in and one of our favourites only has two more episodes to go before they hit the number listed.
This then led to two completely different reactions from me and my wife and it kind of ties into a science thing I read about different people.
My reaction was to then avoid anything else that could give something away about the next two episodes. After all I might know they are only there until the end of this season but I know nothing about how they are to leave. I like the surprise. My wife though, heads onwards to read the synopses of the episodes and has less surprise coming.
So, how does this relate to science? Well, the study I read about discussed spoilers and it seems there are many people's whose enjoyment is increased when they have an idea of what's coming. Heightens the anticipation or something like that I guess. Or maybe they just like being the one with the extra bit of knowledge that others lack.
Whatever it has been shown to be a real thing. Interesting. It's still not going to make me stop avoiding spoilers. I like the surprise. Even if I do guess the ending more often than not.
----------------
Onto another part of my psyche; the part that makes me collect things. I collect old books. Mostly science fiction, horror and fantasy books but I have been known to pick up other stuff. And I'm not counting my reference library. I keep books I think might be useful - they don't count as collecting. I'm on about buying purely to collect such as my desire to own every cover of Fahrenheit 451 or Asimov books in every language.
I've been keeping a tumblr account for a little while and I tend to post old book covers on it. If you want to go check it out it's at
http://edmundlester.tumblr.com/
Right - are you back? Let's get to the point then.
I have gaps in my collection. Let's take the Clifford Simak section for an example. I've just put Simak into an eBay search and it's return over 400 matches. Many of these I would like to own. There's a really nice copy of City in the Prism cover series I love. I have the book - I want it again if I find this cover. Have I mentioned before I might be a little mad? I should've if I haven't
Anyway I could buy it. Likewise I could buy Highway of Eternity in Prism cover. I don't even have any copy of that, no matter one in my favourite cover. But it feels a little like cheating. To me collecting is as much about hunting for things as just buying them. Typing in a few words into an internet site and entering my PayPal details seems to be more about possessing than collecting.
I want to find these books. I want to go to a second hand book store (if I can find any left) or into a charity shop or round a car boot sale, or a jumble sale, a book sale, etc, and find them. That feels like collecting to me.
I will use online stores to buy books. Today my copy of Robert Charles Wilson's Affinities arrived (an early birthday present for me). New books seem okay to do this and some of the rarer books do too. My copy of Isaac Asimov's Annotated Don Juan was ordered online.
But regular science fiction paperbacks, such as my beloved Mayflower/Panther/Granada paperbacks of the 60s, 70s and 80s I want to find.
Like I said; I might be mad.
Comments