For the Love of Words...

 NOTE: Some of the topics discussed herein may be potentially triggering. Discretion advised.

I'm pretty sure there's a percentage of people reading that title who will think I'm going to do something high and mighty. In fact, I'm talking about words and terms that have now entered common parlance that were originally coined or popularised from humble origins in works of fiction, and the joy of finding out about their origins. There's a whole episode of the PBS Studios online show Otherwords dedicated to it. Titled "Popular Words Invented by Authors", the episode covers things like 'twitter', 'chortle' 'tween', 'robot' and 'nerd'. But something the episode doesn't touch on, for understandable reason, is 'gaslight'.

In modern self-help and psychological texts (not deeply scholastic but more popular texts), 'gaslighting' is defined as a phenomenon where one party manipulates another through questioning or undermining their perception of things, creating uncertainty in the self and dependence on the abuser. Because yes, this is a form of abuse, especially when practised consciously. The terms origin is interesting and of itself. The 1938 West End play Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton portrays a criminal husband's attempts to undermine his heiress wife's sanity. While in use in some for since the 1960s, it didn't enter popular speech until the 2010s. I'm sure you can see parallels between the husband's manipulation of reality and how so much of today's mainstream media tries to sell an idea not through persuasive argument, but through manipulation of the facts.

Of course this wasn't the first portrayal in fiction of what could be called 'gaslighting'. To take a well-known example, the entire premise of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the playwright seemingly taking the side of the abuser in this instance, which is one of many reasons why this play is today one of the most controversial and disliked of his corpus. I certainly find it borderline unwatchable today because I'm firmly on Katherine's side in this situation. When she says "and the sky changes even as your mind", I die a little inside. She has been psychologically broken by an abusive partner, and this is supposed to be a comedy. The only way this could possibly be palatable today is if it were an elaborate two-sided game they were playing, with both parties in on the joke. But even then, it's more than questionable.

On a less dour note, something I find amusing is the amount of video game terminology that has seeped into common parlance not as cringy inside jokes, but just as something that's there. 'Game Over' (famously adlibbed by Bill Paxton in Aliens) and 'Level Up' are the two obvious ones, but I'm sure there's other things that come to mind. Of course there is the reverse. 'Grind' may have a specific meaning in games, but the term and its combination of tedium and necessity goes all the way back to when people literally did the daily grind to get enough flour for bread each day. And that's not counting the terms that make reference to pieces of fiction, like the contrast in fictional perspectives terms as "Doylist" and "Watsonian".

This comes round to why I love language, even though it can be infuriating and I thought my ongoing degree studies on English language and literature might dent my appreciation of them. It's not unique to English, but since English is my primary language in both writing and speech, I sense it strongly there. This also extends beyond language specifically and into the speculative realms, for which this episode from Overly Sarcastic Productions is an excellent brief look at how actual technology can be either predicted or completely overlooked by fiction. Or, sadly, the fact that the term "Palantir" is being used in a real-life aplication.

Take joy in language during these trying times. It's helped before. Sometimes looking up the etymology for a term can be extremely engaging and distracting.

Plans: Author Talks S4

 I know, I know, it isn't this huge thing. But this podcast I create, edit publish on YouTube and Spotify is something that has become an interesting exercise as much as a way for me to potentially help publicise myself or vent things. The podcast has changed over time from a complete unscripted flood of words to scripted episodes with more obvious production values.

The thing is, I don't have this series planned out that far by any stretch. Last year's set of eight episodes were pretty ambitious, and I was doing them alongside other real-life stuff including production of 'The Angry House', university work, and real life concerns. This year, university work still takes priority, my own writing work may or may not change course or shift, and I'm definitely heading to BristolCon after a year's needed break.

So until then, I hope you enjoy this playlist that I put together for the podcast. If nothing else, you can see how I went from stumbling first steps to smooth presentation. Find within short story readings, work samples, and general ramblings on a number of topics.

YouTube Link

Spotify Link

Hindsight: It's weird.

So, recently, I've been thinking about three writers whose personalities and actions are more than reprehensible. Yet they're also important in either the development or the popularisation of certain genre aspects. I don't want to mention them by name, because I feel they get too much exposure as it is. Instead, I'll be using initials taken from their names. It won't fool everyone, but it'll be a way for me to discuss the work without giving undue exposure. It is also a chance for me to talk about something that clicked with me recently; the fact that, long before either I or the general public knew about these authors' undesirable traits, I didn't click fully with their work.

Let's start with N. N is a writer who has an intriguing imagination, and for a time was something of a darling in their genre. Now...things have changed, rightly so. But while I was recommended this writer's work for a long time, the few titles I tried just didn't resonate. The novel "N" just never resonated with me on a basic level. A different novel "AG" was similarly odd, in that everyone praised it but I just didn't like it. I also tried a collaborative novel this writer created with someone else, and again I didn't jibe. A different piece of fiction, C, was interesting to experience once but not something I wanted to return to. To be blunt, there was a background to the writing that felt off. I can't describe it any other way without being more explicit about who the writer is.

Now let's move on the next author, K. K created a very popular series that I admit was one of my early reads, something that got me into long-form stories. I experienced the first few through audiobooks with a narration that was incredible. Then I read the remaining parts of the series myself. I won't deny, it was a fun ride, and it's become apocalyptically popular. But the more I went on, the more I realised that early love for it was rooted more in the narrator's performance in the audiobook than the books themselves. Something about the writing just didn't resonate. Were they a factor in my early reading journey? Yes. Would I read K's work again? No, before I fully realised what kind of person K was, I had tried other pieces of fiction they had created, and it didn't resonate. It just seemed so...pedestrian. There wasn't a spark, a feeling of "this writing has depth".

Next and finally we reach L. L is something of a genre codifier for certain aspects of horror (yes, I'm partly spoiling here, but this one's also the oldest author and long dead). This writer had...issues. A lot of issues. Many of them extreme by the standards of their time, let alone ours. And before I knew about them, when I first encountered their writing in an abridged and somewhat sanitised form, I thought "Well I like the ideas, but this writer desperately needed a copyeditor because this prose is all over the place." As I got access to their uncensored work, and better understood where the otherwise compelling content came from, I realised that many of the aspects that are beloved are tied to that writer's now-unacceptable opinions and prejudices.

Now, because I've been comparatively oblique when talking about these writers, you may think I'm ashamed to have had them in my reading life. And that's not true. They were steps in my reading and writing journey for one reason or another, be it a style I didn't jibe with or a motivator to raise my reading ability after many long years of it being subpar due to my dyslexia.

With hindsight (title drop), I see that my instinctive initial feelings about all these writers was perhaps reflective of what they were like as people, and how they very much do not align with my beliefs. It's a strange kind of "I wondered why so-and-so didn't linger or click with me". I've had other similar reactions to certain actors, certain films, certain games. Just an instinctive repulsion. With hindsight, I can say to myself "oh yeah, so and so wasn't a nice person" or "yeah, that figures, the one who wrote this was horrible actually". But that leads to the dangerous habit of claiming foreknowledge or greater media literacy than you actually have.

This is just one person's tale of how, long before I or other people knew of the nasty deeds or opinions associated with these writers, I read their work. And on some deep level I couldn't then explain or understand, it didn't jibe.

Farewell 2025. Here comes 2026.

 A few days late, but I think it still counts. Last year was...so much. Much more than I had anticipated or intended, and there were things that happened which I needed to...basically...reorient myself to get done. Things were stressful, but things were also interesting and great.

*Handling my personal space: Due to how the world has been trying to destory itself--or rather certain current leaders of nations who should know better or should be committed are trying to destroy everyone else--I've needed to take stock of myself. As someone who spent most of their life in a time of relative peace, recent world events have forced me to adopt a more...stoic attitude. And also an attitude where, for the sake of my mental health, I actively adjust my social feeds to exclude the names of certain persons. I still check the news, but now my face isn't being virtually shoved into it.

*The Angry House actually released: This is what turned this year from the planned complete rest and calm into something of a new experience. The Angry House, an audio drama I wrote based on a short story, won an award in script form and got produced. It's now out in the world, available, and I hope it's been a help to Chris Gregory's Alternative Stories, where it made its debut on their Spex Fic Radio Theatre program. I don't know if there will be any long term stuff that emerges from this, but I know it was a great time and I met some people I'm glad to have met in person and gotten to see in action.

*My family and personal live have been slowly but surely shifting. Some things happend last year that were positive like sorting out some aspect of our living conditions for the long term, others that were less so such as the older of our two dogs passing away. On the whole, I think this year has been one where I've become more sure of myself as a person and as a creator. As I work towards a university degree, an official qualification that will help make me more employable (not guaranteed, but a lot better than nothing), I've also been getting some new mental space unlocked in my head and overcoming some very long-standing hangups regarding aspects of my mental makeup. Not all the way there, but I'm a good chunk.

*I've been expanding my online presence: through YouTube and my revamped Social Media presence, I've been trying to make myself more...available. More...there. More...out there. In this modern world, especially with the cesspool that some parts are becoming, creating a comfortable and personable presence has become very important. So I've got my YouTube channel growing slowly but surely. And my latest project as a gamer and story enjoyer, I've started an edited commentary-style playthough of the Mass Effect trilogy. Lots of shenanigans and thoughts on something that I like, but I won't say hasn't got problems.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCPsNUSX2K2aBbEfC4C_pBN-TeT3EaxyJ

So, here's to 2026. Hopefully it's a less horrible year all around. Hopefully I'll have more updates on The Cluster Cycle because my publisher is going through a lot, like everyone sane in the United States right now. And unlike last year, I've booked into this year's BristolCon event. I'll almost certainly have more Author Talks episodes, and I'll hopefully have more fiction and posts and general shenanigans that will keep you informed and entertained.

And so, ladies and gentlemen and everyone in between, until next time...see ya.

New Video: Me on Ivalice

 So...this happened a while ago. Other stuff was going on at the same time, specifically the recent release of The Angry House. But here is something I created not long ago. My look at the development history and timeline for one of my favourite fictional worlds: the land of Ivalice, from the Final Fantasy franchise. Hope you enjoy!

It’s here! The Angry House by Thomas Wrightson

 It's here! It's finally here! After the epic trilogy of its origins and development (part 1, part 2, part 3), The Angry House -- a horror audio play written by me, Thomas Wrightson -- is releasing into the world first through Alternative Stories's Spec Fic Radio Theatre; Monday 15 December (tomorrow) for their silver-tier Patreons, then everyone else on Wednesday 17 December.

This post will be updated with links to versions as they release.

Spec Fic Audio Theatre release - Wednesday 17 December 2025 - Podlink, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, PodBean,

Alternative Stories and Fake Realities release - Friday 19 December 2025 - Spotify, Apple Podcasts, PodLink

This audio production, produced by Alternative Stories and directed by Chris Gregory, is a Christmas chiller. In 1999, on the eve of a total eclipse, a brother goes with his sister and life partner to refurbish an old house. But as they work there, strange events suggest a hostile presence is haunting them, threatening their lives.

With a wonderful cast bringing it to life--Charlie Richards, Marie-Claire Woods, David Monteith, and Sarah Golding--this is my very first time writing for the radio format and my first production of this kind. Where things may go from here, who knows. But I know this will be a fascinating thing to have floating around for people to listen to.

Read more here!

Review – Novel – Stanislaw Lem's The Invincible

 I've got an...odd relationship with how I came to trying out the science fiction works of Polish author Stanislaw Lem. I first became aware of Solaris, principally its two most notable film adaptations from 1972 (Russian, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky) and 2002 (American, directed by Steven Soderbergh). I didn't really get the story through these adaptations. I then found out about a video game called The Invincible, which was apparently an adaptation of Lem's novel of the same name. Having gone through it and now reading the book, it's more of a prequel but the ideas seemed fun. It wasn't until I heard some of an audiobook reading that featured a new translation directly from the Polish that I got it. Then when I learned that The Invincible had a translation by the same person (Bill Johnston), I decided to keep an eye out for it. And eventually, I got a copy.

The premise of The Invincible is fairly simple. The titular ship is sent to investigate the fate of its sibling ship Condor on Regis III, a planet with land dominated by ice and deserts while the ocean is teaming with life. As the crew land and investigate, they find increasingly disturbing signs of something existing on the planet that not only doomed the Condor, but has destroyed all life on land. The unfolding story, told principally through the perspective of the Invincible's navigator Rohan, is by turns fascinating and terrifying.

Fair warning for anyone going into this; The Invincible is HARD science fiction. It likes to explain itself, and grounds itself within the probable. It's also written from a collectivist cultural perspective that is noticeably different from other notable sci-fi works from the time. While Rohan emerges as the 'lead', the omniscient narration focuses far more on the crew as a body. It's also in an older style of writing where you get vast blocks of text and run-on sentences that detail events and paint scenes. That's not to say there aren't many effective moments; exploring the Condor, discovering an unknown structure, the deployment of a large automated weapon, and Rohan's final exploration beyond the ship. It is also a book of its time in that there are no women on board. At all. Zip. Nil. Nada.

Part of the reason I went for this edition and this translator specifically is that his translation of Solaris is really good, and his work shows here too. Johnston worked on the translation in collaboration with Lem's family, and it is the first direct-from-Polish translation as previous versions were translated via German. From my limited experience with Sapkowski's Witcher series, Polish is a tricky language to translate from; while the first two Witcher titles from one translator were eminently readable, all the rest from another are extremely clunky and put me off the entire series. If the Solaris translation had been similarly clunky, I'd have avoided The Invincible. But it isn't.Both Solaris and The Invincible have really good translations that make what are very technically dense books into engaging reads.

Lem's work isn't easily digested or adapted, because he approaches familiar sci-fi concepts (facing the unknown, the limits of humanity) from an unfamiliar angle. I now see why the adaptations of his work don't land; they all miss a key point. The height of human rationalism can appear childish before something that refuses to conform to our anthropomorphic view of reality. But UNLIKE a lot of modern fiction that takes this approach and adds soap opera levels of stupidity and drama, Lem continues to tackle the issue with cold rationalism. The mystery of Regis III is a subject of horror, but also a thought experiment where the participants of the book approach it with rationality and caution, all while their limited view of the world is violently challenged.

This book, specifically this version of the book, is a must-read for any sci-fi fan. Yes, it's of its time in characters and aspects of its representation, and some paragraphs are a slog to get through. But otherwise it's a brilliant exploration of human contact with something truly alien.

8.9/10