Christmas, and beyond...

So, Christmas is almost here, and with it my last blog post of 2024. Merry holidays in general to all. Also, if anyone reading this wants some sci-fi reading, you can not only potentially try my work The Cluster Cycle, (free online samples from each book here and here), but also help support the work of many talented writers including Juliet E. McKenna, Jendia Gammon, Gareth L. Powell, Emily Inkpen, and Tej Turner. Just to name a very few.

But...what comes in 2025. It's now been just a little over a year since my traditional debut, and it has been a wild year. Both personally, and on a global scale. And the next year looks like it's going to be giving 2023-2024 a run for its money for some of the crazier years in world history. I didn't need all this new dark sci-fi speculative material, I really didn't. Good things have happened, pushback has been seen against some of the daftest decisions, but there has also been insanity and cruelty and vanity doing its best to send our people and planet spiraling into terminal chaos.

I also needed to overcome a great big stinking chunk of writer's block that had been infesting me since my debut, a creeping and horrible sense of "I'm never going to write anything descent ever again, so what's the point?" I had to go back and think of something I truly, deeply loved writing within to get a project completed. I've also been going through the first parts of my Open University degree, a BA in English Language and Literature to bolster my possibilities of getting a day job. You know, what authors need if they're not going to be the stereotypical starving dependents in garrets. Except today, garrets are getting pretty expensive too.

I'm in a good position. I've got support, friends, and a publisher (Roan & Weatherford, in case anyone was wondering) who seems to be with me for the long haul. I've also been getting a better grip on my mental health, and as I go into my thirty-first year of existence in this world, I can try to find simple pleasures in things like repairs, education, writing what I really want to write and doing it in a readable way. I also need to remember to actually READ. And I'm counting audiobooks in this too, since one can absorb great literature through one's ears these days.

So yeah. I'm hoping I'll enjoy my upcoming holidays, both with family visiting and after that my first overseas trip to see an exhibition of Yoshitaka Amano in Milan. And when I return in the new year, I hope I shall have some fresh eyes and perspective with which to attack 2025 with what I know I have when I get my head the right way round: verve, humour, and common sense.

My watching experience: Older/classic sci-fi

 I'm a writer. Of sci-fi and fantasy, but my debut and current series The Cluster Cycle is a science fiction space opera spanning a millennium of history. As one might expect, I have actually experienced a goodly amount of classic science fiction films. And a usual allowance of filmic drek. I've seen people recently either recalling memories of older titles they watched way back when or talking about their experience watching them.

Now, disclaimer time, I've not watched EVERY classic sci-fi movie. I've never watched The Thing yet because it didn't look that appealing and I've never clicked with Carpenter. I've just not come across Event Horizon to watch. Others that I can't name off the top of my head... Well, the fact I can't name them off the top of my head should be indication enough that they didn't stick. So here in no particular order are twelve movies I saw back in the day, my memories of first watching them, and what I think of them through older more cynical eyes. Plus opinions on the music for free.



Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: I'd experienced Star Trek through its series broadcast on TV (Star Trek OG and Next Generation on reruns, and Deep Space Nine and Voyager during their debut UK broadcasts). The Undiscovered Country was my first Star Trek film, I think, and it provided a post for measuring others I came across. Its tone felt right to me, and still feels pertinent when compared to...super soldier shenanigans and time travel. Also that music. Oh, that music...

The Fifth Element: I hadn't seen this film in full for ages, but I'd seen parts of it. When I saw it in full, I knew: instant favourite. Not for Willis's character, terribly bland and bleh IMO, but for everything and everyone else. The art style, the gender-defiant fashion, Eric Serra's delirious score, the blending of grim elements with humour which I still find pretty funny. This has aged well for me, and continues to linger in the back of my mind.

Blade Runner: This is one of the rare instances where I first saw it and wasn't impressed because I was too young and too inexperienced in cyberpunk to get it. I rewatched it years later, and I got it. This isn't a film for everyone, it's grim and fatalistic and deliberately ambiguous. But unlike other titles in this article that play the ambiguity card, Blade Runner pulls it off. It also (eventually) manages to paint a sympathetic portrayal of the antagonists. And for the time it released, that still seems to have been comparatively rare in mainstream films/

Alien (1979): I'd heard vaguely about this through pop culture osmosis, but it hadn't been shown on television yet. Then the original Alien tetralogy was broadcast on Channel 4 during the 2000s. I think it was on a tape recorder or an earlier DVD recorder (I forget which, probably the former), but my sister recorded it, and I watched it the following morning. No need to go into details, just...wow. Still love it. And for my taste, theatrical cut over director's cut. Also, if you can, find Jerry Goldsmith's original cut of the musical score before Scott butchered it. It's an audio revelation.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: I'm just going to say it, this was one of the most boring film experiences I have ever encountered. It wasn't that I can't take slow movies (I mean, I like the OG Star Trek film, which is commonly dubbed "The Slow-Motion Picture"), but this movie just felt like it had no idea what a plot was. It may be because I wasn't brought up within Roswell culture that the alien elements fell flat (Lindsey Ellis's Axiom's End and Stephen Cox's Child duology are doing a better job of introducing me to that aspect of American culture). I watched to see what all the fuss was about. I still don't get what all the fuss was about. And...the music feels like it's trying to make up for the movie's shortcomings, and because I don't tend to click with John Williams, it fails completely.

Ghost in the Shell: I'd heard about this franchise through references, got a recommendation, and decided to try my luck and watch it. What I got was a film that has only grown more enjoyable with age. It's an enjoyable cyperpunk-style sci-fi title that knows exactly what to do. It doesn't spend too long on scenes unless those scenes need to be long, it balances conversations and contemplation with some grade-A animated action. Yes, it's a little old, and the dub hasn't aged well, but I still find it a great title and a strong sci-fi experience regardless of its animated presentation (yes, the snobbery towards animation was and to a point is very real). Also, Kenji Kawai's score...chef's kiss.

Star Wars: My experience with this film series is odd, because I experienced the prequel trilogy as it was releasing, and my opinions on it have remained soft. Yes, it has problems, but it's not the worst by a long way. I saw the OG trilogy through my oldest sister's VHS versions, and I found them enchanting. I don't like the later re-edits, but thankfully the original films got a DVD release that we own. Do I wholeheartedly like Star Wars? No, but I appreciate it, and I do like the original trilogy as it seems to be saying something. Also Lucas had the restraining hand of other writers, which is where I think the prequel trilogy suffered. The music's...okay.

The Matrix: I saw this when I was...very young. And while I shall always have a soft spot for the first two sequels, the original Matrix is completely appreciable as a standalone experience. The fact that whole schools of scholarship have been dedicated to this film...isn't that surprising. I don't find Neo that great of a lead, but Trinity and Morpheus make up for it, and there is some genuine tension and serious questions about reality and desire that have aged like a fine wine in this era of AI-generated content and virtual reality. I liked it well enough when I saw it as a child. I like it even better now. And, once again, the soundtrack is incredible.

2001: A Space Odyssey: I love Arthur C. Clarke as a writer, A Fall of Moondust is one of my favourite books. But I loathe this film. I think it's because of the Kubrick influence that this whole film feels like it doesn't know what to say from one scene to the next. It jumps about with very little rhyme or reason, every scene is at least five minutes longer than it needs to be, and the ending is a confusing jumble that tries to give you a migraine. As I've said, I can enjoy slow movies, but not movies that seem to be suffering from both ADHD and impaired movement. Also, I can never forgive Kubrick for the fact an excellent original musical score was scrapped for royalty-free classical music. The Blue Danube and Also sprach Zarathustra are forever tainted by this mess of a movie.

Predator: Once again, heard about this through pop osmosis, and I was shocked. Compared to my previous Schwarzenegger experiences, this was quite the tonal whiplash. Having watched it later in life, I still like it, even if I don't watch it for a deep story. I watch it for its unique building dread and vicious deconstruction of the action man archetype that still attempts to infest modern films. I even enjoy the sequel, which takes things to the next level creating a lead that is...difficult to like. Predator isn't a film I'd rewatch often, but it has an appeal when I'm in the mood. Also, while I don't tend to enjoy Alan Silvestri's work, his score here is engaging and genuinely creepy.

The Day the Earth Stood Still: It's shocking how well this movie holds up. I saw this as a kid, remembered it fondly, and still think of it fondly. It has the subtlety of a sledgehammer during its final ten minutes, but then that's forgivable in sci-fi of that era. It paints a still-pointed image of humans as scared and sectarian, and within the production limitations (AKA self-censorship) of the time, it conveys a lot of disturbing messages and warnings. Oh yes, and a tiny note: NOT THE REMAKE! NEVER THE REMAKE! And the music's all right too, though I've never much liked 50s music.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: I suppose I should mention this one, as I did think it would be good. But...eh. I suppose I liked it well enough as a child, experiencing its approach to aliens for the first time. But I never wanted to rewatch it. And as I've grown older, that wonder has been replaced by a feeling that this film's story could have been told in 100 minutes rather than the 140-plus the original release used. I get it was aimed at a young audience, or at least I assume it was, but I as a child wasn't impressed. And the latter half is so full of needless dramatic cliches. Also, unlike most of the other films I've covered in this post, I really don't like the music, which wobbles between overdramatic and bland.



So, there we are. Twelve opinions, and depending on the movie hot takes that might get me cancelled. I don't know. Being honest about one's views and opinions is coming back into vogue now, so maybe we can say we don't like something other people do like. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it to a point if you got this far, and take care out there. We might enter a dystopia within the next few years, but let's hope not.

A (reasoned) defence of Ghibli's Tales from Earthsea

 In previous posts on this platform, I have talked about the Earthsea series by Ursula le Guin. The main book series, and the short story collection. They are classics, truly worthy of inclusion in the canon of fantasy and of wider literature. But I was introduced to the world of Earthsea via a route that...well, isn't well liked. Studio Ghibli's 2006 animated movie Tales from Earthsea. It was the directorial debut of Goro Miyazaki, and the stuff he had to endure from his father makes me pity him deeply and has permanently lowered my opinion on the older Miyazaki. But that's beside the point. How does the film adapt le Guin's work, and why do I still like it?

WARNING: THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR THE FILM IN THIS ARTICLE.

As a straight adaptation, it's terrible. It doesn't adapt a single book, but instead blends elements of multiple stories with more original elements. The story of the movie follows the archmage Ged on a journey across Earthsea as magic is fading from the world, and dragons are seen fighting. He takes in the wandering Arren, a young boy tormented by inner demons. The pair eventually find shelter with Ged's old ally Tenar, and her adopted daughter Therru, and eventually confront the evil wizard Cob.

This story blends elements taken from The Farthest Shore and Tehanu, with additional story beats and lore elements traceable to A Wizard of Earthsea, The Other Wind and the short story "Dragonfly". But there are also original elements that for book fans will come out of left field: some chronological elements, the inclusion of a slaver gang as secondary players, the reason and themeing behind Arren's torments, and a whole opening segment that is the furthest from le Guin's style it's possible to get.

As someone who adores the original books, I should find this as unwatchable as I find the film version of Eragon. Even more so given the complete whitewashing of the cast, something that is present in ALL of Studio Ghibli's works TBH. But when I look at this film, when I remember it, I remember that without this film, I wouldn't have been as deep into Earthsea as I have become. Though it strays wildly away from the stories, it keeps true to many of the series' themes and motifs. It preserves Therru's character in some important respects (she's the character most easily butchered) and doesn't go completely over the borderline as it might have done.

It helps that the music and performances help to sell this world. Tamiya Terashima's score is one of my favourite film soundtracks, blending orchestra with Celtic folk music. And the English dub is spellbinding. It sells the world in a way that I wasn't prepared for, and makes some of the...weaker elements of the plot and characters at least bearable.

Le Guin's own opinion was that...it wasn't her world, her Earthsea, but it was a fine film. And for the first work of a director under abusive pressure from a celebrity father holding an iron grip on his studio, it holds up. I like it far better than some other Studio Ghibli efforts. And it was my introduction to Earthsea at a time when my eyesight and reading problems meant the editions of Earthsea we had in the house were a closed book to me.

Should you watch it? Maybe, maybe not. If you're an Earthsea purist, you'd probably be insulted. But it is a good way of getting a feel for this world and these characters, from a culture the author was emulating. So...who knows? You might like it.

Author Talks: Season 2 - Final Episode

 Hi. This will be a very brief post. Today, I decided to release the final episode of my second run of Author Talks, a one-person podcast which features me talking about...well, basically anything that takes my interest within the scope of my profession. It's mainly story-based stuff, such as short story readings and discussions of story-based elements. This final episode looks at how World War I, one of the most notorious conflicts in history, has been portrayed in different works over time. Links below:

Author Talks: S2, Ep7 - WW1 in Fiction: YouTube version

Author Talks: S2, Ep7 - WW1 in Fiction: Spotify version

For anyone who wants, you can check out the rest of the podcast on YouTube and Spotify. Hopefully you enjoy them.

Writing and working for a future beyond sorrow.

Poetic title, I know. But it's the kind of thing I need to write after the events of the American election. I won't dignify the current president elect by mentioning their name (an expletive is the closest I want to get at the moment of writing). Suffice to say, they should never have gotten this far. It appears the world is going through terrible times in more ways than one. I couldn't do anything about it since I live in the UK, but seeing it happen to a country where our family has friends, where my very liberal publisher is based, makes me feel very anxious and depressed. We're going to see four more years of that certifiable person's actions in office, self-serving policies that make everyone suffer.

One might ask: What's the point of writing? But let's remember, people write things because they feel motivated to do so. I'm fortunate as the UK is--relatively speaking--all right. Not perfect, not by a long way, but still okay. There are loads of books that were the better for the writing, even when the country they came from had a vested interest in not letting such books be published. All Quiet on the Western Front released in 1929, its sequel The Road Back in 1931, both when Nazism was beginning to gain ground in Germany. Many anti-nationalist and anti-oligarch pieces of media have seen success in countries which have those institutions engrained within them, like Japan and even China. And when McCarthyism and the so-called "Lavender Scare" were gripping America, fiction was created that pushed back against that reality.

Fiction is a means to vent frustration, but it is also a means for people to see something that could be made into a reality. There are reasons why some books helped galvanise popular movements against something that had previously not seen a consistent and conscious move against it. Film makers broke the Hayes Code, writers can topple and ridicule regimes. It's not going to be easy for anyone. For the moment, a power has appeared in America that taps into the country's worst aspects. Elitist culture, ingrained sexism and xenophobia, unwillingness to change in any meaningful or radical way, a political system just as likely to be a rotting snake eating its own tail as a dragon sailing over the world.

There are possible (perhaps foolish) silver linings. Firstly, this is the second term, so the incoming president legally can't run a second time unless there's some kind of sacrilegious change to the law and constitution. Secondly, it is possible members of the incoming incumbent party will actually restrain the more idiotic decisions (not very probable, but one can hope). Thirdly, most horrifyingly, the new incumbent has a vested interest in not provoking too major a conflict with the other two oligarch-driven world powers currently in the world. Fourthly, cultures and attitudes surrounding sexuality and gender once firmly pushed to the sidelines have become accepted enough to the mainstream that there should be some level of pushback to attempts at censorship (indeed some of the most radical pieces have come out in the most conservative times). Finally, perhaps most hopefully, America managed to survive last time. And of course, it could all go to the deepest and coldest bowls of hell in a hand basket.

I won't say don't rage. You should rage, though not in a way that gets you easily demonised and shut up. There are dark years ahead, but for the sake of people I know in America, I will continue working towards my degree. I will continue writing about worlds where it's completely okay to be LGBTQIA+, to be non-White, to be any gender or gender-nonconforming, to be disabled, to be different in some way, shape, or form. Being different isn't a crime. We need to remember that for the next four years, spread the word for the next four years, try not to trap ourselves in any kind of echo chamber for the next four years. And maybe, during and even at the end of those four years, things can be changed for the better.

Image copyright: Square Enix. Source: SaGa Emerald Beyond

BristolCon 2024 - My Experience, and future plans

This article is complemented by a vlog covering BristolCon 2024, which was meant to be a lot fancier than it ultimately was but I realise I'm gonna be one of those slightly scrappy vlog makers. And I don't mind. Below is an expanded prose version of the originally-planned script.

BristolCon is now fifteen years old. And in celebration of that, it held a two-day event from October 26 to 27th, with the usual Friday "BarCon" where people were social and maybe a little silly. Herein follows my written impressions of that event.

The days prior to my Friday departure were consumed by home affairs, and of course choosing what to take and what to leave behind. A simple train ride, simple meaning one change, brought me to that city of scooters, churches and beautiful views. Bristol. The Friday, of course including meeting old friends and acquaintances including Juliet E McKenna, Stephen Cox, and others I sadly can’t remember offhand (please). I also got my convention paraphernalia, and tried…karaoke. Never again.

Saturday, the first day of BristolCon, was a fun time and in parts an instructive one too. I actually did a reading from my novel Lost Station Circe, and got a good response. I heard later that the first live reading of your work is always the worst, and I think I did alright. After that, the panel on writing non-human characters with Grace Picknett-Powell, one of the guests of honour Peter F Hamilton, S Slottje, and moderator Koel Cornah. I also stayed for the wonderful Anna Smith-Spark’s entertaining reading from her novel A Sword of Bronzes and Ash, which was hilarious. She does grimdark, and I tend not to expect comedy from grimdark. So, good on her, that book’s further up my reading list.

The small group session led by E J Doble, “Good, Bad, Undefined” was a whole load of fun. I even introduced Doble to the original meaning of nihilism when he used it in a context that…I have opinions on. Basically, a whole lot of interesting talk. Stephan Cox’s small bit on “Being Interesting” was also great fun, and it made me feel more confident in myself of being able to bring together a short pitch for different parts of my work. Something I…am not always good at. I caught SOME of the panel “Sex in the Citadel”, before my stomach called time and I had to get some lunch NOT from the hotel. And let me say, Spark, Tej Turner, Danie Ware, and David Cartwright can be truly hilarious about writing… Well, a certain song says it all.

Next was a whole hour of wandering around, and that’s where I got my haul (more on that later) and met up with a couple of other people including Emily Inkpen, who recently successfully kickstarted the third season of her sci-fi radio drama Dex Legacy. I tried capturing a little footage here, but… Well, I'm not good at vloging. After, the glorious Pete Ellis gave us a fascinating talk on Chemistry in Sci-fi and Fantasy. Since my late father was a research chemist, it was interesting getting even a brief overview of how the subject has been used. Which isn’t much, basically a couple of Isaac Azimov short stories, Clarkes’ The Fountains of Paradise, and a few others.

I almost went home after that as I was pretty tired, but decided to stay for Piotr Swietlik’s talk on Dialogue in Genre Fiction, and I’m glad I did. One, because it highlighted some points where my writing can…flag. Two, because it wasn't one-to-one with the previous year's version. And three, because I ended up triggering rounds of recurring giggles due to someone bringing up erotic fiction, there being some dialogue examples, and my brain ran with it…straight into the gutter. After that, I decided to end the day and head back to my hotel.

The Sunday was quiet to start, and I was able to have a long and interesting talk with Joanne Harris, the other guest of honour. Then the Small Group Session I led, “Must Main Characters Be Strong”, was a surprising amount of fun. Partly because I had about six more people than I was expecting, I think eleven or thirteen of us talking through what I felt might be a fairly shallow topic. But, what depths we found.

The attendees of my SGS "Must Main Characters Be Strong". Over double what I expected.

After that, I decided to check in on the panel “Rogues & Ruffians, Pirates & Thieves”. Featuring, when I got there, by Doble, David Green, Bav the co-chair, and Judith Mortimer acting as moderator. I have long wanted to write a specifically roguish character, and it was interesting hearing about some of the panel’s favourites. Sad no-one mentioned my personal favourite rogue character, Varric Tethris. But maybe he’s a bit niche… Then, something initially unplanned when I set out for Bristol on the Friday, Emily Inkpen’s session on audio dramas. Extremely informative, and great to meet her again in person.

After that, I attended Gareth L Powell’s Kaffeeklatsch. If you want to know what that is, a kaffeeklatsch is “an informal gathering over coffee”. There wasn’t any coffee, but it was delightfully informal. I like Gareth, nice guy. And I had a feeling that some of the insecurities I’d been feeling about how I got into wanting to be a writer and author were very common, and… Well, things could well work out in different ways. There is no absolute way to do it.

With Gareth L. Powell at his Kaffeeklatsch

Then I decided to attend the final panel on “Lost Cities And Abandoned Places”. This panel, hosted by Bav and featuring Piotr, Emily, Penny Hill, and Jonathan L. Howard, was a great time. The whole thing was livestreamed, as was everything from Panel Room 1, but I managed to record a section related to a question on the appeal of abandoned places. The audio quality's horrible, but hey ho, I was using a phone. And then the closing ceremony, the first I've ever attended, and…well, I’ll just show you my completed haul.

My complete hoard: Ian M. Banks' Excession, Lindsey Ellis's Axiom's End, Jim Al-Khalili's Sun Fail, Emily H. Wilson's Inanna, IndieBites 10: Tricksters & Treasures, Interzone Magazine issues 239, 263, 290-291, and 295

Now, onto what might be difficult. This two-day BristolCon was a huge amount of fun, but it also threw into perspective some elements of my life and attitude that I needed to rethink. And it's time for me to take a break from BristolCon. Will I never go back? Absolutely not, it's a lovely event and I've met people there I consider colleagues at least and friends I would hope. Will I give it a year's break? Yes. I've been going there or attending in some form for six years running, and it's beginning to lose its lustre. I don't want anything I do to do that. If there is no lustre, there should be comforting familiarity. Also, I have other things to commit to, like my current quest with the Open University to get a degree, and my writing endeavours.

I'll still be doing my best to keep in contact with these people, and keeping an eye on how things go, and finding other things I could attend virtually or otherwise should I choose. But to carry on loving BristolCon as much as I do, I need to take a break. If you want more BristolCon content, and some other comments, here's a vlog of my time down in Bristol and at the event on my YouTube channel.

Coming Soon: I'm at BristolCon

Quick blog post for y'all today. This coming Friday 25 October, I shall be going down to Bristol, and attending BristolCon for...I forget how many times now. I've been attending fairly regularly since 2018 I think. Anyway, over the last couple of years, I've ended up being more of a PART of things, Not that I had to be, it's a great little event regardless, but last year I did a couple of panels, and this year I've ended up doing...several things across the now two-day event across Saturday 26 and Sunday 27.

Saturday: 09:50-10:50 – Panel Room 2 – Reading (planned to be Lost Station Circé), Panel: Writing Non-Human Characters

Sunday: 11:00 – Small Group Session (SGS) Room 2 – SGS: Must Main Characters Be Strong?

I'm also just going to be around from the Friday pre-Con stuff, and attending events, and during some pre-scheduled free time enjoying what the Con has to offer in its stalls and gallery. I FULLY intend to enjoy myself down there, and I hope to run into acquaintances and friends, and if at least one person becomes interested enough to pick up a copy of my work after my reading and everything, I'll be pleased.

For anyone attending, hope to see you there. And I'll be creating a video/post about my experiences there to give a better impression of the vibes. Enjoy, and see ya there!

Review - Movie - The Hidden Blade

 Since around June/July, I've been working on a new fantasy WIP which takes place across a sizeable chunk of Japan's history. And one of the films that helped solidify my liking for it, and that I've watched recently since I'm suffering from a horrendous variety of the common cold, is The Hidden Blade, a 2004 drama film directed and co-written by Yoji Yamada based on the stories of Japanese author Shuhei Fujisawa.

Image credit: IMDB

Set during the 1860s, the late years of the Bakematsu when the Tokugawa Shogunate was in the process of falling apart under encroaching Western influence and growing Imperial pressure, the story follows the life trials of low-ranking samurai Munezo Katagiri. From the forbidden feelings he has for his servant Kie, the social burden of his father committing seppuku following a financial debacle he was not directly responsible for, to ending up pitted against a former student of the blade Yaichiro Hazama by his clan's retainers, Katagiri's struggles in his small town existence are real and a lot more relatable than a wandering swordsman defending a town or the noble (quasi-fictionalised) plight of forty-seven ronin.

An interesting element to this story is that, counter to the typical samurai shown in the work of Kurosawa and a number of others, . Multiple films during this time, including Yamada's two other notable samurai films Twilight Samurai and Love and Honour (and Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins) seem to tear down the mythology built around the Edo-period samurai. The Hidden Blade is a slow-paced deconstruction of the laws and codes which trapped samurai, the corruption of their lords during the late Bakematsu, and the growing discontent and disconnect among different factions with the increasing influence of Western martial techniques. There is a real sense of the suffocating social rules that by this point were creaking at the seams which must be attributed to the actors and their peerless performances.

I must also mention the PEAK HISTORICAL ACCURACY to be found in this film. The setting is on point, the armour and fabric and cloth colours are on point, the smaller details are peak, and in an interesting example of the time's culture clash a retainer sent to teach Western military tactics is shown blending Japanese and Western dress styles in his clothing that makes him stand out as an almost-alien presence. There is also no modern locality names to spoil the mood (there is mention of "Ezo" rather than its modern name Hokkaido, which would've been a big gaff), and the architecture and long camera shots show little to no modern elements to spoil the illusion that this is late Edo Japan. Combine that with a mixture of contemporary-style musical elements and an admittedly ahistorical orchestral score by Isao Tomita, and you have...probably one of the best modern Japanese films.

Is this film a must watch? Yes, absolutely. This should be on the list of every true Japanese film fan, regardless of genre. The writing is engaging, the story slow but entertaining, the atmosphere is peerless, the acting is great, and the score is heartwrenching. Please, please find a way to watch this film.

9/10

Life events = story ideas?

 On Monday, I had to go to a local hospital. It was nothing serious as it turned out, but it did provide me with something every author should be able to have: an eye for people. And today, I was reminded strongly of that quality when I heard/saw a small little scene play out between a nurse and someone I assume was an outpatient.

For the sake of privacy and decency, I won't reveal this person's name or gender or appearance. I will say that they had a cornucopia of medications to deal with a number of simultaneous conditions, and two people close to them were afflicted with permanently debilitating ailments: one increasing blindness, and one progressive dementia. It was sad and strange hearing those bits from them while talking to a nurse over necessary procedures that would require them to stay in the hospital overnight, and not being able to avoid hearing them since we were in the same waiting area on a quiet day in the hospital.

This isn't the first time that real-life events have stuck in my mind. Getting pseudo-lost in a shopping centre when I was less than ten years old, hearing a train refreshment steward advertising "soft drinks for the saints, hard drinks for the sinners", being briefly manhandled by a flustered hotel employee one BristolCon because he assumed I was part of a rowdy group of young men whom he had been directing away from the convention rooms. But this also applies more broadly to a recurring piece of writing advice to write what you know. Now, I've always considered that advice in part reductive, especially as you may think you know something and be completely wrong. I prefer to think of that advice as "write what you can learn about and what you're comfortable writing about".

Now, there are some authors who did nothing but use real people for inspiration. Looking at you, Ian Fleming, who stole his most famous character's name from an ornithology book and based all his female leads on this one girl he had a ding-dong with back in the day. There needs to be a line drawn between randomly plucking events and names without consideration. But it is also true that authors draw on real-life events to put in bits of their story. Sometimes events that seem wildly improbable are actually traceable back to very real events. Agatha Christie notably drew on two real-life tragedies as the basis for two of her mysteries: it's commonly accepted that the character Marina Gregg in The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side is at least inspired by actress Gene Tierney, who suffered greatly in her personal life, while her long-running play The Mousetrap was explicitly inspired on the O'Neill case, a horrifying example of domestic abuse. And lest we forget the creators of K9 from Doctor Who, with one of the writers of his debut story inspired by the recent loss of his dog in a road accident.

This is absolutely not intended as a justification for using real-life incidents in this way. I wouldn't advise it, I wouldn't want to do it myself except in a very broad way or if I was referencing them within the context of a real world/real world-adjacent setting. And even then, you wouldn't be exactly paralleling something. Juliet McKenna's Green Man's Quarry highlights some real social and judicial issues without making direct references, and Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow is more inspired by the life of female emperor We Zetien than directly paralleling her life in a sci-fi setting.

All this comes back to that story I heard. As I heard it, I freely admit my author's brain went into action. I was playing the thing out as a scene in a book, whether from my perspective as onlooker or in the person of the patient or the nurse. It was a scene I had met multiple times in more melodramatic dressings, but this one was so raw and emotive that I might've found myself taking notes on it without thinking. I already was doing in taking mental notes. Sometimes I can find myself shocked at how much my brain takes things as 'copy'. Odd phrases, incidents, scenes, weather conditions, sequences of events. There are some events that are going to make an impression no matter what. The circumstances surrounding the deaths of my father, my grandparents, a dear friend in a local singing group. Or on a lighter note, meeting my cousin's young child, getting to have a good talk with relatives, making connections and friends that persisted, seeing a place for the very first time.

There are some ideas you can take from life. But there are others you shouldn't, or at least not without suitable obfuscation. Especially so in this age of intolerance, defamation, legal actions, and extremism where people are more likely to take the violent route, be that abuse, legal destruction, or actual physical harm. And when you think about it, that self-imposed or societal restriction can in itself be inspiration for stories and characters.

So, a final question for you if you've reached this far. If you could, would you turn something from your life into a story scene? And what changes would you consciously or unconsciously make?

Recommendation - Our Child of the Stars/Our Child of Two Worlds

Image source: https://stephencox.co.uk/

 This isn't going to be a full review. Just a brief opinion piece. I'm already pretty busy today, as I'm partaking in a reading session and a panel at today's Rainbow Space Magic Convention (please if you can register and catch today's events, starting from 17:00 GMT/9:00 PST/12:00 EST). So allow me to recommend two sci-fi novels written in a classic yet accessible style, from someone I only recently met but thoroughly appreciate having met and known. The duology Our Child of the Stars and Our Child of Two Worlds.

The author is Stephen Cox, and these are his debut works. Our Child of the Stars and Our Child of Two Worlds are set in 1969, a time of great social, political, and scientific change. Molly and Gene Myers are in the midst of a struggling marriage, not having the ability to have children, when a child literally falls into their town from above. An alien child whom they love and care for as their own. The story, spanning two books, follows the Myers and their adopted child Cory as they face prejudice, paranoia, and eventually the very real possibility that Cory's people would come to find him.

I don't want to say much more about this duology. If there is another book that turns it into a trilogy, so be it. But in my opinion, it doesn't need a third. It is a tightly-written duology that tackles social and personal issues that are as real now as they were in 1969. The irony is that the first book Our Child of the Stars wasn't meant to be Cox's breakout, but it has ended up being so. Do give them a read. As someone who started with the second book Our Child of Two Worlds, I can say you can jump in with either, although there's bound to be more satisfaction knowing what came before.

Please follow Stephen on his socials, and visit his website which houses pages for these two works.

What happened, what will happen

Hello, everyone. Happy September. So...why the title? Truth be told, I had something more "meaty" written up, but I felt like this week was better for an overall update on the world of Thomas Wrightson, new author and anxious person.

This is pretty much an update, since things are going to be happening over the next several months and I've been VERY busy one way and another. It's not exactly an update like other posts on this website, but it's something along those lines.

One thing about this year that's been different is that I have been studying with the Open University, taking the first steps in getting myself a BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature. It's been sometimes difficult acclimatising myself to this new part of my life, but it's not something I regret. I've completed the first module out of six, and due to timing the next one starts in late September/early October.

Secondly is the fact that the last several months have been difficult. Last year around the time of my debut book's launch, I had a bit of a mental...episode due to a combination of stress and some very VERY duff tea. A combination of neonicotinoids and mould will do very strange things to one's head. On top of that, and unrelated to the latest spike in COVID, our family was stuck with a conga line of illnesses that meant a lot of things couldn't be done. It means that my recent WIP only got properly started in June, and I wasn't able to get starting on writing anything properly between mid-September 2023 and then.

On a brighter note, I have two things coming up. One of them is BristolCon, obviously. And I shall be taking a mask along, and I advice others to take any and all precautions necessary because the new COVID variants are sneaky. The other is something that hasn't been officially announced yet, so I'll hold off on that for now. But also my second book's launch has come and gone, and while stressful, it wasn't the crumpling at the knees and sobbing kind of stressful the last one was.

Also also, I'm in the process of FINALLY getting myself a passport. It's ideally for a planned trip to the continent, but it opens the doors for me to be able to just...do things if and when I want. The coming few years will likely be busy with my continued writing, continued OU degree pathway, and hopefully continuing to grow both an audience and my network of contacts and those I might hope to call friends.

Also also also, there will be things happening on my Spotify and YouTube channels in relation to my podcast Author Talks. The latter especially, as I'm hoping to do commentary videos on some games, not only just talking but the things an author could conceivably do with a story: talk about it, analyse it, be surprised by it (slightly difficult for me). I'd hoped for it to be Visions of Mana, but that just won't run properly on my machine without looking like a Monet painting before he got his eyesight fixed.

And that's finally it. Everyone take care in these trying times, best wishes to Brazil for going cold turkey on Musk, here's to the next four months of 2024, and...anyone who's going, see you at BristolCon.

What I find disturbing...

 Fair warning, this is going to be pretty introspective, and potentially unsettling.

I recently experienced something that made me want to write this post. It was a Japanese detective visual novel, Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. The ending, and a final portion detailing some of the backstory related the titular Smiling Man, is--to say the least--extremely disturbing. To dance around explicit spoilers, it's a story with a backdrop that involves familial abuse, childhood trauma, social pressure, self-mutilation, and delusional insanity.

I have a deep fear, pretty much a phobia, of things going wrong with your mind. There's an actual phobia for that, demontophobia: demento, from the Latin meaning to make crazy or deluded, and phobia meaning an unreasoning or abnormal fear. There is some in-family reason for me to have some deep-seated fears, as my late grandmother suffered from dementia during her final years. But my fear, I think, is grounded in something a little more unsettling.

It means that out of the 'horror' stories I've experienced, the ones I find truly unsettling and disturbing aren't Alien or Predator or even in principle The Thing or Event Horizon. The things that disturb me can be found in Child's Play, Se7en, Copycat, Pandorum, that bit from the Doctor Who episode "Fear Her", the Taxi Killer from CSI:NY, the Avengers episode "The Fear Merchants". Disturbed minds, abuse from those who should trust and protect you: not through conscious malice, but through unreasoning rage or outright insanity. You may be wondering why I've put Child's Play and Event Horizon so arbitrarily, since they could both be on either side of the line. But here's the distinction. In Event Horizon, the darkness and disturbed actions are triggered by an external force. In Child's Play, it is one insane killer refusing to die. And in "The Fear Merchants", it's a clique that specialises in using people's fears to trigger mental breakdowns.

There are a couple of instances that actually walk the line between those two extremes. Things like Dead Space, which feature both externally-created madness and inherent disturbed behaviour. Or several Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Ngaio Marsh stories which can feature mentally disturbed individuals, but can also feature people driven purely by malice and greed, but are otherwise legally sane. Put it this way: I don't find Lord Edgeware Dies or Unnatural Death disturbing, while I do find Sleeping Murder and Last Ditch disturbing to varying degrees.

It's why I legitimately can't watch things that involve characters in leading roles who show that kind of disturbed behaviour and madness. The worst aspects of people allowed to build into a frenzied extreme. Especially where madness meets malice, since I don't and doubt I never will believe the two are connected. Films like Speak No Evil, which I've only read a summary of out of curiosity and it's given me goose flesh. Or Joker, which I find both disturbing and highly insulting. That's why the story, and especially the background element, deeply unsettled me: it wasn't some supernatural entity doing everything, but one or more disturbed individuals.

There is another reason I feel more acute fear of this than I do of Cronenbergian body horror ala The Fly, or things like Alien or Predator. I have touched the parts of myself that might be capable of that kind of horror. The rage, the unbalanced self, the detaching from reality that makes me need to touch something to make sure it's really there, the emotional see-sawing that can make me a pain to be around. I have anxiety, and alongside that a biochemistry that seems so delicately tuned that anything can upset it drastically if I let it.

Fear is about personal experience. People who have had serious incidents happen to them at sea can develop thalassophobia, people who are trapped in tight spaces can end up with claustrophobia, there are people who suffer from thanatophobia (dread of death), arachnophobia and musophobia are so common as to be used as the butts of jokes as much as serious plot elements in stories. In my case, I think it's definitely a possibility that without my having a clear and present grasp of who I am, I might well fully experience dementophobia.

Media definitely doesn't help. It rarely shows us normal, everyday cases of mental illness that are able to be functional within everyday life and having full lives even with their conditions, but instead focuses on the either documented or theoretical worst case scenarios. Megalomaniacs, extreme and untreated PTSD or mental conditions, serial killers, unbalanced predators, and otherwise disturbed individuals who end up victimising the vulnerable. If it's taken to enough of an extreme, it stops being scary, such as the madness being augmented with theatrical effects or over-the-top demonstrations, but the current vogue is for dirt and dark filters and blood and swearing and the absolute worst opinions of humanity and society.

That leads me onto another part of mental illness in fiction that is only recently getting acknowledged. I don't need medication to manage my conditions, but I could get some (fingers crossed) if needed. The examples seen in media are people who either don't engage with the system, or are failed by it. While this is a truth, it also feeds into a myth that mental illness is some kind of on-off switch, that having some kind of delusion or compulsion means you ABSOLUTELY WILL DO SOMETHING CRIMINAL. That's just absolute bull****. From my own experience, there are good days, in my case mostly good days, but there are also bad days. Admittedly, I'm not severe, but if I were, my anxiety wouldn't be driving me to commit criminal acts. I'd just be a juddering mess barely able to do anything.

So, that was me getting my thoughts out for however long it took you to make your way through this. I know I can write someone disturbed, someone unbalanced or insane, but I know it also costs me an effort. It may seem strange, but it's easier for me to write about genuine malice or an external factor negatively influencing someone's mind than it is to write about something internal. A madness that is within, a capacity for unbalanced behaviour and cruelty that can't be pinned on anyone but yourself.

For me, just as the most moving story isn't about good-versus-evil but people who are so committed to their beliefs that they cannot find common ground, the most disturbing story is the disturbances that come purely from within and--whether through active malice or misunderstanding--turn the world against them and make them a monster.

Also, fair warning, if any of the pieces of media mentioned intrigue you, PLEASE BE CAREFUL! I wasn't joking about how disturbing they could be.

Mononoke yokai explained -- For Fun!

Image source: Crunchyroll

Mononoke. No, not Mononoke-hime. The 2007 experimental horror series created by Toei Animation, spun off from the final entry in a 2006 anthology series Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales. Lauded for its visuals and audio design, Mononoke has seen a recent resurgence with the beginning of a movie trilogy. Since I love this series, and I also love Japanese folklore, I decided to explain each of the supernatural beings that are the targets of the enigmatic medicine seller. For some of the creatures discussed, I will be referring to the work of folklorist Toriyama Sekien, translated and released under the title Japandemonium in 2016 by Hiroko Yoda and Mack Alt.

Also, not so fun fact. This was going to be a video, but Twin Engine--which had the series up on its YouTube channel, took those same episodes down before I could capture any clips for them. So you're getting a 1000-word essay instead. Happy reading!

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First we must talk about what kinds of creatures the Medicine Seller faces. These beings are drawn from Japanese folklore and often modelled on beings most often called yokai, a term literally translating to “strange apparition” with no direct English localization. But, wait? Aren’t they called ‘mononoke’? Well, yes. And no. Yokai can also regionally be referred to as mononoke and ayakashi, and draw from Japan’s local Shinto traditions of animism, where everything from rocks to animals to humans to your coffee table has a spirit, and with enough time it can gain sentience and in some cases even divinity. The distinctions between divine, yokai, and even between benevolent and hostile yokai are so fluid as to barely exist. The series puts down more hardline rules about what constitutes a Mononoke and an Ayakashi.

Now I’ve got the basics down, let’s begin exploring yokai. (Oh yes, and spoilers will be present for the series.)

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First and last in the series is the Bakeneko, a cat who has lived long to gain the ability to speak and walk on their hind legs. These cats are often associated with evil happenings, but can also be seen. As recounted in Sekien’s work, a neighbourhood in Nagi City dubbed Neko-cho or “Cat City”, is where a cat loved his samurai master so dearly that when that samurai committed ritual suicide, the cat followed suit.

The Bakeneko depicted in both Ayakashi and Mononoke are housecats which carry on the grudge of a murdered woman, which is a recurring motif in Japanese folk stories: the grudge of the dead manifesting in an act of vengeance on the living who wronged them.

There is some confusion between the Bakeneko and the Nekomata, with the two sometimes being confused or interchangeable. The main difference is that Nekomata grow twin tails when they gain their powers.

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The second yokai, and the first in the series proper, is the Zashiki-Warashi, a yokai native to Japan's northern Tōhoku region. Literally translating to "parlour child", they are prankish beings who are said to bring good fortune to those who see them. So long as they are treated with due respect.

In the anime, they are the spirits of forcefully aborted children who now haunt the inn, which used to be a brothel under the same manageress. There is a further complication as one of the babies that is hinted to be a Zashiki-Warashi is the living unborn child of a woman staying at the inn.

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The third yokai is the umibozu, which in folklore is a giant humanoid yokai of the ocean, which can trigger ship-wrecking storms. In the anime, the umibozu is manifested from the darkness of a priest on board a ship trapped within the Dragon’s Triangle.

There is another being which appears in the anime, but it is not the same being as the umibozu. It is an umizato, a being which is superficially similar to the umibozu but depicted as a blind lute player, and in the anime as a fish-like humanoid reminiscent of some depictions of ningyo, or the Japanese mermaid.

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The fourth yokai is interesting because its folklore is something of a spoiler for the story. The Noppera-bo, or ‘faceless ghost’, is a being which manifests as a human without a face. When they feature in legends, it is either hinted to be or revealed as the disguise of kitsune and tanuki to frighten humans. In the anime’s narrative, a complex and prolonged dream sequence has the medicine seller seemingly manifest as the Noppera-bo to help a woman who, after a lifetime of emotional abuse from her family and husband, has herself become a Noppera-bo to escape her inner pain.

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The fifth and final yokai of the series is the Nue, which in Sekien’s work is described as ‘a strange creature with the head of monkey, limbs of a tiger, and a tail that [resembles] a viper’. Its name came from its cry, compared to the nue thrush. This encounter, and thus the yokai’s existence, originated in the Tale of Heike, as one of the exploits of Genzanmi Yorimasa. In the anime, the Nue’s chimera-like appearance is reworked as the ability to appear differently depending on who sees it.

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Now on to the movies, where we have two confirmed yokai, karakasa and hinezumi.

Karakasa, featured in the first movie Phantom in the Rain, is one of a group of yokai which can manifest from household objects, from trashheaps to crockery to rugs. The karakasa, or more properly kasa-obake, is an umbrella almost always depicted with one great eye, and varying numbers of limbs. In the movie, the karakasa infests the Ōoku, the women’s only quarters of the shogun’s castle in Edo.

At the moment we know nothing about the next yokai but the name. The hinezumi is a creature borrowed from Chinese folklore. There called the Huoshu, it is a rodent said to live in fire. Its Japanese incarnation first concretely features in the 9^th Century story, the Tale of Princess Kaguya.

Also, fun titbit. There is a superficial similarity between the Medicine Seller’s actions of cleansing the yokai who have begun causing trouble, and the practise of chinkon, where malevolent yokai or ‘ara-mitama’ were changed through a ritual process into more benevolent or harmless ‘nigi-mitama’.

Also if you want to see some further speculation as to the Medicine Seller’s identity, along with a more thorough explanation of the distinctions between mononoke and ayakashi, check out Bonsai Pop’s video which features a compelling theory backed up by the local folklore.

I am very glad this series is getting love again, and look forward to where the next two Mononoke movies go next. So until next time...pray show me your truth, regret, and form.

Review – Novel – Tales from Earthsea

Image credit: Cropped from 2012 paperback edition

A few months back, I put up a large review of the five main books from Ursula le Guin's Earthsea series. I've now completed my reading of this essential fantasy epic with Tales from Earthsea, a compilation of short stories scattered across the history of the Archipelago from its ancient past to a point between the events of Tehanu and The Other Wind.

The advantage and disadvantage with an anthology like this is that the stories can vary wildly in type and style, and also in tone. "The Finder" is a mythic and tragic tale of the founding of Roke. "Darkrose and Diamond", originally from 1999, is a fairly light tale of love under impossible circumstances. The Bones of the Earth tells of an old mage of Gont and his initially unwanted taciturn apprentice. "On the High Marsh" follows an unbalanced stranger who takes shelter in a mild farm. The final story "Dragonfly", originally published in 1998 as a "postscript" to Tehanu, shows the life and fate of Irian, a fiery young woman who confronts a rot within Roke's Nine Mages.

On the whole, these stories are enjoyable and can be read on their own, but there was much rich detail to be gleaned from additional knowledge of the other Earthsea books. Ursula le Guin's writing remains as scintillating as ever, showing her maturity through the years, and she even includes a short essay on the culture and languages of Earthsea. It also shows a pointed reevaluation of the traditionally patriarchal world of Earthsea as established to this point, showing the not insignificant but deliberately downplayed role of women in its history and culture.

If you liked the rest of the series, you will LOVE this book. And now I've finally completed it, I feel a little hollow and might want to read something else. Oh wait, almost forgot the score...

9/10

Author update: Possible Social Media Deactivation Withdrawal

Don't worry, I'm not vanishing entirely. Best I explain things.

As an author, I began reaching out into the wide and awkward world of social media back in 2016 with Twitter that was and Facebook. Now it's 2024, and Twitter has stopped being Twitter. Everyone I know has moved either partially or fully onto other platforms such as Facebook, Threads, Instagram or BlueSky. Or were on those platforms by preference anyway. And while I was willing to tolerate it as a place where I might just get a few more people clicking on my stuff after it got taken over in 2022. Since then, it has steadily grown less and less like a platform I want to be on.

So, from this coming Tuesday, 13 August 2024, I will be deactivating my account there. I see no reason to continue using a platform that my network has moved away from, and that is becoming increasingly a place I see not as a necessary evil, but as a dangerous place to be. The people still using it who aren't just...eugh...are the people with the clout or the guts to see it purely as a business thing. But when the platform is not telling me that suspicious accounts (sexy accounts, to not be too specific) are following me, artificially inflating my follower count, that's the biggest of big red warning flags I've been getting.

Not to mention that its current owner whom I won't dignify by naming has been promoting a culture of intolerance, extremism, and inflammatory statements that further the spread of misinformation. It's becoming a place I don't want to be, and so while it's difficult to break away from a place where I started, clinging to something when it becomes nasty isn't anything but misplaced and unbalanced loyalty. You should abandon what no longer suits you, what you can't make better. Well, within limits, but Twitter falls well within those limits.

Also, on a purely personal level, I've been getting more positive overall engagement recently from my other social platforms over the past...year or two, than I got on Twitter/X over nearly ten years. I don't want to read too much into that for obvious reasons, but since making this decision, I've been feeling uplifted and safer with myself. I suffer from anxiety, and out of all the social medias I've gone into, Twitter has been having the worst impact.

And so we come to the reason behind the title of this post. Walking away from something like this, especially as there is a lot of subtle and not so subtle pressure to stay, will be a toll. While there is relief, there is bound also to be whiplash. And when that happens, I may well need to take a rest. I'll do my best to continue being as active and engaging as I can be, but there may well be times when quiet is the best remedy. Quiet, and contact with living beings who aren't affiliated with a power-hungry, ultra-rich egomaniac. Maybe I would return, but that will be the day! I'll only go back if that platform which shall not be named gets thoroughly cleaned up again.

If you want to find me, I'll link my active socials/pages, Spotify, and Youtube below. Looking forward to what happens go things going forward. And hopefully my Possible Social Media Deletion Withdrawal won't be too terrible.

Full website

BlueSky

Facebook

Threads

Instagram

LinkedIn

YouTube

Spotify

An Author's retrospective: Sapphire & Steel

Image source: David McCallum’s X Files: how Sapphire & Steel chilled the nation (Telegraph)

Yes, I know it's the Sunday after my second book's release, but I felt the need to talk about this series. A forgotten sci-fi relic from an age long past.

All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel.

With this intro...nothing really happened. But I ran into it by accident, and I've decided to write about it. This is one that I'm almost certain no-one will remember outside of niche sci-fi fans. A series broadcast by ITV between 1979 and 1982, Sapphire & Steel is basically a high-concept science fiction where interdimensional beings represented by atomic "elements" investigate violations of the flow of time and reality. Due to low budget and ratings, production struggles, scheduling mishaps, executive shifts, and the lead actors moving on to other things, the series ended on a cliffhanger, and remains something of a lost oddity. Not as much as that K9 spin-off that didn't happen.

Each story follows Sapphire and Steel, and potentially a third operative, during investigations where malevolent forces attempt to break into or disrupt reality, which can be something related to "Time" or some other non-physical being which can fatally disrupt reality. The first and seemingly most iconic for some reason sees a family disappear in a house full of clocks. The second adventure, my personal favourite, focuses on the ghosts of people who died unfairly being exploited by a dark entity. The third is a pretty bleak one about travellers from the 35th Century. The fourth is a chiller about photographs coming alive. The fifth, my second favourite, is a very interesting time-bending tale where a fancy dress party begins replaying events from thirty years before. The sixth features a diner where time has stopped, and a final trap for the protagonists.

This series treads an interesting and fine line between sci-fi and fantasy. If we're being strictly scientific here, it definitely falls into the fantasy camp. I mean, we're following two non-humans with telepathy, teleportation, and other powers as they face extra-dimensional threats which can cling to the dead, revive memories, and bend the flow of time and history among others. But then you get small obfuscations of these events, pseudoscientific explanations such as it not being an actual "ghost" ghost, but an after-image like an emotional imprint, which is something vaguely tied into the fact that pheromones exist. Plus almost every non-human character could fall into the category of being an alien. It's similar to how Lovecraft's works are technically sci-fi, but fall apart under any kind of scientific scrutiny. But the show's biggest pro is that it inhabits this liminal space, and so it can use these haunting ghost story-like set-ups to create compelling slow-burn mysteries about the intrusion of greater powers into the living world.

The major cons of this series are its active cliffhanger, which was supposed to be resolved in the next series, and its clear lack of budget. Not that this is much of an issue as suspension of disbelief exists. It actually puts a lot more on the sound design and cast to carry the series, which they do. The soundtrack and sound effects are genuinely unsettling, and the acting as a whole is very good. Joanna Lumley and David McCallum are standouts throughout as the otherworldly agents Sapphire and Steel.

There isn't a lot to say about the series, and it's become rare. It's available on ITV, there are commercial releases floating around, and there was a Big Finish sequel series for CD/audio that I haven't experienced myself. But there's nothing like the originals. Those odd, creepy originals.

Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.

Shoutout to Sarah Ash — my guest post for her is up.

The lady herself. Image source: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/43796/sarah-ash/

This is a quicky and a half. Sarah Ash is a fantasy author and writer about/lover of Japanese media (particularly anime) whom I have known for some years. She has been continuous and firm in her support, and hosted me twice with guest posts on her website: first for Starborn Vendetta and now for Lost Station Circé . It's been great working with her, and it's past time I do something in tribute to her in turn. But that's for the future. For now, please show your support and come visit her website. Linking my post for her here, but there's so much more to see.

Sarah Ash: Second Volumes – Perils, Pleasures and Pitfalls

Why gaming music?

Image credit: Cropped cover art; The Greatest Video Game Music III - Choral Edition

REMINDER: Lost Station Circé, the second entry in the Cluster Cycle series, is launching in hardcover and ebook on July 30, 2024 (this coming Tuesday). Available through these links: Amazon UK / Amazon USA / Barnes & Noble / Bookshop.org / Kobo.

I have a type of music that helps me work. And that music usually comes from video games.

I'm not joking. Most of my favourite composers--Masashi Hamauzu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Kumi Tanikoa, Alexander Brandon, Borislav Slavov, Shoji Meguro, MONACA, Saori Kobayashi, Christophe Héral--are either principally known for or have worked on video games. When I heard other writers talk about their music choices, it can end up sounding like I'm the oddball. They talk about their favourite bands and albums, film scores, etcetera. True, there are film scores which inspire me or have helped me with writing such as the original (un-Scotted) Alien score by Goldsmith or Shore's Extended Edition cut of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But I look at my album choices on YouTube or Spotify, and I see video games dominating the line up, with a smattering of ambience and things like the above film scores and Aeon Flux.

I'm honest and open when I say I couldn't understand what was going on at first. Why not classical? Film? Television scores? Some of my best music comes from the modern era of video game music, especially scores that don't pretend to be something else. The more orchestral stuff that doesn't have some element of 'this was designed for an interactive environment' doesn't connect with me. It's honestly taken me ages to understand what the heck is going on. But now, I think I've got it.

I believe it's because while classical music resonates and film music is powerful, it also has a very specific context for me. It's a thing of the past, something I didn't grow up with. I can listen happily to Alien, but not when writing something other than that particular kind of sci-fi. So, for other writers who might be struggling with finding something that doesn't intrude, I think I can include some recommendations.

* Christopher Heral's score for Beyond Good & Evil, recently released on streaming platforms. Regardless of the man who created Beyond Good & Evil (by all accounts he's the worst boss ever), I admire the world created for that game. And the music is something incredible, with new tracks added for the recent remaster and included in the official album. I'm pretty sure I'll write something killer to that one day.

* Peter Connelly and Martin Iveson's score for Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness is well-regarded for a reason. It's a great mix of grand pieces performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, and synth pieces. Tomb Raider as a whole makes great background writing for adventure, and this stands tall. I even put together a playlist which combines all the original tracks (with rough story alignment). There's also the Tomb Raider Suite created by original composer Nathan McCree.

* The Myst soundtracks, principally the first two games (Robyn Miller) and the semi-spin-off Uru (Tim Larkin) are beautiful and haunting atmospheric pieces. It feels like the right kind of thing to write to when I want some atmosphere of mystery and deduction without it being as in your face as something like Layton or throw-a-dart-and-you'll-hit-a-Holmes-reference.

* For those who want some Japanese flavour, there's the soundtrack for Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines, composed by Konosuke Kihara. It's a great, bouncing piece that still feels like it's somehow set in the semi-mystical realms of Heian-era Japan. Also, for similar vibes, the soundtrack for Okami is great if you don't mind lots of shorter tracks.

* Basically anything by Masashi Hamauzu is great for general writing, IMO, unless you're aiming for something specific. Just aim at one of his soundtracks, and you'll find something. Saga Frontier 2, Unlimited Saga, the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Sigma Harmonics, Legend of Legacy, The Alliance Alive, and others. He has an unforgettable sound.

* Austin Wintory's work on Journey and Abzû is great for writing something sweeping and mystical. Just, ten tons of wow. I fell in love with his work through these two soundtracks, and even if The Pathless didn't hit me just right, I'm really looking forward to what he can produce for Sword of the Sea.

* The Deus Ex series...doesn't really have bad music. The original is a classic if a little in-your-face for my taste, Invisible War is peak cyberpunk ambience, and the two prequel titled Human Revolution and Mankind Divided are just incredible. I wrote some of The Cluster Cycle to those scores, not gonna lie.

* As to sci-fi ambience in general, I created an actual playlist of the stuff for myself. It's over 18 hours, and mostly first-class stuff. I originally had lots of individual albums cluttering my space, but merging the tracks that I liked best into a single mass seemed the right call. Hopefully I won't trigger a musical singularity. In the

And...that's my random post rambling about an aspect of my writing life. And Lost Station Circé is launching on Tuesday, July 30. Help!