fiat_knox

So Thursday night, the Seven Stars pub will host a literature open mic event.

It looks like an event for poets, for the most part. I'll just make sure to stack up on my poetry before going there, and put it on my Kobo for reading out loud.

I'd love to include an excerpt from one of my blogs. Perhaps the Architect Dream?

I don't. People like me never take a holiday, because our Duty never ends.

Created by: OnlineMBAPrograms.org

"Learn hypnosis. Soon as possible. It's easy. Here's a book. No, it hasn't been written. You haven't written it yet.

"Also, fuck more once you're legal, smoke less, get comfy going naked and - hey, why are you running towards those coppers? Oh, shit ..."

So the Feds have busted a terrorist plot by white racists to instigate a Helter Skelter race war in Florida. Yes, the Charles Manson reference is apposite - it's the same dickhead lunacy he was planning when he murdered Sharon Tate. Hate, as lethal as shark's teeth, sadistic, cold and cruel and sharp and deadly.

So why is this reported as "Weird News" by Yahoo?

If this had been a bunch of Islamists, the news editor would have put this shit right on the front page, top bastard headline, huge font, can't fucking miss it, LOOK AT THE ALIEN JOHNNY FURRINER COME TO DESTROY US ALL WAAAGH DRAMA!!!1

But because these guys are WHITE guys, they allocate it to the same column as the skateboarding ducks and the fat guy who got his entire body tattooed to look like a leopard, taking nude baths in baked beans for charidee. The crappy, lazy Silly Season column that they mine for "And Finally" articles just before the half-naked giggly blonde weather girl with the big boobs making an appearance on screen between pregnancies. The funny news, easily glossed over with a silly boing soundtrack and - more insidiously - easily and quickly forgotten.

So they live within shouting distance of Disney World, so that makes all the difference because, what? Some radiation produced by Disney World meant that they were never going to actually harm anybody, but just give all their victims wedgies? Because, what, they were going to commit their crimes while wearing Mickey Mouse costumes or something?

Here. Share my disgust with the human species. A little slice of Hell. And tell the news editors that this shit makes the front pages, not cosying up with the fucking skateboarding nuns just after the sports. Terrorism is terrorism. These white men and women are terrorists - not "home grown," but just "terrorists." Don't soften the blow just because they are white bastards, or give them a special privilege not given to other people. Give them the same treatment you would give them if they were non-whites, Yahoo News, you fucking racist cunts.

Feds bust evil bastards - this should be front page news

In the early Nineties, I wrote a cyberpunk story, "Memory's Run," and as part of that story Memory, the protagonist, smoked these tobacco-free nicotine "smokes" that blew a hit of evaporated nicotine into the back of her throat for an instant, immediate nicotine hit. No carcinogens like formaldehyde, benzene and phenol; no tar and fine ash to coat the alveoli of the lungs. Memory also smoked a caffeine stick, delivering an instant hit, better than a cup of espresso.

Bring it forward to today. I spotted a new thing in the newsagent where I get my 2000 AD and pay my bills: electronic cigarettes. The main battery is in the long white part; the payload, in the brown part that looks like a filter.

From what I can tell, the things look like cigarettes. I saw someone using them in town, seemingly as a novelty. The end of it glows green, some sort of LED in the tip, and I saw a cloud of white smoke: but not smoke. Some sort of steam, laced with the nicotine payload.

I've dug up my old story and I'll probably want to bring it up to date for 2012, but damn did I get the vaping bit right.

Right down to the caffeine vape and even an alcohol vape, both recent French inventions.

This promotional for a movie called The Heart of No Place strikes a warm chord in me.

( Behind here. )

More promotionals to follow.

Qapla'!

Never thought I'd see the day when I found myself considering the serious possibility that I may end up with the credit "Script Consultant" to my name, but that seems to have happened last month, when two sources independently took my advice on writing their movie scripts. Even if only one of them honours the script, that still means a writing credit to my name, so to speak, and something to take to a publisher.

Gonna have to think about what this means, and how I could use this connection, however tenuous, to leverage a more solid lead for a writing career. Imagine the autonomy and independence coming from an actual role of script consultant or - better yet - screenwriter. Dear Gods, the possibilities.

Give me a chance. That is all I have ever asked anyone; just give me a chance and I will shine. And it seems that the chance to shine may well have begun to dawn for me. I feel ready to take on the world this evening, and all because of the month just gone - April 2012.

You have to admit, the possibility of this happening never would have occurred to me in a million years before this last month, and the last week or two just gone. And to happen independently, twice over? It seems to have come on like buses. You wait for ages, and then two turn up at the same time.

Up until now, I never entertained the thought. I had dreamed about it, and it made a pleasant fantasy - but when this started, it came like a sudden, brain-freezing shock, a moment of aporia. I still can hardly digest it.

Never accuse me of shrinking from a challenge, though. I have already risen to the occasion; I just hope they have accepted what I have given them, and that my suggestions will appear in the finished movies, along with full credit as the aforementioned "Script Consultant." For what it's worth.

Gonna have to go and lie down in a while, because I can't really process the events of the month. My blogs have started to take off; I have a Yahoo Group devoted to Hypnotic Erotic; despite the disastrous showing earlier this month, I have a flat to die for; and, most of all, my novel has restarted. And it looks punchier and smarter than the Fourth Rewrite, so I had better get it written as quickly as I can before it loses momentum again.

Let me savour these moments of sweet victory, O deities that protect writers, fools and Chaoticians such as I. I need a break from all this beating my head against a brick wall, and the last two weeks have felt like just such a holiday from failure.

You may laugh, but in truth I have needed the past two weeks as a refresher. I have a lead to follow this month, as well - a new competition for people to write a text Dredd story. My kind of tale, because I've never written a Dredd before. 2000 words, deadline 23rd May. I'll try to get it in before that time. And who knows where that may lead too.

Down is a feeling I have been far too accustomed with of late. This last two weeks has broken the spell, and left me feeling that rare contentment of having seen a break, a lead, a chance for some measure of success, and having seized the opportunity, and having that opportunity rewarded. And that is good enough for me.

I know a young lady who swallowed some wine.
She felt just fine when she swallowed the wine.
She's twenty nine.

I know a young lady who swallowed some cider.
It fizzled and bubbled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the cider to chase the wine.
She felt just fine when she swallowed the wine.
She's twenty nine.

I know a young lady who swallowed some beer.
She lost all her fear when she swallowed the beer.
She swallowed the beer to chase the cider,
That fizzled and bubbled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the cider to chase the wine.
She felt just fine when she swallowed the wine.
She's twenty nine.

I know a young lady who swallowed some whisky,
That warmed up her cockles and made her all frisky.
She swallowed the whisky to chase the beer.
She swallowed the beer to chase the cider,
That fizzled and bubbled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the cider to chase the wine.
She felt just fine when she swallowed the wine.
She's twenty nine.

I know a young lady who swallowed some brandy.
She was getting quite randy when she swallowed the brandy.
She swallowed the brandy to chase the whisky.
She swallowed the whisky to chase the beer.
She swallowed the beer to chase the cider,
That fizzled and bubbled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the cider to chase the wine.
She felt just fine when she swallowed the wine.
She's twenty nine.

I know a young lady who swallowed some shots.
She loved them lots, those three vodka shots.
She swallowed the shots to chase the brandy.
She swallowed the brandy to chase the whisky.
She swallowed the whisky to chase the beer.
She swallowed the beer to chase the cider,
That fizzled and bubbled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the cider to chase the wine.
She felt just fine when she swallowed the wine.
She's twenty nine.

I know a young lady who swallowed some gin.
It felt like a sin when she swallowed the gin.
She swallowed the gin to chase the shots.
She swallowed the shots to chase the brandy.
She swallowed the brandy to chase the whisky.
She swallowed the whisky to chase the beer.
She swallowed the beer to chase the cider,
That fizzled and bubbled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the cider to chase the wine.
She felt just fine when she swallowed the wine.
She's twenty nine.

I know a young lady who swallowed some rum.
She wanted to cum when she swallowed the rum.
She swallowed the rum to chase the gin.
She swallowed the gin to chase the shots.
She swallowed the shots to chase the brandy.
She swallowed the brandy to chase the whisky.
She swallowed the whisky to chase the beer.
She swallowed the beer to chase the cider,
That fizzled and bubbled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the cider to chase the wine.
She felt just fine when she swallowed the wine.
She's twenty nine.

I know a young lady who swallowed a cock.
It made her jaw lock, when she swallowed the cock.
She swallowed the cock to chase the rum.
She swallowed the rum to chase the gin.
She swallowed the gin to chase the shots.
She swallowed the shots to chase the brandy.
She swallowed the brandy to chase the whisky.
She swallowed the whisky to chase the beer.
She swallowed the beer to chase the cider,
That fizzled and bubbled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the cider to chase the wine.
She felt just fine when she swallowed the wine.
She's twenty nine.

I know a young lady who swallowed some spunk.
She was very drunk.