A collection of my fictional scratchings.
I have always been a fan of the short, witty Science-Fiction vignettes of the early Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov.
And don't get me started on the Genius of Robert Heinlein, or the sheer fun of E.E. 'Doc' Smith.
So here is my tribute to all the writers that have given me such joy over the years. If "Vrying Pan", "Travel by Wire", "Resublimated Thiotimoline" and "The Winnowing" mean anything to you, then read on, good visitor!
Don't expect long works here, just a few short, hopefully sharp and enjoyable pieces, with maybe a surprise or two thrown in.
Like it? Hate it? Let me know! Mail me at:
On a recent project, I accidentally wiped the entire computer I was working on by typing 'rm -rf . /*' instead of 'rm -rf ./*'. The extra space makes a lot of difference!
This got me thinking about how one might make a hash of things in the future...
A story about unintended consequences.
Newton should have just taken that damnned apple home and made fruit salad.
A little PG13-level language.
My homage to E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith’s classic ‘Lensman’ series. Space Opera at its finest!
The trick here is to correctly emulate Smith’s style. I hope I have managed to get it right. I am boldly, wildly, merrily splicing words that have never before been spliced!
Always read the fine print. If you can.
I guess that there is a light Stargate influence to this one.
Gather round children, for this bedtime story.
Every invention has to have a beginning...of some sort.
Another story from the Lensman 'universe.'
Inspired by a discussion regarding the Lens' role in civilization, viz.: is the Lens just a warrior's tool or not?
Driving around my neighbourhood the other day, I came across some fresh "street artistry."
Here's what I would like to do to whoever inflicted it upon my community and I...
Men are from Terra, Women are from Quaxxis.
"Write about what you know", they say. OK then: there's a bit of autobiographical material in here...believe it or not!
I rarely recall my dreams but this came to me, fully formed, as I was waking up one cold morning.
All I had to do was type it up and there it was. I did have a little fun with the alliteration and punning, though.
A little PG13-level language.
A little piece inspired by io9’s Lauren Davis’ Concept Art Writing Prompt: A Cat's Eye View of a Spaceship.
I think I'm channelling 'Doc Smith again...with a hat nod to Iain M. Banks, perhaps?
I hate shopping! My wife loves it, unfortunately! This is my way of rebelling ;-)
This is predictive, you mark my words.
Did I mention I hate shopping?
A little PG13-level language.
This came from a rather vivid dream: a black hooded figure coming out of the fog, offering me a piece of black cloth that then turned into a bowl made up from a tessellation of perfectly fitting spiky/sharp-cornered segments.
It has taken me five rewrites to get a proper story-line going, but I think/hope I have something fairly coherent now.
Arthur C. Clarke's lovely 1937 story "Travel by Wire!" presented a wonderfully optimistic account of how we first got instantaneous travel. This is my take on the theme, consisting of a good serving of 21st century cynicism washed down with a tiny bit of hope.
A rather black account of Humanity's first successful journey to another star.
I strongly suggest that NASA looks into the idea of swarm ships. I'll happily claim copyright on the idea!
A while back, I was passed on the road by what was obviously a nearly-brand-spankin'-new fire-engine. I say 'nearly' new because someone had quite obviously rectified one small design flaw by taping a tennis ball over a sharp corner with a good helping of duct-tape. This got me thinking...
Hair is just so important to humans, it seems...important enough that we make many skewed decisions as a result.
