It’s particularly important for me to see the world through the lives of the “baddies” in my books because everyone believes themselves to be doing the right thing as the heroes of their own lives - no-one sets out to be an arch-villain and to do evil things. I also need to take care to understand those characters who are different from me so that I can portray them as real people and not caricatures. And it’s great fun too - because it gives me the chance to “be” other types of people for the duration of the book!

The video is by Timo Arnall and created from found footage. As Wired explains: this “short video Robot Readable World shows systems and algorithms at work, as robots count cars, track motion, analyse traffic and recognise human faces”

I find this video fascinating also as I’m a Battlestar Galactica (Re-imagined)  fan - and a fan generally of speculative fiction about androids and artificial intelligence. The overriding sensation I get from watching this film is one of the objectification of humans and human activity - there’s a coldness about it that’s unnerving. If the motivation of the robots is to assess efficiencies of traffic flow and motion, then surely the next step is likely to be scrubbing us humans out for being less than satisfactory…

For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s an online scrapbook/ pinboard where you can collect (pin) images from the web that you like or that inspire you.

Many users use it to pin home decoration or fashion item that inspire them or that reflect their style.

I’m trying out different pin boards that reflect my interests.

For film fans and sci-fi/ fantasy fans, you may like to check out my pin board of Great Sci-Fi & Fantasy Movies:

If you’re on Pinterest, let me know – it’ll be fun to follow each other.

The theme is fab, too, of course – full of tension and explosive power just waiting to unfurl.

This version of the theme music by an amazingly talented little kid has had over 15m hits on YouTube – it looks like I’m not the only fan who loves his virtuoso performance!

I loved Archie comics when I was a kid growing up in Malaysia. It was the ‘60s and they introduced me to flower power, feminism, black power, war protest – all in a wholesome and non-judgemental way, while also being fun and funny to read.

I saw via Slate, that the Archie franchise now has a gay character Kevin, who has his own series. It’s great to see them continuing to educate a new generation about diversity and inclusivity in a their inimitable squeaky clean style!

There’s still a residual sense, I think, in some circles that comics are somehow a lesser form of storytelling, or that they are trashier than “proper” books. As with all things, there’ll be the good ones and the less than dazzling ones. Overall, I’m a fan of comics, especially as a way in to literacy for kids. My parents were always happy to let me and my siblings have comics (once they’d vetted them for appropriate content) and we learnt a lot about the decent values and current issues (as per the Archie comics) as well as literary classics (through comic book adaptations of books like Lorna Doone) and history (the Look and Learn magazines).

I’ve also enjoyed some graphic novels since growing up, many with bold themes that you would not necessarily expect to be addressed in a “comic” - notably Maus and Robert Crum’s autobiographical work, as well as some manga for light relief and the hilarious Bitchy Butch.

As a writer, I’ve thought about trying the graphic novel/ comic form. I got some books out of the library awhile back about how to draw manga and other characters as well as how to tell a story in the graphic novel form. It was great fun sketching away and trying out shapes and forms – but I don’t have sufficient talent for the drawing and visual side to take it beyond doodling and personal recreation time! I find it much easier to describe something visually in words than to create it on paper as form so I’ll stick to word based story telling for now. But I still have a go at sketching from time to time just to take a creative break and try a different way at looking at the world.

What do you think of comics/ graphic novels? Do you have any favourites?

~~~

Pic: from the Archie Comics Store

Recently, a number of friends have asked me about my new novel that I am currently working on. “Is it a legal thriller like your first two novels?” they enquire.

“No, not exactly.” I explain. “The heroine Kit is a lawyer but the events are not driven by a legal dilemma she finds herself in. It’s more about her inner life. She literally loses her soul.”

“She loses her soul?”

“Yes, it’s a tangible physical thing that she loses. And she has to go on a quest to find it.”

“Oh, you mean like magic realism,” one of my friends said.

Yes. That’s it. My new novel and its follow up books can probably best be described as Magic Realism.

I had initially thought of them as fantasy novels. But actually, doing a bit of research into what the fantasy genre is made up of told me that my books don’t really fall into that category. Fantasy seems to involve either (i) wizards, goblins, conjuring magick and a world view where sorcery, faeries and the like are real and existing in our own world or (ii) fantastical/ invented worlds or realms.

My new book doesn’t have wizards etc and isn’t set in a fantastical other world. What does happen is that the inner world of my characters become real in outer reality. And they can also enter visionary and imaginary spaces. The veil between physical, tangible reality and what lives in our minds is lifted.

And I think my friend has found the most suitable description for that setting. Magic Realism.

So, what exactly is Magic Realism?

The Man Booker Prize website offers: “So what’s the difference between magical realism and fantasy? Definitions of what magical realism is and isn’t abound, but for the sake of brevity, let’s say it should incorporate the following: a reality similar to our own, in which the impossible can occur without comment; and a self-aware narrator, prepared to embark on a relationship with the reader outside the one afforded by the story.” [my italics]

Wikipedia suggests: “Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction  in which magical elements blend with the real world. The story explains these magical elements as real occurrences, presented in a straightforward manner that places the "real" and the "fantastic" in the same stream of thought. It is a film, literary and visual art genre.”

A vivid example of Magic Realism is Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray where the hero remains forever young and beautiful, and indulges in all kinds of corrupted and contemptible behaviour while a portrait of him in the attic ages grotesquely as a metaphor for the corruption of his soul.

The most well known modern magic realist authors include Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges. While I wouldn’t presume to put myself into the same literary ranking as these great writers, I am loving the freedom to play with metaphor and imagery and to let my imagination have free rein in creating a teasing dialogue between the words that describe the “real world” where the story takes place and the words evoking inner life of the characters.

~~~

Picture: Making Waves by Rob Gonsalves via www.sapergalleries.com (with link)

Some friends and I have been invited to a Downton Abbey-esque black tie event later this summer and it got us talking about the show. One of my friends emailed to ask “Are we all upstairs types, dahling?”

I jolly well hope so – in the universe of Downton Abbey, life is only kind to you if you’re an upstairs type.

Let me set out my case.

Upstairs

Lady Mary – you may be cold and apparently heartless but deep down inside you are capable of only One True Love (and you know it, really) so no matter how badly you behave the Deus Ex Machina will descend and kill off the dastardly Turkish gentleman before he can spoil you forever, and also knock out your rival with Spanish flu so you will, in spite of yourself, get your man.

Matthew – you may be a commoner but you are honourable and decent and will forever have only One True Love no matter what, and therefore, you are indeed worthy to become the next Lord Grantham so even if your spinal cord seems to be severed beyond your repair, you miraculously get your legs back and get up and walk. Hallelujah!

Commoners

Mr Pahmouk – well, you’re just dastardly, aren’t you, so however young and fit you are, you’re going to die before you have your evil way with a Lady!

Lavinia Swire – you may be sweet and devoted to Matthew but ultimately, you’re just not posh enough and this means you’re in the way of the One True Love, so off you go with the flu.

Downstairs

If you’re a smoker and a downstairs type, you must be evil. After all, what do smokers do standing outside in the cold together other than connive and scheme?

Take Thomas, the sinister footman – as a downstairs type, smoker and non-animal lover, you will get the worse punishment. Exhibit A: one hand blown off in the same war that Matthew was in and which does not miraculously grow back. But what can you expect if you commit THE most heinous crime of all 2 seasons plus the Xmas special: locking Lord Granthams’s beloved dog for personal gain.

Mr Bates – you can be as noble and self-sacrificing and heroic as you like and even capable of One True Love but your past will catch up with you, and not only that, you’ll get yourself into a pickle again because you can’t control yourself when confronting your lunatic wife.

Anna – no good turn goes unpunished, the saying goes. You may be loyal and kind and have a bottomless well of love for your One True Love but you help the upstairs lot with Mr Pahmouk’s body and it will haunt you through the whole series.

William – you’re just sweet and devoted like Lavinia but the world of Downton Abbey is cruel to wet besotted non-upstairs types so although you get a moment of happiness, you too must die.

Summing Up

So, yeah, I’d very much hope that we’d be upstairs types if we had to enter the very harsh and unforgiving snobbery that is the universe of Downton Abbey!

~~~

Photo: from KCTS 9 via flickr.com (CCL)

My Malaysian writer and blogger pal, Ted Mahsun, shared his thoughts on writing fiction on his iPhone and iPad in a comment to one of my blog posts. It’s an interesting perspective which merits a full blog post so here is what he said:

“Re: writing on my iPhone - Well, it’s still early days. Yes, it’s frustrating typing (tapping?) with the onscreen keyboard but I find the autocorrect goes a long way in easing that pain. But then occasionally you have to wrestle with autocorrect’s own idiosyncrasies.

I tried writing a short story with an iPad previously and while it had its shortcomings, I found the experience to be tolerable. The only problem with the iPad was that it was not portable enough for me (I have the original model, and it’s heavier than its newer versions) and that’s why I’ve gravitated towards writing on the iPhone.

I find that I do write slightly different on the iPhone (and iPad) when compared to writing on the computer. I find I don’t linger on words too long and I simply rush to finish sentences. It’s good for productivity but I don’t know if it’s good for my writing in the long run! :D”

For me, unlike Ted, I find it frustrating tapping even a short text into my iPhone so I applaud Ted’s commitment to creativity in making the most of his commute to write using those tiny keys. I wonder if the fact that this way of writing does not encourage lingering means that the style of his writing becomes more punchy and Hemingway-esque.

Back in 2008, I blogged about the trend of mobile phone novels, especially in Japan ie people writing novels using their mobile phones. It looks like more people may now writing creatively on their phones.

Have you tried writing on your iPhone – or other smartphone? What’s that like for you and how do you think it affects the style of your work?

~~~

Photo: by Phil Gyford from flickr.com (CCL)

If you don’t already have a back up plan to save your novel or other creative work in case your computer dies or is destroyed in a fire, you need one. Just ask the author who lost his life’s work in a fire.

I mentioned in my earlier post on that subject that I use cloud storage to back up my work. It’s not everyone’s first choice but for those of you who may be interested to explore this option, here is a brief introduction to what it’s all about and some cloud storage services you can check out.

What is the Cloud?

Cloud computing is where you rely on online programmes to do the computing rather than having the programme in your computer. For present purposes, cloud storage is a place online where you can store your stuff - ie documents, photos, multimedia. This means you have a duplicate copy of everything you back up off site and accessible from anywhere in the world.

So if your computer blows up or your office burns down - or even if you are somewhere else in the world on business or holiday - you can access your work via any computer with an internet connection.

What you need for Backing Up to the Cloud

To take advantage of cloud computing, you’ll need a broadband connection - ideally one with unlimited bandwidth as you’ll be sending your stuff in one big batch to the cloud at the outset (think of it like driving a bit lorry full of your stuff to the storage unit you’ve hired on the first day) and then you’ll be regularly sending more stuff and also retrieving files etc from the storage space.

You need to sign up to a cloud storage service. There are plenty of them and some offer a free service for limited storage space, which is a good way to try the service out. This is like signing up for an Amazon account. Make sure you use an extremely strong password to prevent easy hacking of your stuff.

5 Cloud Storage Providers

There are many cloud storage providers out there but here are a few* that I’ve tried out and you may like to checkout:

All let you create folders just like on your PC, with subfolders etc so it looks just like your desktop file folders. You can also log on online via the service providers websites to access your files from any PC and with some of them, a dedicated application can be downloaded onto your desktop which means you can access the storage space as if it were on your PC.

- this is focused on making your files available for sharing with others (the whole world or only people you know) but it’s good for storing duplicates of your files too. You can set the privacy levels so only you see the files, or people you invite or to make the settings public - you can do this on a file by file or folder by folder basis. There is free option and premium / business options. There are also add-on plugins that give added functionality eg so you can send a Word file by fax or edit your documents online (without having to download them first)

Dropbox

- this is like Box but comes with the added functionality of automatic synchronisation with your desktop folders. You download the Dropbox app to your desktop and it is constantly in touch with your storage space online. So as you amend an existing document, say, or create a new one, it will sync with Dropbox - this saves you having to remember to drag the file into the cloud storage application or send it to the cloud. Again, there is a free option and a premium one for more storage space.

Livedrive

- this is expensive compared to the others if you want the desktop syncing experience and access from any PC. There is a cheaper option if you just want to back up one PC. You do get a lot more storage space for your money compared to the two above, though. You can edit documents online from any PC but I’ve found that function a bit clunky and you can’t edit spreadsheets. 

Skydrive

- this is Microsoft’s cloud storage service that is streamlined with their Office suite. There is quite a lot of free storage to start you off. It’s not a full syncing service as with Dropbox or Livedrive - I found it a bit fiddly on that front - but good enough if all you want is backup.

Google Docs

- you can get a lot of free storage and can add more at a very cheap price. It is also streamlined with your Gmail email account if you have one - you can create Gdocs from emails in your Gmail. If you also sign up for SyncDocs (around US$15/ £12 a year), this app syncs your desktop with Gdocs rather like Dropbox. The fiddly bit is that you need to change the format to the Gdocs format if you want to be able to edit the documents online - but if you just want to use it as backup storage, then that’s not really a factor.

One thing to bear in mind: having your documents online means you need to be very careful with the password you choose and keeping that safe from unauthorised persons esp if you are going to access your files from public computers.

For all book lovers, the wonderful and magical thing about reading a great novel is that you are transported away into a different world and get the characters you are reading about become part of you. That is the power of the written word, especially if the story, and its setting and people in it, are well crafted.

The weird thing about being a novelist is a similar experience when you are writing “in the zone” – the difference is that the world you are entering is your own world, your own creation and your own emotions, character and mental imagery. When that happens to me, I actually get a little freaked out because it feels so real. And it can be difficult for me to come back into the real world after a prolonged, intense period in the zone.

It happened to me this weekend as I was working on my new magic realism novel. In the real world, it was a Saturday afternoon in suburban London. I was sitting at my desk in my study tapping away at my laptop. In the fictional world, I was inside the character of my protagonist Kit as she cycles around Central London. She is trying to break a dark mood she is in and starts to race other cyclists – they don’t know she’s racing them, it’s just a game she is playing for her own amusement. And then another cyclist takes up the challenge and they start to speed down Kingsway and into Aldwych, leap frogging and racing each other to each junction.

Inside my head, I was there, on the bicycle, whizzing round corners, overtaking this upstart contender who was daring to challenge my cycling superiority. I used Google Sreet View to check the junctions for the accuracy of my descriptions and with those images in my mind, the reality of the cycle ride became even stronger in my mind. I created a spark between the two cyclists and they/ we raced through the streets – in the way they/ we looked at each other, in the curiosity that began to emerge for my heroine Kit. Who was this other cyclist? Why was he challenging her?

Two hours later, as I looked away from my laptop, I did not know which day it was nor what time it was. I had an odd sense of disorientation. I felt breathless from the cycle ride I had taken in my head. But I was also sitting quietly, not really exerting myself physically. For about an hour afterwards, as I went to the kitchen to make tea and chatted with my partner, and wandered round the house, I felt not quite present, part of me still out cycling the London streets.

I love the zone in many ways as a creative artist. When I write from that place, my writing is fresh, energized, driven and it can be a great read. But I also hate the zone because it can be so unnerving and disorientating. It can be hard to come back into the real world, leaving me distant and disengaged for a time in my actual real life.

In some ways, that’s part of what my novel is about – the power of one’s inner life and imagination to affect our outer, real world lives – and that is why I’m experimenting with magic realism. As to how successfully I manage to convey that, we’ll see, but it’s a great ride for me in the meantime having a go at it!

~~~

Photo: by Gueorgui from flickr.com (CCL)

Did you hear about the author who lost his life’s work and the current novel he was working on in a fire? His computer and the hard copy print out of his manuscript went up in flames when his writing shed caught fire. He is left with nothing of all that work.  I feel his pain!

So, authors, what is your back up plan for all your hard work? In the (hopefully unlikely) event of such a disaster happening to you – what is your disaster recovery strategy?

When I first started writing on a laptop in the 1990s, I remembered an episode of The Waltons as a child where hero and writer John Boy loses his novel in a fire. I’ve been paranoid ever since.

This is my disaster recover plan:

Each chapter is a separate Word document.

I save new versions of the document as I work on it by day – so if the current document is corrupted, I have at least only lost one day’s work, and only of one chapter.

Back in the 1990s, I would save each day’s work on alternating floppy disks and keep the disks in my car out of the flat.

Now, I have an external hard drive and also back up to the Cloud by auto-syncing. My partner has 2 external hard drives instead of the Cloud.

What do you do? Please share your tips as I’d love to learn new and better ways to minimise the risk of losing my work.

~~~

Photo: thanks to Talie from flickr.com (CCL)