Yesterday (Monday 26th) was the scheduled date for filming to start on the rest of Season One of "A Game of Thrones", HBO's adaptation of George R R Martin's epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire". To say that I'm excited is an understatement...

On a long walk to the post office yesterday, I was trying to work out why. I mean, I really enjoyed reading the first book, and I'm looking forward to the second, but I have other favourite fantasy series, including one that's already been adapted for moving pictures - several of the Discworld novels have been thus treated. On the other hand none of my most favourite Discworld books have been adapted yet, which takes the edge off the anticipation. Also, Pratchett is an easy sell with wide audience appeal - adapting his work is almost a no-brainer.

When it comes to more serious fantasy, on the other hand, we have practically nothing. SF TV gets to be dark and gritty, at least at times, but fantasy TV is much more limited. For starters, it's pretty much all urban fantasy: vampires, werewolves, and other monsters disrupting the lives of modern-day people. Secondly, for a generation brought up on the incomparable Joss Whedon, humour is almost obligatory. The only serious show that springs to mind is "True Blood" - which is of course a show about vampires. From HBO.

"A Game of Thrones" is neither urban nor humorous; it's more like "The Tudors" or "The Borgias", a sprawling epic of feuding dynasties set in a brutal medieval-style world. There are monsters out there, but they don't make much of an appearance in the first book (and therefore the first season).

I think, therefore, that part of my excitement stems from the desire for non-fans of the genre to learn that there's more to fantasy than vampires and boy wizards. Fantasy may not have the kudos of SF literature, which at its best can be the ultimate vehicle for a thought-provoking story, but it is much wider in range and style than public perception.

It'll be interesting to see how the series is received by the TV-viewing public. Given HBO's reputation for making top-quality drama, it has a good chance of success, even if no TV adaptation can ever satisfy the fan-boys. But one thing is now certain.

Winter is coming.

It's been over a year since I bought any new gadgets, and this geek girl is getting twitchy! Besides, I need a carrot to motivate me into finishing the current draft of my novel, because I've been working on it since December and my enthusiasm is, well, not flagging, but definitely worn ragged...

First, there's the question of what to do about my iPhone, which will reach the end of its 18-month contract in October. I could upgrade to an iPhone 4, but given the PR debacle over the antenna, I'm not feeling terribly inclined to give Steve Jobs any more of my money at present (and see my earlier post for why I'm not taken with the iPad).

My initial thought was to upgrade to a 3GS in order to get the keyboard connectivity, but that's not going to give me a lot of future-proofing. And although the 3GS is supposed to be rather less sluggish than the 3G when running iOS4, I'm not sure I want to take that risk. The alternative is to ditch the contract and go PAYG, which would probably save me a fair bit of money (provided I don't break the phone!).

This morning I downgraded my 3G to iOS 3.1.3 (using this excellent tutorial from LifeHacker, because I was heartily sick of its glacial response times - and a few bells and whistles like folders and a better Mail interface are no compensation for an all-round lousy user experience. I lost a bit of data in third-party apps because I didn't have a recent backup, but all the important stuff is synced, one way or another.

But if there's no new iToy on my horizon, does that mean my gadget-buying days are over? No way!

As I said back in May, I'm thinking of getting a new ebook reader. OK, so I already have one - a high-end, if old*, iRex iLiad - but it's slow to boot and significantly larger and heavier than newer models. And replacing it would be a lot cheaper than getting a new iPhone or iPad. But which to choose?

I've been lusting over Sony's offering ever since I saw a couple of them being shown off at FantasyCon last year, so I thought I'd look into it further.

My criteria for an ebook reader are:

1. Must handle non-DRM content well, especially PDFs
2. Must have some way to annotate documents, because I use my iLiad for critiques as well as leisure reading
3. Must have a comfortable-to-read screen, because I'm on a computer all day (and for much of my spare time)

The Sony PRS-600 does well on the first two, but falls down on the last. Apparently its funky touchscreen is highly reflective and difficult to read in low light or direct sunlight. WTF? The beauty of e-ink is that it's as easy to read as paper - so why did Sony decide throw that feature out of the window just to give you cool fingertip navigation? Apple envy? Whatever the reason, it's lost them my custom. But I'm a fussy geek, not a consumer, so I'm sure they sell by the barrow-load, same as the iPad.

Instead, unless something really amazing comes to market in the next few weeks, I'll be seriously considering the BeBook Neo. It's more expensive than the Sony, but it looks nicer than its cheaper rivals, supports both mobipocket and ePub, and has the same Wacom technology that made the iLiad so tempting - at 2/3 the price!

So, all I have to do now is finish this ****ing manuscript...

* by the standards of the technology, which has only been affordable for about 2-3 years

It's often said that it takes ten years to become an overnight success:

"Researchers have shown it takes about ten years to develop expertise in any of a wide variety of areas, including chess playing, music composition, telegraph operation, painting, piano playing, swimming, tennis, and research in neuropsychology and topology. The key is deliberative practice: not just doing it again and again, but challenging yourself with a task that is just beyond your current ability, trying it, analyzing your performance while and after doing it, and correcting any mistakes. Then repeat. And repeat again."
Peter Norvig, Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

If so, I reckon I'm on year 7 on 10.

Admittedly I've been writing for fun since I was a teenager, and I've even made a few pounds here and there over the years (mainly from non-fiction), but 2003 was the year I got serious about my fiction writing.

Just over seven years ago, in late June 2003, I attended the Winchester Writers' Conference for the first time. I had joined a writer's forum (Writers' BBS) a year or two earlier, and worked my way up to the heady heights of co-moderator of the fantasy forum, but this was the first time I got an opportunity to meet other writers in the flesh: real, professional published writers, who were willing to give an opinion on my own lowly efforts.

As is well known, writing is a lonely occupation and one plagued by the extremes of hubris and crippling self-doubt. I knew I was technically competent (I used to be a non-fiction production editor), but could I write fiction as well as I hoped? Fortunately the answer seemed to be a qualified yes - and that was the point at which I finally felt publication was an attainable goal rather than a pleasant daydream.

So here I am, seven years in, and what do I have to show for it? One published short story, and an almost finished novel that I intend to submit later this year (Acts of God permitting!). It usually takes a couple of years to get a manuscript through the publication process and into the shops, so I reckon I still have time for that "overnight" sucess...

Perhaps if I had known how long it was going to take, I would have been discouraged and given up, but maybe not. Two things really distinguish a writer from a wannabe:

1. A real writer has to write. You may stop for a while - real life has a habit of getting in the way - but eventually the stories suck you back in, demanding an outlet


2. As described above, a writer who is serious about publication pushes herself constantly, seeking new ways to improve her craft and learn about the business of writing, rather than seeking quick fixes or settling for "good enough".

Here's to the summer of 2013!

If you're at all interested in the iPhone (and even if you're not), you're no doubt aware that yesterday saw the launch of the new iPhone OS (version 4), just ahead of the iPhone 4. For the writers and Dvorak users amongst us, there's some good news and some bad.

The good news is that iOS 4 supports external keyboards (yay!) with Dvorak layout (double yay!). Sadly my iPhone is the old 3G, so I can't benefit from this exciting new feature - and carrying around an iPad and a keyboard would be daft when I have a MacBook Air.

So you have to ask yourself, why not add Dvorak to the selection of virtual keyboards available? It would seem like a no-brainer, and a trivial task, since it's just a tiny configuration file in OSX. However on closer examination it's not that easy, which is why I don't expect it to happen any time soon - if ever.

What it comes down to is a fundamental mismatch between the designs of Dvorak and the iPhone. The standard Qwerty layout places all the letters on the centre/left of the keyboard, with punctuation towards the top/right. Dvorak, on the other hand, places the most commonly used keys on the home row and centre of the top row, with less commonly used letters and punctuation on the bottom row and in the top corners, where they are harder to reach.

As a result, it's not simply a matter of mapping Dvorak onto the virtual Qwerty keys, because the keys that would have S, V and Z on them don't exist, whereas the keys for comma, full stop and apostrophe (Q, W and E in Qwerty) do. A one-to-one mapping of the existing keys would violate the basic design philosophy of the iPhone virtual keyboard, which is to have all the letters on the first screen and the numbers and punctuation on the second.

Hence, adding Dvorak requires a substantial recoding of the iPhone and iPad keyboards, to change the number of keys on each row. Not difficult, I am sure - but a lot more work than adding an extra config file.

Apple have gone for a quick and easy win by including Dvorak in the Bluetooth keyboard driver, where it is indeed a trivial addition - and I'm not ungrateful for that. When my current iPhone contract expires, I will seriously consider upgrading in order to get the keyboard functionality. Sadly, I don't see them putting the required amount of effort into the virtual keyboard - which means I won't be buying an iPad.

To while away a train journey yesterday, I caught up on one of my favourite podcasts, "I Should Be Writing", which just started running again after a hiatus in May. The first new episode was live from Balticon, and unlike the regular show was a tipsy, sweary and totally hilarious session (not the the regular show isn't entertaining, just seldom laugh-out-loud funny). The highlight was a song by John Anealio, based on a quote by Neil Gaiman, which inspired this blog post.

The story's a bit old now by internet standards, but a good story is worth retelling. That's what we do, right?

A fan of George R R Martin wrote to Gaiman asking if Martin owed it to him, the reader, to finish his epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire". Now I've only read Volume 1 so far, but I loved it and fully intend to buy the next book once I've finished my work-in-progress. Like the enquirer I do hope Martin finishes it in the not-too-distant future, though knowing how slowly he puts the books out, I am not hurrying.

However, as Neil Gaiman succinctly put it, "George R R Martin is not your bitch". As writers, we don't owe our audience anything - except thanks for buying our books. Readers have no idea how hard it is to write a novel. Well I have news for you guys; something that takes hours of your time to read can take weeks, months, even years to produce. It doesn't matter how fast or slow one writes - in fact, writing slowly is much harder work, in my experience. No-one willing writes slowly if they can avoid it; it's tough to maintain that momentum, the total involvement in the narrative that makes the story come alive. Slow writing is a sign of self-doubt, and we should be encouraging tardy authors, not whining that their books are late. Fan pressure is the side of success that I least look forward to.

So let's hear it for Neil, George and all the other writers out there. There are a thousand struggling authors who would love you to buy (and read) their books. The wait for the next volume of ASOIAF will go much quicker if you find other books you like - and you might just discover a new favourite in the process.

And here for the record is Gaiman's original post, which is of course far better written than my incoherent ramblings :)

As writers we're often told "write what you know" - which admittedly is kinda tricky when you're writing SF&F! - but it holds true no matter what genre or medium you work in. When it comes down to facts (and even the most fanciful of stories contains a few), you really have a duty to get them right. And if you don't know the facts, you need to a) do your research and b) get someone more knowledgeable than you to check them.

On Sunday night, Mr L and I watched the latest episode of "The Mentalist" to grace UK TV screens. I have to confess that I love US crime/mystery shows, even though the formula has become so formulaic (feisty female detective, maverick male sidekick, obligatory black boss) as to be embarrassing. Anyway, we knew we were in for a few cringe-worthy moments as soon as it transpired that one of the characters was British...

(Warning - mild spoilers for episode 217 "The Red Box")

Now, I can easily forgive a character with a Yorkshire accent professing to be a Liverpool F.C. fan - the major teams have followers everywhere, not just in their home city. But there were two "facts" in the story that I found totally implausible, one of which revealed that the writer knew bugger-all about British culture - or worse still, didn't care.

First, we were expected to believe that an inexpensive replica of an Ancient Egyptian ring, from the British Museum gift shop no less, could be successfully passed off as the original. Perhaps to an extremely gullible member of the American public, but to a dealer in stolen antiquities? I have a handsome replica Anglo-Saxon ring from that very establishment, made of gilt bronze, and not only is it very obviously machine-made and therefore mass-produced, but it bears a modern hallmark! Admittedly "The Mentalist" is hardly CSI - it's more about showing off the central character's eccentric personality and kewl skillz than portraying realistic investigations - but this is the kind of slipshod plotting that gives cozies a bad name. I can only assume that, by using the British Museum rather than, say, the Smithsonian, the writer hoped to give the plot-hole a gloss of plausibility, but it's a plot-hole nonetheless.

The second gaffe was the one that made me laugh out loud, however. Examining the body, Jane observes a scar on the young man's face, and says that he can't have been at Eton or he would have had plastic surgery to remove the scar. Seriously? Americans seem to be obsessed with how bad our teeth are (and admittedly we don't worship orthodontists the way they do) - so why would they perversely think that that we share their attitude to cosmetic surgery? I know the world has changed a lot since I was young, but even now I'm pretty sure that, unless the scar was really noticeable and disfiguring, a young chap at Eton would not even think of having it removed; on the contrary, if he had the surgery he would likely be teased mercilessly for being so vain. But obviously the writer thought it was a cool clue, and used it regardless of its plausibility.

To paraphrase the show's pilot episode: "It irks me. It's irksome."

Now, I'm not going to stop watching the show just because of a few stupid errors - it's entertaining fluff, and Simon Baker is certainly easy on the eye :) But if this were a book, I'd be tempted to throw it at the wall, because I hold novelists to a higher standard than TV hacks. A flaw like those described above breaks the willing suspension of disbelief, and throws the reader out of the story.

Of course I'm setting myself up for a fall here, because I'm sure that sooner or later I'll make a historical gaffe in my own work that will irk someone else and maybe even lose me a reader, but I guess that's a chance we all take when we set pen to paper. No-one ever made art by playing it safe.

About three years ago I was asked to write a chapter about the project I work on for the second edition of a book on bioinformatics software. We had contributed a similar chapter for the first edition, so it was just a matter of rewriting the introduction and updating the technical details, and of course I said yes. My colleague who had written the original chapter said that although there was no advance, I might get some small royalties eventually, albeit probably only enough to buy a round of beer.

Would that it were that much!

About a week ago I finally received a royalty statement from the publishers. Not a cheque, mind you - they only pay those if your royalties are over $50. Mine came to the princely sum of $20.86 - and that's on the sale of over 200 copies of the book! Now granted, it was only one chapter of a thick textbook, but even so, they're going to have to sell another 300 copies before I see a penny. And therein lies the rub...

Owing to the original publishers being bought out, the book was over a year late - which is an eternity in internet time. The chapter I wrote is still usable, but the screenshots of our website were out-of-date shortly after the submissions deadline, never mind the eventual publication date! No doubt a few more sales will trickle in, but I would be very surprised if they can double their sales of what is now a three-year-old software book. Which means no-one is likely to get a royalty check.

Of course it could be worse. Late last year I was told to contribute a paper to a set that was being published by our project, and not only is there no payment to authors, but the publishers charge an outrageous sum of money (over $1000) -- "administrative fees" -- to publish each paper! Thankfully this is paid by the institute, not by me, but even so...

In fiction circles we call that vanity publishing, and are warned to avoid it like the plague. The academics have no such luxury - the publishers have them over a barrel, in this "publish if you want a career" climate - so it's no wonder that the impartiality and quality of even the most respected journals is coming into question. However that opens a whole can of worms that I'm not really qualified to comment on - just google "academic publishing integrity" (or similar) for a window on the subject.

My point is: all you fiction writers out there, next time you are bemoaning the difficulty of getting published, or the poor renumeration, consider the unhappy science community, who are forced to publish whether or not they have something to say -- and to pay for the privilege. At least we are still free to choose...

Today, in case you hadn't noticed, is the UK launch date of the much-anticipated Apple iPad. Now, I'm a Mac fan and a self-confessed gadget geek, so I've been following developments closely. Over the past decade, and particularly in the last three years, I've been seeking mobile computing nirvana, that perfect device that will make writing a breeze. Yeah, right.

Every time I buy a new toy, I'm disappointed; either the hardware is awkward to use or the software frustratingly limited. I don't want to waste more money on a machine that's not right for me, so this time I'm being cautious. Still, I want to look at the iPad with an open mind, and consider if it is of any use to a writer.

So, what is it good for?

Firstly, there's the big screen - much bigger than an iPhone and with a resolution comparable to a small laptop. Great for surfing the web, reading long emails, playing games - and no doubt pretty good for writing, at least compared to its little brother. No WriteRoom yet, but Pages is available for your word-processing pleasure. Add a bluetooth keyboard and the iPad becomes a stylish (if relatively expensive) alternative to a netbook. The downside is of course the distraction factor - something that many writers already have trouble with, according to a poll I ran last year!

Then there's ebooks. Apple have produced their own ebook store and app (called iBooks - what else!), though this service is currently only available in the US, and the absence of the app from UK iPads suggests you will not be able to read non-Apple ebooks using the iBooks app. Another thing the iPad lacks, unlike some high-end ebook readers, is a stylus for making handwritten annotations. I find this invaluable for my writer's group - no more printing out manuscripts and lugging them around! Finally there's the issue of the backlit screen, which is much less kind on the eyes than e-ink. If, like me, you spend your entire working day (and much of your leisure time) glued to a computer screen, an e-ink-based reader is a real boon.

My overall feeling is that if you already have an iPhone (or similar smartphone) and a netbook or lightweight laptop, the iPad doesn't have much to offer that you can't do better already. And if you have a smartphone and a desktop computer (or an old, heavy laptop), you might be better getting one or more inexpensive dedicated devices rather than a fancy all-rounder; for the price of an iPad you could buy an ebook reader and an Alphasmart Neo - both pretty distraction-free!

So what will be my next shiny gadget? Well, unless Apple come up with a 10" MacBook Air Mini, I think it'll be a newer, smaller ebook reader to replace my iRex iLiad. Though if a killer app for writers came along (e.g. an outliner that integrated with Scrivener), I could still be tempted...

I've been neglecting my blog of late, so I've come up with a new strategy.

My old blog is mainly a writing journal and is possibly of little interest to anyone except myself! Nonetheless I want to keep it up, because it's good to keep track of my progress, and putting it public keeps me honest :)

By sidelining the dull stuff, I hope to make this - my new "public" blog - worth reading and perhaps even subscribing to. I aim to publish twice a week to begin with, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and cover anything that catches my interest or is worth more than a couple of lines in my journal. Expect tidbits of news and information about technology, science, history, linguistics and of course the business of writing!