Slave
Slave

Last week's Pocket Fiction focused on the port towns to the west of Meria, the setting for Claws of the Chimera. Gathered loosely into the Lutran Confederacy, the towns are a haven for anyone looking for a freer life. Giant otters and men walk side by side, some seeking a life of piracy, others looking for lawful lines of work. Sometimes that work takes them out to sea; other times it takes them upriver, into Gyb or Laurice territory. Check out this post for some of the research I did while writing this story.

Tark is one of the more piratical residents. Together with Guthry, his human friend, they're more often than not on the wrong side of the law. Today, though, their crimes have caught up with them...

Slave

I opened my eyes with a gasp. Almost immediately the pain in my head spiked, and I raised a paw to block the harsh sunlight. The sick feeling in my stomach grew with every aching breath and I rolled onto my front, coughing up a mouthful of phlegm onto the hard-packed sand.

Staggering to my feet, I looked around. The impact of the cannon shot had thrown me into a little blind, behind some of the brown rocks that littered the beach. Fragments of memory came back to me: running with Guthry, the goods on his back, a shout before the blast, and then darkness.

Everything ached as I stumbled around the rocks, looking up and down the deserted shoreline. Where was Guthry?

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short story, Claws of the ChimeraSteve Cookshort story, claws of the chimera, otter, pirates, gyb, laurice Comment
056 - Danger Ahead

I listen to podcast 'Stuff You Should Know' and it's awesome. They've got hundreds of episodes up there, spanning years of material, and it's always something interesting. They've blogged about The Singularity before (and honestly, if you don't know what the Singularity is, check out that podcast!) On a recent show someone sent in an email suggesting that maybe the Singularity (the moment when AI becomes sentient and self-aware) had already happened. Well, that sounds like a perfectly creepy story idea, and I've shamelessly borrowed it and written it up as a 100 themes.

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short storySteve Cookscience, science fiction, AI, singularity, 100 themes, sci-fiComment
Deep in Thought - Part 2

The skimmer flew on. Now that he was inside the long and gently curving tube, Jerod gunned the engine. It was an artefact of the visualisation, he knew; pushing further into the neuron had shrunk his skimmer down, to the point where the journey was taking far longer than it should have, but it was the only way his mind could make sense of it all. Either that, or Ramona’s mind was resisting, taking more of an active role in the simulation.

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short storySteve Cooknoctis point, psych, 100 themes, pocket fiction Comment
Deep in Thought - Part 1

Writing ‘Deep In Thought’ went the usual way my mind works, which was ‘Here is a theme. How can I twist the meaning of the sentence to make it about something oblique?’ It’s by far not the first time I’ve done it. Playing with words is a favourite pastime of mine, and I’m always looking for anagrams, codes, Spoonerisms, hidden meanings and words-written-backwards (pretty much any time I see a name, like Mr Radnor, I’ll read it backwards in case it’s important. 99% of the time it’s not.)

Deep In Thought is one of those. It’s about someone deep in thoughts... someone else’s thoughts.

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short storySteve Cooknoctis point, science fiction, sci-fi, psych, short storyComment
Keeping A Secret

I wrote ‘Keeping a Secret’ after doing a bit of research into coding information into human DNA for another project. I’m writing a short story that I would like to submit to the BBC’s Short Story Competition, and I stumbled across this new article.

It was the last line that really brought this story into view. I read that and thought, ‘Damn, that’d make an excellent story.’

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short storySteve Cook100 themes, short storyComment
The King's Thief

I have snow to thank for the fact that I’m aspiring to be a writer at all. In my second year of teaching, we lived opposite a Starbucks that was never very busy at the best of times. It was a great place to go and write; quiet conversation, background music, first-name-terms with the manager and the benefits of having a ‘regular’ drink. (Venti hazelnut latte, extra shot – not my favourite any more, sadly!)

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generalSteve CookfantasyComment
Noctis Point - Edits

I've been doing a lot of editing recently. Noctis Point, the book I wrote for last year's NaNoWriMo, is finished; I wrote the last chapter in the first week or so of January. I didn't want to shelve this for forever before I started editing, partly because I need to justify not working full-time right now, but mainly because I want to see Noctis Point published.

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generalSteve Cooknoctis point, writingComment
Pocket Fiction!

I've started doing more with my Pocket Fiction updates, with a view to uploading a more finely-polished product each Friday. I'm using different software again, something simpler: Garage Band '11, which is actually a downgrade. Turns out they took out the Podcasting functionality in the most recent version of Garage Band, and it's pretty darned good. I've had a play around with it, and I think it's generally better for me.

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newsSteve Cookpocket fiction, podcast, garageband, imovie, youtube, tumblrComment