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I have decided to do National Novel Writing Month once more. I successfully completed it in 2011 and 2012. The aim of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel in November. My main reason for doing NaNoWriMo again is to motivate myself. Apart from the actual month, I know from previous years that my writing output is greater in the months after NaNoWriMo. What Will I Write? I intend to resurrect one of the novels I started writing during my masters. One is a young adult novel, Branded. I wrote the first two chapters of it for a Writing for Young Adults subject. It is a different take on alien abduction, more about the actual abduction and trying to escape, than the aftermath. The other manuscript is based on a short story I submitted during the course called Me, Arizona and the Spike. The story is about the transition of humanity during the technological singularity.   I started to expand that short story into a novel during a vacation break in my masters, writi...

A few weeks back I declared I would no longer buy print books or ebooks from Amazon, including its subsidiary The Book Depository if I could get them somewhere else. I am sick of Amazon’s predatory and monopolistic behaviour. I don’t like their avoidance of tax, especially in Australia, and I have read they treat their workers badly. More importantly, Amazon seems to be having a detrimental effect on Australian publishers. I decided I would rather pay more for my books and ebooks than contribute to a poor corporate citizen like Amazon. Not So Difficult to Avoid Amazon   I worried about how often I would have to use Amazon or its subsidiary when they are the only source of a book or an ebook. So I decided to check on the availability of the last eleven books/ebooks I had purchased, eight were print books, three were ebooks. To my surprise, I found all eleven books could be easily purchased from sources other than Amazon or The Book Depository.   But It W...

Maddaddam is the third book in a Margaret Atwood apocalyptic science fiction trilogy that began with Oryx and Crake , followed by a prequel, The Year of the Flood . Maddaddam is a sequel to both of the earlier books. The novels are set in a future that could be just around the corner. The Year of the Flood is set in a world on the brink of collapse due to environment degradation and the rampant and totally unethical business operations of a mega multi-national. Everything has been privatised, including law enforcement, and government welfare services are non-existent. The story revolves around a commune of refugees from the world, who live in an abandoned apartment block. They grow food on its rooftop and recycle the detritus of society. The commune is led by Addam, who is set on getting his followers ready for the inevitable collapse of civilisation. Much of the story concerns Toby, a woman who escapes to the commune to avoid certain rape and murder at the fast food re...