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Hi all, The Future Happens Twice is one of the better science-fiction novels I have read. Its originality and Matt’s uncomplicated writing style made it a delight to read. Matt’s extensive research for the novel also shines through as I never found myself thinking an element within the novel was implausible. It is a hard science-fiction novel. By hard I don’t mean it’s hard to read, far from it. Matt Browne writes in a simple style that doesn’t intrude on the story. His style is reminiscent of the uncomplicated writing of Dean Koontz, Margaret Atwood and Peter Carey. You won’t be re-reading jargon laden and unnecessarily complicated sentences in The Future Happens Twice. By hard science-fiction I mean that Matt Browne has created a universe true to today’s science and what scientists think will be possible in the future. Some of the hard science-fiction elements in the novel include: cloning, nanotechnology matter-compilers, artificial wombs, believable androids, realistic alien li...

Hi all, If you didn't know, Sophie Mirabella was one of three or four opposition members to boycott Kevin Rudd's apology for past government policies to the Stolen Generation. Unfortunately Sophie is my local member. The local regional newspaper, The Border Mail, calls her the "darling of the far-right". I would tend to agree. There has been a strong response against her boycott from the electorate of Indi. 150 people took out a newspaper ad in the Border Mail, and about 40 letters, 34 or so against her stance, appeared in last Saturday's edition of that paper. On regional ABC radio phone calls and read out texts went about 50/50, but that was probably the ABC trying to show a lack of bias. Last Thursday 400 people attended a rally in Wangaratta to show that they were against her boycott and supported the apology. Sophie evaded a question on radio about whether she thought that Aboriginal children had been stolen by stating that none had been taken in Victoria acc...

Hi all, In a previous post (January 6th) about the future of the book, I mentioned a few articles I had read that suggested novel writers might have a greater chance of fighting off the distractions of computer games and movies if they wrote stories that did the one thing that movies and games can't do as effectively: explore the inner working of their character's mind. There seemed some logic to doing this: why read an action adventure story if you can play an action adventure game or watch an action adventure television program. In Japan a new phenomenon suggests that novelists might be more successful if they don't explore the inner workings of their character's minds at all. Novels written and read on mobile phones have become all the rage. Five of the top ten selling novels in Japan last year first made their appearance as mobile phone serials. These mainly romance novels use pauses to indicate that a character is thinking. What they are thinking is obviously up to...

Hi all, I enjoyed my first day back at work, partly due to my nemesis not being there, but more due to a new teacher-librarian who is there two days a week - she seems open to suggestions. There also wasn't the mad rush to return books before the end-of-year overdue letters were given to students. I got the quickest turn around for an application and then interview on Monday. I applied for a long shot - I thought anyway - with an email and got a phone call for an interview thirty minutes later. I had the interview today and did okay, I think. I've written some of my novel every day this year. Habits become habit forming, I hope. I am still not up to my ideal modest word count per day, but it is on the increase. I've been fooling around with technocrati, a search engine for blogs. At the moment I have three blogs, one at myspace, one at livejournal and one at blogspot. I will probably eventually ditch blogspot and then carry on with one of the others, depending on which one ...

Hi all, My holidays end this week - next week I will back at work in my part-time library position - so I finally got around to doing some of the things that I need to do while I've got the extra time. I visited the optometrist and finished up getting two new pair of spectacles, one for reading and one for watching TV etc. The pair I was using for reading has now become my computer glasses and the pair that were my computer glasses don't really preform any function any more. I will be interested to see if I make fewer typos now I've finally swapped computer glasses. The shop had a buy one, get one free deal for the glasses so there purchase didn't break the bank. I finally went looking for a new pair of runners. It would have been nice to get a pair similar to my last pair which lasted for 13 months and about 2000 walked kilometres. We had a new Athlete's Foot open in Wang and they had a sale on last month, but their sale prices were more expensive than Sportspower...

Hi all, I went and saw the new science-fiction/horror flick Cloverfield last weekend and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys monster movies. It contains plenty of thrills and frights, but very little humour. Its gimmick, like the Blair Witch Project, is that it is filmed as if filmed on video by one of the main characters. So the camera jiggles around a lot, especially when they are running, and lingers on ears and boots. If you sit there hoping that the film will revert to normal cinematic conventions, it doesn't. Like the under-rated science-fiction film "Signs", the film follows one group of people and there are only fleeting glimpses on televisions as to what the authorities think is happening. The film leaves a lot unexplained, so it's up to the viewer's imagination to fill in the gaps: this is not a film for someone who needs everything neatly resolved and explained at the end. Graham.

Hi all, A number of articles I have read lately have questioned the novel's future. One article in the Age concerned a report from the National Endowment for the Arts in the US. It said 19% of 17 year-olds and half 18-24 year-olds never read for pleasure. The article did not have figures from previous years for comparison. I know I read very little from about age 16 to 30. During my last two years of high school I suffered the usual dislike of books because of the way we had to analyse them and come to the same conclusions as the teacher and examiners (They have not heard that the Author is dead and it's up to each individual reader how he or she interprets a novel, a scene, an action, a smile.) At Uni I read LOR and the six book "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" for pleasure and that was about it. And then work came along, along with the hassle of finding my place in the world. I actually think it is normal for people in these age groups not to read for pleasure, with ...