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It has been an interesting time to be researching an article on the National Disability Insurance Scheme in Australia, with lots of discussion about it in the Australia media and on social media. My aim is to write an article based on interviews with one or two of the participants in the scheme. So I joined a Facebook discussion group on the NDIS and hoped to find someone who was part of the Barwon regional trial in Victoria to interview. I decided to lurk for a while to see what they were talking about and hopefully identify a few people to approach who were part of the Barwon trial. Beaten to the Request Unfortunately, while still lurking, a journalist from The Australian posted an interview request. I worried what sort of interview he would conduct. For those who don’t know, on the night of the last federal election Rupert Murdoch, the owner of The Australian , tweeted something along the lines of “now we can get rid of all these welfare bludgers.” So I worried t...

I am sorry Transcendence , but you seem doomed to be ridiculed and scorned, because I liked you. My favourite films of the past two years all suffered the same fate. Last year it was Oblivion , the year before Prometheus . The year before that Rise of the Planet of the Apes was ignored by most science-fiction viewers. I liked them all because they gave me plenty to think about. I am sick and tired of science-fiction films that are instantly forgotten the moment you leave the cinema, like the Iron Man and Star Trek franchises, and all those science-fiction movies that I have seen and forgotten. I liked Prometheus , Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Oblivion because they all tried to explore ideas, rather than just explore special effects. Why I liked Transcendence.  There are two main reasons that I liked Transcendence . First is its ambiguity: the story deliberately left many of its questions open to interpretation. The second reason I liked Transcendence...

I was watching the movie After Earth the other night. It was released last year to a savaging by the critics, so I did not expect much. For those of you who missed it, After Earth is a Will Smith production vehicle for his son. It is set in the future where aliens have devastated Earth, and humanity has fled to the rest of the galaxy. General Will Smith and his recruit son are on a ship that just happens to be carrying a captured alien. It could not possibly escape, could it? The alien is a large reptile like creature, that is blind and relies on its sense of smell to hunt its prey. It can smell and track the pheromones humans release when they are scared. Right there and then, I knew the whole plot of the movie was going to be about Will Smith Junior overcoming his fear so he could get close enough to kill the alien. Pretty lame.  The ship is caught in a meteor storm. General Smith orders the ship to make a risky space jump and guess where they end up? Crash landing...

For a while now, I, like many other writers, have been wondering how well independent or self-published authors are doing in the ebook market compared to those who use traditional publishers. There is so much secrecy in the publishing industry that it is hard to tell. But I have just read a report, written by Hugh Howey, that suggests indie ebook authors are doing very well when compared to those who use traditional publishers. For those who don’t know, Hugh Howey is a science-fiction author whose self-published Wool series has sold millions of ebooks. He was offered a million dollar deal to sign with traditional publisher Simon and Schuster. The original offer was to distribute Wool to book retailers across the US and Canada and included the ebook rights. But Howey decided to keep the ebook rights and took a six figure deal instead.   Howey recently wrote a report based on data he obtained from a software program that trawled the web for information on ebooks sales...