The Tale of "The Tale of the Dark Warrior"

They say some things take time. You can't hurry them up, or stall them. Like Wizards of Middle Earth they arrive precisely when they mean to. The Tale of the Dark Warrior (link takes you to the official FB page), my novella made up of several short stories has taken its time to arrive.

They (those faceless bastards!) also say good things are worth the wait. Whether my work is 'good' or 'worthwhile' or not is no longer for me to say; this I leave to you to decide. Right now I'm just relieved to be able to say - it is done!

The 134 pages/ 31,600 odd words that make up the book have taken me over 13 years to write, rewrite, (oh so many times) abandon, rediscover, fine-tune, get reviews and notes on, and (just about 48 hours ago) finalize and publish. I grew up with this book and it grew in the telling with me. Putting it up for everyone to see feels like the end of a phase of my life.

From the 1st of January 2015, warts and all, it will no longer be mine and will belong to you, dear readers. I can no longer second guess myself. I can no longer break up those long sentences, fix punctuation, elaborate on a plot point, or scythe away the fluff. It is done, but I am not done with it, and perhaps it is not done with me. Not quite; not just yet!

Indulge me then, as I pen down the story behind this little book.

The Perils of Certainty

I just read a thought-provoking article that argues that you are obligated to pass on to your children your own belief systems - but then leave them free to make up their own mind. Go on, read the whole thing (all 3000 words) over at Aeon Magazine. I'll wait.

The article starts out very well - the author is disturbed (as I was) by Richard Dawkins' contention that teaching children to believe in God is a form of child abuse. Talking about believers and atheists, the article points out that if you believe something to be unequivocally true and belief in it necessary to live a 'good' life, you are morally obliged to pass it along. It then hypothesizes about an extreme case - does that mean a committed Nazi is obliged to bring up his or her children as Nazis?

The answer suggested is - hell no, because Nazism is clearly wrong and its outcomes clearly evil, plus eugenics and the master race are discredited by real science. This is woolly logic at best however, because the latter is true of several belief systems that the author agrees are OK to pass along.

My take? Of course we're obliged to pass on what we believe - yes, even the Nazi! However, we are also obliged to present evidence that runs counter to our own argument, and more importantly we are obliged to change our mind if this evidence discredits our own belief.

Afterglow: A Poem

"Ah, but these are dangerous waters", said she, "Now you go hunting in the savage lands of memory. Fraught with risk, yes - but oh, so loved! What if you shot something precious? Is it not better to forget?"

Sagely said I, "The death of a memory, however beloved, is but another thing to remember..."

Apropos of absolutely nothing then, from a Lost Archive, the poem. First written and blogged on 21 August 2006. Now, refined. Or so I like to think...

2013 - My Year in Books and Movies (and Games)

Finished a trilogy? Sans Ewoks? Gasp!

Lest someone accuse me of not posting often enough on my blog, or (zounds!) of ignoring it for several months at a time, as I have patently done, here is the obligatory, self-aggrandizing, and, rather fun ritual of writing up the best of all the books and movies that I have read this year.

Because I completed a Goodreads 2013 book challenge of reading 50 books, I'll start with the books, and then (because I haven't watched nearly enough movies this year) I'll come around to films. (Plus, I'd already written up the books bit)

I'll also deal with video games in this post - but that one's easy to recap right away. Like literally in the next 100 words: Game of the Year's a tie between Tomb Raider and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Short list! (Yeah, I'll write up a review of AC4 once I'm done playing that vast open world. Ask me again in 2015 if I'm done!). Onwards...