Sharks Never Die

You may have just read The Sharks of Old London. (<-- this will be a link to the flash fiction of said name, but it hasn't been posted yet. If there is no link, there will be later, when I remember.)

The Sharks of Old London is a post-apocalypse type tale set in the same universe as Love Like a Shark. Love Like a Shark was the first thing I ever submitted to the #fridayflash collector (over a year ago). The Sharks of Old London is only tangentially connected however, the characters come from the same program, but the two stories focus on different characters in different time periods.

One of the key plot elements is one that has never left me. Sharks never die. How true this is I'm not sure. The theory is that the mechanism in humans which prevents cells from multiplying uncontrollably and thus decreases the chance of cancers while at the same time limiting the regeneration, healing, longevity of our bodies is not there in sharks. They can heal and regenerate cells indefinitely and they are mostly protected from solar radiation (by miles of water) so the chances of cancers are less. (to describe the whole thing in a grossly simplified way)

People (me included) are fascinated with this idea, in the same way that we are fascinated with almost anything that could heal us and make us live forever. And yet the only way this can work is if we somehow suppress the mutating of the cells, ensuring cancer does not become a massive problem.

The metaphor here, of course, is that this story will not die in my head, but it does mutate and break the surface from time to time. For example when the Shark Knight prompt appeared, which is when I wrote The Sharks of Old London.

#fridayflash highlights debut entries. So Love Like a Shark is still one of my most viewed stories. In some ways I think this was not my greatest move, it was relatively experimental, focussing on dialogue so much it was published in script form, completely unlike my usual writing. I wonder if that didn't put a few people off reading more of my work. Oh well.

So the story has re-emerged.

One of the things I'm working on at the moment is expanding some of the flash fictions I posted when I started this blog into short stories for my first anthology (hopefully out this June).

Often with flash fiction, my own and others, people ask for more. This can turn into a serial, a short story, or go nowhere. When I first wrote The Sharks of Old London, the early line about the dangers of London at night mentioned the Ripper, and at the end the Knight mentioned that there were two of his kind left in the world. I changed this for poignancy (hopefully) and brevity. I was cutting the word count close and I didn't feel the mention of the Ripper was necessary to this particular tale.

However, when I come to expand this story for the Small Change anthology (in three years time...) it will have the Ripper reinstated. It will be the story of a London terrorised by a post-apocalyptic Jack the Ripper, born of sharks, and of his brother determined to take him down as the last act of a cursed program to make immortal protectors.

I hope it comes out as awesome as that sounds in my head... ^_~

Will update this blog for food...

Well I've been rubbish at maintaining this blog, haven't I?

It's not the only one, either. Well, I intend to do something about that. I intend to make something of my web presence. I will keep writing fiction, and that, I think, will always be my priority, but I'm going to try and keep this thing updated, in the same way I used to keep my old Commentary blog updated: by talking about the flash fiction I posted that week, what inspired me to write it, and what it makes me think about writing. So hopefully I'll go back to talking about process and technique and skills. And experimentation.

I think I shied away from that because I felt kind of like, what do I know, what right do I have to talk about this stuff, an amateur myself? But, you know what, it's as much about talking out loud, making me think about the process, as it is about trying to instruct others. And if it opens discussion then that's a good thing, right? And if it helps improve someone else... that's a great thing. =)

This is kind of a new year's resolution thing, I guess. I don't really do those, but there are lots of things I want to do this year, and I'm pretty determined. I just need to make sure I get myself in gear, stick with it, and try not to get too distracted.

So one of the things I want to start working on again this year is Space-Time Industries. My old science fiction blog. It got an amount of attention that surprised me... not loads, but more than I expected for something so new and unpromoted. Hopefully I can regain that and build from it.

It's kind of a stupid dream but one day I would love to be able to run some kind of Space-Time Industries 'Best of the Year' awards and have people actually look forward to them with anticipation. But hey, I've always been a dreamer... kind of makes me happy to know there's still part of me that aims for the clouds. ;)

The Future of the Xeroverse...

I've been a bit slack on the writing front recently... I think I burnt out a little, trying to read, comment and write in just a couple of early hours each morning. So I've been taking it a little easy, writing has crawled to a snail's pace. I've turned my hand instead to a little light editing, which I'd fallen behind on a bit, and a bit more reading.

Even so I can't not write... a scribble here and there, a jotted note, a patter of fingers over keyboard. Seeing a pair of gunships over on the concept ships blog inspired a few short paragraphs, the opening of a new flash (and I need new flashes, I'm still short for Torn Pages, although I do have a couple of months' worth in-hand, I'm not getting desperate, just approaching the limit of what I'm happy with).

This 'pressure', to write new and edit the old and everything else, has lead me to a decision... I'm going to take holidays between chapters.

It makes the chapters shorter, for one, just five months-worth of flash instead of six, which is more manageable. But not only that, it gives me a chance to have a break from everything except the writing. Which is the reason I do what I do. For the love of writing. So of course I'm not going to stop writing. The 'holiday' (I'll still have to do the day job, unfortunately ;) ) is a chance to relax and get some new things out without the added pressure of having to have a completely finished piece for a Sunday and Wednesday (I'll probably pause the 101, too).

And that's important to me, the 'finished' aspect. I can be happy with a first draught, but never will I think one draft is enough to call something finished. Time and space and a fresh mind are all things that need to be brought to bear on a piece of writing before it can be anything but unfinished.

On a side note... I'm amused by the concept of time and space being brought to bear on something, when what I mean is that I won't be paying it any kind of attention...

So June will see the end of Torn Pages. July will see the first anniversary of Missing Pieces (and I hope to have something special for that), and August will see the start of Chapter 3, Spare Parts.

I've even (because I can't help but have ideas) got a theme in mind for chapter 4. Yep, thinking about 2012 already, and I've just said I'm having enough trouble keeping up with the now... I know, I know!

Provisionally titled Mirror Shards, chapter 4 will mostly consist of remixes (or rewrites, maybe) of earlier work, particularly things from Hidden Tracks. In fact remixes were something me and Dee used to do with each other's work back on Hidden Tracks. It's partly because I'm still really proud of what we wrote back then, and I like re-visiting it, re-reading it, and I kind of want the opportunity to re-promote it... =)