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Reminder: One week to go till start of Sci-Fi-London 48hr Flash Fiction Challenge

31/3/2017

It's back: the famous SCI-FI-LONDON 48hr Flash Fiction Challenge is just three weeks away - UPDATED

Once again Urban Fantasist is pleased to be supporting the SCI-FI-LONDON 48hr Flash Fiction Challenge which starts at 11am on Saturday 8th April - which is just three weeks away now! And, once again UF's Charles Christian will be chairing the challenge jury. ( Which sounds impressive but basically means counting up the votes!)

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On this day in history: first TV set installed in Downing Street

31/3/2017

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At 10:00am on the morning of 31st March 1930, the Scottish engineer John Logie Baird installed a television set at 10 Downing Street, the home of the UK prime minister. At 8:00pm on 31st March 1930, No 10 Downing Street call John Logie Baird to complain there's nothing on television except repeats of The Vicar of Dibley ...probably.

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File under 'Modern Life Sucks' - again

31/3/2017

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My local branch of NFU Mutual insurance has introduced a new call centre operation - calls now take forever to be answered. At the end of my call I was asked to take part in a user satisfaction survey - first question was how did I rate the service on a scale of 1 to 5 - when I replied '1' the line went dead. Says it all.

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New teaser trailer for upcoming Valerian movie just dropped

30/3/2017

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For anyone unfamiliar with the Valerian saga, it began life in 1967 in France as an illustrated comic book series and you can see its visuals were the inspiration for subsequent movies, including the original Star Wars trilogy, right down to Princess Leia's metallic slave-girl bikini and the design of the Millennium Falcon.

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ThrowBack Thursday: Dystopian Edition - how the 1987 movie The Running Man predicted life would be like in 2017

30/3/2017

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New 5 Star review for the 12 Rules

29/3/2017

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Over 138 weeks in Amazon's writing reference books bestsellers Top 20.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MELTC84
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00MELTC84

5.0 out of 5 stars - Excellent for new or inexperienced fiction writers - by Avid Reader Amazon Top 100 Reviewer

I started to read the book because of the sub-title - "creating imaginary worlds", and I expected it to be all about world creation in sci-fi & fantasy. You know, how to create fantasy worlds like Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Whereas in reality it’s all about creating a fictional (i.e. imaginary) story in your head and transporting it into your readers’ heads without them putting the book down early or feeling cheated at the end. But Rule No 1 was “It is not just about the colour of the wallpaper” i.e. a jokey way of saying that Tolkien’s oeuvre isn’t just about Middle Earth. So the content of the book is diametrically opposite to what the sub-title lead me to expect. Two comments:

1) English is a language which allows, and almost encourages, multiple meanings; in fact, much of our comedy is based on it.
2) Before I knew it, I’d finished the book. So no hard feelings about my mistake on what to expect in the book.

Eleven of the twelve rules form a nice introduction to writing fiction, and genre fiction in particular. The twelfth rule then says it’s ok to break the rules sometimes, when you do it on purpose and know what you’re doing. Think of Picasso, who was expert at “ordinary” art before he started doing cubism.

So, it’s a good introduction to genre writing. But it’s also good to use as a checklist, to make sure you’re not going off the rails.

I’m glad I started to read it, and will keep it to hand in my virtual library.

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The present is melting into the future and the Cloud is the new infinity says Douglas Coupland

28/3/2017

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Douglas Coupland: The average IQ is now 103 and the present is melting into the future

A jet-lagged Douglas Coupland, recently departed from "The Lab" in Paris where he was "artist-in-residence" at that mysterious wing of the Google Cultural Institute, whatever that is, declared in a pre-written speech that "the future is already here".

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Three new science fiction poems for Spring

27/3/2017

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Three new poems for you today covering everything from the outer planets to the decline of butterflies here on Earth, by John Reinhart, Janka Hobbs, and John Hawkhead. You can read them HERE

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This is so Cyberpunk: billionaires in Silicon Valley would rather cure death than make life worth living!

27/3/2017

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Although this comment piece in Wired does have an anti-tech vibe, the concept of multi-billion dollar corporations fixated with curing death while people live in squalor on the street outside their front doors and die of diseases we've been able to cure since before the age of television is so cyberpunk. All that's missing is the Vangelis soundtrack!

Silicon Valley Would Rather Cure Death Than Make Life Worth Living

Silicon Valley is coming for death. But it's looking in the wrong place. After disrupting the way we love, communicate, travel, work, and even eat, technologists believe they can solve the ultimate problem. Perennially youthful Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced last year a $3 billion initiative to obliterate human disease.

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Supporting Red Nose Day with a spoof book review by Stephen Theaker

25/3/2017

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As part of a fundraising push for this year's Red Nose Day, UK science fiction and fantasy writer, novelist, and book reviewer Stephen Theaker (he is also is the co-editor and publisher of Theaker's Quarterly Fiction) has been offering a fake book reviews, written for fun and including one for my short story collection. As Stephen adds "Thank you to everyone who donated, helping us reach our target of £100. Not bad for a niche fundraising concept that couldn't be explained in under twenty minutes and massively limited the number of people likely to sponsor us!"

This is the Quickest Way Down by Charles Christian #rednosereviews #rednoseday

Charlie Christian was a swing and jazz guitarist who played an important role in bebop and cool jazz, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, 48 years after his death. There is a street named after him in Oklahoma City, and he played with Count Basie and Benny Goodman, among others.

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Cyberwar: The Russians are coming - and the Chinese too ...warns Greg Bufithis

24/3/2017

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Yep, we've finally slipped over into a world that reads like the plot of a William Gibson cyberpunk novel although instead of Keanu Reeves as Johnny Mnemonic, we've got a bunch of overweight American spooks having rings run around them by the Russians and the Chinese!

HOLY CYBER!! Part 1: THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!! THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!! (oh, the Chinese, too)

Posted on by in Brain droppings 24 MARCH 2017 (Paris, France) - Whatever you might think of Russia's recent antics on the world stage, you have to concede: they have brilliantly exploited information-age tools to confuse audiences about what is truth, what isn't, and to set their own narrative.

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From the Vaults: Russian animated film from 1977 warns of dangers of Military AI & Robotics

24/3/2017

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Here's a short (10 minutes) Russian Soviet-era animated film Polygon from 1977 – yes, 40 years ago – warning of the dangers of military AI and robotics. By Anatoliy Petrov. Советский мультфильм. Автор: Анатолий Петров. Has English subtitles.

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If you are a poet or a spoken word artist, please take part in this survey (& it's short)

23/3/2017

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The Society of Authors Poetry and Spoken Word Group (Charles Christian is on the committee) is gathering information on rates of pay offered to poets and spoken word artists asked to appear at events, gigs and festivals. They will be using the results of their survey to create a set of observed fees, a useful resource for poets and event organisers in future negotiations. The survey is open to all poets and spoken word artists, and only takes about five minutes to complete.

Poetry and Spoken Word Group Events Survey

Web survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. Create your own online survey now with SurveyMonkey's expert certified FREE templates.

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Looks like astronauts on the ISS will have better broadband that we do in Norfolk

23/3/2017

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Oh the irony – NASA is experimenting with a 1Gb laser comms link with the International Space Station. So the astronauts up there will be able to "Netflix and chill" in orbit while down here in rural East Anglia the internet will continue at its cripplingly slow speeds.

NASA to fire 1Gbps laser 'Wi-Fi' ... into spaaaaace * The Register

We're told NASA will first send a payload of LCRD equipment into geosynchronous orbit around our planet. This hardware will include a switching unit that routes data in and out of two onboard optical terminals, beaming and receiving laser-encoded communications to and from Earth. It will also have a normal radio system to fall back on.

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Future Crime: Just put down that GIF and come out with your hands up!

22/3/2017

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A GIF counts as a deadly weapon, a Texas grand jury has agreed this week. The decision came as part of the case against John Rayne Rivello, who stands accused of sending a flashing animated GIF to journalist Kurt Eichenwald in a bid to cause an epileptic seizure. Story via The Verve.

US grand jury decides that a GIF counts as a deadly weapon in Twitter seizure case

A GIF counts as a deadly weapon, a Texas grand jury has agreed this week. The decision came as part of the case against John Rayne Rivello, who stands accused of sending a flashing GIF to...

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Weird Tales, Folklore, Urban Myths, History & Geek Culture

Here to inform and entertain you with tales of weirdness, folklore, urban myths, arcane history, geek culture and the occult. "Fun and high strangeness" is how one reader describes it. May contain sarcasm.

Curated by Reuters correspondent and barrister turned writer, podcaster, editor, award-winning tech journalist and sometime werewolf hunter Charles Christian. The site also has links to Charles' books and the Weird Tales radio and video shows.

Charles was born a 'chime child' with a caul – according to legend a caul-shrouded chime-child can't drown at sea but can see and talk to ghosts and fairy folk without fear of coming to harm – allegedly!

Latest book: Shuckland

shuckland
Published: July 2021 by Heart of Albion PublishingISBN: 978-1-905646-35-7Price: £12.95 + £2.05 p&p (UK only) Total = £15.00Paperback, Pages: 199 + xiv pagesIllustrations: 13 colour + 14 B&W & line drawings + 4 maps Join us on a journey exploring the weird wonders of the Waveney valley.

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