From Dartmoor

The dogs here are friendly, at least I haven't heard anything howling over the moors. The cows, on the other hand, now those you have to watch.

The picture, from the top of Hayter Tor shows a "tramway" from the old quarries. It doesn't look like much, but it's about 3km of carved stone rails. None of that simple and cheap wood stuff. Imagine the amount of labor that went into it.

Clearly it's better than trying to push carts across muck, but surely there must have been an easier way.

Flash fiction entry

Just put up a flash fiction piece Trouble in Styx City on tablo. It's something of a contest, so if you'd take a look and more importantly vote for it, I'd be really happy.

Something of a takeoff on the Screwtape letters, it's what happens when an incompetent demon ends up helping his possessed host. He'll end up in Eskimo Hell, where it's freezing all the time, but make his mark on the way.

Visit to Avesbury

We had a chance to visit Avesbury. It's something of a family ritual. Fortunately we missed the Solstice as it was apparently full of various new age types. Saw a few of the stragglers, but they were hanging around the pub. Outside, of course, and drinking their lunch. We ate inside, the Red Lion is a decent place with good food. I should add, the National Trust has a nearby restaurant, but it's full of veggie and organic stuff. However, if I'm coming to England I want my pint, fish and chips. The great thing at Avesbury is there are many walks for 'sobbering up' (the BAC limits in the UK are rather strict.)

These flowers are from a field on Windmill Hill, near Avesbury. The idea is to encourage the native bees. It seemed to work, as there was a constant buzzing sound.

The view from Windmill Hill of Avesbury.

Silbury Hill, the flat-topped round hill in the distance, is always worth a look. Don't forget I have a free book offer Friday-Saturday.

New Cover and Book Promotion

Still a bit duff, but less duff than the old one.

The book itself will be free from Friday to Sunday.

After the Convergence is a cyberpunk/detective/romance set in the not too distant future. What happens when machines finally have consciousness? Society unwraps somewhat. Those who can manipulate the machines are valued. The rest, well, they'll just have to shift for themselves. Some like the private investigator, Alan Blake, live at the edges of society, eking a living from the fringes. Alan takes on a case, finding a missing young woman, that shoves him deep into the muck.

Stella's Nutcake.

Something special from my trip to the UK. This is my mother-in-law's special recipe for nutcake. She'd worked it out with great care to match my father-in-law's memories from prewar Poland.

No flour, but it uses breadcrumbs Folding in stiff eggwhites is how cakes were made in the days before baking powder..

After the Convergence is out for kindle

My latest, After the Convergence, a cyberpunk crime story set in a not too distant dystopia is now out for Kindle. I like the cover, a set of memory chips, a fedora (well almost) and a Glock.

The murder of his partner lands the hard-bitten private investigator Alan Blake in the middle of a complex international plot involving spies, crooks, resistance fighters, intelligent machines, and treacherous former loves. Never sure of what is the truth in a shadowy half-virtual world, he pursues the “missing person” case of an intelligent and beautiful young woman. A woman who was spirited away on the day she joined “The Academy.” How could she be hidden in a world where the omnipresent machines monitor everything you do and say? He searches the morally ambiguous fringes of society, only to find a human trafficking conspiracy dedicated to replacing the intelligent computers of today with ones made from humans. Can he rescue her before it is too late?

They're coming!

The cranes for unloading container ships have an uncanny resemblance to something from Star Wars.
Where's my Bantu?

Some pictures

I'm away at a meeting, somewhere in Virginia. Suppose I don't have to kill you if I say, Newport.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the water near a decent fish restaurant, O'Shaunessay's Wharf.
They're taken at sunset. Much prettier than Marietta, but then I don't have to worry about sea level rising, high tides and hurricanes. Still, wonder if ODU has slots for a sabbatical.