Felicity Shoulders

Okay so I wanted to give a quick look back at the last year and what has happened to me and what I’ve learnt. Firstly I hit my 1000 word a week target. I’ve started writing this on the 12th and I’ve written 77,839 words to this date. I wont lie I’m quite cuffed about that 😀 Despite failing NaNoWriMo it played a big part in building that word count and taught me a lot about my writing and where I want it to go ( https://petergermany.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/looking-back-at-nanowrimo/ ) click the link to take you to a post where I talk about NaNo and what I learnt.

As for progress of my fiction I am disappointed to say that I have not submitted anything yet. I have no long fiction even close to being ready for submission but I do have a number of short stories which are very close to being ready to be sent out into the wide world. Most of those form part of a series of stories that I’m not sure I want to set free just yet. I have a couple of others that just need a little fine tuning before I search out the best places to submit them.

I do think that a couple of the ideas that I and my writing partner have look to be coming to life a little. So those in the New Year they will get some serious attention.

I know that I rarely speak of my personal life but here I will, just not in too much detail. I’ve had a few ups and downs this last year. Nothing out of what any one of us may expect to encounter during our lives. I have had friendships pushed to the limits and have learnt who my real friends are. I’ve been pushed to my breaking point on more than one occasion which has taught me a lot about myself.

BEST MOVIE I’VE SEEN THIS YEAR

This is quite a tough one for me as I’ve seen a lot of good films this year.

The Kings Speech deserves a mention. Like many people I didn’t really think it would be my type of film but I absolutely loved it.

X-Men:First Class was better than I was expecting (and I was expecting it to be good) Heres my review https://petergermany.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/x-men-first-class/

Captain America : The First Avenger did also blow me away, https://petergermany.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/captain-america-the-first-avenger/

Thor also impressed me a lot. I liked how the humour worked in the film (and it has Natalie Portman in it 😀 ) It was fascinating to see the world that Thor comes from and how some of the little sub plots and characters tie into the movie franchise that has been created which is leading up the Avengers movie.

And just for sheer enjoyment purposes Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil https://petergermany.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/movie-review-tucker-dale-vs-evil/ This film was daft but very funny with a lot of heart.

BEST BOOK I’VE READ THIS YEAR

This one has to be Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky https://petergermany.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/book-review-metro-2033-by-dmitry-glukhovsky/ This book really did blow my mind. Even now new things about the depth of the book and all within its pages are coming to mind. Once I’ve cleared more of my ‘To Read’ backlog then I’m going to read it again. Theres not many books that I can say that about.

BEST SHORT STORY

This one is Conditional Love by Felicity Shoulders (http://felicityshoulders.com/) which I heard via the Escape Pod Podcast http://escapepod.org/2011/02/11/ep279-conditional-love/ Its one of the few stories that made me actually stop what I was doing and say “Wow!”

BEST NEW PODCAST I’VE FOUND

This one goes to Adventures In Sci-Fi Publishing http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/ This podcast has taught me a lot about how to approach some of the aspects of writing and how to go about publishing. There are some fine interviews with various writers, editors and people within the writing community. Shaun Farrell, Moses Siregar III and Brent Bowen are a fine team and very easy to listen to, although I do miss Sam Wynns. I especially like the segments with Lou Anders (editor at Pyr http://www.pyrsf.com/ ) and Tobias S. Buckell, http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/.

Since I’ve started blogging more frequently I’ve met some amazing people through blogging that I’ve got some very good support from and I’ve taken a lot from their own blogs. It’s such a strong and supportive community which is fantastically insightful as well. Keep an eye on my Twitter feed for fascinating posts from other bloggers.

Now I am looking forward to next year and what I intend to achieve in the twelve months we are about to go into. Christmas is upon us and New Years Eve I think will be one to remember, but next year, I want that to be an entire year that I look back on and think ‘2012 was really something special’

The first podcast that I ever listened to was An Escape Pod episode, the first one in fact. I’m one of these people who when I start listening to A podcast I listen to the earliest episode that I can find. I had never really known of short stories until Escape Pod grabbed me and its been one amazing journey since then.

Escape Pod taught me that Sci-Fi is not just spaceships and robots. It took me into worlds that I had never realised existed. The Trouble With Death Traps by Marjorie James is one of my early favourites. Feng Burger by John Aegard is still one that I think often about. The Girlfriends Of Dorian Grey by Gregory Frost was also very impressive. Here I could on for ages listing episodes that really hit home but that would just turn into A list of many episodes, Okay one more. Conditional Love By Felicity Shoulders really hit home. A great story.

I’m A little out of date with the podcast now as my PC is still broken 😦 so I havent heard how the Podcast is going. I do miss Steve Eley but I’m A big fan of Mighty Mur Lafferty and I like what she has done with the Podcast since she took the reigns. She has such an easy, warm approached that has to of come from many years podcasting that must make newcomers feel at ease with the podcast before the story even begins, she’s A damn fine narrator too.

http://escapepod.org/

Pseudopod is the horror wing of Escape Artists. I love listening to this podcast but it rarely ever shocks me. It again did the same thing that Escape Pod did, in the way that it showed me horror is not just gore like Hollywood would have us think. Alasdair Stewart and Ben Phillips are great with this podcast. Stewart’s deadpan delivery of the intro and outro’s are fascinating and keep A heart to the podcast. Again he is A fine narrator also.

http://pseudopod.org/

Podcastle has been the only part of the Escape Artists family that I had not taken too, until recently. As I mentioned my Pc is broken which means I cannot update my iPod so I’ve been working through some of the podcasts that I had laying dormant on my iPod and I finally gave Podcastle A proper run. I had listened to A few of the episodes but they had never really caught me. I’m not A big fan of fantasy. I was never A man for Unicorns or Dragons and so on, but again Podcastle had done what Escape Pod and Pseudopod have done in showing me that these genre’s are wide open.

http://podcastle.org/

Fantasy is not just Elves and Wizards, Sci-Fi is not just alien invasions nano-tech and Horror is not demons under the bed or hockey mask wearing psycho’s. All genre overlap into each other and this can only make fiction better. These Podcasts have given me fiction that have made me smile, cry and sigh. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Escape Artists has given me more hours of joy than I could possibly count. I wonder how many people would like to buy Steve Eley A drink and say ‘Thank You Dude’ I will forever be grateful for what you have given me. If it was not for Steve then I may never have discovered Scott Sigler, Phil Rossi, J.C. Hutchins, Mur Lafferty, Elizabeth Bear, Jeffery R. DeRego, Ted Chiang, The amazing Tim Pratt and so many others. As well as finding the podcasts like StarShipSofa. http://www.starshipsofa.com/

If you like short fiction that look at these genre’s then check these links out. They really are something special 🙂

Peter Germany's World

My Journey In Life And The World Of Writing

Looking Back At 2011

Escape Artists