Tag: SSERS

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August Update – Viridian Series and SSERS

anthology contest

August already. It’s been quiet on the Viridian front, as I’m involved with other things.

However….

anthology contestIWSG Anthology – call for stories

Next year’s IWSG Anthology is a science fiction one, with the theme Dark Matter.

Despite all that’s been going on lately, I really feel I have to get a story together for this one.

I’m still devoid of inspiration, but I’m working on something for the SSERS idea: Space Sector Emergency Repair Service, if I remember that correctly. In fact, I’ve taken the short story of being abducted by aliens, and started working it up to a 4500+ word tale suitable for an anthology.

It’s not exactly going well, but the submissions close 2nd September, which is, hm, three weeks away, so I’ve plenty of time, haven’t I?

Everything else to do with Lars, Pete, Dolores and Maggie is on the back burner still, although I keep having ideas, especially about Dolores’s role.

Fingers crossed I get this SSERS story finished… and it can’t be accepted unless I finish it!

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Technical hitch and work in progress

breakdown

Firstly apologies for the technical hitch affecting several images, mostly newer ones.  This is down to software handling my wordpress blog, which creates up to eight copies of an image I upload, in a variety of sizes. This creates a huge drain on the database, which means the website takes longer to load.  And if I exceed my storage space, it fails completely.

So, I went and deleted some of the biggest files, leaving the smaller copies that I use behind. And this is the result. Despite having all these pictures in smaller sizes I display, the software needs the original picture to produce them.  It sounds like a nonsense, and really, it is.  Someone had a good idea of how to speed image handling up, then failed to deal with the program aspect.

I was sort of hoping someone would fix it in a wordpress upgrade… but so far no joy.  I suppose they think everybody has unlimited space on their servers.

When I have more time I will housekeep on the site and restore the pictures to current versions.  Meanwhile I apologise for the question marks in the images.

Work in Progress

Really, all the writing and editing work in progress at present is on the Princelings series.  Lars, Pete, Dolores and Maggie are by no means forgotten.  I have two interesting strands for starting book 3 mapped out in my head… I must make some notes on file!

I’ve also decided once again that this is the last Viridian series book – but not my last scifi book.

There’s a small idea which I got at Christmas for a rescue service along the lines of the AA/RAC/Green Flag/AAA – or something like that.  It wouldn’t work in the Viridian System; it would have to be in a more densely populated area of space with lots of private shuttles flying around.  At the moment I’m calling it Space Shuttle Emergency Rescue Service or SSERS for short, but if you can come up with a service name I’ll not only thank you, but make you a character in the story!

That’s about all the idea is at present, but if you check out the blog on February 14th, you’ll discover a first stab at using the idea for a flash fiction.