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Writer’s Block – Technical Effects of Emotional Numbness

I’m a writer by vocation, and — having switched allegiance to the Visigoths (long story) — by trade, but — and — sometimes I can’t write. I don’t generally believe in Writers’ Block. In inexperienced writers, which is all of us at one time or another, the first port...

Why Foundation is surprisingly bad…

It's very strange to see something crawl onto the screen plotted like a pre-school Nativity Play, but with better SFX and more judicial executions....

3D Space for Traveller and Writing

By way of a mental break, I’ve been tinkering with 3D star charts for gaming/writing again. This is a randomly populated 10 x 10 box, with 20 systems, plus connections (hand drawn – sorry!) of 4 units or less. The up and down arrows mark exits to the next...

Waterloo

One night when I was five years old, my mum came into check I was sleeping. I rolled over and mumbled, “The French are coming! Close the gates”. Growing up in Edinburgh in the 70s, with regular trips to the Castle, meant encountering echoes of Waterloo, moments of mayhem...