Facebook: Pirates of the Caribbean

Arrrr! I been on Facebook's application 'Pirates of the Caribbean' an' said app's a bit addictive, mateys!

The application allows you to go plundering for gold, loot, and experience as well as fight other crews for similar bounties. It is a very good game, although I have found it difficult to tear myself away. The game allows you to have a 'crew', consisting of Facebook friends. You equip them with pirate ships, guns, bombs, to defeat other crews and a "boss" at the end of each level. Granted, this sounds very simple, and it is - but it grabs you and won't let you walk away from the computer.

There are other things one can do, such as keep an eye on your pirate pet (I have a snake), manage a small island and collect resources to create buildings (a very simple Age of Empires scenario). To completely grasp this game, you should just jump in and play!

So, head on over to http://www.facebook.com/damienkane and add me as a friend. In my profile, you will see a link to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" application. You may also want to try an application called Vampire Wars and Mafia.

Happy gaming!!! ARRRRRR!

The Best of Free Software for Microsoft Windows, June 2009

Everybody who has a copy of Microsoft Windows has some form of software they have purchased or downloaded, from an office suite to internet security. Over the years, I have tried to keep away from buying software because many companies charge a ridiculous price for something which only needs to be built once, then marketed. They are a bunch of zeros and ones strung together, for people to use. Why is software so expensive?

Years ago, this question made me hunt around to replace my current software for those which are free and/or open source. It is a labour of love I have maintained for almost three years now. Today, I have finalised my choices of what I consider the best free softwares for mid-2009, and I hope that you like them.

Skip on over to http://www.damienkane.com/Software.htm and have a read. If you know of any products which are better, let me know, but remember that the way that we use software, the things we wish to use it for, may differ so my opinion and yours may not be the same. You will find a couple of surprising choices because they offer a huge amount of scope in the future. Most are tried and tested.

Despite our differences, I hope you find something you like. I think with all the enterprising things these developers are doing, giving it to the public for free, will perhaps reduce the costs of commercial software. The competition is getting hot. I wonder if companies such as Symantec and Microsoft are waking up to the fact that WE DON'T WANT TO USE YOUR PRODUCTS BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE AND JUST NOT AS GOOD AS THEY SHOULD BE!

Free Software Update

You may (or may not) have noticed that I removed the Software page from my website http://www.damienkane.com. I am currently updating it with more great, absolutely free, software, that anybody can use.

The principle behind it is that I don't think we should be spending a huge amount on software. For example, Microsoft Office 2007 is hundreds of dollars, whereas OpenOffice is $0.00, has excellent functionality, and is seriously better than MS Office. Why pay hundreds of dollars for something that is free?

The Software page is important to me, so that I can share my experiences with other people about the best of the free software range, and it is a huge range. I have tried hundreds of different programs so that I can put the best on the page. I update it infrequently, perhaps once or twice a year, and there have been some major developments out there which I want to add.

So, please check back in a week or so, as I am almost at the end of this huge task. Stop paying for software RIGHT NOW and wait for my report.

Lots happening

The last four weeks have been strange, from writing a full novel to almost selling the house, to getting my chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME) back for a while which, if you have ever suffered from it, is very scary. Two interviews for jobs: one I didn't get, and the other I'm hanging out of a tree for because I'm due to be told at any damn hour. Then the NSW Blues lose just to top off a tough week - and it is only Thursday. It's a Solomon Grundy kind of week, so I'm hoping Saturday is a good day!

The writing is going well, despite having to put my laptop away for most of the week to concentrate on conserving energy to go to work. A dark fiction/romance novella called "The Invisible World" is currently with a very nice line editor who has given me some great tips on how to improve my writing. With Mr Hat done, The Evil being read by an audience, it's back to the final-final revision of The Badman which, God willing, will be received well (which may be difficult because it is in the very unpopular second person voice, but second person really suits this story and yes, I have a sequel called The Janus Mirror already brewing away). I'm also looking forward to continuing with a novel I started a few months ago called A Place Beyond which, whenever I think about doing it, something else pops up.

So many projects to tie up and finalise. First drafts aren't generally a problem. Getting them through the revision process: bottlenecked. 8o/ have to work on it!

Mr Hat

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about writing after a few beers, and what I regurgitated, was actually quite good when I read it back the day after (original article here).

Well, I am pleased to say that it took just three weeks to write my latest horror novel "Mr Hat" which is a touch under 80,000 words. Unlike some writers, my second drafts tend to be longer than the first because I convert the story "telling" into the story "showing". Regardless, three weeks isn't too bad an effort to write a novel while working full time, having interviews, finishing a diploma, full family life, almost buying a house, although I reckon I can halve the time it takes to write a novel. My problem has always been finalising the damn thing. I get too picky. My first two or three novels had to be scrapped because I over-analysed them what did I learn? Very little.

So, to the re-read to straighten out and start showing the story, then back to my new novel, "A Place Beyond". This writing game is so much fun!

Define Horror

horror
• noun 1 an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust. 2 a thing causing such a feeling. 3 intense dismay. 4 informal a bad or mischievous person, especially a child.
— ORIGIN Latin, from horrere ‘shudder, (of hair) stand on end’.
- Compact Oxford English Dictionary

Let us look at, “an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust”. This definition implies that the fear, shock, or disgust must be felt, ie, without feeling either fear, shock or disgust, there is no horror. So what type of feeling should we look for to understand what horror is, exactly?

There are seven senses a writer can use, six for characters: the first five are organic (hear, see, touch, smell, taste). The sixth is the character’s internal feelings and thought processes. Also, a writer can describe a good looking woman from the viewpoint of a red blooded male, and the way in which she is described will give us a feel for whether she is liked or not: “Molten red hair flowing down her shoulders” gives us a different impression than, “hair the colour of madness shivering around her face”, or, “red hair warmed by the sun and coloured like the petals from a summer’s rose”.

These descriptions however, are not what the character feels, but what we are perceiving the character is feeling. It is the seventh sense. So is horror about how we perceive things to be rather than what we feel them to be? Perhaps it would be more apt for the definition of horror to be, “an intense perception of fear, shock, or disgust”.

Literature is an excellent source of perception. I think the trick is to let the reader understand what horrors the character feels, but more importantly, to try impart that horror through the pages so it is the reader, and not the character, who is horrified. Articulating a suffering is different from showing what the character is suffering from. Be telepathic.

Back to our definition, “an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust”. It is not the character that the above is intended for, but for the reader. The character is not horrified. It is the reader’s perception about what is going on. Let me give examples.

A man with a machete in the middle of a city gives a different perception than the same man in the middle of a jungle. Cutting off a leg to save a life on a battlefield is completely different from amputating a leg. The same premise exists, but understanding the differences is part of this perception. What if the person who is having the leg amputated is conscious and being held down by twelve children? – Different again.

Horror is not what happens or even how it happens, but how we perceive it happening through story-showing. Everything we do is perceived in some way. Feelings are either organic or internalised emotions. Perception, however, is a cognitive process which uses our mental faculties through the page to internalise these intense feelings of fear, shock, or disgust. As horror is based on an individual perception, so it is apt to be aware that horror means a different thing for us all.

Handling Rejection

I have read many books on writing and heard from editors from different countries about my attitude towards handling rejections of short stories. I want to share these experiences with you here.

Some of you may have had stories accepted or rejected for publication. Others may wish to start writing and submitting short stories. I hope what I have to say appeals to both audiences.

There is one basic fact about writing: you will have stories rejected, for most of us, much more than having them accepted. I measure my tenacity as a writer on how I handle rejection. It could be the difference between having a writing career and wishing I had one.

ejection isn’t a matter of taking advice on the chin. It is what you do with it. A boxer doesn’t like to get hit. They learn from it so they understand why they were hit in the first place, and build their skills in attack and defence so they don’t get hit again. Invariably, they will, no matter how high their skill level. It is the same for writers.

As a writer, you will get hit, as sure as you will get wet in the rain. A writer who receives criticism with a rejection slip is lucky. In my personal experience, there are three levels of rejection with the fourth being the acceptance:

Stage 1 – Rejection ‘No thanks … it doesn’t fit’
Stage 2 – Rejection with personal but general comments ‘I liked … I didn’t like …’
Stage 3 – Rejection with critique/some editorial work

Then, of course, are the idiots of the world, those mightier-than-thou editors who throw you comments which are nothing short of lunacy.

Writing is a self-improvement program. It is a constant intellectual and creative evolution I believe all writers endure. If an editor is kind enough to send through rejection comments, then take them on board. Work with those comments. Make your craft better. Don't whine because you disagree.

One must take into account editorial style when digesting these comments. What is good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander. Like writers, editors have different styles and guides. They may have certain expectations but they only want to publish the best. If an editor doesn’t like your story, the probability that the readers won’t like it is high.

So: how do you handle rejection?

Thank the editor for their time. Theyread your work adn they weren't paid for it. Some may take time out to give comments to improve your story, so improve it, move on, and submit it to the next market on your list.

If you handle rejection badly, try and see it from the editor’s viewpoint. They receive hundreds (perhaps thousands) of stories for thirty or less slots. If your work isn’t the best it can be, you won’t make it in. Even the best stories sometimes don’t get in for no other reason than space limitations.

For one particular anthology, I submitted thirteen stories until I was accepted. The editor was kind enough to give comments on some of them. For one of the stories, the editor suggested I expand on the ideas because the story did they little justice. I took that comment on board, and it is a novel in progress.

Many (if not all) famous authors have been rejected. I understand Harry Potter was rejected over a course of eight years. Some receive hundreds or thousands of rejections.

The reason you were rejected was because you made a submission. Refine the rejected story and place it elsewhere. You will learn from your experiences, and the stories that follow will be better off for it. It will improve you as a writer and a person to accept criticism. All artists have their critics.

I will leave you with the ‘bottom line’ of rejection. If you don’t agree with my conclusion, perhaps you shouldn’t be writing. The conclusion? Simple.

Get used to it.

Writing drunk

I wonder how many writers like to write after a few beers, or a few six packs, and re-read it the next day and likened it to a literary drink-driving car crash.

Most Friday nights (football night, go the Broncos and the Dogs), when my wife has passed out on the lounge and doing her erupting volcano impression and the writing bug is too overwhelming, I retire to my study. I switch on the laptop and furiously type whatever the hell comes into my head, because thinking and writing when drunk just don't mesh with me. Most times, there are a few good ideas in what I write - take away value: a very good worst case scenario, but on rare occasions, there are some startling insights and superior writing.

Last week, I finished my second draft of The Evil (fucking yay for me), and wondered what the hell I could do now while it was being read. I had nothing on my mind apart from another six pack of XXXX in the fridge that threatened to go off it not drunk that night, so I settled in my chair and started to write.

Six days later, I'm 22,000 words into my first draft of "Mr Hat", one of my more explicit horror novels. What I wrote when I was drunk needed tidying up - but damn, it was good writing. Wonder how much was me and how much was the muse at work.

Writing drunk? Not a good thing, but I want to write all the time regardless, drunk or not.