Across the Board

So I'm listening to Aqua while writing this blog, as am hoping to get into the groove to look over some edits for "With Prejudice"; a short novel of sorts within the speculative and spy/crime thriller genres. If you haven't heard of Aqua, then you're missing out. I know that some of my writing friends write to music, whether it be classical music to set the mood for the 1800s to the latest techno for a more futuristic settings. What about you, what do you listen too?

I just came across an online article from our local newspaper about the prospect of a test drill for oil and gas off the Otago coast, and that it could happen sometime in January next year.  The article could be found here . If the drill tests prove successful, and by the looks of things Anadarko is taking it seriously by investing over US$100 million into the project and ensuring that it filed the correct forms with the New Zealand Environmental Projection Authority (even though they don't have to), it would be an economic boost for the region. I know that there is a certain amount of opposition to the idea of drilling so close to our shores, considering the oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico back two years ago. Then again, oil spills tend to get bad press anyway. But surely we need the tests to be successful, and for Anadarko setting up offices here in Dunedin, because we need a return of industry. We have lost so much recently due to the Recession and globalisation, where

I am writing this more out of irritation than anything else, largely because I had to put down two ebooks and wonder why the heck I wasted money on them. Then I remembered, it was the pretty covers. When I was writing the early draft for Compromised , my friend Nigel had this tendency of hammering one thing the most; and that was to show, don't tell. I had a hard time doing just that in my early writing endeavours, as soon in Exit Strategy . He has a point, and one of those days I will ask him or one of my other writing buddies to guest post about it. For now, you're stuck with me. You see, a story is like a movie, largely because we - as humans - are very visual, at least from what I could ascertain. Perhaps that is why movie blockbusters are so attractive, and the current levels of CGI involved definitely help, as they are visual slug fests.The same goes for fiction. We're very visual in our approach to things, and most often then not it is simpler to show h