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Archives for August, 2014 - Page 2
Book Review – War Stories edited by Andrew Liptak
War Stories: New Military Science Fiction by Jaym Gates My rating: 5 of 5 stars I really loved this fantastic collection of short stories. They are well laid out with a set of general themes, covering a wide range of perspectives and points of view. What first attracted me to this was that there was a short story by Linda Nagata set in the same universe as her The Red: First Light novel. (See my review here) I'd enjoyed that so much that I was keen to read more, hence funding the kickstarter. Having read it I think I'll need to go look up some more of those authors and add them to my reading list. Not one of the stories in the collection seemed like it didn't belong there, and all of them had something novel and engaging about…
Crisis Point on Wattpad
I'm editing Crisis Point for the third time to make it better by using the things I learned on A215 Creative Writing. One of the most valuable things I got from that was that you need feedback from real people to help you get better as a writer. Hence the use of wattpad (although I've also sent the story to a few of the other A215 veterans for their comments too). Here is the beginning of Crisis Point on wattpad. For obvious reasons I'll not be posting the whole story there, but I'll post a few more sections than the three that are there already. If you would like to be a beta reader for me then please drop me a line, either in the comments section, on the facebook page linked on the right or by email. Related…
The 200 Foot General
This is the third post on my Operational Research driven wargame rules (and it's probably about time that I came up with a catchy name for them, ideas in the comments section most welcome). One of the most unrealistic things I find in most commercial wargames that I have read or played is that it is very easy for players to change their plans and give new orders to their troops every turn. This is so common that there's even a name for it, the 200ft General. What is the Problem? The concept being that the player is like a General with perfect perception and control of his troops, and he can react to things that they aren't yet aware of because the player can see the models on the table. Here are a couple of relevant quotes from the Operational…
Drusilla’s Zoo
I've got house guests, so been a bit too busy the last couple of days to write any posts. More will happen at the weekend. We had an awesome day out with my daughter and my niece at Drusilla's yesterday. I'd heartily recommend it for anyone with pre-schoolers or primary age children. There's a zoo with lots of monkeys and also lots of play space. For more pictures see my Google+ profile or my Flickr account. Two Kemp girls at Drusillas (Photo credit: greencoatboy)
Six Steps to an Awesome Open University Assignment
“Academics are like ” Like almost everything in life there is a knack to doing well in an Open University assignment (and this probably carries through to other kinds of assignments to). Knowing your stuff will get you a pass, but putting these tips into practice will turn that into a good pass, or even a distinction. This is my experience and things I've picked up from tutors and other students over the course of six modules from Level 1 through to Postgraduate. OU tutors are busy people and they are following a marking scheme. Mostly they are looking to find out how well you've passed the Tutor Marked Assignment (TMA) or End of Module Assignment (EMA). So you need to make it as easy as possible for them to give you the best mark possible for the work you've done.…