a strange powerful energy, almost a force has besieged me, my body over run with it's directive as i sit up at 3am for a few hours writing a free flowing, almost channelled follow up to my novel the antidote. it's been this way for about two weeks and my time is literally consumed with writing. the strangeness is there's little conscious thought in the story, it's just ambling along, i don't even know where it will end, but there have been several points it could have so far, i guess the process will inform me. it's great to be writing like this again,  everyday when getting up old captain mission counts his blessings, just got another day to write, that's a win, for i feel the story must be told. that's my mission at the moment which is weird as i am supposed to be a science fiction writer. anyways it's a case of i write therefore i am.

this time we jump about 30 years in to the future and the main character is obviously older and now a well oiled part of a strange agency tasked with assassination. he's experienced now, a different animal from the one in the first book, again i've jumped from first to last.  this one is set in the uk, and based around the grooming (rape) gangs saga. it's very tricky because the obvious criticism is waiting to pounce upon me but it's just a factual background and very contemporay setting. anyways, it's almost finished in draft form and needs tiding up, editing and a few insertions and details. the bit i'm actually not skilled in. 

war interrupts the world, everyone is panicking, terror on the streets of sydney, the airways filled with opinion, somebody sees the future another sees the past, one man living in the present says nothings going to last. you can't keep the peace forever, you can't go to fight with flowers, inaction saved nothing but zen, and action plans all fail, you can't hear the screams of the wounded over the wailing sirens hail. trapped in some luxury resort, it's a middle east heaven or hell, enemies of the people change sides like it really matters, until cameras point their way, and the imans and the preachers encourage more carnage, the religion of peace and calmness, all win the hearts and minds, in a suicidal empathy delusion, losers on all sides. the western way is war fare or law fare, all's fair in the fun fair. 

currently reading howard jacobsons new book which is absolutely brilliant, possibly his best as i didn't find many of his other works quite as funny as this, and sad as well as it reflects the position of most of us very well. it's hilarious in parts and very visual but the underline tone is despair as we are all sucked into the madness that anti semitism always brings to the societies that tolerate it.  

apparently 64 years on earth in this body means i have lived quite a bit, it's true i crammed a lot in there but i'm also tired and burnt out from all those crazy things, and need some time to just breath slow, smell the flowers and enjoy a wave or two. the colours today were wet and grey as i drove down the freeway i treated myself to a chocolate custard pudding which i ate on the run. the heart is pumping onwards, still outta whack, and my face feels like an old sea faring pirate stuck in a caribbean storm,  a long way from land, looking for an island to hold up on, while the english navel vessels are in hot pursuit, captained by sadistic members of his majesty's royal navy. i tell you my pursuers have the smell of empire about them, a rotten one at that. 

this morning i hear my ex wife debbie died. she had an aggressive cancer and passed away in sleep. our son was with her and as i spoke with him we both agreed, it was better she was no longer suffering and in pain. it's somewhat sad in ways that are complex, i'm sorry i never got to resolve issues that she had incorrectly believed about me, and i am sorry she went to her death still clinging to a fabrication but in other ways it is nothing to do with me, time put me on a different path and we are separated not just by the view of death but also ideas on life. she was when i was with her good, a good wife, a good mother. and for that i am grateful. post marriage, her hatred of me clouded everything she ever did or said so since those days i really had little to do with her. 

she's gone. i remain. 

i don't know how long i have. these days when i wake up i'm surprised and joyous, another day, more time. money can't buy it. love can't buy it, it's value is beyond currency. it's a gift. which probably explains why i am always surprised. vale debbie.

 

vale dan simmons, one of the great science fiction writers of our time. i read hyperion many moons ago and it was a life changing book. i had just arrived in avalon and devoured it in a few sessions. the story of a pilgrimage based upon chuacers tales, each pilgrim telling their story. it was incredible, each in a different style and with amazing situations, the book was brilliant and characters sympathetic and wonderfully rich. 

they were on their way to the time tombs where the mysterious shrike await. each with a request. i remember not wanting to do anything else until i had burned through from cover to cover and then in quick succession the sequels were published completing the story arc, and it just got better and better. perfect science fiction story. dan became to me what stephen king is to most other readers.

i read all his works, he skipped to other genres, horror was one with his debut novel 'song of kali' which is haunting and disturbing. then there were the supernatural ones, and the brilliant vampire novel, 'children of the night' set in the romanian orphanage at the end of the communist rule. there were others as well, he wrote a lot of good books 'black hills' is the name of the indian shaman whom believes he hosts the sprit of general custer as he works upon the mount rushmore 60 years later with an idea to blow it to pieces. meanwhile the spirit of custer yearns for his beloved wife having awoken in a cold lonely dark place.

simmons also wrote the amazing book, 'the terror' which was also a great adaptation for a mini series. it tells the tale of the franklin expedition to the artic and throws in some mythology as the survivors trapped in a frozen wasteland are forced into cannibalism, madness and all while a mysterious beast stalks them. 

but my personal fave was the book everyone hated, 'flashpoint' a seriously brilliant novel depicting a near future. man that book was brilliant and possible. it was a prophecy.

vale dan simmons, and thanks for the wonderful stories.

finally after a week of disturbed sleep i manage to sleep 8 hours and wake up at a reasonable hour feeling good. it's been very challenging with the old heart beat this week and the sooner i get into hospital for the electric shock the better. almost everything i do at the moment exhausts me, but i somehow still manage to do it. 

my friend paul takes me to see his new house and it's really beautiful, big sprawling house with two fire places and a remarkably large open plan kitchen, six bedrooms with en suites and a massive amount of lounge space. outside there's a massive farm with a cow, and a manicured garden with an open plan shed with a massive pizza oven and entertainment area. there's even a huge pool and a garage where three cars could fit easy. it's in a lovely part of the country side, and 20 mins drive from the beach.

on the way back home i stop in at the market and get some jalopenos's, bread and blue cheese. i pick up a bottle of cherry juice and an avocado from harris farms. the sun is out now, hot and heavy with it's humidity, and tonight is the full moon. it will rise over the ocean and we will be saluting it at out drum ceremony as it appears. hail le sol, bringer of light and life.