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Post by Paul Baines on Oct 19, 2009 2:15:33 GMT -5
Hi everyone,
My name's Paul, 42 years young, analyst programmer by day, Christian speculative fiction writer by night, joining the forum to take part in the Marcher Lord Select event coming up soon.
Conceived in the US, born in the UK, raised in South Africa, currently living and working in the Netherlands where I design and write COBOL (yes, I'm that old) programs.
Started writing sci-fi about ten years ago, with the idea of creating something containing Christian elements but which secular people could read. My first novel was about a VR game that traps people inside. It was taken by an agent and almost made it to print with Arrow Books but was "too close" to something they already had (William Shatner's Tek series, I think). Since then I've dabbled in various genres and started a college course in creative writing. Wasn't planning to look for publication but my tutor and examiner both think my writing is of a good enough standard, so I'm here with fingers crossed.
Love speculative fiction but I am fed up of reading stories that show a total disregard and/or disrespect of God. My aim is to write stories that are interesting, fun, and scientifically sound, but mostly I try to write stories that glorify Jesus. My stories usually involve Christians going through tough times, but who triumph in the end. In doing this I hope to encourage Christians in their walk--especially when things are difficult.
Paul
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Post by juniperlee on Oct 19, 2009 8:52:12 GMT -5
Hi and welcome!
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Post by beckyminor on Oct 19, 2009 9:12:39 GMT -5
Welcome, Paul! Best of luck with your journey toward publication. I couldn't agree with you more that God needs to be prevalent in an increasing amount of fiction. May you be blessed for adding your efforts to that end.
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Post by Andy on Oct 19, 2009 14:37:37 GMT -5
Greetings, Paul! (of House Atreides perhaps?) Welcome to the community and look forward to your posts.
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Post by dizzyjam on Oct 19, 2009 21:01:21 GMT -5
Paul, you sound like an author who's stories I would like to read. I take it you're a contestant in the upcoming contest then? If so, I pray God's blessings for you. If not, then get something to Jeff quick so you can be entered into his secondary contest. I hope you are able to find publication somewhere soon. Take care, and God bless.
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Post by dizzyjam on Oct 19, 2009 21:02:47 GMT -5
Greetings, Paul! (of House Atreides perhaps?) Welcome to the community and look forward to your posts. Cute. If you like DUNE, then you and I need to talk.
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Post by Paul Baines on Oct 20, 2009 3:49:12 GMT -5
Hi all,
Thanks for the welcomes. Sorry if my replies are slow but I'm over in Europeland.
For the past year or so I've been trying to spread the Word on forums dominated by atheists, so it's nice to be among Christian friends again.
Hi Andy. I'm busy working though Dune on audio book. Saw the film years ago; it had quite an impact. I've taken a break from Dune to listen to Alastair Reynold's House of Suns.
Hi dizzyjam. Looking forward to the contest. Are you entering?
Paul
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Post by dizzyjam on Oct 20, 2009 14:10:13 GMT -5
Actually no. Although I have a few stories in the works, nothing is available for publication yet and I'm working more on my online store I just launched - www.beyondthecharts.com - than I am writing. Maybe before the end of the year I'll get into a routine with the online store and will be able to carve out some time for finishing a manuscript to send in to Jeff. I'm also working through the Dune novels while reading the latest and greatest of other authors - to get an idea of who I'm reading outside of Dune and MLP just go to the thread in The Space Bar called "What has everyone been reading for the last year?". I'm reading all of the Dune saga: Frank Herbert's originals and the new ones by his son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Good reading so far all around.
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Post by waldenwriter on Oct 20, 2009 14:32:47 GMT -5
Hi Paul. Welcome to the forum. Your novel idea about the VR game sounds pretty interesting; it's too bad it didn't make it to print. As a technology fan and a rare female video game fan, I would like that sort of thing.
Programmers work long hours, if I understand right, so I applaud you for finding time to write with that kind of job. I'm a student who works in a supermarket and I haven't even managed to write every day for my current work-in-progress. I too am into computers and considered getting a job in computers, but I didn't feel I could get a Computer Science degree because my math skills stink (every Comp Science degree I looked at required some high math) and I couldn't go into Computer Animation because I can barely draw well, let alone animate. Right now, I am considering web design (already a hobby of mine), which my old junior college has a certificate for. Hopefully that won't require art skills or calculus.
That's interesting that you were raised in South Africa. The pastor at the church my parents are now going to (we don't go to the same church - long story) grew up there as well. Also, I took a class in Modern African History my first semester in university, so I am aware of how things were there with apartheid and all. And now you're in the Netherlands. I know the Dutch once had a presence in South Africa; did that have anything to do with you going there?
Anyway, welcome to the forum!
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Post by Paul Baines on Oct 21, 2009 6:22:02 GMT -5
Hi ReneƩ (or do you prefer to be called waldenwriter?),
I got into computers by accident while studying for a psychology degree(?!). I did the aptitude test for a big firm and they said I had the skills, so I landed a job with no math. I like programming because it has quite a big creative aspect. It's not painting but it is satisfying to create something that works (hopefully). I recently completed a career guidance test and it placed me in the category of "novelist". It didn't even mention computers as a job option! At least I now know where my desire to write comes from :-)
If you like computers but don't have the math, web-design sounds ideal. Definitely worth investigating. As with anything, it's worth keeping in mind that an enjoyable hobby can become a tedious job. These days I don't do a lot of programming--mostly I have to investigate and fix problems.
South Africa is a beautiful country with so much potential but crime is a big issue there now (second highest murder rate after Honduras I believe). I went there from England at age 5 and left at 21, just before the end of apartheid. I was lucky to have lived mostly in Natal where people mixed a lot. My group of friends consisted of people of all the races and I knew very few genuine racists. I came to the Netherlands because I landed a contract in Belgium that required Dutch (and I thought learning Afrikaans would never be of any use) and then another in Holland. Surprisingly, I've encountered more racism in Europe than I ever saw in South Africa (at least at an individual level).
If you can find time to write while studying and working at a job, then you must be a writer at heart! I write because it is a passion that I believe God has placed in my heart. I am looking for a ministry that suits my personality and I believe it involves telling stories. God's timing is perfect, so I can wait as long as it takes if he wants to use me--if he wants to. I am quite insecure about my writing but I've had some good feedback, so I think I'm on the right track.
Paul
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Post by waldenwriter on Oct 23, 2009 1:04:56 GMT -5
Hi ReneƩ (or do you prefer to be called waldenwriter?), Either is fine. People tend to call me Waldenwriter, Walden, or WW on here. I got into computers by accident while studying for a psychology degree(?!). I did the aptitude test for a big firm and they said I had the skills, so I landed a job with no math. I like programming because it has quite a big creative aspect. It's not painting but it is satisfying to create something that works (hopefully). I recently completed a career guidance test and it placed me in the category of "novelist". It didn't even mention computers as a job option! At least I now know where my desire to write comes from :-) Hmm...interesting. My mother also has a psych degree, but she's doing her internship to be a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT). I never have been good at psychology or such sciences myself, though I liked the class on Human Development (a doubly listed Child Development/Psych class) that I took for G.E. credit. I must've gotten something out of it, because last semester in my Theory and Practice of K-12 Writing Instruction class, I found myself referring to Piaget and Erikson a lot in my papers. As for programming, I have had friends who know it, mainly a friend of mine who I was in the short-lived Computer Club with at school (it only lasted a year) who programmed a program for writing lab reports for science class and also had a hand in fulfilling our faculty advisor's request to remove all the games off the computers in the computer lab (meaning games that came with them, like Solitaire and Hearts) so people wouldn't play them during Computer-Keyboarding class. But I can't make head nor hair of it. Case in point: I've been trying to make fanlistings recently, and most people use fanlisting scripts for this such as Enthusiast. But it's all PHP, and I can't understand it at all. Career guidance tests...oy, how many of those have I taken? I took a whole class on career planning, during which we took the Myers-Briggs (targeted for careers) and the Strong Inventory, both pretty hefty tests, as well as simpler ones like the True Colors test (which sorts you as green, blue, gold, or orange). "Writer" has popped up for me occasionally. "Paralegal" has shown up several times too (and I have considered that career as well). Interestingly, Programming and Information Systems came up as one of my top five interest areas on my Strong Inventory, though this may be because I like web design and library work, which both fall under that category. If you like computers but don't have the math, web-design sounds ideal. Definitely worth investigating. As with anything, it's worth keeping in mind that an enjoyable hobby can become a tedious job. These days I don't do a lot of programming--mostly I have to investigate and fix problems. It is true that even a hobby can become a tedious job. But if it's something you enjoy, that can help with the tedium. I think I secretly like tedious work, because things like research for school reports (or even for my novel-in-progress) might seem tedious to some, but I like it. South Africa is a beautiful country with so much potential but crime is a big issue there now (second highest murder rate after Honduras I believe). I went there from England at age 5 and left at 21, just before the end of apartheid. I was lucky to have lived mostly in Natal where people mixed a lot. My group of friends consisted of people of all the races and I knew very few genuine racists. I came to the Netherlands because I landed a contract in Belgium that required Dutch (and I thought learning Afrikaans would never be of any use) and then another in Holland. Surprisingly, I've encountered more racism in Europe than I ever saw in South Africa (at least at an individual level). It is true there is racism in Europe. We watched a film at my school during the French Film Festival that was about how immigrants in France have such a hard time getting jobs. Also, in France, the immigrants typically live in les banlieues (the suburbs) while the French live downtown. Unlike here, the suburbs in France are a bad place to live. Just the other day, my French teacher was telling us about gang rape that goes on in those suburbs, particularly of young Muslim women who want to integrate into French society. Their brothers don't want them to integrate, though (they believe their sisters dressing like the French and such equates to them being w****s) so they send gangs of guys to rape them so they will be shamed for life. It's very sad. I too think South Africa has potential for growth, and what started under Nelson Mandela's presidency was a step forward. Actually, horrible things are happening all over Africa -- just look at Darfur. If you can find time to write while studying and working at a job, then you must be a writer at heart! I write because it is a passion that I believe God has placed in my heart. I am looking for a ministry that suits my personality and I believe it involves telling stories. God's timing is perfect, so I can wait as long as it takes if he wants to use me--if he wants to. I am quite insecure about my writing but I've had some good feedback, so I think I'm on the right track. Paul Writing is a passion with me as well. I love to tell stories, and I've wanted to be a writer since I was a kid, even as other occupational dreams - like being an ambassador, before I knew what an ambassador did - fell by the wayside. With my most recent work, I intended to set aside time to write, to "make an appointment with myself" as one of the faculty consultants I went to at the writing conference I went to last month said. But my work schedule is not set in stone and is liable to change every week, so carving out a specific time for writing is difficult. But I do have some point every weekday where I am on the bus or the commuter train for 30 minutes or so, going to work or school or coming home from school (my work hours lately have been such that my parents usually have to pick me up, because the last bus going to my neighborhood leaves the closest bus station to my neighborhood at 5:33pm, plus it doesn't run on Saturday and Sunday...if only our public transit was as good as it is in Europe). So I have been doing most of my writing at that time. A couple days ago, I even wrote some of it in the Notes thing on my iPod (because I didn't have a pen). I'd planned to study for my Literary Theory and Commentary test (which I'd forgotten to study for beforehand) on the train by going over the study guide that someone had set up for people in class to colloboratively fill out via Google Docs. I downloaded it as a Word file, but the formatting was all messed up, making the guide impossible to study. I knew I wouldn't have internet to re-download the guide till I got to school, so I just sat there, bored. Since I had time to kill, I randomly whipped out my iPod touch and started typing some more of my story. So while I ended up having to cram for the test before class and probably didn't do as well as I could have, particularly explaining deconstruction and the theories of Jacques Derrida (the literary theorist even my teachers don't understand), I got some of my novel written!
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Post by Paul Baines on Oct 23, 2009 1:43:02 GMT -5
Hi Walden,
Finding time to write is a bit of a quest for me too. I cycle 6 miles to and from work every day (Holland is pancake flat). It's an hour of wasted time so when I'm on my bike I think of ideas and then jot them down as soon as I can find a computer. When I'm not studying I listen to audio books. I'm doing a Michel Thomas French course at the moment after finishing my first Alastair Reynold novel (interesting but, like so many non-Christian stories, ultimately empty and vaguely depressing). I find that when I'm listening to a novel my own ideas start fighting for my attention. This usually means I lose track of the story I'm listening to but I do get quite a bit of writing done in my head.
I love telling stories too. I'm currently busy with a short story and a novel, with ideas for three more rolling around. My problem is settling on one and getting it finished. I once made the mistake of putting off finishing a story that I thought had some potential. I wrote the first chapter about a policeman who can see into the spirit world and who uses this ability to fight crime. I started the second chapter but didn't have the motivation to continue so left it. Not long after that the film "Constantine" was released starring Keanu Reeves and when I read the premise I realized that is was basically the same story (except mine was from a Christian perspective, plus I think my explanation of how he could see into the spirit word was way better). I kicked myself for not finishing the book.
Paul
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Post by waldenwriter on Oct 23, 2009 2:48:11 GMT -5
Hi Walden, Finding time to write is a bit of a quest for me too. I cycle 6 miles to and from work every day (Holland is pancake flat). It's an hour of wasted time so when I'm on my bike I think of ideas and then jot them down as soon as I can find a computer. When I'm not studying I listen to audio books. I'm doing a Michel Thomas French course at the moment after finishing my first Alastair Reynold novel (interesting but, like so many non-Christian stories, ultimately empty and vaguely depressing). I find that when I'm listening to a novel my own ideas start fighting for my attention. This usually means I lose track of the story I'm listening to but I do get quite a bit of writing done in my head. I also often write in my head. Since I have some training in acting, I also often act out my scenes aloud (since I don't find it that strange to talk to myself). I don't listen to audio books much because just listening to the reading gets boring after a bit (considering most audiobooks are several hours in length - the longest I've listened to so far was an 11-CD unabridged audiobook of Dante's The Divine Comedy). I have heard a couple good ones though - Lucy Maud Montgomery's Kilmeny of the Orchard (a fairly minor work by the author of the Anne of Green Gables books, which I've loved since I was a kid) and Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle (a fairly light-hearted fantasy about a young hatmaker named Sophie who is transformed into an old woman by a witch and eventually ends up working for the dangerous wizard Howl of the title; it was the basis for the Hayao Miyazaki film of the same name, though the book is longer and much more detailed). I have a similar experience with ideas when listening to music, though they are usually ideas for AMV's (animated music videos) to make rather than writing ideas. Just today I thought of doing a Harry Potter-related video while listening to Taylor Swift's song "Teardrops on My Guitar." I love telling stories too. I'm currently busy with a short story and a novel, with ideas for three more rolling around. My problem is settling on one and getting it finished. I once made the mistake of putting off finishing a story that I thought had some potential. I wrote the first chapter about a policeman who can see into the spirit world and who uses this ability to fight crime. I started the second chapter but didn't have the motivation to continue so left it. Not long after that the film "Constantine" was released starring Keanu Reeves and when I read the premise I realized that is was basically the same story (except mine was from a Christian perspective, plus I think my explanation of how he could see into the spirit word was way better). I kicked myself for not finishing the book. Paul That's too bad! Hopefully, you can revive it somehow. Actually, that concept has also been used in anime, in the case of those who make sure souls go to their proper place, like Tsuzuki of Descendants of Darkness and Ichigo in Bleach, or the more investigating-spirit-activity sort of character, the best-known of these being Yusuke from YuYu Hakusho. There are also magical girl series involving fighting demons, like Wedding Peach (where the heroines transform into "love angels" to protect the Human World from being taken over by the demons) and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (where the lone heroine, a reincarnation of Jeanne d'Arc, has a mission to seal demons hiding in "beautiful things" so that God can regain his lost power before the year 2000 comes; because the things disappear after she seals the demons, she is regarded as a kaitou, or "phantom thief"). Don't let this discourage you, though; keep on with your idea. As Dostoyevsky said, nothing is too old that it can't be written about.
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Post by Paul Baines on Oct 26, 2009 8:44:56 GMT -5
My daughter is quite keen on anime, especially the funnies. She likes "Boys Over Flowers", "Ouran High School Host Club" and "Azumanga Daioh" if I remember correctly, although recently she's become interested in Korean dramas(?!). She roped me into learning Japanese at one point (I know enough to order a coffee and an ice-cream) and now it's Korean (I can say "hi"). She's an aspiring author as well, and uses music for her inspiration (especially X-ray Dog).
I lost the first chapter of that unfinished story so I recently rewrote it. It would fit well with MLP so, once this competition is over, I might have a go at finishing it and submit it to Jeff.
Speaking of Dostoyevsky, I'm listening to Brothers Karamazov at the moment (it was on special offer). Was supposed to pick up on Dune but this was already on my MP3 player so...
Paul
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Post by waldenwriter on Oct 27, 2009 0:05:20 GMT -5
My daughter is quite keen on anime, especially the funnies. She likes "Boys Over Flowers", "Ouran High School Host Club" and "Azumanga Daioh" if I remember correctly, although recently she's become interested in Korean dramas(?!). She roped me into learning Japanese at one point (I know enough to order a coffee and an ice-cream) and now it's Korean (I can say "hi"). She's an aspiring author as well, and uses music for her inspiration (especially X-ray Dog). Ouran High School Host Club is quite popular right now, right up there with Naruto. Several people at another forum I'm a part of like it. The most I know of it is its opening theme, "Sakura Kiss" by Kawabe Chieco (a very catchy song), which began floating around the net on fansites for PGSM, the Sailor Moon live drama, after Chieco appeared in it. I have heard good things about Azumanga Daioh. It's supposed to be hilarious. Hana Yori Dango (the Japanese and slightly better known name for "Boys Over Flowers") I know a bit better because I read a bit of the manga in a manga sampler and also saw the first episode of the Hana Yori Dango live action drama (there's an anime, of course, but I haven't seen it...the live drama came after it, I think). If your daughter really wants to get you into anime, I can maybe suggest some series to start with, if you tell me what sort of stuff you're into. This makes a difference. Your daughter, for instance, appears to be into slice-of-life shows (based on the list of shows you gave), but they aren't for everyone. One good thing maybe to start with is the Astro Boy movie that just came out; it's based on one of the earliest animes (it aired from 1963-1966). Hmm I haven't seen too many Asian live dramas, so I can't speak for k-drama (a common name for Korean live dramas; the equivalent term for Japanese live dramas is j-drama). It's cool that you're learning Japanese and Korean, though. I've picked up some Japanese from watching anime and from reading a Berlitz book, so most of my vocabulary consists of stock anime phrases (like yuuki wo dashite, which basically means "take courage" or something like that) as well as whatever I gleaned from the book. I don't know any Korean. I recognize it when I see it written out, but I don't know any. Music isn't usually my inspiration, but it does help me focus. I did name one novel I was doing after a song ("Us Against the World" by Play), but I was nervous about doing so given copyright laws. I lost the first chapter of that unfinished story so I recently rewrote it. It would fit well with MLP so, once this competition is over, I might have a go at finishing it and submit it to Jeff. That would be cool. Good luck with that! I might submit my novel to at least be edited by Jeff when it's done - someone suggested I try this. It depends on how things go. Speaking of Dostoyevsky, I'm listening to Brothers Karamazov at the moment (it was on special offer). Was supposed to pick up on Dune but this was already on my MP3 player so... Paul Yeah that happens. I bought audiobooks from Audible using two free book credits I had and it took me forever to get to them. I haven't read The Brothers Karamazov yet; the only work of Dostoyevsky's that I've read is Crime and Punishment, which I read in high school.
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