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books

They are listed with recent at the top, oldest at the bottom.

Size:

In the list below I show the size of each story as 3 numbers:
      kBytes : words : pages

A byte is a character or punctuation mark or space. A kbyte is about a thousand bytes. A Harry Potter sized book is about 500,000 bytes (500kb), not counting any pictures.

Words are a measure the industry uses. It will be meaningless to most people. A novel is generally considered to be more than 50,000 words.

Page count will be easiest for most people to understand, but please note that this is only an estimate, based on my own print settings. They will differ from yours, and will be more for paperback format, and even more for ereader.


Key: Some guide to the content is given with symbols.
Hover your mouse over a symbol to get a quick reminder of what the symbol represents (works in most modern web browsers).
epub electronic book epub ebook
NaNoWriMo entry entry for NaNoWriMo
currently writing currently writing this one
nice pleasant tale
thoughts thoughts in story form
comedy comedy
unhappy not a happy tale
eeek! extremely unpleasant
angry I'm annoyed at something
virtual realityvirtual reality
artificial intelligence artificial intelligence
science fiction science fiction
lesbian female-female attraction
sex sex
action action story


Breathe - a novel (504kB : 88,301 words : 200 pages) [comment]
book epub electronic book science fiction artificial intelligence nice lesbian thoughts

Most of our oxygen comes from single-celled plants in the sea. What if they stopped supplying it?

An uplifting post-apocalyptic tale.

Readers' comments:

I loved it. A brilliant job! Cracking pace filled with scientific detail. Exactly what I like!
— Emmanuel Flores

You researched this book very deeply, and it shows. The subject matter is great, and would potentially make an excellent sci-fi series for TV.
— Ed Forsyth


Shirlocke - a short novel (152kB : 27514 words : 48 pages) [comment]
book epub electronic book science fiction comedy artificial intelligence thoughts NaNoWriMo entry
A comedy-drama in which a sleuth, who considers herself a kind of modern day Sherlock Holmes, is assisted by her companion, a sentient robot.

Set only several years in the future, when things are hardly different from now, this is a mild comedy with elements of suspense and action.

It was originally intended to be longer, but it ran its course much more quickly than I expected.
This is only the first draft so will undoubtedly have lots of errors until I get a chance to revise it.

This is a revised cover. It's better than the previous one, but I'm still not sure I'll keep it. Let me know what you think via the comment link.


Companions - a short novel (225 kB : 38,867 words : 74 pages) [comment]
book epub electronic book NaNoWriMo entry artificial intelligence science fiction thoughts

Lucy loves her intelligent motorcycle; Sylvia and Oliver manage a factory together; Trixie and her dog, Happy, adore each other; Navid deeply admires the AI who comes to him for help; Fawn lived for her human.

This story is about (non-sexual) companionships between humans, androids, and dogs, and the disruptive effects of artificial intelligence upon society.

I know this is not the kind of story that most people like, but that's okay, I didn't write it for them, I wrote it for me and for people who are like me. I get a big kick out of ideas, and I think the whole standard plot structure that everybody uses is tired and worn (intro, build-up, climax, resolution). Reality doesn't have plotting rules. Neither does this story.

First draft begun NaNoWriMo 2013 and completed in Camp NaNoWriMo during April 2014. Yet to be properly revised and probably full of errors and bits that don't work. If you give me feedback via my comment link I'd be very grateful.


flying - a novel (384 kB : 60,586 words : 113 pages) [comment]
book epub electronic book thoughts science fiction artificial intelligence   NaNoWriMo entry
You know those wonderful flying dreams you sometimes have...

This story starts out sounding like fantasy, but it isn't. Believe me, it is hard SF. I'm also a little worried that the sweetness of the beginning might turn some readers away, or disappoint some others when it becomes less so later. Nevertheless, this is an optimistic, upbeat story -- no sex, or horror, or gratuitous violence.
Written during 2011, 2012, 2013.


Prescription - my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel (285kB : 50,400 words : 85 pages) [comment]
book epub electronic book NaNoWriMo entry artificial intelligence thoughts science fiction   lesbian
When we make an Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is smarter than us, what will it really be like?

A brilliant scientist heads a small team of programmers building an artificial intelligence. This story primarily considers how AIs could be misused for ill or used for good and how they might provide the solutions to many of our problems. It also illustrates concerns at how rights can be so easily denied those who deserve them.

I designed this to be quite a bit different from normal stories. It has a number of parts, and many of the chapters read more like short stories than part of a long piece, but that's how I wanted it to be. I wanted an overarching story made up of smaller ones. Maybe it worked, maybe it didn't. I think the standard way of telling stories is becoming too formulaic. Intro, build-up, climax, resolution. It has become a predictable ritual.

I finished this, the first draft, in the month! Yay! Now the long, slow, neverending process of revision.


Selena City - my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel (248kB : 43,725 words : 75 pages) [comment]
book NaNoWriMo entry epub electronic book artificial intelligence thoughts lesbian sex science fiction
Adele works in security and is in love with Brenda. Unfortunately, circumstances have separated them.

A leading AI expert has been abducted and Adele and her fellow security staff must track him down before something terrible happens to the City. This has accidentally brought Adele and Brenda back together again. Can their love resume? Should it? Things become further complicated when a friend of a friend arrives in the city as a refugee.

A romance/mystery set in the near future at a city under the surface of the Moon in an almost ideal society where sexuality is not an issue.

My 2007 NaNoWriMo novel. Please let me know what you think of it via the [comment] link. During November I was able to stop real life interfering with writing, but when the month ended I was suddenly buried under all the things I'd put off.

Finally finished almost a year later... well, except for the inevitable rewrites yet to come.


Insurance (291kB : 52,000 words : 95 pages) [comment]
book epub electronic book NaNoWriMo entry artificial intelligence lesbian thoughts nice sex virtual reality science fiction
The future is high-tech and low-energy, where androids (intelligent, human-like robots) are willing slaves, and most people, upon dying, are reborn into virtual reality inside computers as "veeps". Rachel is in love with her android Sally, even though it is socially frowned upon for a human to love an android. They become entangled in schemes for veeps and androids to gain human status.

In 2005 I completed my first NaNoWriMo. Yay! In some ways I'm really happy with this story even though it is not as well written as I'd have liked. It's about ideas and love and the near future. This story has as many cool concepts stuffed into it as I could at the time. It is mostly a happy and optimistic piece -- deliberately so. I need to rewrite some clumsy parts though. If you read it please bear in mind it was my first attempt at long form story writing, so it reads more like a collection of short stories. I'll rewrite it eventually.


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