Thursday, 27 September 2012

Control (Part 1) - NSFW

My 'teaser' for my new erotic story is now online on my new fit-for-purpose blog.

Hope you like it, and there is a lot more to come!

http://rubbisherotica.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/control-part-1.html

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Rubbish Erotica

You know, kiddies, sometimes there are areas of the internets where you really shouldn't go. Where evil creatures lurk, lands of big pink snakes with loose skin, being eaten alive by bearded predators who slaver at the mouth. Over and over.

It's some crazy stuff and if you don't want to know about it, then save yourselves.

Basically, cryptic bullshit aside, I've created a new blog to post some rubbish erotica. Enjoyment is my middle name (no it isn't) and this is what I aim for in what I do.

http://rubbisherotica.blogspot.co.uk/

Thursday, 20 September 2012

Tales from a failed world: Teacher I (an introduction)

(this is something I wrote just to introduce what kind of scenario I'm trying to portray here. I'll use parts of what I have below in the story itself, just to make it read better)

2nd April 2034.

I've been selected to go and help set a school up in what you could only describe as a city of Portakabins. This is all part of the Government's drive to re-establish education for the poor.

So out of the schools which we finally got to work, teachers (including me) were randomly selected to go spend some time out, accommodation sorted and everything, to go and teach poor kids who otherwise wouldn't have any formal education at all.

This is England, if you can believe it, that is. I'm fifty-five and I've been teaching Biology for thirty years. They thought I'd be perfect for this sort of thing, with my experience. I've tought endless amounts of bottom set classes and managed to get a few of them to shine over the years, some of them actually managing to get decent jobs. The rest of them, though, may have ended up in places like this. For the record, I'll tell you what happened.

All over the country, on the outskirts of many towns and cities, and on some inner city brownfield sites too, areas were designated as 'Overspill Estates'. They put down concrete footings, connected pipes up for water, sewage and electricity, then piled up stacks of what could only be described as modified Portakabins, as a modular solution to a housing crisis.

They claimed that two of these bolted together and linked by a staircase inside them would serve as a  two-bed house for a small family, say two adults and two children. They had two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. It was pretty pokey for four, and even more cramped for families of six or more, who weren't able to get a bigger house.

These 'Overspill Estates' were where families and couples would go who couldn't afford to buy or rent a house, the typical low-income category of people.

I remember, years ago, families like these used to get 'social housing' and rent from what were called 'housing associations' where you still had to pay rent (you could get help from the Government if you didn't earn enough) but it wouldn't be so expensive. That stopped when all the housing stock was all sold off to private investors, who rented them out for profit. And all the Government help dried up along with that as well, just to make things a little bit easier for people.

At the same time, there was a general housing shortage, not enough houses were being built to house an ever-growing population, therefore a crisis began to brew where either more than one family were sharing houses to save on extortionate rent payments, or they were out on the street instead (whole families), begging for money or resorting to crime.

There was a change of Government, and it sought to solve this problem. That was kind of prompted by a story covered by most of the national newspapers which referred to one and a half million homeless in total around the UK. When faced with this quandary, they knew they couldn't afford to buy old housing stock back or build new houses in the way we used to build them. Any new houses that were being built were just far too expensive for a lot of people to buy or rent. The option chosen was to quickly put up pre-fabricated housing, and move those families in there.

They became the new 'sink estates' and hardly anyone had a job, instead surviving on handouts. Disease, crime, the usual problems you could imagine, they flourished in these places, and the official line was to not  care too much about that. They didn't vote, they didn't talk a lot to people who lived anywhere else, they were put there to be forgotten about. It worked - apart from the stream of supplies in, regular visits by Police, fire crews and medical staff, not many other people went there. The overburdened education system, which I was a proud member of, virtually cut them off. The kids tended to be unruly, harbouring disease and responded poorly to attempts to educate them, so it was seen as logical to push them out and let them receive education from their family and peers.

Each area had a high, reinforced security fence around it, usually concrete. Not to stop anyone getting in, obviously, but to keep what was in there from getting out too easily. And now, with this change in Government, they wanted to open these places up and connect them with the outside world.

These walled cities of doomed prospects had been in existence for ten years now. Ten years is a long time and that can really change people. And the kids in there? At best, they spent most of their known life in these places, at worst, where they lived was all they had ever known.

Well, it's 6.30 am now. It's time to go and do this.

Monday, 17 September 2012

Post-apocalyptic storywriting

When you talk about writing a post-apocalyptic story, the general theme tends to be the ongoing struggle to survive after a huge event wracks humanity, tearing down civilisation as we know it. There are stories abound of this, where man is pitted against man, unspeakable mutated horrors, scorched and inhospitable landscapes, and from these darned hell holes are sprung heroes, who go around, doing what they do, bringing order to chaos.

A main theme in these stories does strongly assert itself. Hope. Hope from the rubble and mess; somehow humanity manages to rebuild itself and begins to become stronger in the process. As the saying goes 'What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger' and it couldn't be more wrong in these stories. It is a generalisation of course and sometimes humanity's struggle doesn't always go to plan, and sometimes it is a long and hard slog.

The most common cause of an imagined apocalypse is war. Specifically, nuclear war. Ever since the fact that atomic weapons actually existed had permeated into popular culture, many have imagined what would happen if nuclear war were to occur. What would spark it off? What effect would the war have? When would it start? And how would humanity pick up the pieces during and after the war came to an end? Typical stories focussed on all these aspects, with varying and imaginative results.

These stories exist in varying formats, as novels, short stories, comic stories and video games. For the last few months, I have been immersing myself in the very popular First Person Shooter game, Fallout 3. The game is set in the year 2277, 200 years after a nuclear war which began in 2077. This really helped put things in perspective, as you could experience a post-apocalyptic environment, interact with it and play your own part in the story. In all senses apart from smell, touch and taste.

I feel ready to write my own story, not to plagiarise what is already there, but to impart on the world my own take on the subject. For a while, I'm been playing with a couple of ideas in my mind, one to do with a massively destructive war, the other one isn't. That other idea is more biological, and imagines the world when a supermould destroys virtually all plantlife on Earth, leaving grey remains and choking dust. And a lot of hungry people.

For my war story, well war stories as it were, I plan to tell this from both sides, both before and after war begins. Before the war, I wanted to write a number of short stories, personal accounts of life pre-war, showing all the little facets of a timebomb ready to go off, to show how things fell, through the eyes of the people who would have to experience it. And after, something different, but that's all I'll say on that matter for now.

Saturday, 8 September 2012

I'm going to go through my Mr Men stories and edit them. I've actually been reading them to my daughter as bedtime stories and noticed a few things I need to amend to make them more readable.

Sunday, 2 September 2012

Things I'm up to

I'm doing a little bit of research for a future writing project of mine, and this story will be based in the Falkland Islands. In the future. Wow. And it will be a prequel to a much bigger story.

(No, it won't feature the Mr Men in it)

Without giving too much away, it will be a Sci-fi story with aliens and shit.

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Little Miss Rainfall

Now, if you've read the story about Mr Science, you'll know that he built a machine to enter a parallel world, where things are a little different. And some people there are quite the opposite of people here.
Mr Science carried on with his work, and frequently travelled to the parallel world, to meet his counterpart there, Mr Magic. One day, Mr Magic told Mr Science that there was a Little Miss in his world, who could do with some help.

-----

Down, at the bottom of a gloomy lane, within a gloomy forest, lay a gloomy cottage. It was quite gloomy and dark, though it wasn't yet time for bed. Somebody was in that cottage, but you would have thought whoever lived there may have turned the lights on, rather than sit in the darkness.

This was the home of Little Miss Rainfall.

-----

Little Miss Rainfall sat in her dimly lit cottage, staring into space. This was how she spent a lot of her time. She didn't go out very much, didn't speak to many people, she didn't want people to know she was there.
Now, looking at Little Miss Rainfall, you might recognise that she looks like another Little Miss, Little Miss Sunshine. Little Miss Rainfall was not sunny in the slightest.

In fact, she was very depressed indeed.

-----

Her phone rang. Now, usually, when a phone rings, you or me would go to answer it.

Little Miss Rainfall didn't. She left it to ring and ring.

"Probably a wrong number. Nobody thinks I'm that important. Must be for somebody else. Nobody wants to speak to me." she thought to herself.

The phone kept ringing for half a minute and then stopped.

-----

Mr Magic placed the receiver of his phone onto the handset and turned to Mr Science.

"She's not answering. I hope she's ok. I wonder if she's out. Hmm."

Out of Mr Magic's pocket came a wand, and he drew a circle infront of him, while chanting some magic words. It was a window into Little Miss Rainfall's gloomy house and Mr Magic could clearly see her sitting there, looking very unhappy indeed.

Mr Science took a look.

"It would seem that Little Miss Rainfall is too unhappy to answer her phone! Maybe we could pay her a personal visit."

-----

Mr Magic agreed that they should go together to see Little Miss Rainfall.

One swift journey aboard a magic carpet later, and Misters Magic and Science arrived at Little Miss Rainfall's gloomy house.

Mr Science knocked on her door and waited. Moments later, they heard the sound of a key unlocking the door, which opened.

There before them stood the lonely, sorrowful figure of Little Miss Rainfall.

"Hello," she said, "Are you lost or something?"

-----

"Um," replied Mr Science, "I'm Mr Science and this is Mr Magic. We've come to pay you a visit. We both wondered if we could be of assistance to you. May we come in?"

"Ok." said Miss Rainfall, "I don't know why you want to help me, though. I'm not worth anybody's help."

Mr Science replied, "We would just like to talk to you for a little while."

"OK then. Come in." asked Little Miss Sunshine, gloomily.

-----

Inside, Mr Science explained to Little Miss Rainfall that he was from a parallel universe and that his counterpart here was Mr Magic. He talked about the many counterparts between these worlds.

"... And basically," Mr Science continued, "I would like to take you to visit our world. You have your opposite there too."

"She's probably always happy. She probably wouldn't want to meet someone like me. I'm not worth your trouble. I'm sure that she will be much better off to never meet me."

-----

A day later, after a few more telephone calls, there was another knock at Miss Rainfall's door. She went to open it, and there standing before her was Little Miss Sunshine!

Little Miss Rainfall stood there, totally speechless.

"Mr Science told me about you and I wanted to come and see you." said Little Miss Sunshine.

"Why am I getting all of this attention now? I was never important to anyone and I'm not now. You're wasting your time." Miss Rainfall gloomily replied.

Little Miss Sunshine still smiled infront of her, despite her gloominess.

"I just want to talk. I've never met anyone like me from a parallel universe before!" she said.

-----

Little Miss Rainfall gave in and let Little Miss Sunshine into her gloomy house. Everything was dark and grey here, and you could feel the loneliness and despair from just being here.

They sat down in the lounge with cups of tea (Little Miss Sunshine turned on the lights) and began to talk.

Little Miss Sunshine told her, "I drove all the way down here in my car. I just about managed to get it through Mr Science's portal! I want you to come with me, so I can show you my world, I think you will like it. There's lots of things to see."

"OK." replied Little Miss Rainfall.

-----

Miss Sunshine added, "There are so many places to visit, like Cleverland, Nonsenseland, Happyland and Fatland."

"OK." replied Little Miss Rainfall.

Little Miss Sunshine talked a bit more about her world and eventually, however reluctant that Miss Rainfall was, she packed and got into Little Miss Sunshine's car and they drove off.

-----

Later on, and one careful drive through Mr Science's portal later, they had a walk through Cleverland. It was a place quite unlike a place that Miss Rainfall knew in her world, Dizzyland!

After talking to a number of very clever (and talkative) animals, Little Miss Sunshine thought she noticed a smile from Little Miss Rainfall.

The birds there had all come together to sing a song for her!

-----

After that, both of the Little Misses took a drive to Fatland for lunch with Mr Greedy and Little Miss Greedy.

When they arrived, Mr Greedy announced "I'll show you all the meals that cheer me up!"

Now, being greedy sort of people, both of the Greedies were very speedy cooks (it was the only real way that they burnt off any calories) and quickly put together a huge range of meals, that smelt lovely and tasted gorgeous!

As you might have guessed, Mr Greedy and Little Miss Greedy ate most of the food, Little Miss Sunshine had some, but, Little Miss Rainfall only managed a little.

But, again, Little Miss Sunshine thought she noticed a smile from Little Miss Rainfall!

-----

After lunch, and leaving the Greedies to fill a rather large dishwasher, Little Miss Sunshine took Little Miss Rainfall to see Mr Funny.

Now, Mr Funny thinks he has the ability to make anybody laugh out loud. When they arrived, Mr Funny tried his funniest to make the pair of them roar with laughter!

He told his best jokes, he made the funniest faces, even a little magic act for the pair of them.

But only Little Miss Sunshine was roaring with laughter. Though, Little Miss Sunshine thought she noticed a smile from Little Miss Rainfall!

-----

Their next stop, and their last stop here, was in Happyland, at Mr Happy's house. Mr Happy had brought along a friend of his, Mr Miserable. Though, when you had Mr Happy and Mr Miserable together, they looked exactly alike, for it was the magical properties of Happyland itself which turned Mr Miserable's frown into a large grin.

Mr Happy asked whether Little Miss Rainfall was feeling any happier from being in Happyland.

Little Miss Rainfall still looked very unhappy indeed.

-----

Little Miss Sunshine took Little Miss Rainfall home, feeling rather let down that she couldn't make Miss Rainfall happy. But Miss Rainfall said something. Usually she wouldn't speak first.

"I guess this is the way I normally am. You're always happy, and I am always sad."

But Miss Sunshine explained, "I'm not happy all the time. Nobody is. Sometimes I feel sad too. But when I feel sad, I like to do my favourite things to feel better. If I can't, I like to talk to someone about what is troubling me."

"But nobody wants to talk to someone who is sad though.", replied Little Miss Rainfall.

"That's not true at all. There is always someone who will want to speak to you, even if you are really feeling the worst you have ever been. And you can always talk to me!" Miss Sunshine explained.

-----

Little Miss Sunshine dropped Miss Rainfall back at her house. She didn't want to leave Miss Rainfall there on her own, but she needed to return home herself.

-----

You may have thought that this was the last you would hear of Little Miss Rainfall. Well, she was still very unhappy at times, but she certainly did not return to her old ways.

In fact, shortly after Little Miss Sunshine arrived back home, her telephone rang. It was Little Miss Rainfall, just wanting to have a chat!

And the moral of the story is, if you are feeling down, or indeed very very down, there are no magic tricks to make you happy, but you must never ever suffer in silence!

THE END