So I thought I’d introduce one of the key protagonists from my novel.

This sinister looking fellow is Vargmonger Soth, High-Curator of the Museum of Antiquities. Hi-Cu Soth is one of my main villains and he’s a very nasty piece of work. As a fanatical follower of the Cult of Maloth, Soth believes that the Lux holds the key to immortality. He believes that if he can discover and enslave the creators of the mysterious super-substance he can become a living god. With the help of his dedicated acolytes at the Museum of Antiquities Soth has embarked on a quest to claim the source of the precious Lux for himself. This obsession has turned Soth from a dedicated scholar in a power-crazed maniac and he will stop at nothing to realise his dreams. It is Soth who ultimately leads the Unissium into civil war and eventually plunges the Etherhweel into a galactic conflict.

Creating bad guys is a lot of fun as a writer and illustrator and Soth has become one of my favourite characters. I do so love a good villain, if you’ll excuse the oxymoron.

The writer China Mieville is a bit like Marmite, you either love him or hate him. I, just for the record, love Marmite. I also love China Mieville. In fact I would go so far as to say he is my favourite author. Okay, so that might be a bit bold, but he’s certainly the author of my favourite novel, The Scar.

I first encountered China Mieville about eight years ago when a friend of mine recommended Perdido Street Station, the first of his three Bas-Lag novels.  Now, for some (and this is where my Marmite analogy becomes relevant) Mieville’s warped imagination and dense writing style is just too much. Reading China is not an easy ride, but my word it’s wild one. Mieville is a true wordsmith and he clearly has a love of the English language. It’s a good idea to  keep a  dictionary close at hand when reading his books because you just don’t know when he’s going to hit you with some obscure and wonderful word such as gewgaw or mawkish.

Perdido Street Station is a fantastic read, a book full of warped imagination and untold innovation – the Slake Moth alone is an idea of such brilliance that it would have been enough to carry the book, but it is just a cog in the great mechanism of the novel – and his third, Iron Council, is also a belter, but for me it’s the second, The Scar that really strikes a chord.

I won’t say too much because I’d hate to ruin the surprise but the Scar is an awesome adventure. It centres on the pirate city of Armada, a vast floating metropolis composed of ancient and captured ships populated by outcasts, fugitives and exiles. Under the leadership of the mysterious Lovers, the Armadans begin an ambitious quest to capture and harness the Avanc, a gargantuan beast that visits Bas-Lag from other plains of reality.  Their quest takes them to the grotesque Island of the Anophelii, the mosquito people and sets them in conflict with the vast war fleet of New Crobuzon, the most powerful of Bas-Lag’s city-states. 

What I love most about Mieville’s writing, beyond his immense technical ability and brilliant characterization is his world building. In Bas-Lag he has created a world that is so vivid and strange, so twisted,  and yet so believable that you cannot help but immerse yourself.  China Mieville is a massive inspiration to me as a writer and illustrator and if you’re a fan of weird and dark then I can’t recommend his work enough.

Okay, so I’ve just finished watching District 9…again…and I thought it was time to have an adoration gush, a gush aimed at a fine, bearded fellow called Greg Broadmore. Greg is one of the lead concept designers at Weta digital and is, without doubt, one of my favourite concept artists.

I first became aware of Greg’s work when I was bought ‘The World of King Kong’, a book showcasing all of the concept work that went into Peter Jackson’s awesome retelling of the 1933 movie. Something about Greg’s style really caught my attention and his dinosaur paintings and creature designs are some of the best I have ever seen.

I then managed to acquire myself a great little book Greg had written and illustrated himself, Doctor Grordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory. This was my first taste of Greg’s insane weapon design, steam punk style. So, when I heard Greg was lead concept artist for District 9 I was naturally geekily excited. Not only did Greg design the filthy death dispensing ‘prawn’ hand canons but he was also responsible for one of the coolest mech/robot designs to ever grace the silver screen (in my opinion at least).

The man is a genius as far as I’m concerned and a source of immense inspiration. If you don’t know his work I suggest you check it out.

http://www.thebattery.co.nz/index.php?page=1

Okay, so Christmas has been mental, as usual, and a busy workload and family obligations have sadly kept me from my writing. That said, in amongst the yuletide activity and chocolate consumption I did find time to have my mind expanded and enthralled by Jim Cameron’s latest cinematic marvel, Avatar.

Not since watching the Dark Crystal at the age of seven have I been so blown away by an imagined world. I’ve got to say it is definitely up there as one of my favourite movies of all time. But amid all this gushing and Avatarlove there is also a downside. It’s not the first time I’ve felt this feeling. I had it slightly when I watched a planet being devoured by a black hole in JJ Abram’s recent Star Trek reboot. I had it some years ago when I read Ian M Banks’s Algebraist and he talked of wormhole networks connecting a pan stellar civilization. It’s that feeling that I’m sure many writers and artists get when they see a film or read a book and realise that someone has come up with an idea very similar to their own.

Now, don’t get me wrong…I’m not for one moment claiming to have the mental calibre of such literary and cinematic titans as Banks, Abrams or Cameron. These guys are obviously at the top of their game and are making millions from their creativity…I sadly am not. I guess this is what is so frustrating about seeing something as magnificent and impressive as Avatar. There is no way in the world that people will ever believe that the blue skinned, golden-eyed tribal race called the Bossdub in my novel weren’t inspired by Avatar’s Na’vi. Or that my giant super tree, the Kingtree, an integral part of my novel’s plot, wasn’t inspired by the Hometree in Avatar. Some might even go so far as to think that my descriptions of bioluminescent plant life were conceived after watching this film.

It is a strange moment when you see something so similar to your own ideas. You are filled with a mixture of excitement – that of seeing something that you have imagined manifest before your eyes – but you also feel a sense of sadness and frustration that some bugger has gone and beaten you to it…and, in the case of Avatar, with such finesse.

Perhaps I better send a copy of my novel to Mr Cameron, just for the record. I would so hate to find myself being sued by a man whose latest movie cost somewhere in the region of three hundred million…I don’t think I’d stand a chance. Oh well, maybe in another life Jim Cameron and I might have been chums, we do share a love of blue skinned aliens, giant trees and glowing moss after all. I guess the upside is this…if you liked Avatar, then there is a chance the Etherwheel Trilogy may also be your cup of tea…I’d better tag it at once!

Been away for a while…time to get back on the case with the blog so here’s one of my favorite poems…it’s about a big monster…

The Kraken

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant fins the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battering upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by men and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant fins the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battering upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by men and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

Anyone remember this movie? About an American dam builder in Brazil whose son is kidnapped by an Amazonian tribe called the Invisible People. The dam builder searches tirelessly for his son for ten years until finally he finds him, happily assimilated into the tribe.

Don’t remember it? Well I do and I’m not ashamed to say its in my top ten favourite movies. I don’t know why exactly. It’s by no means the best film ever made. That said, it certainly left its mark on me in many ways. It sparked my love of the Amazon rainforest and fanned the already growing flames of my interest in tribal cultures (The tribal peoples of the Amazon are right up there with the Native Americans and Aboriginal peoples for cool belief systems and awesome bushlore skills).

I guess this movie is interesting in the fact that it was one of the first to tackle the issues of deforestation and the displacement of indigenous peoples. It is gritty and thought provoking but also mystical and beautiful. Also it’s got Charlie Borman in it…Ewan McGregor’s affable biker chum from the Long Way Down. I have often wished that I’d been kidnapped by Amazonian Indians. Then I too could run around with green face paint and a skimpy loin cloth hunting capybaras and anacondas and such like. I’ve tried doing this in the woods near my house but I think it upsets the locals. If you like jungles and tribes and trippy spirit animal vision sequences then this is a movie for you.

Now, where did I leave my loin cloth?

For me, as I’m sure it is with many creative types, music is a constant source of inspiration. A good piece of music will often set my cogs-a-whirring, whether it’s creating an illustration or painting or getting into the mood to write a scene. For me music is a key factor in getting the ol’ creative juices flowing and so I will probably mumble on about various musical bits and bobs allot on this blog.

My first mumble, or shout rather, goes out to Fever Ray.

Fever Ray is the alter ego of Karin Dreijer Andersson, formerly one half of the awesome Swedish brother/sister duo The Knife. Now, I have been a fan of The Knife for a while now and I would highly recommend any of their albums if you like your electro deep, weird and lush, especially their critically acclaimed Silent Shout. Naturally, Fever Ray has definite wafts of The Knife in her work but her new self-titled album is something completely different again.

Every so often you come across an album that is so good you just have to listen to it again and again. This is what happened to me the first time I heard the Fever Ray album. I became addicted. Andersson has tapped into something dark and primitive but also something insanely beautiful. This whole album appears to have been written in the crepuscular hours, during spells of severe sleep deprivation and thoughts of Native American Indians. The vocals ooze in slow motion, the synths slide with glacial clarity. Listening to this album is like walking through a mist-cloaked pine forest in the early hours of the morning or floating face down in a cold mountain lake, eyes wide open staring into the deep jade void. It makes me want to paint images of shaman and half-seen beasts, of moth-like spirits and silver-eyed wolves.

Needless to say,  Fever Ray has been at the top of my playlist for a while now, I guess I should give it a break soon, lest I ruin it through overexposure, but it is so immersive, so darkly inspiring that its difficult to stop. Maybe it strikes a chord with my Scandinavian roots…who knows?

My final word then is this: if you like good music, if you like to experience something new and interesting, if you like to be transported somewhere strange and beautiful, then I can’t recommend Fever Ray enough. Go check her out immediately…I insist!

http://feverray.com/

If I had to name my favourite type of organism it would be a very tight contest, but, all things considered, I’d have to say the trees would win. Sure, I love tigers – those magnificent camouflaged jungle assassins – and whales, those peaceful leviathan lords of the great oceanic expanses. Birds also feature pretty high on my list, marvels of colour and flight that they are, but for me the best has got to be the trees.

There is something about trees that fills me with awe and delight. Again, as with so many of my life’s passions, I think my love of trees began as a child. I was fortunate enough to grow up in Dorset, a county covered with vast tracts of woodland. As a kid trees were a constant source of adventure. Whether it was climbing in the gnarled limbs of an oak or exploring the shadowy, needle-cushioned silence of a pine forest, there was always fun to be had around trees. I love all trees. I love the oak for its majesty and heritage (at one time in England oak was worth more than gold) . I love ash for its golden bark and beautiful canopy. I love baobabs and eucalypts, kauris and ginkgo, beech and maple. But I think my favourite tree of all is the mighty Redwood.

My love of redwoods began when I saw Return of the Jedi for the first time. (Once again Star Wars shows itself as the great influencer of my formative years!) Of all the environments featured in that movie the one that most captured my imagination was the forest moon of Endor. Naturally, I loved the action sequences, the speeder bike chases, the Ewoks’ battle to bring down the Deathstar’s defensive shield, but I was also blown away by the sheer size of the enormous redwoods that provided the backdrop to the action. I remember asking my dad if the trunks were really that big or if they were models. When I learned that these uber-trees were real I was stupefied.

And so it was that I first learnt about Redwoods, the mightiest organisms on earth, living things with lifespans that straddle centuries, vast growths with trunks taller than buildings and boles wide enough to accommodate rooms and buses. Trees so huge that  they can sustain mini-forests in their gargantuan crowns. Some of these mist-drinking, fire-retardant, gravity-busting, three hundred and fifty foot super-plants took root when the Roman Empire still flourished. They have lived through the Dark Ages, they have been silent witnesses to the birth of Islam, to the Renaissance, the industrial revolution and two world wars. What other organism can lay claim to such feats of living? They are truly vast and ancient.

Anyway, I could yarble on about trees for hours, nay, days, and I’m sure I will no doubt make them the subject of future posts. For now, however, I should bring it all back down to earth.

So, what kick-started this little outburst of tree love you might ask and what relevance does it have to my novel? Well, the catalyst for this little arboreal excursion was the cover feature in the latest National Geographic, a fantastic article concerning Mike Fay’s fight to preserve the ancient Redwood forests of America’s Pacific Coast. The article is really inspiring and surprisingly optimistic and, as always, backed up with some brilliant photographs and illustrations. Go buy it or read it here:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/projects/redwoods-transect.html

As far as my writing is concerned, my love of trees has definitely made its way into my work. In the Etherwheel Trilogy trees are everywhere, from the jungle world of Zeggadat to the magnificent tree-lined avenues of Phatt-Padd, not to mention the Kingtree, a six hundred foot titan, mutated by the exotic properties of the Lux. And if that wasn’t enough, the working title for my next novel is the Hag Tree.

So trees…yep, I ,love ‘em. Do you?

Ok so I’m just going to have a little aside here about Steambot Studios, a Montreal based visual development studio who really are the shiznitz. The artwork they produce is truly astounding. I recently bought a copy of their studio side project Exodyssey, a book filled with some of the most insanely imagined images I have seen in a long time. For anyone who loves concept art and gritty Sci-Fi this book is a must have.  Here is a link to their site so you can have a squiz at their enviable skills:

www.exodyssey.com

So, given how much of a Steambot fan in I am, you can imagine how happy I was to learn about Steambot’s involvement in the concept work for the new Tron re-boot, Tron Legacy. I know I’ve previously mentioned my dislike for the recent reboot culture, but this is one reboot I am very excited to see. Tron was another of my all time favourite movies as a kid and a major inspiration. For those of you haven’t yet seen any of the artwork or the trailer for Legacy, just have a looky here, it’s going to be a ripper for sure.

http://cghub.com/blog/view/tron-legacy-trailer-images/

I first read about Dr James Lovelock’s Gaia Theory back in the late nineties. At the time it had a real impact on me– I loved the idea that Earth, or a least the life sustaining shell surrounding its molten core,  is a vast self-regulating entity. Back then, Lovelock’s ideas were still considered to be somewhat ‘new age’. Now, thankfully, Gaia Theory is pretty much the basis for all climate research and his theories are highly respected.

So why am I babbling on about Gaia Theory? Well, much of the underlying plot of the Etherwheel Trilogy draws inspiration from Gaia Theory, the sense of an impending cataclysm, the threat to civilization and most of all the notion of planets as living entities. Lovelock’s ideas have always struck a chord with me and it is only natural that his ideas resonate in my writing, I am a great beleiver in his theories.

Recently I bought myself a copy of Revenge of Gaia, one of Lovelock’s most recent books on Gaia Theory, although it is not his latest. It makes for some pretty heavy reading in places. Lovelock doesn’t paint a pretty picture of where we are at regarding the state of our planet or where we are headed. But for anyone who cares even slightly about the natural world, mankind’s development and environmental issues I would highly recommend it. It really is an amazing book. Plus it has a beautiful penguin sleeve – light blue for big ideas!!

Not only does Lovelock discuss the devastating effects mankind’s activities are having on our planet– he beleives we have stupidly declared war on Gaia ( a war we most certainly can never win) and she is beginning to retaliate agaisnt our savage assaults ( the recent Indonesian quakes and tsunamis serving as a small taster of her full wrath) – he also puts forward some interesting ideas on the things we could do to prepare ourselves for the changes that are now, sadly, inevitable. His thoughts on nuclear power are of particular interest and anyone who has read Asimov’s Foundation series will see the potential that nuclear energy holds and be excited by Lovelock’s attitude towards this mighty energy source.

So, Lovelock, a brilliant scientist? Most definitely. Prophet of doom? Perhaps. Whatever you think of the man, it is his ideas that are truly inspiring and I would highly recommend getting a copy of one of his books as soon as possible.

Enviro-rant over!