Who wants a politician who never changes their mind?

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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One of the things that has struck me about US presidential elections (not just this one, but the previous ones as well) is the hysteria with which any evidence of a change of opinion by a candidate is greeted. A new take on any issue from an individual is called everything from a flip-flop (with its connotations of floppiness and indecision and unreliability) to words like betrayal and lack of principles. The press and the opposition scour the voting records of candidates to find inconsistencies and then treat them with scorn.

True, a politician who blows this way and that depending on a political wind is a bit of a useless reed, with no backbone and adhering to no principles because he doesn’t actually have any. But let’s not go overboard on this.

A politician who changes his mind is not necessarily an unprincipled idiot. Quite frankly, when it comes to a job like the President of the USA, I’d appreciate knowing that the world has in it a president of a powerful country who actually was capable of weighing up an issue and deciding that new developments warranted new directions. That seems like wisdom to me, not a lack of principles.

Responsible journalism. Or not.

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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One of the many problems besetting Malaysian politics at the moment is the extraordinary propensity of many Malaysians to believe what they are told. Any theory, no matter how outrageous or unlikely the senario, is going to get instant believers. Possibly this is an outcome of having raised generations of meek children educated to believe all they are told and never question their betters (i.e. parents and teachers). If there is one thing the Malaysian education system has not done well, it is to create citizens who have a basic grasp of critical thinking. But that is by the way.

Two burning issues claim the public’s attention at the moment, taking precedence even over the sharp rise in fuel prices. The first is the gruesome murder two years ago of a Mongolian model with a family name that would look right at home in a fantasy novel. She was shot, then blown up, allegedly by two highly connected policemen – the real issue as far as the public is concerned being who (if anyone) told them to do it, rather than did they do it at all.

This case supposedly has everything – sex, money, arms dealing (submarines actually), beautiful Oriental women, a private eye chasing the women even as he was on the case, allegedly crooked cops and corrupt politicians, stolen C4 explosives, a scheming wife allegedly attending a murder for nefarious reasons – this one is about as ridiculous as you can get, innocent fall guys, conspiracy in high places, jealousy…um, what did I leave out? Oh yes, diamonds. I’m surprised there’s not black magic in there somewhere as well. Maybe I missed that one. Bloggers, of course, are having a field day.

The second issue hogging the airspace is whether a certain married opposition politician does in fact hanker after getting his sex in places he shouldn’t (according to the archaic criminal laws of the country) as well as hanker after being the Prime Minister (supposedly to take place by September 15th). Even the United States had something to say about this one.

And honestly, no fantasy-cum-mystery-cum-whodunit writer could possibly have thought up all the theories being bandied about at the moment to account for the few facts known about either of the cases. And this being Malaysia, it was inevitable that the gossip was going to link the two cases, which has happened.

What really riled me this morning was a sentence or two on the front page of The Star newspaper, as follows:

The private investigator(…)has made a statutory declaration alleging that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had a relationship with murdered Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

That statement, directly under the newspaper’s main headline, is untrue. The private investigator made no such allegation. In his declaration he said he was told (by one of the men charged with the murder, who had employed him as a PI) that there was such a relationship.

What kind of reporter/newspaper doesn’t see the difference between saying:

“X is true” and “I was told X“??

To make the writer’s misstatement even more obvious, the same newspaper quotes (on p12) the private investigator’s lawyer stressing that the statutory declaration was “not a statement of truth” but rather what had been said to the private investigator. “Whether true or not – he doesn’t know for sure. He just told what was told to him.”

So, was this a slip of the pen or a deliberate distortion on the part of the newspaper? It is the kind of thing that adds to the wild tales circulating in Malaysia at the moment.

I haven’t linked to anything in this post. Mostly because there is just so much out there and I have no idea which versions are closest to the truth. Take your pick.

A Medieval Bookstore Selling Books

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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You might remember I mentioned this basilica in Como before – San Fidele. It was started in the 6th Century and in its heyday in the 11th, when the cathedral was started a couple of streets away, to eventually dwarf it. And on the Piazza of San Fidele there were these very old buildings jutting out onto the square, their wooden beams cut a mere 1,200 years before…
So then I found that one of them was a bookstore. A working bookstore. With books.
Happily the beams have been reinforced with steel. (Believe me, if you could have seen the state of some of those beams, you’d be glad too…deathwatch beetles or something similar had had a medieval feast for several hundred years.) And in the fantasy section, I found at least one Australian author. Yep, Trudi Canavan is for sale in a medieval bookstore.
Ok, to be strictly accurate, the place – started in the 6th century was actually the baptistry of the basilica, not a bookstore, way back when. At least, that’s what I think it said on the blurb in the store. Unfortunately, it was all in Italian…
Nonetheless, I wanna be sold in a shop as delightful as this one!

Who has the most sense?

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Unfortunately, not often where one would most like to find it. The best remark to come out of the latest shenanigans (Is he or isn’t he? Did he or didn’t he?) involving our one time Deputy P.M. was in the letters to the editor in The Star newspaper.

Writes one Sim Wee Lee of Kuala Lumpur:

“Instead of asking what Anwar did in his bedroom, we should be asking whether the government has the right to impose legislation concerning sex between consenting citizens of legal age in private.

As we aspire to become a developed nation, we have to improve on many aspects we find lacking – government transparency, freedom of the press and, lately, courteous taxi drivers – but nary a word has been said regarding our criminal code which still categorises sodomy as a criminal offence.”

Hooray for a bit of sanity, and someone who has the guts to go to the heart of the matter and put it in perspective.

My editor speaks…

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Check here for an SFX interview with Darren Nash, Editorial Director of Orbit UK. Not to be missed if you are an aspiring writer and want some hints at how one of the top editors in the field views the business.

And here are some more random photos taken around the small towns of Lake Como. The first one was taken from a boat in the rain – we were chased for some 20 minutes by a large rainbow. Gorgeous.

Note the waterfall in photo 5.






Reading at Denvention

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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I forgot to say yesterday that I am also giving a reading at Denvention. I shall probably read something from the new trilogy (Time of Random Rain) and I am going to keep my fingers crossed that SOMEONE turns up to listen.

And I have been writing like mad – all of a sudden back in the groove. I am now half way through the first draft of the second book, Stormshifter (working title). The final book will probably be around 180,000, but I aim to get the first draft to 170,000 because I always like – and invariably need – about 5,000 words more before I complete the second draft, and then another 5,000 between second draft and publication. So here it stands at the moment on picometer halfway to the end of the first draft:

And Hrugaar has pointed out that Interaction Glasgow was 2005, of course (see last post). Plus the fact that the book I was thinking of was Anne McCaffrey’s two Dinosaur Planet books. (And he says he has a bad memory. Huh.)

Today was a spend-the-time-at-hospital-clinic day, all re my 2 numb fingers. The good news is that they are SO much better. Not normal, but at least they don’t have the feeling of two bananas struck on the end of my hand any more. It has taken 10 months to get to this point.

And the other good news was an email out of the blue from someone I had not heard from in 25 years. I love search engines.

DENVENTION: my programme

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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As you will have noticed, there is a red decal thingy to the left of this that links to Denvention. And Denvention (for anyone not into this sf/f stuff) is a world conference of science fiction and fantasy readers, writers, fans, aficionados and gamers, coming up in early August, in Denver Colorado. It’s affectionately called simply: Worldcon.

I have been once before, 19952005 Interaction in Glasgow, Scotland, and had such a hugely enjoyable time I swore I would go again. In August, I will be on my way between seeing one daughter (Nashii in LA) and the other over in Virginia (where I’ll do my stint of sitting the grandson during the summer holidays). And guess what, Denver sort of falls vaguely in between, so…

I will be arriving in Denver on 5th August around lunchtime and leaving on the morning of the 11th. I’ll be staying at the Hyatt Regency. So look me up if you are going too!

Here’s my tentative programme for the convention, which I will confirm closer to the date):
I am on three panels:

  • Writing in Spite of Your Environment
This one should be real fun – and it is something close to my heart. I can write anywhere, and I reckon it is an essential aid to writers to have this ability!

  • A World Made of Birds:
    What would the Earth be like if the Dinosaurs Had Lived?

This one I will have to do some research for – obviously I was put on this one because of my ornithological connections. A great “What if-” idea for stories, as numerous filmakers have decided with varying degrees of success. What was that book written about a planet full of dinosaurs, which was actually a created world for endangered species about to become extinct?

  • Using Myths to Kick Off a Fantasy World
I actually don’t use myths as inspiration, so I will have to do a bit of chatting about writers who do. Any suggestions anyone? People as disparate as Juliet Marillier, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Guy Gavriel Kay all spring to mind.

I’m busy today

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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From the late George Carlin, stand up comedian:

“Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?”
_________________________

And here is one (also from Carlin) that Islamists might like to think about some time in the future*:

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”

*Just to cover all bases, let’s replace the word “Church” with “Religion”…