Since my last post I've been working pretty hard on my PhD thesis, which has somewhat dulled the amount of brain power left over for writing fiction and researching history stuff. The first half of a podcast on Parthia is written, setting the context of where they are from and how they came to be a power. And I've been making the last tweaks to a short horror story about a couple who hear strange noises whilst hiking and go to investigate. Hopefully those projects will come to fruition soon!
Apart from that I've been learning and building mostly with web dev. I find it a bit less intense than writing, it's kind of a mix of logic puzzles and a game. To that end I've knocked up a portfolio page showcasing some of my work, as well as another blog to document my programming learning. The reason for a seperate blog is firstly I wanted to have a go at constructing one from scratch rather than using a templating system like here, so that one is 100% my work (with the help of a very good tutorial at Django Girls to get me going). Secondly it seemed better to not clutter here with random bits and bobs I've learn on my studies. However: here is a web game I've made, and a weather site that gives you local details as well as info about your antipode, the weather on the opposite side of the world. I've also got back into reading properly, and have been dabbling in genres outside my norm. I've just finished Sharon Bolton's Dead Woman Walking, which is a crime thriller, and it was a real page turner! She's a great writer and I'll be revisiting her work. Now it's back to sci-fi with some classic Harry Harrison, and last years A Close and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers. Hopefully once my brain has stopped being wrecked by PhD finishing and job hunting my creative juices will flow a bit more, as I've lots of history podcast ideas, lots of first draft short stories on my computer, and that unfinished novella, plus a few full novel ideas knocking around in my head.
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My short Lovecraftian story Maw has now been published by the e-zine The WiFiles. This is my first magazine publication, even if it's a small magazine I'm super excited to see my writing on a website! Thanks a lot to The WiFiles!
I've also been working on building another super simple website, actually writing it in html, CSS and JavaScript in order to practice what I've been learning on the google course. You can find it here. I have been working on a few things. Namely a podcast on Parthia, and a fantasy novel. I'm about 20,000 words into the novel, and have done the background part of the Parthian lecture. However I've been a bit distracted because I was successful in getting one of the 60,000 Google Scholarships for Udacity. So I've been learning web development. It's a lot more fun than I expected! Perhaps it will allow me to jazz this site up eventually.
Last weekend I attended the MK lit fest, and got to see my story printed in the Voices from the Grid anthology. That was a bit surreal! My first piece of writing in print. I also used my free tickets to go to a talk about Colossus and the cracking of the Lorenz code at Blethcley Park., which was great!.
My short horror/ weird story 'Maw' was accepted for publication by the WiFiles. I'm very excited to have my first story published online! And a paying market too, even if it's only $3 which I waived/ re-donated to the magazine. I'm not sure when I will appear on the site, probably in a few months.
I have also found out that some free tickets to talks for my local Literary Festival were put aside for those contributing to the short story anthology, so my name is down for two tickets to a talk about Bletchley Park. That puts my theoretical earnings from writing at $3 and £10. It definitely makes me feel more of a writer, I can't wait to see the stories online and in print! I've decided to create a new general site for myself, as previously I overcrowded my site for history specific things.
This site will be my new site for everything, and I will endeavour to post things as I do them. This was motivated by good news! Earlier this year I entered a local flash fiction competition. Whilst I didn't place in the prize winning top three, I did place in the top fifty, which means something I wrote will be appearing in print! My story 'Delayed Pursuit' will be featured in 'Voices from the Grid' an anthology to celebrate fifty years of Milton Keynes, next month. Things have been quite hectic with the PhD, but I hope to create more stories, more podcasts, and get to grips with some programming in the near future! |
George Jacobs
I'm a Planetary Science PhD student who loves writing stories, learning about history, and enjoying the outdoors Archives
February 2018
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