Book Review: A Spy At Home by Joseph Rinaldo

Try to put yourself in the position of a retired CIA operative, returning home to his wife and son with Down syndrome (resulting in early-onset Alzheimer's), endeavoring to do his best to look after them and ensure they are provided for. Now, just to make things a little more difficult, imagine our retired spy has managed to embezzle a little under ten million dollars from his employer. Such is the premise of A Spy at Home, the first novel by Joseph Rinaldo, already published as an eBook. Mr Rinaldo explains how he is uniquely qualified to write this book, raising a daughter with Down syndrome and witnessing the effect of Alzheimer's on a family member, and indeed cryptically states that he'd prefer not to disclose the sources of his espionage-related knowledge. This intriguing combination of plot and story sounded unique and intriguing to me, so I happily accepted the author's offer to write a review.

The juxtaposition of a "tough guy" job with the emotional concerns attached with mental disability made me immediately think of Regarding Henry, penned by writer J. J. Abrams in a dim and distant era long before Lost. It's not a common combination of subjects, and surely presents the author with some difficult challenges. The author deals with these issues very well by writing the book as our retired operative's memoirs, only to be released to be read in the event of his death. In the preface, the narrator tells us that, yes, he is dead; yes, his son was a surprise; and yes, he's the one that killed his own wife. With those revelations out of the way, the book proceeds in whydunnit style, with the narrator telling us about events as and when he remembers them, indeed apologizing for his lack of strict chronology very early in the book. It's a very stark contrast between the strict mental conditioning required for his day job, and the day-to-day stresses and strains of looking after his son, whose welfare becomes more and more of a challenge as their lives go on.

The book does not go in for large amounts of descriptive passages; it is indeed intended as a memoir rather than a flowery novel, which can at times leave a very dry delivery but does, for the most part, definitely give a realistic feel and a feeling that perhaps some of the events reported have their basis in fact, written precisely as our narrator would report them, grappling with his own emotional detachment due to his job. This does result in a couple of areas where things are ambiguous; for example, it is apparent that some time passes through the story as the child Noah grows up, gets a job and goes to work, although I never quite felt sure exactly how old he was. Likewise, exactly when the story takes place seems a little unclear, although it is evidently in a near present due to the computer hackers that form an integral part of the espionage side of the story. That part of the story was also delivered in a gritty way - there was no attempt to picture the spy business as anything glamorous as in the movies, rather a day job whose employees have the same concerns as most of us, such as whether their families are eligible for benefits. The lack of description does make it a little difficult to feel for the characters; we only get to experience their situation. There are a couple of inclusions in the book which I felt did detract from the overall story. There are a few very awkward sex scenes; nothing particularly explicit, but extremely clumsy and they do not add anything to the tale - excluding them would have left the book accessible to a young teen audience which would be just as interested in the novel's parallel subjects. There are a couple of places as well where I feel the author slipped out of character for a moment and managed to let his own political viewpoint slip out, albeit briefly. I can't help feeling it is a line an editor would have removed before going to press. Overall, the writing and copy seemed good with only a couple of minor errors. At the time of writing, the book is available in Kindle format for $1.99 on amazon.com. These days, I feel it's difficult for authors to get the pricing right for novels published digitally; far too many fall into the trap of practically giving their works away and underselling their hard work. For the reader, however, this is surely a bargain.

The book does indeed raise some difficult ethical questions; we find ourselves wondering whether any amount of money would make a difference in this situation, and we are sympathizing very much with a father who, while he may be used to overthrowing foreign regimes and all sorts of covert operations, finds it ever more difficult to look after a son who recognizes him less and less and is constantly worried exactly how he will be cared for once the father passes on. Watching the story unfold as one tragedy follows another, all against the backdrop of possible discovery of the theft of the money and trying to find ways to put the money to work without raising suspicions, one feels the greatest sympathy for the characters, although curiously it is not so much for Noah and his condition, but for his father, for whom no amount of training could prepare him for the trials and tribulations he is to face as a spy, at home. It's a good story whose major strength to me is the realism of the characters dealing with very real lives without expecting the plot to magically resolve itself in the closing chapters. Mr Rinaldo's own experiences evidently do show through in the writing here.

Joseph Rinaldo currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee. From this most American of cities he writes about the internal turmoil in the CIA, and about pirates on beautiful family-filled lakes. You've probably heard that authors write what they know. Think it's true?

A Spy at Home is available from amazon.com in eBook format for Kindle and compatible book readers.

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Book Review: "A Trace of Smoke" by Rebecca Cantrell

A newspaper crime reporter scans the photographs of the unnamed dead found drowned in a river, posted in a police station. One photograph particularly catches her eye; she recognizes it as her brother. He had lived a colorful life, performing his drag act and associated with several perhaps dangerous gay lovers - at this point, perhaps this sounds like a formula for many a contemporary novel, but for Hannah Vogel in A Trace of Smoke, things are far from formulaic. It is 1931 in Berlin, the Nazis are on their way to power, and, furthermore, she and her brother have lent their identity papers to a young Jewish couple who are at that very moment escaping to New York. Add a father looking to bring justice to the rapist who attacked his daughter, and a child with a birth certificate claiming Hannah and her brother are his parents, and the scene is set for a story that includes its fair share of surprises.

Rebecca Cantrell places her story with research and attention to detail, and not more than a little homage to such iconic portrayals of 1930's Berlin as Cabaret. The result is the events are effectively placed against a backdrop of real places and events, however without too much in the way of dry factual details. This results in a portrayal which is evidently a work of fiction: in fact, the actual historical background seem very unobtrusive and perhaps a little sparse. For the reader expecting a historical novel, this may be somewhat disappointing; there are just enough details provided, but only just. At first I struggled with this and wanted more, but after a while the reason for this becomes clear. Location is secondary to character in this novel. The end effect in fact is that the backgrounds are portrayed very much in gray, almost as if they were shot in black and white, with the characters standing out in bold color. In particular, there are splashes of red throughout, signifying passion, intrigue, and of course blood. These splashes of red reminded me very much of the way that odd glimpse of color was used in Schindler's List, or to denote something supernatural as in The Sixth Sense. It comes across as a very effective part of the storytelling. The factual and historical background is dour; the characters themselves deliver the color. For the curious, there is a welcome glossary at the end of the book.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the story is the overall pace at which the story unfolds. At first, the tale is somewhat slow and sluggish. The narrative has to fill out the background information for Hannah and her brother, and their fellow characters in the story, somewhat mechanically at first. It seems to take a few chapters for things to get started. Again, this may be disappointing to the reader at first, but it results in a clever build-up of pace that is maintained for much of the thirty chapters. It seems Hannah's challenges increase, step-by-step, one at a time, throughout the book, reaching a breakneck pace for the big resolution of the story. Before long, what could have been a murder mystery plot brings in potential blackmail, priceless gemstones, a scandal involving a high-ranking Nazi, the peculiar child who believes Hannah to be his mother, and enough loose ends to draw us towards a conclusion which leaves just as many questions answered as unanswered, ready for the sequel, The Night Of The Long Knives.

Above all, the outstanding part of this novel is the sympathetic character of Hannah Vogel herself. It would be very easy for a novel in this setting to portray every one of the Nazis as wicked and evil, but Hannah's eyes are just as capable of seeing good and evil in all the characters she meets, even each of the growing list of suspects in her brother's murder. In particular, she finds herself very much aware of the contradictions that many of the characters face when trying to reconcile their lives and beliefs with the events that unfold around them. The story is very much one of conflicts between prejudices, and one which is far richer in the intricate relationships between human beings than their politics. Hannah is an absorbing heroine, and not without her own flaws; her fellow characters are all multi-dimensional, resulting in an enthralling and captivating read.

Interested in A Trace Of Smoke? If you have a Nook or compatible eReader software that can read LendMe books, my copy of A Trace Of Smoke is available to borrow. Just join or log in to bookfriend.me, and search for the book. If it's still available, it's yours to read for one week.

A Better Way Of Doing Business

Image by Great Beyond via Flickr

In the build-up to the holiday season, I was fortunate enough to be following a sneak peek preview of a most intriguing novel, Steve McAllister's The McAllister Code. I'll try to describe the book here, but that won't do it too much justice. Simply saying "It's about two wise-cracking aliens who visit Steve and convince him to write a book that will turn his hometown of Sarasota, FL into a marketing mecca" seems like it wouldn't achieve too much, but that's exactly what the book is about.

Or rather, that's what the book isn't about. There are several other recurrent themes throughout it, some striking, some novel, and some that will strike a chord with many readers. (There's my plug: go buy the book as I intend to, and tell @inkensoul I sent you). One theme Steve reiterates is something that I have believed for a long time. Businesses can be successful without being evil. For a long time it has been held that the "greed is good" images perpetuated in the Nineties were the model of how businesses should compete; win-lose, zero-sum games, triumph or die. One of Stephen Covey's seven habits is often quoted as "strive for win-win" yet only recently have companies appeared that can actually thrive on that model. It takes a huge amount of nerve to be the first adopter of that kind of policy and exchange short-term gains for long-term successes for all. It seems to be the sort of strategy that is only successful, once everyone accepts it. Although I was intrigued, I must admit, I had my doubts that such businesses could be successful. Yet, even as I read the daily excerpts from Steve's book, I ran into the following three quite remarkable examples.

Firstly, I'd like to mention Qualatek, right here in Hollister, California. My change in circumstances recently meant that C and I ended up sharing a laptop for a little while. This was quite an enlightening experience for C, as, suddenly she discovered that sharing a computer with a code monkey is quite a proposition as the poor machine begins to grunt and groan under the strain. I believe it lasted somewhere around a week before the monitor gave up the ghost. A quick peek inside seemed to confirm that it was a worn-out cable; it also confirmed what I believed about the interior of laptops. Nobody in their right mind should try to get inside one. It takes a can opener, and the number of bits and pieces is simply mind-boggling. Hence I started on my search for a repair professional, which is relatively easy, provided you don't mind being treated like dirt. Typically, computer repair folks will charge you the earth for an initial 'diagnosis', after which they'll then tell you what you might expect to pay should you decide to repair it or not. You're out of pocket immediately. Both C and I have had bad experiences this way that have left a terrible aftertaste. Enter Nick from Qualatek, who quite happily accepted my initial diagnosis, sat on an eBay auction for the missing part over the Christmas break, ordered it without even setting eyes on the machine, took the machine to fit it, and let me know that didn't cure the problem, then ordered a new display - all without any strong-arm or hard sales tactics. The whole experience has built such a level of trust that I know he is going to fix the problem, competently and economically, and I won't hesitate to recommend him to everyone. A wonderful way of doing business.

That "change in circumstances" I mentioned above was finding myself unemployed just before Christmas. Of course, everybody makes a comment that it's a terrible time to find yourself out of work, as if there was ever a good time, as if your sudden lack of a paycheck would overshadow the festivities and that would be the only thing on your mind. Of course, it's true it isn't a good time to be looking for work - but for many other reasons. So many corporate HR departments and recruiters are taking time off for the holidays that getting a response from anyone is difficult in itself. In December, I made something like sixty submissions to many and varied companies in the area, using the big-name job search sites that everyone has heard of. In the midst of all this I discovered Jobfox, and can certainly testify to its effectiveness. Like the other sites, there are benefits for premium membership, offers for resume writing services, and so on - of course, the companies have to make their money - but I was most surprised at the level of questions required during my initial sign-up for an account. As a result, the opportunities I was offered, which from the other sides were simply the same old stale postings that I'd seen throughout Christmas, were new, fresh, and more importantly, precisely targeted to my skills. The other sites had been fruitless for a month. It seemed within a week of Jobfox, I was well on my way to securing my current post. (Another mention here of course goes to my new employer, who distinguished themselves by acting surprisingly quickly over the Christmas and New Year break while other companies and recruiters let the holiday slip by).

Finally, one more mention of how human ways of doing business really make all the difference. We ate at Flames in San Jose after one of my job interviews, and were amazed at the friendly atmosphere, quality (and quantity!) of food on offer. We had a good conversation with the table server about where I had been that day, and wishing me good luck in my search. Of course, a recommendation for a restaurant always comes with a risk. You wonder whether or not your experience was a one-off; whether next time you go there it will not meet expectations, or worse, you take someone else there and things are terrible. C and I decided we were going to take two of her sisters there for their dinner after arriving in San Francisco airport last week. Fortunately, the food quality met - no, exceeded - our previous expectations, everyone enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. The biggest surprise though was most unexpected, the table server from our previous visit recognized us, asked me very directly and specifically about whether I had had any luck in the job search, and remembered so much from our previous visit. He surely had served hundreds of people in the interim, yet remembered everything, treated us well, and of course earned his tip. That's service, and that's a better way of doing business for everyone.

The coconut pie was wonderful, too.

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Is yWriter 5 The Novel Writing Tool For You? #nanowrimo

Whether you're new to novel writing or have had some previous experience, one thing is quite certain. You are unlikely to get very far with such a complex project if you simply decide one day to simply "go for it," open a new file in your favorite word processor or text editor, and simply begin typing. There is a lot of planning, organization, and discipline involved in managing what can very easily become a very unwieldy task indeed. Most text editors are very useful when it comes to editing words and lines. They are not quite as convenient when it comes to chapters and scenes. And - perish the thought - keeping your entire novel in a single file is asking for trouble. What if your computer has a hard disk failure and the file cannot be opened?

Spacejock Software's yWriter 5 is a freeware answer to many of these problems, using a software engineer's perspective on the file management problem. Computer software is typically developed by dividing the project into many small files, and keeping all associated information with each component together in one place. Moving the components around within the project is then relatively simple. In yWriter 5, the same idea applies to the various scenes that make up a novel. Each scene is a separate text file that may be edited standalone (in either the built-in or an external text editor), and then scenes may be ordered, moved or assembled as required into chapters. Editing tasks such as moving a scene earlier or later in the book becomes a very simple task indeed. many of the menu options suggest that the software has been regularly used for entrants in National Novel Writing Month, and as such, features have been added in response to users' wishlists. The yWriter program is available for Windows, but by using the Mono emulator software, it can also be run on Linux and Mac OS X platforms. It requires a rather large .NET package from Microsoft to already be installed, but most modern Windows installations will already have this present, required by other common software.

If your experience with word processors is limited to gargantuan office software, the word processing features of yWriter 5 may seem a bit spartan. The editing environment is quite reminiscent in simplicity to simple programs like WordPad, for instance. There is limited support for formatting and editing, and even though there is a spell checker, the option to enable this comes into effect only when a scene is saved. There are no squiggly red or green lines appearing beneath your text as you type here. This is intentional; the point behind the software is to free you from the technical details and just allow you to simply write, as undistracted as possible. Nor will yWriter write the novel for you. It does not provide any creative input for you, write your plot, or come up with a story - that is all your responsibility. All the software attempts to do is to make the technical and management aspects somewhat easier, and give you easy access to some useful tools that will help you write your latest blockbuster. One thing to remember as well is the program is designed only to manage the "getting the words out of your head" part of the writing process; any paper output it produces is purely for preview purposes. Do not expect pretty output from this program; that is way beyond its scope.

However, yWriter 5 does more than allow you to write text in scenes. It serves as a place to gather and collate all your ideas relating to your novel as you write it. For instance, you may keep track of characters, locations, and items as they appear in each scene, and keep track of whose viewpoint each scene is written from. You can add notes, reminders, even images that can serve as your inspiration or research for each part of the novel; jot down ideas about goals, conflicts, outcomes, and the time at which each scene takes place; mark up the scenes as they pass through the editing process, and even rate them subjectively on up to four user-defined scales for such metrics as tension, humor, or quality. The software is cleverly designed to make all of these features available, but purely optional; furthermore, the features may be used in the way the novelist wishes, rather than forced into a particular usage pattern. For example, one user of yWriter submitted a translation file that converted the novel-writing program into a tool that writes sermons. At this very moment, this review is being written in yWriter, with each paragraph in its own file. This allows me to check the word count to make sure I am writing a review that's balanced and sufficiently informative.

The best things about yWriter 5 is the author - not only a software developer but also a published novelist in his own right - evidently encountered a lot of the common issues with the development of a novel and put his software development abilities to finding suitable solutions, rather than marketing gimmicks that do not help with the task at hand. The most important feature for a writer surely has to be to present an undistracted environment in which to write, and the yWriter editor certainly satisfies that. It is easy, almost immediate, to get to use and the management of scenes and chapters is exceptionally intuitive. However, along with that simplicity are also a wealth of features which are not just there for added complexity, but are genuinely useful. I must admit, the more I use the program, the more features I find and the more uses for them. What is more, the features have evidently proven useful to a community of both amateur and professional writers alike. It can read your scenes aloud, which is an interesting means to identify issues. One impressive feature is the program can be run from a USB flash drive, allowing you to easily move your work environment from one machine to another. The program automatically makes backups of your work, as well as automatically checking for software updates. It prints out reports, including a work schedule, so the writer knows exactly how much effort is required to meet that deadline - or listen to the whooshing sound it makes as it passes them by.

With so many features, the elements about yWriter 5 that I did not like seem relatively insignificant. There were some times, for example, when closing the text editor, that the parent screen did not regain the focus and reappear as the next logical place I'd like to give my attention. This caused me to have to go look for it in my taskbar, which broke my concentration in a program that, as much as possible, allows me to focus on the writing and not so much on the minutiae of operating a computer. There's a preview window for scenes on the main window, which in fact I can place a text editing cursor, but text cannot be typed there, although it would seem that would make sense. I'm a little curious about the decisions to automatically backup the files in the background as the user works. The files seem to always be compressed into zip files' this seems not only a little awkward to retrieve the files in case of an emergency, but also somewhat dangerous - a corrupted file might render all the contents irretrievable. On the one instance where I did purposely crash the computer in order to test this feature, finding the file to recover was not an intuitive process. One thing to remember, this is a free program. The help files are a bit skimpy, although the program is supported by a fairly active - and quite enthusiastic - e-mail group, which may be able to answer any questions.

I must admit, in a very short time I have become quite a fan of yWriter 5. I am very much in agreement with its concepts of how to manage and handle projects; indeed, it is now something I use daily for even small projects such as writing this very review. I'm discovering more and more features as and when I need them. and have yet to find the software lacking. Perhaps yWriter 5 is precisely the tool that you are looking for. Check out Spacejock Software for more reviews, details, and to download. As the developer himself claims, without yWriter, he would never have become a published author.

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Online Game Review: Fallen Race

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There's quite a number of "browser-based" multiplayer games out there on the Web, with varying levels of complexity. At one extreme, there are the massively multiplayer online games that require software installation or download; at the other extreme, there are text games that require nothing more than your browser, clicking on selections in order to complete your "turn". Several years ago, I gave some of these a try. There are many varieties, some based on the old "Kingdom" strategy games, where you assign food, workers, and resources in order to grow your citadel from year to year, with a natural extension to multiple players. Other games take a science-fiction plot, or Dungeons and Dragons, or other such similar themes. In most cases, the game action is essentially the same. A turn count recharges in real time; for instance, you may be allowed a certain number of clicks every 24 hours. You may use those clicks each time when you log on, and other incentives (such as referring other users or in some cases pay-to-play) may increase the number of clicks you have available and thus give you an advantage in the game. What keeps you coming back to visit the site is the thought that, if you don't use those clicks your character collects while you're gone, your character will fall astray from its possible maximum potential. To many, this might not sound particularly absorbing, but there is something notoriously addictive about attempting to work out how best to plot and play your moves with considerable patience. Add a social element, and things can get dangerously absorbing.

Fallen Race is a browser-based multiplayer game that grabbed my attention on Twitter this weekend; with a mention that it can be played on any browser or mobile device anywhere. That is a significant advantage of text-based or click-based games; they are playable on browsers on devices such as phones, and checking in to enter the moves can be done at any convenient time such as when queueing or waiting for a bus. Fallen Race is set in the late 21st century, after an alien invasion has forced the human race underground. It is up to you to arm your character and take part in a rebellion to fight back the aliens, or to fight any other factions of humans competing for resources and money in the world. That's the plot description; to see how this translates into game dynamics, a sysop gifted me with some in-game money and a "donator pack", an item that signifies a player has made a contribution to the upkeep of the game and unlocks access to some donator-only features, including accelerated recharging of energy and studying skills, and the ability to maintain lists of friends and enemies within the game itself. I am quite pleased to say that, unlike many games of its type, the game does not feature advertising, not even a single banner ad; or reward clicks to links to external sites, a common promotional gimmick for this kind of game.

In the game, you buy equipment to arm your player and defend yourself from attacks, while training your character's statistics of accuracy, strength, defense, and agility. Your character has values of mood, energy, courage, and focus, which change up and down constantly as you play your turns. The stats and attributes interact, which is where the strategy comes in; for example, it costs energy to train up your statistics, and how successful your training is depends on your mood. Focus enables you to study, while courage enables you to perform missions which let you level up. Of course, you have a number of life points, which, should you get attacked either by the in-game enemies or by other players online, will put you in the hospital to heal. The statistics regenerate over time; for example, you regain a courage point every five minutes which means you can re-attempt a mission that costs one courage point. As well as the missions, you may also choose to search the environment around you, and you are awarded a certain number of searches every day. The outcome or searches and missions may be increased experience or discovering new objects; but there may be negative outcomes, such as a wound that puts you in the hospital or time in jail. By logging back into the game regularly and spending the available points wisely, your character can increase in strength and levels and open up more and more possibilities. If you're obsessive compulsive, you can check every five minutes for something to click, but this is a game for the extremely patient! Fortunately, there seems to be sufficient protection against automation - getting computer bots to enter the moves for you - and hopefully the human element is more important to players than the game's internal number-crunching.

Evolving your character by periodically logging onto the web site and clicking available options is, of course, only the non-social part of the game. Building your character is there to enable access to the community options, backed by an in-game message board where you can interact with currently around 7000 other players. By getting to know other players, you can join teams known as "squadrons" who fight for reputation points. Fighting other players in this way is part of the game - the game runs the fight whether or not both players are online, so it is quite possible to log on to the game to discover you have been put into the hospital. In addition, there's a Battle League where organized, competitive fights are held between characters to move up through the ranks and win prizes. By meeting other people within the game, you can send them objects, attempt to rescue them from the jail, and thus build on the social elements of the game. It is the social aspects where there is considerable development currently ongoing; recent additions for example include a lottery and the "Fallen Theatre" where players can submit and share videos. You can buy and sell objects on the black market to other players, buy a bigger "facility" to live in, and even find an in-game spouse. The social aspects of the game work very well. Within a matter of minutes you will meet other players by breaking them out of jail, being gifted with supplies, weapons, armor, and the grapes - handy to throw at prisoners.

There were a few issues I did run into while exploring the site. While the Twitter account promoting the game describes it as playable on mobile devices, the site is in no way optimal for use on a smartphone - there is not an "optimised for mobile" version of the pages. The pages load very slowly on a phone and are cumbersome to scroll around, This seems a shame - the game seems ideal to be played on the move, and most games of this btype really should address this in this day and age. There are some situations as well where the page display is not precisely in-sync with game events. For example, if you have one courage point left and undertake a mission, the display of the mission results still shows that one remaining courage point on the left panel, and only updates on the next screen. The game is under active development, though, and changes big and small are in the works. In fact, while writing this review, I came across a bug of little consequence, which the sysop immediately looked into, even though it was 5.30am his local time. The community seems thriving and there is definitely a sentiment among the players that they are in no small way helping to shape the future of the game. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you enjoy click-based browser games, Fallen Race might be worth checking out.

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Review: How to Write a Blockbuster Novel With Storybook #nanowrimo

Why Novel Planning Software?

November is just around the corner, which means National Novel Writing Month is fast approaching. Whether you're planning to take part in NaNoWriMo, or whether you are perhaps entertaining the idea of writing a novel for any other reason, it might be a good idea to take a look at what tools are available. Even though NaNoWriMo is supposed to be blitz writing without editing, you would be well advised to plan your novel ahead of time. There are some software packages on offer out there that allow that, and Storybook is one of them. One of the most appealing factors about Storybook is its price; it is open source and available for free. 

Storybook is novel planning software; specifically, it allows you to put characters in locations and scenes and arrange them into chapters. This is all done using a visual representation of all the scenes in your masterpiece, almost like moving index cards around on the table. The scenes can be ordered and placed into chapters, and progress on the actual writing can be done within the Storybook program. 

However, it's important to note that Storybook is not a text editor or a word processor. The text entered into Storybook should be of the form of short notes, not your actual text itself. You will still need a text editor or word processor to do the actual work!

Installing and Using Storybook

Storybook is available for both Windows and Linux, and requires that you have Java 6 already installed. (If necessary, visit the Sun Java web site to download the latest version of Java appropriate for your computer). The installation process is relatively painless, with a one-click install available for Windows platforms and a single file to unpack for Linux. By far the most common reason for an installation failure is not already having the correct version of Java. 

Once the program is started, you will see the main Storybook screen. A demo project is available, illustrating Storybook's main concepts. Storybook is all about the arrangement of individual scenes; a scene typically takes place in a single location and is occupied by various characters in the novel. The characters and locations can have some background information, and the scene can be outlined. Scenes typically take place on a line of narrative called a strand; while there is obviously a minimum of one strand, more complex stories can intertwine multiple strands, for example to present multiple viewpoints or sub-plots. Scenes are then assigned to chapters, and, in effect, the planning is done. 

A novelist planning their novel with Storybook will typically create their characters and locations upfront, and then write a brief synopsis of each scene that is required to tell the story. Once all the scenes are planned, correctly ordering them and locating them into chapters to ensure the novel is correctly paced can be quite a challenge. Storybook allows this to be done in a reasonably visual and intuitive manner. It can also be used as a repository for notes, and is a good place to record details which need to be referred to several times during the writing process, such as the description of a character or a location.

What's Good, What's Not So Good

Storybook reasonably impressed me with the way it attempts to focus the novelist's mind on those important details that it is very common to lose track of when writing. For example, when defining a character, it is an option to specify that character's date of birth; it is all too easy when time passes within a novel that the character's age gets forgotten about. Similarly, it ensures that the author puts some thought into other important plot devices such as locations; no matter what the novel, it is all too obvious (and annoying to the reader) when there are inaccuracies that illustrate the novelist did not bother to do any research. 

However, Storybook did also seem to have some considerable failings. As far as I could tell, scenes in the book could only be assigned a date, not a time. This made several scenes that took part on the same day very cumbersome, and in situations where attention to time might be important (such as writing a murder mystery) it would appear more granularity was required. Similarly, there is no easy mechanism to ensure scenes on a strand appear in the correct order when assembled; although it occurred to me that may not necessarily be a desirable feature depending on an author's preferred narrative style. It was not entirely clear whether some of the interface elements were clickable or not; there were many places I wanted to be able to click and drag, or right-click, but it seems that wasn't always intuitive. Above all though, my biggest concern with Storybook was that the planning file becomes another artifact that the novelist would have to keep in sync with their external edits. Once writing starts, and presumably even more once a novel is edited, chapters and scenes could be rearranged, and it seems like it would be difficult to keep the Storybook file up-to-date. It seems it outlives its usefulness once writing actually begins. 

There may be some of Storybook's advanced features that writers might find particularly useful. Several reports are available, such as on the occurrence of characters and locations within the novel plan. This may be a means to eliminate potential conflicts at the planning stage, and also denote whether or not each of the characters gets a sufficient amount of "air time" in the completed work. There are export facilities that allow you to print your completed plan and use it as a guide when it comes to writing your masterpiece.

Conclusion

Storybook certainly serves a role; it might well be a valuable tool for you to use when planning your next novel. One thing is for certain, there is no right or wrong way to write, or even to plan to write, and so you might want to give Storybook a try, and see what it has to offer. 

Visit the Storybook website at http://storybook.intertec.ch, where you can download it, read about features, view tutorials, and see if Storybook is right for you. It may just be the tool you need to plan your next blockbuster. It is just up to you to provide the time, motivation, talent, and the hundreds of other character traits you'll need to be a successful novelist!

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Review (and Six Tips For Writing) A Six Minute Story

I've become quite a fan of the Twitter hashtag #fridayflash, signifying a smorgasbord of wonderful short story creations every Friday, and easily showcasing the great writing talent that abounds on Twitter. A couple of weeks ago, I was giving the usually enthusiastic @inshin a little bit of grief, because his #fridayflash story hadn't appeared this week. Busy weeks creep up on all of us, it seems; but it seemed unusual not to see his latest contribution to what has become an ever-growing collection and wide variety of short stories on his blog. While he told me he missed doing his #fridayflash for the week, he did shortly share a link to something different he'd tried. A six-minute story.

I can almost hear the gasps in the background. A story, in six minutes? It shouldn't be unusual, perhaps. In a previous era, ad libbing tales around the fire was perhaps a little more common than it is today. The art of making up fiction on the spot seems to be perhaps something from a bygone age; but there is something to be said for the skills that are needed to do this; they're skills that would certainly help in more conventional writing. It is certainly an invigorating exercise for the mind - and for the fingers. Such is the intent of Six Minute Story - a "microfiction experiment". It's quite a simple concept. As soon as you opt to submit a story, a prompt appears (perhaps a word, a phrase, or a picture) to suggest a story to write, and a timer starts ticking down from six minutes. Once the timer gets to zero, you can't write another word. It turns out attempting to do this is quite an adrenaline rush, and, I must admit, I failed to write anything remotely submittable at the first few attempts. Nothing ventured, nothing gained - and no need to submit if you don't quite manage it.

I was drawn to write a review of the Six Minute Story site immediately on seeing it, and reading the delightful FAQ - without a doubt, even if this seems an unusual concept, the site distinguishes itself immediately by having one of the most crisp, clean, bold, elegant and above all readable designs I have seen in a long time. All too often these days sites manage to fill themselves with so much annoying clutter to make them look hideous and unusable, particularly sites that have a "social" angle - which Six Minute Story does. You can follow other members of the site, look out for their submissions, upvote contributions and leave comments; and the site has managed to include all that functionality very, very cleanly. What may not be immediately apparent is that the design of the site - bright colors, large, legible text - actually appears to achieve a lot towards improving the writing environment. This is something you can only experience if you give it a try. If you find the Six Minute Story environment inviting, and you are at all a serious writer, you might wonder why on earth you're trying your craft in an over-featured, over-grown word processor with microscopic fonts.

The experience of crafting a submission is certainly worth trying; it will, after all, only take you six minutes to discover if this is for you or not. The very clean and uncluttered writing window appears, with a panel on the right which will, once you start, contain the "prompt". Prompts come in several forms, and the site developer is looking to increase even further on the variety and selection. Most of the prompts I have seen have been intriguing still photographs, with just the right amount of ambiguity to lead to quite a variety of interpretations. Another type is the definition of hero, villain, and goal. On Fridays (quite convenient for #fridayflash, methinks) the prompt is freeform, allowing you to write about anything. Of course, as the FAQ points out, nothing is forcing you to write to the prompt, but writing to that constraint makes it a challenge. Below the text area are a few other entry fiends for a title and selection of a license. Creative Commons is the order of the day here; and, quite rightly, the site makes it clear that if that's not for you, then by all means post your stories elsewhere. Hopefully most of us can be reasonable about this, and contribute to an ever-growing, shareable collection of spontaneous stories. All these entry fields below the text can be left until after the story is complete; so be warned, as soon as you click in the text field, the prompt will appear and the clock will begin ticking.

How on earth do you write a story in six minutes? It turns out to be remarkably challenging, particularly if your typing skills, like mine, are two-finger hunt-and-peck and your ability to think on your feet is, well, never been tasked like this before. After a few failed attempts, I thought I might share the following six tips on how you actually get a story written in six minutes. If I can do it, I'm sure others can:

1. Are you sitting comfortably? Believe it or not, this seemed to make an enormous difference. Lounging on the bed or with the laptop where its name suggests actually doesn't work. Sit up, in a good chair, at a good table, with a good keyboard, a good distance from the screen. It matters. And, as I hinted before, if this matters for this experiment, then it matters for your daily writing, too.
2. Don't worry about how "good" it is. Probably the easiest way to completely lock up while attempting this exercise is worrying about whether or not what you're writing is any good. Don't. Just completely, utterly, ignore it. It appears worrying about whether your work is any good is probably one of the main things that might make it awful. Seriously, just eliminate this from your mind; you might actually be surprised how good what comes out actually is.
3. Don't even think about editing. This is pretty much an extension to what's above. You won't have time to go back and edit; in fact, I somewhat doubt you'll have time to move the cursor at all. The editing gets in the way; just let the words pour out, stream-of-consciousness style. Again, you might be surprised about how coherent you become, and your work is freed from death by revision, as the FAQ gleefully states.
4. Think three-act play. Act I needs to be finished in two minutes. If you're going to have time for a story, with at least some plot development and resolution, you're going to have to have all your characters brought in within the first third of your time. Yep, two minutes. One hundred and twenty seconds. My advice would be to try to avoid being artsy-fartsy here and give them names pretty quickly. The first sentence would be ideal, wouldn't it?
5. You should know where you're going after those two minutes, too. After those first two minutes, that gives you four minutes for the plot and the conclusion. Do yourself a favor here and at least have some idea of where you're going by here. Don't try to write that conclusion and then join the two ends up; that's not writing stream-of-consciousness. Just have an idea of how deep a situation you can dig; and exactly how you're going to dig your characters out in the closing act. Oh, and don't even think of finishing with And then I woke up. It was all a dream. You haven't done that since fifth grade, right? That's the sort of excuse for running out of time you don't need. Just because you're short on time, doesn't mean you can't plan.
6. Save yourself a few last seconds. You'll need them. This is just wise use of your time. Keep that concluding sentence in the back of your mind, as soon as it comes to you (hopefully somewhere around two minutes) and know you'll have to rattle that out in the closing seconds. Much better to have a story that ends, than one that doesn't.

Once it's done, fill out your title, keywords, choose your license, and submit it. Here's mine. No, I don't consider it a great work of literature, but it was certainly an experience, and an exciting one at that. Considering the time pressure element, I thought the result was surprisingly good - or is it because of the time pressure element? Quite possibly, this method of extricating fiction from the most difficult type of human on the planet - a would-be writer - may actually have something going for it. I'd very strongly recommend anyone with any level of writing expertise or ambition should give this a try; after all, it'll take no more than six minutes of your time. You might just discover something very much to your liking.

Visit Six Minute Story, and while you're there, check out darlingman1970. You can also follow @6minutestory on Twitter, and suggestions are always welcomed.

Bubbalon: Social Ratings, Awful or Awesome?

Parents of kids of a certain age (and teenagers, for some strange reason) might be familiar with the Cartoon Network show Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. One of the most memorable characters - and, let's face it, when it comes to kids' shows, "memorable" quite often means incredibly obnoxious - and a firm fan favorite is Cheese, who follows the main protagonists around constantly declaring "I like chocolate milk. I like potatoes. I like cereal" over and over and over again; something which kids will quite happily imitate, over and over and over again themselves.

This connects me, eventually, to Bubbalon, a site that I learnt about earlier today from a follow on Twitter, and, being in an unusually-receptive Follow Friday mood, I decided to take a look at the site, see what it was all about, and even suggested that after checking it out I might like to write a review. Bubbalon touts itself as a "Social Rating website". Yes, I can't believe they had the nerve to say that too. Apparently you can attach the word social in front of anything these days. Now, this is nothing new. I remember being involved in the beta program for Likaholix (now called mylikes), and at the time it was apparent that sites that allowed you to express opinions on products and services were, in fact, likely to be a way of gathering free market research - an advertiser's nirvana. Now I must admit, while I'm not quite fond of the idea that things like store loyalty cards may be used to gather data about my purchasing habits, subject it to statistical analysis, throw it into some huge data mining application and, apocryphally, mean that beer gets put on the grocery store shelves near the diapers, I don't mind feeding these sorts of services if I get something in return. This, after all, is why Google is so successful; their services become such an integral part of my online activity that I don't ever dream to think what it would be like without them, so, who cares if they slip in the odd ad or two? In the Likaholix beta, one appealing thing I discovered was, the more I liked, the more it tuned its recommendations to things it expected I would like, as well. I managed to discover (and indeed, rediscover) some exceptionally good music and video games as a result. The beta was interesting, although I must admit I got very fidgety when the sponsors and advertisers moved in.

What about Bubbalon? What's their vision? Well, direct from their FAQ, we have

Imagine this: your expressed views could influence the way our current social models work. We are standing on the brink of massive cultural and social changes, and Bubbalon is there to make that leap with you. The old world is based on dictatorship, non-transparency, rigidity and social divide. The new world that we are building on Bubbalon, is a total, complete opposite of that. Each Bubbalonian stands firmly for positive evolution, good social merit, total freedom, responsibility for one's actions, transparency and balance. We are working to make your views MATTER.

Sure. Right. Truthfully, I don't think there's a single Internet user who genuinely cares about this kind of nonsense about "social models", they're interested in what's in it for them, if they take part. Bubbalon's mechanism is simple. Either through search or through a cloud of suggested objects and ideas to rate, the user can pick, with a slider an accompanying smiley, their reaction on each object in Bubbalon's database from 0 to 100. More specific comments can be added in the form of a mini-review, which, guess what, is up to 140 characters in length. As an incentive to keep rating and commenting, each rating or comment awards the user karma points, with more karma being awarded if another user finds the comment helpful. The more karma points awarded, the more that can be done on the site, such as adding new objects to the system or even modifying existing ones. In the same way Likaholix suggested, the system is somewhat self-governing, because the best quality objects and entries "bubble" to the top, hence the site's name.

So, what is the reward, for this constant rating of objects and writing micro-reviews of such concepts as Starbucks, or "Ridiculous Article Titles?". Here, essentially, is the place where things fall apart for me. Bubbalon does not use my ratings to suggest other objects to me, in the same way Likaholix did, but to suggest users. This seems, on the surface, utterly bizarre, wanting me to construct yet another follower/following network on yet another site based solely on whether we share opinions of things? Call me old-fashioned, but I have been perfectly capable of meeting people my entire life - yes, even on social networks - without agreeing with them on what I think of Shakira. The whole site is based on the idea of what opinions people have in common. This information is evidently more useful to an advertiser scanning groups and demographics, than it is to the individuals involved. Even the suggestion mechanism is flawed. For example, the "smart connect" portion of the site discovers people I may be interested in following, because I have a 100% rating match with them. After close inspection, it turns out the two of us have, in fact, only rated one object in common - a low-hanging fruit such as Google, or Twitter. That doesn't seem like a very good algorithm. If a little more evidence as to where this data is going were needed, a closer look at a more detailed ratings page might give a clue. The page gives average ratings throughout the Bubbalon world, but also categorized by user groups and, yes, by the most polarizing of all demographics, gender. I am quite suspicious about a site that is using gender as a statistic-collating process. Expect to see dating ads very shortly. And, just in case anyone was wondering, liking the same things isn't necessarily a successful basis of a relationship, either...

If I already wasn't impressed by Bubbalon, what it had craftily done during my initial signup was the final straw. It's all too common for these sorts of sites to connect with, for example, Facebook or Twitter, retrieve your friends list, and look for them on the site. That's something I have more or less gotten used to, and am quite happy to accept the OAuth disclaimer that the site is going to access my Twitter feeds, followers, and following lists. What is inexcusable, however, is the default behavior of Bubbalon after connecting is to tweet every rating as and when you declare it. It did not offer that configuration option before dropping me into the site, and it took some finding once I realized that it had already sent thirty or forty tweets on my behalf. I took a look at my Twitter timeline and I did indeed look like Cheese from the Foster's show, particularly as the site will send multiple tweets if you have a bit of a shaky mouse hand and jiggle the sliders. After a couple of concerned followers drew my attention to this apparent lapse, I was livid, and spent quite a while cleaning up the mess. Not only had, in my opinion, the site little to offer me, but it had committed what I consider a grave sin. If you do go to Bubbalon, make sure you find these options and disable them. Otherwise, you too might end up sounding just like Cheese, whose immortal words might just sum up what i thought of Bubbalon:

I pooted.

Book Review: A Spy At Home by Joseph Rinaldo

Try to put yourself in the position of a retired CIA operative, returning home to his wife and son with Down syndrome (resulting in early-onset Alzheimer's), endeavoring to do his best to look after them and ensure they are provided for. Now, just to make things a little more difficult, imagine our retired spy has managed to embezzle a little under ten million dollars from his employer. Such is the premise of A Spy at Home, the first novel by Joseph Rinaldo, already published as an eBook. Mr Rinaldo explains how he is uniquely qualified to write this book, raising a daughter with Down syndrome and witnessing the effect of Alzheimer's on a family member, and indeed cryptically states that he'd prefer not to disclose the sources of his espionage-related knowledge. This intriguing combination of plot and story sounded unique and intriguing to me, so I happily accepted the author's offer to write a review.

The juxtaposition of a "tough guy" job with the emotional concerns attached with mental disability made me immediately think of Regarding Henry, penned by writer J. J. Abrams in a dim and distant era long before Lost. It's not a common combination of subjects, and surely presents the author with some difficult challenges. The author deals with these issues very well by writing the book as our retired operative's memoirs, only to be released to be read in the event of his death. In the preface, the narrator tells us that, yes, he is dead; yes, his son was a surprise; and yes, he's the one that killed his own wife. With those revelations out of the way, the book proceeds in whydunnit style, with the narrator telling us about events as and when he remembers them, indeed apologizing for his lack of strict chronology very early in the book. It's a very stark contrast between the strict mental conditioning required for his day job, and the day-to-day stresses and strains of looking after his son, whose welfare becomes more and more of a challenge as their lives go on.

The book does not go in for large amounts of descriptive passages; it is indeed intended as a memoir rather than a flowery novel, which can at times leave a very dry delivery but does, for the most part, definitely give a realistic feel and a feeling that perhaps some of the events reported have their basis in fact, written precisely as our narrator would report them, grappling with his own emotional detachment due to his job. This does result in a couple of areas where things are ambiguous; for example, it is apparent that some time passes through the story as the child Noah grows up, gets a job and goes to work, although I never quite felt sure exactly how old he was. Likewise, exactly when the story takes place seems a little unclear, although it is evidently in a near present due to the computer hackers that form an integral part of the espionage side of the story. That part of the story was also delivered in a gritty way - there was no attempt to picture the spy business as anything glamorous as in the movies, rather a day job whose employees have the same concerns as most of us, such as whether their families are eligible for benefits. The lack of description does make it a little difficult to feel for the characters; we only get to experience their situation. There are a couple of inclusions in the book which I felt did detract from the overall story. There are a few very awkward sex scenes; nothing particularly explicit, but extremely clumsy and they do not add anything to the tale - excluding them would have left the book accessible to a young teen audience which would be just as interested in the novel's parallel subjects. There are a couple of places as well where I feel the author slipped out of character for a moment and managed to let his own political viewpoint slip out, albeit briefly. I can't help feeling it is a line an editor would have removed before going to press. Overall, the writing and copy seemed good with only a couple of minor errors. I must admit, I was somewhat surprised at the pricing of the book ($9.95) on amazon.com for a first-time author.

The book does indeed raise some difficult ethical questions; we find ourselves wondering whether any amount of money would make a difference in this situation, and we are sympathizing very much with a father who, while he may be used to overthrowing foreign regimes and all sorts of covert operations, finds it ever more difficult to look after a son who recognizes him less and less and is constantly worried exactly how he will be cared for once the father passes on. Watching the story unfold as one tragedy follows another, all against the backdrop of possible discovery of the theft of the money and trying to find ways to put the money to work without raising suspicions, one feels the greatest sympathy for the characters, although curiously it is not so much for Noah and his condition, but for his father, for whom no amount of training could prepare him for the trials and tribulations he is to face as a spy, at home. It's a good story whose major strength to me is the realism of the characters dealing with very real lives without expecting the plot to magically resolve itself in the closing chapters. Mr Rinaldo's own experiences evidently do show through in the writing here.

A Spy at Home is available from amazon.com in eBook format. Mr Rinaldo has plans to release several more eBooks in the near future.

(The author offered a free copy of the book in return for this review)

Pictorial: A date at Rocky Point

It was a lovely evening out, for the best of reasons. C only had Thursday off before having to work this weekend, and it's the fourth of July, and she'd always thought of us going there, and... yes, absolutely plenty of reasons, but none that can contend with the best reason of all. Just because. What other reason does there need to be? On Thursday afternoon, we set off on a relaxing trip along the coast, down California's Highway 1, towards Big Sur to sample the Rocky Point Restaurant, offering a special price for locals; well, we have the right area code. We had called in a 6.30 reservation and had no intention of rushing ourselves; for some reason the GPS in the hovercraft had decided our destination was three hours away and we knew for certain it could be no more than half that, but nevertheless, we were going to take our time. A quick visit to the store in Seaside first; tempted by a gorgeous yellow silk shirt, my Californication continues. More artichokes. A stroll looking out onto Del Monte beach; a few photos taken for the folks; a bit of daydreaming about which beach house we'd like when we're independently wealthy. A drive through the town some more; checking out Laguna Grande Park, where we're planning to go see John Lee Hooker Jr play in three weeks from now for Sunday Blues. We had plenty of time to relax; the restaurant was not much further down the coast, only about fifteen minutes from Carmel.

 

It's a surprising fifteen minutes, with some of the most striking scenery the Pacific Coast Highway has to offer. You know you are in for something spectacular when a road sign tells you to expect hills and curves for the next 63 miles. To call what you'll see "hills" is quite an understatement, as the road takes a tortuous path winding along an impressively contoured coastline. As with much of the scenery in this area, the scale is hard to comprehend or even communicate in a photograph. But first, things begin to get more hilly leaving Carmel, as the road winds its way through the more bohemian outskirts of the town which, believe it or not, still forbids the wearing of heels greater than 2 inches in height or with a base of less than 1 square inch. the law almost appears to make sense on these winding, distorted pavements, which eventually leave the town behind us, but the road continues to wind, following the cliffside, sometimes cutting through them in sheer escarpments, bigger, deeper. The Pacific is on our right, and we snatch glances of it between the trees and rocks, and at scenic overlooks presenting spectacular vistas. "Do you want to stop here to take a picture?" C asks, and is amused as I wrestle with the new-fangled technology and attempt to send a copy of the photograph to my folks. "Keep an eye on the scenery, darling". It's growing in size, bigger, bigger, with each further mile we travel down the road. The Tickle Pink Inn amuses us; we wonder about reservations and rates. The web site doesn't tell you; if you have to ask, then well, you probably can't afford it anyway.

 

And then, on our right - yes, our right - is the restaurant, seemingly dug into the cliff, but precariously balanced there, clinging to the rocks. As if to emphasize the predicament, a sign tells you that yes, right where you're standing isn't necessarily the safest place in the world to be. We wander around outside, trying to get photo opportunities which demonstrate the scale that we're having to deal with here. Rocks jutting out of the ocean seem insignificant, the waves crash around them, but in reality they are huge, quite distant from where we stand. From the gazebo, looking out to the next promontory, there's Bixby Bridge, one of the most memorable images from any Travel Channel documentary that visits this area. It's dwarfed by the scenery around it, yet is a monumental engineering feat, surely? How far away is it? It's hard to tell, so we decide to drive down there after we eat; it's surely a great place to see a sunset from, too. The wind is blowing; no, it's beginning to howl a bit, and we're both starting to shiver - on the first of July, will I ever get used to that? I return to the car and retrieve our overshirt; just one between the two of us. Here's hoping I feel chivalrous.

 

We check in to the restaurant and look up our reservation, and are shown to our table; a tough choice awaits us, either the view down the coast towards Bixby Bridge and the lighthouse, or looking at the sun beginning to set behind us. We take our seats; another photo opportunity; I snicker as I realize the photo I've just taken is pretty much an exact match for the one on the restaurant's web page, We swap seating, trying out each other's views, grinning, pretending not to notice the $95 couple's surf and turf special on the menu. We try to get the waiter's attention, desperately needing to ask him about the local's special; this is rich fare indeed, perhaps a little too rich. Begrudgingly, it seems, he returns with the other menu, and tries to be oblivious to our enjoying ourselves on our evening out. We pick our way through the options so we can sample each other's selections. One of us will get the salad, one the chowder. One will get the strangely-named sour cream fries, one the rice pilaf. And the entrees? Catch of the day is Pacific rockfish. Rock Cod, delicately battered; meanwhile the ribs catch my eye. We place our orders and then onto more serious business, discussing whether we should bring my folks here when they visit, and how we'll manage to make sure they don't try to pick up the tab. It's gorgeous. I take another picture; that'll be Blackberry wallpaper later.

 

Our meals come, and we sample each others', as intended. The chowder and the salad are good, very good, not the best we've ever had, perhaps, but great appetizers, served alongside the restaurant's famous cheese bread, duly sampled and enjoyed. Our main courses come, and the obligatory nibble on the corner of each others' tells us; more excellent food, delicately seasoned. At this point I'm beginning to let the ambience and atmosphere take a hold of me somewhat; it's a highly-recommended place for romantic dining, and I don't take much to get doe-eyed at the best of times. Fortunately, these ribs are done to perfection, falling off the bone. I won't have to ruin the moment by making a mess of myself with finger food here. We enjoy our meals; a dessert seems an absolutely essential way to finish. We're both drawn to the bread pudding; a favorite of both our families, recipes remembered from Mommas and Grandmas. Bring two spoons, and we'll give it a try; it turns out to be decadently smooth and silky, a triumph, and we realize that we've just concluded an excellent meal in a beautiful location that has cost us no more than "ordinary" casual dining.

 

We would have hung around for the sunset, but we had other places to be, and the chill was definitely coming in. C puts on the overshirt; she looks better in it than I do, and we wander around outside the restaurant again; the delightful tables on the deck, ideal for whale-spotting, but not tonight, far too cold and windy. The promised drive down to cross the Bixby Bridge - the furthest south I've been in California to date. It's smaller than it looks. Everything here is small in comparison to the scenery. We turn around and begin the drive back, contented, after a great meal, after an all-too-rare date together which has to fit around our everyday-life schedules as opposed to our fairytale vacations. Back home, we take a late night stroll. The sound of motorcycles seems to be getting a little louder in the evenings; it sounds like the annual revelers are approaching for their good-natured celebrations. A beautiful clear evening, and stars abound, as we walk around the neighborhood and hear strains of mariachi music coming from a neighbor's house. We dance in the middle of the road for a while.

Just because.

 

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Review: Stone Temple Pilots

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about a 2010 Stone Temple Pilots release is that it exists at all, or that Scott Weiland's infamous, almost legendary excesses hadn't prematurely confined either himself to a pine box or put Dean in hospital after fisticuffs. When the opening track Between The Lines - friendly enough to be performed on Letterman and make that Billboard #1 - ponders that a lover always was a favorite, "even when we used to take drugs", then it seems pretty clear that Weiland wants to make it clear that, this time, he's on the wagon, and us listeners are left to wonder the obvious question - is he any good like that?

The next track, and second single, Take a Load Off leaves little doubt that it's pre-empting that question, sounding more like the Pilots than the Pilots have ever done before, almost going out of its way with guitar licks and vocal harmonies to pull us back to the days of Purple and No. 4. Then it's a hard left to Aerosmith-like glam rock for Huckleberry Crumble, distinctly David Bowie a la Suffragette City for Hickory Dichotomy, and, possibly the high point of the album, practically channeling John Lennon for Dare If You Dare. A gorgeous track.

Something exceptionally curious happens after that point, with songs that aren't particularly astonishing in their own right, but wander all over several musical influences, even - perish the thought - bordering on pop. Things perk up a bit with an obvious homage in Bagman - I defy you to listen to it without thinking of, well, a rather similarly-named Beatles song. More edgy, classic DeLeo guitar licks follow, and the album makes it clear that, of all the hat-tipping to heroes going on in this record, most of the credit gets given to the former STP incarnation itself. It says something about their fan-base now, almost a decade after their previous album release, we're looking for something comfortable to slip back into to go with our cocoa and slippers. With First Kiss On Mars and Maver, we're definitely in the adult contemporary category; perhaps it's something of a pleasant surprise that the now clean-living Weiland can manage that.

I'm still undecided about the album as a whole, although it's certainly a delight to know that STP are still out there, nicely 'mellowed' with age, and capable of putting out quality material. It's unclear as yet though whether it's a comeback of sorts, or merely something to keep those of us who've been starving for more quiet for a few more years. I'm hoping it's more; there's qualities here to appeal to a more mature audience, and, after all, we're all older now.