Blog 8 - Only one thing is stranger than fiction...

Before Christmas I blogged vaguely about how, since the publication of Milkshake, life seemed to be imitating art. I put the details on the Facebook page, but I'll also now detail them here as well .


Dec 4 -  NZ news website Stuff reports the NZ dairy herd is growing faster than the human population - predicted in Milkshake


Dec 5 -  The BBC reports on plans to harness desert sunlight and transmit the captured energy north, to Europe. Again, predicted as a throwaway line in Milkshake as The Felin Project in the initial draft written nearly 7 years ago and retained in the final version! 


Dec 6  -  Another 'Milkshake Moment' in the media as the NZ airforce finally take delivery of the NH90 helicopter they are secretly testing (in the book) in 2002. I wrote that in 2006.


Dec 17 - Things started to get just a little freaky as some political commentators in NZ started focusing on the Green Party and how their agenda may not be all it seems? Without giving away the plot, in Milkshake the Ecological Political Assembly (of) New Zealand are not quite the good guys everyone assumes them to be.


Things went quiet in the media while the world enjoyed a well-earned break. 


Then....


Like some modern-day Ian Fleming villain, an overweight, unfeasibly-named, over-smiling black-clad Teutonic overlord with a penchant for fast cars and faster women and a secretive empire globally dominant in it's chosen field, is arrested in a protected safe room in his $30million mansion...............in New Zealand.


New Zealand?? sleepy little nuclear-free, hobbit-loving clean and green Aotearoa?


How could such a person and his cohorts, this tallest and widest of tall poppies, have lived under our very noses undetected, untroubled by the media? Did  no-one ever see that Lady Penelope pink Cadillac cruising down the leafy lanes around Dotcom Manor? Are we really to believe that such a person is able to live and control his empire from a small island tucked away in the bottom corner of the world?


What do you think made New Zealand the ideal location for this mega-villain's lair?


Are we not all just a little shocked that such a character not only exists at all, but chose, it seems to base his operations here?


Kim Dotcom has made me smile. He clearly watched far too much TV as a child and thought he could actually be Dr No while living on Tracey Island, manipulating how and when the online community watches and listens to whatever it was they wished to download.


I bet the Police found an underground bunker, the wall lined with TV's and a counter showing how many $$$'s were being earned by the hour.


The point of all this is to show that, as far-fetched and fictional as Milkshake might appear to be, it's no where near as unbelievable as the unfolding story of the unlikely-named Kim Dotcom.

Blog Seven - Inevitable Coincidences?

As I was writing Milkshake I often found life imitating art.


A version of something I made up would suddenly be mentioned in the NZ media, or at least to my ear, it would sound like a familiar scenario.


Now I find the situation reversed. With the book out for over 2 months, stories are appearing in the NZ press which eerily mirror some incidents in the book.


 Milkshake could be seen as a cautionary tale; its a 'what if?' or 'speculative fiction' story, showing the reader an alternative, slightly skewed but almost believable version of the present, or recent past. I'm therefore sensitive any events in 'real life' which appear to, in some way, be echoing the fiction in my story.


Three such events have already reared their head in recent weeks.


Am I just hyper sensitive to these news stories, given my feeling that I 'predicted' them over 5 years ago? or am I just warping innocent current affairs to fit my purpose?




I'll let you decide by checking out the links to three recent news stories via the milkshake Facebook page


Of course, you will have needed to have read the book to get the point!

Blog 6

The paper copy of 'Milkshake has arrived'!

A month to the day since it was published online.

The cover is a little fuzzy compared to the sharp online image on Amazon (both Tim and I suspected this and could not see how we could correct it)

I was keen to see how thick the book has turned out to be -  260 pages is an average -sized book.

I also think the paragraphs look too close together.

I also think i'm being an overly critical parent and accentuating the negative rather then the positive!

I'm pleased I've gone for a fairly vivid cover  -  often I've seen self-published (or rather self designed) covers attempt mean and moody and end up plain dull.

Also glad I went for cows not people -  people instill a false sense of a character's identity in the readers' mind in my opinion -  leave that to the readers' imagination (The publisher disagrees about faces).

On the last page Creative have added the actual print date -  20 Oct 2011 -  20 days to cross the Pacific. The pigeon must have struggled.

Overall, a pleasing but somewhat surreal experience.

Not only do I now own a first edition, its currently the only copy in the world

Blog 5

Milkshake has been out for just over 2 weeks. I'm reliably informed by the publisher 145 copies were downloaded from Smashwords in the first few days - not sure if that was while it was free!


Anyway, CreateSpace have now confirmed the paper version and its up on the Amazon.com website to order at US$11.99 (click the amazon link to the right). It'll also be available on the UK amazon site in the next few weeks. For now its just there as a Kindle download.


I've had 4 reviews on Amazon so far. Once I get over 5, other book-selling websites become more likely to stock it, so just waiting for a few more people to finish reading so they can post reviews!


I've signed up so I can supposedly track sales via both amazon sites. After 3 days its a big fat zero. But other people have told me not to rely too heavily on the tracking software.


Once I get a few copies delivered into New Zealand, I'll begin the job of local publicity. I need to ensure I have review copies readily available to send out in case reviewers prefer a real book to a downloaded one.

Blog four

Just a quick few lines to announce 'Milkshake' has been published in the last 24 hours and is now available as an e-book from Amazon and will soon also be available in hard copy.

I feel a bit like a terrorist who has planted a bomb and walked away, never being able to turn back and witness the devastation. The book's out there, people are downloading and perhaps even reading. I have no way of knowing what they think as its far too early for reviews even if people bother to write them!

People on Facebook have been very kind in promoting the book and praising, but realistically that will probably lead to maybe half a dozen sales?

Perhaps I'll check back in here in a few days once I've had some feedback

Blog three

I thought I might share the proposed cover art for 'Milkshake' The publisher suggested (and I agreed) the original photo I'd pinned my hopes and dreams on was a little obscure and arty. So after a very brief internet conversation where we agreed there was an element of satire and humour to the story, I came up with this:

Which we both agreed conveys a far better message and is likely to work well as both an internet image and hopefully a proper paper book cover.

Blog Two

Milkshake just whizzed around unfinished on my PC.

 Inspiration had dried up. Motivation had stalled. 

The story was never going anywhere.

 Each time I sat in front of the screen it just stared back. 

 Then, on a dull winter's afternoon in July 2007, fate stepped in.

 Riding home from work on my motorbike, the inattentive driver behind, staring out into the bay instead of at the road ahead, failed to see the slowing traffic. All I saw in my mirror was a car approaching much faster than I was travelling. 

 There was a bang and I remember seeing the sky. 

 The next thing I remember is lying on the hard road with people staring down at me asking me who the Prime Minister is. At that point I'd lived in New Zealand for 5 years. But I struggled to remember it was Helen Clarke, not Tony Blair. 

I wiggled my toes. I could feel them. Then fingers. Sensation there also. No broken spine then. That didn't stop the cautious paramedics strapping me carefully onto the stretcher for the short ride to Nelson Hospital where they found a broken left wrist and mangled fingers on my right hand. 

 Six weeks off work. 

Midwinter in New Zealand. Stunningly bright clear days and sharp still nights.

 I rested my sore wrists on the keyboard and began typing, one finger at a time.

 I sat there for four or five hours every day. The silence allowed my mind to wander. The creative juices finally flowed.

 Suddenly the autobiographical travelogue became a story; a mysterious thriller. Nothing like I'd ever read before. Fifty pages were re-written, taking out 'me' and 'I' and putting in place someone else, who eventually became David Turner.

 I watched the TV and scoured the internet for more inspiration. 

I realised an isolated country such as New Zealand has stories of national importance that the rest of the world knows nothing about. Stuff goes on here that could have international significance. If anyone ever bothered to scratch the surface. 

 So what if something was going on? 

 What if the apparently innocuous stories on the nightly news were part of something bigger, something secret and hidden? 

 Many of the incidents and 'facts' in 'Milkshake' can be traced to actual events. Ones I have put my own slant on, to weave the story. 

 Milkshake is a fictional account of an attempt by the US Government to establish a herd of biofuel cattle in New Zealand. Sounds benign? It would be except the milk is poisonous to humans.

 On the day I finished the first draft, and without any prior knowledge or notification, the following story appeared in the national press:- Click here to read it 

Someone was already onto the concept. 'Milkshake' was suddenly no longer fictional. 

 Next time I'll tell you about more truth stretching and coincidence....