I am lucky. My native tongue is English. British English to be precise - and that does matter.By accident of birth, I am most comfortable speaking a language that is the third most widely spoken native tongue (after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish). Around 25% of the world's population claim to speak at least some English.I …
Author: Andy McKell
A guy who writes speculative fiction, between doing a bit of acting
Morality, Legality, Humanity
I want to declare an interest. My grandfather was gassed in the First World War. He survived with terrible respiratory problems, suffering frequent, asthma-like attacks that made him fight for every breath. Humanity Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, …
13 Lucky For Some?
Happy September! I always find this a good time to look back on the year and to plan out what still needs doing in the final trimester. This is probably because my birthday falls at the end of the month, then suddenly it's Christmas and that's the year gone.So I need to give myself that …
Liminal Places #1
I live in a small town in a small country. It's more like a sprawling village than a town. It's hard to find on any normal map. It's small enough for the local Mayor to hold occasional informal gatherings to encourage feedback and there's coffee and cookies. And I live in a liminal place... Liminal? …
Twitterback
In a recent post I considered the social network etiquette - the "netiquette" - of Following-back, particularly in Twitter. I've now reached that wonderful "critical point" where my Following grows daily without any "marketing effort". I do know that this is due to the weight of numbers already Following me, rather than a sudden, global appreciation …
Luck? “No Dice”, says Pessimist
Is Pessimism a valid world view? Let's throw a little science at this. (Just a very little.) The number of ways a piece of string can be NOT tangled is ONE. The number of ways it can be tangled is "infinite". Hence... it's infinitely more likely for the string be tangled than not. Note: This applies especially …
Sinking in the Middle?
I am a greedy reader. I read books, mainly science fiction. I scan blogs and articles on science, technology, society, history... I also watch TV documentaries on these topics. I do not have an eidetic memory; I don't recall much of what I expose my brain to. But snippets stick to the sides of my …
Blog The Builder
They're building a house on the land next to mine. It used to be fields. Now it's a construction site. Never believe you own the last house on the street! The construction chaps arrive at 7:15 am, to a cheery chorus of revving engines, slamming car doors, and hearty hails across the open space outside my …
FollowBack Mountain?
"Build a platform", they all said, to become famous and influential before you publish your first novel. Market something that does not exist? We used to call it "vapourware", now it's "work-in-progress". But I followed conventional wisdom... I joined a dozen or more platforms, forums and exchanges. I participated in campaigns to encourage Followers and at …
136 days – how was it for you?
Here we are, day 136 of 2013 (that's 37% of the year gone). And how is everyone getting along? So far, it's been a good year for me, creatively... TWO Liebster awards runner-up in a LinkedIn microfiction contest (on a writers' vote) my short story, "Conservation", accepted for publication spent a few, happy weeks on a movie …
Andy McKell, Speculative Fiction Author 
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