Here it is ladies and germs! Finally the finished version. Some of you may recall this book was issued as an advance reader copy on kindle and as a paper book too. This was a bit of an experiment on my part to see how many people are interested in a book that has had no professional editing. As it turns out, it’s quite a bit more than I thought, however, I certainly hope that now that it’s been all fixed up and has a new, less scary cover, that it will literally fly into your homes straight from Amazon, whether in beautiful dead tree format or in digital/kindle/iPad/retinal scan projection, or whatever they will think of next. See below to read a bit about the amazing cover image.

If you are wondering what the book is about let me share with you one of my favourite reviews from some stranger on Amazon.com

This writer has the craziest love scene I’ve read since my Penthouse Letters days…
Still…moon Nazis, anti-grav spaceships, a secret antartica-submarine base & evil Grey aliens take your mind off the best sci-fi sex this year!

It’s not all porn though, in fact it has a quite complex plot, which is going to become more obvious as you get deeper into the series. That’s right friends –Series!– This will be the first of at least 4 books. The second one is now near completion and should be out in a matter of a couple of months or so, and the third one is already begun (I’m at chapter four so far). The plotline though…oh the plotline…it is a complex web indeed and most of it has been seeded right in this first book.

I was also spectacularly lucky in being allowed to use the image of Mars rendered by Kees Veenenbos, whose work has been featured in newspapers, magazines and National Geographic, and you can see some of it at his site here. Kees takes the real data about Mars, provided by the NASA MOLA Science Team, then renders it and adds some clouds and sun glare. In other words, that picture on the cover, is pretty much what Mars looks like if you were about to land on it with a nice little antigravity craft.

The blending in of the model’s eyes with the planet image was done by Graeme Paterson whom you can reach by email at: glengrae@mweb.co.za

Graeme also stunned the living crap out of me because I have worked with designers before and he literally did the work in minutes. Not hours, not days, not weeks (and then screwed it up) but minutes, and got it all perfect the first time.

So far I have already had a few fan mails and it seems the book will be well-received. I certainly hope so anyway, because writing sure beats most other jobs I have done, sadly though, the pay is abysmal unless you are one of the top 0.5% of writers. So go on… order a few pallet-loads of my books, it’s the surest way of being able to come visit me on the private island once I become filthy rich one day!

From the back cover, here is a teaser:

Giona Esago is unexpectedly and suddenly introduced to a reality he has so far only suspected. What is more, he is now tasked to become one of the elite who have knowledge of the realities concerning off-planet bases, though the exact reasons why he has been selected are not immediately clear.

***

All of what follows below is not fiction. Is what follows from these historical facts in the present going to be any less incredible?

***

On 10 October, 1944 —eight months before the USA— Nazi Germany tested the first Atom Bomb. The pressure wave had a diameter of 9 km and the resulting EMP pulse knocked out all the phones in Berlin for more than two days. Testimony of this event by pilot Hans Zinsser was recorded in August 1945. It was declassified only in 1992.

In 1946-47 the mysterious mission to Antarctica led by Admiral Richard E. Byrd: Operation Highjump, included more than 4,700 US soldiers with mechanised and air support vehicles. It ended catastrophically after only a few weeks and was cut short of several months. En route back to the USA in March 1947, Admiral Byrd, told a journalist from El Mercurio that America should prepare itself to be attacked by aircraft of Polar origin that could fly at unheard of speeds. Three months later, in June 1947, eyewitness Kenneth Arnold is credited as the man who coined the words “flying saucers”, when describing the first UFO ‘flap’ in Washington DC; a clear message to the White House. The Roswell crash in July 1947 was originally first reported not as being “extraterrestrial” in origin, but rather as having technology from Germany. After debriefing in March 1947, Admiral Byrd never discussed Antarctica again. His diaries are currently still classified.

In 1958 project Argus in utmost secrecy, detonates at least three atomic bombs in Antartica. No real explanation as to why was ever divulged. From the 1950s onwards, astronomers have noted many anomalies on the Moon. Including what appears to be large machinery involved in major earthworks.

***

Overlords of Mars: Inception mixes real history, cutting edge science and brilliant speculative fiction to create the first book where truth and fiction may be a lot closer than any of us would like.

‘He writes like a mix of Philip K. Dick and the Strugatsky brothers. Giuseppe Filotto is the 21st Century version of H.G.Wells with psychotronic enhancement.’ —Henry Marten

Well, I hope you all rush out and buy multiple copies for all your friends. Also…I still have about 30 Advanced Reader Copies (with all the pre-edit mistakes and the scary swastika all over Mars cover instead of the sexy eyes and Mars seen from orbit) so any enthusiasts among you who want a signed copy of the ARC copy, you can let me know and we’ll try and arrange a paypal payment which includes the shipping. Would-be writers sometimes buy these as research, but, of course, if you are serious about that you need to also get one of the finished and official copies to see and compare the improvements.

Here’s a small image of the older scary version that is now no longer printed; the only copies with this cover are the ones sitting in my home or the few bought by early adopters of my work.

The second book in the seris is coming out soon, and the cover of that one will be pretty amazing too as it’s being made by a guy who has probably worked on just about every special effect you have seen in blockbusters films over the last decade.

That’s it for now, please go on and buy your copy right from Amazon US, Amazon UK, or Amazon EU, or really any other Amazon you may have in your country (France, Germany, Italy, India, Brazil, Japan and many others I am sure), and don’t forget to write in and let me know if you enjoyed it.

PS: There may be follow up posts about some of the concepts in the book, but for now, if you are one of the weird ones that cares about the grammar and punctuation troubles of writers, and more specifically, some of the things I have adopted in this series, you might want to read the (very long) post HERE.

Related posts:

1. Overlords of Mars – Inception. Now in print too.

Anyone who has tried to actually become a professional writer knows two things:

• It is damned hard work. It’s right up there with working in salt mines. On an asteroid. With a leaky Vacc suit and only an old roll of duct tape to help you patch the holes. And the salt is radioactive. (Non-writers will think this hyperbole. Fools.)

• It cannot actually be done. Logically it is impossible. Grammar is imperfect, and so, perfect works, must remain continually marred by imperfect, outdated, avant-guarde, passe, cliched, too flashy, too boring or too something or other grammar. This however, is something we can live with. But punctuation, oh, sweet mercy, punctuation…well, what do you think that Naggon up there is huh? That’s right, the Naggon is punctuation.

For the elucidation of the pedants and the grammar Nazis (Hi my sweet, sweet, editor), I have decided to collect a few of my writing idiosyncrasies here, though my editor would probably refer to them as idiot-syncrasies.

A small warning: This is pretty long and also, I try to offend everyone equally so as to be fair about it. If you are a writer or an editor or anyone interested in language, grammar or punctuation in general, or if you are American, English or French, or religious or sensitive, or some damn hippie thing or other, then some part of this post is almost guaranteed to get you to bite at your keyboard rabidly whilst foaming at the mouth.

If you only care about my own rules, feel free to skip the first two headings, which are my main guides through this dark and murky world of grammatical and punctuational affairs; but I warn you, if you want to improve your writing, you should probably get a professional editor and read everything Larry Trask ever wrote and ignore my own way of doing things. Studiously ignore it.

Larry Trask

Firstly let me introduce you to Larry Trask. Larry Trask is basically almost always right. If you want to learn to punctuate and write and understand language, read everything this man has written. Sadly Larry has passed on some years ago at a very young age, but his work remains and one of the best places to learn all the basics without resorting to heavy drinking and use of Russian Roulette to make the learning more “fun” is to begin here.

Larry also writes with a dry humour that is truly a joy and if you can’t see that a man that can make things like grammar and punctuation actually funny to read was clearly a being of superior evolution, sent here amongst us mere mortals to elevate us a little from the cursed Earth we inhabit, then, you my dear reader are a barbaric philistine and need shooting. If the Pope weren’t a Nazi, Larry would have already achieved sainthood I tell you. Don’t believe me? Larry thought there was no such thing as a split infinitive and only pedants of the worst kind would worry about nonsense of that kind. If you want to be really amazed, read his book on language. I bought it because I was so amazed by his online stuff and I was not disappointed. I digress a little, but trust me, it’s worth a read.

Language: The Basics

Larry’s time here was cut short though, so there are roughly 784,952 questions I’d like to ask him which, sadly, no one else seems to have the answer to.

My Editor

My editor is a para-dimensional being that masquerades as a frail and gentile damsel of refined and mild tastes. In reality of course, she is actually a grammar Nazi who will think nothing of smithing you with Mjorlin, right on your testicles, if you should EVER do anything like…place a comma where you think a breath pause would go. That sort of thing cannot be allowed. The dark gods of Chthulu would break into our omniverse and reality would be eaten by the dark denizens of R’lyeh. Or maybe she just wants to be first at the banquet, it’s unclear. There are things she will not tolerate, and despite my iron will and superhuman levels of sanity, she seems to have mostly got her way on some points:

• Breath pause commas are EVIL. Reality and your mind will dissolve if you let any by you, (but see my update 2 at the end).
  
• Larry’s advice on punctuation (see link above) is meh..ok..but there are a lot of exceptions. And you better know them, or Mjorlin will meet your face, you dirty, unwashed, ungrammatical cretin.
• Mercy is for the weak. Your work will be CORRECTED. It will be EXCISED. It will be CLEANED. It will get a colonic and an exorcism too if it requires it, but by all the dark gods, it will be clear and make sense. Your blood is but food. Spill more until you get it right!

I may have just doubled my editor’s rates with this mild description of her, however, let me explain that although I had a couple of hour-long discussions with Redhead Girl about how this vile para-dimensional being is “…crippling, crippling, my work I tell you, which is worse than just killing it!” and marathon e-mails with no punches pulled from either side, I actually LOVE this woman. Love, I tell you. There is no doubt in my mind that she makes me a better writer. She is worth her weight in gold and I am ashamed of the pittance I can barely afford to give her for her amazing services. She is also a genius. Seriously, she is. She is a lot younger than I am, and she knows more about grammar and punctuation than I ever will if I live to be a hundred and focus on this subject alone for the rest of my days.

The blinding cuts to my ego, my sense of art and beauty, my soul dammit, were, I grudgingly admit, worth it. It helps that like me, she gives no quarter, yet is smart enough to understand my point of view. She is a guardian at the gates of chaos, holding law and order and all that is good from being corrupted by ignoramus-philistine-ungrammarions, and I, well, I fight for the other side clearly, but as true polar opposites, we cannot help but admire each other. Well. I admire her anyway, she probably just thinks the blood splatter on her Mjorlin is damn persistent in my case.

An aside, yes. Yes, she CAN lift Thor’s hammer. Trust me. Thor don’t know shit about grammar and his hammer will do what she tells it to, because she will FORGE your cretinous babble into WORDS THAT MAKE SENSE!

My Own Take on Things From the Dark Realm

This can basically be summed up without too many words in graphic form thus:

There are a number of problems with how everyone else uses the English written word, the main one being that they don’t all immediately recognise that my way is best, closely followed by the disturbing trend of books such as The Queen’s English – And How to Use It, in ignoring my thoughts on the matter. In order to help such misguided souls as those who may choose to read my works, I have compiled a list here below (which may be updated when time permits i.e. probably never [update: The updates are after the end of the post]), and separated it into two sections, one on general style, and finally the section on the detailed dirty work that goes on in the trenches at the level of single sentences and words.

On my Inimitable Style

My style is affected by many things, chief among them is the fact that I read a LOT. I mean really a lot. I read tomes like Tarzan, Shogun and Lord of the Rings all before I was 12. By the age of 7 I was reading full sized novels that ranged from pirate stories to thrillers, these were in Italian, at first, but later in English too. Many of these things have influenced me in certain ways undoubtedly, but most of that influence is probably reflected in the details (see next section lower down) of how I write rather than the more general style I write in. That said, there are some general trends I can probably list here:

• I have a strong preference for using British English over the more corrupt, vulgar and facile American English. Partly this is due to my having learnt the language mainly under the British system. Partly it is due to the fact that some Imperialist part of me feels one should respect more the language of the country in which it truly originated, rather than some off-shoot colony where it became bastardised. It’s spelt colour, not color, koloh, kulah, or whatever other form of primitive English you have been trained to believe (like a circus monkey) is “correct”. Yes I know that the American spelling is often more phonetically simple. That’s sort of the point. It’s simple, don’t you know.

• Despite the above, some words are very tempting to spell in the Americanised form. But not for the reasons you think, of simplicity, common sense or ease of use. No. Indeed this actually stems from an ever deeper and even more Imperialist part of me rooted into still deeper loyalty and due respect for the originating language, which is Latin. So for example, while I generally spell kilometre in the British way, it is very tempting to spell it kilometer, because it’s also closer to my native Italian spelling which is itself a bastardisation of the original Latin it etymologically stems from. So I may, on occasion, decide to write a particular topic or book in the Americanised form for such words. But let’s be clear, it’s because I am even more elitist than you thought I was.

• A case in point is the word skeptic. In British English it is spelt sceptic. I refuse to write it this way though. Can you guess why yet dear reader? That’s right; Honour (yes, with a capital H) must be preserved, and Loyalty (yes with a capital L) to the mother tongue must be observed, and in this case, the word skeptic originates from the Greek. And they spelt it with a K. As it should be. Also, sceptic reminds me of a septic tank, which gives me a very different sense of the word. One I tend to excrete. Yes, that was a pun. And now, I bet, those of you with OCD will all have to spell it with a K too. BWAHAHAHAH! Yes! I win!

• All of the above points hopefully explain away quite a lot of what my editor (bless her dark soul) refers to infuriatingly as my “inconsistencies”. Little does she know, I am an even older and darker soul than hers, while she serves her dark gods of grammar, vainly trying to protect the world from chaos, I serve the even darker and older gods of etymology, linguistics and the dark, dark, unconscious root of speech itself.

• Absurdities like “split infinitives”, ending or starting a phrase with a “preposition” (I don’t even know if that’s right because I don’t even know what a preposition is. I think of it as a small word like but or and), or any other number of weirdly meaningless grammar-o-babble referring to separation of clauses, temporal lobes of trilobites and general Orc faeces will be utterly ignored. And they will be ignored for two reasons:

• • I don’t understand them. I never will. I will sooner learn about the temporal lobes of trilobites and the exact composition of Orc faeces (it contains undigested Hobbit genital hair? What do you mean why genital? Have you seen their feet? Can you imagine what the crack of their ass or ball-sack looks like?) before I will ever learn these absurd rules of grammar, that to my mind, body and soul, have nothing, nothing at all, I say, to do with language, or at least, the real use of language. With emphasis on the word use, which brings me to the second point.

• • All grammar falls to the wayside, cut down and discarded like chaff without a second’s thought if it ever, ever goes up against what I call my style. That is, my use of language in such a way or for such purposes to try and transmit to the reader a sensation, a feeling, or (in my opinion) a better understanding of the internal motivation/s of one of the characters, or the setting, or anything else. As a corollary, it needs to be said that as far as I can see, most grammar tends to always try to do this, that is, reduce the texture, the depth, the enjoyment of the use of language. I see it a bit like Haiku. Haiku are technically and theoretically bound by some very strict rules, however, these are there precisely because the “fun” is in seeing how evocative and meaningful one can make three lines of words become even when such strictures are imposed on it. The very purpose of language could be said to be to transcend grammar.

• This brings me to a third point, very much related to the one above, and that is the actual USE of language. Why do we use language? Think about it, seriously. The obvious answer is, to communicate. Yes, but to communicate what? That’s right, it depends on context, if you are trying to defuse an atom bomb about to go off, you really don’t give a shit about your interlocutor’s deeper meanings and sensations, you just want precise and clear information. This is the language of text books, of instruction manuals, and mostly, of the basics of science. On the other hand, certain more subtle concepts, let’s say like understanding WHY the guy who placed the atom bomb there in the first place did it, require a little more finesse. A little more depth, and a lot more of what I can only refer to as empathy. You need to be able to feel, actually feel, as much as you can, the other person’s situation, feelings and thoughts, so as to get a better understanding of them and their motives, their actions or even just their mood. Use of language in this fashion is intimately related to both hypnosis and story-telling in general. And there is a lot more to story-telling than merely the telling of stories. Telling stories is the first, oldest, and still most useful teaching tool. Most people do not realise this at all. This is a boon for politicians and news agencies, but not so good for you dear reader. For eons, telling stories around the fire was how people learnt to survive events that the older tribe members had encountered first. Listening well to a good story well-told actually increased your chances of survival. Those with poor listening skills did not survive as well. At least not until the era of the supermarket, where the sound-byte has replaced the story and ADHD has replaced listening skill. The zombie apocalypse is not going to come. It’s here already. And yeah, you may be a one of them…you walker, you! Still, if you have actually read this far, you might actually still be human. If you go on to comment you are very likely one of the few uninfected left! Well done, I salute your skill at preserving some semblance of a brain in this ever expanding universe of skulls filled with warm tapioca populated by grubs.

• Finally, as refers to style, I tend to write closer to how I speak, and how others speak, than in so-called formal writing. The reasons for this should be obvious if you read the two points immediately above, but the problem with this is that spoken language is almost always grammatically incorrect, abysmal, and, according to my editor, probably to be put down like a sick dog. My view is that I want my dialogue to resemble real speech, because I want my characters to resemble real characters. I may place them in fantastic enough settings, but their humanity should remain. And their speech should reflect that they are indeed humans, not robot-like replacements. In fact, the more grammatically correct a character of mine speaks, the more likely that he is a vile being trying to brainwash the heroic main protagonists. Probably. He could also just be a very detached scientist. Of course…detached scientists might not be able to recognise when they are being evil. What with being detached from their humanity and all.

All of the above reasons are enough to create a true Ocean (yes, capital O) of ungrammatical murkiness that no editor in their right mind would ever want to even begin to venture into. It is for this reason that I salute and respect, and yeah, verily, that I LOVE my editor. She does this. On purpose. And unflinchingly. Alone, in her canoe on my Ocean of Ungrammar, she not just believes, she KNOWS, she will hammer the waters into a pristine, flat shape of reason and sanity and purity. And she WILL do it. It really matters not that on some existential level deeply embedded in the fibres of creation, her and I are obviously fighting for opposite sides, it is impossible to not respect such courage, such dedication, such…some would even say fanaticism, but then…if she does not hold back the tide from beings such as I, who would? Who I ask you, puny humans. Be thankful to the unknown female god of grammar that guards your fragile minds from the tsunamis of raw lust for emotion those such as I would inflict upon you.

A quick side note to illustrate the point

In one of the paragraphs above I wrote:

In fact, the more grammatically correct a character of mine speaks, the more likely that he is a vile being trying to brainwash the heroic main protagonists.

This is grammatically incorrect, and my editor, no-doubt, would be wielding that Mjorlin about my face in reading it, however, take note of the correct way below:

In fact, the more grammatically correct a character of mine speaks the more likely that he is a vile being trying to brainwash the heroic main protagonists.

What you see in the used and first version is (horror!) a breath pause comma! It is (and I quote) “The Devil”. (So is that last full stop, but we’ll get to that below).

But I ask you reader (if you even exist at this point, because this must be going for a few thousand words now), which sentence do you naturally feel most comfortable with? Which gives your brain pause for digestion as it flows over the words?

Go on, don’t worry, say it out loud in a comment below. I will shield you from the blows of Mjorlin with my own body, do not be afraid, tell the truth!

The Dirty Details

As you will no doubt have seen from the blood spatter above, I have a tendency for using breath pause commas. But there is a reason for this (besides my obviously being in league with the devil, according to my editor). At a young age, that is, when I first entered formal schooling, which was only age 7, as before that we lived in rural Nigeria and it was my dear mother that taught me how to read and write,* my then primary school teacher gave us a generic rule for knowing when to place commas, because punctuation for me was a problem right from the get go. And she told us to place a comma, “basically wherever you would pause in speech”. Which made sense to me. And in many ways, it still really does. So you see, I was corrupted early on. And besides, you should really read your bible. Seriously, Lucifer might not have been all that evil you know, he just had a bit of a problem with authority, and he told the truth about the tree of life in the garden, it was god, (well, EL anyway, the main god guy) who lied about it. And if Lucifer is also the Prometheus of the Greeks, then really, he was a cool guy. Just saying.

Some of my other sins are:

• I prefer the logical way of punctuating speech. No, seriously, it’s called the logical way. This is where the punctuation marks appear OUTSIDE the quotation marks of speech for those elements of punctuation that are not referring strictly to the words inside the speech marks. This makes sense. This is the British way, and hence, why it is called the logical way to punctuate speech. Sadly, most editors are trained in the AmeriKKKan way to punctuate speech. Mostly because America is the largest buyer of books in the English speaking world (thank you America. Thank you my semi-literate, illogical, bastardised-English speaking American friends. I love you. No really, I do. I am an Elitist Chauvinist Pig, but I still love you, please continue buying my books in large quantities). The American way to punctuate speech is an unholy mess with no rules to speak of, and only makes sense to rabid trained circus monkeys. I therefore, like Jesus, bearing the cross to Calvary, submit to it because I cannot fight every editor (and by now, most readers too due to the numbers game), in explaining to them why they are wrong, wrong, wrong, dammit! I therefore “punctuate” in the American way mostly. Mostly I said, not always. In general I will fight hard (she has won most times so far though) even my editor on a few points:

• • When using inverted commas to highlight a single word, say in the phrase: American punctuation IS logical says an irate “editor”. I have a tendency (which I have done throughout this post) of leaving the final full stop outside of the inverted commas. It just looks nasty and untidy and unwashed and all invasive inside them. It feels wrong. It’s just hard for me to do it any other way. It’s not even conscious 95% of the time. I will correct it if she points it out, but don’t expect me to really do it the right way. I may also miss some of her pointing it out.

• When asking a question in speech, I will ALWAYS put a damn question mark on the end of it. This to my mind, highlights exactly why the American way of punctuating speech was designed by rutting chimps on cocaine. As an example, I present to you the phrase:

“Did you really drink all of it,” she asked breathlessly.

Now…that’s a question dammit! A Question! And it REQUIRES a question mark. I don’t care (as I learnt only yesterday) that it is “implied” because almost every single sentence in the English language that begins with the word did will be a question, or by the fact it clearly says she asked in the phrase itself. The damn sentence of speech inside the speech marks REQUIRES a question mark. And I will ALWAYS put it in there. Thus:

“Did you really drink all of it?” she asked breathlessly.

or possibly

“Did you really drink all of it?” She asked breathlessly.

But guess what? Either of the last two sentences might be correct. You are supposed to infer whether there is a capital S or not by the “flow” of the conversation. What? I mean isn’t punctuation supposed to be used exactly to TELL you about that supposed “flow” and how it’s going? Chimps I tell you. Rutting chimps. On cocaine.

• Ellipses. I use these a lot and in varied ways. Now, between the ellipses, the content of the speech and the context of where and how it’s happening in the story, I believe these little dots can transmit to the reader a lot of information regarding the mood of the scene, of the character speaking, and even of the character being spoken to, than almost any other kind of punctuation marks. My editor disagrees vehemently mostly, but she has conceded ground here. She did though beat me in the face with that damn hammer until I made sure to use ONLY the three regulation dots. Not one accursed dot more, or else.

• Dashes (and parentheses), and parenthetical commas. I, again, use all of these probably more than is healthy for linear minds. It is however unavoidable for intelligent people who can follow a conversation beyond a CNN sound byte. In fact, if you should decide to use Google a bit, you will discover that longer sentences, and what is sometimes referred to as “more challenging text” (reading books to you and me, reader) is essential in order to increase reading comprehension. The current trend toward ever shorter sentences using only full-stops (that’s what they are called! Periods is what a lady has every month!), the excision of the very useful semi-colon and the practical disappearance of the colon altogether (it was required in order to introduce speech before all quotation marks in Italy in the 70s, when I went to school there), exists merely to try and get the knuckle-dragging, Ritalin-popping, trousers-round-the-ankles wearing Homo Oxygen-ladrus (that’s Homo Oxygen-thief to you, you non-Latin speaker), to feel he is “included”. The sad truth is those kind of “people” (yes I said it in inverted commas, because people as opposed to “people” should be those who are able to use their minds for good and proper use of language and other things) will never be “included”. They will work behind a McDonald’s counter for the majority of their lives, or, if they do achieve any success it might be by playing sports or possibly being a rap-star  –though I doubt the latter since rap used to have an actual linguistic origin of rather complex, if unorthodox, pedigree. Then again, modern rap follows the sound-byte trend too so it’s possible– which would be fine, except that their lack of elocution, reading comprehension and therefore general etiquette will still render them about as useful or interesting as a chimp with a LOT of bananas. It might be entertaining to watch, but it’s not exactly rocket science. You may have noticed a couple of long sentences in this point itself. If you had to strain your finger in following the discourse here, I suggest you need to read a lot more of my work. It’s going to increase your IQ. Seriously. If instead it all flowed well for you, congratulations reader! You are one of my kind of people. Go on, buy my books, you’ll enjoy them, they are smart, just like you!

• Superbia. This is an Italian word that gets loosely translated as “arrogance”. You may, I say, may, have noticed a distinct lack of any issues of self-esteem concerning my chosen way of going about my writing (or mutilation of the English language, as possibly my editor would put it). Ultimately, I will do as I damn well please, and those who love me will follow me and continue to read what I write, and those who do not love me, or my writing, can carry on salivating over things like 50 Shades of Grey, and the “works” of James Patterson. I will not miss you if you are one of the latter. I need to point out however, that mine is not arrogance. Not strictly speaking. It is in fact Superbia (yes, capital S). The difference is that an arrogant person is essentially an ignorant person. That is, they think they are better than… or can do such and such, when in fact, they are not better than… at all, and will often fail badly when trying to do such and such, or even just such. A Superbo on the other hand is not ignorant. He knows he is better than… or can do X. And he most often IS better than, and will not often fail at doing X. The problem is he really isn’t humble about it. Now… I do not mean to “put off” my readers by a display of arrogance, even if just arrogance limited to my lack of humility on the subject, but I do need to explain that no writer has ever pleased all his readers. Nor will ANY writer ever exist that CAN, please all his readers. Some readers will find my writing is not to their tastes, and this is fine and well. I am not writing for them. Since I cannot know a priori whom of my readers will enjoy my writing, there is no point in me trying to please these unknown persons. I therefore, will write in the way that pleases ME the most first. Writing is a lonesome, heavy work, and every writer to some degree or other struggles with it in his own way. For me, over a period of 15 years or so I have gone from having an attitude that can best be described as, “I hate it, but I MUST do it. I am compelled by a dark, sadistic force!” to “I love doing this, I wish I could do it as my sole means of income all the time!” and that, dear reader, did not happen by chance. Or without a lot of metaphorical (but still pretty real) pain. And effort. And a LOT of cursing. So; I will write to please myself first. And if some of my ways rub you the wrong way grammatically, or punctuationally, or some other way, at least now you have a pretty comprehensive list of reasons as to why I do what I do the way I do it.

Oh –by the way– that last one on the list there, the Superbia? According to classical Catholicism, it was Superbia that got Lucifer cast down to Earth. So… I have warned you my good reader, my editor may be right, I may indeed be a dark, dark soul, working in league with the devil, and only her Angelic rigour and the hammer of Thor, may keep me from running roughshod over all your petty rules of grammar!

* Thank you mom! Seriously, whatever my editor says to the contrary regarding my “ability” to write, I owe it to you that I could both read as well as do things like long-division long before getting to school and being taught to “read” whole words at a time (which is, I am 100% sure, the main cause of the so-called rampant “dyslexia”) and do maths in weird ways that only work to a limited point, designed to keep you working behind a teller instead of being able to do a few more things besides use numbers that don’t go higher than a thousand or so.

PS: I think, seriously, first person to make an intelligent comment on this unrealistically long-ass post that gives me an indication they actually read the whole thing gets a free book posted to them. My editor and mother are excluded cause they get one of those anyway.

UPDATES:

6 Feb 2013 – There is at least ONE word I choose to spell in the American way instead of the British way though. This is the word practiced (or practicing). In British English the noun is spelt practice (e.g. It was time for piano practice) but the verb is spelt with an s (e.g. She was practising her piano playing). In American English the word is used in both instances with the c and no s. Why then, given my Imperialist leanings, would I ever spell the word in the American way? Well, it is a multi-part answer. Firstly, one can really only be truly elitist if one arbitrarily ignores one of one’s own originally arbitrary rules to begin with (much as English spelling and pronunciation do really, so I am on good ground on this basis alone), however, it needs to be explained that the origin of the bastard s in the verb form of British English seems to have found its way into the language, like the illegitimate son of a chambermaid, via the back door as it were, through French. So, whilst using the language of the semi-literate colonists may be distasteful, I am sure that you will agree, it is a far superior solution than allowing the French to add their national lisp to the Queen’s dictum. And on that note, I’m sure my OBE for services to the English language is going to come along any day now. I just hope Kate’s sister will be at the ceremony; and wearing something tight!

10 Feb 2013 - For a truly fascinating reason as to why breath pause commas are not just NOT evil, but in fact good and right and really the very origin of grammar, see this amazing article about a lot more than just commas HERE. Warning: unless you are a punctuation geek you need to read a few pages of text, the short version is that breath pauses, indicated as commas, were used as one of the very earliest ways to interpret texts. No manuscript with commas that predated the dark ages exists apparently. But the article really is good, even if you are not a geek. It’s bound to make you look real smart at your next dinner party anyway; though, if you have read this far, I do have news for you: you ARE a geek. A big one.

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Well, it has most definitely been a busy time, but…lots of new things coming later this year. A relaunch of the Overlords of Mars series will happen (with any luck) before Xmas of this year, as well as a general revamp of this site. The focus of it will shift to something that is more in tune with a “single theme” as the vast unwashed masses seem to prefer.

But fear not, intrepid adventurer, this site will continue to have all the eclectic, in-depth information it has now, and hopefully lots more, along with my general musings and random thoughts, however…

As you may have noticed if you are/were a regular reader of this blog as well as my previous experimental one, I have many and varied interests, and it is difficult for a new visitor to grasp what the hell this is all about. Well…it was Redhead Girl who actually said it best to me: Everything I do is about Exploration. And indeed that is true. Sometimes I explore the mind, sometimes the body, and sometimes the world around me, but in reality, it is indeed always about exploration.

So…in time I will revamp the site a bit and re-organise it a bit and guess what…yes…we are going to become an exploration club. That is, people like yourselves, who may be interested in the same weird things I am, will be able to contribute if you wish.

I have to do a bit more work on explaining it all in a coherent fashion, (the FAQ is going to change) but please believe me, this is going to be an exploration club like no other. We will look at the edge of science of things, and the edge of the known in our world. As in keeping with the rest of my philosophy, no arm-waving hippies or drugged up New-Agers need apply. We, dear readers, are going to do some REAL exploration, grounded in reality, science and mysticism.

Wait, what? Mysticism? Yes. Mysticism. Please realise that a real natural scientist (which are essentially an extinct breed, hence my 19th century design here, for they thrived back then for a short while) is not fooled by the current dogma that “everything is matter”.

It is a lie. There are many interesting things which the “science” being done by the circus monkeys we now call “scientists” will never be able to explain, primarily because much of their dogma is flawed. “Science” as it is done too often today is essentially an upgraded form of religion with a bit more truth in it than the woo-woo kind of religions. But do not be fooled. Science, real science, is as elusive as ever. And we, dear readers, refined gentlemen and ladies from another era, are going to blow the roof off the cathedrals.

We are going to investigate, research, travel to and undertake special operations to discover more on the reality behind the facade that has been thickly painted over our lives.

Yes, we are going to look at “weird” paranormal things.

Yes, we are going to look at “conspiracies” (AKA facts constantly denied by the mainstream media).

Yes, we are physically going to go explore remote places to look for more information.

Yes, we will be doing all these things.

I have been doing them for a while anyway, but now I will begin to document some of the trips I have done before, and I will invite any of you who are interested, to get involved, to participate and to contribute.

This site has been dead for a bit so I expect response will be non-existent to luke-warm at first, but I will do this anyhow, regardless of numbers. The only difference is how long it will take and how much I will share of my adventures. If you think you might be interested in something different, do let me know andadd a comment to this post, it will be up here for a while as I prepare things, so add your comment and let me know you exist. The more support I have, the more I will be motivated to hurry up and to tell you all more.

If you want to have an idea of what this club will be like, think of it as a real-world equivalent of the B.P.R.D. or of TESLADYNE except we don’t really expect to be fighting mythical creatures or be faced with the dilemma of whether we are the eater of worlds. But we will go on cool expeditions to little accessible places and telling people what we find there. And fighting Nazis. Because yeah, there are always Nazis somewhere.

Yes there will be memberships for those who want it, no it’s not about making me any money, it’s about getting like-minded people together (think action scientists), and uniting them into a common purpose. It’s about surrounding ourselves with more people that are real life explorers. Most of the globe may have been mapped by satellites, but there is an infinite number of stuff still to discover. If you are the type of person that:

• Doesn’t believe the Great Pyramid of Egypt was ever a tomb or built the way Egyptologists say it was built

• Doesn’t believe JFK was shot by a lone Lee Harvey Oswald from a library window

• Doesn’t believe skyscrapers collapse on their own footprint spontaneously because there was a fire somewhere near them

• Thinks our ancient history is very different from what we have been told in school

• Dreams of travelling to exotic and strange places

• Wants to go on actual expeditions to explore, research and discover the truth about some aspect of our past

• Knows there is more to life than merely working 9 to 5 for a slave wage in order to survive

Then you are one of us. Whether you know it or not. So join me. And yes, join me here first in this lose, etheric, “disorganised” way first. We need to get to know each other, and I fully expect that if this ever takes off in a big way, I will have more than a fair number of freaks, weirdos, crazy people and possibly Leprachauns, but I know I will also get to meet some amazing and interesting people which, for all I know, might become really good friends of mine. The best way to separate the crazies from the eccentric is at an informal gathering, so step right in. Leave a comment, and if the mood moves you, instead of asking me to link to your site, begin by linking me to yours, if you have one. I will notice and I will look, and it’s a better way to introduce yourself don’t you think?

In keeping with the currently “informal” nature of this club, I have named it:

Special Operations and Exploration

Or SOE for short. No doubt, many of you will know that SOE was also the precursor to all military special operations branches. That SOE, was the Special Operations Executive, and Ian Fleming, the creator of the James Bond character, was deeply involved with it. SOE helped spawn OSS (Office of Strategic Services) which in turn then morphed into a host of rather poisonous organisations, amongst which the CIA. Both SOE and OSS were disbanded after WWII and no longer exist, but the original intent of SOE was to have an elite corps of irregulars take the war to the enemy, and the enemy at the time was the Nazis. Now… we are not a military organisation, and we have no particular war to fight with anyone, but it has been my view that it invariably takes “irregulars” to make any progress in human affairs. In truth,most positive changes towards understanding, truth and justice, have almost invariably in human history, been created or caused by “eccentrics” that were often fringe elements in many ways. Nikola Tesla, the man who electrified the planet, being probably the best example of this. The man single-handedly changed the world even though most people have no idea who he was. He was also screwed over by that bastard Thomas Edison, who is wrongly revered as a kind of “hero” when he was instead a cruel and deceitful man who electrocuted dogs and even an elephant to “prove” his version of electricity (direct current) was “safer”. It was not and if we had listened to him we would need a power plant on every corner to power a city.

I digress, but you get the jist (apart from the one that I am eccentric, and can ramble on, damn you!).

The idea is that those who take part in our endeavours will probably be an eclectic group at first, and possibly look slightly ridiculous and inefficient, but in time, we will become something to be proud of. This kind of path has been trodden by many great men and women in history, and we aim to do the same. Besides, a little ridicule and humour is essential in real life and even more so in dangerous adventures. The B.P.R.D. graphic novels are an excellent model for our budding organisation. We will at times be cartoonish, at times ridiculous and contrasting, at times absurd, but we will stand by our good friends, even if they may be frog-fraced freaks or dangerous pyrokinetic hotties, and we will deal with very serious subjects. Subjects hidden from view for most people. And of course we will be the good guys. Because don’t forget. There are always Nazis out there somewhere. You know it.

I present to you below our official (TM) badges, they will be available soon as actual badges and in time I will set up some kind of shop to send them to people if they want one.

While we are on the subject, a serious exploration that I have been planning for many months needs to progress to the next level and we are looking for a person or persons that has a skipper licence and preferably access to or owns a yacht that can take us to an undisclosed location in the middle of the Pacific. No joke. So if you know someone or are that someone, do get in touch. Details of this trip cannot be released publicly at this point, but in time all will be revealed.

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I have had to neglect the blog due to work, baby and editing of two books which I hope to bring to you soonish. Despite the hiatus however, know that my writing is continuing, just not here for the moment, but I will return.

In the meantime, you can just watch that little picture above for a while, knowing that you will be compelled to return here regularly for the rest of your natural life.

Related posts:

1. A Busy Week

The process of starting a very demanding job again in the cubicle forest, as well as going through the process of becoming a dad for the first time and not forgetting the 41 videos we now have FINISHED and are ALL UP (see www.wayofsystema.com) for the Systema Book all took a toll. (What?!? you haven’t bought one yet? Hurry, Amazon put them on special giving $20 off for Xmas. Dunno how long they will do this for though as I have no control on their pricing and marketing strategies. So if you want one go HERE.)

Something had to give and after doing 13 hour days at work, trying to keep up training and working every week-end for the last 4 months to get the videos out despite many, many issues, the blog suffered.

But it’s all done now, and we have done some 41 videos instead of the original 30 promised, so we hope the long wait was worth it.

In other news, my little daughter is great and we could not be happier with her, she laughs already and she really is the most amazing Christmas present we could have wished for.

May you all have a loving Christmas and a very very happy New Year, and may 2012 truly be the end of all the bad worlds any of us may have carried with us for years. Redhead Girl, our Little Princess and I all wish you the very best.

Love to all,

G.

Christmas 2011

Related posts:

1. Coming soon, to a screen near you

Welcome my little girl. Born today 11.11.11 and despite the worst efforts of several morons, healthy, smart and already grabbing my finger and only suffering face bruising from the foreceps. Redhead girl is the bravest person I know and basically whatever flaws the females of the human species may have in regards to logic or anything else, they definitely are the better of the two. Nothing a man might ever do can even begin to compare. Going to sleep for a bit before I return to my girls.

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Related posts:

1. New SF Book coming out soon
2. SYSTEMA BOOK – The New, First and Only Complete Systema Manual in the World
3. Happy Christmas and New Year!

Hilarious and Oh so true too. Click the link below for one of the coolest videos ever.

FeloniousMunk

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1. Coming soon, to a screen near you

Only to realise the stirred up sushi-latte now requires urgent expulsion. You rush two floors down. No other toilets. Cramping you go back up then climb one floor. Nothing. And another. Still nothing and you have no more floors to explore! There must be another toilet. Armed with the courage that can only come from an imminent ass explosion, you make your way past the front office of a firm of solicitors as if you owned the firm.

You walk down a long corridor at random and then turn and… Then you see it. Divine Intervention. God loves you.

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This is my first post done from my mobile. Given the limits on my time, I think if it works it will become a favourite way to do quick updstes. And for your viewing pleasure here is a random picture for you. Redheadgirl and little pexionauta.

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