Hello again.

I've been away from this blog for too long, and now I've decided to make a new half-way-through-the-year's resolution to get back on it, and try to be more regular. I do have a number of things that could have been going on it, such as some book reviews, which I'll post in a minute.

But first, let me announce that Pepe is now a free download, in return for signing up for a newsletter. Here's where you go to sign up. Just click on the cover image:

...or here: www.robbycharters.co.uk/pepe.php

Websites and Domain Names

I've got two new websites. One isn't so new, but I just never got around to posting about hit here.

The not so new one is, www.Robbys-eBook-Formatting.co.uk, which is my business website, selling my services as an eBook formatter.

The newest one, just published with my new domain name today, is www.RobbyCharters.co.uk, which is technically also a business website, but selling my books. That also will have the list of where to find all my stuff online.

Revamped Home Page

I've just revamped the hub page for my website. It's now a show case for all my novels and other creations. Take a look...

There's a shortened URL for it: tinyurl.com/robbysbooks

All the usual free stuff as well as my published novels are there.

Coming Soon...

Pepe has been through most of it's rounds of edits and rewrites, and I'm glad to say, is still very much the story I originally envisioned. The publisher has still to proof it one more time, and then format it to be ready for release.

In the mean time, I thought I'd spruce up this page a bit, as it will soon begin to double as an author's home page.

Novella -- The Wrong Time

I've had an idea for this novel for quite a long time. I finally got around to writing it, and it turned out to be more of a novella -- too short for a novel, but too long for a short story.

It's in the Science Fiction genre, an exploration of the "Many Worlds" interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. That means it's about parallel universes.

It's hard to find a publisher for novellas, so I'll just post it on the site as a free douwnload -- yet another incentive to visit the author's page once my novel, Pepe, hits the market.

So, here it is .... The Wrong Time

new links

It's about time I updated my site with new links, especially blogs that I've been visiting regularly.

One that I've found recently, which seems to fit right in with a lot of what I post here is, Messianic Musings, Rabbi Derek Leman's blog.

If you look at some of my earlier blogs regarding messianic/emerging hybrids, you'll know that I did a Google search about two years ago and couldn't find any blogs that were at the same time Messianic and Emerging-friendly (not that any of them were unfriendly, they just weren't into blogging -- apart from the occasional congregation that had one for posting church announcements, or those making political statements, etc.) Anyway, I did another Google recently, and one of the results had something from Messianic Musings that mentioned Scot McKnight. Anyway, have a look for yourself.

Being that I'm into Science Fiction, especially the writing of it, I also find SF Novelists a good site. It's got regular entries by a number of current authors on how they write, or what delights/peeves/affects them about writing, etc. I think I was pointed to that site by Tobias Buckell's blog, the author of Crystal Rain, and more recently, Ragamuffin. I don't know if he still has the first 10 or so chapters of Ragamuffin available for viewing. If you like reading a captivating novel half way through and putting it off indefinitely, you might want to check it out.

Anyway, that's a starter. I may add some more later.

More Changes

Another change in preparation to being a published author. I've simply changed the URL for the blog to reflect the name that will appear on my novel, soon to be published -- my own.

I'm dumping the name 'Tishbyte'. That name was an idea I had many years ago, combining computer technology with the prophetic, namely Elijah the Tishbite (though the spelling, 'Tishbyte' wasn't compatible with the Hebrew pronounciation, Teesh-beet). It was a usefull name in the days when I was trying to run my website like an E-zine, although it never really took off. I tried to act like I was a whole editorial staff, but it really the site never was more than what I'm making it into now, an author's page.

The content probably won't change much. I'll still be writing about things that interest me, and if you want to know what that is, simply look at the archives. All my old posts will remain, even a few that started out as 'articles' when Tishbyte was an e-zine.

Allegory on PDF

I've now distilled my latest edition of the novella, Allegory, and the accompanying article, A Study on Judgement, as a PDF file. My present intention is that this remains as a free download. It's copyright in my name, but that's to insure it isn't misused. Anyone who downloads it is free to make copies to give to people, as long as they don't change it.

Anyway, here it is.

I'll post a permanent link to it later on this page, in a prominent place.

Enjoy...

Changes

It's about time the blog reflected a major change in my writer's identity -- to use my real name instead of a pseudonym. I guess when one is this close to being published, one begins to reconsider things like that.

Using a pseudonym is a good idea if one wants to cloak ones identity, not embarrass ones relatives or, if the title starts to compete with the likes of Harry Potter, go places without being recognised. I suppose in such a case, it would only be a matter of time before people discovered who the author really was anyway.

I'll also probably need to restructure the page to be more of an author's page. Perhaps I'll eventually need a new website. I've already changed the blurb. The facitious sounding one you see up there now may be only temporary, until I think better of it, or find a better one. The older one was descriptive of my intent for doing a blog, but it's probably better to let blog surfers judge by the content.

One positive reason for using my own name is just to give the Charters name a bit more notoriety. I don't know of any Charters (with that spelling) who have distinguished themselves. Some, using alternate spellings of the name, such as Chartres, and Charteris, have written books and such, but it's about time the name Charters got a little airing out. I think it's a Huguenot name, originally spelled Chartres, the same as the cathedral town in France, where they came from. There are possible connections with the Bourbon dynasty as well, but I don't think any of us have any claim to the French throne, or anything of that sort. Anyway, that's a bit far back, and you certainly wouldn't know it looking at the motley crew we are today. So far, though, I haven't been able to trace my direct genealogy farther than my great-grandfather, Samuel Charters, of Artnigros, who was a lock-keeper on the river Bann.

Blogsite, school, novels, etc.

I suppose it's about time for a new blog entry, even if I don't have anything profound to say that's going to blow the bloggusphere away. If I don't say something, then the next post below, entitled 'new look' is going to look funny on top with such an ancient date stuck on.

Speaking of 'new look', note the picture of me I've posted, which appears near the bottom of the page in the 'about me' section.

At this very moment, I'm sitting in the computer room of the school as I write. My four year old son has started school now. I hope he picks up Thai quickly. This is the best school for him in that it's bi-lingual. He can learn his Thai without forgetting his English.

I'm still trying to publish my novels. At least I have three on the market, which increases my chances of getting one published. I have all of them listed here. Also, I'm going with the internet publishers, which now seem to have a better future than they did before.

New Look

I've done a bit of revamping. The blogger.com people have added the option of labels, so I've added those. Also, I've expanded the archives to include some of my favourites from my earlier blogsite. I found I could force older entries by changing the date option, so some of the entries now predate my move to Blogspot. Some of these are also on the list at the top in the right hand panel. Some of them were published as articles on the Next Wave ezine.

Happy surfing...

Some of my links have moved

Because I closed one account and opened another one, a couple of my article/stories were lost. I've reposted them on a new location. Here are the new links:

Allegory (http://uk.geocities.com/bob.charters@btinternet.com/Allegory.html)

A Study on Judgment (http://uk.geocities.com/bob.charters@btinternet.com/Judgment.html)

A Study on Judgment

As I said in yesterday's post, my story, Allegory, which has just been published on Next Wave ezine, is sure to raise questions about my view on heaven, hell and the possibility of purgatory. I promised to post something about it:

[29 August 2006] I had all posted here, but it was rather long, making it inconvenient for anyone trying to scroll down to see my earlier posts. I'll supply this link instead.

Besides being more convenient, I've also edited a bit more, and added some more to the end, which should put things in even more perspective. The editing isn't 100% complete yet, so this is a work in progress.

Pepe

If my blogs have been scarse lately, it's because I'm in the middle of a writing project. It's a novel about a homeless street boy, who, unknown to him, is the rightful king. It's set just a bit into the future, but it's got a fairy-tail element to it. I hope I'm skillful enough to make such an unlikely mixture of sci-fi and fairy-tail work.

I may post the first chapter here soon.

Welcome to my new blog site

I suppose it's time to begin blogging again.

My earlier blog site is at www.antioch.com.sg/th/twp, where you find both my old blogs (which I left off updating over a year ago) and my articles, stories, cartoons, bestselling-novels-to-be, and other regurgitations of an active immagination.

I hope I'll be more regular at updating this one. The old one was too much work, as it was a DIY site, where I wrote all the HTML code by hand, and had to cut and paste some of the code everytime I did an entry.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes...