I've Been Doing Some Writing!

I know, hard to believe. This particular writing has been nothing to do with games - though I've been chocka on that front since Feb so watch out for details on my latest three (three?!) projects over the next couple of months.

First, as I mentioned over here, I've been writing for performance recently, turning out some monologues at various events across London. I can't say how fantastic it is to actually get in the spotlight and see the reactions on people's faces, both good and bad. The one I'm happiest with is a development of a concept I came up with way back during my undergrad days at Southampton. I perform it in character, and it's about a guy who works for a major charity forging letters from third world orphans to their western sponsors. It usually gets a mix of dark laughs and gasps, and while it's a touchy subject I stand by the moral discussion I'm attempting to have, and usually remind people that I am not the character.

You can download a short story-ised version here.

Secondly, the short piece of philosophical science fiction that I posted... wow, I was going to say a couple of months ago; turns out it was last summer... has been published as part of an anthology. It's an interesting one, because the whole thing's a borderline scam. Usually when I produce short stories (and monologues for that matter) it's as a creative release - my chance to express myself and improve my technique. Occasionally I'll fire off something I'm happy with to a couple of competitions just for the sod of it. Turns out I won one and the prize is being published in this anthology.

Now, there's another way to spin that ball: that by entering the competition I've allowed someone to profit off of my writing for free. I wasn't even provided a complementary copy. Of course, if most of the other writers were amateur there's maybe a different emphasis on that, and I'm not particularly complaining: I of course ensured that I retained the rights to the story, and if it weren't being published there it's not like it would have done much beyond fester on my hard drive. But there's undoubtedly a murky middle ground in the new found popularity of internet and self-publishing, and I think I may have waded straight into it.