BBC Documentary About Philip K. Dick

Unmissable documentary about the life and fiction of Philip K. Dick; lots of SF authors appear in it (including the late Thomas M. Disch).

Screenshots From The Game "Magiens Arv"

Some screenshots from my game "Magiens Arv" (Norwegian title) for Windows PC:


The complete game can be downloaded for free from Microsoft Skydrive.

This game was inspired by the radio series "Magiens Arv", which I wrote for NRK.
It is my first entirely home-made PC game, and perhaps not my last...(?)

Storytelling Is A Human Trait

Quote:
Boyd argues that art, including fiction, is a unique human adaptation whose chief function is "for improving human cognition, cooperation and creativity".

Read the rest.

MAGIENS ARV ("Heirs To The Magic") Official Website Is OPEN!

On May 23, Norwegian state radio (NRK) starts broadcasting my fantasy series MAGIENS ARV ("Heirs to the Magic"). It is also available online:

The series' official website (in Norwegian) is now up and running, and you can download the first episode directly from the site.

MAGIENS ARV official website at NRK

Additional content will be added to the site later (i.e. further episodes in the series). Right now the site contains concept art, a map (all fantasy must have maps), character artwork and unlockable bonus material.

Oh, and there's a PC game too:
MAGIENS ARV - the game (with Norwegian text), for Windows PC

Radio Series MAGIENS ARV (a.k.a. "Heirs To The Magic")

It's official: The radio series I wrote for Norwegian state radio (NRK) starts broadcasting and webcasting on May 23, 2009.

MAGIENS ARV premieres on NRK

Chapter 4 of THE TIME IDIOT

Chapter 4 of THE TIME IDIOT, my novel-in-search-of-a-publisher, HERE.

Previously in THE TIME IDIOT:
Prescott Walker, an idiot, has somehow become the President of the United States.
Toward the end of his second term as a complete failure, he gets his hands on a time machine.
And so begins an escalating series of darkly comical disasters...

Choice Quote:

"I've got to stop Hitler," said Prescott.

Moh gasped. "You're serious?"

Prescott eyed the scientist suspiciously. "Are you saying I shouldn't stop Hitler? Whose side are you on, buster? You some kind of closet Nazi? I ought to report you to the base commander."

---

Race Fail '09 & Mammothfail

An overview of the Race Fail '09 here.

A summary of Mammothfail here.

I still support Fen(Fans) of Color.
-------

Addendum: "Derailing For Dummies" - a summary of the typical rhetorical tricks used for derailing, silencing and sabotaging discussions about discrimination, bigotry and racism.

I Support Fen Of Color

I don't know whether I could pass for a particular "race."

Dad was a pale redheaded Swede, Mom was a brown-skinned Kap Verdean who moved to Sweden (see also my photo in the below blog post)...

And I wasn't really brought up to think of myself as anything but Swedish...

...but, all things considered, I wouldn't be honoring the memory of my parents if I stayed silent on this issue. So:

I hereby declare my unconditional support for Fen Of Color.

And here are links to those of my short stories where the subject of racism and bigotry is featured or a central theme:

- "Bad Egg"

- "A Man Called Mister Brown" (novella published in the webmagazine SPACEWESTERNS.COM)

- "Rasisticus" (short-short, in Swedish)

- "Telephone Conversations" (published in the Chinese magazine SF WORLD (not to be confused with WORLD SF))

- The election spoof "NURGLON IN 2008!"

A few thoughts on the subject of prejudice against others:

I like to write/read about possible futures, about worlds which might exist, or even worlds which couldn't possibly exist. That's the appeal of writing/reading SF, Fantasy and Horror.

In a sense, this is a method for writing/reading fiction about reality. (Ironic, no?)

In order to become a better and more imaginative writer, I need to constantly re-assess where I stand on many issues - such as politics, culture and science. An open mind and an insatiable curiosity are crucial to keeping a fertile imagination.

You can't have all that and still cling to prejudices. Prejudices have to go or the mind calcifies.

At the very least, one needs the basic awareness of a fundamental weakness in the human mind: We tend to think in generalizations, and we tend to mistake generalizations for reality, and this leads to prejudice.

Privilege reinforces prejudice. Anyone who has a privilege tends to defend it, and will (consciously or not) invent explanations to justify them.

I know I have certain privileges, such as being born in Sweden -- a huge privilege in itself! -- and I must be careful not to let them corrupt my imagination. I wasn't born and raised in a welfare state because I "deserved" it or belonged to a better "breed."

I was born there because of blind chance. (The only way in which it couldn't have been chance, would be if the entire world was like Sweden, so that everyone got born into the exact same circumstances. And it ain't that kind of party.)

Yeah, how about this most common prejudice of all: We take for granted the comforts we were born into.

But our starting stations in life are not chosen; they are neither earned nor deserved by the newborn.

Think about it: You might have been born in a sun-baked desert where crops fail, miles from any trained medical personnel... in some rat-infested, half-starved slum... in a village decimated by plague and/or civil war... on the slopes of a dormant volcano... or on a sinking, overcrowded refugee boat... or born as the persecuted minority in a bigoted society.

Do you think you "deserved" not being born into any of those unpleasant circumstances? Why would anyone deserve them?

The above was an example of examining one's own prejudices...

A.R.Yngve Does His Best Oliver Hardy Impression.

Article in Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.

Good God, I look like Oliver Hardy in the newspaper picture. Honestly, I don't look like that.

I look like this:
















Vanity aside... the article concerns a radio series I wrote on assignment for Norwegian state radio channel NRK. Starting May 23. 2009, the series is broadcast and webcast. In addition to the script, I wrote and drew lots of extra material for the series' website.

A Review Of DARC AGES 2nd Edition

- Reviewed by Susan Helene Gottfried.

The Future Of Publishing. (YouTube Video)

This short video says it all:

Demo of the Espresso Book Machine

Chapter 3 of THE TIME IDIOT posted

Here is Chapter 3 of my unsold comedic novel THE TIME IDIOT - enjoy.

It was written in 2007, and is still in search of a publisher.

Choice Quote:
------------------
Prescott Walker crawled out of the pod, and looked around. He had arrived in the same cave as before... but it looked different. The glass chamber was gone, and all the technical equipment. Into the distance receded thousands of crates and barrels, lit by ceiling lamps. The air felt dank and cold.

Had something gone wrong?

"Zack! Professor! General? I made it! I'm back! Osama's history!"

Only the echo replied.

Prescott walked toward the distant exit, then changed his mind, went back into the pod and picked up the Glock. Just in case, he told himself. Perhaps America's enemies had located the lab and attacked it?

It was a long walk to the exit without the golf carts.
------------------
Read the rest.