James Stephen Bowers

Shayara Ventii, captain of the senate sponsored bounty hunter vessel The Pariah, comes across the wreckage of a transport ship on the edge of known space. The mysterious ship shows scars of a desperate fight but upon boarding shows no signs of crew or cargo. As cross-species tension rises the only surviving witness to the horror aboard Hope’s Deliverance warns of a new threat to humanity and an ancient one to the galactic community.

The targets this new threat chooses are well informed and too critical to be coincidence. Suspicions rise to double agents and traitors among the senate races own ranks.

This is to be my first book to reach publication and I’m happy to reveal it here. This is the first book in The Senate’s Keep series and should be expected towards the back end of 2012. Artist Luke Mckay is lined up for cover art and the novel is currently well under way.

The audible treat that is ‘The Nerdist Way’, an audio book by Chris Hardwick I picked up to try and get me motivated, is working rather well. I’m slightly concerned it’s a self help book so when people hear me listening to it I tell them it’s a podcast. What do they know? They’re not the savvy generation usually. It however, getting back on track, would seem to have manifested itself in my skull, screaming at me when my mind begins to drift. I’ve gotten more writing done and gamed less in as short a time as I can remember. Hopefully this project might reach publication but I won’t scuba dive before I can swim.

I’m only about a quarter of the way through and one of the best tips is his ways of manipulating luck. I’ll come up with my own examples so you get the gist. Blind luck is something you can’t control or force to occur. This would include winning the lottery or having a stray mongrel turn up on your doorstep only to find out it defecates solid 24 carat gold bars (P.S. Happy now Paul?). External forces influence this, god if you’re so inclined. Circumstantial luck however is something you can harness to get what you want. Putting yourself in opportunity’s path whilst harnessing a positive outlook will no doubt allow access to options you might otherwise have missed. For example, if you wished to meet Mila Kunis finding out her address and stalking her a whole bunch would no doubt increase your chances.

#ReptileAlmond

The Elderly. From the sweet old lady next door to the senile recluse at the end of the street that keeps bursting your football, they are everywhere in society. Mankind so far has failed to produce a cure for this unfortunate condition so until then, when do you think it is when one becomes a social pariah to the youth? You’d be right in thinking around the retirement age when the cognitive capacity goes and you can no longer be classed as being completely compos mentis. There’s only so many times we can take the retelling of their trip to the post office after all. It’s most interesting when you have grandparents who lived through the war. They have the most intriguing and jaw dropping stories. I can remember once when me and the boys apprehended Hitler. I got a high five from Churchhill for that. Of course you did Granddad, go back to sleep. Then the photo album comes out and you know you’re doomed. Damnation! Here’s me and the lads the day we signed up. Here’s me with my rifle…Oh and here is me and Churchill completing a high five. Say what?! I guess he wasn’t delirious after all. I also wonder at what age pensioners begin to confuse events in their lives with things they’ve seen in films. No Granddad that was Black Hawk Down.

Driving is another major hazard when you become older. When they started out they’d be lucky if they passed another car all week. It was mostly horse and cart anyway. Now there is over a billion fleet footed boxes moving at triple the speed they can muster up. You know that situation where you are on a dual carriageway when the car at the side of you starts to become erratic. As you cast your viewpoint in that direction you see a terrified passenger and seemingly no one in the drivers seat. Then you see the tuft of grey hair and realise it’s an old person struggling to see over the dashboard despite being plunked atop four shakespearian play scripts.

Don’t get me wrong I admire the elderly they’re much smarter, wiser and have travelled much farther than myself. I’m still not looking forward to when I get to the same point as my Granddad though. He gambles on the horse racing and when I asked him why he replied Just to pass the time really. He gambles everyday and around £20 a time. That’s not passing time, that’s an addiction. You wouldn’t have time to get hooked with those kind of vices if your soul was constantly crushed from a 45 hour working week. You know what, I think I just changed my mind. Bring on the Zimmer!

Geeks aren’t usually associated with anything physically challenging usually exercising our thumbs is the most extreme we get. I however have a deep seeded love of football. Growing up in Wakefield I was indoctrinated at a young age by my father to support the mighty Manchester United football club. This created many problems tin the eyes of other people. First I lived in Wakefield at the time only ten miles from Leeds, Manchester United’s most bitter rivals. This spurned a decade of abuse from other fans who supported their local teams. The reasoning behind it is unclear I have often been labelled a glory supporter, someone who flips between teams depending on whose doing well, even though I have supported Manchester United all my life. I doubt my influence has aided them to be the most successful football club in English history too. My Dad used to take me to Oakwell at a young age to watch Barnsley, pretending they were Manchester United as they also played in red. Just because he couldn’t afford to take me to Old Trafford. I didn’t know the difference I was about 6.

Still I was a Red Devil, a fan of a team based in the county of Lancashire behind age old enemy lines in the rival county of Yorkshire but still I was proud. I just wanted to take this time to emphasise the point and get out in the open I support Manchester United, I have never lived close to Manchester but that doesn’t make me less of a fan as someone who lives on the doorstep of a poor mid table outfit. Not mentioning any names.

P.S. We will overcome Manchester City at the end of this season. 21 is a magic number.

I was listening to the Making it with Riki Lindhome podcast today which is a show where she interviews numerous personalities on their ambitions, success and where such creativity and mentality to succeed stemmed from originally. Which got me thinking, what childhood items and experiences sculpted my interest to strive to create consistent beautiful fiction? As an individual born in the era of poor & depressingly cheesy music you’d be forgiven in thinking inspiration was in short supply. I’m not under the assumption anyone cares about my past but I know human nature is to belong or feel like they have a connection in something which multiple people have also shared. I’m hoping my humble beginnings resonate with others and I hope to hear as such.

I’ll start my journey back as a primary school child in the city of Wakefield, England. Yes I’m from Yorkshire, no flat cap and Whippet jokes please. My first jarring experience that left me in awe was the original Star Wars trilogy. Although too young to have seen them when they were first released, I watched them on VHS more times than I could comfortably count. This I believe was one of the main factors which aimed me towards my huge love affair with science fiction. Not a special connection I admit I share respect for Star Wars with probably a billion other people but important none the less. In primary school IT, when Yahoo Geocities website builder was still up, we were tasked with creating our own unique site to be graded on. I delved head first into this and realised I relished creating something personal and visual, a path which would lead me across numerous domains and now to the doorstep of Tumblr. I started writing in the early 2000’s after being inspired by numerous Sci-Fi sources all my early pieces at this early stage however were highly plagiarising but as I matured this experience aided my vocabulary and the evolution of my writing style.

Video Games were probably my main influence. The first console I ever laid my hands on was the Nintendo SNES, the catalyst for my recent purchase of a Nintendo 3DS. Games like Starwing & Super Mario World really opened up my interest in game design and I spent many an hour hunting down Andross and Bowser even burning out a TV with over use (True story, smoke and everything. I was about 9). After the SNES we moved onto a Playstation influencing me mainly with games like Final Fantasy VII, VIII & the Metal Gear Solid series. These story telling examples of Japanese origin really helped me think outside the box and allowed me to grasp the concept of non-linear high energy cross character story arcs. Next was a Nintendo Gamecube which introduced me to one of my personal favourite first person shooters Metroid Prime, a first experience with a faceless and silent protagonist, even Mario made the odd stereotypically Italian noise, an experience I thoroughly enjoyed.

That brings us to the near present where I converted over to the Microsoft Xbox consoles and experienced the marvel of Halo and Mass Effect, two other main factors that concreted my passion for Sci-Fi with their broad and rich universes filled with colourful characters and believable worlds. My final main influences I’d love to acknowledge here while I get the chance are Rooster Teeth and Nerdist. Rooster Teeth started creating Machinima videos inside the Halo game engines. Clever and witty writing gripped me in my youth and carried me to present day. They evolved into a well known internet presence and I still indulge in their content on a regular basis. Finally Nerdist, real name Chris Hardwick, now a well known TV and internet personality was once a dejected nerd who had lost direction in life. He himself admitted he needed to do something, to become something and eventually created the Nerdist brand. They release podcasts, live stand up sessions and all other types of media involving dozens from other contributors. He recently released a book extending a helping hand and applying his life experience to getting people stuck in the same place to achieve their goals. Both these brands, Rooster Teeth & Nerdist, taught me that humble beginnings can lead to big things. Preparing for greatness is not necessary if your ambition and creativity cause greatness to find you.