Bonus Enterprise content

 I grabbed a few shots of the illuminated Enterprise model on my phone:

Post Half Marathon update

 After the storms of the last couple of days, Sunday 5th October was about as nice a day for running as one could hope for. It started off a bit chilly and breezy, especially as I made the long walk from Cardiff Bay to the event village near the castle, but once the run was underway I warmed up very quickly indeed, and had a good sweat on within a few kilometres.

At the village I bumped into my friend Lee from the local parkrun community, and he kindly took a photo of me just before the start:

And then we were off! Lee's an Iron Man nutcase so I wisely decided to let him run his own pace while I fell back, got my head down and concentrated on the miles to come. I find that with longer runs, the best way not to be too daunted by it all is to break it down into smaller chunks. The hydration stations were at 5km intervals, which is parkrun distance. Nearer the end of the run, I definitely found that it helped to remind myself that there was just a "parkrun" or a "parkrun and a bit" to go. Earlier on, I tend to focus on music, with the length of an album being a good metric for covering a decent chunk of distance. I must admit that the first half of the run is the more enjoyable for me, since it takes you on a long, sweeping course out of the centre of Cardiff, out toward Penarth and then across the barrage and back back to Mermaid Quay. It's a beautiful, ever-changing series of vistas and the sensation of running along the barrage, with water to either side, is fantastic! The second half of the run, which is more about street running through the terraces of Cardiff, isn't quite as enjoyable, not just because there are long stretches where it all looks the same, but because fatigue is starting to kick in as well. I was all right until around the 18 km mark, but then I started getting back ache and needed to alternate some walking and running for the rest of the event, especially because there is a really nasty hill at around the 20 km mark!

Another friend of mine from parkun, Gareth, took a photo of me as I was near this point in the run:

Rather shockingly I was oblivious to Gareth being there, lost in my bubble of music and exhaustion! Sorry, Gareth! One thing that definitely helped, even as tiredness was building, was the amazing boost from supporters along the way. People were there to cheer on friends and loved ones, but also just to shout out positive encouragement to random runners like myself. From the police, race marshalls, the supporters and participants, it was a wonderful show of what this country can be at its best: diverse, welcoming, inclusive, warm. Another thing that helped me push through the tough bits was to remind myself, in a zen fashion, of my marvellous sponsors, and the great support they have offered to Cancer Research Wales. The last time I checked, CRW had raised well over two hundred and twenty thousand pounds via the Cardiff Half, and it's not too late to add to the tally.

Thank you again, all, for your kind support and motivation!

Al R

A reading from "A Dagger in Vichy"

 A short reading from my new Subterranean Press novella, which you can order here:

https://subterraneanpress.com/search.php?search_query=vichy

Thanks again to those who have helped support my Cancer Research Wales fundraising bid for the Cardiff Half Marathon. With the run just three days away, I'm feeling good and ready for the challenge. There's still time to tip some money in for CRW:

https://cardiffhalf25.enthuse.com/pf/alastair-reynolds

Cheers,

Al

The Eagle Transporter from Space:1999!

 Another slickly-produced video for your perusal, this one looking at the Eagle and the fantastic MPC kit. I was just about to go out and do a 14K training run.

Chris Foss's 1973 illustration for The Early Asimov, which appears to have influenced the design of the Eagle.

Hope this is of interest. Once again, any donations to my Cancer Research Wales half-marathon fundraiser will be greatly appreciated.

https://cardiffhalf25.enthuse.com/pf/alastair-reynolds

Fireflash!

 A little video about the Aoshima 1/350th scale model of Fireflash, the iconic atomic-powered airliner as featured in the opening episode of Thunderbirds.

Thanks for the comments on the last video; more of the same here except I've moved the camera a wee bit closer. It's all very amateur hour but it's just to get a feel for how I like the medium. The colour cast is a bit weird; either I messed with the camera settings by mistake or it's to do with moving the camera a bit closer. At least I'm not orange.

As before, let me know what you think, and as ever, I'm appreciative of any donations for my Cancer Research Wales charity half-marathon.

https://cardiffhalf25.enthuse.com/pf/alastair-reynolds

An experiment with Youtube

 I thought I'd have a dabble with some video content, this time talking about the Starship Enterprise model on my writing desk:

If you've enjoyed the content, let me know, and while I'm here, there's still time to help me with my Cardiff Half Marathon fundraising for Cancer Research Wales:

https://cardiffhalf25.enthuse.com/pf/alastair-reynolds

Cheers, Al

The post-delivery week

 Handing in a book always entails some mixed feelings. There's a general sense of relief that a substantial project is off the desk for the time being, meaning that at least a month or two can be turned over to something else. In fact I haven't been into my office since sending in the Merlin book, although I was mildly tempted to go in and do some tidying up this afternoon (I didn't). There's also a period of mental and physical exhaustion, and subsequent recuperation, which doesn't really hit you until after you've submitted the work; it's as if you're running on reserves until then, delaying the inevitable. I've often found that I can keep a cold at bay until I'm done with the book, but it hits me hard a day or two later. Anyone who has gone through some lengthy, stressful process such as a series of exams or a comparable works deadline will probably know the feeling. I like to keep my running going no matter what the writing pressure, but I must confess that I more or less stopped running entirely about a week before delivery, not just because the weather was poor enough not to be an incentive, but also because you're in that window where every hour is valuable, and you just want to push through. In that week I'd also set myself two intermediate deadlines which I failed to achieve, but only after a fairly exhausting run at each.

Anyway, I couldn't switch off immediately because I had a pre-arranged evening up in Birmingham with the Brum SF group, two days away that felt slightly unreal because I was both very tired, but also suddenly free of the anxiety of getting the book in. I had a wonderful time with the always warm and friendly people in Brum, and returned home very pleased with the whole thing, but also beginning to feel that I was running on empty. I did find time to pop into HMV and stock up on new long-players by, among others, Wolf Alice, Wet Leg, Eels, Divorce and Alan Sparhawk, none of which I've yet listened to.

I caught up on some rest on Sunday, then it was back out into the world for a moderately tiring day dealing with banks and accountants, mostly business that had been delayed while I got the book in. I had appointments up in Gloucester on Tuesday, with an early start and a tiring car journey either way. By Wednesday I was feeling out of sorts and decided that only more rest or a run was going to help, so I did my first bit of real exercise in over a week, with a slow, grinding 10K in utterly foul conditions. I was tired at the end of it but it probably did more good than harm, and convinced me that it can't possibly be as horrible on the day when I do the Cardiff Half. Today I had my usual early morning Thursday guitar lesson, then picked up on a little light admin and correspondence. I've been doing some good reading this week, finishing Robert Mason's CHICKENHAWK and now beavering through JET MAN, by Duncan Campbell-Smith, a recent and very readable (if exhaustive) account of Frank Whittle's struggles to develop the jet engine at the start of WW2. Tomorrow I'm back out again for the day, then on Saturday I'll be trying to deliver a successful parkrun at my local event, and praying to the rain gods.

Amid all this, the one thing I haven't been doing is feeling any great sense of elation or triumph at the delivering of a book. It's never been that way for me. There's a general relief, as I've mentioned above, and with that a necessary period of respite, but the emotions are much less ecstatic than you might think. It's more akin to delivering some massive piece of homework - you're glad it's done, but you're too close to it to have a detached view, and more than anything you just want to think about anything else for a few days.