Dogfood: Simon Brooke's blog

Story Telling

What I'd really like to be is a story teller. I've written stories all my adult life, and never had the self confidence to submit one for publication. You'll find older stories of mine in my bookshelf section; here you'll find reviews of other people's story telling, thoughts about story telling, and perhaps new stories of mine.


Chrome OS --
Chrome OS is Google's attempt to provide a new operating system for naive users. The buzz about it is that it's browser-centric - that the browser is the OS, and that's all there is. It turns out that that's not true, and it's all rather less radical - and less interesting - than the publicity suggests.
The polemic, as detective story --
Steig Larsson's first novel looks like a detective story. Well, it looks like that because it is one. But, at a deeper level, it isn't...
Not quite a chip off the old block --
In 1936, Pierre-Jules Boulanger asked his engineers to design him a 'toute petite voiture', and they responded in style. They designed a car with flair, with elan, with chic, and with a certain joi de vivre. Can their present- day successors do as well?
The Witcher: Story telling of a high order --
I've been engaged in discussion recently about whether fantasy fiction can ever be literature - needless to say, I argue that it can. Can a video game be literature, or at least art of high quality? Experience the Witcher, and find out
Just Like a Woman --
Most of my stories arise out of single very strong visual images, usually from dreams. This is one of them; it's a short story I've written very quickly over the past week. The themes are as usual sex and violence, and this is borderline erotica; if that offends you, don't read it.
Pornstar: Apologia --
Hi, I'm Simon, and I write porn.
George Lucas meets Anne McTorturedAdolescentCaffrey --
Eragon, Christopher Paolini, Corgi Books 2005
Spectacle and Courage --
The Extended Edition DVD set of Peter Jackson's movie of the Return of the King is just out, and I've spent altogether too much of this week immersed in it. Here's my thoughts.

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