Tonk...tonk...tonk

I was saddened today to read about the demise of the studio that created the Wipeout series of games. It was my first ever game for the Playstation, and I loved it. I’ve never been a fan of racing games, but there was something about Wipeout that made it very special.

Perhaps it was the way you glided round corners effortlessly, with no need to change gear, or do anything other than make a tiny tap of the airbrake.

 Perhaps it was the weapons, and how you could blow other competitors off the track, or send forward (or backwards) a massive quake to cause carnage among your rivals.

Perhaps it was because I was better at it than all my friends, and took great delight in inviting them round to beat them while they "tonked" off walls.

Was it speed starts, or massive jumps, or loop-the-loops?  

Or was it the soundtrack - a thumping and pulsing electronica, which I would never listen to in everyday life, but curiously fitted with the bright colours of the futuristic game?

It was probably all of those things, and they hooked me into console gaming, and never let me go.

RIP Psygnosis, aka Liverpool Studios.

What's next with the book?

So, having established that the first draft needs a lot of work, I need to decide on my next steps.

On Friday, I have two weeks off work. We’ll be away for a few days of that. We’re going to York, and to the Olympics to watch the trampolining.

I’ve decided I’m going to take those two weeks off from the book, and return to it when I go back to work. I won’t be stopping writing during the holidays, as I’ve got some short stories to write for our Warhammer Fantasy/40k roleplay campaign. However, I think the time away from bookland will allow the dust to settle in my head (caution: contents may settle in transit), and I’ll be able to attack it anew when I get back to it.

While I’m on holiday Josie and I are going to make a big push to finish off her scrapbook. She started it last summer, and we’ve been slowly adding to it throughout the year. I think York and the Olympics will provide excellent material for it. Lori has one too, but we started it later for her, so she isn’t quite as far through.

Given I don’t have much to talk about at the moment to do with book writing, I’m going to devote the next post to talking about the lessons I’ve learned while Josie, Lori and I have been scrapbooking the year. There might even be photos!