The Realm of Katherine Vick

Note:  Work is mad and my health isn't great right now so I haven't the time or the mental capacity to rant online this month. So I'm resorting to pulling a short story out of my challenge archive again.... Live Forever, Die Young The young man stared up at the towering figure in his crisp business suit, so like all the others who had come before him, waving contracts, begging, wheedling, for him to sign his awesome and vastly in demand new sound to their label. The pleas and the promises, the guarantees of global glory and riches beyond compare were getting almost embarrassing. But this one – there was something different about him. Perhaps it was his ruddy complexion, so deep as to make his skin seem almost crimson. Perhaps it was the neat, black little goatee beard that he stroked so lovingly. Perhaps it was the strange fit of his neat Italian shoes or the odd way his dark wig seemed to balance on his forehead, as though something beneath was getting in the way. Bu

Note:  I wrote this when I was angry and upset because it seemed like the entire world was turning into an awful place and while things have improved a little since and I've seen a glimmer of hope again, I still feel what I wrote below applies. And I still feel that social media is bad for the human race and the internet was a nicer place without it.... The Horror of Online Road Rage - Are We Star Trek or Bladerunner? I’m sorry if this sounds like I’m repeating myself as I’ve said the same thing in various ways and various forms in my blogs over the last year or so. But I am feeling so helpless and despairing of the world right now, that I all I can do is vent that feeling and hope my tiny cry in the dark void that is the internet will shine a very small light against the bleak darkness. Because the internet, social media in particular, has turned into one big morass of Road Rage. People are venting their spleens and developing a hatred of other people that bears as much resemb

  The Unachievable Heights of The Chosen One Ah, The Chosen One. That staple of the fantasy world. Destiny’s Child, born under an auspicious star, with a unique birthmark foretelling their glorious fate, generally blessed with a stunning or striking appearance, an unusual eye colour and unexpectedly modest origins for their impressively regal heritage, watched over at a distance by a guardian just waiting for the right moment to reveal their secret power and fated purpose in saving their realms from a lurking evil. Step forward all you fantastical Eriks out there, for you are legion. But as anyone who has read my novels may have guessed, I have a few issues with the trope of The Chosen One. Because as the father of modern fantasy, JRR Tolkien himself dictated, fantasy is escapist but also aspirational. And although his work does have a Chosen One – Aragorn, I’m looking at you – who does his bit extremely well, he isn’t the one who saves the day. That role falls to a couple of very

EDIT: I wrote this last year and finally scheduled it to post several months ago - the fact there has since been a UK general election called for this week is entirely coincidental! The Cult of Charisma I’m not big on big personalities. Now don’t get me wrong, if they are decent people, good luck to them. The problem I have is the way in which society latches onto a big, charismatic personality to the detriment of all else, decency included. Because in this media driven world, it does seem to me as though being big and loud and passionate and exciting, someone who can make a splash on the front pages and some juicy, news-content selling headlines seems to outweigh whatever they actually happen to do. A big personality can get away with murder in the way a quieter soul cannot. And this is something that seems to permeate society. Take relationships and the great dramatic (not sure I want to call it romantic) trope I call the thrill . It happens over and over again in TV drama, soa

 It's another serious one - I'm afraid I am quite cross with the state of the world at the moment. Sorry folks... As I recently quoted in my blog on AI, a character of the late, great Terry Pratchett once said - “Evil begins when you treat people as things.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Indeed, I’ve thought about it a lot over many years, as anyone who has read my book may have noticed, given treating people as commodities who exist only to serve a purpose for others is one of its major themes. But as I said in my blog on AI, when I stated I feared it would be used to enhance man’s inhumanity to man, in this modern age, the idea of a person as a living, breathing entity with feelings and an existence that is worthy of consideration and respect in its own right seems to be getting lost somewhere. And rather terrifyingly, it seems to be fairly universal. The obvious example is those in positions of authority and power. More and more, one can’t help but feel tha

  The Dangers of Insecurity and Ego I’m afraid I’m angry with the world again. But to be fair, there’s a lot to be angry about at the moment… I’ve always suspected that at the heart of the majority of human beings is an innate insecurity, an uncertainty about one’s place in the world, one’s position in the tribe, what kind of person one is going to be, that nags at us all deep down. This can manifest in many ways, in the need to find a societal box to fit into, in the need to de and re-box, in anger, in self loathing or self embrace, in reassurance or kindness, in malice and hatred, and, in some, in the need to heavily bolster one’s ego and feel powerful in order to make that frantic, insecure voice go away. And this is the territory of the school bully. That thing the parents of a bullied child will say – it’s not you, darling, the problem is theirs – you know what? It’s true. It’s hard to believe and accept sometimes, especially from the receiving end, but I honestly believe

 Well, here we are, folks – the fourth anniversary of the initial publication of The Disposable! Happy Anniversary to me! :) I honestly can’t stress enough how proud I am to have all four books of my “trilogy” out there in the world for people to read and (hopefully) enjoy. Though those people are currently rather few in number – spread the word! Tell your friends! Write a review! Please? ;p – I appreciate every single person who has taken a chance on reading my daft but serious books and have their own versions of Fodder, Flirt, Shoulders, Dullard and Pleasance lurking in the Realm of their own imagination. I’m so happy to know they now live outside of just mine. :) And despite the fact I’m hardly winning any awards, I would like to do a few thank yous. I would like to thank my lovely family for simply existing, because by doing so they make my world a much better place. I would very much like to thank my best friend, who has lived these stories with me from the day I started plan

  On the Matter of Romance Following on from the month of Sad-Singles-Sod-Off day (otherwise known as Valentine’s Day to the masses, though quite what a Roman bishop ministering to persecuted Christians would make of what’s become of his day is an interesting thought), I thought I might address my own feelings on the matter of romantic entanglement in fiction. As I suspect may be obvious from the previous sentence, I think it’s fair to say I am not, and never will be, one of life’s hopeless romantics. In fact, I verge on not being a romantic at all and it is certainly not my favoured genre. I mean, I have written romance. I wrote a number of couple-based fanfics around my favourite characters in the Harry Potter series, though they were definitely more character pieces than anything, and of course, there’s Dullard and Pleasance. And I did to write a purely passion-based attraction in a previous novel attempt that will probably never see the light of day now, but it was mostly to pr

  On the Matter of Inhumanity I feel the time has come to set out my stall on the ever growing issue of AI and its use in society. And my stall is very simple. I HATE it. Why so dramatic a statement you may ask? Surely it’s just a harmless tool to aid in creativity and productivity? But as someone who lives her life positively vibrating with frustration at the injustices and unkindnesses of modern society, what I see is something that heavily magnifies both. Let me explain. I shall start with injustice. A very basic fact of AI that people seem to forget is that is draws its knowledge from pre-existing information that it has been fed. Everything it creates and produces is taken from previous human endeavour – but often, it has been taken without the permission or even the knowledge of the original creators and is now being used to undercut and undermine their own ability to make a living by creating free knock off copies of their work. And worse, much worse – it is even being