Antonia T Tiger

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• Commented on Crib sheet: Singularity Sky
  The War of 1812 was the interesting one, in naval terms. Both the American super-frigates and the British ships they defeated carried a mix of guns and carronades. Losing all three masts seems to have been an almost routine ended...
• Commented on The last refuge of scoundrels
  I have my copy. Now, Private Eye or Modesty Blaise? Ian Hislop is no Willie Garvin, that's for sure....
• Commented on The last refuge of scoundrels
  You guys are saying some interesting stuff about military command. But an "intricately-timed six-phase deliberate attack" sounds a bit too much like the first day at Arnhem. Or is A Bridge Too Far another piece of literary bollocks masquerading as...
• Commented on The last refuge of scoundrels
  I vaguely recall a good many copiously-illustrated books that were sold to us civilians in those days, full of details of how the forces of the Soviet Union were equipped. I remember I was once at a wargames show in...
• Commented on The last refuge of scoundrels
  I think I read the first of that third one on your list: The Zone. That seemed slightly nearer SF. I remember a hovertank of some sort, and a swathe of destruction across Europe, saturated with chemical weapons, that stalled...
• Commented on The last refuge of scoundrels
  Bluestone 42 doesn't come across to me as funny. Not bad not-funny, it mostly just doesn't work for me as humour. But I can recognise some of the style of humour. M*A*S*H has been brought up a few times as...
• Commented on The last refuge of scoundrels
  I was thinking of things such as General Sir John Hackett's two Third World War books, the first one in 1978. And that maybe led to The Hunt for Red October and that whole tech-thriller genre. Is very-near-future SF or...
• Commented on The last refuge of scoundrels
  Around forty years since WW2, and the Cold War was still pretty chilly. I don't know that I was as conscious of the prospect of being thermonuclear tempura as some of the other regulars here seem to be, but the...
• Commented on The last refuge of scoundrels
  I am trying to ignore the hype and the looming funeral. Margaret Thatcher will have a place in history as the first woman to be the Prime Minister of Britain. The rest of what is happening is rather shabby party...
• Commented on The permanent revolution
  When I was roaming Grimsby, trying to pass driving tests, Freshney Place was about half the size it is now. Back then it was the Riverhead Centre, and very roughly just the section nearest Victoria Street. The road ran through...
• Commented on What are words worth?
  "bairn" and "gate" are known in Northern England, though "gate" is one of those oddities found in streetnames, such as Clasketgate in Lincoln. That's still the Norse influence....
• Commented on Why I Do Self-Publish
  I have some doubt about the quality of my writing, though I think it's far from the worst you might find on Amazon. What I feel is the big barrier is that publishing in the USA, when you're not a...
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  You can get waterproof cases for e-readers, essentially plastic bags with a guarantee. So the bath/beach problems are surmountable....
• Commented on The permanent revolution
  As I said, I had driving lessons in the town, a long time ago. The A180 didn't exist back then. Nor the A16 Peaks Parkway: that was still obviously an old railway, with assorted level crossings and underpasses. The A16...
• Commented on The permanent revolution
  So what was the Ice House on Victor Street? It's a "Christian Centre" now, and looks rather post-war industrial in style. a concrete frame with brick infill. Were there two ice factories? There seems to be a certain confusion: the...
• Commented on Mitochondrial Singularity
  I shall have to remember that for my writing. It's a "furry" setting, anthropomorphic animals, and can I just imagine Charlie's expression when he has the chance to biff the ungodly. He's smiling! Run away! Of course, things are more...
• Commented on Why I don't self-publish
  Some of those stunts are well-documented, and when they got publicity and informed criticism, the publisher concerned backed down rather hastily. Writers Beware reports the climb-down Writer's Beware is a website that reports on the lurking dangers of getting published,...
• Commented on Why I don't self-publish
  Looking at Kindle ebooks of the obviously self-published sort, I'm pretty sure I am better than that. I am also pretty sure that I am not a consistently good writer. So maybe I have fewer illusions than most self-published authors....
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  This could partially explain how Rhianna Pratchett is making a good career about writing stories for games. She's in her late thirties, young enough to be adventurous and old enough to be a good writer. Plus a bit of inherited...
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  But people like Charlie have taken a hard look at the risks and say "no thanks". Publishers can have a hundred books in the process. Trying something novel with one of them isn't a huge risk. People such as Charlie...
• Commented on "We're going to need book covers. Lots of book covers!"
  I shall take note of that. I already have a clean-jawed young seaman on the run from the Secret Police, though the dangerous blonde is a redhead, and an intrepid aviator. Sharks. Nobody has invented lasers yet....
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  This sounds as if it may be jurisdiction-dependent. How much it is really possible, in terms of parts availability, I'll dodge. Might be easier for an out-of-production model: Shelby Cobra "inspired" kit-cars used to be a commonplace. I have a...
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  Publishers seem to be trying new tricks with ebooks, and they're rather ugly tricks from the PoV of an author. Oh, some of them have backed off from some of the tricks. From that same PoV, I don't think much...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  First Ypres--it really was a bunch of cooks and clerks who stopped the attempted German breakthrough. One of my characters is liable to make snarky comments about that. And also that, despite the German Army having all the advantages of...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  I would be embarrassed to write like people such as Kratman and Frankowski. Sure, I paint the Nazis as black as they paint Liberals, but I have read the history. I used to know old people who were there, eye-witnesses...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  Greg, I am pretty sure some of those message numbers have changed since you posted them....
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  David Cameron is half-reminding me of a cute bunny-rabbit staring at the oncoming headlights. He isn't cute....
• Commented on Wow
  As far as I can see, there are two different things that have to happen: 1: Assembly A series of processes which produce a large and dense volume of fissionable material, deep below the Martian surface, without actually going bang....
• Commented on Roko's Basilisk wants YOU
  Let me see if I'm getting this right. There is a class of God-like Entities, which we might possibly build, which feels itself so important that anyone responsible for delaying its construction is consigned to eternal hell. But the only...
• Commented on If this had happened 30 years ago today, we would all have died
  I am not sure just how the Russian meteor would have looked to a device set to look for a nuclear weapon detonation It may have been too high for there to be a difference. Initiate a nuke, as those...