My search for the lost Siren Island had ended, and I planned to end my life there. But when I landed, suffering from cancer with not many hours left to live, I found that there were other things at stake besides my inevitable death.
Find out more in Sisland. Story #34 in the Science Fiction Weekly series. Available in digital format from Amazon.
Some rambling from Neil A. Hogan
This simple short story, with the predominant theme of cancer, is dedicated to a few people. My birth mother, who I finally met in 2004, died from cancer in palliative care at the age of 49. (She adopted me out before I was born. The 70s wasn’t the place for a single teenage mother.) I only saw her awake once, though I spoke with her a couple of times on the phone before she died, and I was able to be there briefly during her final hours. It was difficult to meet her before then as I lived in another city and couldn’t get away from my work and other responsibilities without months of planning and saving. I thought she would live longer than she did as she seemed strong when I met her. I thought she would be fine. I had originally planned to visit again three months after that time.
This story is also dedicated to a friend who had helped me set up a business in the 00s, and worked with me on it for a few years, who died in 2019 from cancer at the age of 33. I hadn’t contacted him for over a year and only learned he had died a couple of days before the funeral, which I couldn’t attend as I had moved to another city and couldn’t get away from my work and other responsibilities without months of planning and saving. I had thought he would win his fight as his Instagram and Facebook pages were full of happy selfies. I thought he would be fine. Unfortunately the cancer reached his brain and he died just four weeks after his last post. I had originally planned to visit again three months after that time and reconnect then.
My dad has prostate cancer. I haven’t visited him in a few years as I have moved to another city and it’s difficult to get away from my work and other responsibilities without months of planning and saving, but we’ve had a few Skype calls and he’s looking good for his age. I’m sure he’ll be fine. Hoping to be able to visit him within the next few months.
Getting Old
I am learning of the sad reality that approaching fifty years old means more and more of my family and friends are dying for one reason or another. Having met thousands of people over the years, it’s now simply impossible to attend every funeral. I’ve already had to miss five relatives’ funerals just in the past five years. When my mother died in 2016 from a heart attack, one of her closest friends who she’d known for over fifty years wasn’t able to attend her funeral due to distance and cost and her own health. It helped me to understand that the funeral is not that important. It’s being with that person while they’re still alive that is.
Science has proven we are genetically predisposed to live for 38 years (CSIRO) and anything past that is a bonus. No wonder a lot of people have a mid life crisis at that time. They’ve suddenly found that they’ve been given an extra life. Like being given a new set of regenerations. So, if we’re all predisposed to live until 38, then that explains why there is an uptick of funerals after that time. It might also explain the increase in life insurance premiums.
Plan Forever
Speaking of which. Check out another site I’ve been working on. Life Insurance Articles. I’ve owned the domain www.PlanForever.com for over 10 years and I had developed a software program for it that can enable you to look up the day of the week for any period in the past 2020 years and future 7979 years (up to the year 9999)! I’m not a programmer. I designed it and worked with a programmer to put it together. Great for time travel writers who like to be a bit more accurate. (NB: Due to a change in the Gregorian calendar in the 1700s, the software program isn’t entirely accurate for dates before then.) Unfortunately the underlying PHP program that it is based on is no longer current and so I have to shut the software down on the 16th January. If you wish to check out the century planner, or just to find out what day your 100th birthday will be on, you can visit the site and click on ‘Plan System’
To make the site pay for itself, I’ve converted it into a Life Insurance Articles repository, and am collecting reproducible articles for it from around the world. I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to writing one myself. We’ll see.
Delays
My friend dying late last year knocked me for six. I just could not write anymore after that. I took a few weeks off from writing, for reflection. #34 is the last story in the science fiction weekly series for now. I do have another one that I had started a few months ago but I’m not in any mood to finish it just yet. I’ve also delayed Stellar Flash Book 4, Fantasy Short Stories Book 4 and Alien Dimensions #19 for another month. I’d prefer to write with a better frame of mind. I’ll post again when I get back to things. Apologies to anyone who is waiting on a reply from me. I’ll start replying to emails next week.
Constable Jennifer McLean has been sent on a routine mission to investigate an honest gun seller in her precinct in Mars City. But when she gets there she soon discovers that he might be dealing in technology not allowed on Mars.
Where is he getting the spacer stuff from? What has happened to the missing 47 residents? And will Jen be able to arrest her suspect before he escapes?
Find out more in Phase Shift. #33 in the Science Fiction Weekly Short Reads Series.
When an ethereal voice begins calling Karol from her bed, she has to investigate. She quickly finds herself in a hidden underground cavern being shown images of the past by a ghost.
What is really going on? Why does the apparition need her to see this? And what is she going to do when she finds out the real truth?
Find out more in Layers. #31 in the Science Fiction Weekly Short Reads Series.
On the 28th November 2015, the BBC
broadcast an episode of Doctor Who called Heaven Sent, starring
Peter Capaldi. It was a very different kind of Doctor Who story in that it
was almost completely carried by Capaldi, apart from a wraith-like creature
that silently chased him the entire episode. Not only was it a mystery, a horror,
a convoluted time conundrum tied up in a shifting puzzle box maze, it was well
shot, well executed with amazing detail that kept you not only guessing while watching
it, but rewatching it in your head long after the episode had finished.
So taken with this story, I not only watched it about twenty times, (on ABC iView, among other places), but I also wrote a short story as a homage to it about the underlying cycles across time that we sometimes end up in. I released this in issue two of Alien Dimensions in November 2016. I don’t know whether it was this story, or simply a coincidence of timing, but that issue shot to the bestseller list on Amazon for two weeks.
But I didn’t want to stop there.
Once the creative bug had been born, I wanted to do other things in relation to Heaven Sent, so I then downloaded and rewrote Stephen Moffat’s script and put together a short video starring myself, emulating as much as I could. I also hired Genelyn Javier, who did many of the illustrations for my Alien Characters series, to create an animated theme tune and a wraith-like image for my character to run away from. It’s called Tutor Who Heaven Cent, and you can watch it online here:
For the full effect, you should watch Doctor
Who: Heaven Sent first before watching my embarrassing fan video.
When watching Tutor Who Heaven Cent, please use headphones and have your hand on the sound control. As it took me two years to make, each time I added a scene in Movie Maker I had trouble getting the previous sound levels to match, so apologies in advance.
In 2019, I reviewed the written Tutor Who Heaven Cent story and realized that an almost completely new story was needed. One based on the video. The new version is now available from Amazon, and closely follows my script, the final video being a cut down version.
And, if you’re a Doctor Who fan, then I challenge you to find over 37 Easter eggs that I wove into the video, and over 50 that I included in the new written version.
Several scientists are mysteriously called to a meeting to discuss the idea of mining the moon. But they soon discover that this is not a simple market research event.
With the CEO’s revelation too shocking to ignore, can the team of scientists put aside their differences and find a solution?
Find out more in Moon Mine. #28 in the Science Fiction Weekly Short Reads Series. A short story of about 6700 words.
Science Fiction Weekly is back. The first five or so stories you’ll have read in Alien Dimensions or Fantasy Short Stories, or even in Hoganthology. This will be the first time they’re released individually. I’ll be making each one free for 5 days starting with #27.
Drago and the rest of the scientific expedition are on a mission to investigate an underwater temple in the Bahamas. But a sudden storm appears throwing their little boat off course.
They soon figure out that the question they should be asking isn’t ‘where’ they are, but ‘when.’
Now available for Kindle, and in Kindle Unlimited – Download here: The Secret of Bimini
Well, it’s been a busy few months. Quite a lot of writing and reading is involved in the creative writing degree I began this year, and that means not much time to work on anything else.
Having said that, I will get a break from the course between November and February, so I’ve set that time aside to begin work on Alien Dimensions #19 and The Robots of Atlantis.
Though, one of the things that I really want to do with Alien Dimensions is make sure that writers who contribute get something back. This is currently US$10 for a story for the rights for 2 years. It may not seem like much, but on a writer’s income, it’s no longer possible for me to pay that in advance and hope that I get it back through sales of the book.
So, instead, I’m trying something new. I’d like to raise some funds for the next issue of Alien Dimensions, so I’ve put many of my science fiction and fantasy stories into one volume called Hoganthology (the title is a homage to Piers Anthony’s ‘Anthonology’) There are over 47 pieces in Hoganthology. If printed, it would run to about 800 pages in a 5″x8″ book, but it is currently listed on Amazon as having about 600 in ebook form (depending on your device.)
In Hoganthology you’ll find the following:
Section 1 – Short Stories
A Little Matter The Opposition Gravity Locked Still in Beta Ancient Alien Dinosaurs Japanese Martian Robot Souls Oh My God It’s Full of Stars Alien UFO Disclosure Pyramids of the Moon The Hydrofluorons of Krakon 7 Phases of the Moon Base Interrelations Surviving Mars First Interdimensional Contact Time Sheets Mate Robot Solitude ExtraForestrial Work After Death Neko Girl The Galaxy’s Driving Force The Old Boys’ Club Cosmic Joke The Manipulator Strange Lands Layers Life Choices Moon Mine The Secret of Bimini Tutor Who: Heaven Cent
Section 2 – Flash Fiction
Child Safe Evolution Inter-View Pocket Monsters The Language Tutor Controller Gene-Reality Rejuvenation The Exchange The Ugly Side of A.I.
We’ve Been Wordsworthed, We’ve Been Poeed, and We’ve Been Quite Possibly Frosted An Ode to Space Opera
Bonus Section – Excerpts
Alien Frequency – Chapter 3 The Andromeda Effect – Chapter 61 Temporal Incursion – Chapter 5 Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Cretaceous City – Dinory 1 Ida and the Planet Invasion – 2: Arrival Gabriel and the Resurrection of Maldek – 3: 10:00am Tiara and the Comet Apocalypse – Channel One
Bonus Section – The Future
The Robots of Atlantis (Preview) – Wednesday 22nd October 2053 Stellar Flash 2135 A.D. -Plot Synopsis -Notes on Location -Character Biographies -Extract 1 -Extract 2 -Some lines I’m working on
And more!
So, if you can spare some dollars, or you’re on Kindle Unlimited, it would be great if you could check it out. Find out more here: Hoganthology: Digital
The hope is that sales and page views can raise about US$200 to get started on Alien Dimensions #19. If you know of anyone who might be interested in this ebook, feel free to forward the link or this blog post to them.
Many thanks
Update. Working on the printed version now. 824 pages for US$32.95! Coming Soon!
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