There won’t be any updates for the next two weeks because I’m going on holiday and plan to spend the time doing things like relaxing with a stack of books, eating large meals and visiting the sights of Europe instead of writing about obscure animated series, game theory and the like. It will be a little like the Grand Tour only less so.

So don’t be concerned if everything goes silent; the blog isn’t closed.

When I get back I’ll be beginning the what I expect to be lengthy process of finding a publisher for my novel, Absolute Liberation; I’ve been working on it now for what feels like a very long time, and it’s just finished a second round of proof-reading and is entering a second round of editing. Once that’s done off to the publishers it goes! It’s an attempt to write military sci-fi that takes a more practical look at the effects of future technology and questions of nationality in an empire spanning planets – going a little beyond the spectacle and wow-factor that I feel sometimes defines the genre.

Since finishing it, I haven’t been idle; I’ve written Five Hearts… as posted here and begun posting weekly flash fiction pieces, but my main project has ended up once again being long-form writing. It’s a project currently called Garden of Eden, which is looking like it will end up as a teen novel about growing up independently, learning to be a good parent and dealing with grief, all set in an science fiction utopia.

This week, I was given the chance to submit articles for http://www.dpadmagazine.com on an unpaid, freelance basis; they’ve published (with full credit) my recent article about Journey. Anyone interested in video games would do well to check their site out; as an independent magazine reliant on freelance writing, they’ve got a good base of contributors and a good spread of articles.

This is Ideas Without End, a blog where I will be posting things falling somewhere between rants and actual essays about things I think are interesting enough to tell other people about.

I’ll be talking mostly about popular culture; films, computer games, animation and books. It’s not going to be all serious weighty stuff, but at the same time I do want this to be at least slightly informative.

So, who am I? I suppose that’s a fair question. I’m someone who lives to read, writes when able, and tries to try as many things as possible; I’m not the sort of person who often writes something off completely untested and I tend to live by the idea that there’s something to be found in everything; it’s what you personally get from it that counts.

That’s the philosophical side of it, for what it’s worth. It’s probably more fair to say I’m just another person who’s read a few books, got some pieces of paper to show it and thinks this means people will be interested in his opinions. I’m in the process of writing a novel, which I’ll be mentioning again in the future, but generally I’m more likely to just have a list of ideas as long as my arm and be paralysed with indecision about which one to pursue.

So if you’re willing to give me a bit of your time then read on.