In two hours I will receive the last phone call from my beta readers with feedback on Project 2. I will then proceed to edit the text once more before sending it to my tutor (when he becomes available. He’s in the USA at the moment).
I also resumed Project 1! This is very exciting news (for myself at least) since it is the first real novel I worked on and it means a lot to me. There’s so much anxiety embedded in the text that I am simply amazed at how my 15 year old self could deal with it all. Even though the language is flawed, at times, I am surprised by the text’s (and the protagonist’s) honesty. I can so accurately recall the feelings which made me write the text in the first place now when I’m re-reading it. Still – I can see how many who were beta readers for both projects feel that Project 2 is stronger both in terms of content and presentation (I guess that’s why I’m reworking Project 1 from the ground).
For you guys this means that I’m back in front of the cam nearly every day!
Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with this robot (click the link to watch the clip).
It was built with the notion that true artificial intelligence cannot be created if the AI does not have a physical body to work with. The result is an anthropogenic robot with a human inspired skeleton. I remember seeing this about a year ago. Since then – the project has been revised and thus BBC went to see how the robot’s faring.
Still, if they are trying to get machines think for themselves I would give him two eyes instead of one. No wonder machines will turn on us if they are unable to see Titanic in 3D.
– F H Hakansson
F. H. Hakansson 
Glad to read you again, it’s been a while!! I’ll be waiting at the bookshop the morning your novel’s published and released 😛 (if they will sell it in Australia). Keep it up, it must be hard work to go back to the very beginning and edit sentence by sentence … 🙂
And I’ll be waiting with my pen 🙂 And if they don’t sell it in Australia I’ll ship a copy to you! So don’t worry 😀
Yes it is very hard, but I enjoy it! Can’t see myself doing anything else (you know, besides relaxing and not working, haha)
Good luck on your feedback call. That must be exciting. I love to re-read things that I have written from a long time ago. Sometimes I’m appalled at what I wrote, sometimes pleasantly surprised.
I’m also pleased to hear that you are willing to revise project 1. I think that takes a lot of guts and will-power. Too often writers give up at that point, or are in such thick denial they refuse to make the necessary changes. Kudos to you to give it another go.
Thank you. It is always exciting to get feedback. I think you know how that feels 🙂
Same here, I’m definitely having mixed feelings about my old work, but I’m hoping (or rather praying) that I can turn it into something good.
I’ll never give up. I felt that there were strong motions I had to convey when I wrote it. Even if I don’t feel the same way now there might be others, potential readers, who would love such a work and be inspired by it… and I think my 15 year old self would be quite upset with me if I failed to finish what he started 🙂
Hoping all goes well.
Thanks! 🙂
Machines thinking, I just cannot grasp. It takes electrical inspired intelligence to think, surely – and electricity may indeed be shot int he arm of a machine, but I do not believe the intelligence will be there. This was a very interesting read! 🙂
http://www.VodkaWasMyMuse.wordpress.com (video diary getting off alcohol)/www.WordsFallFromMyEyes.wordpress.com(a novel in draft)
Thank you for your comment! No, the intelligence will take a long time to get into the machine. We need, at least, working quantum computers that are properly programmed before we can even attempt to recreate human intelligence (I’d day 20-30years from now).