[ Depths is a short / flash fiction piece I recently pitched for an anthology submission. Unfortunately it didn’t reach the shortlist this time, but I did receive some very helpful and constructive feedback.]

Deep at the bottom of the ocean is the only place I find peace. Isolated and protected from the madness of the world above, the weight of the seas envelop me like a soft, heavy blanket — the pressures of hostile society replaced with that of atmospherics. A tranquil melody of creaks and groans from the submersible’s inner walls are a soothing remedy to the vitriolic…

Welcome to Earth Major, 2307. Firmware 3.1.53.

It has been 2 months and 12 days since the last consumer uprising. Estimated GNP loss of ¥R 42 Billion. Since the Great Capitalist Rebellion of 2205–2209, Corporations are officially recognised as the governing elite, as Commercial Autocracy washed away the obsolete ways of State and Party rule. With the fall of the old establishment, Conglomerates now map the globe. National pride and brand identity has become one and the same.

In the west, 2 tech giants continue to battle for majority market share. The razor edged monoliths of glistening steel and glass that pierce the clouds of Microsoft loom…

My Friends Suggested I Write About It.

For the past couple of months, I have been suffering from Writer’s Drought. “Block” is simply too good a word, suggesting a stream of creative discourse is merely backed up, desperate to be unclogged by some cognitive Mr Muscle. My mind is a barren wilderness. If you listen close enough you may hear the wisp of the occasional heading or opening sentence as it tumbles from ear to ear.

Perhaps it’s the stress of the new “working from home” lifestyle, with looming deadlines, late-night to early morning crunches, and an overbearing pressure to deliver at a time where every sale…

For the past few days, I’ve been playing Supermash, developed and published by Digital Continue. Supermash bids itself as a “game that makes games”. You run a video games store, that’s on the verge of closing, when you discover an old retro console that lets you combine (or mash) two different genres of game together to generate a unique old-school title that borrows elements from your chosen genres.

Every game you generate has its own challenge for you to complete. Whether the task is achievable however, is a whole other story. In fact, Supermash begins with a screen that states:

…

What’s your earliest memory? I have a particularly vivid snapshot from when we moved house when I was four. Sitting down on the delightfully brown carpet of the living room with boxes all around us, and watching Knight Rider with my family on our small colour television.

That was thirty-four years ago. Crikey.

I also have a vague recollection of an incident from when I was about two. For some incomprehensible reason I gleefully emptied all of my clothes from the lower drawers in my bedroom onto the floor. Ah what a rush! Only for my Mother to walk in…

From Annihilation Earth to A Quiet Place, Pacific Rim to Edge of Tomorrow, The film industry’s elaborately fictitious presentations of 2020 have often been pretty grim, typically featuring monsters or alien invasions, being fought with equally elaborate technology such as giant battle mechs and advanced robotic exosuits. Where’s my exosuit? Probably in the garage next to the hoverboard and self-tying shoelaces from 2015…

Lighting designer, aspiring writer and digital doodler. Design, music, and science-fiction are my holy trinity. I’m currently trying my hand at penning a novel called [D]rifter.

Fascinated by the other-worldly, and tantalized by all things tech, a good gadget will engross me as much as a good book. Tolkien’s high fantasy, the choose-your-own of Jackson & Livingstone, and the neo-futures of Bladerunner, Tron, and The Matrix have shaped and melded my love of adventure and escapism. Then again, I’ll just as happily lose myself in the aural soundscapes of Cloudkicker, Pelican, Tool, or Sleep Token.

So why start this podcast…

This is not the dystopia I had in mind.

In the 2011 film “In Time”, time itself is the ultimate commodity. Those who can afford it enjoy the infinite spoils, whilst everyone else scrambles to hold on to what little they have left. Since becoming a father in February of this year, the latter has become all too increasingly real. It’s barely been 3 months, but the word “spare” has seemingly vanished from my mental dictionary, only to be replaced by “sleep deprivation”. Meanwhile, the definition of the word “reality” is steadily being rewritten as the weeks progress. Raising an infant for the first time in any scenario would…