Writing a Book

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I'm writing a book. Well, more a series of essays that I will publish as a book. It's something I've always wanted to do, and indeed have attempted a few times. When I was younger I used to write short stories a lot, and the occasional fictional adventure of 20-30 pages. I look back at them now and cringe, not because they weren't any good - they were pretty good for age 15 - but because I haven't done anything like it since.

The last time I tried to write a book I was 18. It was called 'The Loneliest Number' - a psychological thriller about a group of people who flew to a tropical island under the impression that they had won a holiday prize but really were to be tortured and experimented on by a wealthy, deeply disturbed psychopath. Forced to betray and manipulate each other through a series of controlled experiments, they would be slowly exterminated one by one as their captor sought the most cunning among them so he could pit himself against them one-on-one in a final battle of wits, with a shocking finale.

I got a reasonable way into it and then perhaps in some sort of hundredth monkey moment, a show called Survivor came out and started the reality TV craze, which dampened my enthusiasm for the project considerably. Life had also taken some other turns and my interest in writing all but vanished for a long time. Much later another show called Lost started. I look back at my notes for The Loneliest Number now and am surprised how similar some of the central themes are to Lost. The producers of that project do a much better job than I ever could of course, and perhaps it is little wonder that Lost is my favourite show.

Perhaps if I get enough interest I will post what I wrote of The Loneliest Number. It was done in 1999-2000 and gives some interesting insight into where my mind was running at that time.

Since my company folded about a year ago I have found myself rediscovering many of my old favourite pursuits. This blog was born out of a desire to start writing again and I'm pleased to find I've been able to keep it up for these last six months to the point where it has now become a habitual part of my day. When I started the blog I didn't care if anybody read it or not, it was mostly for my own enjoyment. Nevertheless I've been surprised and touched to find that people do read it and find some value in it.

I'm taking the same approach with the book I am writing. It's a book I have wanted to read and recommend to people, but I haven't found it anywhere yet so I have decided to write it myself. It's about surviving in a world of computers and what it means to be technologically literate, written from the point of view of someone who sees the computer revolution as something as wild with possibility and excitement as the moon landing or the birth of a new republic; written for people who for one reason or another have been living under a stone and are in danger of sinking like one in this new age.

I have been thinking about it for a while now. It was even a project I was kicking around when the company was still up and running. Happily my ideas have been coming together more solidly of late and I'm now confident I can write the book I want to read. I'm announcing it here mostly as a way of committing myself to actually doing it.

You'll hear more about it as I work on it, I'll probably even post each chapter as I write it. Feedback and suggestions are welcome as always. I'd like to have it finished by the end of the year. I'm still thinking about how it will all fit together, but I'm using 'Living in the Cloud' as a working title. Let me know what you think!