So, yes, I’m doing NaNoWriMo 2009.

For those of you who don’t hang out in the same shadowy corners of the internet as I do, that’s National Novel Writing Month, although it would be more appropriately titled International Novel Writing Month, since people from all over the world take part. The idea is to write a novel in the space of a month: specifically, to write 50,000 words in the month of November. There are no other rules: just that you have to write 50,000 words worth of story between November 1 and November 30th.

I’ve done NaNoWriMo once before, in 2006. I spent every morning before work diligently typing away, and had one crazy weekend where I wrote 20,000 words over the space of two days, and ended up finishing around November 20th. The finished novel, tentatively titled “Reality”, then sat on my computer for years. Every so often I’d open up the Word file and cringe at how awful it was, have a go at editing a chapter or two into something resembling a real novel, and then give up again, but mostly it just sat around being ignored. I kept thinking that I really should do something with it, because it was a really really awesome idea – zombies in the Big Brother house! – and then Charlie Brooker’s Dead Set happened, and I finally acknowledged to myself that I never would work Reality up into a publishable novel and it would be forever consigned to the dusty recesses of my hard drive.

So why am I putting myself through this again?

I’m not sure I’ve really got a good answer for that. Every time NaNoWriMo rolls around, I think about taking part, but usually life gets in the way. This year, I knew I had enough spare time to do it justice, and I had an idea for a novel that’s been hanging around since about 2005, and so on October 29th, I decided to throw my hat in the ring and just do it.

That’s what NaNoWriMo is about, really: just doing it. It’s about the joy of creation. It’s about turning off the little voice in your head that says there’s no point in bothering, that you’ve got nothing to offer the novel-reading world, that there are a million other things you could be doing instead. It’s about turning off your inner editor, who says that that last sentence could have been expressed more concisely, or more evocatively, or just, well, better. There’s no time to go back and fine-tune every word. There’s only the mad panic and pain in your wrists caused by typing typing typing late into the night, and the terrifying knowledge that there are people out there who wrote 10,000 words on November 1st and are now coasting gently to the finish line while you’re still trying to catch up with the words you should have written three days ago.

When you write for a living, it’s easy to forget that writing can be fun. NaNoWriMo, despite the terror of such a short deadline, helps remind me that writing – especially the kind of writing where you’re just pulling random things out of your head and setting them down on paper – actually feels kind of awesome.

Of course, it’s easy for me to say that now, a comfortable 23 days from the end of November and 17,000 words into my story. Remind me of this blog post when I’m pulling my hair out on November 29th with another 15,000 words to go.

www.nanowrimo.org

I spent my Halloween watching Zombina and the Skeletones playing in a haunted cinema. Last night, they had to cancel a gig because the promoter didn’t arrange for a PA system. This month, they’re playing gigs supporting Gallows in Derby and supporting Kid Congo Powers in Nottingham.

Something is seriously wrong with the world.

Zombina and the Skeletones are pretty much the most exciting band on the planet. They’ve been going for ten years, and put out four albums and dozens of EPs during that time. Their line-up has changed over and over again. But one thing has been consistent: they’re amazing.

Zombina and the Skeletones don’t sound like any other band. (If anyone tries to suggest The Horrorpops or The Creepshow, I’ll kick them.) Their music is an intoxicating mixture of punk, pop, doo-wop and rock, with horror and sci-fi themed lyrics. It’s impossible not to dance to it. Zombina’s voice alternates between that of a sweet little girl, a snotty snarling punk, or a full-on screaming rock star. Performing live, she’s mesmerising. And the rest of the band are no slouches, either – their performances are tight, their vocal harmonies perfect, their stage presence overwhelmingly charismatic.

If the world was in any way fair, Zombina and the Skeletones would be superstars. They’d be gracing magazine covers, playing sold out shows to thousands of adoring fans, and going home at night to immense gothic castles to count their piles of money. It breaks my heart that a band this amazing have flown under the radar for as long as they have.

I love this band, and I think – no, I demand! – that you should, too.

www.zombina.com

Freeman and Armstrong as Curry and Sinclair

“I’ve always stuck up for Clive Sinclair,” actor Alexander Armstrong insists. “I’m of the generation that remembers the best of him – but the C5 is his legacy, and that’s unfair.” Armstrong plays Sir Clive, opposite Martin Freeman as Chris Curry of Acorn Computers, in Micro Men, a 90-minute drama about the heady days of the British computer industry in the early 1980s.

Micro Men portrays Sinclair and Curry as opposites: Sinclair is brilliant but unwilling to collaborate, whereas Curry is practical but less focused. “Reading the script, I was rooting for Acorn,” Freeman says.

The real-life characters were consulted, and footage such as the advert for the Sinclair QL, featuring the man himself leaping a giant PC the size of a building, also plays a part. Armstrong spent three hours in make-up every day, and vintage computers were loaned by Haverhill’s Centre for Computing History.

And yes, there’s a C5.

This article appeared in the October 2009 issue of Wired UK.

Photo: Beate Sonnenberg

Even hardcore gamers need personal hygiene breaks occasionally. But that needed mean suspending the gamepad experience, even when you’re soaping in the shower. Chrystal Doucette, a 25-year-old from Moses Lake, Washington, casts these custom-made vegan soap bars from highly detailed silicone moulds of controllers such as the Xbox 360 and the original NES two-button brick.

“When I was little, my dad used to take me to the computer store. It was boring – except they had chocolates shaped like five-inch floppy disks,” says Doucette. “After I decided to make my own more detailed chocolate moulds, I thought they’d be great for soap.”

Her range includes Tetris blocks, Space Invaders and Wiimotes, in scents such as “Pink Sugar”, “Fudge Brownie”, and “Mountain Dew.” Game over, Imperial Leather.

digitalsoaps.etsy.com

This article appeared in the September 2009 edition of Wired UK.

The fifth issue of Wired UK goes on sale this week and, since I’ve not posted anything to this blog since before the second issue came out, I thought it was time I updated things a bit. So, for your reading pleasure, I’ve uploaded a couple of sample pieces from the first couple of issues of Wired, as well as a piece I wrote for the Wired blog, just to get you in the mood for the next issue — available from all good newsagents from August 6th.

One of the first things I do in the morning is log into my Twitter account. So, this morning, pre-coffee, I was momentarily confused by the new front page for the site. Gone is the explanation of what Twitter is for (“a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”) and, in its place is a simple search box.

The focus has changed: from encouraging you to tweet, the front page now entices you to see what other people are tweeting about. Also, the idea that it’d be used for communication between people who already know one another has been forgotten: instead, Twitter is positioning itself as a kind of news service, where you can find out what the rest of the world is talking about.

It’s a change for the better, I think. Too many people are put off Twitter because they can’t see who’d be interested in what they’re doing (the whole no-one-cares-what-you-had-for-lunch argument); pointing out, instead, what Twitter can provide for them is a good idea.

My only tiny grumble is that the sign-in box has disappeared, and you now need to click to open it in a drop-down box. I predict there’ll be a few more mornings where I’ll start typing my log-in information into the search box before I get used to the new layout.

This article appeared on the Wired.co.uk magazine blog.

Virgin Galactic is preparing to take paying customers into space – a $150,000 deposit will guarantee you a seat on one of the first year’s flights. In honour of JJ Abrams’ forthcoming Star Trek reboot, we asked Dave MacKay, one of Virgin Galactic’s test pilots, to assess how James T. Kirk compares to his real life counterpart.

Experience

MacKay is an intimidatingly well-qualified pilot. “I did 16 years in the RAF, mostly flying Harrier Jump Jets,” he says. “Then, 13 years ago, I joined Virgin Galactic.” Kirk worked his way up through the ranks, training at the Starfleet Academy and serving as an ensign and lieutenant on other ships before taking his first command post. At 34, he was the youngest captain in Starfleet.

Ingenuity

“You want somebody who can be flexible in a scenario that’s not in the rulebook,” says MacKay. Kirk passes with flying colours, as the only person ever to beat the Kobayashi Maru simulation – albeit by cheating.

Serenity

“You want to be calm under pressure,” says MacKay. Hmmm. One word might disqualify Kirk here: “Khaaaaaaan!”

Final Analysis

Overall, MacKay’s assessment is positive. “Captain Kirk was brave and he was also decisive. He tends to put himself at risk a lot: he was always the first to get out there to fight the aliens and I’m not sure that’s exactly the correct thing to do as captain of the ship. But I think that he’s the sort of guy who would command a great deal of respect among his crew.”

This article appeared in the May 2009 edition of Wired UK.

The Olympic gold-medal-winning cyclist reveals her workout playlist

i / To warm up
Breathe – The Prodigy, 5:34 mins

“The Prodigy’s Fat of the Land has always been a fail-safe for me. It’s aggressive, and it’s got a good beat to it if you’re on the rollers or warming up.”

ii / While training
No Way Back – Foo Fighters, 3:16 mins

“I listen to a lot of Foo Fighters. The heavier of the two CDs of In Your Honour is full of great tunes. I love Dave Grohl. He’s a very impressive, talented man.”

iii / Preparing for an event
99 Problems – Jay-Z, 3:54 mins

“I interpret the lyrics – ‘99 problems but a bitch ain’t one’ – in my own way. I think that when looking at some of my competitors.”

iv / To gain focus
Angel – Massive Attack, 6:20 mins

“My event is really tactical. This has a heartbeat rhythm to it, which keeps the tempo lower. After the race, I listen to nothing; I feel more tearful than anything.”

v / To relax at home
Disarm – The Smashing Pumpkins, 3:17 mins

“When I have a bath I always listen to the Smashing Pumpkins. I know it’s a bit retro, but I’ve got a whole new-found love for them now.”

This article appeared in the July 2009 edition of Wired UK.

As Law & Order wins over UK fans, Battlestar’s Jamie Bamber ollies as our first video-games reviewer…

Jamie Bamber has come home. After five years playing Lee “Apollo” Adam in Battlestar Galactica, he’s back in London, playing DS Matt Devlin in ITV’s Law & Order: UK. “I was coming to the end of my run on Battlestar when my agent sent it to me,” he says. “I thought it’d be interesting to bring an American show to the UK. It has never happened before, in that direction. They take our ideas all the time, but we’ve never done the reverse.”

The first season’s storylines have been taken from US episodes, although they’ve been rewritten to make them work over here. “It’s very recognisably Law & Order, but it’s got a different vibe,” says Bamber. “The way we police is slightly different. As we’ve gone on, the adaptation has moved further and further away from the point of origin, so I don’t think you’d really recognise the original American episode.”

Being in the UK meant that Bamber had to watch the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica as they aired on Sky One, along with the rest of us. “I found it very hard to watch. It really hit home that it was going to be part of television history.” As far as he’s concerned, the show is over. “I believe it’s the end. The sets are down, although I think they digitised them so they could be recreated. If they came up with a movie, I’d kill to do it, as long as Ron [D. Moore] was involved and it had the same cast. The worst thing would be for them to do that and recast it. It’d be really galling to suddenly find Owen Wilson playing my role.”

And if there was another Battlestar Galactica reboot, 20 years from now? “Maybe I’d get a walk-on role as Doc Cottle. I think Cottle would be a good one to have a go at – though I’d have to smoke a few cigarettes between now and then.”

So what did Jamie think of Skate 2?

“I’ve never skated, so this was a good way to start doing tricks I could never do without breaking my arm. At first I was worried because I know these games are complicated and take time to master, but within ten minutes I was doing all these little tricks. I got addicted very quickly. It lasted until I tried to jump two green skips and I killed my character.

“There’s a bit called Free Skate, where three wardens chase you. If they catch you, they punch the shit out of you. That made me laugh a lot. As a policeman on Law & Order, it would fall to me to start duffing up skaters. Maybe I’ll pitch that the writers: ‘I’ve got an idea: there’s a skateboarding gang war that we have to break up, and then my character, Matt, goes to the dark side and becomes a skateboarder himself.”

This article appeared in the May 2009 edition of Wired UK.

It hasn’t been a secret for a while now, so I should really have got round to updating this blog a lot earlier, but: I’m currently working on the shiny new Wired UK. Since last October, I’ve been toiling away trying to make the Play section awesome — and between interviewing Jamie Bamber, sending Alain de Botton to Diggerland, and finding the best fashion bloggers from around the world, I’ve not had a lot of time to think about much else. The first issue is out now, and the second one will be available from a newsagent near you from May 7th.

While you’re waiting, though, you should come and follow me on Twitter — predictably, you’ll find me there as @SarahDobbs.