“Fiction is based on reality… you have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you’re writing about before you alter it.”

According to the BBC News, Tesco will shortly be offering office software, security systems, a photo editing application and a CD/DVD burning tool – each available for less than £20, significantly undercutting the prices charged by existing suppliers.

Read the full story here.

According to the BBC, Google plans to offer consumers the chance to download and print classic novels free of charge.

According to Mosnews.com, Prince Vladimir Odoevsky predicted both the internet and blogging in his science fiction novel “Year 4338″, written in 1837.

Read the full story.

The first person to correctly identify that the title of the first poem I had published in Aphelion was “Coming Home” was Julie Morgan from New Zealand. Congratulations, Julie – the signed collection of poems is in the post.

I recently printed a collection of my poetry as a present for my wife and daughters. There are only six copies in existence. The first person to email me the correct answer to this question will win a signed copy:

Question: What was the title of the first poem I had published in Aphelion?

For a clue to the answer, try my bibliography.

Live Science has an interesting article about fusing neurons with silicon chips, which could one day “enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons“.

Robert Starr has a new collection of short fiction coming out shortly from www.stonegarden.net. It’s called CREEKWATER and I’ve supplied a comment for the cover. I wrote: “One of the reasons it’s so easy to identify with the characters in these stories is that the horrors they face are the ones we remember from our childhood nightmares. Whether lurking in our darkened rooms or prowling in the winter storm outside, they’re all chillingly familiar. They speak to us on a deep, primal level.”

Today I found out that my short story DISTANT GALAXIES COLLIDING has been accepted by Quantum Muse. This is the second story of mine they’ve published. The first – called JAGUARS FALLING FROM THE SKY – was published in July 2004.