New story imminent!

I have been strangely productive recently. I think it is a combination of being a bit healthier, more focused, fish oil and gingko tablets, or magic. Possibly biorhythms, if I believed in that. Maybe it is to do with Jupiter's alignment with Pluto or something.

I am currently writing a fantasy novel and am growing concerned at the length already. I am at 25,000 words and we haven't even met the main protagonist yet. Why do fantasy novels always become so epic? Most strange.

In other reasonably exciting news, I have written a science fiction short story called 'The Next Giant Leap'. I am working on the cover and will publish soon.

In the meantime, if you stumbled on this page by accident, (hello!) you can check out some of my short stories. If you are bored. They are science fiction and travel stories and are on amazon. Links and descriptions can be found here: http://thewordofward.co.uk/my-books/

Writing more productively

I feel that I have been falling behind a bit on the whole writing fiction thing. Which is bad as it is what I have wanted to do for a living since I was 10. Part of the problem is that I write full time for my job, so when it comes to having some relaxing 'down time' I can't be bothered to write more. But I have downloaded some apps to prompt me to write more. Nearly all problems can be solved with apps and targets. Plus coffee and beer.

Consequently, I have another story written called 'The Next Giant Leap'. It is going through the editing process as I write this. So keep your eyes peeled if you like a bit of military scifi action. If you don't, feel free to try something else. Pretty please.

Cooperworld is out!

Ok, I will admit I have been a bit negligent when it comes to updating this webpage. In my defence, I have been writing. For example, I wrote Cooperworld. Check it out: Cooperworld This is a 17,000 word short story. Which is quite a long short story, I'll grant you. Here is the blurb: In the near future, AI research is strictly controlled by paranoid governments. When a renowned Artificial Intelligence expert illegally decides to create digital life in an simulated universe, he doesn't at first realise the implications of what he has done. Implications not just for him, but for everyone. In this short story, journalist and writer Jason R. Ward has a light-hearted but fairly philosophical look at what constitutes consciousness and has a good hard look at how we perceive reality.


 For US customers: For UK customers:

Australia, Morocco, and Thailand. Three True Travel Stories.

 
The book is called 'Australia, Morocco, and Thailand. Three True Travel Stories'. Not the catchiest of titles, I'll admit, but I want people to know what they're getting. Three true travel stories where yours truly was in peril. In three different places.

Here's the blurb:

 Jason Ward tells three true stories of fairly perilous travel.

While backpacking in Australia in his early twenties, he decides to give fruit picking a go. Even without the spiders, snakes, and a plague of locusts, things turn out pretty badly.

A trip into Morocco's Atlas Mountains with his girlfriend turns out less than romantic when flash floods threaten to wipe out the town. The only escape option is a van full of Berber tribesmen and a waterlogged road on the edge of a cliff.

After moving to the peaceful paradise of Thailand, Ward goes to a local pub near his Bangkok flat. That evening there is a military coup. In Bangkok. So why can't he see anything?

These stories are filled with humour and dollops of fear. Recommended for those who enjoy travel stories or just like reading about someone being mildly terrified in foreign countries. If you like travel stories please give them a go. Also, if you like them, please leave a review, they really help and I need to eat. If you don't like them, then move along, nothing to see here.
For UK customers:
 
For our American cousins:

Australia, Morocco, and Thailand. Three True Travel Stories is also available anywhere there is an Amazon. The book costs a pittance. Which is a bargain in any currency.

My travel stories are almost ready.

Well, Thailand and Laos were awesome. If you want to see some pictures, check out http://thewordofward.co.uk/?p=1849. It is just part 1 of a tale of our trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang.

I spent more time travelling than writing, sadly. Having said that, I have found time to edit a trio of travel stories. They are almost ready to go. All I need now is a title and a cover.

I am also going to publish some articles I wrote for magazines in Thailand. They might be of interest to someone somewhere.

So it is all full steam ahead. Except for today. As I have a hangover.

Be prepared for a writing onslaught!

I'm flying to Thailand and Laos on the 9th of February. I'm hoping this will result in a colossal writing surge. I feel there are a few things holding me back right now.
I work freelance in TV and I'm currently in the middle of an 84  hour week. This is a good thing as I am going away for 5 weeks and won't get paid while I am away. The work obviously uses up a lot of time when you factor in sleeping, eating, and toilet breaks as well.
While doing all this, I am also studying for a degree in English Language and Literature. Even though I have worked as a journalist on and off for 20 years, I intend to return to Asia at some point, where it is almost impossible to work full time without a degree these days.
The final thing is that it is absolutely freezing in Britain and our heating has just packed up. Consequently it is a struggle to focus and be creative in any way. What with all the shivering and impending frostbite.
I am currently working on some non-fiction travel stories. They are almost done but I feel it will enhance the writing if I am in a tropical country as the stories are set in Morocco, Thailand, and Australia.
After that, there are some more short fiction tales and two books in the pipeline.
So brace yourself.

The Uneven Passage of Time

Here is a collection of three Science Fiction short stories. Think Twilight Zone with an emphasis on the way we travel through time. Here is a picture and the blurb.

 Time, famously, is relative. In this trio of short stories journalist and fiction writer Jason R. Ward looks at three individuals and their unorthodox journeys through time. These entertaining tales blend the themes of psychology and perception with classic science fiction.

Stephen Hawking once sent out dinner invitations to all future time travellers. No one turned up. But what if one had? In ‘A Date to Remember’ a young physicist is convinced he has worked out the secret to building a time travel device. Lacking the resources to construct the machine he sets a time and date for a meeting with his future self.

It is a truism that people remember the big events in life and forget the repetitive. For most people, their year skips by unnoticed, punctuated by birthdays, world events, big personal milestones or traumatic events. As you age life seems to speed up and you find that the years seem to fly past. ‘As Time Goes By’ is the story of Frank Gilbert who is experiencing this to the extreme. His time seems to be accelerating at an abnormal rate. Years of his repetitive life seem to go by in days. Can he break the cycle in time?

The final and longest short story is ‘The Man Who Loved Statues’. Captain Michael Pike is a man who has taken a bit of hammering in life. With nothing much to live for he volunteers for an experiment that is going to attempt to alter his passage through time and put him in stasis. Things don’t go quite according to plan.

For US readers: http://www.amazon.com/Uneven-Passage-Time-ebook/dp/B006MHSWI2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324264158&sr=8-1

For UK readers: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Uneven-Passage-Time-ebook/dp/B006MHSWI2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324258518&sr=8-1

Go on, give them a try and leave a lovely review (if the mood takes you).