The High Wood

Sometimes one website just isn’t enough. So I’ve decided to build another one.

Over the past few years I have been writing an urban fantasy novel set in London in the 18th century. I am about to finish it again (this must be about the fifth time) and I have hopes that it may actually be publishable sometime within the next year.

Anyway, since all successful authors have a website I thought I would try and short-circuit the process by building the website first. Build it and when they come it will be ready. Or something.

I’ve had to do a fair bit of research on the 18th century so I’ve put some of this up on the site in case anyone else is interested in the nuts and bolts stuff - the price of a new hat, the cost of a pub lunch, how to speak thieves’ cant and tell a bung-nipper from an autem-diver. Stuff like that.

It is named after the hero of the book(s) - Pascal Bonenfant - pascalbonenfant.com. Let me know what you think.

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I was standing with a dozen or so other people waiting for my coffee this morning as the woman behind the counter called out “regular latte”, “long black” and so forth. As I stood in my pre-caffeinated blur I hoped that no one else wanted a large capuccino because I couldn’t cope with fighting over whose it was. No one did. In fact, it hardly ever happens so I started thinking about the numbers.

There are about 15 different types of coffee/tea/hot chocolate on offer in various combinations. Some are only available in small size or only without milk and so forth so I am going to assume that for any different combination, two thirds of the previous set will apply. An arbitrary amount but probably not too far out. So I work it out like this:

This ignores people who ask for two or more sugars, or extra milk or some other combination I haven’t thought of. Then there are people who buy two or more coffees at the same time for which there is also no confusion.

I know the figures are a serious fudge. For instance, I think there might be a problem with the way I work out white/black/skim/soy but, even so, it is far more amazing that I have encountered a case of the same order than the reverse.

Just goes to show - we have a poor intuitive understanding of probability. Add to that in my case poor mathematical skills (see the above calculation) and no caffeine it is hardly surprising I got it wrong.

I need more coffee.

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Long, long ago in a galaxy not too far away there was a Tolkien Society dedicated, among other things, to butchering the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. At a Science Fiction convention in Sydney in 1988 they produced (despite many contenders for the title) the all time nadir of Tolkien-derivative works - Sauron, the Musical.

Not only was it a gross insult to the magnificent writing of the late Professor Tolkien it stole practically all its material from somewhere else. The music was stolen, the jokes were stolen, even the plot was stolen. Unfortunately the members of the Society were unable to steal any actors and were obliged to perform it themselves.

The Counsel for the Prosecution contacted me recently and asked if I had a copy available. Not content to share it with him I felt something this appalling should be inflicted on as many people as possible. To this end I have put the entire script on this web site.

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