18th May 2014

After a long absence, I've returned to this blog.  I'm currently doing the page proofs of The Sword of Feimhin, the third book in my epic fantasy series, The Three Powers. The proofs show exactly how it will look in print, so very close to going to printing. I hope to have my author's copies in August.  By now the series is beginning to appear in hardcover in the US, but mainly paperback in the UK, and Kindle globally.  I hope the new book proves as popular in Kindle as The Snowmelt River, which went to no 5 in the Amazon epic fantasy bestseller list.

My readers may be surprised at the fact that there are two new characters, Gully and Penny, and part of the action is in a very dystopic London. Those who know my writing well will know that I wrote a dystopic America in my science fiction thriller, The Doomsday Genie, so it isn't really a new scenario for me. 

I'm getting some very interesting reactions from readers who have read the script of the third book but, of course, we shall have to wait and see what readers think.

The dragon, Driftwood, also has a part to play in Book 3, as he had in Book 2, The Tower of Bones.

Looking forward to publication very much.

21st July

I'm facing very big questions in my writing. I am creating a much deeper civilisation for the Gargs, and others, in my epic fantasy series. I think it makes for a much more interesting story when the characters, including the potential bad guys, are three-dimensional.

The third book of the series is becoming fairly spectacular in the themes is it embracing -- and set in a dystopic London.

In private life I too am facing major themes of life and death. That is all I have to say right now. To paraphrase the very nice and admirable Queen Elizabeth II, 2012 has become my annus horribilis.

Bon venture to my friends.


11th July 2012

(I have also put this as an illustrated story into my articles)

Recently I came across a most unusual program on the BBC4 channel. The title of the program was “To Byzantium” and it featured the art of the late artist Dave Pearson. I was intrigued for several reasons. I was familiar with the poem, “Sailing to Byzantium” by my favorite poet, WB Yeats. The theme of the poem was a profound one, the journey we must all make into old age and death. Pearson’s art was also tantalizingly probing of the same theme. I gradually realized that it had a most unusual quality: he could take ideas and convert them into pictures capable of stimulating the viewer at the deepest level. I thought this an astonishing ability.

I ran a major art gallery for nine years and few of the living artists I met, perhaps with the exception of Endre Roder, could achieve this at such a deep level. I was also inspired because one of Pearson’s themes was the mythological One Tree – also known as the Tree of Life – which featured in my fantasy series, The Snowmelt River, The Tower of Bones and the subsequent two books currently in process of being written. I visited the artists studio, which has been renovated and made into a display area by the “Dave Pearson Trust”, a collective of artists and creative people who were so impressed by Pearson’s work that they are championing his reputation, and arranging international exhibitions (London, New York, etc).
You can discover more at http://www.dspearson.org/ and about the fantasy series at www.frankpryan.com


5th July 2012...

I've seen very important confirmation of the viruses in the human genome concept, with an explanantion of how they work.



1st April 2012,

I'm involved in dealing with funeral arrangements and probate but coming to in other ways also. I'm not writing at all but wouldn't expect to be able to do so at such a time.

I'm preparing for a series of new lectures about the themes of my non-fiction - also working with medical and scientific colleagues on some new papers. The concepts of viral symbiosis I have been developing over many years, and described in Virolution, are coming into very strong fruition right now and I suppose I shall first return to work in this capacity.

I met up with Jo Fletcher,of Quercus, and my fiction agent, Leslie Gardner, to talk about plans for the fantasy series, The Snowmelt River, The Tower of Bones, etc, on Thursday. They were lovely people and I look forward to working with them when my creative juices begin to flow again.

25th March

My mother died three days ago with me by her bedside. It's a thing I have to come to terms with. I was away and my family think that she waited for me to come, even though she was in a coma. I don't know if this was true. They tell me that when my brother, Tony, put his mobile to her ear and I spoke into it, her breathing changed. My mind is flattened - all over the place.



I did some wonderful work on the third book in the fantasy series while abroad but it has now come to a dead stop.

I need to grieve.



22nd March 2012

APOLOGIES FOR THE LONG ABSENCE

Much has been happening. I'm working hard, as usual, in both science and the fiction people call fantasy. I shall have a lot more to say very soon... I promise!

But my beloved mother died today and so I don't feel like saying anything. Only when a mother is gone do you realise what a hole it leaves in your life. Your one "never-critic". The first person you ring when something really good, or bad, has happened to you. The only person in the world who would die for you without even reflecting for a nanosecond if it was to save you...



16 January 2016

Major news. Quercus Books (Jo Fletcher) have proposed to take over the world rights to my fantasy series. They will also re-release The Snowmelt River as part of what will now become their world series. I suppose that the Swift edition of Snowmelt will now become a collector's item.

Many thanks to those at Authors Den who helped make this possible, in particular reviewer Glenda A Bixler.

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More anon.

22nd December.

Swift's offer of a free book for anybody purchasing any title on their website (www.swiftpublishers.com) has been a success. I'll be sorry to see it end in a few days time but it is loss-making and aimed at being charitable in the festive period.

I came across the name Russell Hoban, an expat American living in London, in the obituary column of the Daily Telegraph this week. The article so intrigued me that I cut it out and ordered two of his books, Angelica: Lost and Found and Riddley Walker. They look interesting if challenging. Fantasy on a strangely elevated plain. I'm looking foward to reading them.


4th December 2011,

I suppose it's a time to dig a trench and hold your position, financially, career-wise and personally, in what is proving to be an enduring dip in the global economy that some claim is the worst since the Wall Street Crash of the 1930s. I gather that November was the worst month for internet sales of books for Swift Publishers in the last two years. I have many other publishers, including HarperCollins, Oneworld, Little Brown, Chelsea Green, and Houghton Mifflin, in the English language alone, but, curiously, for small press Swift sales through High Street booksellers rose to compensate. Don't ask me what this means. I don't have a clue.

I don't like the jungle "Get me out of here" series, since it exposes people's worst faults in a very testing setting. But today, reading why Fatima Whitbread went for it, I felt very sympathetic. Since the death of her husband, a few years ago, this Olympic medallist has been reduced to an income of £11,000 a year. She pays £12,000 to send her son to school. Like many, she's been looking for work but failing to get it. I hope she gets some kind of a contract now after her heroic performance in the pseudo jungle, including the shock of a living cockroach crawling up her nose and refusing to come out again. What a tough gal she is - tougher than the men, many of whom appear to be utter wimps, and yet kind of feminine and maternal at the same time.

Great stuff that my team, Sheffield Wednesday, won their cup match against doughty Aldershot yesterday. I can also report that my US-based science fiction thriller, The Doomsday Genie, continues to surprise everybody in terms of interest and e-book sales, even in this dreadful economic climate.

Oh, well, shovel out and I'm digging in for 2012!


3rd December 2011

I'm afraid it is going to be a miserable Christmas for a lot of people. I helped to sponsor and judge the global fantasy competition earlier, in association with fantasy book review, which was a great success, with Irish, British and American winners. Just now I've tried to do something small and charitable about it by agreeing to Swift Publishers giving away one of my books (mainly fiction) free with any purchase from the Swift website www.swiftpublishers.com. I tried doing something with e-books a little earlier, but nothing came of it and it had to be dropped. I very much fear that this will also founder on the rocks of the economic depression - in that a lot of families will simply ignore it on the basis that they can't afford to buy a single book even it it results in their being given another free of charge and free of postage.

A tragic sign of the times!

P.S Thank goodness my team, Sheffield Wednesday, is still finding winning ways!



29 November 2011

Chancellor of the Exchequer (ie economic minister) giving speech today in Parliament, with news so dire the entire country is likely to go down with SAD-affliction. I'm feeling somewhat SAD-afflicted myself today.

Nothing more to say.


28 November 2011

Nice victory for my team, Sheffield Wednesday, over Leyton Orient on Saturday. Takes us into second spot and one that would result in automatic promotion if we are in the same position by the end of the season. Shocked to hear of the death of Gary Speed, a footballer who recently took the Managership of the Wales national team.

Great to have some good news at this present time.


25 November 2011

My friend, and fellow scientist, Lynn Margulis died a few days ago. Her sudden death came as a great shock to the many of us who deeply admired her both as a great American scientist, educator and a lady of such generous heart that she would support others even when she disagreed with them. I'm so glad I recommended her for the Linnean Society Medal. She'll be sorely missed.


20 November 2011

A couple of pleasant events, one less predicted than the other. My team, Sheffield Wednesday, won away from home at Tranmere Rovers yesterday. A very tough match to win, as the manager, Gary Megson, declared afterwards, keeping us in contention for promotion to the Championship.

In addition, my science fiction thriller, The Doomsday Genie, entered the top 100 Amazon kindle science fiction military action type novels, with a spate of sales, all through amazon.co.uk. The latter was unusual since the novel has mainly sold into America in the past, being based there. But there you go - you never know what to expect in this game. I'm pleased because the book was only ever published as a POD and e-book, with no sponsorship and very little support, but it appears to be making its own way through quality.

I believe it is one of the best novels I have written, combining scientific know-how with writing skills.

18 November

Back in business after almost a month's gap. Been on holiday for half that time and since I got back was involved in the final stages of the fantasybookreview short story competition. This has now been completed and the three winners announced. But still working with artist, Mark Salwowski, on decorating the pdfs of the winners for publication online.

www.brainfood.ie is now recruiting entrants for a new teenage fantasy competition in Ireland.

I'm helping a few vistors to my sites with advice on writing/ getting published/ the rise of e-books, etc.

Meanwhile relaxing for a few days to think about my next ventures.

The economic situation is really biting in now and hitting the publishing scene very hard. I'm kind of wondering about e-books and whether they are a blessing or a curse.


1 October.

The usual anxious time as the completed MSS of a new fantasy book in the Snowmelt River series goes in to my agent, Leslie, of Artellus Ltd. She's reading it right now. Meanwhile rising sales of Snowmelt River, with particularly strong non-bookshop sales, is very encouraging. While waiting, and having my first week or so off in something like six months, I'm enjoying the football amid the unseasonal hot weather the UK is basking in right now. I've also had time to tie together some loose ends that have been pending for a while.

Passing my own personal papers into the offical people dealing with the Hillsborough tragedy - I was the consultant physician involved with dealing with the casualties.

Made the decision to put Between Clouds and the Sea into a range of e-book formats. I had some reservations about this because it is the only abridged version of any of my novels. The abridging involved removing some of the laddish humour associated with Mylie and his slightly crazy friends. I miss the humour but can see that some people would just prefer to focus on the main story - the relationship between Mylie and Harry. C'est la vie!


30 September 2011

Apologies about my absence for a couple of weeks. I've been busy completing the second book in the fantasy series. Also arranging for an e-book version of Between Clouds and the Sea, which is the paperback version of Taking Care of Harry but with the laddish humour removed. Some readers just wanted me to focus on the story of love and betrayal involving the intense interactions between Mylie and Harry and their respective lady folk.

I've also been heavily involved in the media promotion of my new popular science book about the Mystery of Metamorphosis, which has provoked some heated debate. Just published a feature about it in New Scientist.

More anon.

13 September 2011

My wedding anniversary tomorrow. I shall take my wife out for a very pleasant meal. We live in a very old village where England was first united in the early ninth century. My home is the oldest building there, built of Derbyshire stone, with leaded panes and mullioned windows and even a stone roof. I discovered a heavy stone quern in my garden - the lower half of a beehive quern. A single individual could use it to grind cereals a very long time ago. I'm told it is more than a thousand years old, perhaps a Roman quern re-used by Vikings. Who knows! But it makes a wonderful sculpture.

My friend, the artist Endre Roder, has an absolutely gorgeous book written about him, with beautiful colour illustrations. Its title is "Endre Roder" and written by John Basford and published by Derwent-Wye Fine Art. For those who are interested, the ISBN is 978-0-9559965-3-5.

Buy this book, then buy some of Endre's pictures, and you will pleasure on your wall and will have made a very astute investment since he is rapidly gaining in value.

The fantasy short story competition, organised by Fantasy Book Review, has closed with a wonderful collection of quality entries.

Things looking good.

28 August 2011

Something remarkable appears to be happening. I'm receiving e-mails from Harry Potter fans. As a writer I've never had e-mails from readers of other writers before. It seems that there's a predictable hunger for young adult fantasy since JK Rowling stopped writing the series. But it never occurred to me that readers would find commonalities with my Snowmelt River series. I constructed this years before Harry appeared. But I daresay the group of young friends who populate my series, the fantasy setting (though it is not set in a school for magic but in a fantasy otherworld, called Tir) and the fact that each book is an adventure in itself, is similar.

Do I mind the comparison? Not at all. I'm rather enjoying the correspondence. We've just acknowledged this intriguing new element on the devoted website www.frankpryan.com.

The fabulous Glenda A Bixler review on Authors Den has really helped too.



15 August 2011

I've been incredibly busy - far to busy for my own good. Success, if that's what it is, is almost as stressful as failure in its way. Though no question which of those alternatives we'd choose - huh!

I've completed writing a joint paper with Prof Luis Villarreal to acquaint virologists with viral symbiosis. Completed the second book in The Snowmelt River fantasy series. Worked with the publication in the US and the UK of Metamorphosis. Written a new article for New Scientist. Am working on a prospective article for a national newspaper in the UK -- as yet unconfirmed.... And most important of all (apart from my little grand-daughter getting a rosette at horse-riding which is so mighty and moving it takes itself off into another sphere), I have been learning from the great Milton.

Adam, and most particularly Eve, and her rebellion -- it seems to have been all about the exercise of free will (which we scientists see as the first commandment) and how it influences lives, nations, worlds. Because this, it now seems, is what Milton's epic Paradise Lost is about -- I devoured it long ago when I should have been learning anatomy, but was otherwise engeaged -- in learning a different altogether more blissful kind of anatomy. Though, in my defence, I was also communicating with Jean Paul Sartre on matters of thunder and lightning, or so it seemed at the time, and now I find myself, thinking again about my fantasy series, find myself falling upon Milton again, and snorting (whisky, and Irish of course, not cocaine), inhaling, wondering....

Magical!

I'm afraid I am being a bit of a bad example.

On a lighter note, thank you, whoever you were, who bought a kindle version of Taking Care of Harry, the most wonderful and caring book I wrote, and the most emotionally wrought. I wrote it in an attempt to free me from guilt at the death of my flawed but much-loved father.

I'm older now. I forgive him now in a way I couldn't earlier. But I always loved him.

Of such things str whisky and cigars currently made of! Hey, guys, can I give you the tip, though you probably knew already, there are places that will sneak a half dozen of these Beelzebub tempers in the form of Romeo and Juliets and big-size King Edwards.... Keep it quiet. We're onto a gold mine...

Oh, heck! Darling wife creeping down the stairs to catch me in flagrante delicta - she is giving up cigarettes. Ow! What the heck! Kinda swiggin and puffin like the blazes to make the most of it in the seconds left...


7 August 2011

Bit of a break - bin very busy.

Methinks, Darwin was a slow learner, a huntin', fishin', shootin' kind of a man. Einstein was the very opposite, kindly intelluctual. But as CJ Peters, head of Special Pathogens at CDC, once said to me, which would you like to be stuck with for an inordinate while, a pediatrician or an orthopedic surgeon...

Intellectual conversation versus Orthopedic surgeon, gumboots, cigars, brandy...

Hmmmm! Maybe depends on mood.

Today - you take your guesses.

Anyway, an incredibly busy time, culminising with this weekend.

Two papers completed. Two chapters revised. Important new page on www.fprbooks.com

Great laughter, day after day, with stuff being sent to me by e-mail from my newfound American friend, George Parris. Who says scientists don't have an artistic streak - or a great sense of humor.

But enough is enough - it's the thought of that brandy and cigar. I have to be careful - hands and lips trembling. My wife is giving up the cigs with the assistance of nicotine loaded cigarette clones. She's doing really well.

I'm lucky - incapable of being addicted - at least to this one vice. But those awesome cigars - and that aromatic brandy!

Only kidding - hah!
But seriously though - and that in itself is a joke - I'm thinking of passon on jokes through this blog.

Maybe there are one or two out there who would like to encourage me?





28 July 2011

A couple of months ago I conducted a brief factual study of whether or not it was prudent to reduce the price of several Kindle versions of my novels to a nominal $0.99. Would this increase sales to the extent that the very small remuneration coming my way would be worth it in terms of quantity?

The conclusion was that it was not cost effective. I sold no more in terms of numbers per week and thus lost income. So I restored the cost to $2.99 and actually saw an increase in sales this last month.

I guess, then, that the answer is that unless you are selling in the hundreds of thousands to millions, it does not pay to reduce your prices to a virtual giveaway level.


16 July 2011

I've discovered that an important source of inspiration for my thriller, Tiger Tiger, first written more than 20 years ago, is under threat. This is an experiment in self-reliant community living, known as The Tipi (or Teepee, or Tepee) Village, in southwestern Wales.

I've written to Rick Mayes to see if I can do some small thing to help.

10 July 2011

My first major non-fiction was the Swift Publishers flagship title in the UK, "Tuberculosis: The Greatest Story Never Told", published a year later in the US by Little, Brown as "The Forgotten Plague". The UK hardcover included some wonderful pictures, a number in full colour. It is about to run out -- just a couple of dozen books left. Will be kind of a sad day for me to see such a beautiful book, which launched my non-fiction career, end its run.


07 July 2011

Delighted to see that Authorsden has now reviewed my new non-fiction, The Mystery of Metamorphosis. It was a book ten years in the making, with research into many different biological and molecular fields. I came across some really wonderful examples -- make fantasy seem mundane.

03 July 2011

Went to a great exhibition of my friend, Endre Röder’s paintings, in the sculpture room at Chatsworth Hall, seat of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, last Wednesday. Endy’s paintings have increased roughly eight-fold in value over the last 15 years or so, so even if your interest is purely financial – and mine isn’t - he’s worth Googling.

Also met a couple of delightful young ladies – Elaine Munson & Gill Gibbon – who have set up a successful art gallery in Whitby. They have some very promising artists on their books, from surrealist/abstract to probing the deep biological self – see www.abbeywalkgallery.com.

I really like artists. They’re my kind of people.


26 June 2011

A lovely sunny day! Wimbledon on the box. Close to finishing the second book in the Snowmelt River fantasy series. Just finished a new feature article for New Scientist on the topic of metamorphosis.

I intend to do nothing all day except sit in the sun, read, do a couple of killer sudokus and maybe the Sunday Telegraph crossword.

A fun day!

21 April 2012

The fantasy short story competition, hosted by www.fantasybookreview.co.uk, is provoking quite a lot of interest. I've been invited to speak on Greater Manchester City Radio about The Snowmelt River and the competition.

I continue to do my bit to encourage people to have a go. You never know -- you might be a winner. Even if not, the experience will be fun -- and you can't lose since everybody in this competition is a winner. The great artist, Mark Salwowski, and I, look forward to hearing from you. You will get a free e-book copy of The Snowmelt River.

28 April 2011

Fantasy is fun -- and it's great to have a lighter side. But I do, of course, have a more serious side, which keeps me overwhelmingly busy. Just heard that my paper linking the message of Virolution to MS will be published in the Journal of Neuropharmacology in June. I shall also be speaking about this as a guest lecturer at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology at Tuebingen in August.


10 April 2011

I'm delighted to say that Swift Publishers and the respected fantasy site, Fantasy Book Review, are getting together to promote a major international fantasy short story competition. To help them I've modified the booklet I wrote for the Irish Teenagers for an international adult readership. The reason I feel excited by it is the fact it should be fun.

see www.fantasybookreview.co.uk

Fantasy should be escapist and fun -- that's the point of it. I was happy to relinquish e-book author's rights so that every entrant will get a free e-book of The Snowmelt River. I've also put up the details on a short article, since they could help visitors take that all-important first step on the road to publication.

I suppose that it's an act of generosity on my part, and even more that of Swift Publishers, who are sponsoring the prizes -- and great prizes they are -- but I hope it will introduce the fantasy to a wide readership, which can only be good for me, and my writing, in the longer term.

A question of give and take.

But for visitors to this blog, there's an opportunity going begging -- and the great thing is you can't lose -- since everybody is a winner.

That's what I like about fantasy.

See article "Fantasy Short Story Competition"



07 April 2011

Another great review for Metamorphosis:

http://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/the-mystery-of-metamorphosis/

So let me say that my world is not a self-congratulatory or comfortable world of sitting on my butt and writing book after book, all duly acclaimed. Hey - my world is far from that. Getting my first book published was the single most difficult thing I ever managed, somehow, to do in my life. I wrote the usual autobiographical first novel, which was, I now acknowledge, unpublishable. It was experimental, influenced by James Joyce, but I was nevertheless devastated at the time, when it was rejected by the one agent I sent it to. I have said this before, and I will say it again here, that books are like children. When they die, the pain is like a child stillborn. Three or four years ago I went through a rather different kind of nadir that I thought I would never come out of. Yet, today, not only is Metamorphosis following on Virolution, but even my long-worked-on fantasy, The Snowmelt River, is beginning to make waves of its own.

Again I emphasize that this is not self-congratulatory - quite the opposite. What I am trying to do is to encourage others going through those terrible periods of initial rejection, or the depressing troughs that come and go throughout just about every successful writer's life.

Hey - a bed of roses it jollywell ain't.

What then of people who are driven, through the pain of rejection, to publish their own books? Well, I suppose it depends on what drives them to write. If what they hope for is bestseller status, with lots of money, good luck to them. I've written several bestsellers, but they are not my favorite books. Writing for money doesn't inspire me so I don't feel inclined to comment, other than to wish them good luck. But if they are driven by a creative urge to write something interesting, like a painter creates a landscape or a composer writes music out of the sweat and blood of his or her life, that does inspire me. And, in a peculiar way, a writer driven by such creativity, even if self-published, might succeed, even if his or her readership is limited.

From this perspective I feel that it is always - always - no matter the pain - worth persisting, even if you labor all your life only ever to write one great book, like Melville's Moby Dick. I know that Melville wrote others, but nobody has ever heard of them. The more I read of the experiences of writers, poets, artists and composers, the more I witness a commonality of purpose and pain. It's a peculiar, but spiritually elevating, labor to communicate mind to mind with a reader who appreciates the efforts that went into its creation.

There will be skeptics, I know, but a purist might nevertheless argue that if only one other human being loves your creation, it was worth it.


01 April 2011

Today New Scientist reviewed my book, The Mystery of Metamorphosis: A Scientific Detective Story. The book has been more than a decade in genesis. "The book is a must for entomologists, marine biologists and the downright curious." Let's hope that there are a lot of curious people out there interested in what fascinated and baffled Aristotle.

Indeed New Scientist are even further interested and it looks as if I shall be asked to write a feature about what might be called our human metamorphosis.


20 March 2011

Getting ready for the trip to Dublin. I like visiting the Irish capital, since the people are so very friendly compared to most other capitals I have visited. I've clapped on a bit of weight over the last year or so and am now on a reducing healthy diet, with plenty of omega-3s and not too much omega-6s, and am exercising on my daughter's cross-trainer. Writing is a very sedentary occupation, and the temptation to surf on the internet adds to the problem. But the cross-trainer is a blessing to me since I can hop onto it any time between tasks and get some exercise.

A bit of good news that other authors on Authorsden might like to share.

Since we set up the e-books, they're flying. Ignoring my new book, The Sowmelt River, which has the advantage of being new, the biggest seller, consistently so, is The Doomsday Genie - my sci-fi thriller based in America. And the second best selling e-book is a bit of a surprise - my earlier thriller, Goodbye Baby Blue. And do you know what? I could have predicted this judging from the interest level in these titles on Authorsden. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to realise that the sales must be deriving from people visiting my site on Authorsden.

So thanks, whoever you are! Long may it continue!



17 March 2011

Just back from two weeks holiday in the Canaries, where the weather was pretty atrocious - the worst I have ever experienced there and I've been visiting the Canaries for twenty years. A Scottish visitor I met in a bar, held his glass of whisky out of the open door to let it hail into it -- providing his ice.

You have to keep your sense of humour at times.

E-books continue to surprise me. My biggest seller in e-books at the moment is quite different from what I would imagine from print sales - it's my US-based science-fiction thriller, The Doomsday Genie.

I'm off to Dublin Castle early next week for the prize-giving awards for the Irish teenage fantasy competition. We received some beautiful entries, so it will be a pleasure to meet some of the kids who wrote them. I gather that I will be MC with another writer, who helped with the judging, also contributing, and Brendan Murphy, the general manager for John West in Ireland - whose vision made it all possible - presenting the prizes.

Should be interesting.

Polishing the metamorphosis book for publication in the UK, a little later than in the US. I also did a little polishing of the page proofs of my paper on human endogenous retroviruses in MS before I traveled. The paper is liable to take some of my colleagues by surprise and should appear in print very soon.

We are becoming increasingly aware of how important retroviruses, similar to HIV-1, have been in human evolution, and this extrapolates to human embryology, reproduction and day-to-day physiology, so it's hardly surprising they might also be playing roles in disease. This is a new sub-discipline and much remains to be discovered but it's looking like very promising ground for novel research.

I was invited to speak at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology meeting in Germany in August - one of four speakers who will talk on the extrapolation of evolutionary biology into the wider domains of medicine and the humanities. I'm kind of looking forward to that.

Busy, of course - but that's how I like it.

Much enjoyed Nina Munteanu's science fiction novel, Darwin's Paradox, while on holiday. Some very clever writing, cementing family relationships into the plot. Nina has also written a very good guidebook on how to write fiction - The Fiction Writer, published by Starfire World Syndicate.


28 February 2011

I'm reading a futuristic science fiction novel, Darwin's Paradox, by US author, Nina Munteanu - and rather liking it. More anon.

Six of my novels have now been converted to e-books and put up for sale as Amazon kindle books. Time will tell if this proves a success.



20 February 2011

Read an article in the Scotland on Sunday by what I presume, from the drift of it, to be an engagingly rapscallion-Unionist Scottish Conservative, who goes by the moniker of Gerald Warner, and who claims in all seriousness that, as a result of the economic crisis, Ireland has lost its soul. Not quite sure what he means by it, but there is a good deal of anti-Irish cynicism going around, as well as few genuine home truths, in the article. Needing to get away, spiritually and ideationally – and seeing in music – and most especially a song with lyrics that would at least equal Dylan in poetic vibe, I had another look at and listen to Astral weeks by Van Morrison. I did so because the lyrics have long puzzled me. In ordinary English – the sort much admired the English media – but not by me – admire as shorn of adjectives, and such literary pretensions – the lyrics are bizarre to the point of obscurity. But I don’t think they are. The emotion behind them, the powerful, repetitive, tidal movement of the words, the morphic backing, proclaim otherwise. So I Googled. A very interesting experience. The words are indeed poetry coming from the deepest, subconscious, strata of the a soul – born from the longing for a world that once appeared innocent. That world was the Belfast of Van Morrison’s childhood and the innocence was in the mind of the youth – to be raped, torn apart, and lost, in the troubles of the Northern Ireland.



19 February 2011

Update – who'd have thought I'd become such a chatter-box! A blog is essentially a lonely soliloquoy -- and I wouldn't have thought it my scene.

The Amazon Kindle e-book version of The Snowmelt River is already selling. That’s one of the fantastic things about e-books. Extraordinary speed between production and sales. I like that. I’m a fast fiber person. Hey - if it's people from Authorsden - thank you!

After something like forty years in medicine and science, people sometimes ask me what life is life now as a professional writer. I reply – busy.

I’m very much looking forward to publication of my new science book, The Mystery of Metamorphosis. I’m up for the controversy it will provoke. I’m also writing the final third of the second book in The Snowmelt River series – should finish the second draft in the Canaries soon. I’m receiving a lot of e-mails about that, so it’s nice that I can reassure readers that it is coming, and soon.

I had a têta-a-tête with Myles Archibald, head of the Collins half of HarperCollins in London recently, to knock out some ideas for a new science book, which produced something exciting that I am also working on. I have a new and lengthy scientific paper about to appear, extrapolating the wonderful work on HERVs in the human genome and multiple sclerosis, and I am working on two joint papers with other scientists. I am also busy inventing new fantasy short stories for my two lovely young grandchildren.

Busy.


But all of this is kind of by the way. The real thing that is on my mind, pleasing me I suppose, is that my all-American sci-fi thriller, The Doomsday Genie, has been properly edited at last. We released a POD that had dozens of editorial glitches in it. But with help I have now worked through it and corrected the glitches. And, thanks to my Indian contacts, we have released an e-book that is devoid of the glitches.

One of the most stimulating collaborations involving this particular book was with Mark Salwowski, who insisted on understanding where I was coming from, scientifically, in constructing the engineered artificial life form – the entity – that is the strongest personality in the book. I think that tells you something about Mark as an artist. As so often, I worked with music, and in designing the entity – in observing it in my mind rotating, and reading the DNA of any life-form it encountered, I had the U2 song, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, playing in my mind. You could say it was the song of the entity.

Hah!


18 February 2011

I don't know if it was clear from the above or not, but yesterday was rather a depressing day for me, in acknowledging the rise of the e-book and, perhaps a blow to the printed page. But today Chelsea Green have cheered me up no end by sending me the finished full cover for the new science book, The Mystery of Metamorphosis. It's absolutely brilliant -- I can't praise them enough. I'm celebrating by sharing an excellent bottle of claret with my wife and listening to one of the most inspirational pieces of classical music ever written - I often listen to it while writing a particularly dark or exciting passage of fantasy - Mahler's Das Klagende Lied. The classical equivalent, in my perhaps daft opinion, to the Stones (Only Rock and Roll) in pop.

Cheers!


17 February 2011

Okay – so it’s swings and roundabouts – or if you prefer it, praise and grumble time.

Praise – oh, yeah – for those much denigrated people in India who help out publishers throughout the Western World. And grumble about my football team, who appear to have quite forgotten the fact that in order to win matches you have to stop the opposition putting the ball in your net.

Who are my hopeless football team – Sheffield Wednesday, who, if the present run continues, will be compelled to change their name to Sheffield Yesterday. Former FA cup-winners, top league players, the same team I took out season tickets for the whole family to support, back in the days when my wife would stand on her seat and shout encouragement, and when my son and my daughter were still young enough to engage in family pursuits. I think my American readers will be familiar with the distinguished gentleman who has taken over my football team, and club.

So here’s the local newspaper headline and I think it just about says it all:
Sheffield Wednesday chief admits recovery is ‘bigger job than imagined’
MILAN Mandaric has admitted for the first time the job of reviving Sheffield Wednesday’s fortunes is a “bigger challenge than I imagined”.

23 comments…

Oh, I think it would be prudent not to reproduce the comments in polite company.

But now to the praise:

I read an article in the rag for authors here in the UK – The Author – by my fellow countryman, Eoin Purcell. The title was “Cannibalism” and the first paragraph began, “Will the boom in e-books lead to more people reading, or will e-books simply siphon readers away from printed books without developing a new base of readers?” I think the title gives away the conclusion.

Ahem – but actually the words that caught my attention were “the boom in e-books”. I rather thought to myself, I had better get on board this boom – and fast.

My most recent novels, The Snowmelt River and the US-based The Doomsday Genie, had never been published formally as e-books. So I began to conduct a little research of my own. A lovely lady, in that same edition of The Author, wrote a helpful article on how to construct your own e-book. But I simply do not have the time to do that. I made contact to see how much it would cost, in the UK, to have the job done for me. It amounted to £500 plus VAT (the European Mafia extortion factor) which would lead to somewhere between £600 and £700 per book of the length of The Snowmelt River.

In the past I have steadfastedly refused to engage with the very polite Indian businessmen who have been sending me e-mails about their acumen with e-books. But, you know, times change and circumstances, football-wise and book-wise, are apt to kick one up the butt.

So I contacted a couple of the same polite gentlemen. The upshot – the same e-book for £80. I couldn’t believe it. But what was there to lose?

Ahem – go ahead, I ventured to one of them.

The gentleman duly did – produced a perfect e-book of The Snowmelt River. I mean, like – in a few days without quibble or payment in advance. Wow!

The Doomsday Genie quickly followed - I’m moving onto Taking Care of Harry, with quite a few more to come. I have learnt how to easily convert from ePub to MobiPocket – it’s takes the difficult feat of hitting a button in a program called Calibre. And MobiPocket can be downloaded straight into Kindle…

Wake up, my friends – wake up! Do you remember the words of the old Bob Dylan song, “The times they are a changin’”. You don’t believe it? Borders gone in the US and the UK and Angus and Robertson in Australia. Waterstones struggling here in the UK. Is it all down to internet bookselling, or does the problem run deeper? The present economic situation is not helping the trade - but it may be helping the rise of the e-book. If you’re in the writing or publishing game, it really is time to sit up and take a long hard look at what is happening. People talk (including me) about hating reading anything other than the printed book. But you know what they said about the Wright brothers and their infernal flying machines.

The age of the e-book is looking like the approaching tsunami. And how long will these Indian colleagues be able to keep their prices so low we can convert an entire list for almost nothing?


11 February 2011

It would appear that we are getting some fairly remarkable cover quotes for Metamorphosis. I'm naturally delighted. And so maybe I should mention a structure -- the geneticists would call it a domain -- on chromosome 7 of the human genome. It is spectacularly important and spectacularly alien.

Why do I say alien?

It is largely made up of viruses. For the scientists in my readership, they can find it if they google ERVWE1. ERVWE1 translates, in human terms, to HERV-WE1. In other words it is a human endogenous retrovirus of the HERV-W family. Without it there would be no offspring -- the end of humankind.

And -- I am afraid -- it is a viral insert. Indeed not just a viral insert but a retrovirus with a genomic structure very similar to HIV-1, the viral cause of AIDS.


But this is a viral structure that is 10,000 nucleotides long. To convict a human of murder you would need only 30 to 50 confirmative nucleotides in certain positions within the human genome. Those who want to dismiss the role of viruses in human evolution might sit back and consider their options here.

This virus has been symbiotically incorporated into the human genome where it changes the fate of the placental interface. There is no alternative interpretation, scientifically, other than viral symbiosis. The viral genetic control region, known as an LTR, controls its own gene promotion. So it isn't just a viral gene that has been conserved by natural selection -- it's a major component of a viral genome. And when it is expressed, by the implanting human fetus, it causes the placental cells that interface with the mother to change their essential nature, and create a confluent layer, like a layer of plastic, studded by nuclei that have lost their cellular boundaries.

We now know of eight different viruses, all related to HIV-1, that play roles in human reproduction. Other symbiotically incorporated viruses play roles in human embryonic development and in our day to day physiology.

Viral symbiosis is thus an important force in the evolution of life, and in human evolution.


08 February 2011

Exciting developments! Chelsea Green have been receiving some fantastic accolades from other nature and ecology writers for the cover quotes in my forthcoming book, The Mystery of Metamorphosis. I've got a really good feeling about this book. It was absolutely thrilling to research - I hope some of that will shine through so readers can share it with me. A book that describes the creation of what I think may have been the first human-created new life form. And not a bacterium - something far, far more interesting!

Meanwhile, on the Snowmelt River front...

Swift Publishers have released The Snowmelt River as their first Kindle on amazon - and immediately it has started to sell. The great thing - and that's the wonder of the digital age we live in - is that now my readers from the US, or Australia, can download the book with a single click and simply start reading. I think we're only just waking to what this may do to writing and publishing. Think about all the delays in the past between an author writing a book and the book itself becoming available to the reader. I already have readers of Snowmelt asking me what happens to Kate. In fact I have already written two thirds of the next book and I know perfectly well what happens to Kate. Something strange and wonderful is the simple answer - and now my readers may not need to wait very long to discover exactly what for themselves.

I even wonder about the potential for a more direct reader to author interaction in the future...

Celebrations!


19 January 2011

I am currently working through the finalists in the all-Ireland teenage fantasy short story competition -- and it is a great pleasure to be involved. I'm really enjoying it. Children are, as they say, the future, and I have confidence in them.

People ask me how come I, as consultant physician and scientist, am interested in fantasy. It's a fair question.
Well, let me explain that, as I see it, high quality fantasy is an art form in itself, much as opera, or poetry are art forms.

If only those who doubt this were to read the highly creative short stories these Irish teenagers are expressing, they might change their minds.

An elderly friend has just died, which provokes me to write about a very different thought.

As a hospital doctor I was very frequently in the position of attempting to help elderly patients who were suffering from terminal illnesses. It was a challenge to know what best to do in terms of caring for people where there was no cure.

What these patients needed, above all else, was to make normal contact. To be understood and appreciated in a normal human way. To my mind, even on the busiest of days, I made a point of spending at least as much time with them as with any other patient. It wasn't any kind of obligation. Rather it was a privilege. I would sit on the side of their bed and shake hands and talk to them about what mattered to them. Above all else, they appreciated the physical contact -- the holding of hands, or an arm around their shoulders. In my day this was known as "the art of medicine".

I have many treasured memories, some very poignant, some more humorous, of my life in medicine. I witnessed, again and again, courage in the face of pain and extreme stress of the sort you would only otherwise witness on a battlefield. But no medals were issued in this arena. Above all else, I came away with a great admiration and empathy for ordinary people.


And yes, to return to fantasy, I do write stories in which ordinary children display extraordinary courage and resourcefulness because I know, from my own personal experience, that ordinary people, whether children or adults, possess that courage in abundance.


08 January 2011

It's been a few days since I felt inclined to continue. To be honest, and I have said this at the very beginning, I'm not comfortable writing this kind of diary in which I'm virtually talking to myself. I'd much prefer to be taking part in a conversation with others also contributing, arguing, debating - disagreeing with me, if necessary. But such is the nature of blogging.

So to cool it I'm listening to one of my favorite pop tracks, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. I suppose I should confess that I sometime splay music, either openly or through my I-pod, as I'm writing.

My new science book, The Mystery of Metamorphosis: A Scientific Detective Puzzle, is nearing completion with the publishers, Chelsea Green. I've said it before and I can confirm it here - they're a terrific bunch of people. They take real pains to get it right, with a series of experts all contributing on editing, copy-editing, page design, cover design, marketing and promotion - all the sort of thing all publishers do, but they do it really painstakingly well. Coming soon to a brain near you. Ha ha - I've stolen the joke of my artist friend, Mark Salwowski, who has also helped with some of the chapter-head illustrations that are intended, always, to further explain the text! Here's to success!

I'm relaxing - some might say escaping - by returning to book two of my teenage/ adult fantasy series. Some of my readers will know that I wrote a free-access booklet (also brilliantly illustrated by Mark) telling potential writers how to go about writing a fantasy short story. One of the points I highlighted was the need to examine body language. I believe this is vitally important, not only in writing fiction but also in life. I've said all I intend to in the booklet.

Today I put it into action, in writing the interaction, at a key point about halfway through the second book, where Irish teenager, Kate Shaunessy, is interacting with a dragon. The nature of the dragon, and the implicit interaction, is key to the narrative. Thoughts, emotions, veer powerfully in this relatively short chapter, but I say nothing of this, merely work with dialogue and body language. It's a subtle way to go about it, but intensely satisfying - I hope the eventual reader, maybe towards the end of this year, just feels it, senses it, rather than thinks it.

I'm off to watch a couple of recorded videos, one about the Who, in reflection on their difficulties and successes, and the other about the ever pleasing Jonny Cash.

Discovered a lovely fresh Beaujolais, which will greatly enhance the pleasure.

Cheers!

P.S. I may be unconsciously learning some delightful bad habits from another friend, the celebrity chef Keith Floyd, with whom I once did a hilarious video. Poor old Keith, who died last year. Deeply missed!


29 December 2010

A perfect, if rather hyperactive day. I wrote an entire book chapter for the second of the fantasy series. Then got on my work clothes and repaired a badly damaged door -- the 3 ft of snow has wrecked a lot of things -- so my wife can now get her car out and get on with normality.

This evening watched an hour-long program of the Who biography. I never gave them enough credit. High quality rock and roll -- much better in live performance than my favorite Rolling Stones. Fantastic guitarist, who plays both plectrum style and finger style on an accoustic, and an equally accomplished bass guitarist -- I should explain I was an amateur guitarist but just not good enough, though I have kept the old Hofner. Followed by High Renaissance art -- an hour-long program on the art of Agnolo Bronzino. He's a guy you rarely hear about yet was the epitome of painting in his day. Beautiful, serene, pictures -- mostly portraits of the Medicis and group pictures. Trying to find the right words to describe what I am looking at -- like maybe an artist from four hundred years ago who could capture the poetry of what it means to be human.

I was reminded of a certain quality in the art of my friend, Endre Roder, whose quality I recognized the first time I saw his pictures here in Sheffield about two decades ago. I ran an art gallery in Bolton, Lancashire, for nine years. Endy Roder's paintings cost very little in those days. I bought four at the University Arts exhibition -- and I never regretted it. Endy's a friend whose art is now rapidly increasing in appreciation and price.

Back to Agnolo Bronzino, whose insight, and grasp of mystery, is so mind-blowing it is capable of giving us reason to believe in humanity at a time when we see so much unpleasantness associated with our species. I'm reminded of the words of G K Chesterton, in defense of fantasy -- that fantasy showed us not that dragons were real but that dragons might be defeated. You know that's what a great artist, or writer, or composer can do. They can lift us up out of the mundane and unpleasantness.

Cheers!


28 December 2010

Had a very pleasant Christmas, with the family coming to the dinner cooked by my wife, ably assisted by me (Ha-Ha), in our seventeenth century farmhouse, with roof and walls of stone, mullioned windows, etc, in the village where England was first united in about the year 800. Snow on the ground but it refused to snow on the day.

Guts and gizzards!

Tonight I have enjoyed an inspiring reprise of the life of Beatrix Potter on BBC2 - a lady I admire both for her science, against ignorant male bigotry, and for her writings for children. Feelgood factor ++++

Yesterday I did some work on the www.frankpryan.com website to introduce a different inspiration, the gentlemanly behaviour of JRR Tolkein. In 1998, already engaged in the fantasy series for teenagers and adults (Snowmelt River)I traveled to London to bid for letters and such artefacts at the famous Sotheby auction house - a first for me. I had to make careful arrangements with my bank in Sheffield before traveling to London, so I could make bids in the teens or tens of thousands of pounds. What I was really after was a small piece of paper, about the size of a page of a paperback novel, on which were hand-written 22 words in Latin.

But what glorious words!

Here they are, for the cognoscenti among you:

Numero pondere et mensura Deus omnia condidit
Hoc symbolum suum honoris et benevolentiae
Gratia Dignissimo Doctissimoque huus Albi
Possessori posuit

In English it reads "Number, weight and measure, God created all these things. I have placed this, my motto, for the honor and best wishes for the most worthy and learned possessor of this book."

Now there's a worthy inscription on the frontispiece of a book to be given away to someone. Who was the author - well it was none other than Isaac Newton, who bequeathed us the concept of gravity, amongst other things. And the book in question was, almost certainly, a limited copy of his magnum opus, Die Principia Mathemathica.

I failed to make a bid since the first bid went over my head. But I did come away from the auction with an inspiring letter. The author of the letter was Tolkein, who even went to the trouble of addressing the envelope with his address embossed on the letter itself by one of those old machines.

Tolkein wrote that a young correspondent should have felt free to offer as long, and critical, a critique of Lord of the Rings as he had felt inclined.

You can read it for yourself on the website. But what struck me was Tolkein's humility. This was inspiring in a different way to the Beatrix Potter biography.

I returned to a key chapter in the second book of my fantasy series inspired by both.

Back to the Iain M Banks book, which is inspiring in yet a different way. He discusses human behavior, in particular our grossest behavior, in war, genocide, conquest, imperialism, at a conceptual and philosophical depth you wouldn't expect in a science fiction novel - the book is called "Matter", so I think you might think it appropriate.

Another remarkable observation today. In the Daily Telegraph obituaries, two singular Englishmen, Patrick Pollen and Major John De Burgh, the former an artist in stained glass windows, and the latter a war hero, who excelled in training racehorses: both settled in Ireland and lived there throughout the troubles in the North, making seminal contributions not only to Irish art and horse training, but to their beloved disciplines in a more international fashion.

When you hear about behavior of this social relevance and you see the actual people in pictures attached to the obituaries, you know you could spend a very pleasant evening with them, sinking a glass or two and smoking a forbidden cigar or two - or three.

It may not seem like much, but it's kind of reassuring that the world is not so bad as it is sometimes painted in the media, and that some of us, maybe most of us, are doing the right things.

Night Music.

Glass of Port.

Cigar.

Heaven.

Alas, the cigar was wishful thinking.



22 December 2010

A very busy day, starting for me at 06.00 am. We have a very good title for the Metamorphosis book at Chelsea Green. A secret for the moment. But all proceeding to plan. Wonderful introduction by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan -- I mean really insightful. Moving on to start a new paper aimed at helping virologists work on the way symbiotic viruses change human evolution -- I'm writing it jointly with Professor Luis Villarreal of UC Irvine. Finished the first third of the second draft of the second fantasy novel -- things moving so brilliantly with Snowmelt River, I really need to crack on with the second. Almost a hundred visitors to the dedicated website, www.frankpryan.com today. Lots of e-mails to reply to. Just wrote a chapter involving the confirmation of the New Kyra of the Shee.

All done by mid-afternoon.

You work hard, play hard. Now early evening and am savouring a very good glass of vino blanco. Replying to readers' e-mails in a relaxed frame of mind. Listening on my I-pod to Van Morrison's anthemal Astral Weeks as I do so - and as I write this blog. Tonight I will revisit Ian M Banks, Matter - a curious science fiction novel, very long, beautifully written of course, with slow-distilled universal themes.

Perfect nocturne music!

Cheers!


19 December 2010

I have written a short article on how sponsorship helped us to conduct a major national exercise in Ireland aimed at improving kids' writing skills. It is included in my articles for anybody who is interested. It would be relatively easy to set up a similar exercise in America, or even on a smaller scale, in schools.


<18 December 2010

My new non-fiction title, Metamorphosis, is approaching completion with Chelsea Green, my US publisher. It's great to see the page edits. In fact they've made a superb job of the editing. I'm delighted that my eminent colleague, Lynn Margulis, is writing an introduction to the US edition. In the UK an Oxford-based publisher, Oneworld, has taken the rights. It's an exciting time to see a project that has taken me some ten years to complete now come to fruition -- though I have written six or seven other books in the interim.

I now have some time to return to my fantasy series, and am immersed in the second draft of Book Two of The Snowmelt River Series. Non-writers might not realize that revising the first draft takes much longer than actually writing the first draft. I don't want to reveal the name of Book Two right now -- I learnt the hard way never to reveal the name of a new book until it has been established with ISBN and so on. Now there's a useful tip for would-be writers.

People ask me how I can write in two very different categories, such as popular science and fantasy, but it really isn't a problem at all. In fact it's refreshing to have the choice. I tend to work very hard and very fast, so that after a month or two, in which I would write a minimum of a hundred or more pages, I'm ready for a rest and a change. If I didn't write in the two categories, I wouldn't write at all at this stage. I'd just watch sport and documentaries -- or clear off to the Canaries and walk on beaches and drink wine (some sacrifice!)and generally waste my time. So it actually makes a deal of sense to write in two categories.

I make no secret of the fact I do this, but I try to separate the two by using Frank Ryan for science and Frank P Ryan for fiction.

I had a conversation with Ian Banks about this, many years ago, and he gave me the idea of the middle initial.

Just finished watching Strictly Come Dancing with my wife and we were delighted they got the right winner this time -- Kata Tointon. She's brilliant!

It's late here now and I think I might clock off with a pleasant glass of wine.

Cheers!


07 December 2010

Just read Glenda A Bixler's wonderful review of my fantasy novel, The Snowmelt River, for AuthorsDen. She has come out and said it's the best fantasy she has ever read -- "This book is a powerful, outstanding book, dare I say far superior than Harry Potter." Wow -- now I'm getting a little excited myself.

The full review by Glenda A Bixler is on my news pages.

It certainly made my day!

09 December 2010

The Glenda A Bixler review is certainly grabbing people's attention. I think it may have had an impact in selling books. Thanks a million!



02 December 2010

Just finished revising a new scientific paper on the role of HERV-W in Multiple Sclerosis. It's satisfying to apply the evolutionary lessons of Virolution in a way that might, at the end of the day, actually help people.

Working through the copy-edited pages of Metamorphosis for Chelsea Green. It's a beautiful subject -- all today dealing with the insect metamorphosis section. I just love the chapter-head inserts, each of which involves a small gray-scale image relevant to the text. Little things really do make a difference. Something in the text made me look up my interview with the late great Joshua Lederberg, Nobel Laureate and former President of the Rockefeller University. They were very good to me there when I was researching the TB book and, later, when I returned for this interview as part of my research into the theme of viral symbiosis back in 1994.

Almost done with the revision of Metamorphosis -- just a few more days work! Book coming out in March 2011. Can't wait!

Meanwhile, Sheffield is caught up in a blizzard. Temperatures tonight will be as low as minus 11 in hilly places. But I can't complain. In parts of Scotland it's already minus 21. Grand kids love it.

Problems with running out of milk. Also toner for the printer. But wonderful news from Ireland to say that the teenagers being recruited for the John West Fantasy Short Story Competition have exceeded 5,000. Possibly a national record for a short story competition.

If I can't get any physical exercise, I can at least get some mental exercise. Off to do the tough sudoku from today's Daily Telegraph.


27 November 2010 #2

An excellent day getting even better.

Today I've had a small flutter of e-mails from readers of The Snowmelt River. It's great to hear that they are enjoying it -- and asking about the next in the series. Uplifting!

I guess I should explain what I mean by that. Half my books have been science books, whether medical science or biological science. A lot of people have written to me about them, especially two of them, The Forgotten Plague, when folks who had suffered from the disease told me their stories, and my latest science book, Virolution, which saw an avalanche of correspondence with scientific colleagues. More than 700 letters and communications between the two.

Contact like this about science books is intellectual. Don't get me wrong, I am very passionate about science, both medical and biological, and I enjoy contributing and respect the twin disciplines very deeply. Contact with readers about fiction, and particularly teenage/ adult fiction, is less intellectual, and more intimately personal.

That's why it's so heartbreaking for authors to have their novels turned down. It happens to most of us at the beginning. A novel that you've poured heart and soul into for some years is a little like a beloved offspring. So when it's turned down, it's as if your own offspring was rejected, stillborn. It provokes a real, heartfelt pain. Thus when a novel is published and readers strongly identify with it, it's as if your literary child is loved and wanted. That's special -- it's why I use the word uplifting.


27 November 2010

Reasons to be cheeful#2.

Milan Mandaric has bought out my football club, Sheffield Wednesday -- end of a harrowing period of debt that has kept the club in the lower divisions of English football.

Raise a glass and a cheer to better times!


23 November 2010

Three things have somewhat dominated my day. The first was an accident in which a bus ran into my car when parked opposite my local grocery store -- and then sped away without stopping. Fortunately for me there were witnesses who noted the number, time, etc, so that all of this morning was devoted to getting the bus company to own up to it -- which they did -- and getting them to come and look at my damaged wheel, burst tire, damaged rear wing, etc. I'm now without a car until a temporary replacement arrives tomorrow.

Another third of my day was devoted to preparing for more Irish radio interviews tomorrow, when I'll be talking about the background to writing The Snowmelt River.

The final third of my day, while bemoaning the financial crisis that is afflicting my native Ireland (though I have lived in the UK since I was 13), I have been attempting to help a smaller, but nevertheless significant crisis -- the survival of my football team, Sheffield Wednesday.

I am attempting to help "the Owls" through what I know, writing and publishing, and letting them have some of the income from it for a while. To tell you the truth, I'd be devastated if they went under.

Stupid and emotional of me, no doubt, but there you are. Here's hoping they weather the storm.


Same day, just a lot later...

The Snowmelt River has just received its first review and a brilliant one. The reviewer was Shelley Marsden for the Irish World.

See http://www.theirishworld.com/article.asp?SubSection_Id=10&Article_Id=16587

I'll put up some details on the reviews page tomorrow. It's so difficult to get newspaper reviews of fantasy because of a mistaken prejudice against the genre, which is actually at least as imaginative, if not more so, than contemporary fiction. I've taken the front page of both the New York Times Book Review and The Washington Post Book Review, but this is just as thrilling in its way. The reviewer took the trouble to visit the dedicated website www.frankpryan.com, which is exceptional in my experience, and she also acknowledged the important and much valued contribution of my artist friend, Mark Salwowski.

You've got to sit back and enjoy the good things as much as you brood on the bad. I'm savoring this little piece of good news with a gin and tonic and with The Rolling Stones album, Exile on Main Street, on my I-pod.

This is the same me who once lay on the rug with a bottle of champagne and spent something like four hours solid listening to Wagner. I suppose, like L. Frank Baum's marvellous character, the Princess Langwidere, in the third of the Oz films, we all keep a selection of heads in our subconscious wardrope, so we can pick up the one we most feel like today.

Can you imagine it?

Cheers!



21 November 2010

At long last Swift Publishers have put up the e-book of The Snowmelt River for sale at a modest price and also the complete guide to writing your own fantasy short story at an even more modest price -- it's free.

Anyone who is interested should go visit www.swiftpublishers.com and go to the shopping page.



18 November 2010

Spent some time working again on the chapter-head illustrations of Metamorphosis, then replied to an Australian evolutionary biologist who is interested in the possibility of using human genomic viruses to try to date the spread of modern humans into Asia. Massimo Palmarini used sheep endogenous retroviruses to study the spread of pastoralization in ancient times, so why not something with humans.

Relaxing now, having received a fantastic picture of one of my fantasy characters, Qwenqwo Cuatzel, dwarf mage of the Fir Bolg. It's just so fabulous I had to get it into my fantasy website straight away. see www.frankpryan.com.

Mark Salwowski -- you're brilliant!

Visit www.frankpryan.com




17 November 2010

I've been busy all day with media interviews in Ireland, where I was asked why, as an international level scientist, I think fantasy is important. It is true, I have been replying to scientists in Australia, the UK, and the US today alone. But I still think that fantasy is important, and the reason why is that fantasy is important to children.

GK Chesterton said that fantasy was important not because it showed children that dragons existed but because it showed that dragons could be defeated.

Dragons in Chesterton's explanation weren't merely creatures of mythology but metaphors for great and terrible evil. The tragic fact is that a great many children encounter dragons of this sort daily.

And that is why fantasy is important.




13 November 2010

I should point out that the times indicated are not accurate. What appears to be sometime in the early hours of the morning, US time, is quite a different time here in the UK.

Here's a quote from Keith Richards' book...

"The most bizarre part of the whole story is that having done what we intended to do in our narrow, purist teenage brains at the time, which was to turn people on to the blues, what actually happened was we turned American people back to their own music."

Is that the truth or not -- probably depends on your perspective. But if only partly true, it was quite an achievement.

What am I doing today?

I'm reading Keith Richard's autobiography, Life. Enjoying it a lot. I played lead guitar in an amateur R & B group in the 60s so he lived the life I aspired to when I was a teenager. That makes the book especially fascinating to me. But also the contacts and interactions with all of the big names in early blues and R & B also make it particularly interesting. He was a bad boy, in his own admission, and shouldn't be able to remember it so vividly -- but he does and we're all richer for it.

What am I working on?

Working with a great bunch of editors at Chelsea Green on my forthcoming book, Metamorphosis: The Beautiful Mystery. I have been researching this, as with The Snowmelt River fantasy series, for ten years, off and on, writing many other books in the meantime, but always haunted by the theme of metamorphosis, which is central to both the non-fiction and the fantasy.

Also working with my friend, the artist Mark Salwowski, who lives in Australia. He's been working on a poster for The Snowmelt River and we've been liaising on this today. Mark is great fun to work with. Worth visiting his website www.salwowski.com.

Mark's poster is already brilliant, bringing in the main characters and the drama of the narrative, but needs a bit of tinkering. I wish I could show it to you here and now but there appears to be no room for adding a picture to a blog. Instead I shall insert it onto the home page of the Snowmelt website www.frankpryan.com, so you can take a peep and see what you think of it.

P.S. I see that Mark has inserted a joke into the poster-in-progress. My wife likes it and wants to keep it in the final poster.