Dispatch from the Razor's Edge, the Blog of Michael Stephen Fuchs
2005.01.24 : Scraps of Useless Information
"So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style, to love the surface of the earth, and to take pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information."
        - George Orwell, "Why I Write"

     Truly ideal weekend: Friday evening I met up with my mates, as per always on Friday evenings, though this time out in the provinces (Egham). But it was well worth the trip. We laughed an awful lot. I'm even starting to twig to this whole ale thing. It was the lack of carbonation, not to mention the only-slightly-cool temperature, that were tripping me up at first. But once you get past that, it's darned tasty. And, all things being equal, I suppose I'd prefer not to be a lager lout.

A really memorable and lovely moment happened early on in the evening. I had come in quite brassed off about my never-ending laptop repair situation. But I also happened to mention to Fifers that my (quite cushy government) contract had just been extended for six months. His face blossomed into a huge smile as he leaned back and he said, "Man. You've got your work permit sorted; you're all settled into your flat; and you've got lucrative work for most of the rest of the year. You're completely set!" And I couldn't help but smile as I realised he was pretty much right. As Alex recently and sagely noted, "It's funny how some perspective changes your perspective…"

Got up Saturday morning and dragged myself to the gym, where I did (as I continue to do) what stuff I can do without the use of my right arm. Showered, dressed, and met Peter Nolan at Barbican Station for a very informative walking tour of Smithfields (in the heart of the old City of London). Dashed home, changed, and met some new friends right back at Barbican Center, for a concert by Kronos Quartet. My first exposure to "contemporary classical". The show was very enjoyable – as was the company.

And, by the way, if I'm sending hypertext shout-outs to the blogs of friends (as in the paragraph above) there's no longer any way I can deny that what I'm doing is blogging. I built and launched this puppy to document my extended period of wandering, dislocation, and searching – hence the name – as well as related travel. But I've ended up with what ten million other people have: a blog. Bloggity blog blog.

Sunday I had a very nice lie-in, did some shopping, took a walk through Fulham, and went to the cinema. As Sara will asseverate, no weekend is remotely complete without a trip to the cinema.

And so life is good.


  dftre     drinking     happiness     london     people     snafu     self-knowledge     bloggity blog  
about
close photo of Michael Stephen Fuchs

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very  long  walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

THE MANUSCRIPT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
PANDORA'S SISTERS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
DON'T SHOOT ME IN THE ASS, AND OTHER STORIES by Michael Stephen Fuchs
D-BOYS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
COUNTER-ASSAULT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book One - Fortress Britain, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Two - Mogadishu of the Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Genesis, by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Three - Three Parts Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Four - Maximum Violence, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Five - EXODUS, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Six - The Horizon, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Seven - Death of Empires, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eight - Empire of the Dead by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : NEMESIS by Michael Stephen Fuchs

ARISEN, Book Nine - Cataclysm by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Ten - The Flood by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eleven - Deathmatch by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Twelve - Carnage by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Thirteen - The Siege by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Fourteen - Endgame by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Fickisms
ARISEN : Odyssey
ARISEN : Last Stand
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 1 - The Collapse
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 2 - Tribes
Black Squadron
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 3 - Dead Men Walking
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 4 - Duty
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 5 - The Last Raid
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