When is a Child Not a Child?

Let’s begin this piece with a question: when is a child not a child?

It was during a quite uneventful bus ride home this afternoon that we stopped outside Cromer Hospital. There was the usual crowd of Cromer Academy kids there waiting to go on, with a young lad entering first and asking the driver for a child’s ticket to wherever he was going.
    “Have you been smoking?” the driver asked.
    “Yeah.” the child asked instantly.
    “Then you’re no longer a child. I’ll have to charge you for an in-between ticket.”

New (Old) Fiction Addition - The Rise of Supremus

Supremus, mutate creation of Dr. Armand Theophilus and the Black Squadron, escapes from captivity, desperate to gain the revenge on those who put him there, with his escape putting the future of the world in jeopardy.

The fourteenth Anglo-Force story, originally written in 1994, the biggest story since "The Formation" is now available online for the first time. Visit the links below to read the story in full.

You Know What Annoys Me About Mrs. May?

Do you know what annoys me the most about Theresa May?

It’s not the fact that she’s probably the most ineffective Prime Minister the United Kingdom has had in years, or that she comes across as an extremely arrogant woman who just can’t understand why people, including a great number of those within her own party, have a different opinion to hers.

New (Old) Fiction Addition - A Leap Too Far

Something goes drastically wrong with the Quantum Leap project in 1999. Instead of leaping around his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett finds that he has leapt into the body of a Starfleet captain in the 24th century.

New (Old) Fiction Addition - Princes of the Universe

The beheading of a Bajoran by a Cardassian on Deep Space Nine starts a series of events that spells danger for Connor McCloud, and brings Starfleet's future Commander-in-Chief into the action.

Ten Signs That You Watch Too Much Parliament

Let’s face it, as much as some of us might detest the world of politics it’s a part of our everyday lives, and every thing we do is affected by those who we elect. But the events of the past few months may have caused us to may even more attention to what goes in the Westminster as we wonder what the hell is going on as the U.K. tries to leave the European Union.

So if you’ve found yourself watching quite a lot of political coverage lately here’s ten signs that you might be watching too much parliament:

New (Old) Fiction Addition - Return to Epsilon

U.S.S. Valkyrie second officer Lt. Commander Sutek hijacks the ship and takes it to a planet deemed off-limits by Starfleet Command, out of loyalty to his first commanding officer, Captain Connor McCloud. But why? And what will be the outcome of his trial for mutiny?

New (Old) Fiction Addition - The Causality Loop

The crew of the U.S.S. Valkyrie find themselves in a desperate struggle to save their ship, time and time again.

New (Old) Fiction Addition: The Lycanthrope

When a Starfleet officer reluctantly transfers to the U.S.S. Valkyrie he brings a deep and deadly secret with him....

There's More to This Blog Than Professional Wrestling You Know!

So this is what I've been doing a lot of recently. I've been writing for years, and I churned out super-hero and science fiction pieces for years, first by hand, then on any old type-writer I could find in a second hand shop, then onto a snazzy electronic typewriter in the mid-nineties. A lot of those stories no longer exist, thrown away when I became bored with him, only to be rebooted time and time again.

That was until, with the help of my big brother Paul, that the combined Anglo-Force/Valkyrie Chronicles universe came into being. After a while Paul stepped back after co-writing and plotting some of the earlier efforts, but he always pitched ideas and kept a keen interest as I kept churning out the stories.

The universe I created borrowed characters and scenarios from other media as I added them to my own. Marvel, DC, Star Trek, Dr. Who, Star Wars, Babylon 5, Lord of the Rings, Highlander, Blake's 7, and more. Characters, situations and time lines were changed so they could fit in with the centuries-spanning adventures of the an immortal wizard and a semi-immortal English war hero.

New (Old) Fiction Addition: The Iron Man

When a Soviet-era super weapon is discovered deep underneath an abandoned eastern European castle it's accidentally reactivated and set on a course of destruction across Great Britain.

Is This Sexist?

My friends, I have a question for you all.

Every now and then some of my female friends post and share pictures of male celebrities Facebook, celebrities such as Gerard Butler, Tom Hardy, Hugh Jackman, etc, and more often than not they're accompanied by a tag line which basically says "Woooo! Here you go ladies! Here's a photo of a handsome chap to brighten your day!"

My question is this: is this sort of thing actually sexist towards men?

New (Old) Fiction Addition: The Android

When veteran scientist and World War II hero Jock Muir develops the ultimate in artificial intelligence he fears the worst when the military takes a great interest in his creation. He then turns to his old Anglo-Force allies for help.

New (Old) Fiction Addition: The Fabulous Foursome!

When arms expert Peter "Gunner" Oswald tries to build a weapon for his new paymasters it takes the efforts of a police inspector, an American intelligence agent, a young super-hero and gifted scientist to stop him.

RE-POST: WAW Canvey Island & Fakenham Show Previews (2002)

It feels like it's been a long time since the Lowestoft show, but as I write this, it's just a few days before the Canvey Island and Fakenham shows.

Those of you who have been reading my wrestling columns will know that I used to preview WWF pay-per-views, giving my predictions on what might happen in the various match-ups. As I am now part of the WAW furniture, I thought that it would be a good idea to do that sort of thing for the upcoming WAW shows, in the somewhat vain hope that my rumblings here will somehow sell a few more tickets.

First, we will start with the show at The Paddocks in Canvey Island. Only two matches have been announced for this one. I will discuss the ladies match between Sweet Saraya & Angel later on, because this match will also take place in Fakenham.

RE-POST: The Future of British Wrestling (2001)

Is it me, or has it been rather a slow week for wrestling news?

Okay, WCW is shutting down, possibly for good. This really does not surprise me. All it means is that Vince McMahon's grip on the wrestling world will get tighter.

The WMX-7 hype continues, and to be honest, I still can't get that excited about it. I don't know why. But I do agree with Mr Russev over at TRN, about Kurt Angle not being in the main event.

No, for me, the main news story this week revolves around a certain man, Norwich native Ricky Knight.

Who? Ricky Knight is the owner of World Association Wrestling, a British indy fed. They are putting on a big show at the Norwich Sport Village on April 21st. NRG Films are filming the event, in an attempt to get something that hasn't been seen in this country for quite a while. A British-based wrestling programme on British television.

RE-POST: How Sweet is Saraya? (2001)

It was in the summer of 2000 when I first became aware of Julia Knight. This Norwich native was appearing on the UK edition of Jerry Springer, and it wasn't because her spouse had been caught playing away.

Her spouse, veteran pro wrestler "Rowdy" Ricky Knight, had come onto the show to bemoan the fact that, as an attractive woman, in a wrestling world that, as far as women were now concerned, relied heavily on doses of T&A, Julia earned more than him. This, despite the fact that Ricky had only trained her as a joke.

Whether this whole thing was a work or shoot I have yet to determine. But given what I would hear about them, my opinion leans heavily towards work.