What do we reckon about................... the recession? A final word.

The main thrust of this thread has been that any definition of recession based on quarterly economic growth figures is misleading, and furthermore that politicians use these numbers to talk things up, when perhaps they shouldn't. My previous posts on this can be found at http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-do-we-reckon-about-recession.html and http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-do-we-reckon-about-recession_27.html

I think I can prove just how misleading these definitions can be, and demonstrate why they are so dangerous in terms of their effect on decision-making - from personal experience.

You'll see above that I used to own a snooker club. It was situated in a busy town centre in England. A lengthy period of good trading was observed around the middle of the last decade. Then, in early 2007, I noticed a decline in business. At first, I thought that people were just being cautious after excessive Christmas expenditure, but in March 2007, things got a little worse again.

And then I learnt something, during a phone call with the local Borough Council. They employed people to analyse CCTV footage of the local shopping centre that surrounded the club, and reported that 30% fewer people were visiting than the month previously, a fact that was mirrored by decline in their revenue from parking meters. During the same week, British media for the first time began to talk about the 'credit crunch'.

Putting these two things together, and looking out of the windows, I could feel that a recession had begun, and I thought it would be a deep one. You can only cut overheads so much, and there was the added fact that the British smoking ban was due to commence July 1st of that year. I quickly began formulating an exit strategy, and before too long, I sold the club on. Thank goodness I did that - the club eventually closed in February 2010, with rather significant debts.

You can imagine my surprise when, based on three consecutive quarters of negative growth, the British Government finally announced a recession had 'officially' begun - in October 2009. And there's your proof.....

The worst jokes in history...... even worse?

The latest, as tweeted between Alex Shaw and Steve Stone;

Steve: My mate, Sam is a property developer. Why are all of his apartments the same size?
Alex: I do not know, why are all his apartments the same size?
Steve: Because they are Sammy-lair.

Buy our books - or the jokes continue....

For my top 100 Kindle bestselling series of science fiction adventure novels, from just $1.99 (or £1.20), visit http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/oh-my-god-steves-gone-mad-hes-offering.html

For Alex's series of special forces thrillers, visit http://alexwshaw.com/

And for the other jokes in this series, please visit
http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/worst-two-jokes-in-history.html
http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/07/worst-jokes-in-history-worse-still.html

The best football team in the world is........?

I promised you an update on Kingshill Warriors' progress in the UEFA Champions League, on the excellent 'Let's Make a Soccer Team!' for PlayStation 2 (for the team, the full story on this, and my thoughts on Barcelona please visit http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/best-football-team-in-world-is.html);

Latest results;

Champions League Quarter-Final - Lyon 0-2 Kingshill Warriors, Kingshill Warriors 0-0 Lyon. Kingshill Warriors win 2-0 on aggregate.

Champions League Semi-Final - Kingshill Warriors 1-1 Gelsenkirchen, Gelsenkirchen 3-2 Kingshill Warriors. Gelsenkirchen score in injury time to win 4-3 on aggregate, denying Warriors a trip to the Final on the away goals rule.


Good news, however. Warriors secure their 14th English Premiership, and have made the following signings for the next Champions League campaign;

Giggs (Wales), Vieira (France)

Perhaps next season will see Warriors crowned European Champions for the first time!

What do we reckon about.................. the recession? A response to Tim Cavanaugh's 26/06/11 article in Reason Magazine (USA).

In Reason Magazine (USA), within his article 'Opposite Sides Agree on Recession/Inflation Bogosity', well-known columnist Tim Cavanaugh talks about my earlier blog post on the recession. Showing the link to my post, he writes;

Can you still believe anybody in this crazy, hill-of-beans, overstimulated, double-dipping world? From the United Queendom, Steve Stone's Keynesian take on the mismeasurement of recessions is getting heavy #recession-hashtag rotation, and while it's not especially deep or broad, it's got a kernel of truth: 
A recession now only 'officially' exists in an economy if there are three successive quarters of negative growth, and as soon as that's no longer the case, it's 'officially' over, and we can all look to the future.
The definition is of course a load of old tosh. If it were true, the long and deep British recession of the 1970's was barely a recession at all - there was just one case of three successive quarters of negative growth, 1973-4, see GDP changes since 1955. And yet I lived through the miners' strike, the power cuts, the three-day week, and the 1978 Winter of Discontent....
Stone concludes by urging readers, "If you enjoyed reading this, please take a look my series of time travel novels," which you should definitely do unless you live in China. But his imagination fails him when he predicts based on past econometric models that "without doubt...the number one indicator of economic activity is house prices."

That may have been true once, and it may be true again, but at least on this side of the pond we're still working our way back through nearly four decades of well-above-CPI real estate inflation. And although, as Reason's Anthony Randazzo is diligently showing, our rulers have come pretty close to nationalizing the industry, real estate markets are still subject to a vast number of distortions by local busybodies, planners and property tax laws. If your predictive measure is the recovery of a market that still needs double-digit percentage price declines just to get back to historical inflation, you should get a new measure. 


Well, I would firstly like to thank Tim for his constructive comments. And it's good to know I'm getting heavy rotation across the pond.

I'd like to say that I was trying to put the argument across in a way that would be palatable to the large majority of readers, not just those people that read The Economist or The Wall Street Journal. What's definitely true is that House Prices are by far the number one economic indicator of demand, so if House Prices are heading upwards, then so will monetary sales of the large majority of common consumer products, such as food, drink, telecommunications products, and many other non-food items. Yes, of course there are many other factors at play, such as unemployment, seasonality, local influences - but if you put a good House Price Index into your econometric sales forecasting model, it will generally stand out from the others as an explanatory variable.

That's really important, because it's consumer sales that ultimately drive us in and out of recession. I think the importance of House Prices as a driver of demand, and thereby a key driver of the level of economic activity, comes from the fact that they are most people's number one 'feelgood' factor. Many people have large mortgages, and movements in House Prices are regularly reported on news stations. If the price of a guy's house is going up, his equity position has improved, and he may well feel more confident going out, and spending his money. If House Prices are going down, he worries about his equity position in the context of the other important things in his life, and might well choose to stay in with the DVD player. And people who don't own their homes also keep up with the news, and know whether the value of their nation's property is going up or down.

Coming out of a recession isn't about "working our way back through" the past, it's about getting to where we need to go. That's why the economies of Britain and America won't truly recover until their housing markets pick up. "That may have been true once, and it may be true again...."

Tim's article continues with an in-depth discussion of how recession might be best defined. Should it be based on two quarters of negative growth, three quarters? My central point is that you can't define the beginning or end of a recession, based on these numbers. But you can feel a recession - it's when there isn't as much traffic on the road as you remember, when there are less people in the local shopping centre than before, when yet another of your local shops or pubs closes down, when sent CVs don't even get an acknowledgement, when another of your friends loses his job, when he can't sell his house anymore for the price he needs to move on.... and yet, courtesy of any quarterly-based growth definition of recession, the politicians can use the numbers to talk things up, and tell you that everything's going to be all right, just around the corner.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. In today's expectations-based world, talking success can often breed success. But when the politicians say that the recession is 'officially' over because of a small positive growth figure one quarter, it's a lie, and a lie that some people will base important decisions on.

Finally, I'd like to thank Tim for plugging my top 100 Kindle bestselling science fiction adventure novels. You can view or buy these great time travel adventures by visiting http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/oh-my-god-steves-gone-mad-hes-offering.html.

I guess time travel is one sure way of getting yourself out of a recession....

Oh my God, Steve's gone mad....! He's offering his top 100 Kindle bestselling series of science fiction adventure novels for just $1.99 (£1.20)!


Yes, that's right, folks. You can now acquire the science fiction adventure novels 'Intrepid' and 'Intrepid - The Two Storms' for just $1.99, or £1.20. Yep, you read it right - $1.99 or £1.20. These great time travel adventures are just one click away - http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/

You can still buy the slightly more expensive paperbacks, if you prefer. And you can still download the books to Kindle reader, Kindle for PC, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, or Blackberry.

For further information on 'Intrepid', a top 100 Kindle bestseller in science fiction, military and war, see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-novel-intrepid-by-martin-ince.html

For further information on the sequel 'Intrepid - The Two Storms', see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid-two-storms.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/martin-ince-review-of-novel-intrepid.html

Martin Ince - review of the novel 'Intrepid - The Two Storms'.

'Steve Stone works at the tough but exciting interface between the thriller and the hardest of hard science fiction. In this second part of his four-book series, we find spaceflight, gangland violence, high politics and a clutch of plot twists. Based on deep research and imagination, this series has delivered plenty already and the final two volumes promise much more.'

MARTIN INCE, SCIENCE JOURNALIST.

Martin is freelance now, see http://www.martinince.eu/. He previously worked for the London Times as science correspondent, news editor and deputy editor, and has made over 100 TV and radio appearances. His review appears on the back cover of the paperback.

The four novels in the series are;

'Intrepid' (released 2010) - see http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid.html Achieved top 100 Kindle bestseller status in science fiction, military and war
'Intrepid - The Two Storms' (released 2011)
'Intrepid - Revelations' (coming 2012)
'Intrepid - Regression' (coming 2013)

To view or buy my novels, check out http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/

And see http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid-two-storms.html for the premise of 'Intrepid - The Two Storms', and more information on the book.

The premise for the novel 'Intrepid - The Two Storms'.

I finished the novel 'Intrepid - The Two Storms' in 2011. It's a sequel to 'Intrepid' (completed 2010), and is the second in a series of four novels. It took nine months to write. Two weeks of research were required, beyond that undertaken for the first novel.

The basis of the story is time travel, but two-thirds of the action takes place on Earth, so the book should appeal to both science fiction and action adventure fans;


Post-Obama, US Air Force Colonel Lance Tucker prepares to take his crew on a flight to the International Space Station, aboard the new generation X-33 space shuttle Intrepid. The New Cold War of the era has abated, as a direct result of Intrepid's previous mission. The Russian Buran shuttle project, which was cancelled by Boris Yeltsin in 1993, has quietly resurfaced in recent years, and the first red orbiter is ready to go. Having proposed that Buran's inaugural flight should be a dual launch beside Intrepid, the Russian President sits beside the American President on the grandstand at Cape Canaveral, eagerly awaiting the simultaneous lift-off.

Notorious international assassin 'The Chinaman' strikes in the seconds before launch, gunning down both leaders, causing a geo-political storm. And as the shuttles ascend to the ISS, an underwater volcanic eruption causes local superheating of the Atlantic Ocean, transforming weakening Hurricane Ernie into the fiercest super-storm ever recorded. The hurricane tears an immense tranche of destruction, stretching from Miami to New Orleans, costing billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of lives.

During a video conference aboard the ISS, and mindful of Intrepid's previous mission, General Jack Nelson implores the Intrepid and Buran shuttles to use a large, installable fuel source attached to the space station, and travel back in time to change history. With hindsight, capturing and unmasking the assassin should prove simple, and the General also outlines an incredible plan to harmlessly destroy Hurricane Ernie at sea, using a secret large neutron bomb housed in a B-2 stealth bomber at Area 51. If one shuttle doesn't make it past the hazardous journey through time, the surviving crew can provide the advance warning needed....

Lance faces the following obstacles along the way;

The American and Russian crews - they don't believe the plans to change history can work....

Hurricane Ernie - if the voyage back in time is successful, Lance must fly the B-2 into the eye of the storm, and unleash the bomb....

The Chinaman - who is the assassin? How does he know Lance's restricted cell phone number, and every movement? A gripping game of cat and mouse ensues, as Lance attempts to unmask the killer. 'Whodunnit?' - the clues are there, but can you work it out....?

Leading Senator Darrell McKay - having escaped The Chinaman's bullet once, he's very helpful. But Lance's line of questioning on his sinister Head of Security Vivian Kort is met with a frosty reception. Has Lance seen Viv Kort, somewhere before....?

New Orleans street gang, the Pontchartrain Pirates - the most dangerous gang in the notorious Ninth Ward of New Orleans have assisted The Chinaman. Then the mother of Lance's youngest crew member is molested by a gang associate. Lance resolves to defeat the Pirates.....



And the trouble is, when you try to change the course of history, you may well make inadvertent changes, as well as the ones you intended. Just when it looks as though everything might turn out all right, Lance discovers that his actions and words have produced a terrifying conclusion, from which the only escape is the rapid solution of The Chinaman's seemingly impossible riddle - can you solve it....?

'Intrepid - The Two Storms' is available from http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/, Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads and ebay. 83,118 words. For a review, see http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/martin-ince-review-of-novel-intrepid.html

Paperback - ISBN 9781461073277 £8.99=$14.49.
Electronic versions - iPhone, Blackberry, iPad, Kindle Reader, Kindle for PC, iPod Touch, Android £1.99=$3.21.
.pdf (with book covers) $1.99=£1.20. Wow! 

The novel can be read on a stand-alone basis, but reading 'Intrepid' first comes highly recommended. For more on 'Intrepid', top 100 Kindle bestseller in science fiction, military and war, see http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid.html

The two worst jokes in history....?

As tweeted recently between Steve Stone and Alex Shaw;

Alex: Why are all (paranormal) mediums the same size?
Steve: I don't know, Alex, why are all mediums the same size?
Alex: Because they're all medium.

Steve: I accidentally tripped my mate, Karl. Why are his bumps and grazes all the same size?
Alex: OK, why?
Steve: Because they are I-dent-a-Karl.

You'll be glad to know that our books are better than our jokes;

For my series of sci-fi adventure novels, please visit http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/.

For further information on my novel 'Intrepid', a top 100 Kindle bestseller in science fiction, military and war, see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-novel-intrepid-by-martin-ince.html

For further information on the sequel 'Intrepid - The Two Storms', see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid-two-storms.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/martin-ince-review-of-novel-intrepid.html

For an excellent introduction to Alex's series of special forces thrillers, please visit http://www.alexwshaw.com

And for the other jokes in this series, please visit
http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/07/worst-jokes-in-history-worse-still.html and
http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/worst-jokes-in-history-even-worse.html

What do we reckon about.... haunted Alcatraz?


My wife, Debi and I visited Alcatraz twice, during a lovely summer trip to San Francisco and Hawaii.  Our first visit was during the day, and it felt like a typical tourist's stroll around a place holding great historical interest. I remember going into the dining area, where we encountered a pretty strong smell of scrambled eggs. We both wondered if it was possible for the breakfast-style smell to be entrenched in the walls for so long - I guess it could be. The shower room also felt strange, but you knew from the audio tour that some pretty unsavoury things happened down there.

Our second visit was in the evening, and it felt.... a completely different place.











I took my camcorder - that's me there, facing some cells. The boat ride from Pier 33 was the same as the daytime trip, as was the audio tour, except I didn't listen so much, second time around. Even though it was bright outside, and the internal lights were on, the place quickly felt a bit intimidating.

At about 8:50, the Sun was down, and it was fast getting dark. We were told that the boat would be departing at 9:30. The other tourists left pretty quickly, heading for the shop at the bottom of the hill. The uniformed staff slammed a few doors shut, and retreated to the entrance lobby, leaving Debi and I in there - alone.

We walked around the place for a few minutes, in silence. It began to feel rather menacing, all of a sudden. We reached the door to the exercise yard, at the back. It had been left open, and we peered into the gloom beyond. Debi didn't want to go through, even though she had cavorted around out there like a schoolgirl, during the daytime tour. We took the plunge, and walked down the steps. You can see the wonderful night-time San Francisco shoreline in the distance, and the electrifying Golden Gate Bridge. But during a single circuit of the yard, Debi constantly begged me to go back inside. To be honest, I heard a few unusual sounds out there, seemingly movement of some sort, but I convinced myself that in all probability, there was a natural explanation.

We went back inside, to the infamous punishment Cell Block D. We stood there for a while, and I must say, it started to feel pretty awful. But I was determined to visit the notorious haunted cell 14. I went inside, through a big heavy door, and two sets of gates. With the camcorder running, I closed the gates, and sat on a bunk to the right. Even with the heavy door partially open, it sure is dark at the back of that cell. I asked Debi to close the door on me, but she couldn't do it.

I spent a few minutes in there, looking around, and chatting away. Every so often, Debi implored me to come out, as she was getting more and more scared, out in the open block, on her own. Eventually, she did leave the block, and waited in the library next door. Now I was truly alone. I heard a couple of sounds, like faint low sighs, but I guess they could have been extraneous. But then a fluttering sound started, and went across the ceiling, from the inside gate to the back wall. A few seconds later, it went back across the ceiling, to the gate.

I looked around the cell for an explanation. I didn't find one. Alcatraz is of course known for its birds and bats, they fly in through the broken windows all the time. Could a small creature have been in there with me, maybe a bat that took up residence the night before? The problem was that the gates were closed, and even if such a creature could have flown between the narrow bars, why didn't I notice it flying out, towards the lit cell block beyond?

I joined Debi in the library, pretty soon after that. She was anxious to leave, and I must admit, the library had an eerie atmosphere, like someone was keeping tabs on you, from behind the bookshelves. We walked a bit quicker than normal down the hill, to the waiting boat. When we eventually got back to England, the camcorder had picked up the sighs and fluttering.

So is Alcatraz haunted? It might well be. I certainly wouldn't recommend going there at night....



If you enjoyed reading this, try my post on the haunted Hotel Thirty Thirty, http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/steve-stones-chat.html

Also, please take a look at my series of sci-fi adventure novels, at http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/.

For further information on my novel 'Intrepid', a top 100 Kindle bestseller in science fiction, military and war, see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-novel-intrepid-by-martin-ince.html

For further information on the sequel 'Intrepid - The Two Storms', see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid-two-storms.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/martin-ince-review-of-novel-intrepid.html

The best football team in the world is....

Well, it depends on whether you're talking about the real or virtual world.

How about;

N. Gonzalez (Paraguay), F. Van Galen (Holland), Puyol (Spain), R. Ferdinand (England), Beckham (England), Gerrard (England), Cocu (Holland), Morientes (Spain), Robben (Holland), Kluivert (Holland), Henry (France).

3-5-2 formation.

I've been playing the excellent 'Let's Make a Soccer Team!' for PlayStation 2, and this is my current 'Kingshill Warriors' team.  I've played 40 seasons over 9 months, and have 13 English Premiership titles, 8 FA Cups (including 6 Premiership and FA Cup doubles), 1 Europa League, and 1 UEFA Champions League Final - lost 2-0 to AC Milan.

If we're talking about the real world, then the best team in the world is undoubtedly.... Barcelona. After purchasing David Villa from Valencia, they have I think 8 of the Spain team that won the 2010 World Cup Final, and it's strongly rumoured that they will acquire Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal) over the summer.

I remember the great Leeds United team of the 1960's, the great Liverpool team of the 1970's, and of course there's the great Manchester United team of the past decade or so. But these Barcelona guys seem better than all of those, and might well be the best team of all time. Alex Ferguson knows it, that's why he was smiling, when his team picked up the Losers' Medals at the 2011 Champions League Final.

I remember watching many truly great players over the years; Pele, Maradona, Cryuff, Giggs, Cantona, to name but a few. The lad Lionel Messi seems to be up there with the very best of them.

I'll keep you posted now and again on the progress of Kingshill Warriors - can they achieve the ultimate goal of winning the Champions League?

Latest results; Champions League last 16 - Kingshill Warriors 2-0 Liverpool, Liverpool 1-3 Kingshill Warriors. Kingshill Warriors win 5-1 on aggregate. Last 8 opponents - Lyon.



If you enjoyed reading this, please take a look at my series of sci-fi adventure novels, at http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/.

For further information on my novel 'Intrepid', top 100 Kindle bestseller in science fiction, military and war, see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-novel-intrepid-by-martin-ince.html

For further information on the sequel 'Intrepid - The Two Storms', see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid-two-storms.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/martin-ince-review-of-novel-intrepid.html

What do we reckon about.... the recession?

You'll hear the word somewhere, at least one a day. The politicians tell us through the media that it's 'officially' over, and although there are concerns about a 'double dip', don't worry, because as fragile as the recovery is, everything's going to be all right, anytime soon.

It's a big lie, and the top politicians might not even know it. In fairly simple terms, here's why;

Between the 1930's and 1970's, what can loosely be termed as Keynesian economics dominated Government policy. Everything was based on the reality of supply and demand. Most economists agreed that recession was characterised by 'low or no growth' of economies, say 0-1.5% per year. Reasonable growth was considered to be 2% or 3%, with good growth being regarded as perhaps 4% or 5%. The growth figures of 6% to 12% achieved by some Far East countries in the last third of the 20th century was considered exceptional, as was negative growth, which was considered to be a sign of depression, a state worse than recession.

All that changed with the advancement of monetarism in the late 1970's, and its effect on Government policy. Instead of the reality of supply and demand, the leading principle became expectations. Before too long, key stock market prices became expectation-based. So if a large company only made $3billion, instead of the expected $5billion, stock markets would fall. Similarly, if a report on industrial performance was better than anticipated, stock markets would rise. Not too long ago, I remember a report on Sky News, featuring a guy in America, who was closing his car showroom because of the recession. He speculated that General Motors might face some problems soon. Although General Motors made no comment in the media that day, Sky News later reported that the FTSE100 in London finished 1.5% down 'on the news'....

Following the advancement of monetarism, it didn't take the politicians too long to realise that expectations had become everything. Words gradually became of greater importance than actions. So if you talk something up, it might well get better. If you talk something down, it may well get worse. Some people call this 'spin'. And before too long, a new definition of recession was upon us. A recession now only 'officially' exists in an economy if there are three successive quarters of negative growth, and as soon as that's no longer the case, it's 'officially' over, and we can all look to the future.

The definition is of course a load of old tosh. If it were true, the long and deep British recession of the 1970's was barely a recession at all - there was just one case of three successive quarters of negative growth, 1973-4, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/interactive/2008/oct/22/creditcrunch-recession, GDP changes since 1955. And yet I lived through the miners' strike, the power cuts, the three-day week, and the 1978 Winter of Discontent....

The new definition of recession of course enables the politicians to talk everything up, which they believe will make things better, faster. If things aren't going well, they can say it's not a recession, because we haven't had three negative growth quarters, or they can say it's 'officially' over, and we're in a fragile recovery, because the latest quarter shows small positive growth. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's still a lie, which some people will unfortunately base their decisions on.

So where are we really with the recession? Well, I have a lot of experience over the years in econometric modelling - that's trying to explain things using economic data, and then using the knowledge to try and predict the future. I once worked with the Henley Centre for Forecasting, and I can tell you without doubt that the number one indicator of economic activity is house prices. That may well mean bad news for the American economy for a while longer, since the trend in house prices in America still seems to be down. It's probably worse news for the British economy, which tends to run about two years behind the US....



If you enjoyed reading this, please take a look at my series of sci-fi adventure novels, at http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/.

For further information on my novel 'Intrepid', a top 100 Kindle bestseller in science fiction, military and war, see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-novel-intrepid-by-martin-ince.html

For further information on the sequel 'Intrepid - The Two Storms', see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid-two-storms.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/martin-ince-review-of-novel-intrepid.html

I guess time travel is one sure way to get yourself out of a recession....

Martin Ince - review of the novel 'Intrepid'.

                                
'This striking debut novel by Steve Stone has enviable narrative pace, a plot that is adventurous and perhaps just on the right side of plausibility, and enough action to satisfy the most demanding of thrill seekers.

'Above all, Stone succeeds in the central task of any novelist - creating a believable protagonist that we want to meet again. Intrepid is designed as the first in a trilogy of thrillers. I very much hope Stone's intention is carried through with success.'

MARTIN INCE, SCIENCE JOURNALIST.

Martin is freelance now, see http://www.martinince.eu/. He previously worked for the London Times as science correspondent, news editor and deputy editor, and has made over 100 TV and radio appearances. His review appears on the back cover of the paperback.

There will now be four novels in the series;

'Intrepid', a top 100 Kindle bestseller in science fiction, military and war (released 2010)
'Intrepid - The Two Storms' (released 2011) - see http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid-two-storms.html
'Intrepid - Revelations' (coming 2012)
'Intrepid - Regression' (coming 2013)

To view or buy my novels, check out http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/

See http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid.html for the premise of 'Intrepid', and more information on the book.

And for another great review of 'Intrepid', see http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/07/review-of-intrepid-by-sj-wist-fantasy.html

The premise for the novel 'Intrepid'.

I finished the novel 'Intrepid' in 2010. It took nine months to write, including two months of research. The basis of the story is time travel, but two-thirds of the action takes place on Earth, so the book should appeal to both science fiction and action adventure fans;


When Barack Obama became US President in 2009, it didn't take him long to announce that support for the space shuttle program would stop. NASA were scheduled to introduce the new X-33 shuttle from 2016, replacing the retired fleet, but the project was quickly suspended. More recently, however, an intention to re-commence the shuttle program using commercial funding has been announced.

The premise of 'Intrepid' is that post-Obama (assuming his re-election through to January 2017), the X-33 replacement shuttle program will be rolled out. NASA remain the only experts in the field, and even if Government funding doesn't re-commence, it's pretty obvious that any commercial funding will be used for the X-33. The design is already complete, and a scale model of the silver, black and blue craft has already been produced.

In my novel, the first X-33 shuttle is named 'Intrepid', after a famous Essex-class aircraft carrier that served in World War 2 - all of the existing shuttles are named after sailing ships. My protagonist, US Air Force Colonel and shuttle Commander Lance Tucker takes his crew on Intrepid's second flight to the International Space Station, against the backdrop of a New Cold War on the ground - post-Obama, Russia has re-commenced its excursions into Eastern Europe, following the effective occupation of Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008.

An accident in space prompts a rogue Russian General to push the nuclear button, and a devastating war ensues. Feeling responsible, Lance comes up with a plan to use Intrepid to travel back in time and change history, by preventing his latest launch.  He faces the following obstacles along the way;

His crew - they don't believe the plan can work....

His conscience - there are elements of the plan that he can't tell the crew....

Hostile cosmonauts at the Russian-controlled ISS - there is a new, large, installable fuel source attached to the ISS, that Lance must acquire....

The American military - if the voyage back in time is successful, he must race against the clock to Houston Mission Control, and convince four-star General Jack Nelson to abort the launch. The General might well not believe Lance's story, and is protected by elite Army guards....

New Orleans street and biker gangs - if the voyage back in time is successful, Lance must obtain something important from the notorious Ninth Ward, before travelling on to Houston....



And the trouble is, when you try to change the course of history, you may well make inadvertent changes, as well as the ones you intended. Just when it looks as though everything might turn out all right, Lance realises that his actions and words have produced a terrifying conclusion, from which there is no apparent escape....

'Intrepid' - a top 100 Kindle bestseller in science fiction, military and war. Available from http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/, Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads and ebay. 106,870 words.
For a review, see http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-novel-intrepid-by-martin-ince.html

Paperback - ISBN 9781453891797 £8.99=$14.49.
Electronic versions - iPhone, Blackberry, iPad, Kindle Reader, Kindle for PC, iPod Touch, Android £1.99=$3.21.
.pdf (with book covers) $1.99=£1.20. Wow!

For the sequel to this novel, 'Intrepid - The Two Storms', see http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid-two-storms.html

What do we reckon about.... Peter Andre?

I used to wonder about him - he married Jordan, after all.

But I have a confession to make. The sordid truth is that courtesy of my wife Debi, I very often read women's magazines in the loo. Just a fleeting glance at first, but then I was hooked - all the celebrity news and gossip!

Before long, my favourite column became 'Planet Pete', in New! magazine. Each week, when Debi stashes her magazines in the loo, I guiltily reach across for them, and Pete's column is the first thing I turn to.

Truth is, the column, together with other things I heard and saw, made me realise what a nice guy he is. He seems to passionately care about his family, his friends and his fans - and above all, he's humble. That's a great quality, especially for a celebrity, and although he's got a bit of Greek and Australian in him, he's a great role model, and makes me proud to be British. I can't say fairer than that.



If you enjoyed reading this, please take a look at my series of sci-fi adventure novels, at http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/.

For further information on my novel 'Intrepid', a top 100 Kindle bestseller in science fiction, military and war, see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-novel-intrepid-by-martin-ince.html

For further information on the sequel 'Intrepid - The Two Storms', see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid-two-storms.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/martin-ince-review-of-novel-intrepid.html
Well, I suppose the first post ought to be about me;
You already know quite a lot. This photo was taken at Hotel Thirty Thirty in Manhattan, in the shadow of the Empire State Building.  My wife, Debi and I spent one lovely summer exploring New York and Florida, and this was our first stop. The tour inspired me to write the 'Intrepid' series of novels, although I hit on the idea after watching the first launch of the space shuttle Columbia in 1981.

This corridor in the photo felt a bit still and eerie. Only later did I discover that our suite was directly below the hotel's famous haunted room - see 'Ghosts of New York City' by Therese Lanigan-Schmidt.  I've been interested in the paranormal since 2000, but more on that another day...



If you enjoyed reading this, try my post on haunted Alcatraz, http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-do-we-reckon-about-haunted.html

Also, please take a look at my series of sci-fi adventure novels, at http://steven-stone.blogspot.com/.

For further information on my novel 'Intrepid', a top 100 Kindle bestseller in science fiction, military and war, see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-of-novel-intrepid-by-martin-ince.html

For further information on the sequel 'Intrepid - The Two Storms', see;
Premise - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/premise-for-novel-intrepid-two-storms.html
Review - http://stevestonechat.blogspot.com/2011/06/martin-ince-review-of-novel-intrepid.html