ANOTHER ORBIT COMPLETED

 

I hope 2025 was a pretty decent year for you, if not downright amazing. Writing-wise, I published ebook editions of my first four books, which was an interesting and sometimes disconcerting trip to the past, as well as the fourth Case & Kat book, Hard Code, my 21st novel.

My 53-year-long habit of physical training continues, but no running or training with my karate mates due to a rather non-functional hip. I've been trying to heal without surgery, but I haven't managed it yet.

My wife Yvonne has been battling injuries too, but completed many events this year, including the London Marathon as a charity runner for Rays Of Sunshine, which grants wishes to seriously ill children.

Yvonne got the place thanks to the generosity of Rik Vercoe of Phoenix Running, who offers the charity place as a prize in an annual draw, and makes a substantial donation to the charity. 

Yvonne did plenty of (highly successful) fund-raising too, by making and selling fun craft items. There are lots of generous runners out there. 

A big shout out to our Phoenix Running friends, especially in Surrey and Phoenix Running South Wales!

Yesterday, the day before, and the day before that, Yvonne cranked out consecutive half marathons, albeit slow ones, beginning to regain her previous form.

(Not many people in their 70s can manage a 24-hour ultra marathon, or run 16 half marathons in 12 days (part of 20 in 19 days) as she did in 2024.)

I'm a long way into the current novel. Sometimes, I'm writing while Yvonne is running. This photo is from Aberfan, a place name with poignant and tragic overtones to any British person of my generation:

I've finally got round to learning Welsh, too, thanks to the SaySomethingIn app. (Dwi 'di bod yn joio dysgu hi.) The app is a kind of modern counterpart to a Michel Thomas course, and I've been a fan of those for a long time. I was teaching software engineering at an RAF airbase, back in the day, when one of the guys told me about his success with the Michel Thomas method. Very useful.

What's in store for next year? Let's all find out together...

May your 2026 be peaceful, joyful, constructive and instructive, and marvellous all round. 

PRAISE FROM TWENTY YEARS AGO

 Reproduced from Lou Anders' blog:

As Paul Goat Allen writes in B&N's Explorations newsletter, "Science fiction fans looking for the next big genre classic need look no further than the Nulapeiron Sequence, a highly cerebral sci-fi trilogy by British author John Meaney that has been (deservedly) compared to Frank Herbert's epic masterwork, Dune... Meaney's Nulapeiron Sequence (Paradox, Context, and the forthcoming Resolution) is a landmark work for multiple reasons: 1) Unparalleled world building: The world of Nulapeiron is one of the most vividly described and utterly unique realms ever imagined in the history of science fiction; 2) Plot density: Like Nulapeiron's multi-leveled society, the story of Tom Corcorigan has innumerable layers, dozens of secondary themes, and subplots; and 3) Readability: Fans of hard science fiction will not be able to put this sweeping and thought-provoking saga down. Although there are no sandworms or spice on Nulapeiron, readers will inevitably compare this unforgettable epic with Frank Herbert's classic."

Why mention this now? The Nulapeiron trilogy hasn't appeared in ebook form outside North America before now, and it's past time to rectify that.

Coming soon!

New Case & Kat book!

 

The IACS agency works the interzone between cyber and physical espionage. Case and Kat are top operatives: ex-special forces technologists and seasoned martial artists – he in hardcore karate, she in MMA – equally adept at coding and physical action.

In a Paris dojo, a Russian operator targets Case, while an ally begs for help... but what are their real agendas? And when the real threat arises, can anyone save thousands of innocent lives?

From award-winning author John Meaney comes another mission for Case and Kat, drawing on Meaney’s own lifelong experience of hardcore martial arts and leading-edge computing, including the world of cyber security.

WORLD LOGIC DAY

Yes, it's a thing, and it's today. Or to put it more formally:

(∃d ∙ d ∈ Dates ∧ d = World Logic Day) ∧ d = today

Making some assumptions about a predefined Dates set (or type, in programming-speak) and a formally defined element (or instance) called today.

A big shout-out, on a personal basis, to Professor Jim Davies of the University of Oxford, who taught me formal specifications using Z (meaning symbolic logic and set theory) when I started my MSc studies back in the day. (I eventually graduated with a distinction, which pleased me immensely.) It utterly transformed the way I thought about software design.

While most people don't use formal specifications to design systems unless any bug is likely to kill people (e.g. flight control software), every modern software engineer uses automated unit tests (e.g. JUnit for Java), and every test case is actually an exercise in Hoare logic: setting up a pre-condition, executing code, and checking that the result is equal to the expected post-condition.

The difference is that in formal specifications, the pre- and post-conditions would be generalised expressions rather than specific values.

Way to go! So different from writing code using pencils and pre-printed stationery, which I absolutely remember doing (although my first experience of coding, 50 years ago, was a remote dumb terminal with a screen and keyboard: as good as it got back then). The future is here, and it's great.

Logic underlies all rational thinking and civilisation itself, so what could be more deserving of celebration?

And to everyone, a benediction from someone truly associated with logical thinking.

Live long and prosper.

WONDER WOMAN

My 70-year-old wife Yvonne has run over 90 half marathons or longer this year alone (including 3 ultra marathons, one being 57 miles and another 50 miles). Around Easter time she ran 16 half marathons in 12 days. This picture was taken in July, at an event in Suffolk with ZigZag Running:

She's a big fan of the old poem that begins: "When I grow old, I shall wear purple..." In Yvonne's case, that's usually purple leggings or running shoes.

 No wonder I love her.