Just for nostalgia's sake... and so I can find stuff I'm always looking for... this is my old AOL webpage, circa early 2007, before they pulled the plug on Hometown. The URL was http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57/
(I kept a copy of my web page files offline on my hard disk... if you didn't, and you came here searching for your old AOL webpage, I'm afraid you might be out of luck! Sorry 'bout that.) New webpage is here.

Derek's Web Page
A bit of news

Canadian director Deric Olsen has completed
The Phoenix Agenda
written by yours truly. Stills and trailer can be viewed here. DVD release: Nov 2007
IMPs online SF/F
Writing Group

Best Openings Contest
IMP info & BOCs
Sophia Ahmed
Lynn Fernandez
Terri Hamilton
Lisa Mantchev
Bill Allan
James A. Hartley
Ian Stobie
John Urbancik

Screenwriting Tips & Msg Boards
WC Martell's Script Secrets
Two Adverbs
Wordplay
Done Deal Pro
Absolute Write
Drew's Script-o-Rama

Fiction Reviews
§
Eugie Foster's review of Oceans of the Mind's "Colonies" issue including Paradigms at Tangent Online
"...is a charming story of self-sacrifice, heroism, and survival. The mysterious abduction of a construction drone on an Offworld Scientific Research Station leads to panicked conjecture..."
§
Greg Beatty's review of Oceans of the Mind's "Industrial Solar System" issue including Made In Heaven at Tangent Online "If I haven't given much sense of the plot, that's intentional—just read the story, and know that evil is punished, virtue rewarded, and that true love wins out."
§
Barry Hunter's review of The Vampyre's Kiss at www.baryon-online.com
"...has written another tale in an interesting series that is more thought provoking than some of the other tales being written today."
§
Linda Suzane's review of The Vampyre's Kiss at www.suite101.com
"This is a light, fast paced story, full of exciting action, sword fighting, and fair maidens to save. THE VAMPYRE’S KISS is well worth reading if you are looking for a light fantasy."
§
Christopher East's review of The Big Guy at Tangent Online
"...doesn't succeed fully as a self-contained work, relying too heavily on its source material." Bummer, dude.
§
Carol Castellanos' review of The Kaiserine's Champion at www.simegen.com
"I would definitely like to see more from this author possibly a more expanded second book."
§
Elaine DiMicco's review of The Kaiserine's Champion
"...is sure to please anyone who enjoys a swashbuckler fantasy. I highly recommend it."
§
Linda Suzane's review of The Kaiserine's Champion at www.suite101.com
"The Kaiserine's Champion is full of assassins, political intrigue, dark and dangerous spy masters, sword play, and a very honorable hero in the tradition of all the great swashbucklers."
§
Dennis Kriesel's review of Them's The Breaks
"The premiere issue of Sintrigue Dot Org (SDO) Detective offers a strong showing of fiction in the mystery and detective genres."
A recent Internet search via Google for "Derek Paterson" produced 4,890,000+ hits.  This was quite a surprise to someone who thought he was unique down to the subatomic level.  This version of me...
me
...lives in Scotland, UK, and writes Science Fiction, Fantasy (the gory kind), adventure and crime fiction.  I've had a few short stories published (see right-hand column) and am working on a veritable plethora of novels and screenplays.
Send me an email
Some of the links below might be broken as things move around or vanish. You know what the internet's like. Let me know if there's something you particularly want but can't find.
The Kaiserine's
Champion

THE KAISERINE'S CHAMPION
Published by EGGPLANT LITERARY PRODUCTIONS
The Vampyre's
Kiss

THE VAMPYRE'S KISS
Published by EGGPLANT LITERARY PRODUCTIONS
The
Barrow

KINGS OF THE NIGHT ANTHO - LINK TO LULU.COM appearing in
KINGS OF
THE NIGHT

anthology from
RAGE m a c h i n e
KINGS OF THE NIGHT ANTHO - LINK TO LULU.COM
Terra
Incognita

AMAZING HEROES II ANTHO - LINK TO LULU.COM appearing in
AMAZING
HEROES II

anthology from
RAGE m a c h i n e
AMAZING HEROES ANTHO - LINK TO LULU.COM

RAGE m a c h i n e Books on Lulu.com
Published Fiction
"Move fast, strike hard.   Hurt them.   Distrupt communications and supply lines.   Don't let them forget about us."

"Accounts ambushed us downstairs.  We could have used your help.  But you were nowhere to be found." He drew himself up and glared at me, his face twisted.  His hands were balled into fists.  "Aren't you one of us?" he demanded.

"...That means he's very old, very experienced, and the most dangerous adversary you're likely to meet.  Which is why you must put your misplaced sense of honor to one side, Herr Manfred, at least until the contest is over and the vampyre lies dead at your feet.  You have no way of knowing who he is, therefore you must kill everyone who is sent against you."

Four years of being trapped in hyperspace had driven us all to the edge of desperation.

As he approached the dragon, moving ever closer, Kintyre became aware that one of its eyes was open. Hot breath smoked from its nostrils, and its forked tail twitched. How long had it been aware of him? It was deliberately allowing him to come nearer, the easier to kill him.

We cycled through Customs and entered the Dome, the transparent, kilometer-high spiderweb that shields the colony more effectively than plasteel.  Jimmy had to stop and come back for me and pull me inside.  You've seen the simulations, but nothing prepares you for seeing Jupiter live.  Big, bright, beautiful.

If the shield overloaded then it was frying time for every electronic component in the Spaceport.   AIs, control systems, atmospheric recycling plants, heating units, even airlocks would all cease working.  A colony's worst nightmare, and very possibly its death knell.

Three days out from Wilhelmshaven, Kapitan von Hausen summoned me to his cabin and showed me his orders.   Once clear of the Orkney Islands to the north of Scotland, U-333 was to proceed to a map reference that would take us high beyond the Arctic Circle.

"Just how much of a cynic are you, Mr. Brent?   Do you believe in empathy, in being able to feel what someone else is feeling?   Like old couples who have loved each other all their lives.   Or someone with a beloved pet.   They know the object of their affection so well they can guess what they're thinking."

Goering took hold of my hand and pressed something into it, closing my fingers around the object.  "Put this on," he said, "once you are in the air."   His voice was pitched so low that I could barely hear the words.  "It will protect you from what you will encounter."

Floating light globes illuminated doorways, sunken alcoves containing statuettes, a wide stairway, and balconies overlooking a central space that might well pass down all the way to ground level.  I moved out onto the landing.  Usually I rely upon my wits and my agility, but sometimes I rely upon weapons, too.  I let my wireframe pistol take shape lest unseen guards leapt to attack me, and followed my nose.

Lord Rychard, from his vantage point on the slope above, counted no less than ten thousand Goblins, each carrying a huge broadax forged from black iron.  Nearly a third of the enemy rode upon the backs of snarling mountain wolves.  By contrast, Rychard's thousand armored knights were mounted upon their much swifter horses, and his well-equipped infantry companies were armed with gleaming steel swords and spears.   The disciplined versus the undisciplined; the noble against the unspeakable.

At last they heard the clicking noises they'd been expecting to hear.  The radio code had been developed over a period of years by Human experts and AI language disseminators.  Earth and the Arj homeworld had used it to communicate for all of three months before war broke out over possession of relatively insignificant volumes of empty space.  Insignificant volumes like this Sector, which in Rasmussen's opinion wasn't worth a single drop of Human blood, never mind thousands of lives.

Harley indicated the corpse.  "Miss Smythe died of a massive calcium deficiency.  That's something you don't hear every day—at least, I don't.  The removal of over ninety-seven percent of calcium hydroxyphosphate from his body has rendered all his bones super-brittle.  Outwardly, you can't see the damage.  But go beneath the skin and you'll find almost every bone broken, and in some cases shattered, just by the pressure of his own body weight.  That's the grinding noise you're hearing.  Technically speaking, Miss Smythe is a bag of jelly."

The final screams of the men trapped inside the dome issued from an overhead speaker in the cruiser's control room. Then there came a loud plunk! —and the speaker went dead.

A dark, tall figure stepped out of the house opposite the inn, clad in fur and leather and carrying a longsword that gleamed in the pale moonlight.  He looked left and right as he crossed the ground between the house and the inn.  Behind him, orange fire took hold inside the house, spreading up the walls to the thatched roof.

Ziegler pulled back the sheet covering the body that had been laid out for re-examination. Plainly he meant to surprise and shock Drubber with the sight of the hideously mutilated victim, but that didn't happen.  Drubber kept his expression impassive as his gaze drifted down over the girl's torso, abdomen and legs.  He'd seen similar before.  Had seen worse, in fact.

The queer forest surrounding the Research Station consisted of a cavernous maze of interlocking roots that made Johnson feel positively insignificant.  The gnarled roots, some as thick as a ground-to-orbit transport rocket, anchored gigantic treelike structures that grew to ten times the size of Californian redwoods.  Their highest branches, more than a mile overhead, yielded mirrorlike silver flowers that appeared to function as solar panels, soaking up Alpha Centauri's harsh sunlight and casting the forest floor into shadow.  The Xenobiologists enthused over these flowers at every opportunity, claiming an energy conversion efficiency unmatched by anything that had ever grown on Earth.  Johnson reserved judgment; after six months of close study the Xeno-Bs had still to run a cable into the Station that supplied enough juice to make a light bulb glow.

Jimmy the Nose kept a nice place.  Tasteful statues and pictures decorated a living room big enough to host a baseball game.  The blonde sat down on one of the black leather couches and crossed her long legs.  Malone couldn't help but look.  She smiled, letting him know she liked him looking.  Frankie stood by the door, his hands clasped in front of him, his expression blank.  Malone could live or die here tonight and Frankie wouldn't give a damn one way or the other.

His black hair was tied at the base of his neck and hung halfway down his back, thick and shiny, like poured oil.  He stepped onto the ultrasonic mat which removed mud from his boots.  When he turned to face the room Lei Ping only just managed to smother her gasp before it escaped her lips.  A livid radiation burn covered the entire left side of his once-handsome face.  He'd been touched by the crimson blossom!  Her heart went out to him.  Karma to have such beauty destroyed.

I lunged, aiming the point of my sword at the spot where the crone's heart should be.  I'd hoped to catch her by surprise but perhaps she read my mind, or perhaps my desperate expression betrayed my intention.  Whatever, her bony fingers closed around my blade, anchoring it solidly in mid-air and stopping me in mid-thrust.  The shock damn near dislocated my shoulder.  She wrenched the sword from my grasp and threw it away.  A greater demonstration of her confidence would have been difficult to devise.  She feared me not at all, this ancient vampyre, and in doing so caused me to fear her all the more.


Adjustments | Higher Than Usual | The Kaiserine's Champion | Partings | Dragonskin | The Draw | Made In Heaven | Blood & Ice | The Big Guy | Nachtjager | The Shadow's Tale | Legends | Risks | Them's The Breaks | Fool Proof | The Barrow | The Corpse | Paradigms | Double Or Quits | Terra Incognita | The Vampyre's Kiss

The obligatory © Copyright 2007-2012 by Derek Paterson notice.

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