(M.J.E.)






Web Site of
Michael Edwards




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Introduction


      Welcome to my web site, and thank you for visiting. I am currently experimenting with a new colour scheme and style of presentation of the pages on this web site, so I hope you will excuse any inconsistencies which may be present in the short term.
      This web site is not a commercial one, but simply a personal one reflecting my own interests and areas of knowledge. A glance at the Contents page will show what these areas are, and the Site Map will give detailed information about individual pages; but in short, the main areas of the site are the following:

Book listings: complete listings of books by writers of science-fiction, horror, and thrillers - including, when I can obtain it, detailed listings of titles belonging to series, and short-story listings; I hope to be as complete as possible in such listings, including all the obscure titles often left out of so-called "complete listings" of authors' works, as well as related works by other authors (a second author adding titles to the first author's series, and the like, which listings usually omit completely).

Book reviews: reviews written by myself of selected books, largely in the above areas of fiction, although including anything I read about which I feel I have interesting comments; this section includes all book reviews I have posted on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

Composer listings: complete listings of the works by composers of interest, and information and links to other web sites relating to those composers - these will be mainly classical composers or composers of lighter music from earlier in the 20th century.

Various writings of my own: a story I wrote some years ago, and some haiku verses written in recent years, plus comments on what suggested those verses.

      There are a few sections that will follow later, although I am not ready yet to present this information. These will probably include the following:

Rules for games: I am interested in some board games, pencil and paper games, and Patience card games for one player, and I would like to present a collection of the rules of my favourite games of these types.
      As a start, I've already provided a small collection of rules for some of my favourite single-pack Patience games. They are not the best-known games, and are heavily slanted towards games requiring skill to complete successfully, rather than relying on the chance fall of the cards (as do the majority of well-known Patience games).

Music theory essays: this will include analysis of scales and descriptions of new systems of harmony I have devised for myself; this material will be mainly of interest to composers, will be highly individual and speculative in viewpoint, and would not be of much relevance to people learning basic music theory.
      I have already posted the beginning of one of these essays (concerning a possible use of the modal system), but only as a preliminary experiment in including musical examples within a mainly-text web page. I will probably not add anything further to these until I am using a music notation computer program and can include music examples more efficiently. With the advent of a new music program called Igor Engraver, from NoteHeads Expert Musical Systems of Stockholm, Sweden, which sounds promising, although still in its birth pangs, I hope to be able to do further work on these essays within a few months. See http://www.noteheads.com for more information about this program.
      In an earlier version of this page, I stated that Igor is completely free, and intended by NoteHeads to remain free for all future versions. Unfortunately, this is not so, now: largely due to the collapse in Internet stocks which has occurred recently, NoteHeads have been forced to alter their business strategy, and they have to charge for the program now. It costs $295 U.S., which I understand is still considerably less expensive than comparable programs such as Finale, Sibelius, or Score.

      There might be the possibility one day of adding miscellaneous material, such as philosophical musings, reflections on spirituality from a personal point of view - or anything else that catches my fancy from time to time, although there are no firm plans of this sort yet.
      In short, the web site will contain anything whatsoever that is of interest to me or about which I have knowledge, which I think at least some other people might be interested to read.

      If you wish to find out immediately what the contents of this web site are, you can go to one of two places:

Contents - broad overview, showing the main sections of the site;
Site map - detailed list of all pages on the site, showing their hierarchical relationship.

      In both of these pages, the items listed are all active links you can click on to go there. There are also various pages containing sub-menus listing just pages in a selected subject area of the web site. A quick look at the site map plus a trial of a few links there will make it very clear how this is structured.
      Because of the navigational tools I've provided in the form of plentiful links and menu pages, it is possible to go from any one page on this web site to any other in two moves at most: all pages contain links to the site map at the bottom, and the site map contains active links to every page on the site. (The only exceptions are book-review pages which contain plot spoilers for a novel (crucial information that reveals the crux of the plot); these pages are not directly available in links, but are protected by a plot-spoiler warning which you must pass through. This is to ensure that you don't unintentionally read information that may spoil a novel for those who have not yet read it, and it only involves one extra step to reach the page. There are not many pages that contain such plot spoilers.)
      For the convenience of people who visit the site from time to time to see what has been added, I have added two sections to the site map which list newly-added and newly-updated pages, together with the dates of creation or updating of such pages. Thus anyone who simply wants to check up on what might be new since they last visited need look no further than here. These two lists are fully linked to the appropriate pages, just as are the entries in the main part of the site map.

      You can contact me by e-mail, if you wish. (I'm increasingly beset with junk e-mail, and you'll have to remove the spam-block from my e-mail address which will be obvious when you activate this link. A more detailed explanation of how I am blocking spam is on another page.) I will always welcome information to add to that which I hope to collect here, or suggestions for improving the web site, or corrections of any errors I may have made. (And my thanks to Evan Scott of New Jersey, U.S., for suggestions which I have incorporated in the site.) It will probably be a long time before this web site becomes widely known; especially in these early days of its life, if you have found the site, I would be especially interested to learn exactly how you found it. Did you find it in a search engine, or by links from other web sites, or by some other means?
      I would be glad to hear if this web site displays obviously incorrectly in Netscape Navigator, which I understand has certain file-naming requirements, although I'm not really clear on this yet. If I am violating them, I guess I'll find out in due course.
      In March and April, 2002, I began redesigning the style and colour scheme of this web site, following off-the-cuff suggestions from a friend of mine, Vitée Tao. I haven't followed his ideas with complete exactness, so he cannot take responsibility for any shortcomings that may show; they will no doubt be the result of my own lack of a sense of design. But if the new look is an improvement, it is at least partly because of these suggestions, and if you like the effect, and want any web-site designing done for yourself, you might like to contact Vitée at InfoScape Systems, Pty. Ltd.

      I began this web site on 30 March, 2000, for no purpose (at least to begin with) beyond that of experimenting to see what I could do. However, it has grown since then as I have found information I have which I would like to share with interested people, which I can write pages about. If there is nothing here to interest you so far, please come back at a later time, because I hope to add more over time. I have already given on this page a rough idea of the projected contents of this site.
      This web site has already advanced quite well from its very humble beginnings. In the end, I hope it will evolve into an extensive and useful collection of various bits and pieces that reflect my interests, that cover their subject material accurately and comprehensively, and which I hope other people of similar interests will find interesting.


Michael Edwards,
Victoria, Australia.

      E-mail: m j e (no dots or spaces) at remove-spam-block foxall dot com dot au
      Web site: http://www.foxall.com.au/users/mje


NOTE:
      If you need an explanation for the strange appearance of the e-mail address which will appear when you activate the e-mail link, you can read more about spam-blocking measures I am using on my e-mail address on this web site; here, you will find out exactly what you will need to do to make the e-mail address work properly.


Go to:
          Contents (broad divisions of the site)
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This page, and the web site, created on Thursday, 30 March, 2000.
This page last modified (apart from updated dates) on Wednesday, 13 August, 2003
      (keyboard access to links added to this page).
This web site last modified on Wednesday, 13 August, 2003.