Okay, so I got a little sidetracked there...

It's almost been a month since I last posted on here, and there's a few reasons as to why...

Firstly, NaNoWriMo began on the 1st of November. I managed to adhere to the schedule for a total of 5 days before I succumbed to the pain of writer's block. Sigh.

Next year, I'll do better.

If I'm honest, I wasn't too enthralled with my plot, such as it was.

That's a topic for another day - but I did get some good writing done on something that wasn't my previous NaNovel, which was healthy of me.

I am currently in the middle of the waiting stage of my UCAS application. I have two offers already, Conditionals for Edge Hill and Sheffield Hallam, and I have an interview at Manchester Metropolitan University's Crewe campus at the beginning of December - Bangor have received my portfolio and are currently (I assume) in the middle of reading through all of their applicants this year.

I am currently working on the portfolio I shall be taking to the MMU interview; they asked for specific things in their portfolio so I have to write a second one (the other two Uni's decided against portfolios). 

MMU asked for three paragraphs in first person which capture the voice of three different types of character: a child, a homeless person and an executive.

 Each of these people are looking into a fire: what do they see?

That was my prompt, and I shan't be divulging my paragraphs for copyright reasons - if they did an internet search and they found the work online they may reject my application, regardless that I've posted them myself. It's much simpler if they simply find nothing when/if they search.

To go along with this small task they asked for a small personal statement in which I talk about why I want to study Creative Writing at degree level - which will arguably be the hardest part, for me. I hate writing to sell myself... urgh.

However, the upside to MMUs approach to the portfolio is that they offer us candidates a chance to include a sample of original creative writing work of our own choice; a maximum of 1000 words, or 3 poems. But let's face it, my poetry is horrid (something I wouldn't mind remedying at University, mind).

I have something in mind which I think shall do the job quite nicely. It's also 200 words under their limit, which is nice. If I can prove my writing worth with 800, why not do it in 800? Those extra 200 words would probably ruin it, anyway.

Fake mercies and I think it's time to leave it be...

Okay, so the last post was about how I had recovered a PDF file which was the latest version of my story?

Lies.

When I checked the file properly, I found out that it was in fact a slightly older version - though not as old as the backup - and I don't have a lot of words I obviously added later.

I'm pretty annoyed at myself, but I'm forcing myself to ignore the situation and roll with it.

If I don't get it back, well then, it serves me right for not backing up properly and I will either re-write the story or leave it and write something else (not the highest chances for that).

I've worked on this since last November, when I began NaNoWriMo for the first time. It has become my "beloved" story, and I have a bit of an impression that I'm trying to start too big.

As of this very moment, I've completed 1 short story, of around 4,300 words (which I can retrieve, sent it in an email recently) and - completed, mind you, with a clear goal and finished quality - 2 shorter pieces.

That's right. Three.

I have so many beginnings it's unbelievable and these three finished stories, and yet I'm sat here worried about another unfinished work?

Pretty pathetic, really. Who was it, King? That said you have a million practice words in you?

My novel-to-be has 17,000/18,000 words in it... and these shorter pieces mostly come to around the 2000 mark.

These are all, apparently, horrible compared to what I will produce some day -- as I keep practising and improving.

Though, I recently realised that the advice writers tend to give you is actually true, cause dammit I never really listened...

Write every day,

Doesn't matter what you write, and you can't help but improve as you go. Your word choices become ever more varied, blending together more fluidly, your style becomes more apparent and you feel good about writing.

I think it's time to leave my novel on the back burner. I'll return eventually, but for now... this ship has sailed.

Small mercies...

Thank God for small mercies...

I recently lost my memory stick, and the last time I backed it up fully was July. Not good.

Luckily, thanks to an upload of a PDF version of my work in progress to Lulu I have a copy of the story and can reproduce it in Word if needs be!

Hopefully, I'll be able to find my USB at college - there's a chance I've left it at the library.... Oh, how I hope that is true.

Engage with conflict sooner rather than later...

I had a problem with my work in progress novel last week. I didn't know how I would get from the beginning to the end. I have the two figured out. I know what I want to happen. It just didn't bridge after a certain point.

A friend of mine offered his services as a wall for my idea bouncing session - oh alright, so there wasn't much free will involved...

Either way, he brought up a very good point to contest one of my own.

I had said: "Novels, these days, are either stand-alone, trilogies or four-plus multiple volume deals."

Because, I was worried that everything I want to write about wouldn't fit into a single novel without becoming too unwieldy.

He replied with: "Well, either remove the huge war you have planned, condense it, or make it happen sooner."

Of course, he was right... I had to edit the plot - obviously. The events for the middle haven't changed in a year. This is ridiculous!

So, changes were made and steps were taken to ensure that clichéd horror would not occur. Mainly about the gender of characters.

My plotting sucks. I shall have to improve. I am on the way, though.

It begins...

The waiting is the worst part of this process, isn't it my fellow university applicants? And for those of you who haven't and/or don't want to and/or won't get the chance, it is the worst part of applying to university.

This morning at 9:36am, my UCAS form was sent away. Now I wait. Possibly for a long time.

I shall pass the time by writing various coursework pieces, and fantasy stories, and reading books. Yes, that sounds nice.

Prepare your quills, ladies and gentlemen...

Preparations for NaNoWriMo 2011 have begun!

An A3 piece of paper with a diagram detailing the scenes I shall add daily.

I don't know why I never thought of it this way before, but 50,000 words into 30 days is 1,667 a day, rounding up... and that is everyone's daily word goal... so why not have 30 scenes of 1,667 words each?

It's simple, and easily organisable. So, I currently stand at twenty-two scenes planned.

However, I don't usually plan, and this is mirrored in this plan by the "plans" being sentences like:

Public hate the elitist mages for their power. Uprising. Mobs.

Not sure about you, but that's just about as ambiguous as it can get.

I've actually worked backwards, this time, too. Started with the end scene, and so this way I can work back to a logical starting point and not worry that it won't come to a cohesive ending.

Here's to success!
Happy writing, all.

O brave new world, O brave new world...

I've just finished reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley... and it's quite strange.

The main character is nebulous - I get the impression that the true main character changes at different points in the novel.

I'd be very interested to find if this was the first novel which used voice as Huxley did... in chapter 3 and again in a later chapter which I am at a loss to find right now, he decends into a maelstrom of character:

"'Well, all I can say is that I'm going to accept his invitation.'

Bernard hated them, hated them. But they were two, they were large, they were strong.

'The Nine Years' War began in A.F 141.'

'Not even if it were true about the alcohol in his blood-surrogate.'"

And so on and so forth, a strange and confusing medley of conversation rampaging around the page. I admit it was hard to follow, at times, but overall a very exciting read. It's actually a short novel, 230 pages or there abouts.

I'd say that the most interesting character is that of John, the Savage.

I don't want to spoil youir enjoyment of it though, read it for yourself. Make your own mind up.

The chill air of autumnal nights...

It's a quarter to the second hour of the new day, fifth of this month of October.

I sit at my desk, huddled against the chill. My pencil held in fingers growing ever colder. An itch threatens to dispel my hard-earned concentration, it's worming into my eyes. Under my lids, scampering across my skin. An even deeper sensation stems from this itch, an ache - burrowing into my skull. Centred on my eyes, hidden behind my forehead.

Time passes like sand through my fingers, slipping away without end.

It's ten to the second hour of the new day, fifth of this month of October.

Distractions, everywhere. They invade, pervading my senses, subjugating my mind and taking hostage my free will. Oh, how I loathe them.

To meander...

This blog is called Meandering Thoughts, and if you read my posts you'll probably see why I decided upon that name.

I meander.

A lot.

meander
intr.v.  meandered, meandering, meanders
            1. To follow a winding and turning course:
                Streams tend to meander through level land.
            2. To move aimlessly and idly without fixed direction:
                vagabonds meandering through life.

n.
            1. meanders Circuitous windings or sinuosities, as of a stream or path.
            2. A circuitous journey or excursion; ramble./ Often used in the plural.
            3. An ornamental pattern of winding or intertwining lines, used in art and architecture.

Taken from thefreedictionary.com and I particularly like the second example for the intransitive verb:
         
         vagabonds meandering through life.

This is the definition of my blog. Vagabond. For the adjective, it means
adj.
         1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a wanderer; nomadic.
         2. Aimless; drifting.
         3. Irregular in course or behaviour; unpredictable.

I'll tell you why Meandering Thoughts is a vagabond.

1. There is no 'home' for this blog. It has no set genre or code to relate to. 
2. Of course intrinsic to the first point, I do not have an 'aim' as such, for my blog. It drifts from topic to topic, and I rarely adhere to the rules I set out.
3. And again, inherent in the result of the first two points, I am unpredictable in terms of scheduling posts, what point I shall make and whether I will ever mention it again.

And there you have it, the vagabond blog: Meandering Thoughts.

Female writers Vs. Male writers...

Okay, so I'm curious about the general consensus to these queries:

Does the work produced by female authors consistently differ from the work produced by males in a significant way?

And,

In what ways would you, personally, be able to identify a text as written by a female or male?

And also,

In your experience, do female authors write female character more sympathetically than male characters, and vice versa for male authors?

Twitter: @JCGlendenning

The reason I ask, my fellow fictioners*, is that it would tie into my language investigation nicely. Like a glove, some might say. You'd be doing me a huge favour if you took the time to even reply quickly!

I would be even more ecstatically interested if anyone would answer with fantasy specifically in mind, because as a genre is has a stereotype of female authors - yet a vast majority of everything I read in fantasy is by male authors. I don't take the gender of the writer into consideration when reading... until I remember their name as good or bad. I have a good mix of gender in my favourite authors, mind.

Robin Hobb,
Naomi Novik
Tolkien,
Jim Butcher,
Trudi Canavan,
Diana Wynne Jones (more so in the past than now)
Garth Nix...

And looking at this list... I see that female authors of fantasy are more numerous than I remembered. Either way, I still need to know other opinions on the matter!

Gender in writers doesn't bother me, unless something occurs which brings their gender into light... like spouting crap and throwing in our faces when really, all we're trying to do is escape this blessed place for a few hours.

Reply either on here, or through Twitter @JCGlendenning

Thanks!

*fictioners: collective noun for readers and writers of fiction.

Language investigation part two...

Okay, so I had my first lesson of English Language after the summer break today. Spoke to my teacher about my question and hypothesis and received some feedback on my ideas.

Basically... I have to be extremely careful that I don't tread into Literature territory, and because I'm using fiction as the basis for my investigation that's going to be a major pitfall I have to guard against.

Other than that... I guess that I am on the right track at least. I wanted to focus on the characters, and the way they are described by the authors, the language used to show their actions, the way they are active or passive in sentence construction, if they perform stereotypical roles or not...

And, by Jove, I never thought I'd ever want to do a study on gender issues. Damn.

Oh well. Roll with it.

Language investigation...

Hey guys, or gals, how are things?

I'm currently writing for my English Language investigation coursework. I've found a "hypothesis" to go with, it's really a question, and I'm enjoying it... but I have no idea if my teacher's going to like it at all. Ah well.

So, the reason I'm blogging is to tell you all that I will think about posting up the finished thing once I've gotten it finalised - in small amounts, it's a monster!

I'll tell you the gist of it now.

WARNING: Subject to frequent, swift and unannounced changes!

“How do the ways female authors of fantasy use language in their first chapter differ from the ways male authors of fantasy use language in their first chapter?”

Oh, and yeah... I realise that it's a general statement of vagueness... but that's kind of what you're supposed to have.

I'll be analysing lexis, semantics, pragmatics and possibly grammar. I've started on the semantics/grammar/structure side of things.

No idea when it's going to be finished, but hey, it's for college, and they love deadlines!

The northern hemisphere...

You may be interested to know that out of everyone who has visited my blog... zero hits have been from the southern hemisphere.

Probably something to do with the water there.

Have a good few days, everyone.

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher - A review

Ghost Story is the thirteenth novel in The Dresden Files, and is written by American author Jim Butcher.

The previous book, Changes, was the catalyst for the series to become something else entirely to what it began life as. It was insane, a little, towards the end. Dresden was almost transformed into something we, as readers, were unsure of... shocked at this direction the novel was taking. Afraid that the character we veterans of the series know and love.

I’ve seen some people’s reactions to the book, and then the response from other readers who were telling them that the narrator does not equal the author. Because there was obviously something about the book which made them so upset.

It was probably the cold-blooded murder of Dresden’s once-lover, mother of his child, the love of his life. That kind of thing can shake people a little bit. Dresden took the time to rationalise his decision, give himself a way out of being a murderer. After all, it took care of the huge problem they’d been dealing with for years on end. What some didn’t realise was that the author can write about something and present it in a way in which they don’t necessarily agree. I’m damn sure Mr Butcher doesn’t stand around advocating the use of murder to get what you want.

Now, enter Ghost Story. In this novel we see the culminating effects of this earth-shattering event, the results of leaving people behind without protection, the outcome of a war ended with a single curse, the direction some characters have been forced to go because of this vacuum left in Dresden’s wake.

It has almost destroyed them. These people, who were once good, unspoiled, unsullied by the darkness that populates the Dresden universe, have been turned and thrust into a world where the weak are assimilated into the ever-growing shadow streaking across the world. They have to be strong; they have to throw a facade into everyone’s face. Show them that they aren’t weak; they can’t be shoved around and told what to do. Otherwise, they’ll fall by the way side, and never get up again. The Dresden world has taken another turn towards “damned”, and Dresden can’t sit by and watch as the people he loves go down with it.

Dresden is in a unique position to see these events occur, and he’s powerless to stop them. His character was put through so much turmoil in the last book, and he can see now what that did to him and his judgement. He realises that his decisions weren’t made in the best frame of mind, but were still inherently wrong.

Throughout most of the novel, the initial premise stands loud and clear: Dresden is finding out who his killer is, so that he can rest in peace. Go through to the Beyond. He’s also tasked with protecting three of his friends who will be hurt if he doesn’t. The twist comes when he remembers his killer. When he remembers what happened to him. The knife is plunged in deeper when we realise that Harry’s apprentice, Molly, is so much more vulnerable than she lets on – and his Faerie godmother has taken on her training, and particularly not in ways Harry is comfortable with.

Harry connects with Molly like never before. It’s brutal, but honest. This novel sheds light on so many things from the last book. Characters have changed throughout this series; there is no doubt of that. Some changed in ways that might be non-refundable when they get to the checkout. They’ve paid the boatman, and they’re on the way to the other side of that river dividing “good” from “bad”, and there is no turning back; they are stuck in a fast flowing current of events; spiralling ever downwards, ever onwards. They will not like what is on the other side.

Threads which began in other novels, I know I forgot about them and probably many others did too, were picked up and thrown into the mix. Not to mention how the book ends. These threads go almost all of the way back to the beginning.

Butcher has, once again, done an amazing job. He has provided us with a story gripping from beginning to end – action, humour, magic and awesome-packed for good measure. If you’re not a fan yet, why the hell not? Pick up a book, read it, and join with us – the legion of fans Butcher has at his command. Be sucked into the vortex of his creation as fully as I, and revel in the joys of the characters, the sorrows, the revelations and the obscurities. Be prepared for a heart-stopping, heart-warming and heart-wrenching story of love, hate, betrayal and titanic struggle against enemies that seem almost impossible to overcome.

 It’s one hell of a ride, and I promise you’ll never look back.

Results day...

Oh, I didn't post about my AS results. We got them last week, was it last week? Yes, it was... Time melds into a single unit when you do not have school or college to go to. Stupid mind.

Anyways, so... I had four exams, or five if you count Philosophy and Ethics as two, which they really are.

English Literature, English Language, Media Studies, Philosophy and Ethics.

I got two As, a B and an E.

The E was an overall grade for Phil & Ethics, which was a D and E respectively, brought to an overall E.

An A in both Language and Media Studies, and a B for Literature.

Hey, if you've read the other posts from back when... you'll have seen the one where I went into the Literature exam a little bit. I also said that I wasn't sure how well I'd done, but that I did okay. Which I did. Grade Bs are respectable, and nice. Hopefully it can be upped to a low A, which is still an A, next year. Or, stay at B, I don't mind. It is a high B, and if I am lucky next year, I'll get some decent grades and bump it up.

Language and Media were nice exams, in the end. My media coursework was strong, and it has been entered into a regional... competition, if you would call the Catholic colleges in the region coming together to give awards to the best products in their categories a competition. It probably waived the right to be called that when they didn't mention at the very beginning that this would happen at the end of the year though. Sneaked that one onto us, didn't they?
Still... Should be fun.

What was intended to be a discussion on rationalising, turned into a rant about covers...

Okay, so there's a disparity between the covers for the first twelve books of the Dresden Files on my shelf, and that of the thirteenth, Ghost Story.

This annoys the little OCD Meanderer stuck inside my head. Greatly.

Hell, if we're talking about annoying little changes... even the fact that Changes is a hardcover, when the rest are small paperbacks really, really irks me.

However, as you all know, the name of that novel is Changes. It would be resoundingly stupid of me to say that the people who make the decisions on covers made a huge mistake by changing it.

Except... well, then again the cover for Changes is kind of following the whole scheme of "case file" covers like the previous books. But then you look at Ghost Story.

It's despicable.

I've posted the cover before as a part of the "it's coming!" overjoyment post. But here it is again.

This change in style is disappointing. It's very reminiscent of usual American covers... and by the way, this is the US cover, but the one over here is exactly the same, with a different font for Jim's name and the title... and they're both at the bottom and Jim's name is red. Okay, okay... so it's not exactly the same. But, it might as well be.

US book covers are not the type of thing I like on my books. I think that the UK covers are much nicer. Sure, there isn't usually as much going on as an American cover, but I like it that way dammit!

Oh, hey, I found the UK cover:

Well, look at that! I didn't see it last time. Right, so, as you see... not a huge difference. The image is closer, and the font is both red and blockier. Also, the colour is different. Which makes me sound like I know nothing about it... but the image has a cyan overlay for some reason. Perhaps it's to oppose the red "JIM BUTCHER" more?

But, then again... wait, I see. I see the reason. Okay, look at the covers again. You can see that in the US cover, the plant is green, the gravestones black/grey/white and Dresden is wearing a black duster and has a wooden staff and has skin... but does he? Nope. In this book, Harry is a ghost. As readers of the previous book will know, and people who can see into meanings behind titles even just a little bit.

Now, look at the UK cover. The blue tint to the image can be seen as an attempt to show the scene in an "otherworldly" light. Literally, they are trying to show that Harry is now a ghost by using a colour that we have all seen ghosts appear in... on TV and in films. You know the thing I mean, where the character appears and is transparent and has a highly cyan colour scheme going on?

Well, the colour change is cracked. Now, just to figure out why they changed the series' style half the bloody-well way through?

Anyways... have a gander at the cover difference between an earlier book's US and UK editions.

The UK one, above, and the US, below.

Alrighty then. So, I never realised that the Ghost Story cover is basically just the US scheme... and by the way, I have no idea if the Storm Front cover I have is the first edition, or whatever. But, you can see by the UK cover that it's vastly different. And, in my opinion, much better.

The simple style, a single tag line that could be used as a slogan, minimal use of colour, strategic placement of the blood splatter (there's a different addition to each cover, usually relating to the story), and a signature-style font for Jim's name... all makes for a simply interesting book cover. You can do a similar kind of thing for the Codex Alera books by Jim too, the US covers have guys dressed in Roman Legion armour doing some scene from the book... Whereas the UK covers have a symbol for whichever element is being used for that book (there are six elements in the magic system, fire, water, air, earth, wood and metal - coincidently, there are six books), and there's a small image across the top... but the majority of the cover is black, with coloured writing related to the element. Very nice.

OH, and pet peeve number one thousand... DO NOT use images on the front covers of books when they have not FULLY complied with the image of the character as portrayed by the creator. In this case, Jim Butcher created Harry Dresden and Harry does NOT wear a cowboy hat. However, the marketing guys know that he looks "cooler" to the masses that way, so they give him one on the covers.

In Ghost Story, Jim even mentions the hat thing... and both he and Harry reject it, again!

Argh.

I hate how they impose these character images onto us. Especially as the artist isn't Jim Butcher. Some authors don't even like giving concrete images of characters, because they know that some readers prefer their own creations in their own minds. Obviously, you need traits and some tags for characters, but that's more of a writer's job than reader's... and I'm getting well away from my point.

Ghost Story changed the scheme. I do not like this. But, the book is amazing. I'll write the review now and either put it up today or tomorrow after a little edit.

Sorry for the rant-like post... but, we all have things we don't like. This is one of those things for me. I'm sure other people don't like it too. I'm sure there are some American readers who hate British covers, cause they aren't eye catching enough. But, I don't think the whole "OH PICK ME!" type of covers are good for the book. In general. But, that's another topic, for another day.

Read well, folks.

Wordle - The Themes from my current WIP...

If you're interested, take a look at the Wordle I created the other day. It's made from the poem lines which feature at the beginning of my current WIPs chapters. I think it captures the themes of the novel quite sufficiently. I like it.

Mr. Butcher has outdone himself, yet again...

Ghost Story was as excellent as I knew it would be, and now I need to wait for another year to read the next instalment. Maybe I should read slower?

I shall write a review and post it here.

I shall also have to review more books, so that it doesn't look like Butcher is the only author I read.

I am almost there, but I don't think I want to be...

So, I'm currently on page 407 of Ghost Story... there's barely 50 pages or so to go until the end, and I have a feeling that I won't enjoy being there. You know, at the end of another book... waiting for the next one. Waiting a year. A whole year.

I can't do it.

So instead, I'll have to busy myself with things that will take up a lot of time. English Literature and Language investigations anyone?

Huh, the US and UK covers are almost identical
this time around... Strange.

I am adamant that I will choose fiction as the basis of my language investigation, and I hope to God that I can manage a topic around science-fiction, or possibly fantasy. Mainly because my Literature teacher will be taking half of my Language lessons next year, as she teaches the higher level course, and she hates science-fiction. In fact, she even admitted as such to us, but there have been a few incidents where she's seen that possibly science-fiction isn't as bad as she's mistaken it for.

That opportunity comes in the form of dystopian fiction and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. And boy, is she going to get a shock when I hand in my Literature coursework and I've used a novel by very famous science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick! Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, is set in a dystopian setting... which will allow me to compare it to The Handmaid's Tale.


Ah, I seem to have gone on a tangent... oh, well, never mind.

I do not want to finish Ghost Story, yet.
But I must know what happens!

I'm going to scurry away and read now.

Hopefully I'll get a decent review posted on here soon.

No. I will post an awesome review.

You Have Been Turned into a Zombie by a Friend by Jeremiah Tolbert | Fantasy Magazine

You Have Been Turned into a Zombie by a Friend by Jeremiah Tolbert | Fantasy Magazine

This is an amazing short story by Jeremiah Tolbert, published by Fantasy magazine.

I hope you'll take a read: it's insanely clever, well-written and full of epic geekery!

Ghost Story is here...

Okay, so I may be a year late with the latest review, compared to other reviewers. But, I thought that publishing my review of Changes here, now, is an incentive to review Ghost Story which was released on July 26th.

I cannot wait to get my mitts on this latest book... I became enraptured by the series at around the mark where Changes was due to come out. Luckily I never had to wait between my fixes for the earlier books. Unfortunately, now I've caught up to Butcher.

What makes this worse is that I live in good old England, and without the conventions and book signings that I can go meet Jim and see him answer questions like the American fans, I have nothing to fill this time with.

Never mind. I shall be caught up in the wondrous world of the Dresden Files for the next week or so. Yay!

Changes by Jim Butcher - A review

Changes is the twelfth book in the Dresden Files and is by far the most unpredictable and thoroughly enjoyable. Fans of the series will no doubt notice the change of title-style. Previous books in the Dresden Files have been titled with two words, each having the same number of letters; Storm Front, Dead Beat, Proven Guilty and White Night, for example. To take the title literally, the whole book is about change. Not only the title changes, but the characters and themes within the book are subject to a quick twist in the other direction; the plot itself twists almost as much as Chris Nolan’s latest mind-fuck of a film, Inception, does. There is no doubt that by the end of the book the reader’s emotions will be screaming for mercy – you will feel that a very part of your soul is missing until you can salve it with the next book, Ghost Story.

Changes in a nutshell:  Changes is the best novel of the series, so far (and that’s important, because after this explosive book there’s no doubt that the series is only going to continue to blow our minds).  It begins with the premise that Harry Dresden’s daughter has been kidnapped by the Red Court vampires – so far so horrifying. Red Court vampires may look sexy, alluring and wanton on the outside but on the inside their monstrous appearance is enough to turn anyone off. The strangest part is that Harry never knew his daughter existed. Susan Rodriguez, Harry’s ex-love and the mother of the child, never revealed it to him – until it was too late to stop them taking her. This tantalising opening pitches Harry, Susan and Martin (Susan’s operative partner in the Red Court-killing Fellowship of St Giles) into a race against time for clues in Chicago that will lead them to their stolen child.

To be honest with you, it’s very hard to find anything wrong with the book. This is not a result of any sort of ‘fandom’ that I may, or may not, be deluded by – I never let things like enjoying the previous books of a series influence how much I enjoy this book. I genuinely find it nigh on impossible to fault this book. The characters are superb, any writer would be half as lucky to have such interesting and entertaining characters populating their series’. The themes running throughout the book are interesting and some are unequivocally shocking in their execution – think about how far you would go to save your daughter from murderers and criminals – but that’s the beauty of the story, even though the protagonist is forced into a difficult choice, he remains true to his character that has been present right form the very beginning!

It’s safe to say that Jim Butcher has more than stepped it up a gear this time around and shows his true intentions with the series as a whole. The climax has some brilliant revelations and twists, each foreshadowed in previous books (as far back as the pre-novel chronology), and needless to say you will be stunned by some, if not all, of them. I was. To cap it all off Butcher ends the novel on a cliff-hanger of Epic proportions, capital E and everything.

As far as actual writing style goes, Jim stuck to his trademark adrenaline-rush action, laced with humour. He excellently balanced it in this book, even with the darker plot and tone. There are plot points which were left hanging, no doubt to be explained in the next book – Ghost Story.

Those readers who have had previous issues with his books will find no new charms to win them over, but anyone who doesn’t love the Dresden Files will be forever mired within the miasma of shit that passes for good fiction these days. Jim Butcher is writing a character driven, humour-laced, action packed urban fantasy series and he’s not making any apology for it and nor should he! Run, babbling and jumping like a madman, to your nearest bookstore and find out for yourself as to why this series is heralded as the Gold standard for all Urban Fantasy books.

Assassins and spies...

There's a couple of new posts over at my fiction blog: The Meandering Story.

I changed the style of the blog this time by posting something entirely from a new character's perspective, and with no entry from old Pyrelle. It's more of an actual scene from a story than a diary excerpt, too.

Enjoy.

Conflict, a writer's tool...

It's interesting how writers use conflict as a focus point for fiction, it's what drives a story forward... without it, it would be like trying to power an engine with water... a failure.

Would you rather read a story about how Dave and Molly live in their comfortable semi-detached house, with two kids running about, and two luxury sedans in the drive - in short, the ideal family? Or, how Will and Fiona have to move from town to town, city to city, always running, always dodging - because he gambled their last savings away and she is too much dependent upon him to lead a normal life?

Conflict. Most of us try our hardest to leave it out of everyday life; I mean, it can be a pain if every two minutes you have to argue with someone about something; your brother about going into your room and taking your possessions, again! For example.

Conflict is something that we, as people, try to escape from, but then use, as writers, to provide an unstable platform for our characters to stand on - something that will topple their world, down into the obscuring murk that lurks at the bottom of the shit heap. And then, we pile on a whole tonne of crap on top of their heads, for good measure. It's interesting! It makes the real people laugh, cry, love, hate, tell our friends, tell strangers, tell no one... it drives us to feel.

Up here, in the clouds of comfortable living. Up here, where the shit we put our characters through can't reach us. Up here, where we lie to ourselves.

Four posts and an introduction...

So, I'm having a great time over on The Meandering Story, up to the fourth post that furthers the narrative... and it's reached one of the points where I feel that I don't want to write about, because it wouldn't make for great reading, and so I just skip it and jump forward by so many years. I can always come back to it later.

Writing in first person is actually quite a new experience for me, and so is writing in my own voice. I have written in third person limited for almost every story, because I thought that first person was too limiting... but having read some great novels in first person (the latest being Wuthering Heights) I've decided that it is the way to go, especially for particular genres.

The way that in first person, you can play with the narration so easily is enticing, I must say. It's like sliding a piece of coloured paper over a spot light, tinting the resulting light in another shade; being able to represent characters, situations and places through one character's eyes is a great tool to have at your disposal. In third person this is, as far as I can make my tired mind think, impossible to do.

Okay, time to sleep.

Hasta lugeo, amigos.

The Bronte Parsonage Museum

I took part in an English trip to the, as the title suggests, Bronte Parsonage Museum today. It's a really nice place, to be honest. Truly rural England at it's foremost best. Haworth is a tourist hotspot, if today can be any judge, and as such it has to look good - obviously.

A very nice lady, called Sue, from the museum gave us two lectures, one about the life of the Brontes in general, including the father, brother and two lesser known sisters; and another about Wuthering Heights in particular, because we are studying it for our second year.

The lectures were great, and I took plenty of notes - it's always handy to do that, as these erudite scholars are experts in their chosen fields and as such have some cracking quotes to include in essays. I didn't know anything, near enough, about the Bronte family before today, and definitely wasn't sure about the rest. Some interesting stuff there... for example, the sisters all published their first works under pseudonyms (because, let's face it, men were given more of the spotlight in those days) and they called themselves Currer, Ellis and Anton Bell; each respectively Charlotte, Emily and Anne.

Funnily enough, they were subject to much criticism when first published, and for Wuthering Heights in particular, got very bad criticism. However, in general, they were liked. Over the years, they have been very popular with the majority of the population, whilst critics have not been very impressed.

Also, I really like this bit: Charlotte first sent her novel The Professor to be published, but it was rejected, and Currer Bell was sent a nice rejection letter that had some great advice, "We don't like this, but you are very talented. Send us something more exciting!" And so, she did. Jane Eyre was sent to the same publisher and when he began reading it in the morning he couldn't put it down... and had to cancel his luncheon engagement, and carried on reading through the afternoon... and had to cancel his dinner engagements too! He finished reading the book and obviously decided to publish it straight away, with it actually getting published quicker than the other two novels. It became an instant success. I haven't read it, have you?

The museum is cool in other ways, for their bookshop has the Wordsworth Edition copies of the Bronte books and they actually own the copyright for them, and is allowed to sell them for £1.99 each! Actually amazing value. I bought Shirley and Villette, both by Charlotte - unintentionally, I might add. I wanted even more value for my money, so got the two longest ones there... I would have bought Jane Eyre if my friend hadn't picked the last one up!

Go visit, it's in Haworth.

The Meandering Story...

I started a new blog for a collection of fiction pieces which are all the same "story" as it were, but from different character viewpoints in (probably) each post.

It can be found here.

The introduction has been posted, where I tell you my purpose for writing it, and I shall post a link to each new addition to the story on here.

Those inescapable feelings of excitement, worry and impatience...

Here I am, sat at 3:20 in the morning, writing a blog post because I feel crap about not writing for ages.

Loads of great things have happened recently, and most excitingly I went down to Bangor, in Wales, on the 2nd of July for an Open Day at Bangor University. I've been looking at one of their courses (Creative and Professional Writing) for a while now, and I was finally able to actually talk to someone from the Uni and see what they had to say on the subject... not to mention speaking to the English school (as opposed to the Creative Studies school) and asking them their views on the English with Creative Writing course. He (the lecturer from the English school) wasn't very good at that, and the lecturer for Creative and Professional Writing was much more open to my questions, giving me as much detail as she could - comparing the courses in an objective and very helpful way.

I actually started the application process for UCAS and University the other week, and I have already put Bangor down as one of my options, and UCAS reminded me of the need for a portfolio of work (not that I needed much reminding, it says so on the university site). This portfolio will be the source of some stress, I'm sure. When I asked, she seemed to only need a small amount of my writing, to demonstrate my ability to write coherently apparently, and nothing larger than 500 words.

Yet... that is awfully small.

I've written 14,000 plus words in my eventually-will-be-a-novel, Exile, already and the one short story I've completed to an... acceptable standard is around 4,500 words. I've got a review that's around 1,600; a flash fiction piece with an interesting style and voice, around 300 words...

Argh, what do I choose? Which is the best of my work? Do they want examples of poetry, too? If so, I hope they enjoy free-form poems, as the only structured ones I have are "emo" haiku, which were amusing to write but totally tongue-in-cheek and definitely not what I want my first impression to be.

Is my first impression supposed to show that I have a natural talent for this kind of thing? Or, is it designed to highlight areas that I need to develop in, and therefore warrant a three-year course studying the art of writing, both creatively and professionally?

Which then brings me to: Do they want an example of fiction and non-fiction?

Fortunately, I did ask about the department attitudes towards genre fiction (science-fiction and fantasy to us, normal, folks; as opposed to those high-and-mighty literary types) and she, thankfully, replied in the affirmative towards receiving it gladly and joyfully. She mentioned that an awful lot of sci-fi was written in the department, and that they, and I quote, "love it".

Then again, she did say I could e-mail questions to her... but I feel that asking her a question as simple as "how far above that word limit can I go?" at this very early, yet amazingly important, stage could be dangerous. In a non-lethal, non-threatening to my person, way.

Oh dear.

It's now 3:43, 3:44... I want another cup of Glengettie tea and I'll watch some Friends before sleeping.

In case you're wondering, and can't see the link... I'm excited about going to University at Bangor (I really, really want to go to Bangor...), I'm worried that I won't get accepted or get the grades I need once I have been accepted, and thirdly I am impatient at the time it is taking for me to receive my AS results. Dammit, peoples, I need to know how I did!

Also... do I drop a subject that is the source of so very many debates and discussions on extremely interesting topics, just to make the others easier? I can see advantages, and disadvantages....

I need three Bs at A Level to get the maximum needed UCAS points for most of the courses I've looked at, including Bangor. I am currently studying four subjects... but I can imagine very easily that I did horribly in my Philosophy and Ethics papers (one qualification) and I do not want to continue it for the second year. They might not let me.

I'm rambling!

So, to recap:

Excited: University!
Worried: Accepted for a place and grades?
Impatient: Need to know my grades.

Adíos amigos, hasta luego.

Music that inspires...

Music holds a special place in most people's lives... and if it doesn't, then I feel genuinely sad for you. Music is an amazing gift from one person to another -- there is nothing quite like listening to a piece of music which has a special meaning for you, either.

For some people, different instruments will provide different images and feelings. It's easy to decide how different chords and riffs make us feel differently, and sometimes these are expertly chosen by the musician... and other times it's a personal thing.

Music can be a powerful tool for writing, especially when the piece is purely instrumental. Without lyrics, a piece can stimulate the creative section of the brain, and your mind overflows with images and ideas.

Here's a couple of exercises:

• Take a piece of instrumental music and listen to it once; as you listen, write down any words or emotions that you think about/feel.

Compare the list of words and feelings from one song to the next and see if a friend comes up with the same. Try and discover the song's meaning through your interpretation, and remember: You can't be wrong!

• Next, take the same piece of instrumental music and have it on in the background whilst you write without pause or editing for the duration of the song. 

After the song ends, look at what you've written and see if it could lead you further and into a story of substantial size. If not, then keep it as a flash fiction piece.

If you don't know any good artists for instrumental pieces, try some guitarists like Antoine Dufour, Andy McKee, or Maneli Jamal.

Pay attention to changes in tone, speed or volume. And, most of all, have fun!

English Literature A Level...

In my last post I feel I gave off the wrong impression. I was happy with the way I completed the Literature exam, it was a good set of questions in my opinion.

Write about the ways McEwan tells the story in Chapter 22


So, not my favourite chapter, but for anyone who's read the book you'll know how exciting it is. Or is supposed to be. It's quite anti-climatic as climaxes go. Sure, he has the handgun, sure he uses it, sure the stalker gets what was coming to him, sure, sure, sure... But it wasn't exactly riveting action, was it?

That's the problem with these "literary genre" types. They may draw upon other genres for their narrative techniques, and believe me they do, but they aren't exactly the most exciting books out there. Nonetheless, that is not what McEwan set out to do with Enduring Love, and it is a good novel.

"It's ridiculous to argue that McEwan made Parry anything other than terrifying" To what extent do you  agree with this statement?


Now, that was the gist of the question, at least. The most important part was the "...anything other than terrifying...", and in my opinion couldn't be further from the truth of the matter. I argued so in my paper, don't worry. I pity Jed, but there was no point in the novel where I thought, "Oh, damn, he's terrifying."

Write about the significance of the use of descriptive language by three of the writers you have studied.


This was the all-important 42-mark B question, or something to that degree. Again, important words being: the use of descriptive language, and significance. So, here I talked about good old La Belle Dame sans Merci by Keats, Goblin Market by Rossetti and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, as I had to mention all three of the other writers I had studied with my fellow classmates.

La Belle Dame was the easiest one to speak about. Significance of language. Couldn't have asked for a nicer  topic, in my opinion. I do English Language as well as Literature, so I have a good grounding in it. I discussed the importance of colour in the poem, there's a lot to mention in relation; and something about nature too, I think.

Goblin Market came next, and though I didn't like this poem as much as the other I still had a fair amount of material to work with; I spoke of the links between the animal-faced merchant men and their violent nature later in the narrative, linking this to the contextual factors of Rossetti's work with whores in the hospices. There's a remarkable amount of double entendre in this poem, with references to squeezing fruits on the girl's mouth to try and make her eat, then her sister licks the fruit juice off of her face and body.

Lastly, Great Gatsby, an American novel from the Roaring Twenties -- full of the American Dream and delusional characters, brimming with imagery, motifs, themes and significant language. I despise Nick Carraway, the boring bastard was narrator for the whole novel. I didn't leave myself quite as much time for this addition to the question as I perhaps should have, but no matter... I did write something.

Good luck to everyone else who sat the same exam, I'm sure you all did well.

A tale of two exams...

So far I've sat my Media Studies and my English Literature exams, with another two to go: Philosophy and Ethics, and English Language.

My media studies wasn't the hardest exam ever, but with that one you have to jump through their hoops and I'm not one hundred percent sure I did to the fullest degree. I definitely did okay, but how well... I can't be sure.

English Literature is more open to your own interpretation, in particular parts, and so is an easier (in some ways) exam than that of say IT or Media; both of which I've sat, IT last year. However, I wasn't as sure in my knowledge of Enduring Love as I could have been. It's down to my own lack of preparation.

Philosophy and Ethics could go horribly wrong.

Language should be good, but only if the questions are nice.

It'll be over soon, if only for another year.

Broken Promises, novels and poems...

Okay, so I feel like I've broken my promise. I have posted one review, and I've read at least two books since I said I'd review every one I can.

Here's my excuse: I have an English Literature exam on Monday. I need to brush up on my Enduring Love knowledge, because the exam question could be on ANY of the chapters in the book, I have to pretty much know the book off by heart.

That's on top of an insanely intimate detail about some Keats and Rossetti poetry. I have to admit that Keats was an astounding poet, it's such a shame that his contemporaries were so derisive towards him. I bet they turn in their graves every time someone reads Keats and ignores their own work, I'd argue that in the modern world John Keats is much more well-known than Lord Byron and Percy Shelley -- but they were three of the most important poets in the Romantic movement and alive at the same time.

Read Keats. La Belle Dame Sans Merci is, as far as I can recall, my favourite poem. It's not long. In fact, I'll type it out for you.

La Belle Dame sans Merci

' O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has wither'd from the lake,

And no birds sing.

' O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

So haggard and so woe-begone?

The squirrel's granary is full,

And the harvest's done.

' I see a lily on thy brow

With anguish moist and fever-dew;

And on thy cheeks a fading rose

Fast withereth too.'

' I met a lady in the meads,

Full beautiful - a faery's child,

Her hair was long, her foot was light,

And her eyes were wild.

' I made a garland for her head,

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;

She look'd at me as she did love,

And made sweet moan.

' I set her on my pacing steed

And nothing else saw all day long,

For sidelong would she bend, and sing

A faery's song.

' She found me roots of relish sweet,

And honey wild, and manna dew,

And sure in language strange she said,

"I love thee true!".

' She took me to her elfin grot,

And there she wept and sigh'd full sore;

And there I shut her wild, wild eyes

With kisses four.

' And there she lulled me asleep

And there I dream'd - Ah! woe betide! 

The latest dream I ever dream'd

On the cold hill's side.

' I saw pale kings and princes too,

Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;

Who cried - "La belle Dame sans Merci

Hath thee in thrall!"

' I saw their starved lips in the gloam

With horrid warning gaped wide,

And I awoke and found me here

On the cold hill's side.

' And this is why I sojourn here

Alone and palely loitering, 

Though the sedge is withered from the lake,

And no birds sing.'

Now, this is from The Oxford book of English Verse from the Oxford Clarendon press 1912, chosen and edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch. Needless to say, a very old and worn book. However, I noticed that this copy of the poem is formatted differently than the copy that my Literature teacher gave to us. So, for the fact that the book was compiled, almost, a century ago (Wow! Almost a whole century!) I have reverted the text to fit the older, and arguably more strict, version.

I could tell you quite a lot about this poem alone. I won't. But I could. I won't spoil it for you. It's quite rude for someone to shove their own impressions of a poem down your throat if you've only read a poem once. 

Read, and enjoy.

The Lost Fleet: Victorious by Jack Campbell - A review

Disclosure: Minor spoilers are possible, but will be refrained from going into major spoiler territory.

The Lost Fleet: Victorious by Jack Campbell – a review by The Meanderer

Victorious is the last book in a six-book series by retired US Navy officer, John G. Hemry. It brings the series to an adequate close. Keen-eyed observers might notice that the title of the book, Victorious, kind of gives the game away; but who didn’t expect them to get home in the end? Getting home wasn’t the only thing on everybody’s mind though, and the issues presented throughout the other five books are all dealt with in due time. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, and only took a day/night depending on how you look at it.

We meet the Grand Council of the Alliance for the first time, and they are suitably the annoying gits that we should expect of this war-weary civilisation. Seeing new additions to the fleet’s captains reminds us of the horrors that protagonist Black Jack Geary had to deal with when he first took over, a humorous anecdote to the past – something greater could have risen from such feelings in the new captains, but regrettably nothing more was made of it.

UK cover of the book

Unfortunately, the way that Victorious is written, you don’t get the full sense of the back-stabbing politics that is sure to occur, as we know from reports of various characters. It’s a series that’s aimed at military actions, superbly complex space battles fought in full three-dimensional planes and is difficult, to say the least, to keep track of; and as such, the characters aren’t quite gritty and real enough. Hemry is a great action writer, he knows his stuff too, but he doesn’t excel in the character development and execution of characterisation much. The characters that have been with us throughout the whole series are well-rounded enough, as we know a lot more about them – however, for some characters I get the sense that Hemry gave up on some ideas part-way through; like Duellos, who I could have sworn was an agent of the enemy in previous books (he was just shifty). The new additions to the character roster are flat and one-dimensional, they seem to only be there for a single purpose: moving the story onwards.

I get the feeling that there is something missing from the book, it wasn’t quite as climatic and enjoyable as it could have been. Maybe due to some word-count issues, each book is somewhere in the region of 400 pages long, which works out to be an average word count of approximately  120,000 per book. It’s more than adequate to pass the time leisurely, but not something to wow millions of people.

Realm of the Mad God...

Realm of the Mad God

It's a fun-packed indie game that people of all ages can enjoy. It's totally free and no downloads are necessary -- give it a go!

The god of thunder...

THOR

Thoughts on Thor: EPIC! AMAZING! AWESOME!

The visuals are stunningly beautiful, the cast was well chosen and the story is engaging.

It's late, I'm tired...

More later.

Some books and a movie...

I recently acquired a new addition to my science fiction collection, The Lost Fleet: Victorious, which is the last of that series; I'll be reviewing it soon.

I finished A Game of Thrones, the other week and bought and began A Clash of Kings, too. George R. R. Martin is a really awesome writer -- but his books can be time-consuming and harder to read than some others (which is why I read Victorious in the middle of Clash of Kings). Not to say that this is a bad thing, quite the opposite.

I won't review A Clash of Kings, as it isn't a new release. I will, however, heartily recommend the series!

Also, I am about to leave the house to go to the cinema and watch Thor. I've been waiting for this for a long time.

My thoughts to come later, and a review after that.

Coming soon...

So, I'm currently studying English Language at college in the hopes to do something similar at Uni (creative writing, more likely), and one of the pieces of coursework we had to complete was a review style piece of writing.

Now, I read a lot. I watch an awful lot of films, even more so recently than before. And I play a lot of games. (In that order). The review I did for coursework was of the most recent novel from the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, called Changes. It was selected out of my four pieces to be one of the two sent off for my final pieces; the other being my short story; big phew, as now I know that even teachers like my fiction!

This successful authorship of a review has prompted my ever-active brain to come up with a new plan: Write more reviews!

So here's the deal:

1.  I read a book, watch a film, or play a new game.
2.  I like, dislike, love or loath the new addition to the ranks of my leisure activities army.
3.  I write a review based on my experiences and post them on here.

It's quite a cunning plan, if I do say so myself.

Finding time...

When I watch a film set in a fantasy setting it makes me want to write. It's kind of awkward, when you're sat in the cinema and you just want to write and yet watch the film at the same time.

Red Riding Hood is a really good adaptation of the fairy tale we all know and love, by the way. You should go and see it.

So, there I was, sat in the (almost empty) cinema of my home town and all I could think was "I wish I could be writing my story right now." Which is ridiculous.

My creative muse seems to come and go at will, and when it comes, it comes at the most inopportune moments.

Cheers for that.

I just saw a man try to kick a dog...

There are a number of things that struck me when I saw this. One of which is: what caused the dog to become agitated enough to start barking and supposedly try to bite this guy in the first place? Secondly, how stupid do you have to be to not realise that kicking a dog will not make it calmer, but in fact more agitated and more likely to bite you again? And thirdly, anger. Who kicks dogs? It just isn't done. The dog belonged to an elderly lady, and I'm pretty sure the man started blaming her, but the dog was lovingly attentive to her.

Okay, so everyone knows what a dog is.

This is my dog, Sacha. She's cute. Admit it!

There's a good picture to have as an example, plus it's quite a cute pose from the dog. Now, it's pretty much common knowledge that dogs are obedient creatures. They were bred for it. They don't do things without provocation, there is always a reason for a dog to behave how it behaves. That man provoked that dog, somehow. I have no pity for his supposed pain, to be honest I think the fact that he kicked the dog made me hate him.

So, he managed to kick the dog once, and he chased it around for a little while, swinging his legs at it. Fortunately the dog managed to evade the other kicks. Clever thing.

Luckily, for the man, it wasn't my dog (pictured) -- because for one thing, she'd have not been very happy with him and I don't know what she'd have done... and secondly, because I'd have not been very happy with him, to say the least, and I don't know what I'd have done.

He's a stupid man, along with any other person who hurts an animal for pleasure. Especially dogs. Especially! They are so expressive that they can hardly be regarded as dumb and it hurts me inside when someone does something bad to a dog.

Don't do it. We will get you.

Grr.

Apparently I like Mondays...

So, the last time I blogged was a Monday too. I can't believe that I spent a whole week in procrastination regarding this blog. I said right at the beginning, which wasn't a long time ago, that I would find it difficult to keep on track with this. Obviously, I have hit a snag in my plan very early on.

This is not good enough!

Also, I need to complete more essays prior to the day before the deadline.

The fuzzy feeling in your head...

There's a point where after four pints your head, well... my head..., reaches a point of non-sobriety and begins the strange fuzzy feeling. I find it strange that there is no other word to explain the feeling that is currently expanding throughout my mind. Everything has a strange edge to it... dulled. But, still... excited. Not excited like I am for the new Elder Scrolls game (OMG!) but excited in the scientific sense... movement, and buzzing... and well... vibration.

So. Vibration... a fun word. It has all sorts of funny connotations to go with it. I shall not divulge such information, though, as that would be something akin to bad taste.

Emotions are a very strange thing. And the situations which can evoke such emotions are equally strange in that they often bring out an emotion which you might not associate with said event. Or, perhaps, the event brings out an unexpected emotion, or it created such a feeling within you that you had never felt before and as such was even stranger than a previously-felt emotion which you had felt unexpectedly.

Does the event create the emotion, or the emotion the event?

Emotions are strongly recalled via visual or olfactory stimuli. 

This picture recalls specific memories for me, including emotions.... but for you,

 it may conjure a different emotion... especially if you did something

other than go to see a movie on the 26th February. 

A picture, a memory, a glimpse into a life...

You know that point in your life when you are quavering at the very precipice of a decision? That period of time that you know will look like a fork in the path of your life when looked at in retrospect?

Well... this is almost one of those.

I have recently discovered a love of photography, even though I can only boast an amazing three days of decent camera usage (Canon 550D, for those interested). And regardless of this amateurish encounter I feel that photography is something that could become a very important part of my life.

I never used to like the idea of photos. I never really understood why people would obsess over photos and their digital cameras. Now, I get it. The only problem is that for me to get into this as a hobby, and as an aside for my Media course, I would have to use a DSLR, like the one I borrowed from a friend recently. They tend to cost a lot. I only have so much in my savings. I don't know whether this would be a mistake or something that will last a very long time and become something... great.

Oh, coincidently, the picture on my first post was also taken by myself. Copyright, and all that jazz.

I like this one, and any macro shot. It's turned out nice.

I particularly like how it's not horizontal.

The things you read...

There's a lot to say about someone when you take a look at their reading habits. The genre they most often delve into is likely something which resonates within them, causing them some degree of emotional comfort, surely?

I know for certain that the reason I read fantasy and science fiction is to get away from the world, away from any responsibility, deadlines, annoying people -- even if it's only for an hour or two. It's called escapism (okay, so that wiki article has no references... it's still valid for my point).

I'm a sucker for magic and swords, or nanotech and spaceships. It is a very rare circumstance that I'll find myself engrossed by fiction set in the contemporary world (The Dresden Files being the only series to date which I sufficiently enjoyed regardless of the setting as modern-day Chicago).

I also enjoy writing in the fantasy genre because in fantasy there isn't a rule which states that you have to do this or you have to do that. It's open to your interpretation as an author.

I read to escape from this banal reality, why do you read what you read?

My Top Ten Favourite Books - Part 2

Okay, so following on from yesterday's post here are the top five of my favourite books:

5. The Painted Man by Peter V Brett
So to start the second series off, The Painted Man. The reason that this book hit my top five was because of the awesome magic system - wards, symbols marked onto surfaces, which create barriers to protect against the demons of the night. Some believable characters in there, too.

4. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
In at fourth is the first book of a trilogy, but it might be more accurate to paint the whole Farseer Trilogy as my fourth favourite book -- it's very hard for me to decide which is the best out of the three. Go, read and be amazed at the sophistication of the writing and the depth of character and plot! Go. Go, I tell you!

3. Changes by Jim Butcher
Changes is the latest (twelfth) book in a series by Jim Butcher. The Dresden Files are about a cash-strapped, young, wizard private investigator in Chicago city and his misadventures. It is a series packed with humour, folklore, magic, action, suspense, romance, heartbreak and more! I highly recommend this series to anyone. Changes is by far my favourite, though. So, get reading!

2. Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
First published in 1987, this is Banks' first foray into the science fiction genre and, well, I was impressed! I had no idea at the time that the book I was picking up would be so great, in fact I had no idea that it was a re-print of an old book. The cover was very shiny. I consider this one hell of an excellent book! Obviously, it's number two!

1. Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
In at number one is an oldie, possibly the most thought-provoking. Definitely the best. This book is one hell of a ride, it's science fiction when science fiction was all about testing boundaries, challenging beliefs and making people think about the world! It was published into a fire storm of outrage, or so I am led to believe by the foreword in the copy I have. It's an old copy, from my father's collection. Bent and stained with coffee -- the marks of a veteran indeed. Amazing. Simply put. Go read it.

And that's done! It was stupendously difficult to get down on paper my top ten favourite books, I've never actually tried to say what they were in order before... I'm not entirely sure that this is the correct order either. From reading the list you'll probably have noticed a few things about my reading habits... yet that's a topic for another time.

My Top Ten Favourite Books - Part 1

I think that to get into the swing of things I'll post about some of the things that are important to me. Books fall very heavily into that category, beyond a shadow of a doubt. I'm going to try my hardest to only get one per author in the list. So, here are my top ten favourite books:

10. The Novice by Trudi Canavan
So coming in at tenth, which isn't that bad a position considering how much I read, is the second book out of the Black Magician trilogy. Not quite sure why this one in particular is my favourite. It may be because it's half way between the main character's growth from street urchin to magician, or it may be because it is a suitably arbitrary mark for me to say that I love the trilogy - which I do! (Oh, not to mention the prequel The Magician's Apprentice and the newer trilogy, beginning with The Ambassador's Mission.)

9. The Valley of Horses by Jean M. Auel
At ninth is, again, the second book of a series. This time the Earth's Children series, an alternate history set in the stone age. I can place my finger on the reason that I prefer this out of all of the others in the series: reading about how Ayla survives after her exile is epic. Jondalar is an interesting character too, and his journey towards Ayla is a very interesting addition to the series.

8. Sabriel by Garth Nix
In eighth is the first in a trilogy by Garth Nix, an Aussie writer who writes mainly Young Adult fantasy. Sabriel was one of my first forays into Fantasy and I can say that it kept me hooked from start to finish, many times over. I loved the concept especially, necromancers are usually the bad guys!

7. Courageous: The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell
At seventh is the third book in a series about a space fleet stuck deep in enemy territory and their titanic struggle to return to home. All three books, that I've read so far, are excellent science fiction. It helps that I love spaceships and any kind of space pilot/fleet story.

6. The Sentinel Mage by Emily Gee
The last entry for part one, The Sentinel Mage is a book from, for me, a new author and I must say she has captured my interest quite avidly. I will be going to find Thief With No Shadow, I will devour it like I did this one. The multiple characters enmesh quite easily, with Jaumé playing an, at first, strange role in the narrative -- but that puzzle piece falls into place at the end of the novel.

The second part with books one to five will be up tomorrow, along with an explanation as to why I read what I read.

In the beginning there was...

Nothing! Welcome to my first blog post. I've been wanting to do this for a long time. Writing a blog that is. The fact that I've only just got around to it is probably evidence of my mentality when it comes to... well, just about everything! I put things off, mostly due to some very minor detail - in this case it was figuring out what to write about.

I've decided that it's time to bite the bullet and just do it. It's going to be an incredibly tough journey, and there's a chance I'll fail. Here's to hoping I get through it.

I'll be posting anything that takes my fancy, I don't think there will be a "theme" as such. Obviously there will be a gerenal trend when it comes to what I like to post and dislike posting.

I'm a lover of books, mainly fiction of the fantasy and science-fiction genres. Movies, games, writing, playing the guitar and singing along to songs (badly!) are my hobbies. Expect a rant and/or essay on any of these subjects from time to time. Also, I'm currently studying Philosophy and Ethics, Media Studies, English Literature and English Language at sixth form (AS level this year, A2 level next year); the fruits of my learning will be frequently posted and generally referred to. You have been warned!

A blank page is one of the most daunting things a writer will ever face.