Category: Other Stuff

This includes anything that isn’t primarily to do with my writing.

Somehow….I didn’t get much done really. Or did I?

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Hello

 

Looking back over my last post I realise I’ve only partially stuck to my new routine over the past week.

The writing part of my routine has moved as slowly as ever. This is due in no small part to working over-time on Saturday, wanting to chill on Sunday, and starting back on the weights again Monday through till Today. Now, I don’t lift a crazy amount of weights but after 6 months of not using them at all, it’s made me pretty tired and lacking in the energy to write. Though I know this will change once exercise is as much a part of my routine as writing, reading and editing, I’m hoping it will come sooner rather than later. I’m feeling tired now as I write this post. I have managed to write a character profile for the hero of my time travel piece. Once I get my internet sorted, as in unlimited and not with a cap on it, I’m looking forward to going head long into time travel research. Who knows what I’ll come out with or even if my mind can handle it.

The editing part of the routine is going along as always. I’ve just finished Chapter 7 as it goes. It ended pretty poorly and I noticed how I’m very aware of the style of my story. My hero was on a hunt when he got distracted by his would be love interest. I added this in because it’s happened to me before. Not the hunt thing the distracted by love interest thing. I’m glad this is in as I hope it gets across how normal my seemingly abnormal hero can be. Like I said, the chapter ended pretty poorly and when I edited it, I removed three lines and put in one new one. I’ve read enough about having to be ruthless whilst editing and to make sure everything left in is useful to the story and I think I’m getting the hang of it.

The reading part of the routine is coming along nicely. Along with moving onto the latest edition of Writing Magazine, which has an interesting article regarding how Amazon could help authors instead of hindering them that was pretty interesting (thank you Tom Ellis author of the Parish & Richards crime series) I have been moving on with my current book to read, Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument by Corey Taylor. As in, the lead singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour aka The Great Big Mouth. Now, I picked this up because I’ve heard a lot about how tough and diverse his upbringing was and listened to how he has used it to help his song writing but my curiosity wanted to know more. And so far I’ve not been disappointed. Some of things he’s gotten up to so far, I’m up to chapter about Sloth if you’ve read it before, are…well…all over the place, which is how I like my reading to be. He does this with structure and he writes so well I’m glad I forked out the money for it. To think I forgot I had it until I came across it when I last moved house.

Ok. That’s me for the time being. Have a good week.

Cheers

My first Manchester Literature Festival experience: Cory Doctorow ‘Information doesn’t want to be free’. 07.10.2014.

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Hello

I just wanted to let you know about the great talk I recently witnessed as part of this year’s Manchester Literature Festival.

I received the booklet which explained all the MLF events and this one stood out for me. I hadn’t heard of Cory Doctorow before but what his talk was about, which covered the choices you make about your digital creativity resonating throughout the internet and three laws to abide by when doing so, sparked my interest. I’ve read plenty regarding copyright laws and what rights writers have when they decide to self-publish or are lucky enough to be signed up by a major publishing house and what they want when you sign a contract but hearing an expert talk about it was something I wanted to hear.

The first law covered the locks that are put in place on something you own, mainly the thing you’ve created, and how it’s not really there for your benefit. As far as I was concerned before hearing this, I thought these locks are there to help. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is one lock that you would click before publishing with Amazon for example that would protect your creative product. Cory explained how easy these things are to unlock by saying that such locks were on DVD’s when they first came out and it was broken within 24 hours to allow any DVD to be pirated. Once the lock is in place as well, only the company that put the lock on can remove it. Not even the author can remove it once they agree to it. That sounds pretty scary to me. The Hachette Vs Amazon barnstormer battle came up and he explained how, with Hachette refusing to agree a new deal with Amazon re: sale of their products and such, Amazon have refused to sell any of Hachette’s stuff, which accounts for 40% of their annual turnover. Hachette has mandatory DRM on their products and some websites have this auto-selected when really, by the sounds of things, you shouldn’t use it. It’s akin to having armour round you work like wet tissue paper.

The second law was that publishers will make you rich as long as you are already famous. I’ve read many stories whereby an author will be rejected by publishers, self-publish and sell a lot of books, and then make a deal with a publisher but make it tailored to their needs because they can live without the publisher. It does seem to me like trying to go it on your own is the better option and probably the more satisfying one.

The third law was that information doesn’t want to be free. Information always seems to have some kind of cost to it. When it is put onto the internet, which is the Nervous system of the 21st century as Cory put it wonderfully (if you’ve heard that before, fair enough. But I haven’t so it was a wonder to me at the time) then it does seem like it would be easier to encourage people to freely share parts of their work which would in turn help the sales of the book in the future. This is something that Cory has done very well for many years. He explained as well about how computers seem to be everywhere nowadays. You carry a computer in your pocket (mobile phone) or an iPod or any number of things which can have its contents accessed by anyone if they tried hard enough. He said that in the future everything will run through the internet and that it was evitable.

In conclusion I did enjoy the talk very much, even buying a book of his and getting a picture with him, and would advise anyone who wants to know more about copyright laws to seek out Cory Doctorow and his musings (http://boingboing.net/ and http://www.craphound.com amongst many) . To finish, here are a couple of pictures from the night. Thanks for reading.

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I was editing and then…I got infected.

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Hello

 

So, the edit has moved onto the Fifth chapter. Well, I’ve just finished the forth one last night. It’s moving along pretty well but I think I might have to go back and re write some of the descriptions for the women. I’ve actually just re wrote some of them right now. Thankfully, I didn’t have to change too much and (I think) I have the descriptions right. I’ll check them again when I do another edit just for descriptions. Whenever that will be. I’m considering changing my NaNoWriMo this year to editing 50,000 words. It would mean I finish my first edit by the end of November. Hmm…(strokes beard deep in thought)

In between my editing exploits I took a trip to Sheffield with a few mates. It started off well. A beer in the train station beforehand. A beer when we arrived. Some food after checking in at our various hotels (7 of us in total over 3 different hotels) then got in a taxi. Where was this taxi taking me? Who knows? Hang on…Asylum? What is this place? Has Sheffield been infected by a virus? What is that moving in darkness?…ARGH!!!!!

Ok. Alright. I’ll explain. My mate Paul had taken part in two previous events like this called 2.8 hours later. It’s a zombie survival game whereby you are tasked with getting uninfected water out of the ‘infected’ city of Sheffield back to the last base for surviving humans, Asylum. Well, parts of Sheffield anyway. All 7 of us, along with loads of other teams like ours all starting at different times, had to negotiate our way through streets full of zombies, accessing laptops at different locations to tell us where to go next. If you let yourself get immersed in it, as I did, it was well good/scary. I found myself sprinting as fast as I could as the ‘zombies’, played very well by those who volunteered to do so, slowly picked up speed and screamed at us. I only got caught because I forgot about a zombie that I thought was taken care of. Never mind. It was an awesome experience but not sure I’ll do it again. I’d have to train for it if I did. For more information if you’re interested, see www.2.8hourslater.co.uk.

So, I’ll leave you by saying that my edit goes on and here’s how I looked after getting infected. I got better…

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Movie Review: Dorian Gray (2009) 2 out of 5.

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Hello

Now, I’d like to start by saying this is just a movie review I think I must write given that I’ve recently read the book and I wanted to make even a small amount people aware of how poor a film version this is. So…

dorian gray 2009

Good points:

Ben Barnes (Dorian Gray), Colin Firth (Lord Henry Wotton), Ben Chaplin (Basil Hallward) and Rebecca Fox (Emily Wotton) are all on fine form. Especially Colin Firth and Ben Chaplin, who inhabit their parts very well. The style, costumes, and settings are all very good as well. Having read the book it was what I expected and it started well, handling the Dorian Gray/ Sibyl Vain (Rachel Hurd-Wood) romance and tragedy soundly and how the Dorian gets cursed. But then…

Bad points:

Too many changes. There are a lot of homosexual undertones which you have to think about whilst reading the book. Particularly between Dorian and Basil, the artist who paints the to be cursed picture. The film has them getting off with each other at one point and for me I thought Basil was obsessed with Dorian from a purely artistic point of view. Basil wants to paint the ‘perfect’ Dorian and have him as his muse. I didn’t think this was needed. I also didn’t understand why Henry Wotton was married and had a child. The book has him disliking marriage and viewing it as a waste of time. Again, no need. Once these things had been introduced I stopped caring and was more concerned with my phone and looking out of the window.

In conclusion…

If you haven’t read the book, 4 out of 5. If you have, 2 out of 5.

That is all..BYE!

A story almost done…but my 2nd 10k run completed!

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Hello

 

So, following on from last time, the next short story that will help to shape my ‘Town of the Mountain’ follow up is shaping up nicely. It’s entitled ‘The Worry’ and centres on Eriden Grainger, the chief heroine of the Town of the Mountain. I wondered how I would go about this story and, like the first story ‘The Hunt’, I just wrote what I felt like writing.

Eriden is worried that she isn’t as good a hunter as she used to be. The Town of the Mountain ended with an almighty battle featuring all the bugbears of the forest, of which there were chuffin loads, attacking the hunters. Our hero hunters won but now that the town is peaceful, and has been for a while when we drop back into Eriden’s life. It is very quiet and very boring. You see, there aren’t any bugbears to fight. Or any monsters of any kind for that matter. So, with this in mind she decides to join up with Markus in Manchester to fight off the City’s demon infestation. However, she feels out of shape and worries that she may not be able to do what she did for her town for a big city. She also worries about her new boyfriend and not being around for him. And she worries about her mother, who has finally started talking to her again after years of neglecting her, will become as distant as she used to be. My, oh my have I given her a lot of worries. It does mean that the story is flowing quite well and I’m able to try my hand at writing emotional stuff and that. Which is something I actually quite like to write. I will hopefully have finished the story by this time next week so I’ll let you know how it went.

And…I ran the Bupa Manchester 10K for the second year running! I had been worrying about how I would do in the weeks running up to the run. I put myself down for the second wave which is one up from last year. Immediately in my head I thought that everyone else was going to be faster than me and leave me in their collective dust thus allowing me to finish last out of a hell of a lot of people. But, as the race drew nearer and I inched my way forward towards the starting line my confidence grew. And…I was off! I was tempted to just go for it at the beginning but I settled into a comfortable pace. The amazing heat didn’t help matters but the support of strangers on the side lines was brilliant. I finished it in 54 mins exactly in 6533rd place. That was 50 seconds quicker than last time and 2094 places higher. I’m happy to say the least. Got a medal as well.

Right then. I’m off. Thanks for reading and have a good week.

Good bye

And the break continues…and a few pictures of what I did.

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Hello

Since last time I have still been keeping on with this break thing. I’ve had the last week off work which has meant I’ve had to focus even more on my writing break and not giving in to temptation. And this is how it went…

I spent Monday with my girlfriend, which was awesome and very relaxing. Having no work the next day was a refreshing change as one or both of us usually has to get up early the next morning.

Tuesday was the day I visited the famous, and largest in Europe, set of Christmas markets in Manchester. It does have a daft amount of stalls but I usually only end up buying some fudge and a huge rocky road muffin. I’ve not bought any fudge yet but I did buy a smartie chocolate muffin the size of my head which was gone in no time. I managed to buy a Christmas jumper and a present for my nephew as well. Then, in the evening, I did nothing at all. It was lovely.

Wednesday had me going to see my friend and her new baby. It was good to catch up as I’d not seen her in a long time. Afterwards I  went home and did naff all. Although this didn’t stop me from coming up with another idea for the twist in the story I told you about in my last post. It was something that had been playing on my mind since I finished writing story a few years ago. I knew I needed to make sure the twist was clearly explained and had a reason behind it. As long as I can do that, which I think I’m close to doing, I’ll be happy. Then I’ll probably discover that something doesn’t make sense and start all over again. I mentioned the story in a few posts previously and posted some rough drafts of the first chapter. Its called The Town of the Mountain. And then there was…

Thursday which saw me going to watch West Side Story at the Palace Theatre in Manchester with my girlfriend. I’ve wanted to see a big show at the theatre for years and she made that want happen by getting us tickets for a birthday present for me back in June. I wanted to see a show that was established and up to a high standard. The show was everything I hoped it would be and I enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks again Michelle.

Now on to Friday when I went to Leeds with a few friends to celebrate another friends birthday. We started drinking on the train there and polished off a fair amount of alcohol before we eventually went out in Leeds in our Christmas Jumpers. That night rolled on nicely as wearing those jumpers got us and everyone around into the Christmas spirit. The Saturday consisted of more alcohol and pizza followed by another night out. Out of the two nights, I preferred the Christmas Jumper one. The reason being I got chucked out of a bar on the Saturday night for something I didn’t do. Some bint accused me of pushing her off a chair. And managed to mistake me, a six foot, bearded man with short brown hair, with a five foot nothing bloke with long blond hair and no beard. How could this happen you may ask? Because we were both wearing black tops. She knew the manager so I got shown the exit. Even the bouncer said it wasn’t me. I could explain more but I may start to ramble and become more angry and go round trying to push more people over. So here are a few pictures instead.

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This is me being proud of my Christmas jumper. Just before we went out.

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This is me and a few mates. Not sure what we’re doing to be honest.

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By this point we were all fairly drunk and one of us had gone missing. It turned out he’d just gone home.

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More drunk now.

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This one was from Saturday night. I didn’t get many good pictures but this is us trying to do Gareth Bale’s heart celebration thing he does when he scores. Only a few of us managed to master it. Dan at the front, who’s birthday weekend it was, hand’s seem to have fallen apart when he tried it.

Well, that’s all from me. Hope you enjoyed a small slice of my life. Good luck as always with your writing and see you soon.

Cheers

 

Time off in Krakow for my 30th.

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Hello

This time last week I was unable to update this blog. Because I was in Krakow for my 30th Birthday with my girlfriend. Which is up there with the best reasons for not doing something ever!

The time off was brilliant and spending it with my girlfriend and in a beautiful city like Krakow made it even better. I could go on and on but I’ll stick to pictures and captions instead. Which is probably the same.

The beer in Poland is excellent. Including this one. Tyskie it was.
The beer in Poland was excellent. Including this one. Tyskie I think it was.
This was the view from the top of the main tower of the castle.
This was the view from the top of the main tower of the castle.
It had a lot to see. You had to pay for each separate exhibition which was a good idea.
It had a lot to see. You had to pay for each separate exhibition which was a good idea.
That's Michelle being daft by the way.
That’s Michelle being daft by the way.
It was surrounded by restaurants and bars and there was always something going on. Awesome
It was surrounded by restaurants and bars and there was always something going on. Awesome
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A statue of someone who was probably important.
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This was on the second night we were there. On my actual birthday. So I assume it was all to tell me Happy 30th. Because I don’t really know what it was about.

We did visit Auschwitz and Schindler’s factory (now a museum). All in all Krakow was a brilliant holiday and hopefully I’ll go back someday.

Thank You!

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Hello

 

Just a quick one to say thank you for following me. I’ve just been informed that I now have 10 followers. It may not be much, but it’s ten more than this time last year. May the trend continue.

Thank-you

And just so I can’t be confused of not being multilingual….

 

 

Thank-You2

Cheers

Me and my medal.

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image

This is me after a day that consisted of running a 10k and drinking a fair bit of alcohol.
After doing one more errand after posing for this picture, I lay down and was asleep within minutes. And I snored too according to my girlfriend. All worth it.