Category Archives: Writing

Everything writing related from feathers to soaring

Lord of the Lists

by

0

At the end of August, as part of the Indy Block Party, I posted my Top 5 Books – in fact Top 6 as the Infinite Improbability Drive was playing up as usual.  I had a feeling that another Blog was creeping up on me and here it is – Four more Top 5 or let’s stick with the Hitchhiking theme and go with Top 6 lists. Of course there is a common theme, if you notice.

A Matter of Life and Death (film)

Top 6 Movies: Should this be in order of favourite or chronological from when they were made or random? You tell me…

  1. A Matter of Life & Death or Stairway to Heaven in US (1946) – my favourite Powell & Pressburger movie.
  2. Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03) – the books reimagined and echoing the world I was transported to by the Professor back in 1970.
  3. Cinema Paradiso (1988) – a moving tribute and evocation of the magic of cinema in Italian.
  4. Shawshank Redemption (1994) – full of wonderful moments and brilliant acting from Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins.
  5. Pan’s Labyrinth (2206) – Guillermo de Toro’s Spanish language amazing and captivating fantasy set during the Spanish Civil War.
  6. Blade Runner (1982) – maybe not a sci-fi classic but there are classic scenes and lines, including the speech by Rutger Hauer’s character at the end.

 ScreenShot00051

Top 6 MMORPGS: As video gaming has now been around for 40 odd years, I am probably missing out the early classics that got me hooked. So these are the Top 6 from recent years – ones that I’ve got engrossed in and got characters to respectable levels. Currently I’m even taking a course linking two key areas in my life fiction and gaming – Online Games: Literature, New Media,and Narrative.

  1. Perfect World – this will always be No 1 as my elf archer asked a beautiful warrior if he could fly with her. And now we’re happily married in real life.
  2. LOTRO or Lord of the Rings Online – where I got to visit Middle Earth and meet Elrond. What more can I say but I keep going back.
  3. SWTOR or Star Wars: The Old Republic – set before the Star Wars movies but still a chance to wield a light-sabre and follow a narrative which you can change through your actions. Currently on the run….
  4. Age of Conan Unchained – based in Hyboria, the world created by Robert E Howard. Adult themes mean semi-naked characters, blood everywhere and challenging gameplay.
  5. Cabal – a fantasy world with unique armour and weapons. And great dance routines. Wished I had stayed longer.
  6. Runes of Magic – called by some a clone of the most popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft, but personally found it had better character creation and liked the dual class skill track using parallel areas. Great houses too.

Deutsch: Pjotr I. Tschaikowski

Top 6 Music: this will be far-ranging as music has been around since our distant ancestors expressed themselves on a piece of wood or by singing. Not going back that far but far enough.

  1. Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin – one of the first operas that I ever saw (at Glyndebourne) and which moved me and still continues too. Wonderful arias.
  2. Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor – very personal as well as moving music. One of the classic recordings being by Jacqueline du Pre, who tragically suffered and died from multiple sclerosis.
  3. Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring – ballet music that evokes so many images from the primitive to those from Disney’s Fantasia.
  4. The Doors’ L.A Woman album – included the track Riders On The Storm which is my favourite Doors’ song as well as the name of my guild in LOTRO.
  5. Queen’s A Night at the Opera – favourite track is of course the classic Bohemian Rhapsody But there are other great hits on this album such as You’re My Best Friend and Love of My Life.
  6. Howard Shore’s Lord Of The Rings Symphony – last but not least has to be this symphony edited down from the soundtrack to the Peter Jackson movies. Full of familiar themes and leitmotifs that continue to send tingles up my spine. Essential element of movies that works on its own too.

The artist and poet William Blake, who lived i...

Top 6 Poems: probably as old as music so the choice is extensive. I have to admit that my interest in poetry has lagged behind other art forms, but there are ones that stand out either individually or as collections.

  1. Thomas Babington Macaulay’s Horatius at the Bridge – a part of my education that still lives with me as it had such a fundamental effect.
  2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – another classic poem that caught my imagination while growing up. The words are so powerful and often lines come to mind like:   Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where,Nor any drop to drink.
  3. William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience – a collection of poems that I studied for English Literature and loved, especially as Blake even illustrated with richly illuminated plates.
  4. Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven – a poem with dark images and wonderful use of words. Another classic.
  5. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias – far briefer than most of the other poems but in its few short lines as evocative and epic, stirring thoughts as endless as the sands.
  6. Beowulf – the longest and for many one of the greatest epic poems, but with no specific source for this Old English masterpiece. Yet so much derives from this amazing work including much of our great literature. I read it in English, not Old English, when I was 17 and it was and still is an emotional experience of unbelievable depth.

The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written i...

There is a notable absence of Lord of the Rings from the last list. An oversight, perhaps? I could have cheated and included one of the many verses that J.R.R Tolkien included in his great work, many of which are fine works of poetry. In fact there is a crucial poem at 6 – Beowulf. The Professor wrote an essay “Beowulf and the Critics” – which I have incorrectly in the past inserted the word monster in with Grendel in mind. I read the essay before I had even heard of Lord of the Rings, but it was the turning point, the beginning of my journey down an unbelievable road… a road which goes ever on.

 

Inspirational Links that might lead to more lists being created:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muse

http://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/The_Muses/the_muses.html

Related articles

Beyond the Conflict

by

1

Syria

Syria (Photo credit: Yishac – Isaac Alvarez i Brugada)

Syria has become the hot topic of the moment with President Assad as the west’s new figure of hate. The Obama Administration wants a limited military response to the chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians, allegedly by the Syrian Military. And as AP reported, ‘Syrian President Bashar Assad has warned there will be “repercussions” against any U. S. military strike launched in response to a chemical weapons attack in his country.’

Does the threat of military escalation resolve anything for the Syrian People? They would be the first to suffer, as a Syrian-born woman told Senator McCain in Phoenix, Arizona: http://mash.network.coull.com/activatevideo?video_provider_id=2&pid=8165&website_id=8319&width=640&height=390&embed_type=IFRAME&video_provider_url=http%3A//www.youtube.com/embed/7MAQBMNPf7M.

And the so-called collateral damage won’t stop there. The humanitarian repercussions will be unacceptable. Haven’t our politicians learnt anything from recent conflicts in the Middle East? Or is the US administration under the naïve belief that by siding with rebels supported by Al-Qaeda prevents terrorist responses? Oh, I’m the naïve one forgetting that it is acceptable to back both sides. The west was selling arms to both Iran and Iraq back before Saddam Hussein was the bogey man. And what about super-power dealings with the Taliban? Okay to arm the Taliban when they are fighting Russia. Terrorists can be valuable allies, when they oppose an evil empire.

President Carter said, “The chemical attack should be a catalyst for redoubling efforts to convene a peace conference, to end hostilities, and urgently to find a political solution.” But that is too much like common sense. Fortunately the Russians are also using their heads and attempting to move towards a peaceful outcome.

I don’t claim to be a Middle East expert but I have lived for enough decades to recognize that the situation is complex with multiple political and religious sides, and small sparks have a tendency to grow if fanned by outside forces that have their own agendas. Whether this will escalate into World War III is a frightening question, which I pray the politicians are seriously asking before they count the benefits… to themselves.

ThisBrokenEarth

Fellow writer Roger Colby’s apocalyptic ‘This Broken Earth’ should serve as a warning since it starts from a crisis in Syria. . On his insightful blog, Roger Colby says, “I am not writing this blog to make you go out and buy the book, but simply because I’m pretty freaked out about the fact that a prediction I made in my novel is slowly becoming a frightening reality.”

Sadly his excellent novel is a warning that will be dismissed as science fiction and not reality. But what about history, do we ignore that at our peril? As G. W. F. Hegel said, “What experience and history teach is this – that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.” This has been said in other ways by greater minds than mine: http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/quotations/lessons_of_history.html

History should demonstrate that the solution lies deeper than opposing dictators when they are already at war with their people. The violence starts when dictators are first allowed to emerge. WWII began many years after Hitler was given the financial backing and the arms. Before the Jews there were others suffering and yet he was funded and ignored. Why were Wall Street financiers supporting Krupps, the largest German arms manufacturer?

The dictators of tomorrow are being created today in our name. Reacting now with violence only escalates Syria’s civil war and the same applies further afield. Sadly the solutions to today’s conflicts lie yesterday… when our nations were selling chemicals and arms to Syria, and probably to the opposition. Where were Obama, Kerry, Cameron, Hague and all their cronies when the export deals were being approved? Counting their shares in the manufacturers? Looking for votes? Where are they sending the next batch of death to as part of the despicable arms trade? The next hotspot that gets them spouting from their power pulpit when it makes the headlines.

Maybe as The Onion wisely reported, “a new poll of Americans has found that though the nation remains wary over the prospect of becoming involved in another Middle Eastern war, the vast majority of U.S. citizens strongly approve of sending Congress to Syria.”

Sending politicians to fight the wars they want sounds inspired. Instead of being cannon fodder the troops could run Congress or the House of Commons. Beyond the amusement of suits fighting, history shows that there was once a time when the best leaders were willing to be there in the front line, leading from the front. Forget America’s armchair Presidents and remember George Washington, even if he fought us Brits and won.

Yet another British rival, Emperor Napoleon led his armies to victory and then defeat. And we have our own warrior leader, Boudicca. So why do politicians send others to fight? Are the troops our modern day champions fighting it out for the spoils? But wasn’t the combat meant to be single combat?

Obama .v. Assad. Bare-knuckles, swords, or pistols at dawn? Or words of wisdom and a pen?

REfowell1

There are non-violent ways and there are many who have proved that path can work. I can count one of the campaigners for the Abolition of Slavery as both my ancestor and an example of what is possible. My 4th Great-grandfather, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was a tireless advocate of choosing the right way. It’s not the easy route, especially when there are alternative options, even ways-out.

I will end by quoting Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton’s Quaker brother-in-law and friend, Joseph Gurney who wrote to him when he became an MP saying, “Do not let thy independence of all party be the means of leading thee away from sound Whiggism. Let us take special care to avoid the spirit of Toryism. I mean that spirit which bears the worst things with endless apathy, because they are old.”

This apathy still leads the Tory descendants and their allies in the US to distract from the real issues with their march to war. We have to

Related articles

Social Media and Networking Tips

by

6

Indie_block_party

This the 8th and final post in the Indie Block Party, and the theme as the crate says is Social Media & Network Tips.

When I became a writer, as opposed to a retired journalist, I was led to believe that building my social platform was crucial. So I dutifully created this website/blog, a dedicated writing Facebook page and a Twitter account. I knew that there was a stage two that required signing up to other social media, but I never reached that point.

Each day I dutifully checked my emails on my personal and writing accounts, then my two Facebook feeds, and finally Twitter. I read all the articles that seemed relevant but it all impacted on my writing. Social media took over at the expense of being creative.

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...

Now I attempt to prioritise what I do. I check the emails and Facebook but I have to admit that I gave up reading everything on Twitter as so much of it seemed repetitive and self-promoting. I find it far easier to subscribe to blogs that I feel are worthwhile, once I have read a few good posts.

I try to share these posts on Facebook, but I’m not sure if many people read them. We’re all too busy anyway.

The groups that I find most useful on Facebook tend to be ones for British writers rather than more international, although they are not exclusively so. If you befriend me on https://www.facebook.com/roland.clarke.79 I can recommend you to them. Or simply Like my Roland Clarke Writer page.

Facebook logo Español: Logotipo de Facebook Fr...

In terms of major DOs and DON’Ts for the social media world, I would say DO socialise and relate to people, but DON’T hard sell them, bombarding them with sales promotions.

Can I end by quoting some excellent Tips from Janice Hardy:

Social media tips:

  • Social media is about connecting and being social, not spamming “buy my stuff”
  • Be yourself, be professional, and be nice
  • If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, don’t say it online. The internet is forever
  • It can take time to figure out which social media site fits your personality and style and how to be effective on it
  • Use your author’s name. “WriterJay” might fit my personality, but it’s not going to help me get my name out there or build my author brand

For the full articles: http://blog.janicehardy.com/2009/12/marky-marketing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+janicehardy%2FPUtE+%28The+Other+Side+of+the+Story%29

 Willow_web

Normal Blog service will resume next week, although with less information blackouts, I hope. This Indie Block Party has got me thinking…

For more useful Social Media & Networking Tips visit:

http://scotzig.com/indie-block-party/

Writing Tips

by

4

Indie_block_party

For Post 7 in the Indie Block Party the topic is: Share your most helpful writing tips and advice. What do you know now that you wished you had known when you started writing?

I always say that I wish that I had known that completing my first novel overnight wasn’t guaranteed or required. It’s been 13+ years and publication is just a few months away.

So for all you wannabe writers out there, with that one book crying out to be written, I need to say that it can take a lot of sweat and patience, plus discarded ideas and words, especially if all criticism is taken on board. But it’s all worth it. There are amazing moments especially when words flow and visions come to life on the page. Just give yourself time and don’t rush the creative process.

Tip 1: Learn the craft well. Writing is a craft that we all spend years perfecting, in fact for a lifetime. As wiser people than I have said, the best writers are always learning and consciously improving. Never stop studying your craft.

Tip 2: Be There. These words are posted beside my computer to remind me to live in my writing. Feel your surroundings as your characters do. Immerse yourself in the same way that you want the reader to be captivated. Leave the objective, critical, internal nit-picker locked away until the editing stage. Starve him somehow so he’ll work harder later.

Tip 3: Why? Posted on my wall under ‘Be There’. As a journalist I was often told to use the five Ws in the first sentence of the newspaper story, even if it was an outdated technique by then.  Who, What, When, Where and Why i.e. who is it about? What happened? When did it take place? Where did it take place? Why did it happen?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ws

For me this has been simplified to Why? – in the sense of Why is this happening? Why is the character doing this? Why am I changing scenes? Why am I using these words. Not all the questions but the best ones start with ‘why’.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tip 4: As they say in acting – Is your character always in character? Is your character always in the moment? Best explained at: http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/small-actions-deeper-character-better-scenes/

Tip 5: Write that first draft as fast and furiously as the inner muse unleashes the words that she wants to inspire you with. Again don’t let the internal editor hold you back.

Tip 6: Take regular breaks, walk around the house… or in my case wheel myself around. When we move to our bespoke home it will be far easier to go outside, without changing wheelchairs and lifting them around corners. So my advice is mix writing with gardening perhaps, anything to move around as well as write.

Tip 7. Rewards: Not exactly the last one but the point at which the experts move into the wings. I could only add that beyond my writing I know that I will be rewarded with something I enjoy. For some of you that might be coffee, a muffin, chocolate or a shower, but for me it is escaping into another world playing some MMORPG.

conan10-751x600

Have I done enough to go now, please?

Okay, guess not.

Here a few links to interesting articles that I have read in the last few days.

http://www.booksandsuch.biz/blog/things-happy-authors-dont-do/

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/394179/71/Elmore-Leonards-10-rules-of-writing

http://jodierennerediting.blogspot.ca/2013/08/revise-for-success-stress-free-concrete.html

There are various sites I use including:

http://www.livewritethrive.com/

http://blog.janicehardy.com/

http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com/

And as a crime writer:

http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.co.uk/

http://stacygreenauthor.com/

Finally a site that I have just discovered and started subscribing to:

http://afterwriterdreams.com/

And for other invaluable hints, why not visit the other Indie Block Party participants:

http://scotzig.com/indie-block-party/

Related articles

One Book to Fuel them all…

by

5

Indie_block_party

Another reading theme for Post 6 in the Indie Block Party: What are the top 5 books you absolutely love?

This is harder, perhaps, than listing my Top 5 Movies, games/MMORPGS, and even music. Immediately reminds me of BBC Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs where celebrity ‘castaways’ name their top eight record choices, plus a book and a luxury, as well as The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and The Bible (or similar text). Except here it is just books, I’m no celebrity – yet – but I can pretend to be a castaway.

So what five absolutely loved books would I take to this desert island… where my Kindle won’t be charged for more than a few chapters. Need to be paperbacks or hardbacks then.

1.   J R R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: this has always headed my list of favourite books and it is nowadays classed as a classic. Other options of that ilk, Classics, would include Great Expectations, Heart of Darkness, 1984 and others, but this is the one I re-read every few years. It has always inspired me whether I need to escape into another world or in my writing. Is that the same thing? And I have been able to see my vision of Middle Earth on screen plus been there in a gaming world. That is also echoed now in the Professor’s words. (As is the Blog title). I also have the hardback set that I read in my late teens back in the late 1970’s.

LordOfTheRings

2.   Charles de Lint’s Greenmantle: staying on the fantasy theme although de Lint is the master of blending genres, in this case fantasy and crime. Of course John Buchan had already used the title and I remember following Richard Hannay through thrilling adventures, when I was in my teens. But de Lint’s Greenmantle is both magical and gritty. Urban fantasy at its very best. And I re-read it a few months ago.

greenmantle_pan

3.    Linwood Barclay’s No Time for Goodbye: to me this is a crime-thriller novel that I can re-read, even if I vaguely remember the circuitous complexities of the plot, which is so well woven. Barclay is a master of the art of leading you astray and yet it all fits logically, when you reach the end. My crime novel of choice would have been Agatha Christie’s Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but I’ve read it too many times to get lost in its cleverness. So now I choose Barclay. Would a series count as one book?

no-time-for-goodbye

4.   Anne McCaffrey’s The White Dragon: once I discovered McCaffrey’s Pern series about dragons, Thread and so much more, I was hooked. Of all her Pern books this is the one with the best characters, best plot, and best surprises – especially if you’ve read all the books before this one. Sadly lost my copies of the Pern books so must go online and order at least this one before I leave for the island.

white-dragon-medium

5.   Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist:  such a small book and yet vast in its depth. The Alchemist is gold dust… magical fairy dust from a true artist, poet, and alchemist. If you haven’t read it – why not? If you have, then re-read, or try his other masterpieces. It opened my mind in the same way that Antoine de St Exupery’s The Little Prince http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince did.

Alchemist_41BkEX-7CUL

Well that’s it, folks… or is it:

6.   Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: I know this is more than five but I’m using the Infinite Improbability Drive. Plus there has to be humor and for me this was a laugh that I could re-live over and over again without the joke getting stale. And bonus this is the beginning of “a trilogy in five parts”. (Another review at: http://www.intothebook.net/2011/10/hitchhikers-guide-to-galaxy-douglas.html)

The-Hitchhiker-s-Guide-to-the-Galaxy-9780345391803-1

Okay I’ll stick by the Catch 22 rules, forget I had a cat called Oliver, and head for Casterbridge, all to avoid another War and Peace.

Feel another Blog creeping up on me – Lord of the Lists. What Lists should I have? Movies, MMORPGs, music, maybe even poems.

What do you suggest?

Please visit the Blogs of other Indie Block Party participants via: http://felwetzig.com/indie-block-party/

Related articles

And for my reading pleasure…

by

2

Indie_block_party

This is Post 5 in the Indie Block Party and today the topic is: What are you currently reading?

So this is my current situation, when I haven’t even updated my Goodreads page to reflect the last five centuries or so of reading.

Oracle OFFICIAL Cover

1.   Anyway I’ve just finished an excellent thriller, ‘Oracle’ by J C Martin, which I recommend to all who enjoy a good crime, mystery or thriller. ‘Oracle’ has a great plot, well-rounded characters with human frailties, and the novel is realistically set in a London that I was familiar with… and in the underbelly that few of us have ever seen. I’m keen to read J C’s next books as soon as they are available.

Further details: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15905037-oracle OR http://jc-martin.com/fighterwriter/ 

BLURB:         

“As the countdown begins, the body count rises.
With London gearing up to host the Olympics, the city doesn’t need a serial killer stalking the streets. They’ve got one anyway.
Leaving a trail of brutal and bizarre murders, the police are no closer to finding their latest murderer than Detective Inspector Kurt Lancer is in finding a solution for his daughter’s disability.
Thrust into the pressure cooker of a high profile case, the struggling single parent is wound tight as he tries to balance care of his own family with the safety of a growing population of potential next victims.
One of whom could be his own daughter.
Fingers point in every direction as the public relations nightmare grows, and Lancer’s only answer comes in the form of a single oak leaf left at each crime scene.”

Cover of "The Chronicles of Amber: "...

2.   I’ve been re-reading Roger Zelazny’s “The Chronicles of Amber”, as a chunky paperback. Finished the first book ‘Nine Princes in Amber’ and well into No 2 ‘The Guns of Avalon’. Eight more in the series so lots of reading left. I read the Amber series in my teens and I wanted to revisit the world as the series were among my all-time Fantasy favourites. Zelazny’s masterpieces were published in the early 1970’s but are still available.

Further details: http://www.amazon.com OR http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/316876.The_Chronicles_of_Amber

BLURB:

“Amber is the one real world, casting infinite reflections of itself – shadow worlds, which can be manipulated by those of royal Amberite blood. But the royal family is torn apart by jealousies and suspicion; the disappearance of the patriarch Oberon has intensified the internal conflict by leaving the throne apparently up for grabs; and amnesia has robbed Corwin, Crown Prince of Amber his memory – even the fact that he is the rightful heir to the throne.”

Shaman's Drum

3.   On Kindle, I’m reading Ailsa Abraham’s “Shaman’s Drum”, to which there is a prequel due out in the future. Ailsa comes from a ‘long line of Scottish witches’ and knows first-hand about shamanism, which shows in the novel. I am still learning how to use my Kindle so I am reading this one very slowly, but I keep wanting to know more. It might be a fantasy setting or rather future England, but at its core is a tale of love.

Further details: http://ailsaabraham.com/ AND http://www.crookedcatbooks.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=84

BLURB:

“England in the near future. 
Mainstream religions have been outlawed, and the old gods rule again.
Iamo has been a priest of the Great Mother and is sworn to celibacy, but his love for Riga, a Black Shaman, a magical assassin, caused him to break his vows. After being imprisoned apart from each other for three years, Iamo accepts an offer to earn them both a pardon and the possibility of marriage. If they survive.
Iamo and Riga must discover why demons are breaking through from the other side. Which of the cults are renegades who allow the demons through? Who can they trust? 
Combining their powers, they face the ordeal with the help of a band of eclectic pagans, spirit creatures, Riga’s Black Shaman brothers, an undercover Christian granny, and three unusually energetic Goths. 
It’s a tough assignment, but the hope of a life together keeps them fighting.”

 

PaperKindle

Copyright: J M Clarke

Sadly I have a growing list of books that I want to read in paperback or tree-form as some call it, and also on Kindle, which some claim is more green. Still love the feel of turning pages of a paper book, and seeing them around.

I also need to read more in the way of research – e.g: Don Bamford & Paul Carroll’s ‘Four Years on the Great Lakes, 1813-1816’ , as above under my Kindle, and vital for my proposed ‘Seeking A Knife’ novel, which is merely a vague outline. Plus there are dozens I want to buy and those are on my growing Wish List. But I just don’t read very fast, especially on the Kindle.

What should I do? Paper or Kindle? Read more and write less? Abandon sleep?

More on my Reading habits here on Writing Wings tomorrow.

but until then

Please visit the Blogs of other Indie Block Party participants via: http://felwetzig.com/indie-block-party/

Related articles