tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33920509012903040592024-03-21T15:11:25.263+00:00The Liar's Clubsenny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.comBlogger189125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-39432662837532969472013-02-26T20:58:00.001+00:002013-02-26T20:58:14.954+00:00Dredd - Let's Love This Film (spoilers!)<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-02-26/FBdfGanDstdamjuwEBHAJfdupukDIpoxIclxEbrwxEeoBGwwbmjdfieCmtJh/Dredd.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Dredd" height="281" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-02-26/FBdfGanDstdamjuwEBHAJfdupukDIpoxIclxEbrwxEeoBGwwbmjdfieCmtJh/Dredd.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p>I really like the Dredd movie.</p> <p>I mean, I <em>really</em> like it. This isn’t all that surprising; I was an enthusiastic reader of 2000AD when I was a kid, and Karl Urban has yet to disappoint (he’s Bones, he’s Eomer, he’s the best thing in Doom the movie – he’s genre’s favourite actor!). The chatter from fans was positive despite not nearly enough people watching it at the cinema, and, let’s face it, it had to be better than the Stallone version.</p> <p> </p> <p>Even so, watching it again at the weekend whilst tidying the living room (hyper-violence gives me the pep needed to remove the gravy stains from our coffee table) I found myself startled by how <em>much</em> I loved it; at the end I was grinning and nodding like a loon. I may even have bopped around the living room to the closing credits. I had to ask myself, what is it? Why does this film please me so much?</p> <p> </p> <p>There is a lot to like. Visually, it is spot on. What I remember mainly of the Stallone version is that at first I liked the way it looked – Mega-City One looks crazy and you can see that it came from the comics – but as the film progresses it rapidly becomes less and less 2000AD and more Stallone’s Latest Vehicle, until you realise it is in fact unwatchable pap. Dredd seems to work in reverse; at first it feels too real, too gritty, like this is New York of a few years from now, but as you follow Dredd on the opening bike chase and into one of the blocks the atmosphere of 2000AD settles over you like a sooty cloud. Everything is soaked in sickly sodium yellow, and the Judge’s uniforms are dusty, lived in. By the time Dredd is striding through the precinct informing Control of “bodies for resyk” you are <em>in</em> that world.</p> <p> </p> <p>The soundtrack! The soundtrack. I am in legitimate love with the soundtrack. I am listening to it when I’m writing and it’s fabulous; frenetic, doom-laden, anxious, ass-kicking. It’s pitch perfect, as important to the film as it’s visuals. Action sequences are cooler with it, more frightening, and the scenes where certain people take a dive from the top of Peach Trees are more beautiful, more horrifying. And I love Urban’s Dredd too. I expected to, really, but he’s more than just a grumpy chin – he’s stoic, relentless, and hiding a tiny twisted streak of dark humour deep within himself (very deep). I love LOVE that after he pushes Ma Ma off the balcony his only comment is “Yeah.” Because that’s all you need with Dredd.</p> <p> </p> <p>But I suspect what lifted this movie above my usual general appreciation for a good, ass-kicking action movie was the female characters. The women in this film are great, and you know it makes me a little bit sad to say it, but that’s actually pretty rare in films at the moment. Yeah sure, you might get the token woman, and she might even be quite good at punching (usually kicking) people, but most of the time we will be viewing her through the Male Gaze – she will have her midriff showing or wear latex – and she will partially exist as a reward for the much more important male character.</p> <p> </p> <p>In Dredd, we have Judge Anderson. This is her story, in fact – a rookie with questionable grades out for a final assessment – and we see her go through the wringer, but this is the thing; she is every bit as tough as Dredd. Olivia Thirlby has a sort of ethereal quality that initially gives Anderson a sense of vulnerability but we quickly discover that actually, this Judge can have you helpless and wetting yourself in seconds. The scenes where she a) demonstrates exactly how much control she has in the mind of the scummy perp and b) stands up to Dredd and makes her own Judgement made me cheer. At no point does Dredd patronise her, and at no point does the possibility of romance raise its perfumed head – my god, how refreshing is that? Not that I have a problem with romance, not at all, but so often it is a foregone conclusion.</p> <p> </p> <p>And there’s Ma Ma, played with nearly uncomfortable intensity by Lena Headey. Like Dredd, she isn’t overburdened with lines but she manages to convey menace with just a certain way of standing, a particular frown. She is in charge of a lot of men who appear to respect her, or are terrified of her, and sex doesn’t seem to come into it at all. She isn’t using her sexiness as a weapon; she isn’t played for sexiness at all, in fact. She is just a serious Bad Ass, and one who will Fuck You Up.</p> <p> </p> <p>Even the minor female characters get better treatment than usual. The woman who lets Dredd and Anderson into her apartment is brave and no-nonsense, doing what she needs to in order to save her family (for what good it does her). The Chief Judge is a woman too, and although you sense she probably has a better idea of what is going on than Dredd, this isn’t played as conniving or in any way negative; she’s just doing her job, and doing it well.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is a great film, and it’s elevated further for me because at no stage did I experience that slight sinking feeling I often get these days when watching a movie; when a topless scene appears for no other reason than it’s assumed the audience is both male and straight; when a woman appears only as a prize or wish fulfilment; when whole chunks of the plot suddenly become very predictable because Romance. Dredd has female characters that are actually fully realised people, with interests and goals that do not revolve around a penis. I liked that. I <em>loved</em> that. And I loved everything else about it too. </p> <p> </p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-84234456856159695002013-02-22T21:41:00.001+00:002013-02-22T21:41:18.283+00:00Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman: Pre-Order Competition!<div class='posterous_autopost'><p> <p><em>You should know Emma Newman. She’s lovely, she drinks a lot of tea, and she has an excellent speaking voice. Oh, and she’s a fabulous writer too – evidenced by this rather nifty <a href="http://sennydreadful.com/guest-post-emma-j-newman-and-his-black-heart" title="short story" target="_blank">short story</a> previously featured on this here blog.</em></p> <p><em>And very soon her new book, Between Two Thorns, is coming out from the fabulous people at Angry Robot, and in celebration of this loveliness there’s a special competition for pre-orders. It’s going to rock people, so get your eyeballs below for the deets! </em></p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-02-22/AmpommFewBjCDiyDhnkCDkyAtxyjajChIFbtfEkCogffpbnoJzgbbIJhcJeI/BetweenTwoThorns-144dpi-cover.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Betweentwothorns-144dpi-cover" height="758" src="http://getfile1.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-02-22/AmpommFewBjCDiyDhnkCDkyAtxyjajChIFbtfEkCogffpbnoJzgbbIJhcJeI/BetweenTwoThorns-144dpi-cover.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong>Pre-order a copy of Between Two Thorns for a chance to win a great prize!</strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong> </strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong> </strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong> </strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong> </strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">Pre-order a copy of Between Two Thorns and you'll be entered into a prize draw. If you win, you’ll have a character named after you in "All Is Fair" – the third Split Worlds novel (released October 2013) – and a special mention at the end of the book.</p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong>How to Enter</strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong> </strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong> </strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">Pre-order a copy of the book from your favourite retailer (if you pre-order from Forbidden Planet you'll get a <em>signed </em>copy).</p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">If you order from Forbidden Planet or <a href="http://robottradingcompany.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">robottradingcompany.com</span></a> (for ebooks) you don't need to do anything else – Angry Robot will take care of your entry for you. <strong>If you pre-order from anywhere else you'll need to email a copy of your order confirmation to: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="mailto:thorns@angryrobotbooks.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">thorns AT angryrobotbooks.com</span></a></span> and they'll assign a number to you.</strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong><br /></strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong> </strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong> </strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><strong> </strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">Here are links to all the places you can pre-order:</p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">Forbidden Planet (signed paperback) <a href="http://forbiddenplanet.com/97907-between-two-thorns/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">http://forbiddenplanet.com/97907-between-two-thorns/</span></a></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">Angry Robot Trading company – for DRM-free ebook <a href="http://www.robottradingcompany.com/between-two-thorns-emma-newman.html" target="_blank">http://www.robottradingcompany.com/between-two-thorns-<span class="il">emma</span>-<span class="il">newman</span>.html</a></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">Amazon (paperback) UK<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-Split-World/dp/0857663194/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-Split-World/dp/0857663194/</span></a></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">US <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Between-Two-Thorns-Emma-Newman/dp/0857663208/" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Between-Two-Thorns-<span class="il">Emma</span>-<span class="il">Newman</span>/dp/0857663208/</a></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">The Book depository (Worldwide free postage)</p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">UK Edition <a href="http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-Emma-Newman/9780857663191" target="_blank">http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-<span class="il">Emma</span>-<span class="il">Newman</span>/9780857663191</a></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">US Edition (bigger) <a href="http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-Emma-Newman/9780857663207" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-<span class="il">Emma</span>-<span class="il">Newman</span>/9780857663207</span></a></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;">There are two UK launches and an international one using the magic of telephone conferencing. All the details are here: <a href="http://www.enewman.co.uk/real-world-adventures/between-two-thorns-launches-prizes-and-parties" title="http://www.enewman.co.uk/real-world-adventures/between-two-thorns-launches-prizes-and-parties" target="_blank">http://www.enewman.co.uk/real-world-adventures/between-two-thorns-launches-prizes-and-parties</a></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 0cm;"> </p> </p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-46497788461686845342013-02-14T21:45:00.001+00:002013-02-14T21:45:54.447+00:00Urban Occult: Pre-Order Your Copy for Infinite Win<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-02-14/AbcHIroAJEHcocygcbHnfHGyxIDiGbDGFDiliHxcbApspexpqDdgpfigaEnB/UrbanOccultEbook-Lores.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Urbanoccultebook-lores" height="800" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-02-14/AbcHIroAJEHcocygcbHnfHGyxIDiGbDGFDiliHxcbApspexpqDdgpfigaEnB/UrbanOccultEbook-Lores.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> As I may have mentioned before, I am dead chuffed to have a story in Urban Occult, a new anthology of weirdness coming soon from Anachron Press; on the scale of "effed up-ness", I believe this story, Spider Daughter Spider, has an effed up factor of 11, and I'm very proud of it - not to mention that it's appearing alongside some absolutely stonking stories by some tremendously talented writers. It's going to be ace.</p> <p>The good news is, you can pre-order this little beauty (and I mean really, the cover is a piece of fried gold right there) and the universe will smile upon you for doing so. Here be the deets:<p /> <p style=""><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif;">Urban Occult Limited Pre-Order</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></p> <p style=""><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></p> <p style=""><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif;">Limited to 50. </span></p> <p style=""><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 19pt;"><strong><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;">Behind urban life, weird and horrific things fester. </span></strong><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;"></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 19pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;">The whispers and chills of things long gone… the promise of power from the darkness… the seduction of those that lie in the shadows… the occult is all around us: in town houses, in mansions, and in your very own street.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 19pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;">Editor Colin F. Barnes collected together fifteen stories by a cast of critically acclaimed authors from around the globe who look into the stygian gloom, explore the dark corners of our houses, and peer into the abyss of human temptation.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 19pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;">Featuring stories by: Gary McMahon, Ren Warom, Gary Fry, Mark West, K.T. Davies, Nerine Dorman, Alan Baxter, Adam Millard, Julie Travis, Jason Andrew, James Brogden, A.A Garrison, Jennifer Williams, Sarah Anne Langton, and Chris Barnham.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 19pt;"><strong><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;">Special Pre-Order Edition Limited to 50.</span></strong><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;"></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 19pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;">This pre-order edition means you will get the book at least a week to two weeks ahead of general release and:</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 19pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;">A FREE ebook version (for any eReader)</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 19pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;">and A FREE ebook of Day of Demons. (eBooks will be emailed to you on the 4th of March).</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 19pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #271f1f;">Just £9.99 (+£2.99 shipping anywhere in the world). </span></p> <span style="color: #271f1f; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Pre-Order here: <a href="http://www.anachronpress.com/product/anthologies/urban-occult-limited-pre-order/">http://www.anachronpress.com/product/anthologies/urban-occult-limited-pre-order/</a></span> </p> <p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-25175882175714349252013-01-29T12:08:00.001+00:002013-01-29T12:08:44.151+00:00Mass Effect: Take Out Those Hostiles! (SPOILERS for all 3 games)<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Fai" height="250" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-01-29/GnbtnysFCqzqapAcflmrgisGFoeBnxAiEnffdnDEmcmstIavgpFsuDcFbEna/fai.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="250" /> </div> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I’ve clocked in a few more hours since my last update (er, about 6) so time to fill you in on how much of the universe Morrigan Shepard has saved so far.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Journal:</strong> <em>I’ve been to Eden Prime, been assaulted by a beacon, made Kaidan look slightly bashful by saving his useless ass, and been Spectrefied. Filled with a new sense of universal responsibility, Shepard immediately stormed off to bum around some planets for a bit, consequently getting ambushed by a Thresher Maw and had to turn off someone’s life support (always fun). Finally remembering there’s a plot and stuff to be playing with, I zipped off to Artemis Tau and picked up the rather-more-girly-sounding-than-I-remembered Liara T’soni, and had my first proper brush with OH F’FUCKSAKE MAKO WHERE ARE YOU EVEN GOING?!</em></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I also got Tali at some point. Did I mention that? I remember because I just had to sit through her telling me about her bloody pilgrimage in the engine room, which I punctuated with shouts of “Piss off you space fascist!” Tali is a bit of a fan favourite, a state of affairs I’ve never quite understood, and I have to admit I felt vindicated in the 3<sup>rd</sup> game where you see Quarian history through Geth eyes and realise what bastards they were. With this in mind, Tali’s insistence that they had to shut them down (i.e. kill them) before the problem got worse feels particularly callous, and if nothing else you realise that her character arc is a pretty good one after all (unless you manage to make her jump off a cliff in the 3<sup>rd</sup> game, which is mainly just hilarious). However, I have resolved to give Tali a chance this time round, and she <em style="">is</em> quite useful when it comes to making synthetics explode.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Right now I’m at the Zhu’s Hope colony on Feros, or as it’s otherwise known, Why Don’t You Ask Fai Dan About That? This is the quest that results in shooting both zombies and a giant plant anus, so obviously it’s one of my favourites, but I’d forgotten how annoying all the colonists were. All conversations go like this:</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Shepard: So, that’s a nice hat. Tell me what you know about that hat.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Colonist: I don’t know really, you should ask Fai Dan. He knows more about it than me.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Shepard: Really? The hat on your head? Fai Dan knows more about the hat on your head?</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Colonist: Yeah, ask Fai Dan.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Shepard: I have a fucking gun right here you know.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Colonist: ….</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Shepard: I should go.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">BUT, I get to shoot them all later so it’s fine. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><strong><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Observations: </span></span></span></strong></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><em><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I have missed all the random shouting your team mates do in the first game. Really, it’s not the same without Garrus bellowing “ENEMIES EVERYWHERE!” in your ear every five seconds.</span></span></span></em></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><em><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></em></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><em><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Favourite Shepard line so far: “Big stupid jellyfish!” I’m fairly sure that’s xenophobic, Sheps, but it made me chuckle.</span></span></span></em></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><em><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></em></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><em><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The Krogan seem faster in the first game, and regenerate health at a terrifying rate. They also seem very keen on running right at you, causing Shepard to shriek heroically “Argh, get it off me, get it off me!”</span></span></span></em></p> <p> <p> </p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-53344491582324342162013-01-21T20:19:00.001+00:002013-01-21T20:19:08.062+00:00Mass Effect: In the middle of some... calibrations<div class='posterous_autopost'><p> <p>If you’ve read this blog at all previously you will know that I love Mass Effect. You will probably also know that I’ve dedicated an alarming number of hours to it already, and you may be thinking, “Look, for chrissake Jennifer, what are you on about? Do we have to have an intervention again? Was the song we wrote* about your Dragon Age obsession a waste of everyone’s time?”</p> <p>But, yes, I have decided to play Mass Effect again, starting from the very beginning. Yes I have. And I have decided this time round to blog about it. Why? Well, because I have a lot on at the moment…</p> <p>(and here I can sense you getting quite purple in the face and narrowing your lips at me, because obviously this is a prime reason <em>not</em> to get involved in the best of all Space Opera RPGs, but please, my slightly goblin-faced friend, let me finish…)</p> <p> </p> <p> …and I find Mass Effect, with all its moral conundrums and shooting people in the face to be the most marvellous stress relief. At the moment my day looks something like this: editing and revisions in the morning, day job in the afternoon, editing and revisions in the evening, collapse in front of tumblr and drool whilst making distant whale noises. What I thought was, instead of the drooling and not achieving much bit, I could go back and explore one of my favourite and most beloved things of all time, with a mind to writing the occasional blog post about it; a little chat about the worldbuilding maybe, about the complex relationships and the building of tension, as well as the occasional gratuitous bit of Garrus worship. Let’s face it, if anything deserves to be pored over and adored, it’s Mass Effect.</p> <p> </p> <p> So here she is, Morrigan Shepard (named for that wily witch of the wilds from Dragon Age: Origins)</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-01-21/iCtleyCuprbJxbFGcuIInqAqFzxnFcphebCzbnrDepsgoeAIDncDacyJIJev/MorriganShep.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Morriganshep" height="385" src="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-01-21/iCtleyCuprbJxbFGcuIInqAqFzxnFcphebCzbnrDepsgoeAIDncDacyJIJev/MorriganShep.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Initially I was tempted to try and make her look like David Bowie (there is just something about the “short blonde hair” preset that invites this) but in the end I went for quite a severe, bad-ass look. As is traditional, I lamented over the weird choices of lipstick – neon pink, kebab shop red and, um, black – and faffed over the haircut. I chose (for possibly the first time, I can’t remember) to make her a War Hero and a Spacer, and class-wise I’ve gone for Vanguard. Technically speaking I should have gone for Engineer because that’s pretty much the only one I’ve never played, but GAWD it sounds boring. I just can’t get behind “trained in omni tools and tech blah blah oh Christ who cares…”</p> <p><strong>Journal</strong>: <em>Have played up until the point where Shepard lands on the Citadel for the first time. Hellooo space utopia!</em><br /> </p> <p><strong>Impressions</strong>:</p> <p><em>I have entirely forgotten how to take cover: Kaidan got shot quite a few times before I figured this out. </em></p> <p><em>I really, really miss being able to roll into cover. </em></p> <p><em>The black lipstick actually looks rather kick ass in cut scenes, particularly when Shepard is wearing a helmet. </em></p> <p><em>I went to the loading bay and tried to shoot the Mako but it wouldn’t let me. Damn it. </em></p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-35656196483678871962013-01-15T14:53:00.001+00:002013-01-15T14:53:30.657+00:00The State of Play <div class='posterous_autopost'><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Greeting from the mysterious mists of editing! I thought I’d just pop my head over the battlements so you know I’m still here; we might be down to chewing the shoe leather and eyeing up the rats for dinner, but the People’s Republic of Novel Revisions is still going strong.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">No, I don’t know where I’m going with that either. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">It’s been a busy few weeks. I’m in the midst of revising The Copper Promise and that has proven to be an oddly exhausting activity, at least mentally. It’s fascinating though; when Juliet gave me her pointers for smartening the thing up, it gave me a new perspective on the book, and now I understand rather more about the characters than I did previously. Which just shows how incredibly useful a very perceptive reader can be.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">So yes! It’s very exciting, actually. One of my biggest jobs (ahem) is to reduce the word count as The Copper Promise is rather on the hefty side. On the face of it, to my delicate writer’s soul, this feels nigh on impossible. “I’ll never manage it!” I wail, chewing on my pens in Eat and worrying the Kenny Everett look-a-like who makes the coffee. “Every word is <em style="">essential</em>!”</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Except it’s not, of course. I have spare words all over the shop, and scenes I am perhaps not utterly happy with, and so the Big Fat Chunky Word Count is being whittled down to a slightly more slippery number. It’s oddly satisfying, plus it’s enormous fun to be back with Wydrin and the gang. I’ve missed them.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">In other bits of small news, <a href="http://www.darkfictionmagazine.co.uk/episode/submissions-open-2/" title="Dark Fiction Magazine" target="_blank">Dark Fiction Magazine </a>has reopened to submissions, and for our March episode we’re looking for stories inspired by folklore (a favourite subject of mine) so get scribbling! And yes, I am still doing the Everything and the Cat Project (even if one night of booze almost made me forget to upload the thing) and at the end of this month I’ll do a little post rounding up my favourite pictures so far. In the meantime, if you feel the need for random photos of trees and Lego in your life, you can follow me on instagram (username sennydreadful, as ever). </span></span></span></p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-76677412291402597022013-01-02T21:33:00.001+00:002013-01-02T21:33:45.975+00:00Everything and the Cat: A Picture a Day for 2013<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>Last night, half asleep in bed, I made some vague and possibly foolish tweets about trying to take a photo a day for 2013. It should be easy now, I reckoned, what with all these fancy pants mega-phones and their <em>applications</em>. I do like taking photos, even if I'm a bit crap at it, and there's always a chance that the odd snap might inspire a story some how. </p> <p>So I'm going to give it a try. Below is the photo I took yesterday, just opposide the sexual health clinic in Camberwell (I was waiting for the bus)</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-01-02/npaeAtyhbqzweGekjyCylFvwxbuznEfuwcerHGgGycIbkopprawGJgaatjua/sky.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Sky" height="500" src="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-01-02/npaeAtyhbqzweGekjyCylFvwxbuznEfuwcerHGgGycIbkopprawGJgaatjua/sky.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>And today's photo, which was taken in The Sun of Camberwell this evening. Don't worry, I won't post every single one to the blog, as I suspect that will get boring, but I'll be putting them all on instagram (if you would like to follow me on there, I am sennydreadful, predictably) </p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-01-02/JolgebrHlFugGBIperzGDahHhdsFtyzBmbwzsvbaeIsmsgaGCkldwtpvkeAG/glass.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Glass" height="500" src="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-01-02/JolgebrHlFugGBIperzGDahHhdsFtyzBmbwzsvbaeIsmsgaGCkldwtpvkeAG/glass.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-50216460416049441152012-12-31T12:45:00.001+00:002012-12-31T12:45:18.207+00:00The Other End of the Year Post<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-12-31/mdpzfBumviqcmiEfwBqensIuGkwDvcaCbbqBeGnChABJkyBxqtkwwpHigcon/castle.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Castle" height="500" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-12-31/mdpzfBumviqcmiEfwBqensIuGkwDvcaCbbqBeGnChABJkyBxqtkwwpHigcon/castle.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Well, essentially 2012 was the year of <em>The Copper Promise</em>. As you might remember, it was around this time last year that I released the very first part onto the wild plains of Amazon; <em>The Copper Promise: Ghosts of the Citadel </em>was supposed to be the first in a series of short sword and sorcery novellas. They were supposed to be fast, written and released one after the other, and they were supposed to be short.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">And then while I was writing part two, at the beginning of this year, several things happened at once to change that. Firstly, I realised that releasing each part after I’d written it just wasn’t going to work – maybe if it was a silly thing that didn’t really matter, I could get away with that, but TCP was growing more complicated, and if I wanted it to be good, I would need to be able to go back and polish. And that was the other major thing: <em>The Copper Promise </em>was growing. I loved the characters, who felt frighteningly real to me, and I loved the story, which had accidentally grown into some sort of weird epic/pulp hybrid. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">So I threw out the idea of instant gratification and wrote parts 2, 3 and 4 in 2012. And then I redrafted, and edited, and then edited some more, and ended up with a book nearly twice as long as anything else I’d written (it’s still too long). And what happens to it now? Well, that is the question. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Thanks to some quirks of fate and a writing buddy who always seems to know what’s going on before I do (I’m looking at you, <a href="http://www.adamchristopher.co.uk/" title="Adam" target="_blank">Adam</a>) <em>The Copper Promise </em>ended up on the desk of the fabulous <a href="http://www.theagencygroup.com/agent.aspx?AgentID=422" title="Juliet Mushens" target="_blank">Juliet Mushens </a>of the Agency Group, and in a sudden twist of awesomeness that I’m still getting my head around, I got an agent. Undoubtedly one of the highlights of my year was meeting Juliet for the first time (who is every bit as sharp and hilarious in real life) and hearing her quote bits of my book back at me. I mean, you wouldn’t think that would be weird, but it is. In a brilliant way. Next year proves to be very interesting indeed.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">There were other things happening in 2012, of course. After ignoring it for a year I finally summoned up the courage to read and edit my Urban Fantasy book <em>The Snake House</em>, and much to my huge surprise I didn’t totally hate it. I also started work on a YA Fantasy book called <em></em>London-Under-Sea (all weird religion, sea monsters and fishpunk) although that is on hold for the moment while I revise <em>The Copper Promise</em>. In non-book stuff <em>Mass Effect 3</em> came out and proved that it is indeed the greatest video game series of all time, if not the greatest SF trilogy of all time, and I sobbed and cheered my way through it in an epically messy fashion. I finally watched <em>Avatar: The Last Airbender </em>and utterly fell in love with it. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Other, more random moments of 2012: I saw two sets of friends get married and danced at their weddings, I wore a corset for the first time and didn’t die, I oversaw new episodes of Dark Fiction Magazine, and I attended Bristolcon, which was brilliant. I got hugged by a wookie in Wales, saw my name in the acknowledgements of a real, live book (twice, technically) and partially helped nag my lovely boyfriend into taking up writing regularly again.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">And that’s all I can really remember at the moment – no doubt I’ll have left something significant off the list, but all in all, I reckon I can chalk 2012 up as a goodun’. Wishing you all a fantastic new year full of excellence and joy! </span></span></span></p> <p> <p> </p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-89923344215287677702012-12-28T14:25:00.001+00:002012-12-28T14:25:19.998+00:00The Year in Books: My Tippity Top 5 Reads of 2012<div class='posterous_autopost'><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Well, we are in that tricksy limbo stage between Christmas and New Year’s Eve (or as a friend on twitter called it, Twixmas) so this seems a likely time to attempt one of those “summing up the year” posts, with notes on wisdom gained and lessons learnt. Since I have a notoriously bad short term memory and barely any wisdom I will be summing up the year by trying to remember the best books to grace my eyeballs in 2012.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">(later I will do a post on writing and where I am with that, because the status of writing at the moment is EXCITING)</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">So, best books. In no particular order:</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell </strong>– one of many incredibly popular books I have avoided for years simply because it was always in the 3 for 2 offer at work. I know that sounds like a stupid reason, but when you spend five years of your life peeling stickers off the same handful of books you start to build a healthy resentment. Plus it was shelved in general fiction, a happenstance that can move a book down my TBR pile a few notches.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Well, I was wrong, and the shelving was wrong too. This book is science-fiction, no? A gorgeously confusing and lyrical trip through the lives of possibly reincarnated souls, Cloud Atlas is like the music being written by one of its principle characters, Robert Frobisher; we speed forward in time, and then back, always buffeted by echoes and hauntings. Brilliant, beautiful, moving. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""> </span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Song" height="471" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-12-28/HiHvBHDEooasGnmIktwEIkAztDwzeGejbawgGbyzplgCErsnrCIkmgasyFyu/song.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="318" /> </div> </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller </strong>– this won the Orange Prize for Fiction this year, so I’m willing to bet it’s shelved downstairs in the more respectable General Fiction section, despite being the most fantasy book that ever fantasied. Honestly. This is your standard fantasy trope of a young hero growing to manhood and finding his calling, but told through the eyes of his friend and lover, Patroclus. It’s a vivid, dream-like book full of teenage lustings and tortured love, and the depictions of the gods are genuinely chilling. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie </strong>– this is a book about conflict; the futility of war, the grotty scrambling horror of it and the terrible waste of life. It’s also really fucking funny, and contains the sort of characters that I dearly wish populated all fantasy books; witty, morally dubious and above all, real. The highlight for me was Craw, your typical “I’m getting too old for this shit” soldier, who faces several difficult decisions throughout the course of the book and continually tries to do the right thing, despite the hopeless shitstorm of war and muck.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="House" height="475" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-12-28/dEIuitvAkblyIBcCAcIgoIIzasizEjhohCAwhjhjGJIhJylcjfigiaeeyHnl/house.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="311" /> </div> </span></span></span></p> <p><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson </strong>– Yes, I’m really quite behind on this one. I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle last year and it instantly rocketed into my top 10 books of all time, so I was looking forward to this; not to mention that Stephen King is a big fan too. It’s a genuinely weird, hypnotic novel, with possibly the most chilling opening paragraph I’ve ever read. It scares and delights in equal measure, until you realise that the delights are in fact all a trick of Hill House, and you are as much under its spell as Eleanor. </span></span></p> </span></span></span></p> <p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell </strong>– According to Goodreads I read four books in this series at the beginning of the year, but since I don’t exactly trust Goodreads or my own terrible memory I am plucking this one out for praise. The Saxon series tells the story of Alfred the Great through the eyes of Uhtred, a Viking raised as a Saxon and grown to become one of the king’s most trusted warriors. My little summary makes it sound terribly dry, but Uhtred the Wicked is a fabulous example of a first person narrative that drips with character, and Cornwell is extremely skilled at taking huge historic events and bringing them down to a personal level. If you’re a fantasy fan who perhaps hasn’t quite taken the step into historical fiction, I highly recommend this series and Cornwell’s retelling of the Arthur myths in the Warlord trilogy. </span></span></p> <p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;">And that’s it! A special mention for The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King – I re-read the first three Dark Tower books this year and that one particularly still blows me away. Great stuff.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;">So what about you? What were your best reads of 2012 and what are you looking forward to next year?</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p> </p> <p> <p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p> </p> </p> <p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-5368932311124344022012-12-17T21:02:00.001+00:002012-12-17T21:02:13.842+00:00Exciting Agent News: Team Mushens Assemble!<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Snoopy" height="500" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-12-17/IBmkiFuGfFErxqhlyzdAxvthCHpwEhGxbakHDbmuJEssnuctwnbFoabhhGEa/snoopy.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="400" /> </div> <p>Wondrous news! I am utterly chuffed and over the moon to report that I am now represented by the fabulous <a href="http://www.theagencygroup.com/agent.aspx?AgentID=422" title="Juliet Mushens" target="_blank">Juliet Mushens</a> of the <a href="http://www.theagencygroup.com/" title="Agency Group" target="_blank">Agency Group</a>. How amazing is that? Juliet is brilliant and she totally gets the book. I am snoopy dancing all over the shop. </p> <p>The book in question is The Copper Promise (so now you know why part 2 has been mysteriously absent) and I’m very much looking forward to beating it into the best book it can possibly be. Probably with actual sticks and swords and things.</p> <p>I may write a more coherent post about how fantastic this is and what it means for my writing in the next few days, but right now I’m going to have a celebratory curry. Happy mango chutneys to all!</p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-84629264113772713452012-12-11T17:08:00.001+00:002012-12-11T17:08:58.502+00:00Rejections, a New Perspective: Or Developing Your Crusty Carapace<div class='posterous_autopost'><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I haven’t mentioned it all that often on this blog, but these days I edit the audio fiction website <a href="http://www.darkfictionmagazine.co.uk/" title="Dark Fiction Magazine" target="_blank">Dark Fiction Magazine</a>, and over the last year or so reading submissions has given me a new perspective on the short story market.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I know what it’s like to get rejections. I even have one from Black Static which I’m quite proud of, just because it came on a slip of paper and this somehow made it seem ancient and special, and I’ve lost track of how many I’ve received by email. It’s a very painful process, and I have ground my teeth and cursed the gods and the demons and all the little goblins in between, but after a while it doesn’t hurt as much. There are those markets, of course, which you’re desperate to break and each “no thanks” email is a kick in the writerly-ball-sack, but eventually you do start to form the beginnings of a crusty carapace that protects you from the worst of the agony. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Now, as the editor of DFM I’m the one sending rejection notices, and for a writer that is a very odd experience indeed. I feel bad. I feel conflicted. I occasionally cackle with the power of it all and stroke my evil cat. Mostly though, it’s a sobering process because it demonstrates exactly how complicated a rejection can be. I have, for example, said no to plenty of stories that are actually very good, but not right for DFM, or not a good fit for the upcoming episodes. I struggle with this a lot, because I don’t want to say to these writers, “you are crap”, because even though the email will say <em style="">this isn’t quite right for us</em>, it always <em style="">feels</em> like you’re being told “you’re crap”. Often though there simply isn’t room for everything good that hits the slush pile; last year we did five episodes (four stories an episode) and next year we’ll probably do four episodes, and that just doesn’t leave much space. Every story has to be very, very good and every story has to fit the episode – that leads to a lot of rejections.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">There’s a lot of crap too, of course. For every story I agonize over there’s probably another two that get chucked pretty swiftly. Most of the time someone’s had an idea for a story and hasn’t quite got the craft to tell it yet, or, being a genre magazine, the story falls into common genre patterns, such as “It’s horror! Stick loads of blood and guts and possibly some uncomfortable sex in there!” I do, admittedly, have very high standards for short stories and a lot of submissions will come a cropper, and that’s as it should be; I want DFM to host the best weird fiction, after all. Some stories we receive just aren’t SF, Fantasy or Horror at all (which puzzles me a little – the website banner is a giant green zombie person, so you’d think that would be a big clue) and some are just too long or obscure.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">If knowing how these things work hasn’t quite made rejections easier for me to stomach, it has at least made them easier to understand, and a year of chomping through the slush pile has taught me an awful lot about editing as well as writing. For 2013 we’re going to announce the themes of the episodes beforehand, giving writers more of a chance to refine their stories for the magazine, and hopefully this will lead to me sending fewer rejection emails. Plus the cat finds all the cackling puts her off her lunch. </span></span></span></p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-36708435371661274432012-11-28T21:40:00.001+00:002012-11-28T21:40:48.443+00:00NaNoWriMo Day 28: Fishpunk and Flu <div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-11-28/qgzienoEDCmoEEImaEzImzoAloJpxdyouixlbiEzfxhvJHivbilwjeucGcCG/sealondon.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Sealondon" height="500" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-11-28/qgzienoEDCmoEEImaEzImzoAloJpxdyouixlbiEzfxhvJHivbilwjeucGcCG/sealondon.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p>I’m writing this now through the fog of flu (well, probably not flu – I felt a little too warm earlier today so I’ve decided it might be, because I do like to overreact like that) and the general exhaustion of the last days of nanowrimo. I’m very, very close to the end now, only a couple of thousand words away, but unfortunately I’m having to think around a wall of snot and grimness, so everything is suddenly really bloody difficult.</p> <p> Typical, isn’t it?</p> <p> This is annoying, but I’m not too concerned. I’ve a good chunk of London-Under-Sea out of my head and on to the page, and so far it’s been an... interesting experience. I’m not sure I’m getting everything right, and sometimes bending the book to my will seems nigh on impossible – I have these things that need to happen, but the characters keep wandering off and doing <em>other</em> things – but I sense that the bones of it are there, at least. Isaac in particular has turned out to have an interesting backstory I hadn’t even guessed at when I started, and as usual with nanowrimo the sheer break-neck pace of writing (some might even say desperation) has produced some very weird stuff.</p> <p> Which is good. Weirdness is what this book needs. We’re talking about a distant future London, flooded with an alien sea and full of fucked up sea monsters, peopled with humans who are no longer quite human. I jokingly referred to this book as fish-punk when I started writing it, but the more I get to know London-Under-Sea, the more I like the term.</p> <p> Who knows? Perhaps my feverish lurgy-brain will help! Bring on the lemsip-induced hallucinations and I might even get this thing finished.</p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-39957451460968078362012-11-08T14:59:00.001+00:002012-11-08T14:59:08.754+00:00Holy Link Post, Batman!<div class='posterous_autopost'> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Busy week, no sleep, too much sugar… my brain isn’t sensible enough to give you a big fat blog post today, but I do have a series of links I should wave about, and one of them does include a big fat blog post:</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I have been guest blogging over at <a href="http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com/2012/11/guest-post-road-there-and-back-again.html" title="Graeme's Fantasy Book Review" target="_blank">Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review</a>, where I talk in a meandering sort of way about fantasy maps and my own journey as a fantasy reader.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The <a href="http://www.darkfictionmagazine.co.uk/episode/issue-13-the-drowned-lands/" title="Dark Fiction Magazine Halloween" target="_blank">Dark Fiction Magazine Halloween </a>issue is now complete, with excellent stories from <a href="http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/" title="Lou Morgan" target="_blank">Lou Morgan</a>, <a href="http://www.enewman.co.uk/" title="Emma Newman" target="_blank">Emma Newman</a>, <a href="http://adrianfaulkner.com/" title="Adrian Faulkner" target="_blank">Adrian Faulkner </a>and <a href="http://joshuamalbin.com/" title="Joshua Malbin" target="_blank">Joshua Malbin </a>– all with a watery theme. I strongly recommend giving your ears this spooky and slightly damp treat.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The cover for Adam Christopher’s The Age Atomic has been revealed and it’s a <a href="http://angryrobotbooks.com/2012/11/cover-reveal-the-age-atomic-by-adam-christopher-designed-by-will-staehle/" title="corker" target="_blank">corker</a>. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Nanowrimo continues on its coffee-sodden way; I’ve popped up a rough synopsis for <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/sennydreadful/novels/london-under-sea" title="London-Under-Sea" target="_blank">London-Under-Sea</a> if you’re curious. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">And that’s it! Hopefully next week I will have a more coherent set of thoughts for you, but for now it’s back to the word count. </span></span></span></p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-51515931479434845972012-11-04T19:05:00.001+00:002012-11-04T19:05:31.914+00:00NaNoWriMo Day 4: Weekend Writing<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-11-04/hsdgFCbpsqziuFJGJfhgidJvggftlAkDJDrpnemvqibJylydBtIzJlvEHvwp/duncan.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Duncan" height="500" src="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-11-04/hsdgFCbpsqziuFJGJfhgidJvggftlAkDJDrpnemvqibJylydBtIzJlvEHvwp/duncan.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p>Today’s writing mascot is Duncan. I imagine his writing advice would be something like: “In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In November, too much caffeine and fingerless gloves.”</p> <p>Historically I’m not very good at writing at the weekend. I have quite a strict writing routine during the week so my brain tends to flop into SUPER RELAX MODE on a Saturday and it’s a minor miracle if I’m out of bed before midday. Although I always have good intentions of getting some words down, by the time I’m dressed and awake, it’s time to eat dinner and slip into a food-induced coma.</p> <p>This weekend though I have behaved myself. I’m about 2,000 words ahead of where I need to be for Nanowrimo, and London-Under-Sea is moving along at the pace I want it to. We’ve witnessed Esther’s troubling beginnings, had a quick swim around the submerged city, and met Isaac, who is smouldering in an angsty and brooding fashion. At the moment I’m feeling quite happy with where it’s going, and looking forward to seeing where this book wants to take me.</p> <p> How about you? I’d love to hear some Nanowrimo progress reports in the comments!</p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-58680570737625074622012-11-01T16:59:00.001+00:002012-11-01T16:59:25.738+00:00NaNoWriMo Day 1: Mascots and Pigs<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-11-01/HxgdwiCwdElJqkHiwoDqFhhdylnFzflDAnebJckddzrjdeaudbmFjmIvDyBs/mascot.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Mascot" height="500" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-11-01/HxgdwiCwdElJqkHiwoDqFhhdylnFzflDAnebJckddzrjdeaudbmFjmIvDyBs/mascot.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The first day of Nanowrimo is under my belt, along with half a packet of Percy Pigs and too much pasta, and I have to say it’s gone quite well.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style=""> </span>That’s not tremendously surprising, as the first day is always the easiest. Now, the third week, that’s a bitch, when you’re tired and you’ve forgotten what this was supposed to be about and you’ve bought so many packets of Percy Pigs that the people in M&S are starting to give you slightly fearful looks… but all that is a way off yet.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style=""> </span>I’ve had the opening scenes of London-Under-Sea in my head for a few months now, and it feels good to get them out onto the screen. With the characters walking and talking and generally getting into trouble they’re starting to fill out, to become real people, and the little details of the world are dropping into place. I didn’t know before I started writing this morning, for example, that Mr Tallow was actually quite liked by the children, or that the object Esther was remembering is a golden plate. I love finding this stuff out; it’s the joy of a first draft. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style=""> </span>I’m giving my eyeballs a rest now and ruminating on what might crop up on day two. I doubt I’ll be blogging every day, but I might just throw up the occasional update, more for my own reference than anything else.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Oh, and Grumpy Bear is today’s writing mascot. I should point out that the word next to him is “Sea”, and not… the other word. </span></span></span></p> <p> <p> </p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-12663166353580226222012-10-31T14:19:00.001+00:002012-10-31T14:19:58.896+00:00Halloween Shorts Part 2: A Very Short & Quite Silly Story From Me<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-31/EFkoaeplokrHaprzEDigCsDpBhHCecrvEJaCeiuhtJzgjamCzmwdzjnxxjdG/autumn1.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Autumn1" height="500" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-31/EFkoaeplokrHaprzEDigCsDpBhHCecrvEJaCeiuhtJzgjamCzmwdzjnxxjdG/autumn1.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>A brisk little story for Halloween - do let me know what you think!</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_file_embed'> <a href="http://sennydreadful.com/halloween-shorts-part-2-a-very-short-quite-si"><img alt="" src="http://posterous.com/images/filetypes/doc.png" /></a> <div class='p_embed_description'> <strong>Behind_the_Scenes_FINAL.docx</strong> <a href="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-31/posCfwhceDhEEgJxtIDEqamBnclwepngGblnFhrFonoarHnGFExhvczfvbGp/Behind_the_Scenes_FINAL.docx">Download this file</a> </div> </div> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-44593487026374451632012-10-31T10:21:00.001+00:002012-10-31T10:21:51.856+00:00Halloween Shorts Part 1: In the Wolf's Glen by Andrew Reid<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-31/dChFvcjnuHEAjomvJGxlzmmqzxdpmDyzgcHyAfuyBumahwqnkdEvoffGnGyH/winter.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Winter" height="500" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-31/dChFvcjnuHEAjomvJGxlzmmqzxdpmDyzgcHyAfuyBumahwqnkdEvoffGnGyH/winter.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Happy Halloween, everyone! May your pumpkins be bounteous and your skeletons ripe with gore. In celebration of the most wonderful time of the year (shh) we have an excellent creepy story from the marvellous <a href="http://mygoditsraining.co.uk/" title="Andrew Reid" target="_blank">Andrew Reid</a>. A bit later I'll pop up a story by me, and then this afternoon I will direct you over to Dark Fiction Magazine, where more Halloween treats await. Enjoy!</p> <p>(You can also go <a href="http://soundcloud.com/mygoditsraining/in-the-wolfs-glen" title="here" target="_blank">here</a> for an audio version, read by the author!)</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_file_embed'> <a href="http://sennydreadful.com/halloween-shorts-part-1-in-the-wolfs-glen-by"><img alt="" src="http://posterous.com/images/filetypes/doc.png" /></a> <div class='p_embed_description'> <strong>InTheWolfsGlenPOST.doc</strong> <a href="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-31/HyCzkewyAqcBGJFqicbrrgprGemwrrfrGJAyngaGeIdfflhqrmIFnlhqFmrC/InTheWolfsGlenPOST.doc">Download this file</a> </div> </div> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-57322953381869052832012-10-22T16:34:00.001+01:002012-10-22T16:34:58.716+01:00Big Up Bristolcon<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-22/lnDlrwqFfhEwwEJcJayaFDpnDluakzorupkkuHCCCsDbhCaikkApDEhkgkqm/badge.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Badge" height="500" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-22/lnDlrwqFfhEwwEJcJayaFDpnDluakzorupkkuHCCCsDbhCaikkApDEhkgkqm/badge.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p>I went to my first ever Bristolcon this weekend, which I’m pleased to report was brilliant. Good times were had, dodgy food was eaten, minds were expanded. </p> <p>At this stage I’m not a massive con veteran and I’m just starting to find my feet with these things, but what struck me about Bristolcon was how cosy it was - cosy friendly rather than cosy tiny, I mean. There were two conference rooms where the talks took place, spaces for the dealers and artists, and a huge bar, and I very much enjoyed walking back and forth across the hotel because inevitably you would bump into someone you knew almost immediately.</p> <p> I met up with possibly too many people to name, but I'll chuck a few up here - saw<a href="http://franterminiello.wordpress.com/" title="Fran Terminiello" target="_blank"> Fran Terminiello</a> for the first time, who shared a bottle of wine with me and undoubtedly has better taste in booze; finally said hello to <a href="http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/" title="Lou Morgan" target="_blank">Lou Morgan</a>, who I have spectacularly failed to meet previously despite attending many of the same events; discussed a Watership Down roleplaying game with the mighty <a href="http://www.darkfictionmagazine.co.uk/narrator/david-moore/" title="Dave Moore" target="_blank">Dave Moore</a>; caught up with <a href="http://www.annelyle.com/" title="Anne Lyle " target="_blank">Anne Lyle</a>, who saved me from awkwardness when I turned up hideously early (I was very paranoid about missing the train and consequently got up at 4am); admired<a href="http://www.enewman.co.uk/" title="Emma Newman" target="_blank"> Emma Newman</a>’s spectacular coat; <a href="http://mhairisimpson.com/" title="Mhairi Simpson" target="_blank">Mhairi Simpson</a> prompted a vividly memorable conversation about, uh, green dragongs; saw <a href="http://www.garethlpowell.com/" title="Gareth L. Powell" target="_blank">Gareth L. Powell</a> receive a monkey dressed as a fighter pilot... as you can probably guess, I had a lot of fun. And thanks to <a href="http://guyhaley.wordpress.com/" title="Guy Haley" target="_blank">Guy Haley</a>, who got the same train back for a little while and ensured that at least 20 minutes of my journey was filled with amusing chat (the rest of it was spectacularly hideous. There is nothing quite like 20 boozed up football fans all trying to vomit into the same train toilet).</p> <p> The panels! Also, the panels were great. I particularly enjoyed the Women in Sensible Armour talk, where the sense of “we’re not putting up with this bullshit anymore” was palpable, and <a href="http://danieware.com/" title="Danie Ware" target="_blank">Danie Ware</a> brought up a particular bug bear of mine (namely: strong women having to have massive personality problems or issues). The steampunk panel was great too, headed by the fabulous <a href="http://www.philip-reeve.com/" title="Philip Reeve" target="_blank">Philip Reeve</a> – there were lots of opinions on show, all articulated wonderfully. Plus <a href="http://druidlife.wordpress.com/author/brynneth/" title="Nimue Brown" target="_blank">Nimue Brown</a> had an excellent hat.</p> <p> All in all, I had an excellent experience and felt very welcomed and included. I am a reasonably introverted person, as I may have mentioned before, and a decade or so ago the idea of travelling to a place by myself and actually, you know, talking to people I’ve never met before would have been totally unthinkable; now I’m pleased to say I can do it, with bells on, and that is partly due to the awesome and friendly writing community. Good show, I say, good show!</p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-58772565488440005452012-10-19T22:22:00.001+01:002012-10-19T22:22:36.207+01:00The Next Big Thing Blog Hop<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-19/dwHaysvzpdAjiamBkyjwlJAqoFhhCIfwIAdmqlvhumFdDmgcGdAGhgoChcbi/snake.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Snake" height="500" src="http://getfile2.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-19/dwHaysvzpdAjiamBkyjwlJAqoFhhCIfwIAdmqlvhumFdDmgcGdAGhgoChcbi/snake.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p>I got tagged in a blog thing by the marvellous and handy-with-a-sword <a href="http://franterminiello.wordpress.com/" title="Fran Terminiello" target="_blank">Fran Terminiello</a>, so witness my rambling answers…</p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">What is the working title of your <br /></span></strong>The Snake House</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">Where did the idea come from for the book? <br /></span></strong>Originally I wanted to write a story about someone who has to make a journey into hell; in the end, Felia doesn’t quite go to hell, but she goes somewhere pretty close. I also had an urge to write a book set in London, something I’d tried before and utterly failed at.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">What genre does your book fall under?<br /></span></strong>Too my own surprise, I suppose it’s Urban Fantasy with strong elements of horror.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? <br /></span></strong>I never really picture actors as my characters while writing a book, but if a fabulously wealthy Hollywood producer gave me a fat wad of cash to film The Snake House, these are the people I’d suggest (I will never reveal how long I spent agonizing over this):</p> <p> </p> <p>Zawe Ashton as Felia Jones</p> <p> </p> <p>Ellen Thomas as Wilhelmina Sunbow (although she’d have to be aged up rather a lot)</p> <p>Maggie Smith as Katya Orbison</p> <p>Miriam Margoyles as Mavis Bickerstaff</p> <p>Damien Maloney as the adult Stanley Cubb</p> <p>Robert Sheehan as Hob</p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? <br /></span></strong>I’m cheating slightly here, but:</p> <p> </p> <p><em>Felia Jones is less than pleased to be moving to a run-down council estate with her mother and half-brother – she is even less interested in the ravings of three old ladies who claim she has the “sight”. But they know a darkness is growing at Cornwall House, a shadow of a past so terrible it has been forcibly forgotten, and if Felia Jones can’t face it down they may all be lost.<br /></em><em> </em></p> <p><em>Because what happened on the third floor left a scar that won’t heal, and the Snake House is hungry again.</em></p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? <br /></span></strong>I would love for it to be published in a way that means I don’t have to make the cover…</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?<br /></span></strong>I wrote the first draft in two months, thanks to the slightly unhinged process of Nanowrimo.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? <br /></span></strong>The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch has a similar feel (London, magic, weirdness) as well as Kate Griffin’s Matthew Swift sequence.</p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">Who or What inspired you to write this book? <br /></span></strong>I really wanted to write a horror novel, or, in a way I felt it was expected of me; I’ve written lots of short horror stories, but all my books are fantasy. Let’s see, I thought, if I can maintain the creepiness. I’d also done a lot of reading on serial killers (cheery stuff) and I really wanted to explore the nature of evil and what lies behind a monster.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?<br /></span></strong>There are three brilliant old ladies in this. And there’s a sequence that genuinely still freaks me out big time, despite having written it myself and having read it several times now. Oh, and the last couple of chapters make me cry.</p> <p><strong><span style="color: #4e4e4e;">What stage is your book at now?<br /></span></strong>It’s been read by my lovely beta team, and it’s been redrafted twice, so now it is winging its way out into the wider world, hopefully to find a home somewhere.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Here we go! Tag, you’re it:</p> <p><a href="http://mygoditsraining.co.uk/" title="Andrew Reid" target="_blank">Andrew Reid</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.adamchristopher.co.uk/" title="Adam Christopher" target="_blank">Adam Christopher</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.enewman.co.uk/" title="Emma Newman" target="_blank">Emma Newman</a></p> <p><a href="http://kdavies.net/" title="K.T Davies" target="_blank">K.T Davies</a></p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-20070008577517255302012-10-16T15:52:00.001+01:002012-10-16T15:52:13.493+01:00Stories From Another London - One Eye Grey anthology<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>I'm pleased to report that my short story <em>London Stone </em>has made an appearance in the latest collection from that delightfully ghoulish penny dreadful, One Eye Grey. Details below!</p> <p> </p> <p><div class='p_embed p_file_embed'> <a href="http://sennydreadful.com/stories-from-another-london-one-eye-grey-anth"><img alt="" src="http://posterous.com/images/filetypes/doc.png" /></a> <div class='p_embed_description'> <strong>Press_Release_stories_from_another_London[1].docx</strong> <a href="http://getfile7.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-16/JgylhnGtbfbjmFDnDvyICmcsBGeuHGAkaxgBDkiydfBIwgegnGDtqxcamtcI/Press_Release_stories_from_another_London1.docx">Download this file</a> </div> </div> </p> <p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-11235263938362011552012-10-09T12:21:00.001+01:002012-10-09T12:21:22.779+01:00NaNoWriMo - A November of Novel Adventuring<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-09/nfnBkjIxfChfkCBAvbyifHmDpwxbuswFyFqnqAkFBrdvdfjqbgHwouirrjnq/note.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Note" height="500" src="http://getfile0.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-10-09/nfnBkjIxfChfkCBAvbyifHmDpwxbuswFyFqnqAkFBrdvdfjqbgHwouirrjnq/note.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Yes, it’s that time of the year again. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">And I do appear to have signed up, partly because I can’t bear not to, and partly because I do have a new book project waiting and raring to go. It’s exciting to browse the forums again, reading about everyone prepping for the long month of madcap novel writing to come. It may not work out this year – things are a touch up in the air for me, in several ways – but I think I’m going to be there at the start line at least, fingerless gloves and cheap Halloween sweets in hand. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">I’ve participated in Nano for the last four years. In my first (2008, I think) I wrote a short children’s book called Bird and Tower. Next up came Ink for Thieves, a book I still love and hope to find a home for, followed by Dead Zoo Shuffle, a book I’m not that massively keen on these days but isn’t entirely hopeless. Last year I did the Beta month of Camp Nanowrimo, and followed that up by doing the official month too, managing to write the entirety of The Snake House in two months, which was something of a record for me.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">And as everyone starts to get excited, there’s usually a wave of cynicism about Nano too, and I’ve seen the first trickles of this. <em style="">All those amateurs</em>, moan the weary cynics, <em style="">thinking they can write. 50,000 words isn’t even really a book, and they’ve never even heard of editing…</em></span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><em style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></em></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Sod that, I say. Yes, a lot of young people take part in Nanowrimo, and yes, lots of them might be writing some rather familiar re-hashes of boy wizards, angsty vampires, and demon-hunting hotties, but so what? It’s very easy to sneer at these things (and at fanfiction, although perhaps that is unwise – fanfic led to the biggest publishing hoo-ha of this year, after all) but I’d much rather see people (particularly young people) getting excited and making things, than, say, the umpteenth wannabe farting Wannabe by the Spice Girls on Britain’s Got Talent. Or maybe that’s just me.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Besides which, Nano teaches you all sorts of important stuff if writing is where your soul rests. So the first book you harass into life via Nano might not be that great – it might even suck the big one – 50,000 words will still show you all sorts of wonders you’d never even have guessed at on November the 1<sup>st</sup>. Plus, Nano shows you (albeit in a slightly extreme way) that it is entirely possible to fit writing into your life, and that is often a wonderful and life changing thing to learn. It certainly changed mine.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">So come, mighty Nano Vikings, with your cups of coffee and writing mascots, let’s go kick November up the plot bunny!<p />(and while you're here, tell me how <em>you </em>prepare for Nano)</span></span></span></p> <p> <p> </p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-65976766569480095332012-09-26T21:19:00.001+01:002012-09-26T21:19:01.892+01:00Where do you get your ideas? And all that jazz.<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Spark" height="375" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-09-26/CDACdnHJGhHrizjjkEvhcGhkBpwfFcxHHAHFuvBtjybgGztmCuscoFphsjrA/spark.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="375" /> </div> <p>Supposedly one of the most exasperating questions a writer can get is “Where do you get your ideas?” Presumably this is because we’re not allowed to answer with: “My grandfather bequeathed to me an ancient and magical book, and within these goblin-encrusted pages new ideas breed like rutting succubae…” or “I stole them off my mate”. I have to admit I can’t recall ever having been asked (although I do occasionally get: “You enjoy that, do you?” and “Why, Jennifer, why?”)</p> <p>I think it’s a largely impossible question to answer, because most of the time we just don’t know. I was considering this yesterday when I started writing a short story out of the blue. I haven’t written a short for yonks, and when the initial flurry of activity had died down, I did stop and think: “Where on earth did that come from?”</p> <p>You’d think there would be something. Was I looking at a particular word at the time, or was it the tinny beat of someone’s MP3 player that triggered it? I don’t know. The thing is, short story writing is like hunting an animal, something lithe and speedy with a twitching nose and twisty little horns. Once you get the scent of this shy creature, you’re off, streaking through the forest after it; you follow it wherever it twists and hops and leaps, and you can’t stop until you’ve got the bugger.</p> <p>And then when you’re sitting down, picking fresh deer meat from your teeth (or <em>idea</em> meat, see what I did there?), you stop and think: <em>where did that come from? And for that matter, where am I?</em> Because now there’s no following the trail back, and even if you did, there would just be more of the same forest, looking back at you blankly.</p> <p>That’s why writing can sometimes be so frustrating, because there is no faking that out of the blue moment. Not even if you think really, <em>really</em> hard (I’ve tried). What you do end up doing, I suspect, is building up a set of weapons with which to encourage these reluctant ideas from your flighty subconscious. In the past, I have found the following to be helpful: going for a walk, having a shower, reading a really good book, flicking through a copy of Brewers Phrase and Fable (always worth doing anyway), being somewhere quiet, being somewhere noisy, looking at art, and getting a decent night’s sleep.</p> <p>I think we all develop our own tools, and you instinctively go with what works. Because really, as long as the ideas do keep on coming, I’m not going to think too closely about where they come from. The tricksy little bastards.</p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-38820399827726294202012-09-20T19:53:00.001+01:002012-09-20T19:53:10.813+01:00Guest Bloggery and Book Sluttery <div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="The-shining-danny-torrance" height="349" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-09-20/rrhtoutGmjqosaxyDIFtzAwtnIzCoBBgzuIzwpxesGEBDDrxrwIuIjHFfxku/The-Shining-Danny-Torrance.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="465" /> </div> Huzzah!</p> <p>My post about the <a href="http://insatiablebooksluts.com/2012/09/19/stephen-king-week-the-stephen-king-equation-or-why-are-there-so-many-stephen-king-films/" title="best Stephen King movies" target="_blank">best Stephen King movies</a> is now up at Insatiable Booksluts - bloody good fun to write, that. :) I am well chuffed to be appearing on a site with possibly the best name ever. </p> <p>There are a whole bunch of excellent posts over there at the moment in celebration of Sai King's birthday; I highly recommend a browse, O constant reader. </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-12923576471501667292012-09-18T12:04:00.001+01:002012-09-18T12:04:50.712+01:00Relaxing and Holipops and Stephen King<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-09-18/HJhmFfEtBpHnIFngDdCipsDsykJgvyaBqdHvlfkHDjokajGjbayeclyBgozx/horse.JPG.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Horse" height="500" src="http://getfile9.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-09-18/HJhmFfEtBpHnIFngDdCipsDsykJgvyaBqdHvlfkHDjokajGjbayeclyBgozx/horse.JPG.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Last week I had a mini-holiday with my lovely bloke. We saw friends, drank too much, ate some ice-cream, watched some jousting, and even spent a couple of days in Brighton, one of my favourite places. It does me good to be near the sea I think; the sound of waves crashing on a shingle beach is one of those odd memory triggers, and instantly I am nine years old again, badgering my nan for another quid to go and play in the slots (we also spent a good couple of hours rediscovering the joy of tuppeny pushdowns and earned a whole five pieces of useless tat for our efforts!).</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">So I managed to relax for a bit. I’m not very good at being relaxed… now, I can hear some of you snortling from here, and yes, it is true I can give off an aura of being so laid back I’m horizontal (hush, you) but I’m normally thinking about stuff. I’m normally being worrisome. I do find it very hard to just, you know, <em style="">turn my brain off and shut up for five minutes. </em>But for a little while, sitting on Brighton Pier contemplating a polystyrene cup of mussels and watching the blinding sunshine on the water, I managed it.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Of course, then I got home and immediately started making to-do lists and generally panicking about all the things I needed to finish, but then, you can’t have everything. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style=""><span style="font-size: small;"> <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">One of the things I needed to finish was a guest post over at Insatiable Booksluts, who are having a Stephen King week at the moment. Pop over there and have a <a href="http://insatiablebooksluts.com/ " title="look" target="_blank">look</a>! <p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="">My post is going up tomorrow I believe (very 19) so I’ll flag it up on here as soon as it appears. </span></p> </span></p> </span></span></p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3392050901290304059.post-14386649163533291932012-09-09T21:13:00.001+01:002012-09-09T21:13:44.983+01:00Being a Geek, Being an Angry Geek, and Being a Tiresome Assclown<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-09-09/DmnqdBxkoynhifIColehnxhEeHkxHtJgyFohtkfoooEAcpqJnluAHuawgDyD/gandm.jpg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Gandm" height="500" src="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-09-09/DmnqdBxkoynhifIColehnxhEeHkxHtJgyFohtkfoooEAcpqJnluAHuawgDyD/gandm.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p>You know, I am quite proud to be a geek. I grew up a geek, with my glasses and my Star Trek novelizations tucked under one arm, and yeah, I got bullied for it, but it didn’t stop me. And these days being labelled a geek isn’t the insult it once was – we rule the cinema listings and reading comics is cool now – and yes, I am <em>proud</em> to be a geek.</p> <p>I see being a geek as being filled with enthusiasm for something. Loving a thing so much – loving a story, essentially – that you want to know all the details of it, that you spend time discussing it and pondering the history of that story and its future. You surround yourself with stuff that takes you to that story in an instant; this is why my desk currently features action figures of Garrus, Marcus Fenix, Duncan from Dragon Age, and The Chamberlain from The Dark Crystal. It’s why above my desk there is artwork from Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and the Discworld books.</p> <p>I love being a geek, and I consider other geeks to be an extended family. My people, if you will.</p> <p>Which is why I’m filled with dismay when fandom seems to tip over into trolling. Yes, we’ve all had our moments of being horribly disappointed with where the story you love is going. Anyone who knew me a few years ago knows all about my extreme upset over the end of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. I threw the book across the room, I wrote essays on how outraged I was. I had, in short, a tantrum of silly proportions. I didn’t like Prometheus either, and spent days afterwards listing all the many ways in which it didn’t make sense. But...</p> <p>But at no point did I seek out the creators of those things to hurl abuse at them. Why not? Because that’s not what being a geek is about. If I can have a moment to be a little bit soft? Being a geek is about love, not hate.</p> <p>Currently we have a situation where Steven Moffat has left twitter, due, apparently, to the amount of angry abuse hurled at him over the Dinosaurs on a Spaceship episode of Doctor Who. And this isn’t the first incident of fandom throwing its toys out of the pram in an unpleasant manner. If you follow Bioware on facebook (and I’ve mentioned this before) then you will know that any post is blanketed in comments about how fucking shitty the end of Mass Effect 3 was, and how Bioware are shit, and how they should all die in a fire because of it. Or the weird section of Supernatural fandom that reserves a special kind of hatred for the actor’s wives. I mean, come on. If we’re adult enough to operate a keyboard and enjoy the nuances of fiction, then we’re too adult for this nonsense.</p> <p>There’s nothing wrong with being disappointed or even angry. Of course not. Rant about it all you like. Sometimes we get angry because we love something so much - my anger over the end of the Dark Tower was all about how much love I'd put into the series. But there is a line that once crossed means you are actually behaving like a pissy little child with poopy pants. A pissy little brat that enjoys bitching about something and spreading misery, more than they ever enjoyed the story. I didn’t spend secondary school being bullied for <em>that </em>to be part of being a geek, thank you very much.</p> <p>So, you know what? To me, these people aren’t geeks. I take that label, the label that means so much to me, away from them, and instead give them the title of Tiresome Assclowns. Geekdom is better than that.</p> </p></div>senny dreadfulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060196615482952688noreply@blogger.com0