If you Knew Harry Like I Know Harry…

Posted on 29th September 2011 in Read of the Moment

We all have our guilty secrets, the torrid romances hidden under the bed, the daydreams about Gerard Butler, our special super hero power and what really happens in the remote island in our heads. Mine is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden and as much as I don’t want to read the next book in the series, I always do.

My relationship with Harry is one of love/hate, I love his descriptions of magic but often hate the manner it is utilised in the stories. I love the character yet he frequently annoys the crap out of me. The same goes for his creator, sometimes his prose is urban poetry and I think–a perfect description, others I wonder if he was writing with one hand on the TV remote. I have to admit the love/hate I have for Harry and his creator keeps me coming back and that–despite the issues–is what makes a good series.

I used to think a good series was one that kept readers coming back, as if hooked on a drug but that is only part of the truth. A good series provokes response, even if you want to smack the author in the gob for his choices. Why? Because you are invested in his character. I might not like where the adventure takes me and yes—sometimes Harry acts like a whiny bitch—but I do love him.

So instead of working I’m going to indulge in my own bit of naughty and reach under the bed to allow myself to be driven crazy by a character I’m not entirely sure I like but sucks me back in every time.

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Macadamia Carrot Cake

Posted on 26th September 2011 in Personal Rants

There are times when you work and times when you say stuff it and go bake a cake!

This is a cake that is better when eaten a day after it has been cooked, not suitable for those with nut allergies. Top with any icing that you like, lemon, or cream cheese, orange, all go well. The secret ingredient? Peanut Oil.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw sugar
3/4 cup peanut oil
2 eggs
1-2 cups wholemeal flour–add until consistency is correct for cake batter, will be firm
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1 and 1/2 cups of grated carrot, younger carrots make better cake as older ones get woody
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soda bicarbonate
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:
Mix sugar and oil. I beat with wooden spoon makes a better texture
Add eggs
Add carrot mix well then add nuts
Add soda bi carbonate, baking powder and cinnamon
Fold in flour
Bake at 350c 45 minutes or until wooden skewer comes out clean

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Dumb or Dumber?

Posted on 24th September 2011 in Books

Now that I have put the romance to bed for a while and have moved onto editing the rather large Vampire book of the series I find myself becoming more protective of the work. When I considered approaching agents I was pretty much willing to take anything they said on board for, like me, they are looking to make sales. I cannot explain the sudden about turn but if I can create a work that gets an audience then shouldn’t I use that to my own advantage? It was time for me to ask the big question since I am a prolific person and can turn out books at a pretty regular pace.


WHAT DOES A WRITER REALLY WANT?

Personally, I think we all want to be Castle, living in a penthouse surrounded by money, fans and beautiful people but coming back down to reality it is your personal goals that need to be considered. Are you after, fame, fortune, prestige, all of them? Perhaps traditional publishing is the correct path for these goals, not if you ask people like John Locke of the Donovan Creed/Emmet Love novels. He self published and managed to sell half a million books, does he claim to be a great author, no, but he does claim to be a read one!

Mr. Locke made a very pertinent point in that he didn’t want sell one book to a million people, he wanted to sell a million books to several thousand rabid fans. I am with him in that since I spent five years creating an entire universe with detailed histories. To have a big 6 publisher remove half of that to make it more palatable to the general public depresses the crap out of me. All I want is enough of a crazy cult to enable me to keep going, if there’s money to be made great, but that is not the driving force. It is to be heard in the world.

Has this convinced me this is the way to go—not yet. I still hold out hope there is someone there who can take the main burden of publicity off me and allow me to go back to work. Because when it comes down to it all I want to do is write. The rest–and that includes positives such as fame and money– just takes me away from it.

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The Joy of Discovery

Posted on 21st September 2011 in Read of the Moment

The discovery of an author that slipped by because I was so engrossed in the worlds of my own making always leaves me with a small sense of panic. This was the situation when I found out a Norwegian author with several series had gone under my radar. Now some of these no doubt was due to waiting for translation but with so many books around I suspect he has been known to a great deal of people before he crossed into my life.

Jo Nesbø has managed to do exactly that and when I tracked down his website I saw a promo for not only his newest book The Snowman but also a whole list of work to enjoy. I like thrillers, I will probably never write one but I do love reading them. So if I enjoy this work then there is an entire back list to also read. The problem with working continuously is that I have to remember that my life is a segment of tasks and writing is only part of them. The largest part yes, but still there are other avenues that need to be tended.

A writer cannot just write, they have to also read and read constantly to refresh their mind, learn from the expression of others. I divide reading into two sections, what I read in order to relax and what I read in order to learn. I tend to relax with genres I will never write in–because I know my own limitations. I will never write a western or an action thriller. A crime thriller I am very interested in doing but only from the edges of the genre. Until I am ready to commit I think it’s best I learn from the efforts of others. The last part of writing is networking, doing things such as this blog to let the world know you are out there and hopefully strike a chord or even make some friends.

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Green Lantern

Posted on 19th September 2011 in Movies

Often when movies are taken from comic books, a premise that might have appealed initially can start to show it’s age and the resulting story is usually short on plot and exploding with cgi–both good and bad. Green Lantern, while falling down in some areas, manages to excel in others.

Starring a well muscled Ryan Reynolds who is now the new IT boy for Hollywood and a competent, now arrived Blake Lively doing the obligatory pretty faces thing. As usual the scriptwriters mistook borderline sociopath for careless thrill seeker and if not for the intervention of the mystical ring we would be seeing the hero headlining the most wanted list of the FBI.

The shallow characterisations do not end there, with a woefully underused Peter Sarsgaard, an almost irrelevant Tim Robbins, and cartoon like Jay O. Saunders. Mark Strong did what he could with a wooden Sinestro but if the story relied upon character alone it would not be worth the ticket price. However, Green Lantern is saved by two strong factors, one is the premise behind the power of the ring, it is an intelligent concept and while touched upon briefly engages enough to keep you watching. The other is the CGI–this is outstanding and makes for some exciting and fun viewing.

Ryan is allowed a few snatches of humour–reminding us that despite the muscles he does comedy ever so much better, Blake is allowed a few snatches of feisty which she does without snide, showing that the girl has talents hiding there. The story was too big for the movie and in reducing character it took from the plot which unfortunately gave the same old, same old of the superhero glut hitting the screens.

7/10 Saved by CGI

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The Mastiff of Choice

Posted on 17th September 2011 in Personal Rants

There are many types of mastiffs in the dog world, from the well known St. Bernard, Great Pyrenean, English, Neopolitan, to my brilliant Dogue de Bordeaux, otherwise known as the French mastiff.

As I have pointed out in an earlier post, my Dogue is so clever that she could make better commercials than the idiots who tried the EFTPOS scare campaign. I don’t know when the world became so afraid of germs because if they believed what the TV tells them then no one would ever eat at Maccas again.

My Dogue, never one to let a poor advert pass, farted quite loudly during a dettol commercial which then brought my attention to the fact that this abomination of idiocy was in fact a precursor and perhaps created by the same idiot to the EFTPOS deal. In breakdown the commercial has the usual hygiene paranoid mother calling suspiciously dirty children in to clean their hands. They use of course the new product–The Dettol no touch dispenser. According to the voice over it can eliminate the millions of germs hands can pick up in a day.

The idea is that the next person using the dispenser will not pick up germs transferred by person one. The obvious elephant in the room is that no one addresses the fact that you are actually washing your hands–any germs will soon be dispensed by that somewhat cheap and easy product–the running water. There is a case for leaving the tiny pump top clean of any debris from childish dirt but then again if you use the same towel to dry your hands say goodbye to any hygiene.

I can assure you that my scorn was well reflected in the sarcastic drool my Bordeaux, for even a gentle mastiff as her suffers fools lightly. Any comments can be made care of Scharnelle but I’m not to sure if she will deign to respond.

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