"There is a man who can tell you a story that will make you believe in God."
Ang Lee's movie of Yann Martel's novel is technically astounding, but also works on an emotional level and I haven't had so much fun with a movie in a long time. I'd not read the novel - I've a phobia against books that win the Booker prize ever since falling for the hype surrounding Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses and finding the book a mind numbing slog. However after seeing this movie I am most certainly going to read The Life of Pi.
The first part of the movie concerns the early life of schoolboy Piscine Molitor Patel who shortens his name to Pi after enduring taunts from his schoolfriends who call him, 'Pissing Patel.' Pi's father owns a zoo which gives the young child a pretty good lifestyle as well as some understanding of animal psychology. Pi is born a Hindu but he soon starts to become interested in other religions and is mocked by his family who tell him, that he can't follow three religions. This makes no sense to Pi who just wants to love God and sees no problems in subscribing to so many different doctrines.
The second part of the movie sees Pi's family decide to sell their zoo over a land dispute with the government, and they decide to sell the animals to various zoos around the world before emigrating to Canada. In the second part of the novel, Pi's family embarks on a Japanese freighter to Canada carrying some of the animals from their zoo, but a few days out of port from Manila, the ship succumbs to a storm and sinks, resulting in his family's death. During the storm, Pi escapes in a small lifeboat with a spotted hyena, an injured Grant's zebra, and an orangutan. And although we don't know it initially but there is a ferocious tiger called Richard Parker (after a mix up with the animal's paperwork when initially bought by the zoo).
From here on in we get an amazing movie that projects real personalities on the animals aboard Pi's ark while remaining true to the actual nature of such creatures. The hyena is a nasty creature and eventually attacks and kills both the zebra and the monkey, before Richard Parker attacks and eats it. From there on in the movie becomes a battle of survival on the high seas between the sixteen year old Pi and the man eating tiger. Some of the scenes are truly incredible - the humpbacked whale section took my breath away and the storm of flying fish during which Pi finally exerts his dominance over Richard Parker is absolutely beautiful.
I found myself glued to the screen and will most certainly watch this movie again - the ending is ambiguous and it is left up to the viewer which of the two stories told here that they chose to believe. It doesn't matter which though because this is a brilliant movie that delivers two hours of true cinematic magic.
Tuesday 30 April 2013
Monday 29 April 2013
Tainted Stats
Weekly Stats Report: 22 Apr - 28 Apr 2013
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/
Summary
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/
Summary
Mon | Tues | Wed | Thur | Fri | Sat | Sun | Total | Avg | |
Pageloads | 245 | 306 | 208 | 245 | 224 | 212 | 247 | 1,687 | 241 |
Unique Visits | 201 | 224 | 191 | 217 | 208 | 186 | 204 | 1,431 | 204 |
First Time Visits | 190 | 213 | 178 | 197 | 196 | 176 | 185 | 1,335 | 191 |
Returning Visits | 11 | 11 | 13 | 20 | 12 | 10 | 19 | 96 | 14 |
Sunday 28 April 2013
What writers earn
I've been a professional full time writer for a while now - You think I'd be minted, yeah. After all don't writers earn a fortune? There's an interesting article from Historical novelist Sara Sheridan that asks, just what do writers earn over on the Huffinton Post - find it HERE
Thursday 25 April 2013
Star Trek into Darkness - Cumberbatch is - CAUTION MAJOR SPOILER
DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT SPOLIERS BUT THIS POST REVEALS WHO CUMBERBATCH IS PLAYING IN STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS.
Into Darkness has now opened in Australia and advance news is mixed - there are those who loved it but also those that feel Star Trek's been turned into a dumb action movie. We can also reveal that Benedict Cumerbatch is actually playing Khan even if he does go through much of the movie using the name John Harrison. And that this movie is a thinly disguised re-make of The Wrath of Khan.
Expect a full Archive review in the fullness of time.
Wednesday 24 April 2013
John Carter movie review
Initially I'd been eager to see what Disney would make of the pulp classic which Edgar Rice Burroughs penned around the same time as his better known Tarzan series. That's not to say that his Mars series are not known because they have a large readership, but whilst everyone has heard of Tarzan it is only students of the pulps and science fiction geeks who have heard of John Carter, the character who created in the Mars series. The first book in the series was Princess of Mars and it this book that the makers of the movie used as the source material for John Carter.
However I missed this film on its big screen release, and after so much negative press I ignored it when it came out on DVD. Recently I came across the film in a bargain bin and thought I'd finally give it a try.
It's not such a bad movie as the reviews would have you believe, nor does it deserve to have been the costly box office flop that it was.
Yes it's corny and often predictable but throughout it remains true to its pulp origins.The script is driven by the derring-do of the great adventure writers -men such as Jules Verne, Rider Haggard and of course Edgar Rice Burroughs. And it times on reminded me of the old Saturday morning adventure serials that used to play when I was a kid. John Carter then is an old fashioned movie only in the sense that the original Star Wars is an old fashioned movie - since both are heavily influenced by the episodic science fiction of the likes of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and others of that ilk. It is family entertainment first and foremost and looks quite spectacular with the multi-armed Martians being perhaps the finest celluloid aliens since those in Avatar. It was padded out in the middle and could have done with a little trimming but I still enjoyed it even if its two hours plus running time seemed far too long. This could have been a fantastic ninety minute adventure but as it is the beginning is far too slowly placed and the jump from Earth to Mars seems a little forced - mind you this is not the fault of the film and I felt the same thing while reading the original novel a year or so ago.The book is in the public domain and available freely and I first read it on my Kindle, I had of course heard of the character and I've read a few Tarzan novels in my time but Burroughs' Mars books were known to me only by reputation. I'd heard of them but never read them.
I'm glad I've seen the film now -it's not as bad as some would have you say, and indeed at the budget DVD price represents extremely good value.
However I missed this film on its big screen release, and after so much negative press I ignored it when it came out on DVD. Recently I came across the film in a bargain bin and thought I'd finally give it a try.
It's not such a bad movie as the reviews would have you believe, nor does it deserve to have been the costly box office flop that it was.
Yes it's corny and often predictable but throughout it remains true to its pulp origins.The script is driven by the derring-do of the great adventure writers -men such as Jules Verne, Rider Haggard and of course Edgar Rice Burroughs. And it times on reminded me of the old Saturday morning adventure serials that used to play when I was a kid. John Carter then is an old fashioned movie only in the sense that the original Star Wars is an old fashioned movie - since both are heavily influenced by the episodic science fiction of the likes of Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and others of that ilk. It is family entertainment first and foremost and looks quite spectacular with the multi-armed Martians being perhaps the finest celluloid aliens since those in Avatar. It was padded out in the middle and could have done with a little trimming but I still enjoyed it even if its two hours plus running time seemed far too long. This could have been a fantastic ninety minute adventure but as it is the beginning is far too slowly placed and the jump from Earth to Mars seems a little forced - mind you this is not the fault of the film and I felt the same thing while reading the original novel a year or so ago.The book is in the public domain and available freely and I first read it on my Kindle, I had of course heard of the character and I've read a few Tarzan novels in my time but Burroughs' Mars books were known to me only by reputation. I'd heard of them but never read them.
I'm glad I've seen the film now -it's not as bad as some would have you say, and indeed at the budget DVD price represents extremely good value.
Sunday 21 April 2013
Tainted Stats
Weekly Stats Report: 15 Apr - 21 Apr 2013
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/
Summary
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/
Summary
Mon | Tues | Wed | Thur | Fri | Sat | Sun | Total | Avg | |
Pageloads | 284 | 305 | 173 | 240 | 224 | 228 | 260 | 1,714 | 245 |
Unique Visits | 241 | 258 | 155 | 191 | 197 | 204 | 228 | 1,474 | 211 |
First Time Visits | 224 | 241 | 144 | 172 | 183 | 193 | 206 | 1,363 | 195 |
Returning Visits | 17 | 17 | 11 | 19 | 14 | 11 | 22 | 111 | 16 |
Saturday 20 April 2013
The best TV show ever is...
This weekend I found myself sitting in the dentist waiting room and to pass the time I checked out the pile of magazines on the small table - among the mags were several issues of Cosmo, a dozen or so People's Friend's,a few comic books and a copy of Empire magazine from 2009. I picked up Empire and an article that caught my interest asked what was the best TV show ever? The magazine seemed to think it was a two horse race between The Wire and Battlestar Galactica. Both are great shows but it got me to thinking that if the magazine ran the same article today would shows like The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones be in the top spots? And what of older classics like Deadwood, Lost and The X Files? And of course there is the original Star Trek as well as Doctor Who, The Avengers and The Prisoner (the original not the short lived remake).
I wondered what I would consider the best TV show ever, and I found I was unable to come up with a single winner. I've still got a fondness for 1970's cop shows like Staskey and Hutch (for sheer entertainment value), Kojak (for everything about the show), Hill Street Blues (for its gritty realistic feel) and The Rockford Files (because it was mostly awesome). And of course there are many western shows that I think were excellent - Rawhide, Wagon Train, High Chaparral, Deadwood. And does Lonesome Dove, a mini-series, count?
There are also many comedies that would be in any top ten - Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Soap and current hit, The Big Bang Theory will likely feature on future lists.
So what is the best TV show ever?
Beats me.
I wondered what I would consider the best TV show ever, and I found I was unable to come up with a single winner. I've still got a fondness for 1970's cop shows like Staskey and Hutch (for sheer entertainment value), Kojak (for everything about the show), Hill Street Blues (for its gritty realistic feel) and The Rockford Files (because it was mostly awesome). And of course there are many western shows that I think were excellent - Rawhide, Wagon Train, High Chaparral, Deadwood. And does Lonesome Dove, a mini-series, count?
There are also many comedies that would be in any top ten - Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Soap and current hit, The Big Bang Theory will likely feature on future lists.
So what is the best TV show ever?
Beats me.
Friday 19 April 2013
Avenging in the UK
Marvel have announced that Avengers 2 will start shooting in the UK early in 2014 - the production will be based at Shepperton Studios with location work shot at various venues across the UK. Marvel previously shot Captain America and the second Thor movie in the UK.
Thursday 18 April 2013
Books: The next big thing
BOOKS Magazine claim that the cozy mystery genre is the next market leader - More and more people are reading cozy mystery books. And within the cozy mystery genre, holiday themed cozies have also been increasing in popularity. Some authors of the cozy mystery book subgenre specialize in holiday and special occasion mysteries. These books are often written in a series, with each covering a different holiday.
My own cozy series featuring the pensioner sleuth Granny Smith is experiencing strong sales, though interestingly I'm selling twice as many books in the US market than I am in my native UK. The Granny Smith series, currently two books, with a third out this winter are set in the semi-fictional South Wales village of Gilfach, which is very much based on Gilfach Goch, the village I grew up in - the geography is the same but the Gilfach of the books is populated by a bunch of surreal characters and I'm having great fun playing with them.
" A great mystery here and brings that style of cozy forward into the twenty-first century, touching on modern subjects that wouldn't have been tolerated back then, Hell, not even thought of back then." From Amazon reviews.
Now cozy crimes traditionally don't feature any graphic violence or sexual content, and whilst the Granny Smith books mostly follow these conventions, I have tried to push the genre somewhat, which is why you will often find the Granny books to be a little more risque than most other cozies. In fact I don't think of Granny Smith as strict Cozies, but rather un-cozies. I mean they are not serious crime novels, far from it - I think they are far more humorous than most and there are definitely passages which are all out comedy.
"The murder mystery has good flow. The characters are a hoot." From Amazon reviews
"Very interesting and a very fast and fun read. Was a surprise ending, I loved the way granny defends herself." From Amazon Reviews.
The third Granny Smith novel (The Welsh Connection) which will see print this winter continues directly on from Granny Smith and The Deadly Frogs, and finds Granny and her extended family setting off for Disneyland to celebrate the wedding of Granny's son Gerald to his long term partner, Wayne. It's going to be the gayest of gay weddings - indeed Granny calls it The Royal Wedding.
With Granny at Disney mayhem ensues - murder, mayhem, narcotics and a mouse. I do hope many of you who read the Archive will try the series and to celebrate the success of Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs, it's just outside the top one hundred on Amazon you know, both of the currently available books in the series have been dropped to a low low price (£1.34 UK/ $2.06 US) for the remainder of this month.
Extract: Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs
My own cozy series featuring the pensioner sleuth Granny Smith is experiencing strong sales, though interestingly I'm selling twice as many books in the US market than I am in my native UK. The Granny Smith series, currently two books, with a third out this winter are set in the semi-fictional South Wales village of Gilfach, which is very much based on Gilfach Goch, the village I grew up in - the geography is the same but the Gilfach of the books is populated by a bunch of surreal characters and I'm having great fun playing with them.
" A great mystery here and brings that style of cozy forward into the twenty-first century, touching on modern subjects that wouldn't have been tolerated back then, Hell, not even thought of back then." From Amazon reviews.
Now cozy crimes traditionally don't feature any graphic violence or sexual content, and whilst the Granny Smith books mostly follow these conventions, I have tried to push the genre somewhat, which is why you will often find the Granny books to be a little more risque than most other cozies. In fact I don't think of Granny Smith as strict Cozies, but rather un-cozies. I mean they are not serious crime novels, far from it - I think they are far more humorous than most and there are definitely passages which are all out comedy.
"The murder mystery has good flow. The characters are a hoot." From Amazon reviews
"Very interesting and a very fast and fun read. Was a surprise ending, I loved the way granny defends herself." From Amazon Reviews.
The third Granny Smith novel (The Welsh Connection) which will see print this winter continues directly on from Granny Smith and The Deadly Frogs, and finds Granny and her extended family setting off for Disneyland to celebrate the wedding of Granny's son Gerald to his long term partner, Wayne. It's going to be the gayest of gay weddings - indeed Granny calls it The Royal Wedding.
With Granny at Disney mayhem ensues - murder, mayhem, narcotics and a mouse. I do hope many of you who read the Archive will try the series and to celebrate the success of Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs, it's just outside the top one hundred on Amazon you know, both of the currently available books in the series have been dropped to a low low price (£1.34 UK/ $2.06 US) for the remainder of this month.
Extract: Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs
That was one
possibility, Granny thought but just because Mark and Carol had shared a night
together didn’t mean he had killed her.
During her
younger days Granny had experienced a few one-night stands herself, it had
seemed almost compulsory at the rock festivals of her youth. And if murder followed casual coitus then she herself would be
a serial killer – well, she would have bumped off at least two men at
Glastonbury and another at Knebworth. And Keith Richards certainly wouldn’t be
around to twiddle his twangy strings, not after Hyde Park.
Battlestar Galactica The mini series and season 1
If all you know about Battlestar Galactica is the original 1970's Star Wars influenced show then this new version will hit you for six - the mini series sets up the tone and right from the off it is clear that there is nothing juvenile about this science fiction series. Yes it's set in space, yes it's got killer robots but don't expect anything like the original 1970's Battlestar Galactica as this re-imagining pulls no punches and is adult in its approach to the subject matter. It's also bloody addictive - I recently picked up a box set that contained the mini series and the four season of the show, and after being blown away by the four hour mini series that sets up the basic premise, I watched the thirteen episodes of the first season over a few days.
WOW is all I can say - it's no wonder that Time magazine called this the best show on television, and that awards after awards were heaped on the show.
The space battles look incredible - the producers have thrown out the techno-babble and disco influenced costumes of the original series and instead given us a gritty, well acted, brilliantly written story of the last survivors of the human species as they flee the Cylons and try and find the fabled 13th colony - Earth. The second war between Cylons and Humans is lost in the mini series and the series picks up on the aftermath as the remaining members of mankind try to survive.
I did find the relationship between the human Dr Balter and the sexy cylon, number six to be confusing on times - is she really there or a figment of the doc's imagination? - but, no doubt this will be explained as I watch the later seasons. You see although we still have the old style Star Wars Storm-Trooper looking Cylons we also have models that are indistinguishable to humans. There are even Cylons posing as human members of the Galactica crew.
The Cylons now have self awareness, a religion of their own and on times they seem more human than the actual humans. This all leads to some effective storytelling and at the mid-point of this season it is suggested that Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) may actually be a Cylon, and although this seems to be debunked quickly there is still the feeling that he may not, in fact, be human. Please no spoilers in the comments to this piece as I want to enjoy discovering for myself.
Quite excellent.
WOW is all I can say - it's no wonder that Time magazine called this the best show on television, and that awards after awards were heaped on the show.
The space battles look incredible - the producers have thrown out the techno-babble and disco influenced costumes of the original series and instead given us a gritty, well acted, brilliantly written story of the last survivors of the human species as they flee the Cylons and try and find the fabled 13th colony - Earth. The second war between Cylons and Humans is lost in the mini series and the series picks up on the aftermath as the remaining members of mankind try to survive.
Sexy new Cylons |
The Cylons now have self awareness, a religion of their own and on times they seem more human than the actual humans. This all leads to some effective storytelling and at the mid-point of this season it is suggested that Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) may actually be a Cylon, and although this seems to be debunked quickly there is still the feeling that he may not, in fact, be human. Please no spoilers in the comments to this piece as I want to enjoy discovering for myself.
Quite excellent.
Tuesday 16 April 2013
How Simon Templar became involved with an odd little Welshman
Hodder's Mulholland Books are in the process of reissuing all of Leslie Charteris's Saint novels in both print and eBook, and together with the forthcoming pilot for a new TV series based on the character it means that 2013 is shaping up to be a most Saintly year.
The Saint or Simon Templar was created way back in the 1920's, and like a select few other fictional characters has achieved true immortality - the character is reinvented for successive generations. I first became aware of the Saint from the reruns of the Roger Moore series in the 70's, and a decade later I tuned into the Ian Oglivy revamped series. Of course I soon discovered the Saint's rich heritage - the old movies with George Sanders, Louis Hayward or Hugh Sinclair in the title role. It was these movies, far grittier than the TV series that set me off on a quest to read the original books.
The first Saint novel I read was The Saint in New York, and I remember on the first reading (I've read it several times since) being blown away. The fact that the book was so hard-boiled was a revelation From there on I was hooked, I became a member of the Saint Club and started to pick up every Saint novel I could find. And later still I discovered the old radio series via Old Time Radio Web sites.
I guess you could say I'm something of a fan.
"Simon Templar is a British fictional character known as The Saint featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books until 1983; two additional works produced without Charteris’s participation were published in 1997. The character has also been portrayed in motion pictures, radio dramas, comic strips, comic books and three television series"
Last year Hodder's new imprint Mulholland Books started reissuing the entire Saint series of Saint novels in both eBook and Print format. Looked over by Ian Dickerson, president of The Saint Club and close friend of the late Leslie Charteris, the books are handsome editions with all new artwork featuring that oh so familiar stickman.
On June 20th this year The Saint in New York will be reissued with an all new introduction by a certain Gary Dobbs. I am thrilled and incredibly honoured to have been given the job of writing the intro - it makes me a small part of the character's rich heritage. I feel as if I've been bestowed with a sainthood.
Saint Gary Dobbs - ahh well, perhaps not.
So remember - watch out for the sign of The Saint - he will be back!
The Saint or Simon Templar was created way back in the 1920's, and like a select few other fictional characters has achieved true immortality - the character is reinvented for successive generations. I first became aware of the Saint from the reruns of the Roger Moore series in the 70's, and a decade later I tuned into the Ian Oglivy revamped series. Of course I soon discovered the Saint's rich heritage - the old movies with George Sanders, Louis Hayward or Hugh Sinclair in the title role. It was these movies, far grittier than the TV series that set me off on a quest to read the original books.
The first Saint novel I read was The Saint in New York, and I remember on the first reading (I've read it several times since) being blown away. The fact that the book was so hard-boiled was a revelation From there on I was hooked, I became a member of the Saint Club and started to pick up every Saint novel I could find. And later still I discovered the old radio series via Old Time Radio Web sites.
I guess you could say I'm something of a fan.
"Simon Templar is a British fictional character known as The Saint featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books until 1983; two additional works produced without Charteris’s participation were published in 1997. The character has also been portrayed in motion pictures, radio dramas, comic strips, comic books and three television series"
Last year Hodder's new imprint Mulholland Books started reissuing the entire Saint series of Saint novels in both eBook and Print format. Looked over by Ian Dickerson, president of The Saint Club and close friend of the late Leslie Charteris, the books are handsome editions with all new artwork featuring that oh so familiar stickman.
On June 20th this year The Saint in New York will be reissued with an all new introduction by a certain Gary Dobbs. I am thrilled and incredibly honoured to have been given the job of writing the intro - it makes me a small part of the character's rich heritage. I feel as if I've been bestowed with a sainthood.
Saint Gary Dobbs - ahh well, perhaps not.
So remember - watch out for the sign of The Saint - he will be back!
Monday 15 April 2013
Bond goes Solo
The name of William Boyd's new James Bond novel is Solo - no doubt the new Man from Uncle book will be called Bond.
‘Sometimes less is more. For me as a novelist the simple beauty of Soloas the title of the next James Bond novel is that this short four-letter word is particularly and strikingly apt for the novel I have written. In my novel, events conspire to make Bond go off on a self-appointed mission of his own, unannounced and without any authorization - and he’s fully prepared to take the consequences of his audacity. ' William Boyd
"1969. A veteran secret agent. A single mission. A licence to kill. James Bond returns in Solo,
‘Sometimes less is more. For me as a novelist the simple beauty of Soloas the title of the next James Bond novel is that this short four-letter word is particularly and strikingly apt for the novel I have written. In my novel, events conspire to make Bond go off on a self-appointed mission of his own, unannounced and without any authorization - and he’s fully prepared to take the consequences of his audacity. ' William Boyd
"1969. A veteran secret agent. A single mission. A licence to kill. James Bond returns in Solo,
Granny Smith Reviews
A wonderful five star review by George R. Johnson appeared on Amazon.com this morning. I am very pleased with this review - well, it's always nice to get a positive review.
The review is pasted below:
Pipe smoking, headbanging Granny Smith is a kindred spirit to this reader. While she has a few years on me, I too still love all things metal and, while I don't smoke, i once had a brief relationship with a pipe. Granny has a cat named Lemmy (mine was named Puss Cooper) and doesn't dress like a person of her years. Same here.
Writer Gary Dobbs has created a modern day cozy series that can stand alongside some of those series by British Isles authors that I devoured in my early years. He has a great mystery here and brings that style of cozy forward into the twenty-first century, touching on modern subjects that would have been tolerated back then, Hell, not even thought of back then.
Most excellent.
The review is pasted below:
Pipe smoking, headbanging Granny Smith is a kindred spirit to this reader. While she has a few years on me, I too still love all things metal and, while I don't smoke, i once had a brief relationship with a pipe. Granny has a cat named Lemmy (mine was named Puss Cooper) and doesn't dress like a person of her years. Same here.
Writer Gary Dobbs has created a modern day cozy series that can stand alongside some of those series by British Isles authors that I devoured in my early years. He has a great mystery here and brings that style of cozy forward into the twenty-first century, touching on modern subjects that would have been tolerated back then, Hell, not even thought of back then.
Most excellent.
Tainted Stats
Weekly Stats Report: 8 Apr - 14 Apr 2013
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/
Summary
Project: THE TAINTED ARCHIVE
URL: http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/
Summary
Mon | Tues | Wed | Thur | Fri | Sat | Sun | Total | Avg | |
Pageloads | 218 | 338 | 421 | 307 | 301 | 250 | 200 | 2,035 | 291 |
Unique Visits | 198 | 284 | 237 | 272 | 246 | 193 | 185 | 1,615 | 231 |
First Time Visits | 180 | 255 | 203 | 250 | 234 | 179 | 170 | 1,471 | 210 |
Returning Visits | 18 | 29 | 34 | 22 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 144 | 21 |
Sunday 14 April 2013
Ten Hours in 1984
See fathers with sons not much
older than I, fathers and sons with heads held high,
Ten hours a day shoveling coal,
ten hours a day down that stinking hole,
Ten hours of graft for what
little money they pay, Oh will we ever see the bright of day?
It takes awhile to get going these
days, but then each day is the same. A single slice of toast for breakfast,
more often than not without butter, wash that down with a cup of tea and then
the day begins proper. Today though feels even blacker than usual and I’ve
lived through some black days since this bloody strike started. As I leave the
house I catch a news snippet from the radio in the kitchen – “there are now
more than three million unemployed”. And that does nothing for this feeling of
hopelessness that seems to have curled itself
The street is quiet as I trudge my way to the village square where the men are to meet before yet another day of demonstrating at the pithead. I pass Tom’s house, the curtains drawn, and I am reminded of the fact that poor old Tom is no more. All Tom wanted to do was work, put food on the family table, and his desperation became such that he defied the strike and went and clocked in at the colliery, but we are all desperate, all have families to feed. We would all like to return to work but we dare not, for standing together is the only way we will defeat this rich woman who seems hell bent on destroying the community we call home. I wonder if she, a millionaire, spares a thought for men like Tom, men who became ostracized by their own people and end it all with a bottle of whiskey and a handful of sleeping pills? I doubt it, though. The bitch doesn’t even know our names and cares nothing for the lives we lead.
.
Saturday 13 April 2013
Granny Smith extract
The end of last month saw Granny Smith and The Deadly Frogs published by Red Valley Publishing - the book is available on the Kindle as well as in other formats, and will be on sale at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, WH Smith, Goodreads and other digital stores. There will also be a limited run print edition available later this year, as Granny Smith breaks through into print.
Granny Smith is set in the small Welsh village of Gilfach, a semi-fictional village loosely based on Gilfach Goch, a village I grew up in. When I started to create the series I wondered what my own village would be like if it were populated by charters from an Ealing movie, and from there the village of Gilfach developed. There are many secondary characters who pop in and out of the Granny Smith series and I hope they add colour to the story, and give a sense of reality to this much larger than life village.
It's Miss Marple on Steroids!!!
Are the Granny Smith book cozies? Well yes and no. They certainly follow the conventions of the genre but spoof many of the usual tropes. On review, which I very much liked, said that Granny was less like Miss Marple and more like Batman with dentures.
The first book in the series Granny Smith Investigates is still available from all the usual outlets so if you've not got into the series yet then maybe now is the time.
"A nice easy read for lazy Sunday afternoons curled up on the sofa in front of a roaring fire with a nice glass or two of wine and chocolates, brilliant ." STARRED REVIEWS
"I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Granny is a wonderful character, refreshingly different and politically incorrect. I loved that she still smokes in a time when it is frowned upon; that she is an unrepentant hippie and even that she is blind to her son's faults. She is astute and not scared to speak her mind. She is also very human and that is a large part of her charm. I think most of us can identify with her." AMAZON REVIEWS
Go get Granny Smith Investigates now - and below find a short taster of the new book Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs .
Get ready - the geriatric crime-fighter is back!!!
Sample from Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs
Granny Smith is set in the small Welsh village of Gilfach, a semi-fictional village loosely based on Gilfach Goch, a village I grew up in. When I started to create the series I wondered what my own village would be like if it were populated by charters from an Ealing movie, and from there the village of Gilfach developed. There are many secondary characters who pop in and out of the Granny Smith series and I hope they add colour to the story, and give a sense of reality to this much larger than life village.
It's Miss Marple on Steroids!!!
Are the Granny Smith book cozies? Well yes and no. They certainly follow the conventions of the genre but spoof many of the usual tropes. On review, which I very much liked, said that Granny was less like Miss Marple and more like Batman with dentures.
The first book in the series Granny Smith Investigates is still available from all the usual outlets so if you've not got into the series yet then maybe now is the time.
"A nice easy read for lazy Sunday afternoons curled up on the sofa in front of a roaring fire with a nice glass or two of wine and chocolates, brilliant ." STARRED REVIEWS
"I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Granny is a wonderful character, refreshingly different and politically incorrect. I loved that she still smokes in a time when it is frowned upon; that she is an unrepentant hippie and even that she is blind to her son's faults. She is astute and not scared to speak her mind. She is also very human and that is a large part of her charm. I think most of us can identify with her." AMAZON REVIEWS
Go get Granny Smith Investigates now - and below find a short taster of the new book Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs .
Get ready - the geriatric crime-fighter is back!!!
Sample from Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs
Granny sighed.
This wasn’t getting them anywhere and they had strayed so far from the point of the meeting that they were in danger of losing sight of it all together.
‘Capitalism by its very nature exploits the working man,’ Mark brought a fist down on the table to illustrate his point.
‘And the working woman,’ Sue chimed in. ‘It’s not all about men you know.’
‘Right on, sister,’ Mansall punched the air and had to adjust his cap when it fell forward over his eyes.
‘I had the impression it was about frogs,’ Granny chimed in.
‘Right on sister,’ Mansall repeated, this time neglecting to punch the air but throwing his support behind Granny as well as Sue.
‘I really think we should get back to the frogs,’ Granny said and then used the pun she had been itching to use for the last ten minutes or so: ‘We seem to have hopped away from the point of this meeting.’
Maud liked that and nudged Granny gently in the side as a token of her appreciation.
‘Indeed,’ Mark stood and leaned forward, his knuckles on the edge of the table. ‘But I used the word man as in mankind. I was referring to the species and not any specific gender.’
‘Womankind,’ Sue chipped in again. When she got something between her teeth she held onto it with all the tenacity of a terrier. She also found Mark to be a pompous ass and took pleasure in annoying him.
‘Oh, give it a rest,’ Carol was sat leaning forward on the table, her chin resting in her cupped hands. She looked bored and other than this one utterance was content to allow the proceedings to go on around her.
‘Please, please,’ Councillor Pipe stood and glared across the table at Mark. He didn’t say another word until Mark had sat himself back down, and then gave a tight smile before continuing. ‘You have stated your case and I have listened but please do not let this resort to petty arguments. If this meeting is to continue then I must insist on the correct decorum.’
‘Well what are you going to do, Dwain?’ Granny asked. She had known the councillor since he had been knee high to a grasshopper and would never, no matter what position he held in the council, address him by anything other than his Christian name.
The councillor frowned at the use of his Christian name.
‘I will arrange for a spokesman from your little group to put your concerns before a full council meeting,’ he said.
‘And when will this be?’ Mark asked, his tone aggressive. ‘The development is due to star in less than a month and I imagine someone in the council will benefit from things going ahead. This is nothing but typical bureaucratic stalling for time.’
‘I beg your pardon,’ the councillor once again glared at Mark. ‘What are you inferring?’
‘It is you that infers,’ Mark said, smugly. ‘I’m implying.’
‘Semantics,’ the councillor waved a hand as if to dismiss Mark.
Mansall, wondering what apes had to do with anything, turned his head back and forth between the councillor and Mark like a spectator at a tennis match.
‘And I imply that palms have been greased within the council,’ Mark wasn’t going to let this go.
This time the councillor was speechless and looked to Granny for support, for it was she who had cajoled him into attending this impromptu meeting, which felt to the councillor like an inquisition.
The focus of the meeting should have been the small pond on Graig Meadow, which was a known spawning ground for the extremely rare Lesser Crested Frog, and yet the amphibians had been all but forgotten. The meeting looked to be in danger of becoming a full-blown argument.
‘If the development starts and the pond is destroyed,’ Sue said, frowning. ‘That it’ll be too late. It’ll be no use stopping things once the pond’s been destroyed. That would just be a waste of time.’
‘The pond goes,’ Amy said, offering Sue a smile of support. ‘The frogs will have gone forever.’
‘I am aware of your concerns,’ the councillor started but he was cut short by a hostile “bollocks” yelled out by Mark.
‘That’s the point, Dwain,’ Granny said, quickly stepping in to defuse the situation. Mark seemed to be getting riled and Granny knew he had a nasty temper. ‘The Lesser Crested Frog is a very territorial creature and if it’s habitat is destroyed then it will move on elsewhere and will miss the next spawning season. The frogs are rare enough as it is in this part of the world so time is limited. We can’t wait for a full council meeting,’ she pulled her battered pipe from her pocket and placed it in her mouth. She would have liked nothing better right now than to puff on a bowl of burley tobacco but the smoking ban meant that she would have to wait until she went outside.
‘The meeting will be arranged by the end of the week,’ Councillor Pipe said, firmly. ‘I’ll call an extraordinary meeting which means I only have to give twenty four hours notice.’
‘There,’ Granny said. ‘That’s something at least.’
‘Excuse me,’ a short man wearing an over sized raincoat and clutching a tan leather briefcase to his chest said as he approached the table. His eyes went to each of them in turn before settling on the councillor since he was the only one wearing a shirt and tie and looked to be in charge. ‘I’m looking for a Terry Mansall.’
Mansall looked up at the newcomer and once again had to adjust his errant cap. He was about to identify himself, but then his eyes clouded over with suspicion and he remained silent. He had learned from past experience that whenever anyone came looking for him by name it usually wasn’t a good thing. The small man didn’t look like a bailiff, Mansall had enough experience with that breed to know one when he saw one, but the man was carrying a briefcase and Mansall could see no good reason for anyone connected with himself to carry a briefcase.
Mark was about to speak, likely pointing Mansall out, but Granny, noticing Mansall’s reluctance to make himself known, cut in.
‘And you are?’ she asked.
‘Forgive me,’ the small man said and had to put his briefcase down while he fished in his pockets for a business card, which he handed across to Granny.
Richard Purser, PhD
Herpetologist.
For the full story be sure to download a copy of Granny Smith and the Deadly Frogs
Granny Smith Investigates is also available .
Thursday 11 April 2013
The Star Trek Flops
I read a surprising fact among all the Star Trek info which is starting to appear around the Internet as the
world prepares for the premiere of Star Trek II . This fact was, coming from Paramount themselves, that although the Star Trek movies have done well in the US market, none have been particularly huge business outside the home market This did surprise me and I always thought the UK had a huge Star Trek fanbase, which it does but that hasn't always meant blockbuster box office results.
The Star Trek revamp was huge in the US but made just $128 million overseas. Compare those numbers to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which also hit that year and actually made more internationally with $434 million compared to $402 million here in the U.S.
Paramount are hoping to change that when Star Trek 2 is released - the premier iMax tickets have already sold out. However there is some fan dissent across the message boards with many feeling that the trailers released so far suggest an all action Star Trek, with the cerebral aspects that gave Star Trek its strengths ignored in an attempt to appeal to action movie fans. One fan even called Star Trek 2, Die Hard in space.
Paramount are so determined to boost overseas sales that Star Trek 2 will be released in most overseas markets a full week before the US.
The official figures for the entire series reads
world prepares for the premiere of Star Trek II . This fact was, coming from Paramount themselves, that although the Star Trek movies have done well in the US market, none have been particularly huge business outside the home market This did surprise me and I always thought the UK had a huge Star Trek fanbase, which it does but that hasn't always meant blockbuster box office results.
The Star Trek revamp was huge in the US but made just $128 million overseas. Compare those numbers to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which also hit that year and actually made more internationally with $434 million compared to $402 million here in the U.S.
Paramount are hoping to change that when Star Trek 2 is released - the premier iMax tickets have already sold out. However there is some fan dissent across the message boards with many feeling that the trailers released so far suggest an all action Star Trek, with the cerebral aspects that gave Star Trek its strengths ignored in an attempt to appeal to action movie fans. One fan even called Star Trek 2, Die Hard in space.
Paramount are so determined to boost overseas sales that Star Trek 2 will be released in most overseas markets a full week before the US.
The official figures for the entire series reads
Released | Movie Name | 1st Weekend | US Gross | Worldwide Gross | Budget |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
12/7/1979 | Star Trek: The Motion Picture | $11,926,421 | $82,258,456 | $139,000,000 | $35,000,000 |
6/4/1982 | Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan | $14,347,221 | $79,912,963 | $96,800,000 | $12,000,000 |
6/1/1984 | Star Trek III: The Search for Spock | $16,673,229 | $76,471,046 | $87,000,000 | $18,000,000 |
11/26/1986 | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | $16,881,888 | $109,713,132 | $133,000,000 | $24,000,000 |
6/9/1989 | Star Trek V: The Final Frontier | $17,375,648 | $52,210,049 | $70,200,000 | $30,000,000 |
12/6/1991 | Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country | $18,162,837 | $74,888,996 | $96,900,000 | $27,000,000 |
11/18/1994 | Star Trek: Generations | $23,116,394 | $75,671,262 | $120,000,000 | $38,000,000 |
11/22/1996 | Star Trek: First Contact | $30,716,131 | $92,027,888 | $150,000,000 | $46,000,000 |
12/11/1998 | Star Trek: Insurrection | $22,052,836 | $70,187,658 | $117,800,000 | $70,000,000 |
12/13/2002 | Star Trek: Nemesis | $18,513,305 | $43,254,409 | $67,312,826 | $60,000,000 |
5/8/2009 | Star Trek | $79,204,289 | $257,730,019 | $385,680,446 | $140,000,000 |
Star Trek 2 | - | - | - | - |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
As TV Cops go Simon Templar is definitely one of the more unconventional. One of the supporters of our Saint weekend was Ian Dickerson HERE ...
-
COMANCHERO RENDEZVOUS as by Mark Bannerman A Black Horse Western from Hale, 1999 Major John Willard is sent on a special mission by the pre...
-
The rumours that Amazon's Kindle eReader - still the market leader in eInk devices - will finally be turning colour, seem to be offici...