Sunday 27 March 2016

KICKSTARTER: For What It's Worth, a fantasy movie by Andrew Clive Early

A good buddy of mine has launched a Kickstarter to make a fantasy movie - For What It's Worth. He stopped by the blog for a chat to give a bit more detail about his plans. 


Hi Drew, and first thing first, best wishes for the Kickstarter! Tell us a little more about the film that you have planned. 

The film is about an oppressive, sinister, logical and emotionless Elven society who spread their beauty and order thoughout the land.

Interesting - how does this all get going?

We join the story when a major battle is lost and, while many surrender, a group of humans are seen fleeing and continue to resist capture. Intrigued by this, an Elven commander departs with a group of his men to discover why they still fight on and what they are carrying in a mysterious chest.

The story also serves as a prequel to a novel I've been writing but, seeing as I'm dyslexic and stuck on my third chapter and a lot quicker at making film, I'll probably film more episodes of this prequel faster then I'd finish the book.

You've been involved in the world of film before as an extra in a number of productions - how will this film help you to springboard further into that area?

After 3 years at Plymouth College of Art, I'm about to embark on my final challenge - my graduate film, which will serve as a CV by being part of my show reel for potential jobs. It will also be entered into film festivals which in turn could generate prizes or employment

What's the background leading up to this moment? 

Well, Plymouth Community Homes have been redeveloping an area of Plymouth (England), where I live,  called North Prospect for almost ten years with the terms and conditions of how they will force me to sell my house under a compulsory purchase order changing almost every year. There is a good risk that I may not get enough money to buy my next home or worse that i could find myself in negative equity and end up owing money on a house I don't own to the mortgage lender.

Faced with this uncertainty, I decided to retrain in an area I felt I could best support my family. I choose film. Due to a medical discharge from the Royal Marines, I'm unable to re-train for many jobs, and after doing ten years working as a care worker, I find myself burnt out and unable to continue that line of work as well.

The Kickstarter runs until April 9 with a £900 target - what do backers get? 

Rewards for backers start from a thanks in the film and range up to receiving props such as bracers or an Elven helmet, and people backing for £300 can even get a cameo in the movie.

Who's supporting you already? 

I've aquired support from:
Drengskapt Hird (the Viking Society);
Plymouth Wrestling Alliance (PWA);
Local Larp group (Editor's note: Live Action Roleplaying).

What will the money go towards? 

The goal of £900 goes to fund costumes for the Elves, transport and food costs for cast and rental of the Hall in Tintagel. I've already began production on the Free Folk costumes for those not part of Drengskapt Hird (the Viking Society) or the local Larp group.

Anything else it will help out with? 

At the time of going to funding, all my actors are volunteers so while I have a very large group, casting could change any time. If I get a good amount of funding, then I can pay my actors and commit them to the project via contracts.

The only certainties are the bracers and helmets are being made, I have permission to film in Tintagel and Pendennis, and I have to hand a film end of May to finish my degree, something will get filmed...


That being said, I am committed to this project. Regardless of what I hand in for my degree, I will continue to film this project until it's completed.

Drew, best of luck - like the looks of the choreography sessions for the fighting in the video! Looking forward to seeing more. 

To find out more about the project - and to help support it - find the Kickstarter page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1730942795/for-what-its-worth-0





Saturday 26 March 2016

PODCAST REVIEW: Clicks for Flicks

This article previously featured in The Tribune Weekend section on March 24. 

You know that feeling when you come out of a cinema and you are absolutely bursting to know what others thought about the movie? This week's podcasts all look at shows focusing on film – both good and bad.


"...infantile, crass, adolescent, stupid, chauvinistic twaddle..." Well, I liked it. 

Kermode and Mayo's Film Review

Mark Kermode is the best film reviewer working today – and his regular BBC show with Simon Mayo is always a treat. What makes it so good are two things – first, the unvarnished nature of the reviews, Kermode particularly never holds back; and second, the sound of two people who really know their stuff but can also venture beyond that range to chat and have good fun. Kermode is the reviewer who described Entourage as a “foul, soul-sucking, horrible vacuum of vile emptiness” or who dismissed Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 as “a petrified forest of woodenness”. Even when he's attacking films you like – such as Sucker Punch which I loved – you can't get mad when he rants about it being “boring, ploddingly put together, infantile, crass, adolescent, stupid, chauvinistic twaddle”. Would that all filmmakers were as passionate as he about the things they produce.



If you're going to ponder why the movie Brazil is named as it is, you might take the time to find out what director Terry Gilliam has to say - he said it was inspired by the grim greyness of Port Talbot, where iron ore dust covers everything, and he had this image of a little grey man in a grey world listening to escapist music such as the song of the title, Brazil. 

Battleship Pretension

This podcast really irked me. Hosted by Tyler Smith and David Bax, Battleship Pretension is part film review website and part film podcast – and it is the podcast that really irritated. The show sometimes runs through various films, picking out films you may have missed or focusing on a particular artist. The latest show looks at titles of films – and as a podcast, it's really flimsy. First of all, it takes a good 20 minutes or so to get round to the actual subject. 

Now Smith and Bax are pleasant hosts, so that's no big deal, but when we get to the meat, it seems there's been nothing in the way of research done and it's just the two of them listing off the titles they liked. They start with Legend, and it takes quite a while for them to make clear that they're talking about the recent Tom Hardy movie about London gangsters the Kray twins, and not the 1980s Tom Cruise fantasy flick. Then they spin through the movie names they really liked – one favourite apparently being The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which it's true is a great title, and a great movie, but the chap saying he loves the title was never moved enough by it to actually watch the film, which means that as something to entice the viewer in, it completely failed to do the job. They also ponder why certain films were named as they are, musing for example why Brazil is called what it is... as if that question hasn't been answered by Terry Gilliam in some of his many interviews about that movie. In the end, the show amounts to little more than a Beavis and Butthead-esque scene of two guys muttering to each other “cool name” without any attempt to get deeper than that.



There has been a remake of Fail Safe, with George Clooney, but that is essentially a love note to the stark, brutal original, an exercise of terror in minimalism, starring Henry Fonda as the president faced with the worst decisions in history and yet bringing with it a haunted nobility. 

The Canon

Far, far better – in fact, I would say essential listening for film fans, is The Canon. Film critics Devin Faraci and Amy Nicholson pick out a movie each week and analyse it in scorching detail before deciding whether or not the movie belongs in the canon of great films to live on for all time. Just looking at the list of movies covered by the episodes is to see greatness – recent shows include the likes of Oldboy, Broadcast News, Working Girl, O Brother Where Art Thou and much more. The latest show focuses on one of my favourite movies – Fail Safe, a grim slice of Cold War paranoia directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Henry Fonda as a haunted US President faced with the worst of decisions. The obvious comparison – which the hosts note – is to the absurdity of Dr Strangelove, and they carefully point out how Fail Safe covers a lot of the same issues as Strangelove, it does so in a very sober, realistic world where reasonable people try to make sensible decisions, but it still ends up in nuclear disaster. The hosts really know their stuff, and argue fiercely for what they believe. Do they add Fail Safe to the canon? That, I won't spoil.


Tuesday 22 March 2016

PODCAST REVIEW: Food for your ears...

This article previously featured in the March 18 edition of The Tribune's Weekend section. 



Lent is almost over, and as people prepare to end their fasts, we turn our ears to podcasts concentrating on food.

The Splendid Table

This is a podcast where the rest of the website is worth exploring just as much as the podcast section. It boasts recipes, stories about food and more. Their latest episode starts off talking about brain food – foods you can eat to help with mental health and in psychiatry. It's a fascinating discussion, including how seafood is a great source of vitamin D and Omega 3 fats to build a better brain, with expert Dr Drew Ramsay on hand to say how food can boost your physical and mental health. The show runs to nearly an hour, with further segments looking at food in the Ukraine, and also a look inside a culinary school. There's passion for food here, and wit and knowledge to go with it. By the time you're done, you'll be sure to have a rumbling stomach.


A Taste Of The Past

Host Linda Pelaccio takes a different angle on her podcast about food – exploring the history of cuisine. I'll confess I wasn't taken with the first podcast I listened to, about the changing face of Italy's cuisine, as it seemed to skim across the surface and only gave glimpses of the rich history behind the modern culinary world. There were stories of how oil used to be shipped to restaurants by individual dealers, and discussions on how pasta went from a cheap staple to an expensive choice – but these details were often mentioned rather than explored. Far more interesting, though, is the discussion of the history of mac and cheese – and black chefs serving in the White House. Here, food and cultural histories combine into a remarkable slice of history, well worth the indulgence.


NPR: Food

If you just have time for a bite-size broadcast, then NPR: Food fits the bill nicely. With episodes less than ten minutes long, you can quickly breeze through a number of episodes – be it listening to the song Raisins In My Toast from the Waffle House's very own record label to the scientific guide to making the perfect pumpkin pie, or from the health risks of peanuts in children's food to what the White House chef is serving for a Canadian state visit. The show crams a lot into a little time and is well worth a dabble.


Saturday 19 March 2016

BOOK REVIEW: Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells


The stand-out story from last year's Dark Beyond The Stars anthology for me was Carindi, by Jennifer Foehner Wells. You can read my review of that anthology here - but the short version is great anthology, well worth your time. Wells' tale, exploring issues of identity, family and the use of language was splendid - and it's set in the same universe as her novel Fluency, so onto the reading list it went.

I was surprised though by the very different character of the novel - where the short story was a thoughtful, gentle exploration, this is a rollicking adventure.

The spacecraft in the Roswell incident was real in this world - a shuttle sent out from a giant spaceship lurking in the Asteroid Belt and time is running out for NASA to send a mission there. Up steps a team of experts - including a linguist who feels out-of-place but who holds the key to communicating with the alien presence lingering there.

There's a whole grab bag of influences here - such as the likes of Carl Sagan's Contact, with lead character Jane Holloway's name even sounding a little like Ellie Arroway in that novel. But beyond that there are even hints of the mind-bending space journey seen in Solaris and pointed tips of the hat towards Tomb Raider and a wave of the tentacle towards Cthulhu.

In mood, though, this almost feels like a spaceborne Indiana Jones adventure, with our female linguist taking the place of a certain whip-cracking archaeologist. It has that pulp-era feel, right down to the moments of comic embarrassment with a potential love interest. There are some well-placed rug pulls in the story, throwing the reader into the same state of confusion as Hollway as she tries to fathom what is going on after the team docks with the ship - and some authentic hard science in the mix too to keep it grounded. I'll confess I didn't particularly buy the romantic relationship in here - but then nor did I picture Indy with a shrill Kate Capshaw in Temple of Doom as a working relationship but it certainly doesn't slow matters down.

Again, Wells explores the use of language in her work - although this time taking it a step further to explore communication without direct language use, too. The moments of communication between radically different cultures were my favourite part of the book - and it's awfully well done, with Holloway becoming more confident in herself as she becomes more sure of her ability to communicate, and emerging as a leader as the rest of the mission begins to fall apart.

Without spoilers, the closing of the book springboards directly towards the second book - Remanence - which has just been published. There's almost a sense of cliffhanger in that ending, but then... what pulp story doesn't end that way?

AI Rating: 5/5

Friday 18 March 2016

FREE STORY: The Moon Is A Lie, by dm gillis

Once more, we have a welcome visitor at the blog. The excellent dm gillis returns with another short story. I'm quite the aficionado of Ray Bradbury, whose words are my favourite narcotic. I do not lie when I say this story reminds me of a classic slice of Bradbury, his short story The Pedestrian, which is said to be the match that lit the flame of Fahrenheit 451 in Bradbury's mind. So settle down for a fragment of a dystopian future. Every word I have said is true. But the moon, the moon is a lie. 



The Moon Is A Lie

By dm gillis

The Moon is a lie.”
I say this into the veracigraph. An agent in a crumpled white shirt and loose tie holds a microphone to my mouth. We’re in a large damp concrete garage, lit by a few light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The machine’s internal brainbox hums and clicks, analysing my answer. Then a green light appears on its panel. I’ve passed. I bite my inner cheek, and show no surprise. I’ve practiced endlessly for moments like these. A steady tone of voice; a relaxed diaphragm. The machine has pegged me a true believer. I remain handcuffed to a metal chair, but I live another day.
As an exercise, I run the official narrative through my head: Of course the Moon is a lie. So are its orbit and phases, especially the crescent phases, its dark side and light. The tides are a function of the whirling, shifting planet. The Moon is the enemy’s greatest symbol, a massive manipulation, placed there by the Eastern Faith States. Huge projectors, controlled by vicious Imams, in secret locations beaming it onto the night sky, and sometimes during the day. Watching over the west — over all of us who live in freedom. It is a cruel weapon of mass destruction, the Prime Minister has spoken. All Moon literature, fictional or scientific, recent or historical, are EFS lies. Only the truly radicalised believe otherwise.
So say the newspapers.
I feel dizzy in my chair, and ask for water. A full glass is placed at my feet, but the handcuffs mean I cannot reach it. The agent in the crumpled white shirt smiles.
Please let me go,” I say to him. “I’ve passed your test, yet again.”
Not up to me, mate,” the agent says. “There’ll be someone along soon enough.”
I’m eighty years old, in chronic pain. Rationing has made me weak. A decade of self-imposed isolation has nearly erased my memory. I no longer have conventional memories, only flashbacks. Colours mostly. Odd. Flashes of lush blues, pale purples and pinks. Vague recollections of flowers. What are they?
I’m a danger to no one. In spite of the pain, I am amused.
It occurs to me that it’s my age that makes me dangerous, if I am at all. I know truths about the Moon that come from before the dismantling of the internet, before mass communication was banned, books incinerated. I’m from a time when radicalisation was merely a basic adolescent awakening of empathy and endeavour, not a mass doctrinal psychopathy.
You want a cigarette?” says the agent. He pulls one from a deck for himself, and lights it.
No,” I say.
Don’t smoke? Is that it?”
Yes, that’s it.”
You fucking oldsters…,” he says, shaking his head. “I don’t get all your no smoking bullshit. The Gov says it’s safe.”
The Gov, short for Government. A word shortened to encourage trust and familiarity, intimacy even. The Gov is family, a warm and welcome friend. A lover.
The agent inhales extra deeply, proudly to make a point. The smoke he exhales is as blue as moonlight on wet pavement.
I’m truly in trouble this time, aren’t I?” I say.
He half shrugs, and picks up and opens a tattered file. He reads. His lips move.
You were a university prof?” he says.
Yes.”
How’d you fucking live this long? The Gov don’t like your kind.”
It is a mystery.
Prof of what?” says the agent. “It doesn’t say here. It’s been blacked out.”
Mathematics,” I lie. Or perhaps it’s not a lie. I no longer know for sure.
Mathematics is obsolete,” the agent says. “No more long division for you, my friend.”
That’s arithmetic, long division.”
What?”
Never mind.”
A door opens to my left and a woman in a business suit walks in, carrying a black leather attaché case. As she approaches me, I see that she has a young but motherly face. Her lipstick is the red of jingoism, however. Not a colour from my flashbacks. It’s a deep shade of blood, derived from propaganda posters. She nods to the agent. He disappears into the dark.
Hello, Professor,” she says to me, pulling off black kidskin gloves.
I haven’t been called that in over a decade.
Hello,” I say.
You’ve lately come to our attention.”
Have I?”
Yes you have,” she says. “It might have happened sooner, but information doesn’t flow the way it once did.”
How does it flow now?” I ask.
Downhill. Over stone and through culverts. Sometimes it gets stuck in whirlpools and back waters. People like me have to search it out. You lied many years ago, when you first said that you were a mathematics Professor. But it was an intelligent lie.”
She might be correct, I think.
It seems you actually professed philosophy,” she says.
True, that’s it!
Which is disturbing enough, but it is the area of philosophy you engaged in that’s troubling to us.”
Us?”
We.”
She stares at me for a moment.
I leave it at that.
Social philosophy,” she reads from her document. “Do you deny it?”
Is it a crime?”
You know it’s not,” she says. “And yet it is. You know that, too.”
It’s the perfect answer.
You wrote prolifically,” she continues. “And there was one paper you wrote, in particular, before the militant Imams began projecting the Moon onto the sky. It troubles us. The Philosophy of Denial.”
It was well received,” I say.
Then you don’t deny writing it?”
The question is too ironic to answer,” I say.
She retrieves another document from her case.
In the abstract of your paper, it is stated: Interest in the problem of method biases has a long history in State sponsored denial of essential realities. A means by which to control these methods of denial and their methods of dissemination exist as a matter of clandestine fact. The purpose of this article is to examine and discuss the cognitive processes through which a population of intelligent individuals living in a progressive, affluent milieu may be convinced by the State that opposites of reality exist.”
Yes,” I say. “That’s rather good.”
It’s treasonous. It’s sedition.”
It wasn’t then.”
But it is now.” A satisfied grin. “That’s the point, and it will be as long as the article remains in existence. Somewhere, even as we speak, it is being read and rewritten. The problem is, however, that with every rewrite, it loses a little something. That’s why we’re here today.”
Burn it,” I say, “and your problems are over.”
Even if we could track down every copy — and let me assure you that there are many, and more are found each day — that would still leave us with the problem of you.”
There’s nothing left of me,” I say. “A small thing would end my life. An injection. A well swung iron bar.”
But enemies are difficult to cultivate, in any meaningful way,” she says, changing track. “You say so, yourself, in your paper. And you’re correct, of course. Genuine, functional enemies are difficult and expensive. But having a serviceable enemy on your side can pay very high dividends.”
Enemies on your side. She gets it. Clever woman.
So you’ve read it,” I say.
Allies are much easier,” she carries on. “The human world naturally divides itself down the centre. Despite the reality that cooperation leads to better outcomes.”
She’s paraphrasing chapter two.
Interesting,” I say.
When did you last have an egg, Professor?”
This is unexpected, a bit bewildering.
At least fifteen years ago,” I say. “If I recall correctly, which I’m not sure I do. Just after the supply chain was redirected into the wars. Around the time the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was suspended.”
A cup of coffee?”
About the same time.”
I have them every day,” she says. “And more.”
How nice for you.”
You could, too.”
I’m silent.
You’re old, Professor,” she says. “How long do you have left, hmm? Come over to us. Join our small army of primary Villains. The world awaits you.”
Are you serious?”
You’ll write more of this sort of thing.” She holds up my paper. “We’ll distribute it, and punish your readers. Just imagine all of the lovely unrest, and the outrage you’ll cause. The very fuel necessary to run a formless government, indefinitely. You’ll have value again. Your photograph will deface every lamppost in every city of the country, the world.”
Lunacy.”
You can live in comfort. Receive medical treatment. Sleep on a proper bed, without pain. In a home with heat and hot water. You’ll live longer for all of that. Think of it.”
So, you’re bribing me,” I say. Strangely, I suddenly see orchids. The colours. I raised them once, my God. Now I remember. The joy!
Of course we’re bribing you.”
Then we agree?” I say. “The moon is not a lie. I don’t believe it, and neither do you.”
Naturally, it’s an absurd idea. How we ever convinced the people it was, remains a wonderful enigma.”
And the endless war, it’s only an empty room.”
Yes, it is.”
My belly tightens. There’s a wicked hope in my gut.
May I have orchids?” I say.
Absolutely.”


dm gillis is a writer who gazes at the moon from Vancouver. Follow him on Twitter here or on his blog

Wednesday 16 March 2016

Q&A: Meet Brian S. Converse, Tales From The Universe author

Author Brian S. Converse, one of the authors to feature in the latest Inklings Press anthology, Tales From The Universe, stops by the blog to chat about his work. 



Hi Brian, good to have you here - your story Small World is featured in the new sci-fi anthology from Inklings Press, is this your first published piece or have you been published before?
I have had both short stories and poems published before, but for small press houses or on-line where it was a limited run. Probably nothing is available anymore, since I took a brief hiatus (actually about eight years) until I recently starting writing again.
Can I say that when I read your story I felt like I was reading something that was channeling the spirit of something akin to Firefly? Where did the inspiration for the story come from?
I actually woke up from a dream with the first line - and then spent a while trying to figure out what it meant! (I don't think I had seen Firefly when I first wrote the story.) It was interesting to me to
see the protagonist basically talking to himself while sending a message for help. He's trying to come to terms with everything that had changed in his life, as well as determining his next steps.
Was it a story written for this anthology or one you had written previously?
I had written it a few years ago, actually, and wasn't satisfied with the first draft so it was sitting in a computer file until I saw your call for submissions. I felt the story could fit in well with your theme, so I digitally brushed off the dust and revised it.
I suspect the answer to this is probably forever - but how long has writing been a passion of yours? And when did you first start taking steps towards publication of your work?

I fooled around a little with writing in high school, but didn't truly start writing (poems at the time) until I was in the US Army, soon after. Lots of down time to think between furious bouts of action. I didn't think about publication at the time, and it took a few years for me to consider writing as more than just a hobby. It wasn't until I was in college that I considered publishing. I then took a bit of time off while relocating from California to Colorado and raising kids. I started getting back into the writing groove last year. 


Where is it you draw your inspiration from for your stories?

Sometimes dreams, sometimes watching people. Sometimes an idea will strike out of the blue and I wonder what it means, so I use writing to explore it further to discover why my brain suddenly popped it out. 

Who is your favourite sci-fi character (in books, films, TV, whichever)?
I've always had a soft spot for Flash Gordon. Loved the 80s movie when I was a kid, too.
Can't blame you there! Magnificent movie. Tell us, which writers inspire you? Different writers inspire me in different ways. Shakespeare was my first inspiration for his word choice (and sometimes making up a word that he felt was needed!) Love reading Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and Guy Gavriel Kay. Gosh! Guy Gavriel Kay! There's a name to bring back memories! Is writing a full-time job for you - if not, what's the job that you fit your writing around? Do you ever find it tricky making the time to write?

I've been a proposal writer in the architectural/engineering/construction industry for the past fifteen years. Always find it tricky to fit in my own writing. My kids have become used to seeing me carrying around a pad of paper and pen. They know when I have a moment, I'll jot down ideas or write a paragraph or two. 

What are you working on next for readers to look forward to?
I have a science fiction trilogy out to a few publishers who requested it, and I just started plotting out a fantasy trilogy that I’m very excited about. An occasional short story or poem may slip in at any time as well.
Tell us a little about the sci-fi trilogy - what's the hook?

I had a dream about a group of people who woke up in a round, white room. I woke up wondering how they got there, and it turned into a science fiction trilogy.  My main character, James, is a burned-out police detective who discovers that being kidnapped by aliens is not the worst thing that could happen to you, even if you're subsequently caught in the middle of an inter-galactic war. 

What's your favourite thing about being a writer?

Imagination is a wonderful thing. 
What's the best advice you've received with regard to writing? And what's the tip you would personally give to others? I don't remember who gave it to me, but someone once told me to be myself. Don't try to be (or write) like any other writer. Find your own voice. For others, I would give the same advice as well as to not give up. Take each rejection as a badge of honor showing that you tried. It's a tough business, and everyone gets rejected more than accepted.
Away from writing - tell us a cool fact about yourself that people might not know. 

One little-known fact about myself. And it has to be cool? That might be asking too much. 

I once worked in injection molding, making covers for airbags that would fit into the steering wheels of Hondas. I may or may not have ruined more than I made.

Ha! We shall drive with care! Last question - though really it's two in one - what's the best book you've read in the past year, and what are your reading currently?

Again, not a lot of time for reading with a newborn son, but I was able to storm through Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I'm currently reading (depending on age) Order of the Phoenix  and Goodnight Moon to my kids before bed. 

Many thanks, Brian - good to chat to you! 

You can follow Brian on Twitter @BrianSConverse and at Facebook.com/BrianSConverse.

Monday 14 March 2016

PODCAST REVIEW: A quick listen with your morning coffee

This review previously appeared in the Weekend section of The Tribune on March 11. 



IF you're a regular podcast listener, then sometimes you want a very specific type of podcast, something with a particular theme. And sometimes you just want some interesting chatter. So brew up a coffee, for this week's selection brings you perfect listening for your morning break.

The Week

The Week is a smashing pot-pourri of a show. The content is whatever the hosts have cherry picked from around the internet in any given week. The latest show talks about how sighing keeps you alive. Previous shows talk about how married couples find their immune systems becoming oddly similar. Or perhaps they pick out a little known but great movie that you can watch online. I particularly loved the episode exploring the peculiar job of reading aloud to Cuban cigar rollers. Now there's a workplace I could love. For Bahamians, the latest episode even mentions the return of astronaut Scott Kelly, who hailed the nation as “the most beautiful place from space” and looks at why his space mission was so important. The production is slick, the presentation sharp and the episodes seldom more than 10-15 minutes. An ideal companion with your cuppa.


Shepod

Describing itself as Brunch with Rachael and Sara (Not The Bible Ones), this show is a delightful slice of gossip. Weaving through issues in the news or memories from years gone by, the hosts provide the froth on top of your cappuccino, the bubbles to provide air in the middle of your day. They may be talking about 90s mix tapes, or the return of the Spice Girls, or Lena Dunham's new podcast, or cat calling – worse, sarcastic cat calling – whatever the subject, they are lively and enthusiastic. If listening to Rachael King and Sara Tenenbein alongside your shot of caffeine doesn't reinvigorate your day, then you're gonna need a bigger coffee.

Website: shepod.com

The Memory Palace

Perhaps you're looking for something a little more thoughtful, a little more reflective. In which case, I suggest The Memory Palace. If I tell you it's a podcast about history, you might think oh no, this is going to be dry, but what the show provides is a lyrical journey through history. Host Nate DiMeo tells the history as if it was a story, a page-turning, immersive, fabulous tale that draws you in. Listening, you half wonder if this is some fictional tale he has created. Seldom has learning about history been so elegant.




Friday 11 March 2016

Altered Instinct now on Twitter - why the new account?



By Stephen Hunt

A short post today just to mention that Altered Instinct is now on Twitter too. We've gone with a really, super-complicated Twitter address. It's @alteredinstinct. Shocker, I know.

Now, a lot of you keep up with us through tweets from our friends over at Inklings Press - so why another Twitter address? Well, there's things that Altered Instinct puts up that have nothing to do with the good folks at Inklings - such as our regular podcast reviews - and there's things that Inklings does that might not be why you're following Altered Instinct. So it seemed a plan to have a separate Twitter account so things didn't seem out of place. 

I'm also planning some new things here at Altered Instinct, such as interviews with podcasters, that again might not quite fit to mention via Inklings Press. 

In addition, my personal Twitter, @chippychatty, deals a lot with my regular daily work as a journalist - so having a separate Twitter in which I can more comfortably let people know about my writing work has been something I've been thinking about for a while. It sometimes feels wrong to be telling people about my writing alongside the more serious subjects in the news of the day, so... Altered Instinct Twitter it is. 

If you're a regular follower, swing by and say hi - and nag me to come follow you. Throw me some links to your own writing too, would love to read and share. And if you're a podcaster, tell me about your show - I'm always on the look out for new shows to review. 

See you in the Twitterverse!

Thursday 10 March 2016

BOOK REVIEW: A double dose of Chuck Wendig - Star Wars Aftermath and Blackbirds



Chuck Wendig is awesome. Seriously, if you're a writer and you're on Twitter, go follow him now. He takes no nonsense, he offers lots of good advice and he's a passionate advocate for getting writing done, and getting it done now.

I've had a couple of his books for a while, sitting there simmering away on my reading list. But it was his Star Wars book that finally got me to crack open a cover and say right, time to read some Wendig.

And that was a mistake on my part. But let me tell what kind of a mistake in a while. First, the book.
Star Wars Aftermath bridges part of the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. We see an Empire in disarray, trying to regroup in the wake of the destruction of the Death Star, and meet a group of characters destined to play a part in this new changing world. Among those are a couple of familiar faces - Wedge Antilles and the admirable Admiral Ackbar - but mostly this is a new cast.

We have a Rebel pilot who took part in the assault on the second Death Star returning to her home planet to seek out her son once more, a bounty hunter with a history that touches on crucial moments in the war, and a man with a past in both uniforms trying to find a future in drinking his way out of the conflict.

And we have Mr Bones. Who is brilliant. A reprogrammed Battle Droid with a look crafted by that pilot's genius son and a personality filled with loyalty, brutality and snark.

All the elements are in place for a rollicking piece of space opera - and yet, I struggled with this book. First off, the writing is in a very particular style, that can be off-putting. Wendig writes the story in the present tense, with a short, punchy style filled with sentence fragments that gives it the feel of an action screenplay or a noir thriller. It makes it feel like the script has been pounded out by two fists, one to thump the words down on the page, one to hit them again when they try to get back up.

It's a deliberate choice to write this way and some readers will like the style, some won't. It certainly adds zing, but for me felt too stylised, particularly in a section partway through the book where every grouping of characters had a sequence of events which included someone saying "We have a problem". It felt too clever by half, taking me out of the book, and that's never a good thing. In addition, that short, sharp style of writing is also how every character talks, and it feels bogus. Some feel like they should be wordier, more verbose, but they all end up speaking in this clipped fashion.

What detracts from it, too, is that the book is filled with interludes - which take you off to characters that you meet only briefly and give you glimpses of elsewhere around the Star Wars universe, including some familiar names. Honestly, if I were to read it again, I'd skip all but the first interlude and come back to them at the end, as if they were deleted scenes from a BluRay. They distract, rather than contribute.

Even without those, there are more characters than it feels there should be. Ackbar is largely superfluous, feeling shoehorned in to provide a familiar name and to allow him to wonder if it's a trap. Wedge too doesn't feel like he has a key role to play, and we also get a hefty amount of time spent over on the Imperial side while they bicker and dither and don't really do very much. There's also a Rebel commando who gets a very dramatic introduction but does so little that he feels like a character that could easily have been written out,

There's one other criticism that Wendig has been getting a lot of with this book - in that the book also features characters who are gay. Frankly, I can't see what there is to complain about here - the characters are very natural, and if you can accept a world of Wookiees and Twi'lek dancers but can't accept gay characters, I don't think the problem is on the author's side of the equation.

Overall, I felt disappointed, so the book only gets 3/5 from me - one of those added purely on the strength of the fabulous Mr Bones. Really, get this character into a movie somewhere. Heck, give him a franchise, the Deadpool of the Star Wars universe. Less sweary, more inclined to repeatedly hit things just for fun.



So disappointed was I by Star Wars: Aftermath that I thought no, this can't be how Wendig rolls, let me just read the first few pages of Blackbirds to see if I'm missing a trick. And that's where I discovered my mistake.

I should have been reading Wendig a long time ago. He's brilliant.

Blackbirds is astonishing. Before I knew it, I was sucked in and zipping through page after page. This was one of those books that I just had to speed through.

It has the same style as Aftermath - written in the present tense, filled with sentence fragments and short, sharp, spiky paragraphs. Even the interludes are here too - but in Blackbirds, it works perfectly.

The smaller cast helps immensely. Instead of a bloated amount of characters floating around the periphery of the story, here you have a narrow, driven plotline which thunders along at the unstoppable pace of an 18-wheeler truck on a night highway.

There's lots of swearing, plenty of violence, raw sex scenes, and there isn't a character to be found who isn't messed up in some way. This is seedy America, in which lead character Miriam Black has lost herself in a bid to get away from her screwed-up decisions of the past, and to hide from the horrible futures she sees every time she touches someone skin-on-skin. You'll find her propping up a bar in any one of a string of anonymous highway stops, slugging rotgut whiskey and making Jessica Jones look like a high achiever.

Miriam, you see, is a psychic, but her gift - and her curse - is that the futures she sees for people are the last moments in their lives. Whenever she meets someone new, she sees how they are going to check out. And she's never been able to stop those things from happening. Worse, sometimes she thinks she's responsible. Imagine that. Imagine knowing the end of every person you shake hands with, or brush past, or love. That's Miriam's penance to bear - but when she meets a relative innocent in this world, a trucker who treats her well and shocks her with such a basic kindness, she sees his death, and her part in it.

What follows is the stumbling journey of someone who has no control over her life, bounced from one person's agenda to another, with ruthless assassins on her heels until she's finally forced to make a stand, to choose something to believe in, and to determine what she can really do with her talent.

The interludes here serve as exposition or back story and are short and sweet. One particular interlude features one of those assassins telling her back story and absolutely made me laugh out loud.

So read Chuck Wendig - but don't start with Star Wars. Start here, with this cracker of a 5/5 book. You won't be disappointed.

Reviewer: Stephen Hunt

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Great women writers - as recommended by the readers who love their work

In the latest #InklingsChat from the Inklings Press team on Twitter, the call went out for followers to name women writers that they loved - with quite the response. Here, then, is the round-up of some great suggestions to add to your reading list if you haven't already gobbled up every word. 





















Author I.E.Ramesses also pitched in with Anne Rice and Patricia Cornwell, hailing them as "Bad Assed!"



One of the authors recommended in that last tweet also pitched in with a suggestion:

















Some fantastic recommendations there - look forward to the next #InklingsChat on @InklingsPress. If you are on Goodreads, the above have all been compiled into a Goodreads list here

Monday 7 March 2016

BOOK REVIEW: Madhouse issues #2 and #3, by Matt Hardy and Edward Bentley

The team over at Mad Robot Comics have hit their Kickstarter total for their first graphic novel collection of their Madhouse series - incorporating the first four issues. Here, we take a look at issues two and three. There's still time to hop on board the Mad Robot Kickstarter - find out more details here. The project will be funded on March 17. 



Sometimes, there are sentences you can write as a reviewer that completely lose your readers. I'm about to write one of them. Are you ready? Good.

One of my favourite films of recent years is Sucker Punch. There, I said it. Still with me? Excellent. It's not without flaws, I wouldn't even begin to argue that one - its pastiche of pandering male fantasies is frankly too obviously pandering to male fantasy. But what is remarkable about it is the layering of realities. It is a movie you can sit and watch for nearly two hours and still end up debating who the lead character actually is - and which part of the movie was real.

Madhouse, too, peels back the layers on the onion skin of the lead character's reality. Andy Mountbank, fresh from discovering he is imbued with powers that allow him to combat demons in issue one, is on the lamb, out and free from the asylum and being pursued by two wardens in a bus. Cue a car chase that allows artist Edward Bentley to showcase his talents.

But just as Andy thinks he is getting away, up pops a voice in his head, a vision in his back seat and spiders that itch and skritch at his brain filling him with doubts and questions.


I won't get into spoiler territory here but the second issue deals with that chase and the consequences of its finale - which we delve into further in issue three. The third issue is the real harrowing of the soul for our poor hero, forced to face up to the choices he's made, and make a decision as to which reality he should trust. By the end, we are set up for the final confrontation in issue 4. But this is Andy's world, where we don't even know what is real - so who knows what we can trust as we venture into the final segment. One character, for example, has a sudden change of direction that looks suspiciously too good to be true.


I'm looking forward to that last issue, and seeing where we wind up. This has been a bravura piece of storytelling by the Mad Robot team - and you can see they are learning as they go. The lettering, for example, is much clearer than in issue one, while there is still plenty of room to experiment. One sequence of panels is connected by flowchart arrows that - it has to be said - look rubbish on the pdf version as you flip between pages but should look rather spiffy on the printed page.

Will Andy defeat his antagonist in issue 4? Or will we learn that there is no antagonist and it's still all in Andy's head? That we don't know the answer with any clarity makes this story a true joy - I'll be tuning in for issue 4.

You can find out more about Mad Robot Comics on their website, www.madrobotcomics.com, or follow them on Twitter, @madrobotcomics