Flash Fiction Friday: Preview

Hey Guys,

Friday’s posts are short Flash Fiction writing exercises.

I will either use a photo or a prompt of some sort, maybe a phrase from time to time, to get inspiration and start my introduction to any story.

This week I have a very special surprise for you all. It is a short preview of my book Mysery which I have finished writing and am about to start editing.

Matilda Mysery Downes is tired of her life in the quiet Village of Greenmoss and wishes for something bigger and more exciting, but she should have been careful what she wished for.
The 1920's girl ends up in present day London, lost and confused on how she got here. She knows that she does not belong and yet stays to explore, meeting a charming gentlemen called Richard on her journeys.
This story is about her travels and how the new coloured world effects this plain, grey-scale girl and what happens when she overstays her welcome.

This is the start of the first chapter, there will be an edit to this, but so far this is how it stands.

Mysery

Chapter One, Preview

As I sat alone in the corn field, I watched the stars as they twinkled and enticed me. The crystal moon stared my way. The night sky was so relaxing and pleasant.

I grabbed at an innocent blade of grass and started to dismantle it slowly. I sat wondering how the corn grew. The field had always been abandoned, forbidden even, and yet the crops grew, unaided yet wasted. The corn was never harvested; neglected by the village.

I thought about this small village that I had always been my home. This quiet village was a small pond, and I was a big fish and I was waiting for something to take me away. Every day I prayed that something exciting would happen in this village but each day was dull and un-eventful.

I laid back and wished to become one of the beautiful stars above, to twinkle and give hope. I hoped that I would be noticed, recognised, loved; this was my dream. This disillusion would never happen in such a small pond. I needed to escape.

I sat back up and snatched at another blade of grass. From behind came a foul barking, and I froze, staring out into the cornfields ahead.

Slowly I turned to where the vicious barking travelled from, but all that greeted me was darkness. I carefully stood up, turned and noticed a figure, stood on the other side of the gate, on the cobbled paving. Shouting shortly followed the sight of her.

 “Get out! Get out!” she shouted, distressed and panic-stricken.

I stood still for a fractured second, it felt like an hour. I had two choices: go back and face my punishment, as this woman would tell my mother of what had happened and she would be livid; or to run, run in the opposite direction

I foolishly chose the second option, turned on the spot and ran away from the cobbled pavement and the crazed woman who stood screaming. I could see on the other side that there was a second gate.  The woman sharply ran after me, the screeches of both animals ran faster than I could.

For more writing from myself please follow the link: http://mattthomaswriting.blogspot.co.uk/

Let me know what you think of my Flash Fiction writing and if you have any ideas for inspiration the comment below.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Flash Fiction Friday: The House in the Forest

Hey Guys,

Friday’s posts are short Flash Fiction writing exercises.

I will either use a photo or a prompt of some sort, maybe a phrase from time to time, to get inspiration and start my introduction to any story. 

Stood in the middle of a forest, the rain trickling down my face and back, my soaking T-shirt stuck to my shivering skin, the frosty bite of the wind nipping at my flesh. I think of what the weather was like only a few moments ago, bright, sunny and warm. I look down at my soggy shorts, knowing that I should have known that the nice English weather would not hold up for longer than a couple of hours. All I could hear around me was the trickle of rain splashing off leaves and shrubs before merging with the growing puddles of mud below my feet. The mud started to coat my shoes as I try and find my way out of this forest.

As I’m walking round trying to figure which way I entered this forest, the clouds and rain distorting my vision. I’m sure that I’m going round in circles, but there is no way of telling as all the trees and paths look the same and the muddy puddles make the paths all merge into one. My darkening wet hair slipped onto my forehead forcing more water to trickle down my face and blur my vision more. I sweep the hair out of my eyes, yet it still slips back in the way, hindering me in my travels.

I carry on walking, hoping I would find my way back out of here, or at least bump into somebody else. I remember before the rain walking past a few hikers, carrying their large sacks and huge smiles, I wondered if they would brace this rough English downpour still with the same smile.

The twigs and loose roots on the floor keep attacking my feet, threating to trip me up and making me stumble through the trees. Each time I stumble I close my eyes and pray that I don’t fall face first into the mud, but always manage to gain my balance. A few times I have to grab hold of a tree, the wet bark against my skin feeling rough and cold.

Once again I stumble on a loose root and fly thought the trees. I manage to gain my balance by grabbing hold of a thin wispy tree, look down at my feet I should watch where I’m going I think, then look up and notice I had reached an opening between then trees and a muddy path, the water trickling down the hill, almost forming the beginnings of a river.

I look up the path and notice an old, small, stone building with a spire, it looked abandoned. Shelter I thought and ran towards the building. As I got closer I noticed dark ivy swarming the building and infecting the cracks, trying to strangle and destroy this stone wonder. It was also climbing through the gaps in the roof where the pressure of earlier storms had force parts to concave and collapse.

I entered through the archway where the door once hung, the remains of the wood rotting into the ground below. Dust and cobwebs covered the air and caught in my face tangling me in silky strings; I shook them off and wiped my hands on my clothes, God how I hate spider webs I thought, being more carful of where I walked.

I could hear the pounding of the rain falling overhead, it trickled through the cracks and gaps in the ceiling splashing on the leaves the wind had discarded here. I stayed away from any of the open holes, not wanted to get wetter than I already was, which at this stage was probably impossible. I tore my soaked T-shirt away from my sodden, cold skin but it just settle and reconnected with it, as if they were one. I gave up and blew my hair out of my face.

Suddenly I heard a creaking from the floor above, I looked at the hanging level, half the floor had collapsed, the structure old and rotting. I saw one of the old wooden doors squeak open and saw an old woman totter out peering down the huge gap in the floor.

‘Who is it?’ she peered through her squinting wrinkled eyes ‘is that you Mary?’ She ran her bony crinkled fingers through her grey tangled hair and squinted harder. ‘Name yourself boy!’

‘I’m Dan,’ I looked up, feeling nervous and guilt for walking in here uninvited. ‘I’m sorry for disturbing you. See it’s raining outside and I thought this house was abandoned so wanted to take shelter.’

She looked at me for a while, as if she was sizing me up, judging whether what I said was true or not. Then she slowly tottered down a set of stoned spiralling stairs just to the right of where she was stood. She staggered towards me.

‘I’m sorry’ she spoke in a high pitch voice ‘I didn’t quite hear your name.’ She said lifting her ear more towards my mouth.

‘I’m Dan’ I said slightly louder, but not loud enough so it seemed like I was shouting and being rude. She smiled at me the chuckled slightly.

‘You must be hungry Dan.’ She slowly stumbled off to the other end of the `room, working her way around the rotting obstacles.

‘I’m ok thank you. I will just go now.’ I say loudly, hoping it would travel well enough.

‘Don’t be silly,’ she shoed my comments off ‘You can’t go out in this.’ She pointed to one of the larger holes in the ceiling where the most of the water was pouring inwards. ‘I’ll cook you something up,’ She paused for a second ‘it’s been quite a while since I’ve had a visitor.’ She sighed.

I felt slightly sorry for her, she seemed like a lovely, kind women and the rain outside seemed to be getting worse. I decided to stay for a while until the rain settled a little. Maybe she will know the way out I thought to myself.

The elderly woman opened a few draws and cupboards, pulling out half rusted knives and pans, which clanged together and echoed round the room. She then looked over at me and smiled, tottering her way through the rubble. She came up close.

‘What was your name again?’ She asked kindly, I could tell that her memory was not as good as it used to be.

‘It’s Dan.’ I said kindly, she then smiled. I looked behind her for a second at where she had she come from, and noticed that she had not got out any ingredients to cook with. I looked down at her petite fragile frame and kindly asked. ‘What will you be cooking?’

She smiled at me, almost chuckling, I wondered what about. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, at first I fought it was nausea. Wondering if maybe I had stayed out in the rain too long and caught some sort of cold that was already turning its ugly head.

Then I noticed the pain was cold and metallic. I looked down at the rusted small knife stuck in just below my stomach, the darkness of my blood seeping through my t-shirt and running down my body. At the end of the knife was the old woman’s bony fingers.

‘Why you are!’ She cackled as she pulled the knife out and slid it back in. I fell to my knees and she bit at my neck, ripping away a chunk of flesh. ‘Bon appetite’ She smiled with blood and flesh hanging from her teeth.

The pain became too much for me and blackness surround.

Let me know what you think of my Flash Fiction writing and if you have any ideas for inspiration the comment below.

Stay safe.

Matt

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Writing Wednesday: Tuesday's Catch Up

Hey Guys,

This is the part of the week where I update you on the work I have been creating for the week and what stage everything is up to.

It will also include the area that I have been focusing on the most and how helpful it has been to me.

So as you have probably noticed, I did not post a Talk Tuesday post yesterday, instead I used all my time on Monday and Tuesday to work through, and catch up, on some of my writing.

This week i have been focusing on the more intense chapters of Mysery. I have also placed the book on Goodreads for all to see, at present it is just the tittle and an estimated release date of early next year but it's a step forward.

I also have a front cover update for Mysery. Please tell me what you think of it.

Old Cover:

New Cover:

There are only small changes:

• Blue background - added grey to make London scene look more polluted
• London Eye - Slightest change in colour, slight hint darker
• Mysery text - Different font, larger, different blend
• Name text - Different blend, darker.
• Size difference
• added birds

Not only have I been writing more of Mysery and editing the front cover to suit the book,, I have also been editing a new short film called The Duckling. It's only a small piece I made when my sister came round a few weeks ago and I've been meaning to piece it together.

This piece is mainly focusing on Cinematography and Location. It is about a girl who is trying to escape from her daily life in a park and she tries to find comfort in her surroundings. I will place in the link for you to check it out. 

What's more, on my Monday and Tuesday, instead of writing a blog, I've been working on a brand new idea for a book. This has some very magical essences to it and is inspired by such books as The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, 2008.

The title of the series is Tournaments and lately I have been working on the ideas for the first book, Ernest Island. I will place more information about this book in a later Writing Wednesday post.

So now you know. Instead of writing a Talk Tuesday blog I decided to spend two whole days to my writing and Photoshop editing. I have had so much fun writing all this new stuff also as most of it is the scenes I have been dying to write for quite some time.

If you have Goodreads and want to add Mysery to your 'To-Read' list, here is the link:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15835115-mysery

If you would like to check out my new short film The Duckling, he is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXFNy4ZhP24&feature=youtu.be

Please let me know your views on my new cover in the comments below.

If you have any handy writing tips, then leave a comment below and let me know

Stay safe,

Matt

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Movies for Monday: A bit of Rock & Roll

Hey Guys,

This is the part of the week where I will be looking into films and reviewing certain aspects or even a whole film. I will be viewing my opinions whilst also asking what you feel about it.

The films I look into may be new releases, or films that I have just watched on DVD.

I thought I would focus mainly on music and how it affects people. What better way to focus on music than a film about rock stars, right?

This week’s film is Almost Famous (2000) Directed by Cameron Crowe.

Based in America in 1973, this film is about a high-school boy who is excelling in life. His mother is an over-protective teacher who has lied to her son and made him skip grades. His sister walks out and rebels against the mother because she felt that music was ‘speaking to her’.

The story follows the boy, William, and his story. He gets a chance to write an article for The Rolling Stone Magazine about an ‘up-and-coming’ rock band, Stillwater. William accompanies them on their concert tour, confronts life and befriends ‘the enemy’.

This was a rather funny, feel good movie about a band, their fans and how they connect. It is also about the tensions between the band members, as they reach their big moment of fame.

This film focuses on the raw talent and characteristics of a band, looking into the way they tour and focusing on how ‘The man’ (record companies, etc.) is trying to change rock and roll and make things much more mainstream.

William’s adventure goes further than he first expect, with him travelling the full tour and seeing things nobody else would ever see. Listening to the same music that was inspiring this band to tour and perform.

The long list of songs used as both diegetic and non-diegetic is endless. I was originally going to place the full soundtrack on here, but that would have made the blog go on for quite some time. I mean it is a film about a rock band. What do expect?

There is mention of some great names such as Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Black Sabbath (who Stillwater are touring alongside.), Neil Young, Lou Reed and many more (check out the amazing soundtrack at the bottom).

So this story, based on true events is one of charm and classic rock music, but what makes it so intriguing? Why do we watch these films telling us about how a certain band or person became famous?

Take Walk The Line (2005) directed by James Mangold and staring Joaquin Phoenix, for example, the story of Jonny Cash and June Carter; about the darker side of fame and of love.

We want to watch these films because they are real life stories. Stories where people have a raw talent, whether it be singing like Cash or Stillwater, or it be Journalism, they have a talent and they want the world to see this talent, they find difficulty in their journey and also might find love but eventually the bright lights of fame get too much for them and they stumble.

So do we watch these films for the stumble and the good music? Not at all, we watch them because it gives us courage to get out there and show our talents and skills, because no matter how bad they stumble, Cash ending up in Prison and Stillwater almost breaking up, they always seem to pull through and it’s their dedication.

This is why the music in films that are based on real stories are so important, because each band, each singer, has a story to tell. They will all inspire somebody in a different way, so overall it’s more than just the music. It is about inspiration.

Almost Famous (2000) Soundtrack: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181875/soundtrack

If you have any films or film topics you would like me to look into the comment below. If you have any views on what has been discussed this week, also let me know.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Flash Fiction Friday: The Gray's House

Hey Guys,

Friday’s posts are short Flash Fiction writing exercises.

I will either use a photo or a prompt of some sort, maybe a phrase from time to time, to get inspiration and start my introduction to any story.

This week I am going to be working off a challenge that I found online (credit at end). I thought it would be a clever idea as I have never written in this style before. So here is the challenge, followed by my Flash Fiction:

Challenge:

Write a short piece of fiction in second person. Use a lot of "you".


It’s pitch black, nothing can be seen around you. You reach out to find the wall and stumble your hands over to the switch on the light. You panic for a few seconds unable to find it, worried about what you may find. There are strange grinding noises coming from in front of you. Part of you does not want to find out what they are, you want to turn back and run away, but there that small part of you that is stronger, its fighting back, it’s inquisitive and curious to see what is in this house.

The creaking of the floor boards underfoot make your hear race, it fills you with terror and excitement in the same beat. You give up on finding the light switch and carefully step forward, not wanting to make much noise. You almost seem to tip toe forward.

Each time you take a step dust particles fly around, they tickle your nose and your eyes, making you feel dizzy. The small of damp contrasts to that of the dust being kicked up, it confuses your senses and makes you feel light headed, but you still continue forward.

Suddenly you remember you brought a flash light, you feel slightly embarrassed in yourself for not thinking to use it earlier to find the switch. You sigh and pull at the string round your wrist so the torch levels upward toward your hand. You grab it and turn it on, the bulb flickers and produces a thin beam of light, and it isn’t as strong as you first anticipated when choosing it.

You turn round, trying to look back at the wall you once was stumbling over, you see if there’s any sort of switch, there is nothing but torn dark wallpaper and cobwebs. You shiver and look down at your hands; they are coated in the thick webbed substance. You fiercely wipe your hands on your clothes felling a sickness in your stomach as you think of the eight legged creatures which created these webs, as you do so you let the torch drop; it catches itself with the string round your wrist, but hits you in your side winding you slightly.

You curse yourself for this action, grab at the torch again and continue to follow the direction of the wall round. ‘This place has to have a light somewhere’, you tell yourself. As you follow the wall round you start to notice dirt and grime on the wallpaper, the colour is dark, tricky to place through the lack of light your mind starts running with possibilities and it excites you a little. ‘Maybe the rumours about this house were true’ you start to recall the rumours you heard whilst still following the wall round with your poor shaft of light.

The stains start to get bigger and more defined, they worry you, you suddenly want to leave scared of finding worse, but you can’t leave yet, you haven’t found anything and if you left you knew you would forfeit the dare and therefor loose.

You started to curse Peter under your breath for making you enter this house ‘I dare you to stay in the Gray’s House’ you hear his high pitched voice and chuckle in your head and snarl, thinking of a way to get him back next time.

You suddenly notice something on the wall that stops your thoughts in their tracks. There on the wall in front of your poor shaft of light lays a set of markings, they almost look like lettering. You step up closer to get a better look.

The colour of the stained markings becomes more noticeable and darker, it’s a brownish reddened colour, and you still can’t see what the markings are so you take a few more steps forward. Then it hits you, you can see what it says and you wish you had never seen it.

On the wall scribed in this red substance were two warning words. The words ‘GET OUT’ scrolled down the wall. You get scared you panic, thinking that you had over stayed your welcome.

Suddenly the darkness is swarmed by a bright light, your eyes shocked into temporary blindness, you don’t want to open your eyelids to see who, or what just switched on the lights, and yet for some strange reason you are compelled to. You open your eyes and suddenly realise what the markings are made with.

The dark blooded hand prints trickling down the wall brought fear filled tears to your eyes, your heart sunk in your chest, you panic and turn to head for the door. You see that stood at the door was a tall shadowed figure with piercing pale eyes. Fear builds up inside you as the figure is suddenly standing in front of you, still covered in shadows, a few large noticeable scars and those wild piercing eyes. The shadow grabes you by the throat, you struggle and tears escape your eyes, wishing you had stayed at home.

The figure throws you against the wall, you hit it with force. As you hit the wall a shooting pain spirals down your side. His voice then booms across the room towards you, it makes you freeze on the spot and fills your throat with panic and fear.

‘Welcome to my house’ he cackles. ‘We are going to have so much fun.’

Challenge by T. R. Stoddard taken from Joseph Eastwood

Let me know what you think of my Flash Fiction writing and if you have any ideas for inspiration the comment below.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Flash Fiction Friday: The Two Suited Men

Hey Guys,

Okay Flash Fiction is a new thing I’ve been told about so let’s see how this pans out and works. Apparently the aim of Flash Fiction is you look at an image of something and you write for an allotted time, or until you reach a certain amount of words. Maybe once or twice I might change these Flash Fiction entries into short films so watch out for them on my film YouTube channel which I have set up for my short films.

This week I have used a prompt book to create my Flash Fiction story. The book itself is The Writer’s Book of Matches by the staff of fresh boiled peanuts, a literary journal.

The prompt I have used this week is the following, in bold, then my story follows shortly after:

As two teenage boys sat on the front porch of a house, a car with tinted windows pulls up. The doors open, and two men in black suits get out and start walking towards them.

The boy on the left looked at the other boy, wondering what these two men wanted. As they came closer both boys looked at each other, they take a slight gulp of air and sigh nervously.

The two men reach the house, they are both wearing black shades, even though the sky’s dull and cloudy; the air is close and thick. They stop by the steps of the porch and in synchronisation both take off their sunglasses.

The man on the left seemed to be slightly older, shorter and a little bit more worn than the other, but except from this they almost looked identical.

The slightly older man spoke first.

   ‘Which one of you is Harry?’ He asked, glancing between the two boys looking for signs of weakness. One of the boys stood. He had dark brown hair, was very tall and slim, yet thought he was tough and strong.

‘Who’s asking?’ He demanded as the other, blonde haired boy, sat, watched and wondered.

‘I’ll take it you’re Harry then, shall I?’ The younger man said, stepping forward onto the first porch step. As soon as he did so the brown haired teenager took a nervous step backwards. Making him trip and almost stumbled back into his wicker chair.

The other boy, who had been quietly watching, gulped and took a step forward and out of his chair. He headed towards the suited men and placed out his hand.

‘Harry Foster,’ he announced with his clammy palm out-reached ‘How can I help you?’

Both men looked down at the feeble peace offering and sneered, rejecting all gratitude. Harry awkwardly dropped his hand back down to his side, then changed his mind and placed both his hands in the pockets of his brown leather jacket.

‘We need to talk to you alone.’ The older man demanded and looked across at Harry’s brown haired friend as he stumbled towards the group and interrupted.

‘Nobody talks to Harry without me.’ He paused. ‘I mean we don’t even know who you are.’ He looks at Harry for support. Then back at the two men. The younger, suited man looked angry and was about to take another step forward but the older man held him back. Harry then interrupted.

‘I’m sorry guys, but my friend here is right. My mum would go mental if she found out I was talking to strangers.’

Both black suited men looked at him simultaneously. The older man cleared his throat and spoke.

‘I’m DCI Mills and this is my partner DI Jones. We have come to ask you a few questions.’

Harry’s friend looked out the two officers, wary of what they were saying.

‘If you are officers, shouldn’t you be wearing uniforms?’ He questioned them. Both harry and his friend looked at each other, Harry nodded and looked back.

‘Patrick’s right’ He grinned. ‘Surely you would show us your badges from the start.’

The two men looked at each other and sighed. They both instantaneously reached into apposing pockets, which were inside their black jackets.

‘We didn’t want to do this.’ The younger man said and, in sync, both men pulled out revolvers and pointed them at the two boys.

Both boys stepped back in shock, raised their sweaty arms slightly, wishing they had never questioned the two suited men as much. They both looked at each other in terror. Patrick was about to open his mouth to question the men again but Harry glared at him. Patrick instantly closed his mouth again.

‘Get in the car.’ The older man ordered. ‘We have something to show you.’

Both of the boys unwillingly walked to the car whilst the men pressed the barrels of their guns into the back of the teenagers’ neck. He boys opened the doors of the car and climbed in.

The doors slammed behind them and the men got into the front. The younger man pointed his gun at the two boys as the older man started the car.

‘You should have just co-operated from the start.’ He said they set off to their unknown destination.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Stay safe,

Matt

Film Thursday: Batman: The Dark Knight Rises - Review

Hey Guys,

This is Film Thursday.

Here’s the part of the week where I will either review a film or talk about how film can affect us in certain ways. Each week I will ask you what you feel should review next or what area of film I should look into.

This week we are going to review the new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises (2012) directed by Christopher Nolan.

This is the third; and final, film in The Dark Knight trilogy. It is the last film that both Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale will both work on, but Nolan has left it open ended for other people to take up the chance.

The story is that Eight years have passed since the last film, The Dark Knight (2008), and everything is quiet, safe and calm. Yet as they say, ‘all is quiet before the storm’.

This storm starts when a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham, and the Dark Knight is forced to resurface to protect the city that branded him as the enemy.

I did enjoy this film a lot and there was somewhat a wait between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. However for some reason, unknown, I felt that maybe something was missing.

For a start, I wish they would have explained how Selina was Catwoman, and referred to her more that way.

I also thought that, in parts, it was very slow to get into and a few unnecessary scene. In other parts it was very crammed up and too much seemed to be happening. Maybe they could have separated the film up into two?

The performances of Anne Hathaway (Selina), Tom Hardy (Bain), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Blake), and Marion Cotillard (Miranda) were all at the top end. A few times there were certain things Hardy, Bain, said that were lost, but that may have been down to speakers in cinema instead of performance?

I thought that it could have been a little bit darker than it was also. As The Dark Knight seemed very dark, maybe due to it being released after Heath Ledger’s death, but in this one, even though still quite dark, did not seem as it should have been.

With all these things in mind and the fact that I liked The Dark Knight better I would still highly recommend going to see this film. Just for the pure fact that it is Batman. You can’t go wrong with a good comic book film.

Another thing, after my blog on Monday (Mull-Over Monday: Do special effects and CGI, improve films, or make them worse?) I can honestly say that the SFX and CGI in this film were outstanding. Loved the new Batman toy, 'The Bat'.

Finally, without giving spoilers because I know you are all dying to see this, (if you haven’t already, why the hell not?) I can truly say that the end sequence is one of the best cliff-hangers I’ve seen in an action/comic book film. With the fact that they have left the film open-ended, so that if another director to come in and play around with it or even wanted to create something different.

So all in all I do recommend the Dark Knight Rises and think it’s a good film, which contradicts what I’ve said, but what the hell. I think you should all go out and watch it, if you haven’t already.

Stay safe,

Matt

Writing Update Wednesday: You've Got to Read to Write

Hey Guys,

So you’re wondering how my writing is going? You wanna know what I’m getting up to on my stories or what’s going to happen next? Well let me update you on everything so far.

Sometimes when writing a new book, or new chapter, etc. you need to do a little bit of research and this week has been no different to me. I have completed 5 chapters of my Mysery book, almost finished the sixth, and have started rough work on my next book, Bitter Shandy.

Bitter Shandy is a story about a girl, Shandy, who is rescued from a life of drink and drugs. She is given a chance to live her dream of being an actress, but the stress of acting and her new boyfriend, Malik, get too much for her. To add to this Malik confronts her when he suspects her of cheating. Can she handle all this new stress, or will she go spiriling down into worse situations?

This story is not like any other one I want to write, and it will be very hard for me, as it is in a non-linear form. It is not just about the two main characters, or even just about Shandy. All the characters are key parts to what happens to Shandy in the end.

To work in this style I have had to read through countless books and online blogs to see what I can muster from them to help me in this new style. Some are more helpful than others.

Also, whilst researching, I have decided to read Belle De Jour - The Intimate Adventures Of A London Call Girl as I thought it may help make my character more rounded and structured. Well seeing as I have kind of fallen in love with Belle I’m guessing the book will probably help me along the ways.

So my point today is that sometimes you don’t need to write as much in one week, because maybe that week you need to do more reading and research so that your characters, and story are more believable and creative.

Stay safe,

Matt

Welcome Wednesday: Tonya Polk: Movies Vs. Books

Hey Guys,

Welcome to Wednesdays. Every Wednesday I will introduce a new person who has a simular interest to myself who I think that both myself and you guys can learn from, understand and take things from. Each week I will post a short intro to the person, what they have to say and their important links. Maybe even do a response once or twice.

This weeks guest post is my American friend, Tonya Polk:

Tonya is a fourty one year old housewife and mum, who ‘refuses to ever grow up’. She lives in Bangor, Maine, USA. She is very proud that ‘It’s also hometown of famous author Stephen King’. She considers herself to be ‘an unofficial expert’ on such things as movies and books, which is what her guest blog is about. Hope you enjoy what she has to say:

Movie vs Book. 

Hey Guys,

This is something I never gave any thought to as a teenager or young adult.  I remember sitting in a packed movie theater anxiously waiting to see my favorite Stephen King novel brought to life in front of my eyes.  

Having read just about every book he ever published, I didn't care that the movie didn't exactly follow the book~ who would care when your hometown author has just filmed an entire movie in OUR hometown?!? 

Many years later, after I re-discovered the joy of reading again (I have to thank Stefanie Meyer for that, and yes, I am a proud Twihard) was when I discovered how a director and screen writer can ruin a great love story, or any story for that matter.

Don't get me wrong, not all screen adaptations are BAD (Harry Potter was spectacular)  but for ME, reading is an escape from reality, like a little personal vacation into a fantasy land.  Using your imagination, getting your own personal vision of what the characters look like, visualizing the scenery, smells, sounds...all are very different and personal to each reader. 

Do the directors and screenwriters actually READ the book (s) ? Or do they just read the back cover and get some input from the author?  Do they understand that readers have a very personal connection with the characters and the storyline? Do they even know HOW WELL we know the book, every detail, every love scene, every detail of every place the characters have been?  Do they even care? Who is to blame? 

As talks are in the works and directors are being talked about,I am very nervous about my beloved "Fifty Shades" being made into a film.  Will the actors be good enough?  Will they pay attention to the LOVE story and not just the "other" stuff in the books?  Will I even WATCH the movie? Or let MY Christian and Ana live in my head?  Seems silly to stress over fictional characters in a book, but if you are like me, and love to read, you will understand exactly what I mean. 

So now, my thinking is, maybe it's better NOT to read the book first, that way all expectations are gone (well, except that the movie is at least GOOD) and you don't find yourself stressing over the screenwriter leaving out your favorite scene or changing dialogue that make you want to get up and walk out?  Or will the screenwriter be so amazing and blow all my expectations away? ( Hunger Games comes to mind on that note). 

So which would YOU choose? Book or Movie?

Stay safe,

Tonya

My Response:

Most, if not all, movies are based on something. Such things as books, stories, poems or even other movies (postmodernism). So this is a good thing to look at.

When basing a film on a book you have got a lot riding on the end result, most of the time there is just too much in the book to possibly fit into the movie. Other times the auther themselves says ‘look I’m not that keen on that part, can we not place it in?’ but this does make the fans of the books unhappy.

As Tonya said, we all have our own imagionations and will read a book differently; we all pick out different immergry that effects us the most. So when we are getting shown how to feel, it is much different.

A good film, based from a book, that does not get much credit is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Directed by Tim Burton. Whenever I mention this film I get ‘oh it’s not as good as the original’ but how can it not be better, when it follows Rhoald Daul’s creation to the last T, even including the original songs that Daul wrote?

So I do agree with Tonya, when reading a book you have your own vision and imagionation on what is happening and directors should take this into consideration more. They need to make sure that they try and read the book and consult with the Author, or as close as possible.

Let me know what you think? Do you agree with Tonya? Is there any films you can think of that are as good, or maybe better, than the book? Is there any film that ruined the books for you?

Check Tonya out on Twitter:

@Summersunluvr

Stay safe,

Matt

Flash Fiction Friday: First Attempt

Hey Guys,

Okay Flash Fiction is a new thing I’ve been told about so let’s see how this pans out and works. Apparently the aim of Flash Fiction is you look at an image of something and you write for an allotted time, or until you reach a certain amount of words. Maybe once or twice I might change these Flash Fiction entries into short films so watch out for them on my film YouTube channel which I have set up for my short films.

The following picture is what I have decided to base this week’s Flash Fiction on. To make it fair, I wrote this out on paper and set myself to four pages. My writing it rather big and messy so might not be that long one here, but here is what I created from this picture below.

It was a crisp, dark night. The sky was a winter’s blue and the air held a certain chill; it tickled my fingers and me nose. I should not have even been out at such a late hour on such a night like tonight. I was going against every rule my father had taught me to strictly follow.

Tonight was one of those magical nights, when the moon is full and the tide was at its highest. This is when everything happened in this place; when the Elders met together. Rumours about what happened on these nights flew round, yet only the Elders and those closest knew.

That was why I was here on this frost-filled December night. I wanted to find out the truth and why there were so many rules and secrets between our people. I walked towards the stables, where I had discretely followed the Elders. The candles dimly lit the pebbled path and gave an ominous glow to the barn where the Elders were holding these meetings.

I waited for my time and kept my distance, whilst also keeping a look out for anything suspicious as I still wondered over the rule that I had broken; that no woman under the age of 18 should be allowed out on a full moon and a high tide.

Suddenly I heard chanting from the stable barn and a flash of red light. Smoke started to rise from somewhere inside.  I could not see clearly so I risked a closer look. I peered through a small hole, trying not to get noticed or caught.

Inside was a group of tall hooded shadows whom where all chanting around a cauldron of some sort. I was unsure of what they were chanting or what was happening, but I did not like what I saw.

I carried on watching; wondering what was going on, when suddenly I noticed one of the hooded Elders pull over a girl, dressed in pure satin white. He dragged her by the hair into the light and I instantly recognised her. She was the Farmer’s daughter, Elizabeth. I could tell by the small mark she had on the right side of her face.

The hooded man then grabbed Elizabeth by the chin and placed the back of her head on the hot cauldron. There came an instant sizzling sound from the girls flesh. This was followed very shortly by screaming from the poor tortured girl.

As soon as this happened, I winced away and instantaneously the chanting became louder. This made me look back, not wanting to take me eyed away from this evil; but knowing, in my mind, that I should stop, and run away.

The same hooded member turned Elizabeth round so that her marked cheek was over the opening of the cauldron. The girl continued to shrill and wail as her flesh blistered, singed and fell away. Then in one quick swoop of a knife to her throat, it was over. Her cries turned into gurgles and choking as the bright crimson blood gushed and spurted from her wound and her mouth  into the pot. As this happened I shed a few tears for the poor Famer’s daughter.

As Elizabeth struggled on her last blood filled breaths she was shoved away from the pot and left to wilt and rot. One of the other masked murders then picked up the cauldron and immersed his hand into this mixture of blood and other unknown substances.

For any normal human, putting their hand into a boiling pot would scold them and burnt the skin off their hands, but the hooded shadow took his hand out of the cauldron and it was fully in tacked without any marks or scaring visible. Instead it was covered in the blood mixture the Elders had just created.

After this the other masked Elders immersed the hands in this concoction and started placing it on the far wall whilst chanting. I could not see what they had done until they had evaporated away from the wall they had just spread blood onto.

When they dispersed, I saw what had been written; the words, ‘Like a Fire That Commands all.’ These powerful, black-magic filled words meant nothing to me. I did not understand what was going on.

I wished right then that I had never left the house or followed the Elders to this slaughter house. I took myself away from the hole where I was watching and away from the suffering and horror inside. I just wish I never looked.

As I turned round to sneak back to the house, there stood one tall hooded dark shadow of an Elder staring back at me. No defining facial features were visible.

‘I believe you’ve seen enough Rose.’ He cackled.

Hope you liked this. If you have any photos you wish me to looks at and write a flash fiction story on, then send them my way.

Stay safe,

Matt

Welcome Wednesday: Guest Blog: Joseph Eastwood:Why Branding is Necessary

Hey Guys,

Welcome to Wednesdays. Every Wednesday I will introduce a new person who has a simular interest to myself who I think that both myself and you guys can learn from, understand and take things from. Each week I will post a short intro to the person, what they have to say and their important links. Maybe even do a response once or twice.

This week my guest is a good friend of mine from university. His name is Joseph Eastwood, he is 19 years old and studies English and Creative Writing at University. He is an aspiring writer who's book, Lumen, is coming out very soon. This is his blog about writing and how 'indie' writers should have a brand and a genre.

Hope you enjoy it:

Why Branding is Necessary

I feel that as an indie author you need to have a brand, you need to have a genre, you need people to remember who you are---being another self-published author is hard.
I'm going to kick this off by telling you that if your Facebook page doesn't have your name in the title, then there isn't much point in having it.
Book pages are useful, but they are also very boring and don't offer as much as author pages do. I find that author pages are more personal, where book pages just have pictures of the book...or random pictures of people they want to fill the characters etc. and yeah, that's fun and everything, and you want people to "like" your book, and unless that's the only book you're ever going to write, I would delete it!
I believe that if you want to be indie you will not become successful over just ONE book! So quit promoting it to hell and back! Instead, I think you should focus on your writing, Amanda Hocking did not become famous for that one book, nor did Stephen King, or anyone else for that matter. They all wrote several books and have a backlog.
Just like an musician must build a repertoire of songs because lets face it, if they listen to the same song over and over again it just gives you earache and you start to hate it. I think the same thing goes for an indie author who keeps on pushing their book everywhere you look and I've actually said to myself..."No, you're not buying that, it's just spam! The author has done nothing to try and sell it to me, just forever posting it and the reviews they've received."
You need to hone your genre and you need to write, write, write! Not everything you write should be published for money, some things you write can be free! You know, like in your notes that people can read because there aren't a lot of people who are going to be taking a chance on an indie author.

For more information on Joe, his writing or any of his blog posts, check out the following links below:


Blog: www.josepheastwood.com

Twitter: @JoeEastwood

Page: www.facebook.com/josephswriting

If any of you fancy writing me a guest post for next Wednesday, could you please get in contact with me. Either on here, or on Facebook/Twitter. Links below:

Page: www.facebook.com/MattThomFilm

Twitter: @No1MattThom

Stay safe,


Matt

Writing Update Wednesday: Mysery and Photoshop, Book Cover

Hey Guys,

So you've been wondering how my writing is going? You want to know what I’m getting up to on my stories or what’s going to happen next? Well, let me update you on everything so far.

This week I have been playing around with Photoshop and been trying to create a few front covers, now I don’t want to be showing them all off at once and give the game away before it’s even started but I want to talk about how it may help your story progress more and maybe even give you a few more Ideas.

Now recently I’ve been paying most of my attention towards Mysery, (A story about a girl who ends up in a large city that she has never been to before; she has no clue how she got there and knows she does not belong. It is a story of adventure and love.) Now even though I know exactly how I want the story to go and what I want to happen to the girl, Mysery, there are still little bits that are still to be discovered as it is a story of discovering and adventure. I’ve been working on it for quite some time so it tends to change shape quite often.

So I have been sat here pondering over what to do with the character and where to take the character and it has been slightly more testing than normal, but I found that playing around on Photoshop and trying to create something that explains how the character feels has helped me dramatically. Not only do I now have two drafts for my front cover but I have two more chapters and two more added ideas to place into the story.

This hasn’t just helped with the one story either. It has helped me with a few others and made me think about trying to write a series of books. Now that I have the cover, which has made me think ‘The character is this kind of person’, I feel like the stories are just going to flow afterwards.

The reason I have two drafts for Mysery is because I made my first draft, and had a perfect idea of how I wanted it to be set out, but unfortunately I was using images off Google to edit and was told about copy-write, and didn’t want to risk it, so decided to start again and try and create the look and style myself, which has been rather testing.

So here for you are my first two drafts of my book covers for Mysery:

This was my original idea, using images. I really liked this idea as she is a girl from 1920 who has somehow ended up in the modern day. I thought this showed that idea perfectly, but unfortunately the only way I could have truly created this with my own images was to go to London myself and, from where I am, it’s rather far and rather expensive just for one photo.

So my second Idea was as follows:

I tried to stick with the original idea of the girl in black with the long grass, whilst having a coloured background, but I wanted the colour to stand out more so decided to have contrasting colours put together.

As I said before I have created other covers for other books, but seeing as some of them have only got a tittle and a basic layout, I’m not as willing to start handing out all the information for them.

These are just first Drafts and I may change them or play around with them a little.

So overall I believe that playing around with Photoshop and editing, Even if it’s just to create a basis or just an idea. You don’t have to be a Photoshop wizard, but I believe that it will help you with your writing and make you think of ideas you never had before.


Stay safe,


Matt