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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Talk Thursday: Sorry, Which Doctor?

Hey Guys,

We all need something to talk about and discuss, we just like to gossip.

This is the part of the week where I choose a topic to discuss over and talk about; I view both sides of the argument and then place my opinion.

Anybody can join in with the discussion, just post a comment and tell me what you think.

This week we are going to discuss something I am rather excited for which starts in the UK on Saturday.

For those of you fellow geeks, you will understand what I am excited for. If not I am talking about the brand new series of Doctor Who.

This Saturday introduces The Doctor's oldest foe, The Daleks. He is kidnapped by them and forced to complete an impossible mission. The Doctor is sent to a place that even The Daleks fear.

From what I can see there is five episodes that are continuously linked, also known as a series trail. I don't know whether there is only five episodes in the whole series, I am truly hoping not and from what i can see in the trailers, I'm sure there will be more. The series trail is called Predator of the Daleks and the first episode is called Asylum of the Daleks.

Now I know from the rumor mill that The Doctor's sidekicks, The Ponds, will be leaving this season, I'm not sure when or how. I also have seen in the trailers that there is a lot of creatures, the weeping angels return and there are also Dinosaurs this season.

For a trailer of Predator of the Daleks follow this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00xtbyk

For another trailer of series seven, follow this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00wtrmm

Doctor Who begins at 19:20 GMT on BBC One in the UK. I'm guessing any US fans may have to wait, or download it from BBC website.

For more information check out the BBC, Doctor Who website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006q2x0

If you have any say on anything mentioned then please comment and share your views.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Writing Wednesday Becomes Reading Wednesday

Hey Guys,

This week there's a slight change to the schedule. Instead of Writing Wednesday, we are going to do Reading Wednesday. This is only for one week as there's book I would love to talk to you about. One that I am currently reading and enjoying and I would like to recommend it to you all.

For a start, I have mentioned this writer on my blog a few times, he's had a guest blog with me and he is a very good friend of mine. This does not mean I'm going to give him any favoritism. I will judge it as I normally judge other books.

The book I am going to talk over and review is the start of a series called Blood Luminary, The book Lumen is the first in the series and written by Joseph Eastwood (all links at end).

Short summary this is a book about a boy called Daniel, who lives on an island, separate from normal society. All who live on the island, Templar Island, have special abilities. Children grow into their power when the 'come-of-age', some children make it, but others don't.

Daniel has gone through his final transition. He is trying to learn how to train and manipulate the bonds of energy freely.
He gains a place at the island's only private, upper-class, school. With trying to fit in and trying to control his powers he finds himself in predicaments that may risk everything.

Now as I said, currently reading so I don't know how this book will pan out, or how it leads to the second one, but I will review the 65% I have read.
Firstly I am reading the draft that was first released, before Joe edited and replaced it on Amazon so there are a few minor unnoticed errors, but this does not affect the story.

This is the first full novel that Joe has released and it has that raw essence about it. There is a real close-knit relationship with Daniel. Constantly looking at how each new thing he discovers affects him as he grows into his powers.

I am such a big fan of books about magic and fantasy, love books about transformation and of people discovering themselves. This book is all of those things.

As I said, it is the first full novel that Joe has released and it is an early draft I am reading. There are a few bits that do come across a little unclear, but as you continue to read and I take into account I'm reading a dubbed book with a few mistakes, that's been fixed, changed and replaced.

I am rather excited to complete the book and find out what happens with Daniel's talents and what happens with everything else, including the other characters which I can see building.

If you are into fantasy stories, if you are into new writers, if you want to discover something new then I highly recommend this book.


For your copy of the book follow these links:

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090WVZF8/
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0090WVZF8/

If you want to know more about Joe follow these links:

Blog: http://www.josepheastwood.com/
Page: https://www.facebook.com/josephswriting

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

Stay safe,

Matt

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Take Over Tuesday: Cassie May; Are Sequels Smart

Hey Guys,



Tuesday is the day I introduce a guest onto my blog and let them write me a post. They will be posting something about their area of knowledge and each week I will try and have a different area.

Sometimes I may post a response to what the guest has written.

The first Take Over is by Cassie May; she is nineteen years old and is a studying teaching at University. Here is her post: (edited)

What I don’t seem to understand with some films, and even a few books, is why there are sequels. It makes no sense at times. For instance, someone could resolve everything, or at least leave one not-quite-so major plot-line dangling, in one film/book, but the director/writer decides Let’s bring up everything in a sequel.

This is a bad reason to have a sequel.

(I apologise in advance if it seems like I struggle to stay on track)

It's okay if it's a good film that people actually care about, or a story that is continuous, but if the film is riddled with plot holes, surely it counts as a cheap ploy on the part of the writer/director to get the audience back for a sequel. Those who don’t care enough to find out what the resolution to the plot is, like me with one such film, and I couldn't be bothered to pay much attention to it. I didn't care to find out the resolution to the plot, but in an argument with a friend found out that the sequel resolved the plotline. What I didn't say was that a.) this surely alienates the people who didn't care enough to see the sequel and b.) doesn't really do the plotline justice, full of holes or not.

But it's true. It just doesn't.

A good reason to have a sequel is if the film is based on a book, and there is more than one book in the series. The original book obviously won't offer any resolution to the plotlines and it wouldn't do the series justice if the whole thing was condensed into one film. So sequels for this reason equals good thing.

Then there's the film that's got so much intrigue that you can't quite resolve the plotline, thus demanding a sequel to resolve the plotline and do the film justice. Of course there's always the time-honoured solution of the epic film, but then you have a problem: how are you supposed to keep the audience awake if they get bored of the film, short of some loud dramatic music/explosion to keep the audience on their toes? Having the music/explosion has to be credible. A sequel would avoid this problem.

Then there's the worst reason to keep making sequels: people like it. There's only so long you can keep going on the same plotlines before people get bored of it, or the actor who plays a popular character refuses to do any more sequels, which I'm sure doesn’t do wonders for the sequel's popularity. It would be more interesting if the writers wrote something unrelated to the film series, so audiences can see what if they can do anything else.

I'm not saying that sequels are a bad thing; in the right place they can be good. But there is a time and place for everything including sequels. Use them in the right place and you'll get another great film. Wrong place and you could mess things up. The sequel is a film in its own right, too.

If you have any comments or views on what has been discussed then please place them below. If you would like to appear on my Take Over Tuesday blog then let me know.

Stay safe,

Matt

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Movies for Monday: Religion and Crime

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.

This week I’m going to look into things with a deeper meaning to them. This might be a little tricky and may get me into a little trouble, but we all like to play the risk game once or twice.

So this week we are going to talk about a film that I watched awhile back, then thought of re-watching last night. The film is Se7en (1995) directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, is about two homicide detectives, a ‘rookie’ and a ‘veteran’ who are desperately searching for a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as justification towards his crimes, killing each person by ‘the sin they commit.’

Now the reason I said this was risky is because first of all I’m a born Baptist turned agnostic. So I know quite a bit about Religion, but tend to get annoyed at the contradictions most religious people fail to pay attention to.

In movies like these the aim of it is not just to show how cruel ‘The Big Cities’ are but also to show the conflicts between religion. First of all I would like to say that for people, not as extreme as our murder, say that people commit a sin should be punished. Well doesn’t the bible say ‘Thou shalt not kill.’

Therefore when I see movies about people killing for religion, or hear stories of Marta. I think back to the Ten Commandments and think; well you are not allowed to break any of these ten?

Let’s focus back on the film, as I feel I’m heading off the tracks, and it may get risky. The film itself is showing us the methodical tactics of this murderer, the time he’s taken to select his victims, the research done, even the torture he has place upon some of his victims, leaving Sloth victim for a year to ‘rot’ in bed.

With the use of sound and cinematography it is also showing us that no matter if the detectives are on duty or off, the city never sleeps. In one scene Detective Somerset (Freeman) is travelling in a taxi to a library, he hears sirens and screaming and when he looks out of the window he sees a body spasm whilst paramedics try to cover the body up.

There also seems to be some sort of siren in the background of scenes, where close or far away in the distance. Showing that there is always crime and sin in such a city as this.

Overall this film is a clever in the fact that it is well thought out and deep, the killer thinks that this is his calling from God whilst the detectives think he is crazed and psychotic.

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 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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Welcome Wednesday: Siân Thom: Can music make or break a film?

Hey Guys,

Wednesday is the day I introduce a guest onto my blog and let them write me a post. They will be posting something about their area of knowledge and each week I will try and have a different area.

Sometimes I may post a response to what the guest has written.

This week I have Siân Thom guest staring on my blog.

Siân is my fifteen year old sister; she is going into the second year of her GCSEs. Afterwards she wants to go to college and focus mainly on acting and drama. Her ambition is to end up as a well-known actress.

This is her guest blog and underneath is my response:

There isn’t one film that I’ve watched that hasn’t had music in it, when films were first created as silent movies they weren’t really silent, yes there was no speaking but there was music and depending on the music you could tell the mood change in the film, even though the music had no lyrics or that it was just a pianist sat under the scene with a sheet of music that he had to play all the way through the film, the tempo and the pitch would change to notify the audience that the scene is meant to be funny or sad. In modern day films, there is speaking in the scenes but it still boils down to the music chosen by the producer, director, music producer or whoever puts the music in. A film would not be a film without music it would just be words and pointless actions with the audience not fully understanding what is going on in one scene to the next.

The right music makes you feel more for the characters, it makes you believe what the characters are saying, and even if the acting isn’t great you can still feel happy, sad, angry or excited by the right chose of music in that scene.

When I’m watching a film and a sad scene starts to play out, it’s not the acting or the words that make me cry really, it’s the music, the slow sad music that emphasises that it’s a sad scene and that is what sets me off crying. The other night I was watching Life as we Know it [(2010) Directed by Greg Berlanti and staring Katherine Heigl] and [slight spoiler] when the little girl calls holly mummy there are little chimes in the background, and I know that isn’t that much of music but just that little can make a scene, I think if the chimes weren’t in that scene I would of cried as much or realised the full extent of her calling holly mummy. I always listen to the music in films, if the music is right for the scene and connect with the film then it will make the audience feel like they are part of the film. But there are other cases where the music does not suit the scene what so ever and if it’s an important scene then the whole film is ruined in my opinion.

I watched a film a few years back with my brother and the music starting playing in the background and both Matt and I cringed because the music didn’t suit the scene or the film. So for the rest of the film we couldn’t get into the film or relate with the characters because, it was an important scene that explained what the whole film was about and it was ruined by a few minutes of music played quietly behind it.

Also sometimes in a film they can play the music too loud so you can’t hear what the characters are saying, this mostly happens more on the television in series or one-off shows. If a pilot is coming on T.V and you watch it and the music is too loud so you can’t hear what the characters are saying so you don’t know what is going on in the whole episode then it is unlikely that they are going to get a series because that pilot determines whether they get their series and if the public aren’t getting into because of the music then it won’t be back on our television screens for another 6 episodes.

So in conclusion if the music isn’t right for the scene the film is over. I mean don’t play an upbeat song if someone on the screen is crying and don’t play a slow sad song if someone has just received some really good news. The music has to flow with the words and actions of the film otherwise it’s doomed from the start.

My Response:

Well My response is going to contrast rather a lot in comparison to my sister’s views, but this happens quite a lot so I’m sure she will understand.

First of all, there is a guest post I wrote quite a while back discussing music and mood.

http://malikagandhi.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/a-film-director-in-the-making/

So my response to what Siân said.

Music and sound works in two different ways in film, there is diegetic and non-diegetic.

Diegetic: Music or sound that the character can hear. It is happening inside the scene and effects the character in a certain way

Non-Diegetic: Music or sound that is placed over the top, almost like a score. It tells us, as an audience, how to feel in that scene.

My argument is why, as an audience, should we be told how to feel? As my sister said it does add to the tension to a scene where the monster is about to jump out. It adds to the sadness of that part where the guy breaks the girl’s heart.

I agree with my sister when she says that some films and TV shows over-use non-diegetic sounds/music and it can cause the show/film to lose believability, the audience start to lose interest. Some films even get to the point where there is only non-diegetic music and too much action. The action therefore means nothing; the audience does not know how the characters feel.

My belief is there should be more diegetic music and sound so the audience know how the character feels which shows that when something bad happens to the character, they are affected more because they understand that character fully.

I’m not saying the use of non-diegetic music is wrong and it should not be used because I have seen some good films that use non-diegetic very cleverly and leave the audience in suspense a lot of the time, but my question is: could you do this with diegetic sound and music?

My final point is that music affects us, just as it does a character in a film and people who say music is not important have not had the experience of discovering what it can do for you. 

If you want to know more about Siân, then check out her Twitter: @Ginger_Thom

If you can think of any films where the music does complete the whole film let me know. Also if you can think of any films where there is not much music but the film is still brilliant then please comment. I really want to know all your opinions on this one.

If you have any comments or views on what has been discussed then please place them below. If you would like to appear on my Welcome Wednesday blog then let me know.

Stay safe,

Matt 

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