I got a new camera recently (the Nikon D3100), which I’m loving playing around with. So I made a very short film about making coffee to test the camera out. Here’s two versions.
Werner Herzog reads foul-mouthed childrens book
Werner Herzog, for those who don’t know, is a great director from Germany. He’s made some genuine masterpieces down the years as well as being known for eating his own shoe. Anyway, here he is reading ‘Go the F**k to Sleep’ by Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Ricardo Cortes. If you don’t like bad language, don’t watch.
Stuff I Like #1: Doctor Who
On the 26th of March 2005, I settled down to watch the TV. It was a sunny Saturday evening and the television was tuned into BBC One. An ad came on; ‘Coming up next, the new series of Doctor Who.’ Doctor Who? I thought. Interesting. I’d seen the TV movie a few years previously which had cast Paul McGann as the time travelling Doctor and set him off on an adventure in America. And I had fake recollections of seeing the odd seventies episode on UK Gold or some other satellite channel when I was younger. But that was as far as my knowledge went so I figured I’d leave the Beeb on and check out the new series.
Christopher Eccleston was the Doctor, Billie Piper played Rose – his new companion. I learned what the TARDIS was and that you didn’t call him Doctor Who. You simply called him the Doctor. It was a fun adventure with shop mannequins coming to life. Not the greatest piece of Saturday night television I’d ever seen but fun nonetheless. At the end, there was a trailer for the second episode. The Doctor and Rose would travel to the end of the universe to watch Earth blink out of existence. There was a character featured briefly in the teaser called Cassandra. She consisted of a face on a piece of flesh stretched across a frame. And she was the last human. This simple but ingenious character is what got me hooked on Doctor Who from that moment. Cassandra – although she’s long been disposed of – still signifies most what I love about the show.
Introducing the A-Book…
From BBC’s Horrible Histories…
Books I like #1 – Neil Gaiman
If you like fantasy fiction and you haven’t read Neil Gaiman then I question your devotion to the genre. In fact, scratch that. If you like a good story full stop and you haven’t read Gaiman, then you’re missing out.
He’s an English author who spends most of his time in the States and a lot of his time on Twitter. He’s most well known for The Sandman series of graphic novels as well as the prose novels American Gods, Stardust and Coraline but he’s written so much in his ever-expanding career that it really would be surprising if you haven’t touched on his work in some form. For instance, he wrote the amazing recent Doctor Who episode entitled The Doctor’s Wife.
Why do I like him? Well, I could go on for a while, but my favourite thing about Gaiman and his writing is that he clearly loves stories. He has such a wealth of knowledge about myths, legends, fantasy and just pure story that his own work is infused with a sense of magic that you don’t find from many other authors. He is not just a great fantasy writer; he is the greatest living storyteller we have today. So rather than waffle on anymore I thought I’d just pick out a few of my favourite examples of his work…
Viking invasion coming to town
via The Irish Independent
The producers behind The Tudors and Camelot look set to shoot another historical fiction in Ireland called Vikings.
The TV series is expected to have a budget of about €28m. It will follow the exploits of the Viking warriors from the late 8th to mid-11th Century. Filming is likely to begin in Ireland next year.
Read the rest
The Next Harry Potter
So what with the Harry Potter series of film adaptations drawing to an end next month – (although ‘drawing to an end’ doesn’t sound right for something that’s going to be so huge, dramatic and make hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide) – Total Film magazine had a look at 30 books that could be the next big kids fantasy series. Nice to see Irish authors featuring in the top two. Although I think they missed one by not including Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events. I know they made a film based on the first three books – which I loved! Which is exactly why they should continue with them.
Also, they could have at least waited until Arthur Quinn comes out to write the article ;P
Soundtrack for Arthur
Right now I’m working on Books Two and Three of the Father of Lies Chronicles. I like to get the whole plot worked out in my head before I sit down and write it. In fact, I always find the writing the easy part. But as I’m thinking about the final few plot points, I realised how important music is to me when writing.
When I’m working out the plots I find it useful to go somewhere by myself. Maybe go for a walk, or a trip on the bus. But always with my iPod earphones tucked tightly in. The music I listen to helps and informs the scene I’m thinking of. It makes the movie playing in my head all the more real. I don’t often listen to music when I’m doing the actual writing bit, but it can help then too. I’ll sometimes listen to exciting, bombastic, fast music if I’m in the middle of a particularly thrilling scene.
So this got me thinking. What songs and pieces of music would add to the experience of reading Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent? And here are three of them with brief explanations why I’ve included them. Think of it as an unofficial soundtrack for the book.
All the Strange Strange Creatures – Murray Gold
A lot of you might recognise this piece of music from Doctor Who. I hold my hand up; I am a big Doctor Who nerd. But I’m including this piece for a more important reason than my Who-obsession. I first had the idea of the World Serpent and the young boy that would have to defeat it while on the bus back to Dublin one Sunday. It was raining and the traffic was idling slowly along the Quays (as in the opening scene of the book). While looking out on the Liffey, I thought that it would make an interesting story if the Vikings had left something under the water. A monster. The music playing on my iPod as I had that thought was this piece.
Room of Requirements – Nicholas Hooper
I love all the music in the Harry Potter films but for me, this piece always stood out. It’s playful, creepy and loads of fun, which is probably why I played it to myself while writing the underground scenes in The World Serpent.
New Born – Muse
As you’ve probably noticed already, I tend to prefer music without lyrics when writing. But here’s one song that I find great when coming up with really epic and exciting action scenes, just like the end to The World Serpent.
(Now, for a laugh, why not play them all at once!)