Day 16 – Favorite Collection of Poetry

This night
While I am dreaming
Searching for you
I have a message, but you're not sleeping
I wade through deep black waters, endless deserts
Turning my eyes away
From the criminals who seek to shame me

Meet me at the crossroads
Where we will come together
And nothing else will matter
From now until forever

These things
The only way I know to tell you
Whispered in the static
Screaming through the veil
Please say
The message came through
As intended
Code deciphered and recieved

I'm not a poetry person. I get the point of poetry but any real enjoyment I might have gotten out of it was burned away by the rubbish assigned in the GCSE syllabus. So for this one I'm choosing someone who is a poet but a musician and author as well. I own a copy of Ladies and Other Vicious Creatures by Donna Lynch, but I couldn't find it to photograph it, so this is part of an image by Steven Archer, the other half of the band Ego Likeness.

I love the universe Ego Likeness operate in, as twist and disturbing as it is. Its a place where reality and nightmare blend together until you don't know the one from the other, where the witches and demons are real and just might be you. I recommend that you read the madness that is Isabel Burning, and hear the darkness that is Breedless, marvel at the beauty of Luna Maris and maybe pick up some animal bones in resin whilst you're at it.

Even Better 30 Day Song Challenge - Day 16 - Day 16 - Track That Describes You

Day 15 – Your “Comfort” Book

Hmmm most of the books I'd consider as "comfort" books have already been mentioned, so I'm going to go forthe books I turn to when I've had a long day and I'm too exhausted to concentrate on anything complicated or clever.

The Sookie Stackhouse (a.k.a Southern Vampire (a.k.a True Blood)) series by Charlaine Harris is neither complicated or clever. These are literary soap operas, the kind of books you can read in one sitting and never think about again. Fortunately the characters are just this side of one dimensional and some of the set pieces are imaginative enough to keep the reader entertained. This series treats the vampire mythos with some degree of respect whilst still letting the characters be flawed, both of which seem to be missing from Twilight. Sorry but I like vampires to be real vampires. Just like Dexter and Bones, the TV series that has been spawned by the Sookie Stackhouse books is wildly better than its source, which makes it all worthwhile in the end :)

Even Better 30 Day Song Challenge - Day 15 - Track That You Wish Described You



Heh, I wish I looked that good, just so I could complain about it :p

Day 14 – Favorite Character In A Book

[caption id="attachment_469" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Mug courtesy of Protowilson.deviantart.com"][/caption]

I tend to get obsessed with characters more for the inspiration they represent than for their representation in the original book. As my name suggests I'm a huge fan of The Phantom of the Opera, but not for Gaston Leroux's original book, which lets face it, is completely terrible. I love Erik in all his forms, in versions official and fanfiction, from Susan Kay to Andrew Lloyd Webber via Brian De Palma, but I don't especially like his portrayal in the original book. Same goes for Dracula, whilst I appreciate the original book, I'd much rather have the Gary Oldman , Christopher Lee or Richard Roxburgh version.

So for this prompt I decided to choose Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series by J K Rowling, a character that I love as much in the original books, as for his portrayal in film and fanfiction. Saying that I originally only agreed to read the Harry Potter books because Snape is played by Alan Rickman, one of my very favourite actors.

I was a Snape fan before it turned out he was a good guy, he always struck me as the only sane and sensible teacher in the whole school, since he was the only one to react to Potters constant acts of near insanity with anything approaching the appropriate response. He was also in charge of the coolest of the four houses and taught the most awesome subject. By the end of the books he turns out to be the most powerful, and in many ways the most important, character in the whole series, without whom the entire endeavor would have failed with Harry's death at Quirrell's hands in the first book. And yet in the end, his life ends with the same sense of waste as when it was lived, with insufficient recognition and a pointless death for ridiculous reasons at the hands of a lunatic. He never even gets a funeral! It's all so depressingly tragic.

Even Better 30 Day Song Challenge - Day 14 - Track You Only Like For Its Sentimental Value

Day 13 – Favorite Opening Scene In A Book

“It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.”

That is, for me, one of the best opening lines I’ve read in a very long time. It sucks you immediately. What happened to the North Sea to dry it out? And, wait a minute, what the hell do you mean, a city is CHASING a mining town?

The four book series (Mortal Engines, Predators Gold, Infernal Devices and Darkling Plain, and their prequels - A Web Of Air, Fever Crumb and Scrivener’s Moon) takes place in a post apocalyptic wasteland where cities and towns, on wheels or tracks or gas balloons, chase one another down for resources. It’s like Mad Max on an epic scale, with airships and robots thrown in. The series is aimed at teens so most the characters are children and young people, but like any good children’s book there are sill some adult characters and a good depth of storytelling to keep the interest of older or more advanced readers. Though if you’re considering these as a gift for children be aware that death, war and emotional conflict are major themes and can get a little graphic.

(I know this is a copy of what I posted before. I have food poisoning.)

Even Better 30 Day Song Challenge - Day 13 - Track That Gets Stuck In Your Head



I hate this song with a passion but once I hear it I get it stuck in my head for weeks and weeks. Though I've had Haben Sie Gehort Das Deutsche Band stuck in my head for the last month

Day 12 – A Book You’ve Read More Than Five Times

Hmmmm... that covers an awful lot of books...

Ok, I've chosen one of the few books I've actually had to replace due to over-reading. My original copy of American Gods by Neil Gaiman had been glued, taped and even stapled trying to hold it together for one more reading. I finally gave in when I picked it up and the spine just dissolved into confetti. I'm not kind to my books.

It's hard to pinpoint why I'd addicted to American Gods. It might be the depth of the story, the range of the characters, the flashes of humour or the sheer scale of the set piece battles combined with the individual tiny dramas. I love recognising a new god or a new reference each time I read it. I adore Wednesday for his sheer magnetism and Shadow's pathos. But I think the most endlessly appealing part is the strength of the characterisation, Gaiman somehow makes you feel that you know even the smallest character personally and then wraps you up in their world.

It also contains one of my favorite speeches of all time.

Hannah's Even Better 30 Day Song Challenge - Day 12 - Track for a Thoughtful Montage Sequence

Day 11 – A Book that Disappointed You

I'm a Philip K Dick fan. I have a whole shelf filled with his books. Generally I enjoy most of his work, even if the things they have inspired are better than the original books (Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies, and Total Recall is one of the few Schwarzenegger films I can stand). I even liked The Penultimate Truth, which has the single most frustrating ending of any book ever written!

So why can't I finish The Man In The High Castle? I'm told (by people who read real literature) that it's his best book. But nothing happens?!?! Not only does nothing happen (in the first half at least, which was as far as I could drag my boredom) the language actually makes sense. You don't spend every page wonder what the f*** is going on, or what drugs Dick as taking on that particular day. The fact that it didn't read like a Philip K Dick book is probably the reason I couldn't finish it, that wasn't that promise of complete bats**t insanity that kept the other books interesting. I knew I should have stayed away from literature :p

Even Better 30 Day Song Challenge - Day 11 - Track That's Gibberingly Upbeat & Happy



As a member of CAMRA I too enjoy a fancy beer!

Day 10 – A Book You Thought You Wouldn’t Like But Ended Up Loving

As previously mentioned, I was given Lord John And The Private Matter after my grandmother mistakenly bought it second hand from The Famous Bookstall. I originally assumed it was going to be the usual slightly incipid womens fiction that she generally read. Then I realised why she hadn't read it herself. My poor gran! LOL!

I've tried to read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, which the Lord John sequence is a spin off from, but I found it to be exactly the kind of fluff I'd expected this to be. Time travelling love affair? Yawn. Secretly gay nobleman/military leader solves ridiculous whodunnit? Yes please! This is even more amusing if you read it in the voice of John Barrowman. It's not deep and its neither big nor clever, but it is a lot of fun. We need more historical novels like this!

Even Better 30 Day Song Challenge - Day 10 - Track for Expressing Howls of Pain



I do love Emilie Autumn and her drama. I was going to use a Cradle of Filth track for this one, but I thought the howling there would be a bit too literal.

Day 09 – Best Scene Ever

They stared at this sudden, bloody, swaying apparition, which was dreamily waving a sword in one hand and an axe in the other.
They had axes, too. But the thing glared at the and asked:
"Where's... my... cow?"
They backed away.
"Is that my cow?" the creature demanded, stepping forward unsteadily. It shook its head sadly. "It goes 'Baaaa!'" it wept. "It is... a sheep...."
Then it fell to its knees, clenched its teeth and turned its face upwards, like a man tortured beyond his wit, and beseeching the goods of fortune and the tempest, screamed: "That! Is!! Not!! My!!! Cow!!!!"
The dwarfs backed away down the slope. Overhead, the vurms were still pouring in, outlining the invader against their green-white glow.
"Where's my cow? Is that my cow?" it demanded, following them.
In every part of the cavern dwarfs had stopped work. There was hesitancy in the air. This was only one man, after all, and the though in many minds was: what is someone else going to do about this? It had not yet progressed to: what am I going to about this? Besides, where was the cow? There was a cow down here?
"it goes 'neigh!' It is a horse! That's not my cow!"
Dwarfs looked at one another. Where was the horse, then? Did you hear a horse? [...}
Half a dozen shrouded dark guards stepped out from the group. One of them carried, ahead of him, a flame weapon, and advanced on the figure cautiously. The flame of its little pilot light was the brightest thing in the cave.
The figure looked up, the light reflected red in its eyes, and growled: "is that my cow?"
Then it threw the axe overarm, full at the guard. It struck the flame weapon which exploded.
"It goes, Hruuugh!'" Burning oil fountained across the dark. Some of it splashed onto Vime's arm. He slapped at it. There was pain, intense pain, but he knew this only in the same way that he knew the moon existed. It was there, but it was a long way off and didn't affect him very much.

IMO, the best fight (and most ridiculous) fight scene ever. You'll have to get the book to read the rest of it, but it is awesome.
Even Better 30 Day Song Challenge - Day 9 - Track for Dancing to Like a Muppet

A song for muppets, with muppets. You remind me of the babe....

Day 08 – A Book Everyone Should Read At Least Once

I know it's traditional to point to something from the 100 Best Books Evor list or the classics section of the library, but my choice is a bit more obscure.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Years of Rice And Salt is a speculative history based on the concept that 99.99% of Europe's population was lost during the Black Death. A series of short stories spanning several hundreds years are linked by the fact that all the characters are reincarnations of the same souls though out. So whilst world history progresses without Western culture, we also see the development of complex interpersonal relationships whilst the characters change age, sex, race and in one case species.

Because of the linking of characters this isn't an easy read, rarely does the author actually tell you which characters are which, though clues are given in the first initials of names. It's mostly left to the reader to work out by personality. The book also requires the reader to be willing to read about a variety of other cultures and to have a basic understand of history in order to understand the differences with reality. All the effort is more than rewarded with the scenes set in the various afterlifes, I could happy read those over and over.

Even Better 30 Day Song Challenge - Day 8 - Track For Dancing To Sleazily

Day 07 – Least Favorite Plot Device

Actually my least favorite device is, well, devices.

If you're going to write steampunk fiction either, 1) do your homework about how the device/machine/object works or 2) come up with a plausible reason why yours works differently. I have no problem with the laws of physics, sanity or common sense being twisted, but I'd rather that you acknowledge the twist, rather than assuming that people won't notice your history is off. Check that a dirigible can actually lift that much weight. Research the time an ocean crossing would take on a paddle boat. Take into account that your character is a tiny woman but the tech you just described would weigh 200lbs. If someone has multiple limbs cut off and replaced with machinery then have them react to that fact! See Evil Dead for reference, at least the overacting would be better than not reacting at all.

I also recently read a book (which will remain nameless) that used existing fiction characters. Please, if you feel you must do that, first consider not doing it cos if you're writing is bad you're going to make some people angry, second (if you still feel you must) check you've got their name right. Also if you feel you have to translate it from the original language, make use there isn't another, better known character using the same name, cos then that's just plain confusing. Please, unless its straight fan fiction, leave other peoples stuff alone until you know what you're doing with your own.

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge – Day 7 - Track For Staring Out Of Windows Feeling Wistful



And I won't feel... a thing.

Day 06 – Your Favorite Book Of All Time

"Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal — as we are!"

Jane Eyre is one of the few books I can keep coming back to and still enjoy, probably because it's the only book I've every actually identified with in any real way. I love plain ordinary mousy Jane and the way she faces up to her supposed physical, mental or moral betters. Everytime I read it, I'm reminded that I need to be more like Jane.

Or at the very least I must keep in good health and not die :p

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge – Day 6 - Track for Swaggering To



It's hard not to dance down the street when this comes on the iPod.

Day 05 – A Book You Hate

Once again there was no contest for this one, it has to be Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

This the single most boring and pointless book I've ever been forced to read. I no longer remember if it was on the GCSE or A-Level English Lit syllabus, but this book is the reason I chose not to study English to degree level and the reason I won't read anything that has won the Booker Prize unless at least 10 people can give me decent reviews.

Not only is it deeply depressing, the subplot is actually significantly better than the main story. I get that the butler has a pointless and lonely life but did we really have to read 250+ pages of it, when we could have been reading about the tragic, misguided landowner and his suspicious dealings with the Nazis? I hate books that put too much stress on their metaphors to the detriment of the plot and this had that in spades. There's one scene where the main character visits a lake and you're basically clubbed around the head with clumsy meaningful descriptions for ten pages. It's like the author wrote "look at me, I'm clever" on a shovel and hit you in the face with it. Actually that would have been infinity more enjoyable. The only good things about this book is that it ends. But not nearly soon enough.

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge - Day 5 - Track For Feeling Lovesick and Bad



As previously mentioned, I'm a huge Gary Numan fan. This has to be one of my favourite songs, certainly one of the most heartbreaking.

Day 04 – Your Favourite Book Series Ever

No contest for this question, there could only every be one answer- Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

Currently checking in at 38 individual books (Snuff, book number 39, is due for release in October 2011) and 5 short stories, The Discworld series in really several different series all taking part in the same universe. With the Rincewind series we get traditional big bold sword and sorcery, whilst the Witches focuses more on superstition and a less showy form of magic. The City Watch are police procedurals with a twist and the Death/Susan series are about the ultimate outsiders trying to make sense of humanity. And that's not including all the stand alone and mini series books.

There aren't many of these books that I don't adore, and whilst some of the early ones are weaker compared to the recent books, they all still have endearing qualities. If I had to pick one thing that makes Discworld great as a series is the fact that you don't HAVE to read the books in order, and missing out the weaker books won't really prevent you from enjoying the others. I hate to waste time and money slogging though unenjoyable books to get to the good stuff, and these are perfect for avoiding that. For example the first Discworld I read was Soul Music, book 16 of the overall series, and book 3 of the Death storyline, and it didn't matter! Whilst the various characters grow and progress with the series, all the relevant bits are recapped in a way that is intrusive to a familiar reader but just informative enough to a newbie.

So if you like police books and murder mysteries then just start with the City Watch, if you prefer to focus on the human condition the go for the Death series. Or if you aren't sure then choose one of the stand alone books like Moving Pictures, Pyramids, Small Gods or Monstrous Regiment. Actually I'd probably list those four amongst my favorites anyway. My all time favorite in the series is probably Fifth Elephant a political mystery focusing on rivalry between vampires and werewolves. The German version is shown above.

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge – Day 4 - Track for Feeling Lovesick and Good



One of the few songs both my partner and I agree on, that wouldn'tfreak you all out. Ahem.

Day 03 – The Best Book You’ve Read In The Last 12 Months

Ok, for this one I've decided not to go with any of the books I've previously mentioned. Spring-Heeled Jack and Dreadnought would probably both qualify for this but I thought I'd pick something a little more obscure.

I previously knew Mark Gatiss as one of the stars of The League of Gentlemen, the BBC horrorcomedy series, as well as character actor from Doctor Who and a plethora of historical dramas. Somehow I never realised he was the writer behind some of the better Doctor Who episodes and books. The quality of his TV writing, and the depth of devotion he demonstrated in the excellent History of Horror documentary series, convinced me I had to read the Lucifer Box trilogy.

Covering the three great ages of detective fiction (Edwardian, Roaring '20s and Post-WWII) the series follows the charming, handsome, witty and overtly bisexual Lucifer Box, portrait artist and secret agent, from his glory days to the twilight of his career via three excitingly camp adventures. Gatiss' love for detective fiction is clear in every single page. Box is a James Bond for the modern age (but in the past), you won't find any that "homosexuals can't whistle" rubbish here, and Box doesn't spend all his time chasing women, rather he chases anything that moves, male or female. Much more entertaining that way!

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge – Day 3 - Track For A Roadtrip



There's something wonderfully sci-fi about driving past a power station at 3am on a deserted motorway with the Blade Runner soundtrack playing in the background.

Day 02 – A Book You Wish More People Were Reading

A year ago, if you'd told me that Gyles Brandreth, the slightly camp custodian of Dictionary Corner and wear of a thousand terrible jumpers, had a written a series of excellent historical murder mysteries starring Oscar Wilde, I'd have laughed at you. In fact that's exactly what happened, I did laugh... then I read the books and saw that it was true.

The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries do exactly what it says on the tin, but they do it very well. The tone and voice for Oscar and his companions are absolutely perfect, and Brandreth plays on the real life link between Oscar and Mycroft Holmes wonderfully. As a piece of speculative fiction the historical accuracy is excellent, and serves to make Oscar's ultimate fate all the more poignant. If I had one complaint its that I always end up reading this book in Brandreth's voice, and that just serves to make the descriptions of brothels etc that little bit more uncomfortable. I'd pay good money to hear Stephen Fry (who has played both Wilde and Holmes) perform the audio book for these though.

Even Better Thirty Day Song Challenge - Day 2 - Track For A Badass Action Sequence



Not the usual kind of choice for a fight scene, but i can see this working in a Victorian comedy zombie fight scene a la the Shaun of the Dead Don't Stop Me Now sequence. I do wonder how my brain comes up with this stuff sometimes though.

Good News Everyone!

I bet you read that in Professor Farnsworth's voice. If you didn't, you need to watch more TV. If you're still reading in his voice, you need to watch less TV. Nah, not really, no such thing as too much Futurama. Anyway, to business....

The new issue of Irregular Magazine is here!!! Hoorah! This issue, entitled BEASTS OF WAR, is packed full of RPG and wargaming articles, painting tutorials, gorgeous art and a plethora of reviews (one of which is by yours truly).

Download the new issue here!

In terms of art, I recently completed an album cover and I'm now working on contributions for a steampunk RPG project. I can't say much just yet, but I'll be posting more when I can.

Bookshops - Bricks&Mortar Vs Online Shopping

A great man once said-

"A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Sir Terry Pratchett

And that is absolutely true. A good bookshop should contain significantly more books than you could ever imagine it containing, and it should distort time and space in such away that ten minutes of browsing turning into three hours and a budget of £10 should mysteriously turn into £70 worth of purchases.

My person heaven of book shopping is Fables Book Shop in the village of St Marychurch near Torquay. If you ever happen to be in the area I strongly recommend it. It's tiny, not just compared to monsters like Waterstones and Borders (RIP) but tiny compared to the average living room. However it's literally packed to the rafters with books, and you always get the impression that the owners have read every one of them before adding them to their stock list. It's the kind of store where every shelf has multiple rows of books, stacks of books, tottering piles of books! I found a gorgeous hardback set of The Larklight Series by Philip Reeve hidden away the first time I visited and I've made a point of going back every time we're in the area ever since. And there in lies the problem- this store is about as far away as its possible to be from my home town and still be in England. On a good day its a 6 hour drive.

So what do we have closer to home? The answer is very little. When I was growing up there used to be a creepy independent store which seemed to mostly cater to science and fishing enthusiasts but never had a lot of stock and generally refused to order anything for customers. That was demolished about 5 years ago and never reopened anywhere else. There has been a W H Smith's in town for as long as I've been alive but like all W H Smiths the stock is 60% stationery & magazines, 10% DVDs, 10% confectionary, 10% school books, 5% Mills&Boon-esque books and 5% the second book of any given series. Shopping at Smiths for a book has always been a depressing process, one that I only bother with now if I end up with a voucher at Yule.

Finally there is the pièce de résistance, the Famous Bookstall. Yes, it's actually called that. Compared to W H Smiths it's a wonderland of books, though, in line with its target market, it is heavy on the Mills&Boon. Whilst I wouldn't normal shop there my grandmother did once present me with a book from the stall stating "this is more your kind of thing than mine". It was Lord John and The Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon, and I'm still not sure if my gran was referring to the 18th century murder mystery or the fact that the main character is gay.

Unfortunately the next town over doesn't offer a great deal more. There are two more W H Smiths, a Christian bookstore, two Blackwell's (good for textbooks, expensive for anything else) and not one or two but THREE Waterstones. The biggest of the Waterstones is spread over two floors, but has recently been marred by the edition of a Paperchase (not some where I will ever shop again) and a Costa Coffee (blurgh, IMO worst coffee ever). However the size does mean that there is usually a good selection of books available, and a greater likelihood that you'll find more of what you're looking for. When I visited there last week I noticed some new signs basically saying "If you can't find it on the shelves we'll order it and have it within 48 hours". Now normally I wouldn't bother with that, now that we have the internet, but I noticed that the last Mark Hodder book The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack was on the recommended shelves, and I remembered that the new book was due to come out the week before. 48 hours would be quicker than I could possibly get it from an online seller so I decided to ask. Here it got interesting. And a little strange.

First I was told that the book wasn't out *at all* until September. Which I knew was the pre-order date for the paperback, but what about the hardback? Nope, apparently that wasn't out either. *and* they'd checked Amazon. I could order it now and get it in September. I thanked them and left without placing an order, since if they were just going to order it from Amazon well I could do that myself and get it delivered to my door in a week, rather than having to drive two towns over the pick it up. That night, on a whim, I decided to check Amazon myself. Guess what? The book was already available for order, not for pre-order but for shipped-in-24-hours-order. It arrived in 72 hours and its in paperback. Review to follow shortly.

This is why so many people shop online if they are looking for something specific. I enjoy browsing in brick-and-mortar stores, I like discovering things I might not read under normal circumstances, but if I know what I want to buy in future I think I'll just stay at home and order stuff in my PJs at midnight that I know I'm going to receive, rather than travelling for an hour in the vague hope that the things I want are actually going to be available.

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Those who know the area might berate me for leaving out Forbidden Planet and the glory that is The Space Centre, when I was listing local book shops. That was intentional. Not because they aren't amazing but because they are genre specific. Of course if I ever want to go shopping for comics or RPGs or classic sci-fi/fantasy those are the places I'll visit first. I recommend you do so too. Also visit Patriot Games whilst you're at it!