There's a guy on twitter who says he likes Joe McElderry. The twitter is not me, nor is the photo! But it's my name!!! I'm not a twitter - just came across it whilst looking, vain-like, for what was against my name on the internet. Eeeh, and there's me thinking I was the one and only lol
Oh well, maybe it's a distant relative or summat.
Joe McElderry... sheesh!
Saturday, 28 May 2011
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
The Viking Sagas
BBC4 showed a documentary tonight on the Viking Sagas. How I'd love to have been let loose on them to rewrite this most peculiar of Legend series.
As a kid in junior school at St Bede's, I was noted for bringing in all kinds of comics - more notably Spiderman, The Fantastic Four and Superman. I also brought in comics such as Thor and his magical hammer. The stories about Thor weren't that great in the mags (or comic books, as MG says they should be called!), but everyone read them, all the same. I remember when our tutor, Mrs Gardner, fell ill and the Head, Mr Hallas, took over our class for the run-up to the 11-plus exam. Picking up my Thor comic, he asked everyone who had read it to put their hands up. Most of the boys did, but none of the girls. Then he asked all of the boys to draw a picture of their own idea of Thor. My pic was useless, as I can't draw to save my life, but one of my mates was a guy called Andrew Keedy, who is now a noted local artist, and his pic was brilliant. He managed to capture the feeling of life in the time of the Vikings, which was a slightly different feeling to that of the image of Thor.
At St Joseph's, I found a book on the Viking Saga, and another on Nordic legends, and was extremely disappointed. They were written by someone who didn't have any feeling for the stuff he/she was writing about. I've read others, and the writers again seemed not to care too much as to whether their intended audience would like what they were reading. Maybe, I wonder, this is the reason why they have failed to take off.
Writing a comic book about Thor, Loki, Asgar and Valhalla is easy with titles like those. Translating them into film is not that difficult a step. Try using other names from the Norse legends and, in most parts of the world, you will turn people off. Therein lies the main problem: attraction. As much as I have read them in the past, I'm not deeply moved to read them again. I'll just get annoyed!
But still, I'd love to rewrite them. Maybe, if I never get published - a probability - I might just do it for my own pleasure, as they are great legends just poorly represented. You never know!
As a kid in junior school at St Bede's, I was noted for bringing in all kinds of comics - more notably Spiderman, The Fantastic Four and Superman. I also brought in comics such as Thor and his magical hammer. The stories about Thor weren't that great in the mags (or comic books, as MG says they should be called!), but everyone read them, all the same. I remember when our tutor, Mrs Gardner, fell ill and the Head, Mr Hallas, took over our class for the run-up to the 11-plus exam. Picking up my Thor comic, he asked everyone who had read it to put their hands up. Most of the boys did, but none of the girls. Then he asked all of the boys to draw a picture of their own idea of Thor. My pic was useless, as I can't draw to save my life, but one of my mates was a guy called Andrew Keedy, who is now a noted local artist, and his pic was brilliant. He managed to capture the feeling of life in the time of the Vikings, which was a slightly different feeling to that of the image of Thor.
At St Joseph's, I found a book on the Viking Saga, and another on Nordic legends, and was extremely disappointed. They were written by someone who didn't have any feeling for the stuff he/she was writing about. I've read others, and the writers again seemed not to care too much as to whether their intended audience would like what they were reading. Maybe, I wonder, this is the reason why they have failed to take off.
Writing a comic book about Thor, Loki, Asgar and Valhalla is easy with titles like those. Translating them into film is not that difficult a step. Try using other names from the Norse legends and, in most parts of the world, you will turn people off. Therein lies the main problem: attraction. As much as I have read them in the past, I'm not deeply moved to read them again. I'll just get annoyed!
But still, I'd love to rewrite them. Maybe, if I never get published - a probability - I might just do it for my own pleasure, as they are great legends just poorly represented. You never know!
Monday, 9 May 2011
You can't unstitch the past
Nope, you can't... all you can do is not regret too much and try to do things better in the future. Don't kill yourself over your mistakes. Looking ahead is far better than looking over your shoulder - you're less likely to fall over again, for sure... and I've fallen over lots, I can tell you!
But I'm still around, still looking at blank pages and trying to fill them with something. Will it ever amount to anything? Can what you believe is art actually exist if no-one else sees it? The inner turmoil.
Crazy life...
Sunday, 8 May 2011
A piece of magic
In the end, I realised I had better map out what was going to happen in the next few chapters, otherwise I was going to get lost. I was glad I did this, as it cleared my head and allowed me to think about things a bit more. Of course, I haven't written a total plan, but the order of events thus far created looks a lot better than the small fog of confusion drifting about my thoughts.
Something must have clicked, though, during this bout of planning, for suddenly I had an idea. A little piece of magic crept in where there wasn't any to be seen. Ha! Amazing what you can achieve with a bit of thought. I'm not saying I would have thought of it later, given that it wasn't originally there, but I do wonder why I thought of it now. Perhaps some magic was needed, or was going to be needed, and I subconsciously picked up on it. Not sure where it will occur within the story, but it must and will! Yeehaa! I'm smiling as I head off to bed.
Two other pieces of magic to reflect on: the first, Manchester United's defeat of Chelsea inches them closer to the title and adds more confidence to everyone as they prepare for the Champions League Final; the second, the tv trailer for Game Of Thrones does give me some hope that my epic fantasy (rejected and set aside for a while) may one day be revisited. But that is a long way away. I don't read it, now; I prefer to keep it fresh and hidden away until I need to go back to it.
So, I'm rather upbeat right now. Not writing quickly, but writing what I hope is something good. At about half way my trusted readers will see what they've helped me with. Fun and the future!
Something must have clicked, though, during this bout of planning, for suddenly I had an idea. A little piece of magic crept in where there wasn't any to be seen. Ha! Amazing what you can achieve with a bit of thought. I'm not saying I would have thought of it later, given that it wasn't originally there, but I do wonder why I thought of it now. Perhaps some magic was needed, or was going to be needed, and I subconsciously picked up on it. Not sure where it will occur within the story, but it must and will! Yeehaa! I'm smiling as I head off to bed.
Two other pieces of magic to reflect on: the first, Manchester United's defeat of Chelsea inches them closer to the title and adds more confidence to everyone as they prepare for the Champions League Final; the second, the tv trailer for Game Of Thrones does give me some hope that my epic fantasy (rejected and set aside for a while) may one day be revisited. But that is a long way away. I don't read it, now; I prefer to keep it fresh and hidden away until I need to go back to it.
So, I'm rather upbeat right now. Not writing quickly, but writing what I hope is something good. At about half way my trusted readers will see what they've helped me with. Fun and the future!
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