Apparently not the end.

Low and behold, it's two months later and I'm back. Turns out leaping onto a new platform while knowing nothing about that platform is a terrible idea. It's not that Tumblr is a bad platform for what I was wanting to do, it's just that it wasn't quite what I thought it was. The main problem was that Tumblr usually uses short, snappy posts and my reviews, the shortest things I do, average about 700 words. So yeah. That was dumb.
So what happens now? Well I want to say that this day mark the dawning of a new age. And it sort of does. The reviews won't be coming as fast as I'd have liked and I'm not sure when I can start putting up short stories again but they will at least be more regular. This will be helped by me putting all the reviews that were on Tumblr on here over the next few weeks, just to make them more visible. I've got a few ideas for other things I can do that I'll be messing about with over the next few weeks. But none of this will be happening fast. My university course is getting busy and I'm still working with editing the chicken novel, though I'm almost done with that. Lastly it November and you know what that means. NaNoWriMo is back. So any spare time I might have will be devoted to writing the next novel.
But it's nice to have this going again and I can promise at least a moderately regular update schedule. To start with here's a book review. Have fun.

The End

I've had a long think about things and I think it's time this blog came to an end.
It's not exactly unexpected. I mean it's been slowly dying for the past year and more. I've not been posting stuff to it and I've hit too many consecutive posts saying that I will update, just as soon as I've got time. No reviews are getting done, no short stories are getting written and I'm not writing about my journey to become a published author. Even when I got invited to the Kelpies Prize award ceremony as one of the nominees I didn't post anything.
Well the journey is at an end. Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens is set to be published by Floris Books in the early Spring of next year. I've made it. Which is a good time to draw this blog to a close.
And start up another one.
All in all it would probably suit my style better if I moved over to Tumblr. I've loved doing this blog but one thing that has really bugged me is the lack of feedback it allows. I mean I can see the x amount of people has seen it and where they came from but that's about it. I think with Tumblr I'd be able to promote myself better and get more feedback about what people think. So please, come check me out. The link is here. I'll look forward to seeing you.


Though I did try this before so chances are I'll be back in a few months.

Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens

Two week last Thursday, on the 22nd of August, one of my dreams came true. I won the Kelpies Prize and that means that I'm going to become a published author.
Since then news of this has spread. I've so far appeared in at least two newspapers and on a number of blog and press released. And this would be great and amazing apart from one thing. A large number of them mention this blog. This blog that I haven't really done anything with for ages.
Ho hum.
I want to start putting stuff back up on here. I really do. I just can't right now. I've just moved back to university and do't currently have much internet. What I do is being carefully rationed.
But I get hooked up to the internet permanently on Tuesday. So if you're visiting please wait patiently and come back then. Thanks.

World War Z - A Review

Ok, I want to make one thing clear, right from the start. This is a review of the movie, not the book.

This might seem to be a rather aggressive beginning to a review but it is important. The movie is almost nothing like the book. The book is about someone from the UN going around the world after the zombie apocalypse is over. It is made of interviews of people from around the world, each describing how their own country did or did not deal with the undead menace. There are one or two things I have issue with, like the guy from Britain being interviewed while wearing a kilt and talking about the Queen all the time, but in a genre that had countless books about zombies it’s something fresh and new. 

The movie is about a guy from the UN running about all over the world just after the start of the zombie apocalypse and trying to find what caused it/any way to beat it.

So. There’s almost no point in comparing the two of them. They share a name and not a lot else. And now I've got that out of the way, on with the review.

World War Z is a film that about Brad Pitt travelling all over the world and being chased by zombies in several exotic locations. This is basically it. He is supposed to be looking for something to help fight them but the way he eventually comes up with is kind of dumb and probably best ignored. I couldn't wait to see it, partly because I love zombies and partly because some of it was shot in Glasgow near where I live. I'm sad to say I was a little disappointed.

The film starts off pretty well. The introduction is several news clips strung together with animals eating meat and builds an effective sense of tension. Then we get introduced to Brad Pitt and his wife and kids, who seem to do little in the first 20 minutes of the movie other than hold him back. The first encounter with the zombies is done well as well. Honestly this might be my favourite part of the movie. It shows Brad Pitt lost and confused but obviously thinking and figuring things out. There’s a part where he thinks he might have been infected so he stands on the edge of a building so that if he turns he will fall off. I mean when was the last time you saw someone do that?

Sadly after that things in my opinion go downhill a bit. As I said he is sent round to various places with an expert in viruses or something, who is supposed to be their only hope, and a squad of SEALs for good measure. Five minutes after virus guy gives a speech on the plane to Korea about how he’ll be looking for clues to combating the zombie plague, and in the process talking about Mother Nature in a way that makes me think that he’s been single for a long time, he gets separated from Brad Pitt in a way so ridiculous that it was all I could do not to burst out laughing. Then it’s up to just Pitt alone to travel the globe, looking for clues and dodging zombies that might as well be ninja as they seem able to appear any time any where in ludicrously large numbers. And I know that that is supposed to be one of the things about zombies but usually it takes a few hours at least for someone to turn after they've become infected. In the movie it’s twelve seconds, which means that it’s pretty unlikely for someone who’s been infected to be able to hide among a crowd for a while.

However….I am a bit of a zombie slob so let’s just boil it down to its basics and look at what the movie offers. Does it give you large amount of zombies and running action. Yes. In buckets. Sometimes it’s a bit dumb but you get zombies leaping out at the drop of a hat and some really tense moments. Does it give you something that other zombie movies don’t? Yes. Usually zombie movies are about a small group of people wondering around a small location. This shows things from the perspective of the government and while this isn’t exactly unique it is rare enough to distinguish it from the rest of the herd. And as I’ve said you get a reasonably wide variety of locations in which Brad Pitt runs away from zombies.

And finally, is it enjoyable? Yes. Although it gets increasingly silly as it progresses if you’re looking for just a dumb bit of fun where you don’t have to think about the plot all that much then definitely go watch it. I mean I’m probably never going to see it again but I don’t regret that I did. Even if I did have to stop myself from laughing a few times.

So if this is what you want in a zombie movie then go ahead. If not then there’s plenty of others out there. So all in all, I’d give this movie a six out of ten.

When things don't go according to plan

Well. Exactly two months ago I posted that I was going to update this blog every day with massive amounts of new content. This has obviously not happened.

Big things have been happening though. Just nothing I can actually talk about right now. In the meantime I'm working on the problem of not updating that often and in the meantime here's a movie review. The next post will be in a few days. This I can promise.

A break for work

I have been crazy busy lately.

Before doing this university course I never realised how much goes into making videos. The writing of the script, the rewriting of the script, getting everyone together, getting the equipment. Even the paperwork. It all takes a lot more time than I would have thought. I mean I always knew that it wasn't easy but I never thought it would be quite this...intensive. And film making is only one of my modules. I had two others as well. So lately I've been so busy I haven't really had a chance to work on trying to get work published or even to write much. But that's about to change.

The first year of my university course is almost at an end. Tomorrow I'll do the last bit of paperwork for the last module and then I'll be finished. But I won't be going home. I'm paying for this accommodation until the 8th of June and I'm going to be getting my moneys worth. So that leaves me with a rare opportunity. I'm finally going to have the time to really try cracking into this profession.

And so begins my Month of Being a Writer. 

Unlike NaNoWriMo this won't just be about writing as much as possible. This time I'll focus on improving the general quality of my work and getting published. Maybe even, (dare I hope?) getting paid. My main goals will be to find a publisher for my novel and to start the Kickstarter for Undead Getaway, which has been flagging recently. I'm giving a public reading of part of it on Friday and you never know, there may be a publisher in the audience. If not then I'm just going to send it off to one. I'm tired of waiting. This novel is ready. 

Until then I've got editing to do. Which is my least favourite part of being a writer but it is essential.

Oh, I almost forgot. I'll be posting on this blog every day until the month is up. Hopefully by the end I'll have gained something. If not, at least I'll have finally started updating again.

Undead Getaway

Ok, I'm not going to lie, I forgot I still had this.
In my defence I have been pretty busy. Since my last update I've written another novel and submitted it to another competition. I've had university work and have been working on about three videos. I've entered a few competitions and started writing scripts. And all the numerous other things that make up life.
And yet for some reason this site continues to have traffic. According to the analytics it was viewed by 72 people last month, mostly from the United States and Germany (Guten Tag!). It's been almost five months since my last post and yet 72 people have visited this site? I honestly want to say thanks. That just seems amazing to me.
So I want to tell you about the project I'm working on right now. It's called Undead Getaway (because we suck at names) and will basically be a travel show. With zombies. Because why not?
However traveling costs a fair bit of money and we're all students and basically broke. So here's our plan. We're going to try Kickstarting it. Kickstater (for those of you who don't know) is a crowd sourcing website where people put up ideas that they have and ask people to give them money to fund it. They give incentives so that at certain pledge levels you get stuff like t-shirts, posters or stuff like that. If they manage to raise the amount of money that they're asking for then they get it all. If not then they get nothing.
My group and I believe that this project has merit and that it can work. We're working on a pilot episode set in Ayr, Scotland, and that should be finished within the next few weeks. We've got a Facebook Page, a tumblr account and a Twitter feed or whatever it's called. If you think this is interesting please check it out, like, favourite, subscribe, share. All that stuff. Lot's of information will be coming out soon. It's going to be an interesting time.
Well I'd best wrap this up, now that the shameless begging is done. I've got to film a music video tomorrow and a lot of stuff to do before then. So goodnight. And thank again for continuing to read this blog.