In which I attempt to start blogging again

What can I say, I've had a busy few months and it has taken rather a long time to be able to write. I'll say this for nothing, getting evicted, moving house, rehearsing for a full scale musical plus working full time takes a toll on the brain.  It was a bit worse for my partner because he also changed job at the same time.  I summed it up rather succinctly, if I do say so myself, as ALL. OF. THE. CHANGE.

And a couple of months later things have calmed down, the new house is a haven and things are where they should be, all is well.

The other problem was that I lost my mojo and it has taken ages and many drafts for me to a) find it again b) write something suitably entertaining that I wanted to share.

This places me in a bit of a dilemma. What on earth do I want to say these days.  I'm still living most of my life on Twitter and that suits me, I can be mildly humorous or vitriolic or occasionally self pitying as the mood takes. But I need to write more, need to get into practice at laying down words and making them do tricks. The more I practise the better I should get and I need to work on my over excitable comma use.

So to ease me back into this  blogging malarkey I'm listing some things because we all love a list.

My Top  TV theme Tunes

5. BattleStar Galactica

BSG Original 

New BSG

I'm cheating here because I like the theme music to both versions and I'm sticking them side by side.  I love the classic version it's all brass and fanfares and whilst erring on the side of cheesy, it has something, it certainly stuck in my head.  The Ron Moore re-imagining is a completely different beast all taiko drums and a sense of desperation.  Incidentally Bear McCreary's score for this show killed me, repeatedly so much so I had to get hold of the music and listen to it to death. Admiral and Commander, plus Battlestar Sonatica just need to be listened to often. 

4. True Blood - Bad Things

True Blood

This theme tune, like the show is a complete guilty pleasure. It just sounds kind of depraved and kind of dirty, just like the show and I have been known to break this one out on the Karaoke despite it being all wrong for me to sing.

3. Doctor Who - Tennant Era

Doctor Who

I know, I know an obvious choice but it should surely be on everyone's list, not least because it's that well known.  I love this music in all it's reincarnations. But for me Tennant's version with all the strings  is the ultimate.  I really didn't like Eleven's but then that too has grown on me.   Murray Gold is inspired in the way he takes things and reinvents. Plus his scores for the series have been utterly beautiful, Doomsday, Madame de Pompadour and Face of Boe all threaten to make me cry plus his arrangement of Abide with Me on Gridlocked makes me cry every time, but then we sang it at my Granddad's funeral.

2. Big Bang Theory

Big Bang Theory

Because it's clever and it get's in your head and every time it  gets to pyramids you have to join in and when we get to Bang we yell bang just because we have to.  What do you mean you don't? How can you not?

1. Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones

Just because it's so clever and I could watch the clockwork map forever. Plus added bonus Simpsons version.

http://io9.com/5890410/watch-the-simpsons-game-of-thrones-intro

What I've been reading

Sherlock Holmes, all of it. In one go.  That's a lot of Sherlock Holmes and they do get a little repetitive.  However, I've now done it I can go and read something else instead now and I'm reading Let's Pretend this Never Happened by Jenny Lawson also known as the Bloggess.  She is a very special lady and reading her book is like having her talk to you digressions and all.  After that there are many options and I'm not sure where to go, I've got the SFXWeekender shelf which has all the novels I picked up there to read.  There are the Urban Fantasy novels that by friend @Boneist gave me I have lots to chose from overwhelmed.

Doctor Who Convention - Cardiff 24th March 2012

Well I'm back home after an incredible whirlwind weekend down in Cardiff at the first official Doctor Who convention.

This was the first convention arranged by the BBC for the show and from end to end one of the best and most slick conventions I've ever attended and this is why.  At the time you bought your tickets you had to choose your programme for the day Ood or Silurian.  Each programme was exactly the same all that was different was the timings of certain events.  This meant that queues were short, no one was ever too far away and it ran like a well oiled machine. Detractors were that you had to follow the plan.  The plan was all but I found it gave time to everything I wanted and a fab lunch at wagamamas. 

The big exciting panels were Meet the stars: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill with Steven Moffat and Caro Skinner answering questions and they did get through a lot.  The second panel was Creators and Directors which was Gary Russell, Marcus Wilson, Nick Hurran, Tom McCrae and Neil Gorton.  The final panel was Doctor Who Uncut which was hosted by Barnaby Edwards - Everyone's favourite DALEK with Steven Moffat and Caro Skinner again with some other people who I can't remember and the series 7 trailer. ZOMG squee



I got to meet Matt Smith briefly for an autograph and told him I had adored Christopher and his Kind which I hope came out of the Blue with all the screaming whogasms going on.  I also got to meet Arthur and he's utterly lovely.

Gossip wise, it's all out there, the Daleks are coming back, as are the weeping angels and the Ponds final adventures are happening in New York.  Steven Moffat says a Dr Who Sherlock xover wouldn't work because they wouldn't get anything done.  However, I think a sketch for comic relief or Children in Need would allow the two to meet.  

Steven Moffat was asked about whether he thought Doctor who was too complicated, he answered with no aren't we supposed to not be dumbing down TV - I started the applause for that ;)

We also saw make up/prosthetics/sfx demos which were amazing and well worth going to see.

I have a smile on my face several days later and I needed a little lie down afterwards. 

The convention was very family friendly and a lot of questions were asked by children so nothing big was asked.  I can't wait for November now.

Yatta!

I've had my results for my Second ETMA in Start Writing Fiction and grab on to something, I got 90% again.

I am naturally thrilled, thrilled because the second ETMA was much longer and had more potential to go wrong, and  also because I am consistent.  What I'm less thrilled about are the comments about comma splicing which I had worked quite hard at removing and had enlisted the help of Phil and Rob in order to try and reign in some of my wild fancies where punctuation is concerned. I need a punctuation guru to guide me because I'm clearly comma blind.  I keep wanting to lengthen sentences and clearly this must stop.

It is far too easy to focus on the bad, because I've done exceptionally well, 90% in such a subjective area has to be hard to come by.  Part of me is dying to know what the others got because inner competitor wants to see where I fit in the bell curve, the final overall grade will be issued mid-march after they have been moderated - I may loose marks then.

So where does this leave me? I know I can write effective stories and those friends who have read these stories have enthused at me about my writing. But again this makes me wibble as I wonder if people are just being nice...  (again rational brain has to step in here and say I've had impartial feedback from a few quarters which has been good though pointing out the commas).

1. I need to stop wibbling, gain confidence by writing more and writing regularly - by doing both of these things I can improve my style and learn where to commas should be and you know, add some full stops in too.

2. Join a writers group, need to find one locally and join, more pressure to write and present and get some interesting feedback and perspective.  Continue to make use of friends who can nit pick and question my decisions and make me make my work better. Rob made a fantastic point about my latest work where I had disengaged from the characters in the short story to drop in background info and he suggested featuring the characters in that background to make it more vivid.

3. Write more, write everyday if I can. Set weekly goals.

Things my tutor said were : This is another excellent read, Jane.  I absolutely raced through it, it was so gripping. Right from the start, I was pulled in. This is boring old Northampton but something strange and alien has happened. Then there is a steady build up of threat and good, detailed description of neglect and poverty.

You give just enough of the back story, bit by bit as we go along for us to understand what is happening but the reasons why you reveal slowly...

Your time shifts are neat and clear and your presentation good except that slight tendency still to link sentences with commas.  I've marked a few.  It can be 'pacey' in action scenes, but not as a regular feature.

I am ridiculously proud of myself, it is something that I can do ;)

If you'd like to read the story, it's found here.

Being Human

!Warning this post contains spoilers for series 4.1 of Being Human!

That's your warning, come back when you've seen it, go on I can wait.

Well that set the new series going with a bang didn't it?

Oh the angst of it all.  Firstly the sucker punch of Nina having been killed off screen. A distraught and broken George protecting his daughter or at least trying to.  Annie trying to help but being pushed away, it was a really tough episode to watch.  Considering the ending, which had me in tears on Sunday night (well done Toby Whithouse, I'm not easy to make cry), it could have been angst overload.

Thankfully the new leads were there on hand to add lightness to what was a dark old episode.  Tom who was the Werewolf brought up by Macnair last series, is quite a find.  He is by turns hard as nails, vulnerable, very funny and compelling to watch.  Hal the new vampire is more complex and I can't wait to see how he will fit into the story.

Interesting things I enjoyed, the idea that the triumvirate of Wolf/Vamp/ghost is not unknown in this universe and did it hint that it was a thing of power.  Also seeing a wolf that had reached old-age, and the implications of that.  And a lot of dark hints about ghosts who are thetherless.

Add in the old ones are coming and the future!dystopia subplot and this series is going to be bonkers and awesome.  I can't wait to see what happens next.

I loved the appearance of the vampire recorder played by Mark Williams, he was hilarious.

I thought Russell Tovey's swan song as George was incredibly moving and I cried a lot. 

 

SFXweekender

Well it's Sunday and we're home from the SFXweekender. It was epic.

There were  some problems, firstly the derailment which stopped people like Stephan Mangan, Anthony Head, didn't make it.  The queues for Autographs were beyond insane. So I missed my chance to meet my hero Brian Blessed and Sylvester McCoy and my chap missed out on getting Hattie Hayridge's autograph.  I did however, get to meet Eve Myles who I now have a bit of a girl crush on and I love the fact that she was drinking pints of wine.

So despite the hiccups most of which were unavoidable we did have the best time.  Now because we won the tickets we didn't have accommodation on site but being based in North Wales we were less than an hour to travel each day. We've remedied that for next year, we've already booked VIP tickets ;)

So Panels and shiz... I went to what become the Sylvester McCoy panel, (Sophie Alred had got stuck in the rail bru ha ha).  Sylvester McCoy decided to do the Q & A from in the middle of the audience.

Next off we went to Dan and Tony's Audience Participation Comic Creating work shop of awesome. It was Very silly and lots of fun.  Then to Paul Cornell's Just a minute with Joe Abercrombie, China Miéville, Sarah Pinborough and Toby Whithouse.  Much silliness followed.

Afterwards a how to get published panel and then the Blastermind quiz with our friends. During the Friday day I stopped by Sam Stone's stand, she's an author I met at Wrexham Comic Con and we've kept meeting at cons.  She introduced me to her friend and fellow author Raven Dane who was lovely and I may have bought her new Steam Punk novel: Cyrius Darian and the Technomonicon.  We saw some of the imaginarium but by this stage I'd been up 18 hours and could barely stand so we headed home.

Saturday we were back at Prestatyn by 9.40 am owch.  First port of call was Toby Whithouse Q and A for Being Human. ZOMG SPOILERS!!!! I know what's going to happen tonight and I can't tell you anything but the scenes were intense so my friends you need to watch Being Human tonight.

We stuck around for Eve Myles who was fantastic and Welsh and mad-eyed and lovely. Tales of John Barrowman's cock and all.  She came across brilliantly and I for one will be taking the baton up for the campaign to only drink wine in pints from now on.  She spoke passionately about Torchwood and Wales and Gwen Cooper and when she was talking about her beach and about Cardiff I may have got something in my eye.

She spent a lot of time with her head in her hands when talking about Barrowman's cock, just saying.

After that we attempted to get autographs and that didn't really work out so well the Queue for Brian Blessed was more than insane, I resigned self to the fact that it wasn't going to happen and due to Phil being eagle eared, he managed to get early in the queue for Eve Myles so I joined him.


After this there was Flash fiction, a good panel and funny, Unicorn sandwiches has taken on a new significance for me.

My boy went shopping while I went to the Brian Blessed Q and A for me the event of the weekend. Brian Blessed is by turns, hilarious, filthy, awesome, insane and wondrous and he held an over capacity crowd in the palm of his hand. There were moments of Gordon's alive, a tarzan yodel and opera. He's an incredible speaker his parting message was you can do anything you like if you don't let the bastards grind you down.

I then went shopping whilst my chap listened to people talk about maps in fantasy fiction, I stayed for a bit but really, it wasn't my bag.  I got a nommy massage, went and met Robert Rankin but couldn't pluck up the courage to speak properly, I iz an idiot noob sometimes.



We watched Norman Lovett and Hayridge's stand up which just about finished me off.  I didn't make it to the sing a long a buffy which made me so sad it's untrue but I was broken and not about to break self further.

I left the event feeling inspired and in awe at a really good weekend, it's given me quite the hunger to be geekier and to read more and to experience more and to write so much more. I left a little bit of my heart in Prestatyn, it was an amazing convention.


Any regrets, not meeting Paul Cornell and flaking out on Saturday but I'll be back next year and I'll have cobbled together a costume.

The good photos in this Blog post are all down to my boyfriend, the shoddy photos are all mine, save the Sylvester McCoy one ;)

Tenterhooks

I've officially finished my OU short course in start writing fiction.  I'm awaiting the marks of my second assignment and as usual I am bricking it.

It is rather silly, I should have more faith in my own ability, the first assignment result was a huge boost as was the response from my readers.... Somehow that confidence evaporates the moment you submit for assmessment.

I wonder how real writers cope?

Also this week as a small challenge to myself I'm trying to write a 1000 word Zombie story in first person present tense.

Rock on.

Fandom Twitter and writers...

I would hate to be a TV writer.

That's not true, I would love to be a TV writer but there is a huge element that would put me off and I'm sorry to say it's the part of fandom that disappears up its own ding dong, because it makes me uncomfortable.

Vast majority of fan out there are lovely, insane, enthusiastic, creative and have cracking sense of humour. This is  the good part, this has value. But there's a dark side, those who seem to revel in complaining and have no compunction in using twitter to harangue the writer.

I follow a number of writers on twitter and they have all felt the force of an irate corner of fandom. Curiously enough, the writer only has to be one of a team for the vitriol to flow in their direction and that makes me sad.  For one thing, if you call yourself a fan, then really you should know who is writing what and adjust your views accordingly.

For instance, Torchwood Children of Earth, was written by three people Russell T Davies, John Fay and James Moran. RTD wrote eps 1 and 5, James Fay 2 and 4, and James Moran co-wrote ep 3 with RTD.  Now episode 4, was a game changer for Torchwood as a beloved character was killed off in the most incredible way.  In my opinion a good death utterly compelling as part of the arc of Children of earth and afterwards a sizable section of the fandom went off the deep end.  James Moran was the only writer of the three and he got bombarded with abuse, how dare he kill off said character, so much so he had to leave twitter for a week.  But can you spot the deliberate mistake? James Moran didn't write the episode. On twitter he wrote about the process of writing COE to be a team effort so in a way all three were responsible in a way, but he didn't pull the trigger. But it is not right to ever harass anyone to the point of leaving a social networking site.

 Likewise, Steven Moffat can't seem to say anything without offending some corner of either  the Doctor Who or Sherlock fandoms. I've read a number of articles and blog posts which all seem to be picking up on things he's said in interviews that I just don't see.  There are those who seem determined to paint him as a  misogynist, which I've written about before and still don't get.

The other thing I fail to understand is why Steven Moffat is picked out for the Sherlock vitriol? Mark Gatiss as co-creator doesn't seem to get the same amount of flack and Steve Thompson who adapted the Blind Banker as well as The Reichenbach Fall is not attacked in the same way. Is it because Moffat is more visible? He get's interviewed more often and is therefore more open to being misrepresented by the press in the first instance and then misinterpreted by people reading the interview in the first place.

I also struggle to get my head round is the idea that some people in fandom seem to think that they can produce better work than the people writing and making the show in the first place.  Deep breath is required here.  Really, fandom? Take a look at yourself here and answer honestly, could you really write something better than an experienced writer has already done? For the vast majority it's a definite no. There is a lot of terrible fic out there, where plots are hackneyed and writing is cliché ridden.  There is also good fic, but I'd argue there is a huge canyon between decent fic and writing for tv.

It is arrogant for anyone to suppose they could do a better job than a particular writer who is getting paid to do the job, because it kind of begs the question: then why aren't they?

It's also not a question of just accepting, I criticise a lot of writing, there are many things which don't quite work for me, but I don't make an assumption that I can write something better than a paid writer of a TV series.

So to sum up. Fandom is good, fandom wank bad. Be nice to writers on twitter or they will pack up and leave. I love interacting with writers on twitter, they can be funny, engaging and you can pick up tips about their craft. Don't chase them off...