While reading 'The Beautiful and Damned' I just had to share...

Started reading this classic a few weeks ago and was beginning to despair that I *might* not actually like it. *bites nails* BUT I'm glad I persevered. To be honest the story only really starts at the sublime passage when Beauty is being told she will have to be incarnated once more to the mortal realm. How positively neoclassical!

It was as if Fitzgerald had an inkling he might be losing a reader such as myself and so threw this gem in to not only hook me once more but to remind me, foolish reader that I am, that he can still throw in the most charming and impressive pieces of text.

Then the other day, the story took me to the passage I simply must share with you because. Because.
I was so taken with this particular chunk of wordage that I put the book down there and then to let this passage sink in and marinate, undisturbed.

(I reeeeaaally don't think this is spoiler material).

WORD, Fitzgerald, WORD!

My Reading So Far and Moment-by-moment of 'City of Bones'

I can't say that I've been reading extensively of late (and I don't think listening to audio books by Deepak Chopra counts all that much).

Books that I've picked up recently:
- Kraken
- Game of Thrones
- Clash of Kings
- Stormbringers

I've not got very far into Kraken and it's still just sitting there...I don't know why but I can't say I've warmed up to it, mostly in part because of the protag and the 'voice'. I read to the end of Book 2 of A Song of Ice and Fire and decided I don't think I can take more of this kind of killing, this 'no-place-to -hide-in-something-sanctimonious-or-even-half-decent', ambling plot. (SPOILERS?!) I'd rather skip to when George RR Martin decides to throw the world of fire (dragons) and ice together (nightwalkers).
I have yet to read Stormbringers.

BUT, seeing as there's a host of kids/YA fantasy film adaptations about to hit the ole big screen, I thought I would recount the emotional journey I had when I leafed through 'City of Bones', the Mortal Instruments book by Cassandra Clare. I know reader, you are thinking, 'why, why?' I don't know, I don't know why I pick up these woefully lacklustre tales that adorn the YA shelves at bookshops, my 12 year old self lured in by something that might, *might* be intriguing. Perhaps it's some residual left over feelings from when I would day dream that I'd find other worlds and so I could escape from Physics or Maths class. Whatever. (And being lured in also by a female lead: 'Ooh, she's gotta be cool, right?...Right?' Oh how I kid myself, reader, how. I. kid.)

You're now entering the domain of **Spoiler Alert** Sam!

MOMENT 1: should have known when I read the blurb and saw 'sexy demon hunters'

MOMENT 2: should have known better when it's revealed that the antag's name begins with 'V' and was once a powerful whatsit but had ideas about 'purging' the race and so turned bad.

MOMENT 3: should have known more so when I realised the protag was a self deprecating, klutz. Paraphrased from the book:  "I'm short so I'm always called 'cute', never pretty, always 'cute.'" (First world problems, B****!!)

MOMENT 4: should have known more more so (huh, sounds like 'mimosa' if you say it fast enough) when the protag thinks 'He called me beautiful. No one had called my beautiful before.' (Sweet mercy, I'm crying it's so heart-wrenchingly vomit-inducing!)

WHAT THE HAY? MOMENT: I would say around 75% of the book's content. 

But I still read the book, reader, all of it. I am ashamed. Yet I shall not being going to see this tripe plastered over our screens. Oh no. Alas, there are, like, more books in this stupid-ass series. 

Something 'emo', I'd imagine, something touching on some forbidden love nonsense.

Not another Kickstarter post!

Hello reader! Before you click away with the thought that 'goodness, this one is always banging on about Kickstarter projects', well, I would like to say that the post is in line with all things mythic related (I does like me myths, reader, I does). Plus, it's first day of the month, so the promise of intriguing prospects are in the air.

I'm once again really thrilled to say that fellow writer and all around amazing creator, Chris Carter, has launched a campaign for his second book in the 'Camp Myth' series. I had backed the campaign for the first book last year and it's easily been the most fun and involving campaign I've had the pleasure of being a part of to date (I wrote about it in past post). So no pressure in having to live up to that, Chris!  

Chris has been a busy guy - there's been a Camp Myth app for iOS and a table top RPG, so the world is really building around the series. And so, we backers of the original book patiently waited for the release of the second book.

This time Chris is offering cooler rewards, aka 'swag'. Yours truly is looking doubly forward to the book because I won the chance to create a character that will feature in Book 2: Kraken Fishing. That's what I mean with this particular campaign - Chris has achieved a great way to make it so inclusive and drum up a sense of community around it all - hey, just like camp :) (I assume, I never went to camp, it's a North American thing which I think, has only just recently been imported here).

I'll next be updating you about Camp Myth when I get my rewards, no doubt but if in the mean time, your interest has been even mildly piqued by the whole thing, then do head on over to the Kickstarter page and get-to-backing! You're bound to have fun - hey, just like camp! (see above bracketed comment).    

Also, in other news, I'm also more directly involved in another campaign, this one for a short film. It's one that a colleague of mine has been wanting to make for awhile and so we're all getting behind it to make it happen and it's a chance to finally take part in making a film. It's been awhile! This particular film is rather dark and suspenseful, one of those ones that really builds up to a final reveal. Again, if that sounds like your bag, then head over to the page for 'Not Ever - a short film by Ben Mourra'. Roger O'Donnell from 'The Cure' is going to be involved with the soundtrack and there's a well-known British actress coming on for the lead - very exciting developments. It's just going to be awesome to finally get it made, so if you're a person who loves to back arts and such, then do check it out and share. Merci, merci indeed. 

On that note, I disembark from the Kickstarter train. 

Oh, what the dragons, I shall recommend 'The Cure - Friday, I'm in Love'

Camp Myth - now as an iPad app!

This is a plug for a writer friend, reader but bear with! Said writer is the fabulous Chris Lewis Carter, author of the Camp Myth series, of which the first book is out to buy from Amazon either in paperback or e-book (- and yes I'll be yawn-somely predictable and recommend you purchase the paperback - the wait for delivery is worth it, if only to see the fabulous cover art and illustrations in their print form). I wrote about when the first book got published as I was a happy backer of the Kickstarter project.

Anyhoo, Chris has worked with developers and in the trend of all things digital tech, he gives us the shiny app - a visual novel which works very much like a story-led game on the DS, not unlike Phoenix Wright or Hotel Dusk (see my post on Phoenix Wright mashup with My Little Pony - oh yes, reader, it exists and it is better than your imagination can conceive).

The Camp Myth app is available for iOS, so boo, not for Android but it's ok, I downloaded it on my sister's iPad. The story follows the main characters you're introduced to in the book series - adventurous fae, Felix, the nerdy cyclops, Argee and the feisty kitsune, Moxie. We follow their shenanigans during their time spent at a summer camp for mythological beasties, earning merit badges by doing some pretty dangerous tasks. Oh yes, you read right, reader. It is tres jolie/amusee -?? Gah, forgotten my French. The lack of proper protection for these kids embarking on fatal missions is reminiscent of the Harry Potter series.

 The look and feel is very nicely done and it's cool to see the character coming along as we're treated to seeing more of the Camp Myth world and more of Felix, Argee, Moxie et co - and their witty repartee. As the story goes along you get to make some choices but as you should know by now, reader, everything comes back to the story. It's engaging and sweet and I want to read more. Either you can unlock the next parts of the story by purchasing them for a small fee or wait for the release date. I'm going old school and throwing faith in the 'anticipation makes the experience sweeter.' I love the series feel and appreciate the drip feed approach - consider me hooked!

For a superior, legit review, click over to what Tapscape had to say. 

To recreate the cutesy video game style music with a flash of adventure, for your ears: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Hyrule Field

You need something to hold in your hands: the brain's connections to writing and reading

This post is technically a write up of one of my entries in my Morning Pages diary. Don't know what 'Morning Pages' are, reader? For shame! You need to look it up in the seminal The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (of which I've only read two chapters but yeah, that's my problem, not yours).

The need to post up what I ended up writing (splurge of the 'waking' brain) was propelled by a brilliant online article about the brain and the written word, vis a vis reading on paper/page as opposed to reading on screen. The subject began churning in my mind after watching a video that displayed how a school in the US still put high priority on the children learning cursive writing and not just using tablets. The video also showed a professor of linguistics arguing that nostalgia alone is not a good enough reason for children being made to write with pen and paper.

Image provided by http://www.aotearoaeditorial.com

I've always had the notion that there is something integral about the act of writing out by hand with a pen on paper. When I really want to arrange my thoughts and get serious about forming a structure, I revert (sorry, wrong choice of word), I gravitate to paper and pen. And I know it has little to do with the notion that it is some sort of fanciful, wholesome craft, it's something natural, obvious and the brain likes it (backed up by the article I reference below - 80% of students of University of Mexico 'preferred to read text on paper as opposed to on a screen in order to "understand it with clarity".') 

Anyhow, here's what I penned in said diary on the issue (somewhat fragmented and not quite polished, which I think better illustrates how ideas and language 'flow' - a word my English teacher forbade us from ever using - from one to other, an effortless continuity) :

Do not forget the importance of brain, hand, pen and paper, a seamless line of action, one that is a low energy act with a high satisfaction rate; little or next to no resources are needed - no draining of electricity, no charging, no Wi-Fi, no pulling at any source of physical energy. All that is needed is the simplest of tools in hand. Scientists should recognise the importance of acts and crafts, so many activities, that work or require a tool in the hand - sculpting, cutting, sewing, cooking, surgery, drawing, engineering, gardening, carpentry, fishing, archery - anything that requires an implement to create and form something, fundamental to our brain waves, to the unfolding of a creative vision. How many times do we find it so hard to get something down on the screen? No one computer tool does it all perfectly. You have to chop and change. But the tool in hand, the paper, the tangible material, eliminates that initial halt/barrier, it begs that the activity happen right away; the unfashioned parts of wood that need assembling, the allure of the blank page, the sketchbook that is clean and ready for your drawn expressions, experiments, developments.  

I enjoy going to graduate shows and picking up the sketchbooks to see how they develop; the penmanship itself is like the map lines of the artist's mind and expression. None of that can come across quite so vividly and immediately on the digital screen. Sure, there are many amazing digital creations, digital paintings etc, but they don't give you a glimpse into the 'workings out'. For my own coherency, I have all my notes that I've written on pages in the digital space. Anyone, in theory, could view them. But there would be no fun that way because they are alone arranged for me. You would switch off from this somewhat blah display of digital notemaking, revisions etc. However, if I were to put on an exhibition, where my sketchbooks, illustrations and notebooks were on display, my 'workings out', it would be a story in itself, it would have meaning. It would give you a sense into the process, into the madness of the craft. Like with maths, you may get the end answer but everyone knows the accomplishment comes from the 'working out of it all', the language of the brains' processes and comprehensions, making those connections between this and that, elements strung together so that you align x with y. (I definitely feel dumber since leaving uni and I definitely don't connect up knowledge quite like I used to because there's little sense of an actual 'space' in which this happens).  

So please give students this indelible craft, this necessary act that gets the brain warmed up. Don't deny them the joy of how their brain truly works, how they truly tick. That way they'll have material, a retrospective that allows them to realise their own improvements, their evolution. You simply cannot track that through digital means. You cannot lay it all out and really see. 

After writing all of this, I was struck by the idea that reading is an actual physical activity, it's not just creating images in our minds, it goes beyond. And lo, I found this article from Scientific American, via one of my fave blogs, Forever Young Adult.

'...evidence from laboratory experiments, polls and consumer reports indicates that modern screens and e-readers fail to adequately recreate certain tactile experiences of reading on paper that many people miss and, more importantly, prevent people from navigating long texts in an intuitive and satisfying way. In turn, such navigational difficulties may subtly inhibit reading comprehension. Compared with paper, screens may also drain more of our mental resources while we are reading and make it a little harder to remember what we read when we are done. A parallel line of research focuses on people's attitudes toward different kinds of media. Whether they realize it or not, many people approach computers and tablets with a state of mind less conducive to learning than the one they bring to paper. 

"There is physicality in reading," says developmental psychologist and cognitive scientist Maryanne Wolf of Tufts University, "maybe even more than we want to think about as we lurch into digital reading...

Understanding how reading on paper is different from reading on screens requires some explanation of how the brain interprets written language. We often think of reading as a cerebral activity concerned with the abstract—with thoughts and ideas, tone and themes, metaphors and motifs. As far as our brains are concerned, however, text is a tangible part of the physical world we inhabit. In fact, the brain essentially regards letters as physical objects because it does not really have another way of understanding them.