Thoughts

Chance Meetings (Chansu Miitingutsu)

| mlatimerridley

Latimer: Today myself and Ridley journeyed to Asakusa. A very nice part of Tokyo that contains the jaw-dropping Asakusa-jinja. The main gateway to the temple contains a massive red lantern at its centre. This is often used as a meeting place in shoujo manga for the main boy and girl’s date. (Ridley: I love how this looks like it’s about to be a post about the temple, which perhaps more people would be interested in than our crazy ramblings but…it’s not going to be! So…go see the temple, it’s lovely…now on to our madness..)

The temple site was packed with tourists and also school tours (lots of middle and elementary school kids… we assumed).

As me and Ridley stood poised on the great Temple’s porch (R: We sound impressive, it was more like we lulled over the banister as we were starting to flag against the hot sun. There was a nice breeze on the high porch so we didn’t want to move…) We began to muse over what the school kids ‘stories’ might be. We’ve been doing this a lot on our trip. We will often wonder, what is the life story of any number of random individuals; the gaijin (foreigner) in the suit alone on the train; the old Japanese couple walking hand in hand through the park… and now, the school kids.

I should backtrack and explain that Asian dramas are loved by both myself and Ridley, it doesn’t matter if it’s Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese. We’ve watched them all. (R: Great stories, well woven but really sometimes the endings are poorly wrapped up…we like to think we could end some of them better!) They tend to follow a similar pattern and so, we started to think about our own drama, and we began randomly picking out the school kids below as our characters…

We focused on one group of three girls and four boys.

One girl wore a backpack with the American flag as the pattern; she became ‘Stars and Stripes’.

The one with all the power (when she asked for a picture, all the boys leapt to attention) became, ‘The Main Girl’ and Stars and Stripes, we decided would be her best friend. They were all in Middle School together.

Of the four boys, one stood out; he had a grey backpack (Grey), all the other boys flocked around him, we decided he was the boy that loved The Girl, her best boy-friend. The good guy.

Then we noticed another, separate group of boys. There was one that stood out, a young man in a hat (a sort of black 1930’s hat). Very dapper. He was going to be the bad boy. We named him Hat. Ridley watched him intently; “He’ll be the leader of the gang, the one that will lead the fight out of the subway” (to those that don’t follow Asian dramas, there always seems to be fighting involved and it usually involves the main men, and more often than not, the bad guy is in some form of a gang. I don’t know where this factors into Asian society, it just seems to be a staple in drama-land).

So, we decided that Hat and The Girl had had a ‘chance meeting’ during their school trip to the temple. But they’d also been having ‘chance meetings’ their whole lives (they don’t realise it, but they met first in preschool, when they fought over a red crayon. Since this time, The Girl has referred to this arrogant boy as Aka-baka (red-idiot)).

The title of our drama, then became ‘Chansu Miitingutsu’ (the Japanese pronouncation of Chance Meetings). This is my attempt at the katakana of the title:

                                                 チャンツ   ミ–チングツ

As the school kids started to leave, we fast-forwarded a few years; they were now in High School. Of the Middle school group, only The Girl and her friends, Grey and Stars and Stripes, went to the same school. But…. who ends up in her class? Just Hat (Aka-baka). 

— Another Chansu Miitingutsu!

(Ridley: It’s the only way really, how else are they meant to get together? But Grey will put up a good fight, as he will be able to have The Girl’s best friend, Stars and Stripes, fighting in his corner! Those two probably ended up in the same class, as is the way of things. Oh yeah, we’re writing this, so…they did! And I bet Stars and Stripes likes Grey…oh the plot thickens!)

The school kids soon left the Temple, led off by their guides and sensei. However, for us, the notion of our drama continued throughout the day. As we passed a pachinko arcade (Ridley: Gambling parlours with tiny, metal balls- the noise from them is horrific!), we saw a girl dressed in a ridiculous costume outside, pleading for people to come in (handing out flyers, in a sky blue robe wearing a curly pink wig). Ridley nodded, “That’s the job The Girl gets in High School”.

“And Hat frequents the pachinko dens,” I added.

— Chansu Miitingutsu!

By the end of the day we’d ended up in Ginza, in a Vampire Café (more on that later! Very random I know) being served by a surly young man dressed as a Goth (I’m not sure I’d say vampire, maybe a Goth gone mental). We rounded off our drama for the day by deciding that Hat worked as a vampire in the vampire café.

As we sit, winding down in our hotel room, writing this, we’ve worked out the following:

Yamapi will play Hat

Ikuta Toma will play Grey

This will also fulfil our dream of having these two men work together in a drama!

Inoue Mao will play The Girl

Horikita Maki will play Stars and Stripes

Our drama theme song will be PonPonPon by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (because it’s a mental music video, and we are sure that that girl is following us all over Tokyo at the moment… she is EVERYWHERE!). (Ridley: PonPon woman has given me a headache. This song has been caught in my head all day! It’s quite catchy…)

‘People watching’ is a major source of all drama goodness! Stay tuned for our release date, once everyone signs on, we’ll let you know! (Ridley: We expect these really well known Asian actors to work for free by the by, so it may take some time and lots of persuading before our drama can be made! haha…)

Metro Madness

| mlatimerridley

Ridley: I just had the subway ride from hell. I couldn’t even engineer some of the situations that I end up getting myself into. On the way back from the Alice in Wonderland restaurant in Ginza (more on that later), we took the subway back to our hotel. The carriage was mental, absolutely packed! I was squashed up against two people in particular. There was one boy and his girlfriend to my right and slightly behind me. As the train slowed to a stop, we both moved further in and away from each other to clear some more space for other people, I was jerked backwards. I looked behind me at the same time as the boy did, to find part of my jeans (the loop of material with the brand symbol-see picture) had somehow caught on a zipper on his backpack. (How I ask you!? Only me…) Now, I’m sure as he felt the tug at his bag, he was thinking, who the hell is stealing from me, while I was panicking with ‘aaah, someone’s got my ass, I’ve heard this happens on the subway!’ He slipped off his schoolbag, as I leant round and tried to unhook myself but I couldn’t see properly. So I let the boy have a go. He alternated between trying to help and putting his hands up as if afraid I was going to accuse him of molesting me, which at this point I wanted to tell him I didn’t care as long as he freed me and I got my ass back. I think he even turned to his girlfriend to reassure her that he wasn’t doing just that. She was craning her neck around his shoulder to see what was happening. My face was a bright tomato red by now. As we struggled, the doors opened and a wall of people mashed into us, we were shoved closer together. It was hot, stuffy and we were laughing and saying sorry in English and Japanese all at the same time, as we fumbled down at my backside and the new people frowned and peered over at us. Thankfully, his girlfriend reached round and freed me. Just in time. I turned away with a final sorry and thanks, only to have the train suddenly shoot forward. I fell back on a few people and grabbed a girl in front of me. Her face filled with such panic it was hilarious (well now it is funny, not then), but it was probably a mirror expression of my own face as I realised her arm was like a twig and it wasn’t going to save me. I thankfully regained my balance, on a man’s foot, and then began another round of apologies, while we all kinda chuckled and my red cheeks steamed with embarrassment. Latimer, of course, was in stitches and so far away from me, she could pretend she didn’t know me. At the next stop, I lunged out through the doors, far away from the carriage of strangers that I hope to never meet again!

Latimer: Up until this very moment Ridley had thought I knew what was going on. Let me now enlighten you…. We were separated- Ridley was sucked into a crowd of people. I hung back at the doors of the train. I was bent backwards at an approximate 90 degree angle, grabbing at one of those hanging hoops you use to steady yourself. Behind me, a man sat reading his paper; in my timeline, I was praying “do not fall on the man! DO NOT FALL ON THE MAN!” while Ridley is strapped to some random man’s bag. I of course had no idea. She’d been sucked to some otherworld as far as I was concerned. Then I turned and saw her looking at me, eyes wide as if to say “ehh?”. The girls in front of her were laughing. I started laughing; then we were all looking at each other laughing. I looked and laughed to Ridley, girls, back to Ridley. In my head “yeah, it’s mad, we are all squashed on the train together… it’s mad? Isn’t it mad… Ridley, girls, Ridley?”. Laugh, Laugh, Laugh…. then we struggled out of the train at the next stop. And I learned the truth of why everyone was laughing. Well, at least everyone thought I knew what was going on… I came off pretty good… ha!

Tokyo Time!

| mlatimerridley

Konnichiwa from Nippon!

Meiji Jingu shrine and Harajuku

Ridley: Our first proper day in Tokyo was last Sunday as we spent much of Saturday completely jet lagged-sleeping on long haul flights is just so damn difficult-when we arrived, we were like zombies. We stumbled our way through the streets, trains and subway to our hotel, where we slept till the next morning.

As it was Sunday, we decided to head to Harajuku. There we saw the Meiji Jingu shrine (we also wanted to see all the cosplayers dress up in costumes of their favourite anime characters). The day consisted of us getting confused (pretty standard), praying, wetting our hands to purify them and witnessing a Shinto wedding at the Shrine!

I was busy trying to capture ‘artistic’ photos of the wall of wooden blocks filled with people’s prayers, when a very nice (and extremely thoughtful) Japanese man came over to me.

He said ‘wedding parade’ and he gestured for me to come with him. So I shuffled forward to where he was pointing and saw the wedding procession. I think I thanked the man in about three different languages before I got it right! He didn’t have to do that, it was very kind of him and it’s the little things like that, that really make your holiday! I have to say the Japanese are the politest, most helpful of people.

Other things that happened at the shrine; we took many pictures of the large old decorated barrels of sake.

Latimer got chased by a fly all the way there (it really wouldn’t leave her alone) no matter how many times she’d flayed her arms around like a crazy woman.

The praying part took us a while to master. I think we seemed like stalkers as we studied the people around us so we could copy what they were doing. They all give their donations first, then they clapped twice, prayed and bowed twice, but each person had a difference sequence of these three. Eventually we both went with what we thought would work for us. At the end of the day, we were trying to be respectful, the good intentions were there!

Outside of Meiji Jingu, we squeezed down through one of the main Harajuku shopping streets, Takeshita.

Latimer: wherein you can buy all manner of crazy clothes, I will return for odd tights and socks at a later date. Before I bought lots of clothes along this street, but I’m not sure I’m up for a mad shopping spree this time. Might just stick to tights this time.Ridley: Then we doubled back, passed the park in search of people dressed up. Instead of them, however, we stumbled upon a load of stalls selling food and tribal art. There were crowds of people in the middle of picnics and a large stage with singers. I wondered (out loud) if it was some sort of African festival, having not seen the giant Jamaican flags and colours-everywhere. However, I did see the annoyed look of disbelief directed at me from one man, yes people, the blond does seep all the way through sometimes. There was a definite haze nearer the stage too (teehee-it could have been smoke from the barbeque too though…) so we held our breaths and scurried away to continue our search.

Consequently, because of this festival (we think) not many (at all) of the cosplay Harajuku people turned up that Sunday. Only the rockabilly boys were there, dressed up in leather jackets with giant quiffs. They were dancing outside Yoyogi park, which was brilliant too. Inside the green, there were comedians (though we couldn’t understand them, they were getting a lot of laughs), there were dancers, musicians, loads of groups doing yoga or playing Frisbee. There was hardly any part of the large park that wasn’t occupied. We wandered for ages through it all and then sat on a bench to people watch.

Latimer: from a distance we observed a mime artist setting up his act. A group of boys passed by, one decided to sit down in front of the mime artist and await his act. His friends were forced to join him. The jury was out on whether they wanted to or not. Ridley watched the mime artist and noticed the act was flagging; “he’ll loose his audience if he keeps up the crap Olympic ring-acrobat miming.” She nodded. I got bored and started people watching. I saw a westerner on a bike walking his dog. Odd I thought, what if he went too fast or the dog got startled? By the time I looked back at the mime, the boys were gone, his audience diminished. “Where’d they go?” Ridley gave a deep nod, “Lost his audience didn’t he.”  

Ridley: There was man playing a music on possibly an erhu beside us. There were rounds of head bowing from us and him when we were leaving. 

The next day was Akihabara….

Where it was brilliant, crazy, loud, colourful and just plain fantastic all rolled into one!

We’ve gotten so many pictures of the billboards, the anime, the manga and all the technical stuff that’s for sale here.

There were also loads of girls dressed up in maid costumes…

Latimer: Ridley was caught staring at the maid-dreaming café.

Some of the maids that lined the busy Akihabara streets must have misinterpreted her confusion as interest.She was swiftly handed a flyer by a school-girl in a maid costume with a happy, high-pitched ‘irasshaimase’. Without thinking, Ridley took the flyer. She stared, still baffled.

The odd, anime-esque map, depicting a girl and her rabbit/dog thing, plotted a course through Akihabara towards what we could only imagine was a café full of maids waiting happily to serve the masses- but were we wrong? Was it actually a cry for help? Were the maids prisoners in some strange anime-esque story of betrayal and corruption- was she the only one that could get away- was she trying to get help for her friends?

Had we, the adventurous, intrepid gaijin, in fact scorned her cries? We’ll never know. In true shoujo-anime style, I hope some bishounen (pretty boy) swept in to save her and her friends, as myself and Ridley enjoyed our curry dinner (yums).

Ridley: We went to a cat café instead of the maid one, it was the less strange of the two options. Though it was still very surreal, being in the middle of Tokyo city, randomly petting other people’s pet cats. We went to Ja La La café, which shows up in an accurate location on google maps when you type in it. The door slides open not pulls open, for anyone going there-took us awhile to realise that one. We stood outside like idiots wondering how to get in, I just kept worrying we’d let the cats out. Eventually we knocked and we were ushered into a room with about twelve cats all lounging around. Though we first had to take off our shoes and wash our hands before we were allowed touch the cats. Just in case we were diseased or anything. We were there for 30 minutes, where Latimer had more luck with the little felines. She had two cats stalking a toy she’d started to wave round, they ignored me, despite numerous attention grabbing tactics. I pouted and told them all my cat at home likes me, sometimes. Eventually this gorgeous tabby here and I made friends. He was purring as he lay on his back half asleep. Very Kawaii (cute)! There was also the biggest cat I’ve ever seen there (a Maine Coon). Really beautiful! He kept turning his head, avoiding me deliberately as I took pictures, fame will make you hate the camera it seems! Going to a cat café is definitely something extremely different to do and after all, that’s what Japan is all about, doing things out the ordinary!

Latimer: The Maine was the biggest cat I ever saw in my life. Like a tiny Tiger cub. But, my god, the cat café reeked of cat (surprise surprise). Might need to air out your clothes after ward!

Later that day, as we walked through Asakasa of an evening, we were asked by some Korean business men (with pretty good English) did we know the way to their hotel. We stared, laughing inside (of course we didn’t know the way). We said ‘no’. Then Ridley said; “why don’t you pop into a shop and ask?” (this seems like a straightforward statement). The businessmen stared, then shook their heads and went on their way. Of course to Ridley it seemed like going into a shop and asking for directions just wasn’t the done thing.

Ridley: There really seemed like there was so much disapproval in his face at the time, now I realise he was just perplexed! 

Latimer: I wondered- just what did the Korean man think ‘pop into a shop’ meant? Ha, well to us it’s ‘to go into a shop’. This is just an example of Irish English isn’t necessarily English-English! Pop into a shop… haha, what must that sound like? What do people think when they hear Irish people say ‘grand’? That’s probably a word that is used very regularly by us, but likely makes no sense to non-Irish-English speakers!

More later on our adventures!

We’re working our way through Tokyo and we’ve been taking lots of pictures….don’t miss out!

Book Relationships

| mlatimerridley

Ridley: If I’m honest with myself, I really only like books with relationships in them. Though that doesn’t mean I exclude books without them, I just tend to gravitate away from them. But even with a blanket statement such as ‘I like relationships in books’, I can and will become even pickier. I don’t really like reading about well established relationships. Ones that have already happened and we’ve arrived more or less at the end, when ‘the get together’ is all over. I love the first moments, the awkward ones, the sqwee worthy ones; the first look, the first touch, the first kiss, the first ‘I love you’. In an established relationship, you don’t get that, you have the lovely romantic moments, the ‘ahh that’s so sweet’ and ‘you know me so well’ moments. I don’t want them. Maybe I like the thrill of the chase?

In a book or movie, after a couple have properly gotten together and it’s all happy ever after (or not), I loose interest. I don’t care if they have twenty five point five children, that Cinderella and her Prince Charming’s Kingdom tumbled to the ground around their ankles and they broke apart about a year later because his mother-in-law was a terror. I don’t want to know about any of that. It’s why I’ve avoided reading the Lord of the Rings appendices, which are supposedly very depressing. It’s also why I had mixed feelings about the very final chapter of Harry Potter, showing them married and with children, I had that all squared away in my imagination already. Nice to see J.K’s vision of how it all went but at the same time I wanted to shut my eyes (book and movie) and ears (movie) to it. (Especially to Draco Malfoy with wrinkles, some kind of scraggly beard and a widows peak! Nooo.)

This is perhaps why I I love a good young adult (Y.A) book, particularly a fantasy laced one, though a good murder mystery is always welcome. You get all these first moments in the early stages of the romance.

Of course, there has to be an actual story to it but it does need to have some sideline action *wink wink* with the characters. Even if it’s just a tiniest hint of an attraction, such as a ‘lingering look’- two words in a 55,000 word manuscript- I’ll drink it up like a parched desert wanderer. Even with the recent movie, Avengers Assemble. While I’ll readily admit I loved it without question and without any relationships in it, as such…did anyone else pick up on something happening between Hawkeye and Black Widow? Latimer and I did!

By god, after the film we were wiki-ing well into the night on that one trying to get some sort of conclusion to their relationship. A ‘relationship’ that had suddenly fully formed in our heads just based on a few looks, their mutual dark history and the fact she was in his room, alone. *cheesy grin*

Now I’ll give you two examples of books I’d probably read (though I’d probably grab up Book B much much quicker than A to be honest.)

Take for example Book A, “Inspector Martin Berking is a world renowned police detective, he’s responsible for clanging shut thousands of cell doors on criminals across the country. Respected without question by his fellow colleagues, their murmurs of appreciation ring hollow when he lies alone in bed a night staring up at the ceiling. His fantastic career is all he has. Only alcohol is his companion. That is, until Claire enters his life. He catches her shoplifting while buying his next bottle of whiskey. Late at night, on the pavement outside a convenience store, she manages to smash both his bottle and his life to pieces. When her large blue eyes beg him for help, he’s drawn deeper into her tangled, dark world, until he begins to realise that this seemingly simple case may be his last.”

(Yeah I know, I just borrowed the plot there from about a 100 different crime novels with a hardline, bachelor, alcoholic detective extraordinairé, such as Inspector Morse, Rebus, Frost, Dalziel, Taggart…I’d read it because of the introduction of Claire, but if you took her out and it was just a crime novel where some criminal bumped into him and that led to the same case but without the romance, I’d be less inclined. Also, I tend to only like female protagonists. Saying that, I have and probably will still read books like that (as in without the relationship) from time to very odd time and I definitely watch those sort of television shows- I do like trying to solve the mystery before the end, especially with David Suchet as Hercule Poirot- but I’d like the romance included. Please 😛 )

Book B would be far more up my little avenue, my hands would itch to read something like this, “Maria doesn’t know when she stopped believing in magic. As a child, she was ridiculed for her belief in her imaginary friends; the ones she used to play with in the forest behind her house. The same forest she stopped visiting when she was twelve, though she can’t remember why. Before that, she has only vague recollections of dancing bare foot in tall grass and numerous flower bracelets. Though the one vivid image that haunts her from that time, is the handsome face of a boy crowned with thorns and the whispered words ‘Wait for me’. It is a memory that, even now, shoots a shiver of fear and delight through her. It’s also something she wishes she could forget. Soon, however, she gets her wish. When a new neighbour moves in next door, she starts to develop feelings for him. As her memory of the striking boy fades and starts to be replaced by Daemon’s arresting smile, strange things begin to happen, unending tricks and jokes are played on them. Then he returns. He is older than she’s dreamt but just as handsome and as Maria begins to remember everything, her life is changed forever.”

Now, this kind of book I’d be very interested in reading-anyone written anything like it? Send me a link!- Reading a blurb like this I’d automatically think there’s a triangle love story about to happen-which if M. Latimer-Ridley was writing it, there would be-though at the same time, I’d want there to be more than just the obvious relationship as the main plot though. So then I’d question what she remembers, hopefully that leads to a nice fast paced story.  

(As an aside here- I made up this rambling ‘book blurb’, does anyone else do that? When I was younger, I used to love writing random ones on the back of my homework notebook, making them as sensational as possible, but I’d never know what was going to happen next. When I got older, I started to fill in the gaps, which lead to writing books, I suppose! Still short and fun to do! It lets your imagination flow!)

So..I’m wondering am I the only one with such picky criteria for my books and in particular, the relationships in them? Hopefully there are other people out there that are like me. What do you like to see from your relationships, perhaps established ones are best for some people? Or, heaven forbid, do you hate having any couples in your novels at all, does it detract from the story? 

I think in a future blog post I’m going to talk about my top 5 or so, all time couples and their ‘get together’ stories. That would be fun-ideas welcome!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For now though, Latimer and I have saved our little brown pennies, euro coins and notes, and we are now able to wing our way to Japan for a two week break away. We’re sharing a twin room, where she’ll probably want to strangle me by the end of the holiday! (I don’t snore, honest… 😀 )

So there will probably be ‘radio silence’ from us while we’re gone, though I’m thinking about bringing my laptop…tempting, tempting…then you’d end up (more than likely) getting numerous posts about our Japanese adventures, posts which I’m certain will mainly be filled with pictures!

All photos in the post are from freedigitalphotos.net, thanks to them.

The Book Soundtrack

| mlatimerridley

Latimer: So I finished Mockingjay last Friday. The fire burned swift and fierce. I totally ate that book. I started reading at 8pm and finished by 1.30am (minus aimless wandering time and tea breaks, ‘can’t talk people, Katniss has a rebellion to finish, and I can only just spare enough time to make tea!’).

Orbie only started Mockingjay on Thursday this week; and she was hard pushed to even start. The fire died in her quickly; she was very, ‘neh’ about it after she had raced through Catching Fire. I thought about it as she asked, “Is it any good? Should I bother?”

Baffled I asked, “How can you not read it after you invested all the time? In fairness, don’t you want to know what happens in the relationship?”

She shrugged, “That’s probably all I care about now.” I nodded (it was pretty much all I cared about too).

Anyway, her reading it had me thinking back over it.

It was good, the series as a whole, of course I had enjoyed it. But wasn’t the ending very lacklustre? The relationship only really ended on, “we are both broken, let’s be broken together”. The big showdown never really happened. I feel like I wouldn’t be alone in thinking that as a reader I had been let down a bit.

There weren’t any significant relationship moments that left you clutching your chest, sobbing, “beautiful, perfect”.

The ending was very rushed in the sense that; they got together, in time they healed and then everything was as good as it could have been. But, did we not deserve more of an insight? It left me disappointed, not overly so but still, disappointed.

I wonder will the movies kindle more of a relationship-fire?

Moving from on from the books; I happened upon a soundtrack. Here enter-th my other great love, music (the stories with sounds!).

I just stumbled onto it (maybe you’ve heard it before) it’s called: The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond. It’s the official companion soundtrack to the movie with songs, from various bands, relating to the Hunger Games. Now I’m not 100% sure if they wrote them especially for the movie (but some of them must have done, because they talk about ‘daddy working in the mines’ and specifically ‘mockingjay’).

The thing that caught me was I really liked the people that sung/wrote for it: The Low Anthem, Arcade Fire, Birdy and The Civil Wars! Wow, I thought, I must give this a go! Sting also did a song “Deep in the Meadow”; that’s Katniss’ song right? Sting… my god. (I don’t like it, but hey, Sting, I am impressed!)

It got me thinking about how often I ascribe a song to a specific character (book, movie TV show etc). You know when you are listening away and you start thinking, ah that’s such and such singing about this, that and the other.

Did anyone come up with any songs for the Hunger Games? I had a go (I was listening to Lana Del Rey’s album a lot; so that’s why it’s two of her songs!)-

(Katniss singing about the Games and Peeta; it works, born to die)

(Katniss after the Games- I like the ‘sweet like cinnamon part, cos it’s like a baker, Haha…)

Back to the ‘actual’ soundtrack; Taylor Swift sings a song with The Civil Wars (Safe and Sound), which is beautiful. I have never heard a Taylor Swift song before (I know nothing about her, except the following: she’s young (-er than me!), American, blonde-?, Kanye West badmouthed her at an awards do once- I think).

Her voice works so well with the country tones of The Civil Wars. I feel like they add a lot of maturity to the song because the song she sings on her own is awful (Eyes Open), very teeny; it’s so false, it hasn’t got any sense of being ‘real’ or from the heart. It’s so over-produced. It’s actually grating; it has no place with the rest of the songs.  

The Civil Wars by the way are amazing; they are just a girl and guy with a guitar (if you ever have a chance to see them live, seriously go, they are excellent). They are so in sic with each other it’s amazing; they should be together (this is how it always goes, trying to pair people off), but they are actually happily to other people *sigh*! It’s like they are unromantic, musical soul-mates; perfect harmony. This song is very sweet and lovely; it does reflect Katniss and the Games very well. Also, the song The Civil Wars sing on their own is very beautiful too (Kingdom Come).

Glen Hansard also has a song on the album; he is an Irish singer/songwriter. Who won an Academy Award for his co-written song ‘Falling Slowly’ on the film Once (it’s beautiful): and he used to be in the Irish band The Frames. He’s actually really good, but my god, his song… Take the Heartland, which people think describes Cato; is terrible, it’s just terrible! It’s a sound so unlike his usual self.

‘Come away to the water’ by Maroon 5 (which in my head I just called Macaroon 5!); is another great song. It just conjures up the images of the grim, brutal districts and the oppressive Capitol.

Arcade Fire’s song ‘Abraham’s Daughter’ has an undertone, rift in it that sounds like it was in the movie. The initial rift sounds like the Hunger Games to me (like the theme for Harry Potter is Hedwig’s theme).

But my absolute FAVOURITE song on this lovely soundtrack is ‘Lover Is Childlike’ by The Low Anthem. Oh, I love them. It’s a heart wrenching song. The tone, his voice… it’s perfect.

Sometimes I think songs are like books; you find a great one and you think you’ll never see the like again. But time passes and new ones come.

Susanne Collins is very lucky; these bands actually did songs about her world! It’s amazing; it’s a brilliant idea. The book soundtrack; brilliant! Let me know what you think of the songs! Give them a go; well worth musing over who/what they might be singing about!

How I know I’m a book geek…

| mlatimerridley

Ridley: If you are anyway like me, some of below applies to you! If most of it does, we could probably become best friends or perhaps the very worse of rivals and bitter enemies-who knows how these things work!

Read away and let me know…are you a book geek too? Have I missed something and I need to add it to the list?

  1. You can’t pass a bookshop without going in. It draws you in, like a magnet….walking, walking, walking, turning? turning into bookshop…exceeellent.
  2. You can’t leave a bookshop without buying something. There’s always something there that’s just begging to be bought. ‘Buy me, buy me!’ said the 10 euro book.
  3. You’re number one favourite shop-is a bookshop.
  4. You often have hours pass by while you’ve been in the bookshop and not noticed.
  5. Sometimes you envy the people that work in bookshops and libraries.
  6. Sometimes you visited the library so often as a child (and perhaps now, still!), that they knew you by name.
  7. People never wonder where you disappeared to, they look round for the nearest bookshop and then just pop in there to find you.
  8. The smell of bookshops and books relaxes you, in fact you notice when you enter a bookshop you often inhale, deeply and a grin begins to spread across your face. Your eyes light up and you abandon whoever you are with to go wander the shelves. If they try to start talking to you, loudly (and not the odd, whispered ‘oh look the new one!’) and you have to shush them, mortified that they’d embarrass you like this in front of the bookshop employees or they follow you around, sighing as if they’re bored, these things will all ensure you never return with them to a bookshop.
  9. If you’re somewhere where there is more than one bookshop and someone asks which one is better. You have at least 3 pros and cons for each place. These will often include points like their shelf size of a particular genre-how big or small it is, their variety of books, how quiet the place is and what type of seating can be found there. Oh and if their deals are any good, 3 for 2 is always a good thing-well not for my pocket!
  10. You’re the friend people ask for good book recommendations. You should wear a badge, people are missing out that they don’t know you have, the knowledge.
  11. When you have holidays coming up, you plan for the amount of books you can read in the time you have, you image the big pile with glee. Planning for everything else follows after this.
  12. You would never dog ear a book. Never.
  13. You have numerous random bookmarks, everywhere.
  14. You have extremely fancy bookmarks, made not just from paper but material, metal or wood.
  15. You always get books or book related things for your birthday or Christmas or every occasion really (and this makes you happy, oh so happy!)
  16. You have pre-ordered a book. Many of them.
  17. Amazon is like a best friend. You like those recommendation emails they send you. Sometimes you laugh and say things like ‘Oh amazon, you know me so well.’ and then look around to make sure no one heard you.
  18. You often get annoyed at an author for taking so long to write the next sequel. You expect them not to have any life and just slave away, just so you get your next fix of their series.
  19. Once you’ve read this ‘next fix’ you’re almost depressed that it’s over and now you have nothing to read again.
  20. Breaking the spine or having one broken on one of your books gives you a sick feeling deep in your stomach. (that crack, god the crack of the glue in the binding! Don’t do it! Eventually pages fall out!) If you see someone bending their book back until the covers meet, you cringe and think, if that book were mine, I’d never treat it with that kind of abuse. You think that book would love you all the better for it. (This is beginning to sound a lot like craziness! Mwhaa!) Mind, a tiny little bit of wrinkling in the spine is fine, shows a book is loved.
  21. Similarly leaving a book open, face down for ages so you don’t loose your page (a few minutes-fine, I’m not that bad, but not for the night or longer) This means it will never again close properly. If you leave it like that long enough it will always just open on that page, over and over again!
  22. Someone ripping the page of your book or completely out of your book (even worse!) would begin your long unending high shriek of horror and pain. You would seriously contemplated buying a new replacement book, just so you know this one isn’t in your collection, ripped and ruined. (You possibly have already done this at least once? No one who knows me would dare rip my books, I’d turn into a harpy. I did have one work acquaintance I made the mistake of lending a book to while she went on holiday. She accidentally dropped the book into the pool, dried it out in the baking Spanish sun for a few days and gave it back to me pages stuffed in, falling out, warped cover with the words ‘I was going to buy you another one, but it dried out. So I didn’t think you’d mind.’…..Ever more, she’s just gotten book recommendations, no books.)
  23. Leaving a movie that’s been adapted from one of your favourite books, the words ‘the book was better’ or ‘they didn’t do that in the book’ always passes your lips. (Though sometimes, secretly, you thought the film was fantastic (rarely)! But saying it would feel like a betrayal to the literary world in general.)
  24. When a friend or acquaintance who never reads or has never seemed interested in the written word, ever, begins to start talking about one of your favourite books-first you suppress the look of surprise, then the gigantic sneer-there is no way they love that book or understand it like you do. No way. (if they have the book in their hand, sometimes you ask to see it, just to ensure it’s the same one. Perhaps the author and title and the cover are just extremely similar…no damn it, its the same.)
  25. When a friend or acquaintance (possibly the same person above?  <(‘~’)>  ) again with no love for the English language, reading or writing, gets an A in an English paper and you get a lower grade, little green monsters take over piloting your body. They seem to like shouting ‘why!’ at the sky and slamming things a lot; locker doors, bedroom doors, your head against the wall-repeatedly.
  26. You have a massive book collection that you often glance over and smile fondly at, like they’re little friends waving back (I’m starting to sound delusional, yes? Hello small friendies!)
  27. When you look up at this collection, you’re enormously proud of the fact you can remember exactly what happens in each book and which ones you loved more.
  28. The books you loved more have a better position on your bookshelf, particularly if you like rereading them a lot.
  29. You have a few signed books that you love. And perhaps the odd first edition, which if you had people over to your house, you would include them in the grand tour. ‘And here is my first edition…’ (I have signed books, no first editions *sigh* )
  30. You hate having miss-matched covers of books in a series. They all have to be the same version, example; all British versions of Harry Potter or all the American versions, there is no such things as having a few of one and the other, are you mad?
  31. You have bought more than one version of a book because of a new cover being prettier than the one you had already.
  32. You hate when you’ve bought the large tall hardback of a brand new release and the rest of the series you have is in paperback (though you just couldn’t wait for them to release the paper back, you wanted that book-yesterday!) Now it just sticks out there on your shelf, like an awkward billy-no-mates giant book, beside the other smaller novels in the series. You set that book up for a life of bullying, are you happy?
  33. Your love of books can often be combined with and begin to encompass a notebook or stationary fetish. You have many beautiful, leather bound, fancy notebooks that you have no intention of ever writing in. You do use a diary, it’s the most unique you could find online. Everyone has admired it at some point and you smile with pride, as if you created it.
  34. As a child, you were given pocket money with the words ‘don’t spend it on a book this time, gets some clothes.’ The thought of buying clothes always seems like a missed opportunity. There is no fun to be had there, it’s a chore, whereas a book buying session, why that can reach heights of untold excitement!
  35. If you started a really good book or series, gotten swept up in it and then remembered you already had an engagement to go to, a party, for coffee or out to a night club, you have at least cancelled once with ‘the flu’, just to stay home and continue to read. It becomes a shameful secret…
  36. You also have the odd friend or two that you can actually tell them the truth in this instance and they completely understand and don’t judge you. (Hi Latimer!) In fact, they have done it themselves too at some point.
  37. While you have an e-reader and you love it. You still prefer actual books and they will never be replaced. In fact, you bought an e-book, loved it so much you want to now go buy the bound book version, just so you can added it to your shelf.

So…anyone else find they’re like this? Or have I gone too far?

Too far…I thought so, ah well…least I have my books! Hello friendies! 🙂

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Latimer and Ridley love hearing from people, so if you have any opinions, non-opinions or little nuggets of wisdom please share them with us in the comments below! Alternatively, if you’d like to get to know us more, why not email us or follow us on twitter and talk to us directly!

In other MLR news, we are currently working on two novels, one of which we intend to publish free on our website. We’re striving hard to make them both LSA and RSA worthy! So stay tuned for more information!

Old School Fantasy: aka ‘Epic Fantasy’

| mlatimerridley

Latimer: Good evening; I am the ever absent, but ever present Latimer (that’s an oxymoron I think).

My life recently has been a bit chaotic. But Ridley has bravely held the fort (actually, she built the fort; or re-built? Renovated? She’s lost in here somewhere now, the foundations of our creaky, cyber-space battle-ship of dreams!).

Fear not Ridley, like White Gandalf, I return to you now at the turn of the tide!

Basically, I have finally re-emerged from work; slightly the worse for wear, but triumphant (also like White Gandalf, I see a pattern emerging; Ridley is Frodo and I am Gandalf! It’s so obvious, ha).

Now, it’s time for tea and a blog; my first in what feels like years. Forgive my creaky style; don’t worry it’ll all gel together somewhere in the middle/end!

I wish I could be industrious like Ridley and blog a book review, but honestly I haven’t read anything (unless you want to hear about Frank Ryan’s Virolution- well once I fight my way through the rest of it-! Slowly but surely, I’ll get there; you won’t win against me Frank Ryan!).

So because of that, I’ve decided I’m going to start with a TV show that is also a book (see, it’s almost a book review! ALMOST!)—

My ‘renovation blog post’ is *drum roll* on Game of Thrones (GoTs) (one of the hottest shows on TV at the moment I reckon).

I saw this one coming over a year ago; it was a teaser for HBO way before it was due to come out in like May last year. We were being teased big time, for ages.

 It’s obvious from the get-go that HBO knows how to make a show. GoTs is shiny; it’s vast, it’s epic… and it’s peppered with a great cast (mostly England, Scotland and, Ireland as it happens; Joffrey goes to Trinity College (so Wikipedia tells me). I want to hang around Trinity and shout at him ‘you’re mad, Joffrey! Mad!’; wonder does he get that often? Hmm, I want to know!).

In the past, I used to read epic fantasy- mostly because A) my brother had an epic collection of epics and B) I was a kid and I couldn’t afford to buy my own books. I didn’t know Ridley back then so I had to make do with e.g. The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind and The Belgariad by David Eddings. Later in life, I read my own epics: The Guardian Cycle by Julia Gray and The View from the Mirror by Ian Irvine. There are common themes in epics:

– Author: usually a man (almost ALWAYS a man let’s be honest)

– Boy, farm boy, well, average Joe Soap. He’s just a kid; He’s a He (bar The View from the Mirror; a rare exception with a female lead)

– He might look it; but he’s not normal, he’s special (we are all writing that character, though, I will put my hands up on that score, the common in all fantasy, epic or urban)

– A terrible event, *scourging of the shire style*

– Boy leaves on a journey

– A shadow stirs in the East, a Dark Lord

– Annoying female characters, jaded knights, sex, war, blood, death, depravity, politics so confusing you no longer know where you are; names that make NO sense; place names that look like the author had a fit while typing; a million and one characters, with a million and one points of view that alter change and grow with each book in the series that seems to last an eternity to the point you no longer know if you even A) like the story anymore or B) know what happened in the beginning (so the re-reading cycle begins!)

– Mystic forces move in the dark, the characters enviably ignore them *just stories, Joe Soap of the Shire, just stories*

– And of course they aren’t

– Epic battle…

– PROPHECY! So important- ‘Joe Soap, you are the chosen one’

In the end, all the epic series you read blend together, so that you no longer know what events happened in what stories.

So, bar the lack of concrete Joe Soap (though, actually John Snow would probably suffice), Game of Thrones is a quintessential epic. Honestly, I have no particular love for epic books. They weave and twist and weave and twist; and at first you enjoy the weaving but then you realise you have gotten lost in a maze and it’s no longer fun and actually it’s just a chore to follow.

There’s a lot to be said for over-complicating stories. The reader wants to float, not struggle through your story. I want to be taken on a journey, not forced into a battle, with the plot.

I know the Game of Thrones story; I know he has a million and one characters and points of view. And for me, that’s why I can’t handle epics anymore (Lord of the Rings is the great outlier though!).

BUT wow, Game of Thrones is fun to watch!

HBO are going to work me through the confusing parts; the actors are going to show me the plot. So the stress is taken out of the epic (mostly!).

It’s not brilliant; but it’s good it’s really good. And it’s something different to watch. It’s got so much going for it. The opening theme is epic; beautiful.

The design is slick and realistic; it’s a grubby, deprived world, with nasty people, and only a few who you actually like. There is a LOT of ‘whoring’ though; sometimes very gratuitous- I’m no prude, but there’s an element of porn without plot in Game of Thrones, more often than not.

 Peter Dinklage is excellent as ‘The Imp’, Tyrion Lannister. You can’t talk about GoTs without mentioning Peter Dinklage. Although his faux-English accent is a little grating after a point, I forgive him this because Tyrion is smart, witty and he knows what’s going on (unlike much of the other characters) and I want him to outwit the people who think he’s pitiable; I enjoy the way he uses his head to fight his battles, it makes him an unlikely force to be reckoned with. He’s a political player; and you can tell he’s only going to get more and more involved in the power struggle as the story goes on. I lift my hat to George R.R Martin; the Imp is a very bold and intriguing character.

There’s also some nice eye-candy (Jaime Lannister and Rob Stark, par example). Even though my imagination can handle making a handsome man, it’s nice to have HBO doing the work for me!

I’m not in love with Game of Thrones; but I’m ‘in like’, very much so. It’s a good watch, there’s no getting around it. Once you get into it; it’s like eating a cake- ‘more! Give me MORE!’; it’s not the tastiest cake, but the sugar rush is so good! I would recommend it, if you haven’t watched it. Try a few episodes, get into it. The opening of the first episode is very atmospheric (I want to know more about the White Walkers; they seem to have been seriously neglected in series 1; I really hope they come back with a vengance in series 2).

Ah, yes, I’m blissfully ‘in like’ with Game of Thrones.

Series 2 is starting this week- so it has occupied my thoughts throughout the last week of struggling. Looking forward to something really takes the edge off the stressful things.

YES- Winter is finally here!

RSA: Angelfall by Susan Ee

| mlatimerridley

Ridley: There are a few rare books that get an RSA (Ridley Stamp of Approval). It has to have all the elements to receive it; a good relationship, a vivid world and a gripping story! For it to get an RSA, after reading it, there needs to be a thumping heart and a major urge to scurry around telling people to get the novel. I have read some really fantastic books, there are loads out there, some are great on relationships, on characters and others have crafted fantastic vivid worlds (where you can almost close your eyes and see them) but very few have all of these to the same level. We all know the big hitters, they had them all, it’s why they’re so popular!

Last night, I read Angelfall by Susan Ee. The book is completely to my tastes, by that I mean it has a brilliant slow burning relationship (with my new fictional character crush-Raffe!) an engaging story filled with a twisting exciting plot, clever weaving of seemingly unimportant information and a vivid gritty world, which is steeped in fantasy and the supernatural (flying yummy deadly Angels!)

It’s set in a post-apocalyptic world, our future, where merciless angels have been sent down to bring us judgement day. Cities have fallen, unending fires rage and humans have scattered, forced to scavenge in the ruins for food and essentials. (Think of the 2010 film, Book of Eli, with Denzel Washington! They are the images Susan’s words evoke when you read this!  Fantastic world building!)

 The main character Penryn is a strong, kick ass girl with some great abilities as a fighter. At the same time, by highlighting the type of childhood she’s had to experience, the post-apocalyptic world she’s had to survive in and the dangerous psychotic mother she is forced to look after, we see her vulnerable side. We also see her inherent caring nature from her intense need to protect her handicapped baby sister Paige. When the little seven year old is kidnapped by an angel in revenge for Penryn’s interference in a fight, Penryn is forced to team up with the striking and injured angel, Raffe, in order to save her. (Raffe immediately has all us girls swooning!)

Together, they are forced into an uneasy partnership, both needing help from the other to achieve their end goals. As they travel and meet various obstacles, some of which are quite gruesome, while others are not immediately explained- though this is where the author weaves in information, that later becomes important. These encounters also enable the relationship between Raffe and Penryn to slowly develop. It moves at a steady, believable pace (the fun is in the anticipation after all!!) It goes from a fizzle of attraction and awareness to a slow burn, hinting and teasing us with the possibilities, until you’re just praying it’ll end up building into an inferno between them!

I can’t wait for the sequel!

Go read the sample chapters on Susan Ee’s website, pop on to Goodreads to see the brilliant reviews there and then buy it on Amazon. You won’t regret it!  

I’ve finished my gushing now. (Though, did I mention I like the cover too? That rusted brown, dark, stained and old, really represents the type of world now left behind after the destruction brought down by the angels!)

An absolute hidden gem, so glad I can jump on to this bandwagon as it’s starting to get hitched up! Wagon’s roll!

When did your love of books begin?

| mlatimerridley

Ridley: I was feeling nostalgic this week. I was trying to think back on where my love of books began. I’ve always been encouraged to read. In my earliest memories, I was read to by my parents, a lot of it was Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit and Squirrel Nutkin) and Enid Blyton (Famous Five and The Secret Seven!)

Then after them I also had Teddy Ruxpin. 

He was my favourite toy. You slotted a tape into his back and you could read along with him. His little mouth and eyes would move as he spoke. For some reason, the story I remember most is the journey to the centre of the earth. I was enraptured as noises emerged from him as we ‘travelled’ downwards and we began our adventure. If I ever had children, I’d definitely buy one for them. I’d probably end up like the woman in this video (where supposedly they released Teddy R again in 2006? Hadn’t heard about that!)

I might mention here that some of my childhood was spent in America, so not a lot of my friends can relate to my Teddy Ruxpin experiences, never mind my Puffalump, Cabbage Patch kids, playdough (marla here, its harder to work with and the colours are darker) and books about Clifford the Big Red Dog. (Though I did love Bosco as much as every other Irish child did. Latimer can tell us about her early memories at some point, we can see how much we differ in our early years! We’ve had these conversations before, it always ends up descending into sweet discussions. Where I had buggals, twinkies and chewing gum with fake tattoos wrapped around them, she had penny sweets, macaroon bars, fruit salads, Kimberley and Mikado biscuits, Taytos-mind I ended up having all of these too-eventually!)

Anyway, slipping back on to this particular memory lane and away from the food one, I progressed onto reading books by Tom McCaughren such as ‘Run Swift Run Free’, ‘Run to Earth’, ‘Run with the Wind’. These were stories all about foxes and their lives in the woods (Hop-along and Old Sage Brush) One of the best Christmas presents I ever got as a child was an autographed book of ‘Run to the Wild Wood’. These books were a definite follow on from Beatrix Potter’s tales! And watching The Animals of Farthing Woods! They were all set in Ireland. I think I did start reading Irish authors after that, though not by any particular design or need to be patriotic. The primary school I attended was fantastic for bringing in authors to speak with us, who of course were Irish, there weren’t many writers from other countries touring around after all!

I got a few more books autographed after that, including Gordon Snell (Maeve Binchey’s husband) and  Marita Conlon McKenna  (Under the Hawthorn Tree-was her first book in a trilogy about the Great Irish famine and the survival of three children). I read her books when I was around 12 years old or so. They were great. I was lucky enough to meet Marita not long afterwards due to one of these school visits, I had a little stack of books for her to sign. She was absolutely lovely, even laughed when
she saw me coming. In the final autograph she has ‘Another bookworm, lots of luck!’ It was then my desire to become an author really crystallised, to have people read my work and love it like we loved her books. We’d always written short stories in English class and I’d started to write numerous ‘novels’ at home. I’d always enjoyed it.

This wish to become an author, to earn my living doing something I love, has been with me ever since.

There were numerous other fantastic authors that caught my interest as a young teen including Mark O’Sullivan (‘Melody for Nora’-about a girl living during the civil war in
Ireland), Siobhan Parkinson (‘Amelia’-also during the same time of civil unrest), Gerard Whelan (‘Out of Nowhere’-a boy wakes up with no memory in a monastery and all life outside its stone walls has disappeared) and Orla Melling (‘The Druid’s tune’-wouldn’t you want a gorgeous Celtic war chieftain falling in love with you? and ‘The Hunter’s Moon’-how about the High King of Fairie after you? Yes please!).

From then on, I was sucked into the massive world of Point fiction, Point horror, Point Romance for many a year. It was through Point that I discovered
Philip Pullman as well. I could go on and on about what else I’ve read or would like to but I’ve limited myself to just discussing my childhood, otherwise you might get bored (more so than you are already perhaps!).

 

 

These days, I have tried to honed my skills at finding the best fantasy stories with great plots interwoven with an exciting love story. It’s why I love the Young Adult genre, it often has this, along with there being numerous options within it and they’re imaginative!

 

 

So I just leave you with a question or two, when did your desire to become a writer spark? And what books do you remember as a child? 

(Instantly, does anyone else have this version of Twilight? I bought it long before Stephenie Meyer had written any sequels and I remember thinking if she wrote any more books they’d probably be quite good! This version was before the black covers! It’s kind of a strange picture really.)