Ah! Another Wednesday release! Hope you are all still following along!
Again, in anticipation of the release of Unbroken Ties (Keeping Secrets, 2), we’re releasing some new chapters of Legend Unleashed (Keeping Secrets, 1) every Wednesday (next release 20th Aug!)!!
Synopsis:
“Temperance is satisfied with her ordinary life. Dealing with her eccentric, childlike parents is all the excitement she needs. That changes when Alastair Byron returns home. After a failed matchmaking attempt by her father, sparks fly between her and Alastair-just not the good kind. They are forced together though, when they are implicated in a grisly murder. Their search for the truth leads them to a secret world beneath Carwick, filled with werewolves, wizards and other magical faey. However, uncovering the truth is far more dangerous than they’d ever imagined. There are secrets within secrets. Even Alastair may be more than he seems…”
Ah! Another Wednesday release! Hope you are all still following along!
Again, in anticipation of the release of Unbroken Ties (Keeping Secrets, 2), we’re releasing some new chapters of Legend Unleashed (Keeping Secrets, 1) every Wednesday (next release 13th Aug!)!!
Synopsis:
“Temperance is satisfied with her ordinary life. Dealing with her eccentric, childlike parents is all the excitement she needs. That changes when Alastair Byron returns home. After a failed matchmaking attempt by her father, sparks fly between her and Alastair-just not the good kind. They are forced together though, when they are implicated in a grisly murder. Their search for the truth leads them to a secret world beneath Carwick, filled with werewolves, wizards and other magical faey. However, uncovering the truth is far more dangerous than they’d ever imagined. There are secrets within secrets. Even Alastair may be more than he seems…”
Latimer musing over her Top 5’s (kawaii artwork inspired by Miss Wah)
Latimer: Another one of the Top 5 posts! This time, dangerous villainous villains!
The series comes from the archive of the ‘Top 5 Wednesday’ Tag. This Tag was started by Lainey on Goodreads; here’s the link if you want to check it out: Lainey!
This is a complete listof everyone partaking in the Tag if you want to check them out.
1. The Joker by DC comics
DC’s the Joker has to be a top villain. No one knows his origin story, he never tells the truth. He’s absolutely crazy, but he’s also incredibly intelligent. He has no loyalties and yet can somehow manipulate those around him to do anything he wants. But the Joker is completely bananas, and as interesting and mysterious as I find him, he’s a villain I’d never want to meet!
2. Dracula by Bram Stoker
I couldn’t stomach the original Dracula from Bram Stoker. He made me want to hit him with a shovel; the way he manipulated Mina and basically killed Lucy. It really annoys me now when I look at the screen versions of Dracula; he wasn’t sexy, or a fallen hero, he was an absolute narcissistic, megalomaniac. No tears shed when he died… and now I can’t really look at Dracula the same way anymore.
3. Hannibal Lector by Thomas Harris
Hannibal Lector is a strange one. I always feel like I’m on his side in a way, which it not a comforting thought. I want him to get away, escape and survive (which is bad). He’s an amazing villain, I have a weird soft spot for him; I like him, but he’s a cannibal and a murder, and he’s scary. I’d never want to be in the same room as him. I haven’t watched the TV show, but I’ve seen the finale of season 2; Mad’s Mikkelsen is an amazing Hannibal. I’m still amazed by the vicious intelligence of the character. He worm’s his way inside people’s heads then destroys them.
4. Mr Wickham by Jane Austen
What an absolute arse…
I’ve said it before; I’m a massive Pride and Prejudice fan.
Mr Wickham is the quintessential ‘arsehole villain’. He’s not scary and he’s not powerful, he’s just such an unbelievable jackass. He’s a Jane Austen villain. He’s the sort of guy that if you met him you’d punch him in the nose. Of course, I wouldn’t be afraid to be alone with him, because in a lot of ways, I’d love the opportunity to punch him in the nose.
5. King Joffrery Barathon the First of his Name by GRR Martin
What a little pain in the ass this guy is. Brilliantly portrayed by Jack Gleeson (he’s an amazing actor, and he’s Irish, by default I’m almost programmed to love him as an actor!).
Joffrery has killed too many people I loved. He’s malicious, vindictive and stupid – the issue here is when a villain is stupid and has power, his acts of violence are like a bull in a china shop, it’s impossible to predict who will suffer. What a fecker!
Again, in anticipation of the release of Unbroken Ties (Keeping Secrets, 2), we’re releasing some new chapters of Legend Unleashed (Keeping Secrets, 1) every Wednesday (next release 6th Aug!)!!
Synopsis:
“Temperance is satisfied with her ordinary life. Dealing with her eccentric, childlike parents is all the excitement she needs. That changes when Alastair Byron returns home. After a failed matchmaking attempt by her father, sparks fly between her and Alastair-just not the good kind. They are forced together though, when they are implicated in a grisly murder. Their search for the truth leads them to a secret world beneath Carwick, filled with werewolves, wizards and other magical faey. However, uncovering the truth is far more dangerous than they’d ever imagined. There are secrets within secrets. Even Alastair may be more than he seems…”
Latimer musing over her Top 5’s (kawaii artwork inspired by Miss Wah)
Latimer: There are some fantastic BookTubers on YouTube.
One of them is The Readables. She does this great Tag every Wednesday, called Top 5 Wednesday. This Tag was started by Lainey on Goodreads; and it’s basically a weekly prompt of ‘Top 5’s’. Here’s the link if you want to check it out: Lainey!
And this is a complete listof everyone partaking in the Tag if you want to check them out!
I’m taking some inspiration for posts from this Tag, though I won’t be doing it in any particular order (and it will be on a Sunday!). It’s just for fun, because some of the prompts are quite interesting and force you to think a bit, plus maybe it will inspire me to read a bit more!
For this Tag, I also won’t necessarily be using books as my main basis; I’m going to include characters and situations in graphic novels, comic series, books, TV shows and movies!
So! On to the first Top 5:
Top Books/Comics You’d Like to See Be Movies/TV shows
This is a hard one! But well, let’s see how ole Latimer gets on!
1. The Sandman by Neil Gaiman – TV SERIES
To this day I have lots of mixed feeling about the series. There were things I loved and things I didn’t, as with all experiences! But I do think it would make a very interesting TV Show. There does seem to be some whispers again that something might be happening with The Sandman in the future, but we’ll wait and see.
Anyways, I think HBO could do amazing things with this material. The Endless as a character set would be pretty interesting to see in the flesh; the unstable Delirium; wise Destiny, who has a book called the Cosmic Log chained to his hand; bitchy Desire, who is neither man nor a woman (called Sister-Brother by the others) and lives in Threshold, a giant flesh and blood replica of itself; Despair (twin of Desire, nice touch!), who wears no clothes and is always in pain; Death a Goth girl who once a year, for one day, lives and dies as a moral; and the protagonist Dream, the Sandman.
The series spans all of space and time, there’s lots of stories to tell along with the main story arc. There are plenty of crazy out-there concepts that could only come from the mind of Neil Gaiman; and they are very cinematic! It could be a great TV show.
2. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett – MOVIE
I love this book! These two writers are a perfect complement to one another – you can tell they must have had fun plotting this story out.
The story is about the coming apocalypse which is supposed to happen at the hands of Adam Young, the son of the Devil, who doesn’t know who he really is and doesn’t behave as the Anti-Christ should.
There are four horsepeople (Pestilence is now Pollution because Pestilence had to retire due to the discovery of penicillin; and War is a woman); the unlikely team up of an angel and demon;; and the descendant of Angus Nutter, a witch who predicted all of this happening, all racing to find the Anti-Christ.
This would be such a funny, quirky movie – they could make it in a British film style. I think it would be great.
3. Discworld series by Terry Pratchett – TV SERIES
Okay, so technically there have been a few TV specials of various different Discworld novels, but I think it would make a great ongoing TV show, with new stories; or even a totally new group of characters set in the Discworld. There could be a new/original main story arc, with the new characters interacting with various classic Discworld characters.
It could be made in the same style as Doctor Who, quirky and off-beat, serious but not serious. It would definitely need Terry Pratchett to develop the new story line though.
4. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier – STOP-MOTION MOVIE
This would be a get stop-motion movie; made by Laika. It’s the story of the 12 dancing princesses, or a take on that idea.
It’s set in maybe 1600’s Romania. The book follows these five sisters who every night go dancing in the fairy realm with lots of magical creatures, then return home before the gates close between the two worlds. The main character Jaina has a pet frog (more a friend) that she found in the woods; they have a telepathic link to one another.
Trouble starts when her older sister falls in love with a vampire from the fairy world. It would make an amazing stop-motion movie. I just made myself sad now because I’ll never get to see it – *sigh*
5. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson – TV SERIES
This was a really amazing book. It’s full of information and it was a damn struggle to read, but so worth it in the end. I actually need to re-read it, there’s so much in it that you start to forget it almost straightaway.
It covers geology, physics, chemistry and biology and how all the various major discovers in each field were developed; it also has lots of stories about all the quirky and down-right strange people who made all these discoveries and how they did.
It would be an amazing TV series.
Do you guys have any thoughts on what you’d like to see as a movie or TV show?
If you want to start using this Tag, check out the link to Lainey’s thread on Goodreads – anyone can use it!
In anticipation of the release of Unbroken Ties (Keeping Secrets, 2), we’ll be releasing some new chapters of Legend Unleashed (Keeping Secrets, 1) every Wednesday (so check back on the 30th July!)!!
Synopsis:
“Temperance is satisfied with her ordinary life. Dealing with her eccentric, childlike parents is all the excitement she needs. That changes when Alastair Byron returns home. After a failed matchmaking attempt by her father, sparks fly between her and Alastair-just not the good kind. They are forced together though, when they are implicated in a grisly murder. Their search for the truth leads them to a secret world beneath Carwick, filled with werewolves, wizards and other magical faey. However, uncovering the truth is far more dangerous than they’d ever imagined. There are secrets within secrets. Even Alastair may be more than he seems…”
We’re back! Yes it has been a while, but we’re picking up lots of momentum recently and everything is back on track and progressing nicely!
So here it is, the cover for our next book, due out at the end of August – drum roll please… Unbroken Ties, Keeping Secrets 2!
Book 2 cover!!
We hope you guys like it! Please let us know what you think. The cover was designed and made my ourselves here at MLR and we’re v.happy with the results!
So, yes, this is book 2 in our Keeping Secrets series (Young Adult, Urban Fantasy), continuing on from Legend Unleashed (Keeping Secrets 1). The synopsis for Unbroken Ties is…
Unbroken Ties, Keeping Secrets Book 2
Trouble is brewing and tensions are high in Carwick, where Temperance is struggling to belong.
The wizards distrust her, the werewolves despise her, and someone wants her dead.
With Halvard’s duties drawing him further from her, and the surprise return of her brother, chaos grips Carwick, and Temperance soon finds her loyalty to her family tested like never before….
—
We hope you’ll come back to Carwick with us for the next story! If you haven’t already checked out Legend Unleashed, please click here to read some excerpts and see the book trailers! Or you can pop on over to Amazon!
Latimer: There are some interesting movies on the horizon. Just the other day I saw a trailer for The Boxtrolls, a beautiful-looking stop-motion movie made by the Laika group.
It’s been a while since I saw one of their movies (Paranorman) but I always look forward to them – because I love me some stop-motion.The Nightmare before Christmas is one of my favourite movies (and also, strangely, one of the movies that creeps me out most… not sure what that says about me!).
Paranorman was preceded by Coraline (one of Neil Gaiman’s books), which was on the TV recently and made me fall in love, all over again, with lovely Laika stop-motion.
What a beautiful art-form stop-motion it is. These movies are so detailed and so lovingly made. You can see how much time and effort went into crafting them. I love the wacky character designs, the seamless movement and yes, I love the eerie feeling that niggles at the back of my mind, because stop-motion, in a lot of ways, boarders on the very, very creepy.
They take years to make and I guess that’s the price we pay for the quality – the time. But, YES, time to look forward to The Boxtrolls!
So we were asked by our good twitter and writer friend, James T Kelly, to take part in the Writing Process Blog Hop. Last week, James posted his response to the same questions we have below, so make sure you check them out here. Also while you’re at it, why not pop on over to Smashwords and check out his great short stories, The Homeless Hero and You Are Just A Guest.
So on to the questions…..
What are we working on?
Well let’s see, we’ve the sequel to Legend Unleashed off with our editor at the moment, hopefully it’s being hacked and pruned and whipped into some sort of book shape by him. We look forward to the work that comes with it when we get it back, that’s always fun!! Though it’ll be very tiring, we generally look like we’re carrying massive suitcases under our eyes, not just little bags, by the end of it all. We are also currently in the middle of writing our third book in the Keeping Secrets series, and we’re near-ish the end of the that one, and once that’s finished it’s on to start the fourth book, so we’ve been keeping ourselves busy! Sure what else would we be doing in our spare time? 😛
How does work differ from others of its genre?
We like to think, like any writer I suppose, that we inject a little of ourselves into our books, whether it’s a quirky habit of ours that we give to a character, or our weird sense of humour, or generally just a slightly askew way of looking at the world, it all goes in. For any book, I think the part of the author that is infused throughout the pages of their novel, that piece of them that people are almost only unconsciously aware is present, is what makes each book unique and different from others in its genre.
Why do we write what we do?
We write what we love to read. We like fantasy, we like the young adult genre. At the back of everything we’ve written, there are two fangirls giggling and nodding, urging each other on and basically putting in everything we’ve always wanted to see in other books. Usually our plots begin with the words, ‘wouldn’t it be great if…’ When we were both younger, long before we ever knew each other or became friends, we both used to play the game of ‘what will happen now’, where after you were forced to put your book down and stop reading (usually to get some sleep before school), you were left to imagine what would happen next in the story, what the main character would say, or do, so writing the stories that we do, is probably just a natural progression of all of that for us.
How does our writing process work?
Well, this is a question that we get asked quite a lot, mainly as there are two of us and people wonder how two people can write a book together. We think up the book plot together over numerous pots of tea and not a small bit of mad cackling laughter. Generally this is the most free and creative part in the whole process, as we put in everything and anything we each want to see happen in the book. After this, the the plot is broken down into chapter summaries, then we divide them out evenly between us, we each get two chapters at a time and the book hops back and forth between us after each of our chapter stints are over. It also generally works out that where one of us starts the book, the other person ends it. There’s a nice symmetry to it all really!
So there’s some tiny insight into how we work! Needless to say, whether we were published or not, I’ve no doubt we’d still be writing stories together, it’s just too much fun to stop.
Now we pass the blog hop torch to another writer and blogger friend, Frankie Whelan:
“Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. Lifelong consumer of words. Writing is mostly fantasy fiction with occasional leanings towards journalism. Avid gamer and musician, when time allows.
Firmly believes that a mug of tea and a chocolate digestive can solve most of the world’s woes.”
Check out his website, he’ll be posting next week for the next stage in the Writing Process Blog Hop! 🙂
Carwicky 