Wanna read some sci-fi?

Then head over to Christopher Maine’s blog and check out his short stories – the Runner chronicles. They’re brilliant short science fiction stories, I’ve been hooked on them – and if you enjoy those, check out some of his other writing and buy his books, “Tales From The Terra Firma Fleet”, on Amazon! 

Science fiction has become a bit of a buzzword for me just recently; I can’t get enough of it. I don’t know if it’s because at the moment I’m alternating between writing science fiction short stories (set in Christopher Maine’s universe) and also a science fiction novel set (also set in that universe), but I really love it. I’ve also just finished watching the series of “Firefly” (I’ll hopefully be progressing to the film at some point soon) and I love it; so much so that I’m dedicating my next assessment to it by giving a presentation about the series. 

So I’m on a bit of a sci-fi kick at the moment. I’m making my way through the book of War Of The Worlds and my next television show I’m going to watch which I should have watched years ago is Stargate Atlantis. Let’s see where that one takes me!

Stay shiny x

My Recommended Reads!

I’ve got an hour until my lecture and some time to kill (technically I should be doing uni work and tidying but… nah!) so I’ve decided to go through some of the books on my bookshelf (both real and virtual) and give you my list of recommended reads.

 

 

“If I Stay” by Gayle Forman

I’ve finally learned what the genre is called and technically it’s “sick-lit”, there’s been a bit of controversy over books in this genre being marketed to vulnerable 13-year-olds, but honestly I think it’s all down to the maturity of the reader. This book isn’t an easy read – it’s not very long, I finished it in a couple of hours (although I am a fast reader), but some of the content is quite graphic (I’ll post a warning now – brain chunks are mentioned) and I do think that this should be aimed at more 16+ than 13+ purely because it is a bit… gross at times. Still, it’s a great book.

 

“To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

Honestly, this is one of my favourite books. I love the story, I love the language used in it, I love the characters and I love the imagery it evokes; Lee is an incredible writer. I studied it for GCSE and it didn’t ruin it at all for me, unlike many stories where studying it has put me off ever wanting to read it for pleasure (step forwards, Wuthering Heights!), this one I could easily read again and again, because of the nostalgia it evokes – my childhood was so different to Scout and Jem’s, and yet reading this evokes memories of hot childhood summers.

 

“The Hunger Games” Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Obviously these books are fairly well known because of the films (which are quite possibly my favourite film-adaptation-of-a-book because there wasn’t that much they left out and the actors were all great and it was everything I hoped it’d be), but the books in themselves are great. I know there’s been a lot of comparisons with Battle Royale; personally I can’t comment because I haven’t read it, but I think these books are fantastic and I’d highly recommend them.

 

“Tales From The Terra Firma Fleet” series by Christopher Maine

I know, I go on about this guy a lot, but I really enjoy his writing! He’s an indy writer and I think he deserves to do well because he’s got a great series going on. Check it out on http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Flight-Renegade-Tales-ebook/dp/B007B3CZF2 . Great characters, great plots, some fantastic relationships building up… it’s like sci-fi-action-romance-drama all in one.

 

“Harry Potter” series by JK Rowling

Do I really need to explain this one? If you haven’t read the books, just read them! Do it! Now!

 

“Marley and Me” by John Grogan

I watched the film and it made me cry. I read the book and it made me cry even more. This book is hilarious, heartbreaking and so touching all in one, and it really is wonderful. I read it all in one sitting and I wouldn’t recommend it because the emotions are overwhelming; read it bit by bit but just make sure that you do read it!

 

Even writers can get into the Christmas spirit!

I’ve taken a break from writing the full story I’m currently working on, to involve the main character in a Christmas story! This is something I always try and do whenever I’m writing a story at Christmastime – partly because it makes a nice break from writing the story and makes me want to carry on and get it finished, but also because you see people for who they really are at Christmas. You can tell a lot about a person from the way Christmas makes them feel and act. For example, you can tell my character is quite seriously lonely and depressed in the story I’ve just written – which, I think, makes the heart-warming little ending they get feel even better – and, because it’s Christmas, you can tell that something really bad must have happened to make her feel so down at this time of year.

I posted a story I wrote on Wattpad last night, I’m a little new to it so I have no idea how to do anything other than post my stories, but if you’d like to check out some of the stuff I’ll be posting on there – none of “Blue”, my current WIP, will go on there because my eventual aim is for it to be published on Kindle, and I’m concerned people might try and steal my stuff (that is a little vain of me, to assume that anything I write is actually worth stealing, but it’s still a concern). I’ll be hopefully posting some poetry if I ever get around to writing any more, and some short stories that pop into my heads now and then (the majority of them are very much pertaining to the universe of “Blue”, or at least to the wider universe of the “Terra Firma Fleet” series by Christopher Maine, so if you haven’t read those books, it may not make much sense, but I’d still love it if people could read my writing!

http://www.wattpad.com/user/MaddyMatthews

I’ll aim to get another blog up before Christmas, but I hope everyone is enjoying a warm and festive holiday season so far!

New novel!

The third and final novel in Christopher Maine’s “Dragon Flight” trilogy, part of his “Tales From The Terra Firma Fleet” series, was released on the 18th November and is now available on Amazon for Kindles and devices with the Kindle Reading App (you can get it for Android, iOS, Windows phones and others so there’s no excuse for not having it!) .

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Flight-EndGame-Tales-ebook/dp/B00A9HSQ8W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1353672996&sr=8-3

Civil war has ripped through the galaxy, and with each passing day, more and more systems are attacked. The Marauders keep pushing towards the core worlds, and the Fleet remnants struggle to remain ahead of the chaos as each new day brings fresh pain to the already weary crew.

The wounds run deep and blood has been spilled. The shadow of loss hangs over the Fleet, the seeds of anger, hate and vengeance growing in the darkness. Now all that remains is revenge.

The pieces shift across the chessboard, and both sides race headlong towards ENDGAME.

 

Go forth and purchase, good readers!

End of week 3/start of week 4 NaNo update!

So today, if I can write 1,000 words in the next three hours (which shouldn’t be too big an issue, as the words are flowing really easily right now), I will reach 100,000 words. That’s 100,000 words in 23 days, at the same time as maintaining some semblance of a social life, sleeping and that little thing called uni. I’m quite proud, but also quite tired – I think sleep will definitely be in order when I’ve finished, although it could be a while – it’s going to be a trilogy of quite long stories! December is going to be editing month; my chance to polish what I’ve written and get it into a non-Nano format. I’m going to lose a lot of my wordcount because I’m getting rid of some of the bits I’ve written, but I’ll still be well over 50,000 words even with those bits removed.
So this afternoon I’m going to do a little bit of blogging, I think. First of all there will be an exciting announcement regarding Christopher Maine, and then a post about what happens when your character is based on you – and you realize that you’re starting to become a little bit based on your character!

NaNoveling Update – End of Week 1!

So Week 1 of NaNoWriMo draws to a close, and I am halfway to 50k. It’d be really great if I can maintain this pace and get 100k in a month; I can’t remember how much I managed last year but I think it was closing in on 75k, to go even better this year would be great!

So I’ve basically mapped out and written all the important plot points (well, nearly all of them) – now it’s a case of bringing them all together. My “novel” is actually three sections or books, so I’ve got plenty to write about, I can’t see myself running out of steam. I’m really pleased with how well-developed the characters are, especially the main one, and I know that when I re-read some of the Terra Firma Fleet books (available now on Amazon Kindle), the particular character from those stories whose origin I’m writing will have a lot more depth behind her. It’s a really interesting character exercize!

Another character thing I’ve done is the accent tag challenge, for three of the main characters. The way it is, you’ve got Amber, who is almost a “valley girl” type character – blonde, beautiful but sometimes a little bit ditzy, and she’s got quite a generic, feminine American accent, because of the colony station she’s from. Then you have Caydan, who is well-educated and well-brought up, and he’s very much your typical Received-Pronounciation young man, because his home on Tempora Prime is in a very affluent area. Then we have the main character, Madalyn, who you may recall from “Dragon Flight: Wrath”, if you’ve read it (and if you haven’t, READ IT!). She’s a New Manhattan girl, a young mechanic with something of a slightly-diluted New York accent – no real defined borough but at a push I’d say it’s between Manhattan and very, very diluted Queens or Staten Island, from what I’ve heard and attempted of it (my attempt really isn’t anything impressive!). So I did the accent tag challenge for all of them, and it’s made writing their dialogue a lot easier!

In other news, I performed my monologue in class in front of an agent today, which was amazing! We also had a great workshop on facilitation, which is what I really would like to do in the future, so hopefully I’ll be able to do some volunteering work experience with them later on in my time here! Oh, and looks like I passed my room inspection. All in all, a very good day! 🙂

Let The NaNoveling Commence!

Yes, this year, for the third year running, I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo. For those who don’t know, it stands for National Novel Writing Month – every November, hundreds of thousands of (crazy) people all over the world try to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Some set their targets even higher, others don’t mind how high they get – they just like the support the NaNo forums and community offers.

This year I’m taking a break from the norm and writing fanfiction, based on Christopher Maine’s “Tales From The Terra Firma Fleet” series. I’ve never tried to write a fanfiction novel before, usually just settling for one-shots or a small number of chapters making up a short story, but this year I’m going the whole hog and trying to write 50,000 words worth of fanfiction.

Want to get involved in NaNo too? Go to www.nanowrimo.org and sign up! Also, if you’re looking for a writing buddy, here’s me – http://nanowrimo.org/en/participants/maddiemcmoomin

A Tiring Week!

I am now the proud owner of a onesie! Yes, like footsie pyjamas without any feet. At first I was skeptical of the craze but I realize now exactly why they are so popular; they’re SO comfortable! Mine is a cow onesie with a hood that has little ears on it! It’s so warm and lovely that I think I could quite easily live in onesies from now on (but I won’t, because I’m not.. how do I put this… a chav!).

On Thursday, training properly started for the run. I couldn’t do very much because I wasn’t feeling great – I’d had an x ray in the morning which wasn’t an entirely pleasant experience – plus I didn’t warm up, but I did a four mile walk with a jog along the beach. I ended up with a nasty blister but it was a lovely walk and I felt really good when I got back, plus it made me a bit more comfortable about being able to do the run. I can start training to run and jog longer distances once I’ve strengthened up my knees and ankles a bit, so it’s all good. I’ve also started collecting sponsors (I’m doing it for Birmingham Children’s Hospital; the hospital that saved my life when I was a baby and who made my little brother’s last days comfortable), you can sponsor me at www.justgiving.com/Madison-Matthews , if you can give anything at all, please do – and even if you can’t, please share the link on your facebook/blog/twitter, I’d really appreciate it! You can tag me in it if you want – @lifeofamoomin (Twitter) – but please let as many people as possible know what I’m doing and why!

Also, don’t forget that Christopher Maine’s new book, Dragon Flight: Wrath is available on Amazon now for your Kindle or Kindle-enabled smartphone/tablet/iPad (all you need to do is download the free Kindle reading app). Search for it now on Amazon and please get yourself a copy, it’s great!

My Weekly Publicist Turn!

Yes, it’s that time once more where I slip on my publicist hat and tell you all to buy Christopher Maine’s books if you haven’t already – they’re available for Kindle or any device compatible with the Kindle Reading App eg iPad, smartphones, most tablets. They don’t cost very much at all and they’re fantastic books, and I really recommend them, it’d be great if you could buy them and support a fledgling independent author!

You can also follow his blog where he actually sticks to the description of a writing blog, unlike me where I chat lots about my life and boring stuff and rarely actually talk about important stuff like writing and news and charities. Please follow his blog – http://www.christophermaine.wordpress.com – and buy his books, at – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Flight-Renegade-Tales-ebook/dp/B007B3CZF2 and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Flight-Wrath-Tales-ebook/dp/B0089CLIT8/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2 !

Hello there!

Yes, ’tis me, venturing out of my revision-induced seclusion to say hello and, once again, apologize for the lack of posts. I keep saying that normal service will resume shortly, and I assure you all that it will, but “shortly” might actually translate as June 20th, the date of my last exam. I’m going to try and keep coming in and posting, but I can’t guarantee how frequent it’ll be. In better news, my first exam is on Thursday! It’s drama, which I’m not too worried about but the way I’ve been recently, I can’t guarantee how I’ll be on the day of the exam or how it’ll affect my performance. I’ve tried to revise today but today is a painful day so I didn’t get much done.

I’ve started writing again! Not my old story, which probably isn’t a good thing because I do need to continue it, but a short story which I may even post at some point. It’s got a while until it’s finished – when I say “short”, it’s probably going to be around 20,000 words (is that a novella? Novelet? I can’t remember) but I’m quite proud of the idea so I hope it’ll be good enough for you all.

So, some exciting things that have happened/are happening at the moment.

 

– Exams are nearly upon me, which means they have nearly finished and then it’s the summer and then university!

– Christopher Maine has something very exciting coming in the next three weeks (check his blog http://www.christophermaine.wordpress.com or his twitter, @CMaine_Official for details).

– I have my face paints! So I can now paint faces. Whether I’m any good at it remains to be seen, but I now have some semblance of a face painting kit and I like it.

– I saw the Olympic torch relay! It was exciting and fun to see and something I shall tell my grandchildren one day, so that’s always a good thing.

– I have finally read the Hunger Games trilogy. I will review them at some point but I’ll give you a little taste of what you will find in my review. The word “awesome” will appear a lot, as will the phrases “up there with Harry Potter”, “Katniss is so much cooler than Bella Swan” and “if you never read another book series in your life, make sure you read this one”. I spent the day absolutely enthralled from the moment I started “The Hunger Games” to the moment I finished “Mockingjay”, and I’m convinced reading those books is what has made me feel like writing again 🙂