Writing a Blurb

I'm going to do a blurb every day until I get it right. Here is tonight's effort.

In the forgotten past, chronicled only in ruined libraries, two ancient spirits maintained balance between the various powers of the Island, both political and elemental. Ultimately however, a great man emerged, becoming the favourite of both spirits. He used their combined gifts to defeat them both in turn, confining them to stones and dooming the world to continue in their absence.

Several life times since; Aster, an erstwhile student of the forbidden art that the man had created stumbles upon one of the stones and come under its irresistible influence.
Now, as a red sky dies above him, Aster takes his place as a pawn in what may be the last game ever played.


I've been researching blurbs and they are deceptively simple. Anyway, leave a comment if it makes you want to read the book! Otherwise my next attempt will be uploaded tomorrow!

Yes, I can use Photoshop Filters too

I have a growing list of things I'd like to write about here but every time I motivate myself to make a post I'm left short in ideas. Nothing seems worth writing about, or impossible to express. I'm back in Navan now, away from the congested streets of Dublin and back under a clear sky. I am thankful for the chance to be here for a while, but I'm hoping it won't be for long.

I'm looking for another job of course but that ever present of dream of getting something published is always dancing in my mind. I don't have control over any of things however and I've always hated that.

I pass my time by studying for my driving license exam and for programming Qualifications, I have things to do but also plenty of time to write and I am making more time now just to sit in a quiet room, television off, and just writing. It's never easy, to focus. Only, I think my problem is the opposite, I'm too focused, too focused on jobs, on exams, too focused on the next big thing. I am impatient, egotistical, overdriven.

And then I will turn and put another plan in place, another scheme to set things right. But that isn't always the way. I need to start thinking more like a hippy, more like, that things are cool. I need to just be. I have no idea how to do that.

I do not know the future, I may have my chance at the things I desire, I might not but I do not serve myself forsaking myself in favor of my quest for meaning. It's like feeding the crew of an ocean liner into the engines, sure, it's extra fuel for free but now you are just an empty hulk of unthinking steel, pushing through the freezing waves for no other reason than because you can.

I take things too seriously.

I just do. I need to stop.

Seriousness is a cruel addiction. If my pal Edgar is right and all we see or seem is truly a dream within a dream, well, we might as well make it a good one about unicorns and volcanoes.

Burn baby burn.

The Challenge of Creation

We live in a world where the individual has his hands tied in many ways, films, games and animations are works of multiple hands. They are built of a co-ordinated host, not one mind.

I have attempted to make games before but it is not possible, each part can absorb your entire ability and switching back and forth is impossible without losing quality. I have attempted to make films before but you need actors for a start, or at least somebody to hold the camera.

There is also the synergistic nature of the human mind, a right match up of minds can prove to be beyond the sum of their parts.

But, in the real world it takes resources to get these people together. It needs time, commitment and money. It is something beyond one guy to achieve, at least to start with. The novel doesn't suffer from this problem and I love it for this fact but I don't want to restricted forever. Well, it's at least a place to begin I suppose...

In the Midst

Well, half way through the only decent writing I've got done for a long time now. I'm back home and have space and peace and quiet. I can also have the television on in the room blaring comedy sitcoms that I already know off by heart playing in the background. (Seems to really help, don't ask me why.) I used to claim to need three things distracting me to be able to relax, perhaps it's true.

Writing is one of these things, it needs the right environment. I can't really claim to understand at the moment what helps me write but all I can do is play it by ear.

And I suppose it's not truly limited to writing, whether it's study or technical work it's always been difficult for me to get into a place where I can do it. I just often feel so unstimulated, sitting there focusing on a single thing which often incorporates consistent patterns and flat presentation. For this reason I find it hard to sit through most films and listen to most music, I think.

Anyway, the point is that this is something I've tried to brute force and it just didn't work. My mind is how it is and I have to learn to deal with its own eccentricities. I think in the end it will work out easier on us both.

Some Lessons from the Chinese Zodiac

I never would have described myself as one interested in the occult but I have mentioned the tarot before, and today I am going to talk about the Chinese Zodiac. Make of it what you will.

Now, the tarot is something I have fun with now and again but I wouldn't go so far as to call it accurate or to have any supernatural power, for me it's a means of thought. A random card applies an external context to a factor of my life that is sometimes very illuminating, but I digress.

The Chinese Zodiac is extremely accurate and I have a large amount of trust in it at this stage. Time and time again its rules have proven themselves true in the interactions I have witnessed in my life, so if you have an interest in that sort of thing I recommend you investigate it.

My animal is the Tiger and my element is Fire, along with everybody else born in the Chinese year of '86. This would mean a lot of things, but one of them is that I deal in bursts of energy. Even when I was a kid I was aware of this, even feeling empathy with the Tyrannosaurus Rex when he was described as being able to attain very fast speeds temporarily while pursueing prey but in general being a pretty slow Dino. That image of a titanic beast hurtling forward as an unstoppable mass of sinew and teeth only to revert to a panting pile of used up Dinosaur really resonated with me.

But I like that, for a while he's something special, for a while he's an ace, a legend.

I feel I'm like that sometimes, wasted from my last great charge, from my last attempt at something. But I am a tiger, and part of being a tiger is being an exhausted lump of fur burnt out from the hunt. Every other creature knows however, that it will not be too long before the hunter is back on form. Until then, there's Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes to vegetate in front of.

Not so far from the Norm

I've always looked down on those hooked to a particular form of entertainment, or mix thereof. I've poo-pooed televisual feasters and pa-paed people who play video games all day, but, am I so much better.

I was once what one might call "addicted" to a little internet based program called IRC. Or internet relay chat. Anywho, this little program let me go online in anoynominity and at worst have some fun messing with peoples heads and at best actually meet some pretty cool people and have night long conversations with them. I became aware of the addiction after a few years however and helped by the fact most of the people I had enjoyed talking to had gone already I was kicked the habit a few years ago.

So, I still chat to a few select people online, I don't really consider that the same thing. What I still do however is spend hour upon hour browsing from website to forum from newgrounds to something awful looking for something to laugh at or be amused by. This is normal right? The thought struck me tonight that it is in fact normal, normal as being hooked on a tv, normal as being dependent on any other quick fix, instantly gratifying form of entertainment. So there you go, I guess I'm not so better after all.

True, I do read the odd book, listen to the occasional piece of classical music but it is actually an effort to pull myself away from the internet. This source of information but, in fairness, mostly a source of quick laughs and distracting content. I've got another habit to kick, and it's going to be tough.