I always forget to post things on here.

Well, I was going to post character art, one character at a time - but since the last post, Thomas' illustration has been updated - also, I've since come up with a potential title for the book:

Left to right: Jamie Hays, 16 year old human, Hannah Eloise, 20 year old human, Elizabeth Angeline, 21 year old witch, Suzanne Angeline, 19 year old witch, Thomas Denson, 19 year old part-zombie and Mitchell Day, 16 year old human.

Hopefully their outfits will help give you an idea/incite into their personalities.

Character art!

As an artist, I find it helpful to create visual stimuli to help with the writing process of my book.

As you know, I've ceased the production of 'Sam' because it has a shitty plot, invented up by the 14 year old version of me.

So from now on, you'll only see posts of me updating you on my 'Zombies book'.

Anyhoo!

Here is a fashion illustration of one of the outfits I could possibly have 'Thomas Denson' in (although, I'm not 100% sure, just because it's not as scruffy and dark as I would picture him. Which is fine, this is only the first example, and it gives, at least, a general idea):

"I swivel ‘round, put my Doc’s on and start rolling a cigg as everyone else is panicking. Crandall sits next to me and starts revealing his plan of action or whatever."

- Thomas Denson

Chapter 12

Damn..

So I know I've not written on here for a while, and I could say sorry, but I'm 98% sure that nobody reads this blog anyway...

So I've recently come to the realisation that I'm not a huge fan of the book I've been writing - the one I've not decided on a name, but call 'Sam'. I started planning it when I was 14 years old - And I'm 19 going on 20 now, and I don't relate as well to 14 year old me's ideas - she was young and naive and really had no idea how to construct a book.
I could spend time fixing it - but that would take forever.
I probably will though - just because I would always have it in the back of my head gnawing away at me.

I am, however, making progressions with my Zombie Apocalypse novel. I've started writing in a peculiar way - I find myself writing at strange times of the night, writing chapters that I've yet to include because I'd have to sort an order first. I started a small plan, so it shouldn't be hard to fill in the gaps - and honestly, I'm enjoying this method more - because it means that I'm not waiting around for my inspiration and motivated idea's to be allowed to be included - and writing them down whilst they're still fresh and exciting.

On another note!!

As some of you may or may not know, I am an avid film maker - amateur, but brilliant - and soon to be professional, after my first my paid job - as up till now I've been doing a lot of work for either myself or pro bono.
But anyway! When I'm planning short film idea's, I often find myself writing monologues instead of a video plan. But I think It might be a nice idea to start posting some of these monologues - Maybe it'd give you a chance to get into my head. See how I work a little bit. I was about to start a blog just for them - but then It made sense to post them here - because although they're completely unrelated to my books - they still make for interesting reading material.

What I do ask, is that, you don't use them for your own use - and if you do want to - then you can email me, and ask me about that.
Also, if something takes your interest as an actor/film maker/creative person - and you want in on trying to create a film based on a piece of my work - then feel free to hollar at me and I'll be more than likely to be game to make that happen. I almost never pass up on opportunity to make a film.

I'll post soon!
Banarn

p.s

I have a friend from my school dayz, and she has a book out!
She's a brilliant writer. She won the poet laureate competition in 2013, I believe.
Her writing is incredibly poetic.
You should definitely check her out:
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BethanieHardie
Her blog: http://bethanie-hardie.blogspot.co.uk/

And also, of course!, go purchase her book!!:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/An-Immortal-London-Corruption-ebook/dp/B00E9RGXEM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375433753

Publishing situation..

So during 2013 at some point, I'd spent some time researching self-publishing and publishing, and at some point during this research, I apparently signed up to be considered for my own publishing consultant.

I think it was last week when a nice man rang me on my phone, and my being socially awkward, hung up after he said hello. He rang again, almost immediately after the previous call, so I asked a friend to answer instead and find out what he wants. He then had a conversation with the man, and I had no idea what they were discussing, but Jord then told the man on the phone to call back in 5 minutes. When he hung up I was like "What the tits mcgee?"

to which he replied "It's about publishing your book"

So then I was like "sheeeiiit"

I had started walking to the bus station with some friends in the pouring rain at night, and I received another call. I was supposed to be walking with Aidan B, but dude was late for his bus and had begun sprinting. 

This man on the phone, asked about my book, and if it was done, and how long it would be till it'd be done and how he had been assigned to me as my publishing consultant - which was freaking me out. I then stopped him talking and requested an email instead, as I was speed walking to the station in the rain and could barely concentrate.

I then hung up and slowed down to reveal that I had a publishing consultant, which the other two people walking with us had congratulated me on and offered his services for illustrating the cover - which was nice of him.

So, I was initially quite excited about this entire situation - but then I got home and I felt the pressure. And I didn't dig that - I'm a very laid back person, or at least, I like to be laid back. The more stressed I am, the more un-productive I am. And with the stress of college already among a tit load of other things, focussing on publishing just seemed like a daunting experience. So I sent him an emailed reply, saying that I'd prefer to not focus on my book and publishing at this time, and just focus on my studies...

When I've finished the book, I think that I might like to re-look into publishing - but I wouldn't want to self-publish.

Self publishing can be expensive and the success rate is not as high unless you know what you're doing. 

Anyway yeah - that's the story of how I had a publishing consultant, for like, six hours... maybe less.

#BackInAction

After doing a tit load of research, and then forgetting about it for a few months, and then re-remembering about it, I went ahead and bought an external hard disk enclosure.

It's this thingy maboob, where you put an old hard drive inside, screw it all together and then using a USB, plug it into your laptop like it's an external hard drive (like a large memory stick).

Which means, you simpletons, I've got my book back!
The one that I initially called 'Cyborg Sam' - which is incredibly unfitting, considering that I switched the idea of her becoming a cyborg long ago, so for now, is called just 'Sam'.

I added in a few chapters that I'd written on my phone, and neatened it out a bit. Which gave me the chance to catch up on my gurl Sam. p.s the story is getting hella juicy!

I hope it finishes in under the next 20 chapters though.
It's just that I'm going through a tit load of chapters, and I just want the juicy juicy stuff to happen. And people to die and fight and I don't even know. But I want stuff to happen. Which it will. Because I'm in charge bitchez!

Anyway, like the title says #BackInAction #bitchez

"I'm really not sure what happened - I remember crying a lot. He started to drift away from me, and I started reciting a spell - but this was a spell that I'd never read before..."

- Suzanne Angeline

TheUnamedZombieApocolypseStory

" ...that dirty slag snatched him up..." I got straight onto Skype to let Elizabeth know what'd happened, and during our conversation the - well, whatever it was - happened. It was kind of annoying - I was in the middle of topping up my rouge lipstick and it smudged all over!

I looked like a vampire after dinner time - so gross."

- Hannah Eloise

TheUnamedZombieApocolypseStory

"Pathetic. I'm pathetic. Jamie's right - I didn't do anything. I couldn't. I tried to get myself to run forward and pick up bits of loose wood, but my feet wouldn't let me go. I thought up a thousand ways to kill the zombies - a thousand different tactics. But instead of doing them, I stood there. Doing nothing. Nothing more than a coward."

- Mitchel Day

TheUnamedZombieApocolypseStory

"Suzanne was out with her boyfriend that day, Thomas. He's the worst - thinks everyone loves him or something. Arrogant little twat. She was out with him anyway, doubt it was a romantic date, more likely that they grabbed some McDonalds fries and ate outside as he smoked. "

- Elizabeth Angeline

TheUnamedZombieApocolypseStory

"So there I was, playing FIFA against some kid in Japan, he was 100% cheating because he was winning 4:1. Dirty, dirty cheater. Anyway, Mitchel stood up and got all "did you feel that?" like, what the hell right? so I told him to shut up because I was mid-game, but seconds after the x-box glitched. The tv glitched. The lights glitched. The laptop - fucking guess what? - ye, it glitched."

- Jaime Hays

TheUnamedZombieApocolypseStory

"I should also probably mention, that at the same time that I was resurrected, so was a whole bunch of other near death people - obviously we didn't realise that at the time, too busy dying and not dying or whatever."

- Thomas Denson

TheUnamedZombieApocolypseStory

Well then,

Laying here being horribly ill and waiting for my photography work to upload onto google drive before going to sleep ready for college in the morning, I'd decided to update you with my latest idea for my latest project "Zombies" (Which, again, won't be the official title.) I did say prior to this, that I wanted to write this book with near to no plot planning - and although I still want to go by that, I've come to the conclusion that It'd be best that I at least planned out the key points throughout the book, so that I could have something to write towards and not just trail off on pointless story lines that don't amount to anything. I still, however, want for the journey's working up to each key point, to come naturally and without a pre-conceived idea of what I want to happen and how the characters will react. I want to be able to discover the characters myself, as well as the readers will, not just have flat character profiles - they need to be well rounded to be successful. Their favourite songs, their pet peeves, what they do when they're nervous, the time they got mugged, their first crush, whether they're a tea or coffee person - I want for my readers to be able to learn about my characters, I don't want for it to be a "I'm Tom - and I am a dick head..." type of situation. As a reader you want to be able to read the words and imagine a voice and a face inside your head - sure, the character may very well be a dick head - but the way you learn that is not through him telling you, but from the things he says - both to you, in the first person style of narration and also to the characters he speaks to. But that's not all he is, of course he can't be, that'd be far to basic for my liking - he may be an anti-hero, but a hero none the less - which means that we're going to want to like him, love him even, and to get to that point, we need to learn about the way he operates, the way he deals with things, his emotions and feelings.

Their are six characters in total which the book soley surrounds itself, I just used 'Tom' as an example.

Saying that actually! I might just start posting the character profiles onto here... which is from my initial planning and a way that I've been using to log information about the group, as I've been writing the book - as I happen to be brilliant at forgetting things. I'll leave out anything that might ruin the book - so just the basic stuff to get an idea in your head!
I'll do a character per post in the near future.

 I also want to start posting illustrations and such on here - as an artist, I can't help but want to connect my creative interests together!

 Anyway lil swagheads!
My photog has finished uploading, which means bed time for me!
Night guys!
xxx

This has nothing to do with anything, but I thought I'd let you all know that I also sell T-shirts and other merch...

I have a situation on my hands...

So a while ago, I'm guessing in August my brother broke my laptop. He broke a little part in the back where the charger goes. Skip through time a bit and I've sent it off to PC World to get it fixed. And when I get it back I read the receipt to see that the thing I needed fixing cost £9 but they charged me another £50 to replace the hard drive. like, what the actual fuck? My hard drive was fine! Yeah it crashed every now and then, but it wasn't that bad and I didn't mind nor did I ask for it to be changed.

That hard drive has a hefty amount of my photography and video projects which pissed me off some, but what I'm mostly pissed off about being gone is my book, "Sam", I was thirty chapters in. It was my most up to date version! I worked fucking hardcore on that shit. I'd started planning it when I was 14! (I'm 19 now) so It's taken up a lot of my time, and I was incredibly proud of it. It may not be the next 'To Kill a Mockingbird' or the next 'Moby Dick' - but I hard worked hard on it and it wasn't okay that they fucking removed my hard drive. ffs.
Ruined my most proud work so that they could make another £50. Such a piss take.

But, It'll be fine. Not exactly a silver lining in the slightest, especially seeing as I'll have to spend more money, but I can apparently buy something called an external drive enclosure, which should let me use my old hard drive like an external one.


Don't know which one I am supposed to buy, so that's pissing me off too.
PC World are full of pricks.
But anyway, yeah. I won't be adding anything to "Sam" for a while. I have an old draft backed up, but it's only up to the 17th chapter and it doesn't have any of the changes that have been made throughout, so I can't just use that.
Hate PC World so much right now.




Here is an image I made to help show my feelings:

Let me just inform you on what it is that I'm doing here.

Let's start this shit off then!
I'm not entirely sure how this works, and I'm quite sure that I'm already doing it all wrong.
But using this blog, I hope to share my thought, ideas and obstacles whilst writing my books. I'm currently writing two books, one of which has hit a major obstacle, but I'll address that in the next post. Both books are quite a bit different from each other - but are also similar in some ways.
The first book, currently titled "Sam" is about a 16 year old girl whose parents happen to be secret agents, which she uses to blame them for neglecting her throughout her upbringing - after an incident she finds herself hiding in a secret location - the HQ for her parents agency. She goes through many hurdles as well as trying to figure out why she is being hunted along with help from her parents and other agents. Whilst being hunted she also has her priorities as a normal teenager: exams, picking a college, boys, crushes and building friendships. She along the way gains a type of super power which then re-moulds her life. Potentially taking away her previous plans and ideas about the normal life she so longs for? In the end, she has to make a decision. To become a superhero or go after her own dreams?

The second book, (which is currently nameless - we'll just call it "zombies" for now), is far less developed at this point. I am only 3 chapters in. But I can give you a brief idea - baring in mind that this time around, I've not planned key points in the book as I feel like writing the almost as if it is a journal for the characters. As a writer, experiencing the new stories and plot lines along with the characters.
The book is about a group of teens/young adults age's ranging from 19-22. Each chapter is in the first person text of a different member of the group. The group consists of; Thomas - the part zombie with a dickhead personality, Mitchel - the gentle soul with a hidden rage, Suzanne - Witch, girlfriend to Tom and an overall sweetheart, Elizabeth - Suzanne's lazy, morbid and sarcastic 22 year old sister, Hannah - Elizabeth's best friend who holds her secret as well as a seeming hate for the last group member... Jamie - Brash, loud, class clown and best friend to quiet Mitchel.
The characters are thrown into a zombie apocalypse brought about by an evil witch clan of three sisters. The group do their best to survive and also stop the madness that goes on around them by hunting down the evil clan. Suzanne and Elizabeth are keeping their witch identity a secret from the humans to avoid ridicule and being burned at the stake. They live with their very powerful and mad Uncle, who takes the entire group in to inhance their chance of survival - and also encourages them to stop the evil witches.
The book has started off with each character recalling the afternoon that the curse had begun....


"Sam" is a much more child friendly book, although aimed at 16 year old's, I'm well aware that people have a tendency to read books aimed at audiences older than them, so my real audience is pre-teens. Which means that I've avoided any swear words and overly vulgar language. But I have at times, mentioned drugs, alcohol and relationships - without getting too detailed. With "Zombies" I plan to aim it at my own age group - so young adults. Swearing is used, but in a way that we would use swear words in life, I've not over-exaggerated the use. I am, however, avoiding going into detail with the intimates of the relationships this is a zombie apocalypse book not an erotic novel. The book, I'm guessing, will also involve drugs and alcohol, potentially more than in "Sam" as it's 19 year old's that are more likely to be doing drugs rather that 16 year olds.
Both books will include a buttload of humour - my kind of humour. Although serious themes will occur, the characters will still make humorous remarks throughout the books.

I think I'll stop this post right there!
Remember to follow this blog if you want to keep in the know!
xxx