There is just over 16 hours left to enter my Goodreads giveaway. Click HERE to do so.
So far, 1249 people have entered. Thank you to everyone who has entered, shared or both. 🙂
The winner will be notified tomorrow and will be sent out shortly.
Good luck! 🙂
Thank you,
Ashley.
718 people have entered my Goodreads giveaway. There is only 5 days left to enter. You can do so HERE. I will be signing the winning copy. My book also has a 4.5 star rating based on 4 ratings on there which I am over the moon about.
There isn’t much to mention on the writing front this week. I’ve been doing bits of my dissertation here and there. I’m being really thorough with this one. It’s not just about how good the story is, I also have to try to impress with techniques and explain myself afterwards. That’s the one thing I can’t stand about fiction writing at uni. Having to write about what I’ve just written. This time it’s got to be around 2000 words. I can’t think of anything to write. But I will leave that til a much later date.
I watched the PS4 Gamescom event thingy earlier today. 29th November is the official date that I can play launch title Knack. I’m really excited about that. I’m shocked that there wasn’t an announcement from Naughty Dog about their next game. Sony mentioned The Last of Us briefly, but I would have thought they would have leaned on that a bit more. It’s clearly one of the better, if not the best game of this generation. I’m stuck between that and Metal Gear Solid 4. Both of them are really repayable and just epic in every way. We still have the 3rd Batman Arkham game, as well as Beyond Two Souls and GTA 5 to come out. I am looking forward to each of these.
I’ve finally started reading Saga. Despite having it sitting in a box for over a year and having my girlfriend telling me to read it when each new issue is released I hadn’t even opened the first cover. I do consider myself a fan of Brian K. Vaughan (I mean the earlier episodes of Lost are excellent. Y the Last Man is just brilliant. And I’m really enjoying Under the Dome). I can’t believe how good this series is. I read all 13 issues back to back. Everyone should be reading this series.
I’ve started watching Friends from series 1 again. I think this is the 6th time I would have watched the whole thing from start to finish. It’s still my favourite show. I don’t know how long it will take me to watch it all. I started on Friday and have watched 6 episodes so far.
Apart from comics I’m not reading much at the moment. I should be reading uni stuff but I can’t be bothered. I’m preparing for NICE (A comic convention in Bedford) and I’m reading as much of Garth Ennis stuff that I can fit in. I’m currently on volume 5 of The Boys. I’m not enjoying this series as much as Preacher or Punisher but it has its moments.
Thanks for reading,
Ashley
I have just finished the latest Resident Evil game, Revelations which is a ps3 port of the original 3ds version from last year. This is the first Resident Evil game in quite a while that I haven’t rushed out and gotten straight away. Thanks to Resident Evil 6 and Operation Raccoon City I had just about given up on the franchise. Then I played the demo and was shocked at how good it was. It was almost like playing RE4 for the first time. Something different and yet very good. I still wasn’t completely sold and put it on my rental list instead of buying it. Then it came and I played it not stop for about 4 hours. I would describe it as all of the best bits of the different stages of the franchise rolled into one. The bad voice acting, the puzzles (Although they were pretty weak. Still better than the latest Tomb Raider’s non-existent puzzles), simple enemies that don’t take forever to kill. It’s all there. While it is far from the better Resi Evil games (My personal favourites being 1, 2 and 4.) it is still a lot better than any addition in the last 5 or so years. Once again I have faith in the series and with some of the people behind it saying the next one will go back to its original horror/survival game-play rather than rely on action I have high hopes for the next one.
I also watched the new Evil Dead film yesterday. I’ve been waiting for this film for a little while, ever since I watched Army of Darkness a couple of years back and read rumours of a remake. I wasn’t sure what to expect. The dated effects and cheesiness of the originals is what makes them brilliant. However, once again, I was surprised and really enjoyed it. It’s still over the top, but not in a funny way, there’s still lots of blood and it’s really entertaining. I’ve read that the plan is for Sam Raimi to make Army of Darkness 2, which is to be followed by Evil Dead 2, which will lead into The Evil Dead 7, featuring both Mia and Ash. I don’t know whether this will ever happen, but I live in hope.
Thanks for reading,
Ashley
Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t upload the next part of Jimmy last week. I won’t be uploading one this week either, but there will be one next week. It’s not that I haven’t written it, it’s just I haven’t edited it and want to focus some time on my Dissertation and uni reading instead for this week. I’m nearly a quarter of the way through my dissertation piece. It’s an 8000 word story. I’m enjoying writing it and hope to have it finished by the time we go back in September.
I finished The Jungle Book today, the first of many books to read for this years course. I’m going to start King of the Golden River tonight and then finish it tomorrow. I thought it was an actual novel, but it’s only 55 pages long. After that I’ve got either The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley or The Lifted Veil by George Eliot. Neither of which have I heard of. I’m not sure what order the books are going to come up on the course, so I’m just downloading the free kindle ones and then picking out of the first 2 that pop up.
I enjoyed The Jungle Book more than I thought I would and am glad that it was the first book I read for the third year.
It’s my 20th birthday in two days, so I’ll be 20 the next time I write on here.
Thanks for reading,
Ashley
433 people have entered my goodreads giveaway. You can enter HERE and please share the link. It only takes a couple of seconds to join, and you may win and enjoy the book.
I’ve started writing something new. An idea popped in my head last week and I wrote it down. So far I have about 1000 words. I have no idea what exactly is going on, and I don’t plan on sharing much information until I do. The main character, or one of them, is called Raini, who is a police officer. I also have an idea about something on a cruise ship with a separate character, but this is just a small idea. Any updates will be first uploaded here.
I’ve watched quite a few films this week. First off, was Broken City staring Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe. I’ve been looking forward to this film since it I first saw the trailer, and while I enjoyed it, the film was disappointing. There were a couple of really stupid moments that stood out too much. After that I watched Stoker. I didn’t want to see this film when it came out, but Tabby wanted to see it. I’m not a fan of arthousey films and will do my best to make sure that The Tree of Life is the last on I ever sit through. I was assured that Stoker was more mainstream than arty. It was okay. Not brilliant. Very slow. Not 5 star worthy as a lot of reviewers seem to give it. I was kept guessing til the end of the film. I’m glad I watched it.
Next up was a film I’ve wanted to see for a long time, The Crow. I’ve heard good things about this film and the only reason I hadn’t watched it was because I thought that maybe people’s opinions were swayed by the fatal accident that happened while filming. I did really enjoy this film. It’s dated, but in the right way, has a good plot and the characters were really well done.
I went to see The World’s End yesterday, as part of an early celebration for my brother’s 18th birthday. I wasn’t expecting much from it. I think Shaun of the Dead is the funniest film ever made. I’ve watched it more times than I can count and still laugh every time. Hot Fuzz was a massive disappointment and I struggle to sit through that now. The advert for World’s End gave me little hope, but I actually really enjoyed it. I wasn’t as good as Shaun of the Dead, but much better than Hot Fuzz.
My week has really just been switching between The Last of Us (Quickly becoming my favourite PS3 game ever) and watching films. I also started played Professor Layton again on my DS. I started it earlier in the year but uni got in the way and I wasn’t motivated to go back til now. Some of the puzzles are really annoying but others make me think. I’m only on the first game, so I’ve got quite a way to go.
Thanks for reading,
Ashley
Ashley Manning 