Writing, Uni and Far Cry 3

Posted on January 29, 2013 by ashleymanningwriter

I’ve made a lot of progress with my writing. Last week I reached the half way point of the second book in The Fragmented Sequence. I also edited the first chapter of the first book to a standard I like. I will be uploading that next week after going over it again just to be sure. I also have a detailed idea of what the third book is going to be about. I’ve got ideas for the six books, but I try not to think about what’s going to happen and come up with ideas as I go along. The idea for the third book came together last week and I like it.

For uni this week I had to read Jekyll and Hyde. I’ve never been interested in reading it before, and the only idea I had of it was an old Looney Toons episode along with Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I was surprised at how different and good the story actually is. It isn’t the best thing I’ve ever read, but I enjoyed it. It’s only a short story, about fifty pages, so it only took a couple of hours to read.

For next week I’ve got to write a report on either a piece of criticism by T.S. Elliot or Virginia Woolf. Between 1000 and 1500 words long. It shouldn’t take that long, but it is going to. I’m going to spend tomorrow reading over the pieces and making sure I understand them.

I started playing Far Cry 3 a couple of weeks ago. It took just over a week to complete it. I’ve really enjoyed the whole series. The first one will always stand out for me as the best, solely for the map editor where me and my brother would spend hours creating ridiculous maps and battling on them. The third one was very good though and for single player beats the first 2 by a mile. The story, graphics, game-play, voice-acting was all brilliant and is probably the best game of last year. (And with games like Borderlands 2 and The Darkness 2 it’s not an easy decision.) I downloaded a demo of Metal Gear Rising and thought that was brilliant. Now I’m just going to wait for that to come out.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley.

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Subject Futures Week at Uni.

Posted on January 22, 2013 by ashleymanningwriter

It’s subject futures week at university, which is about as interesting as it sounds. Adding to that Yesterday’s guest talk was cancelled due to the snow. I’m going to be spending this week catching up on reading. Moll Flanders, American Psycho and Jekyll and Hyde need to be read this week. Hopefully they will be alright.

I was given, and am very grateful to be given, preview tickets to see the new Disney film Wreck-It Ralph on Sunday. I like Disney films, have done for a long time, but this one was different. When I first heard about it I knew I was going to love it. Sonic on the poster. A bad guy video game help group with Bowser and one of the ghosts from Pac-Man. Everything about this film appealed to me. I started laughing near enough the second the film started. References to Metal Gear Solid, Mario, Call of Duty and everything else was brilliant. It was the best Disney film since Lilo and Stich, or Emperor’s New Groove. I cannot recommend this film enough. If you like video games like Pac-Man and Mario Kart this film will appeal to you straight away. Geekiest film since Scott Pilgrim.

I’ve started reading Shiverton Hall, the debut book by Emerald Fennell. The only reason I picked it up was because of the cover. It reminded me of Lemony Snicket and Spiderwick Chronicles. I’m only 60 pages in so far, but it’s pretty good. It starts out with a kid called Arthur going to boarding school, where he seems to be the only new kid and everyone is singling him out as being different, there are hints at the supernatural and magic at the school. At first it seemed like a complete Harry Potter rip-off. I’m still enjoying it though. It seems to be more about ghosts than magic at the moment, but I’m not far through it. I haven’t read enough to recommend it, but it has a nice front cover.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley.

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Books Into Films

Posted on January 15, 2013 by ashleymanningwriter

Over the last month near enough every film to be released has been based on a book. The Hobbit, Life of Pi, Gangster Squad, Jack Reacher, Les Miserables. All books. I’ve only seen 2 of these, The Hobbit and Reacher and I enjoyed both. I find that some people see adaptations as never going to be as good as the book. I know someone who got angry when Scott Pillgrim was changed to fit into one film. I’m sorry if I’m rude, but don’t watch it then. The top four highest grossing films last year were all adaptations of books so most people either don’t care or have to see it to pick fault. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy The Hobbit, but I had to see it. It is one of my favourite books ever and I wanted to see if they could turn it into three films. They could. It was a good film. The additions were very few, but didn’t seem out of place. It was visually stunning. I can’t wait for the next one. I do think, however, that this will be the only book that is quicker to read than watching the film.

I went to see Jack Reacher last week, with high expectations. I’ve read the first 3 books and thought they were all right. The first one was really good, second one was alright and the third was just silly. I might go and read the fourth one now though. I’m not a big Tom Cruise fan, but he does make some good films. He was brilliant for the part, despite being much shorter than the 6’5” character from the books. One of the people I went to see it with is a big Reacher fan. She introduced me to the series, and has loved every single book. She wasn’t quiet about not wanting a film to be made, and I couldn’t help but laugh when Cruise was cast, and her reaction to it. She only agreed to go because she had to see the film, just to be annoyed. Even she thought it was good.

The way I see it is that the book and the film should be completely separate. I know that’s never going to happen, but I try to look at it that way. If I wanted something exactly like the book I would reread the book. The film should be it’s own thing. Reacher works like that, The Hobbit works like that. I try to judge films based on books, as their own thing. I do have to own up and say that my main problem with From Hell is that it takes the core bit of the book and butchers it into a film. The only reason they called it From Hell was to pray on comic fans who loved Moore’s book. It was a dreadful film, and I couldn’t sit through it. Adaptation aside the film was bad. Poorly paced and not convincing. Even League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was better than From Hell.

One recent adaptation that doesn’t work is The Walking Dead. I know that isn’t a film, but it’s crap compared to the comic. I really wanted to love it. I thought the first episode was brilliant, and then it went down hill. It deviated from the comic, which I have no problem with, but it didn’t go anywhere. The dialogue was awful, and the serious bits kept on making me laugh. There was one bit, I think in the second episode, where Rick was hacking a dead body to pieces and it was so overdone, it became ridiculous. I gave up after the first series, but have been told it gets better. I’m not sure if I will ever watch the second series, but I don’t have high hopes.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley.

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Dying Wish

Posted on January 8, 2013 by ashleymanningwriter

The warehouse was just outside of town, near the train station. Everyone knew that it was abandoned, and they couldn’t remember a time before that. “Probably used to store shoes.” was what my parents told me, the first time I came home from school after hearing the rumour. A little bit inside everyone believed the rumours, that vampires lived in the warehouse, but we kept ignoring it. We left it to playground fun, and yet the warehouse remained.

Continue reading Eternal HERE.

So There it is. Over the winter I finished a short story about vampires. My first step towards finishing a vampire novel. I hope you like it, but be warned it is a little gruesome.

I’ve created a Goodreads account, which you can see HERE. You can follow/add as a friend, in order to keep up to date with my challenge of reading a book a week, if you want too. I’ve also added a widget at the bottom of this site, which tells you what I’m reading at the moment. You might find it interesting.

As 2012 drew to an end so did one of Marvel’s longest running comics. The Amazing Spider-man finished on the 26th December with its 700th issue. For those of you that don’t know the last arc of spider-man involved Doc Ock swapping his mind with Peter Parker and taking over the roll of spider-man, he then fights Peter and defeats him. It’s stories like this that make people laugh at comics, but that wasn’t my problem. Just seconds before Peter’s died, Ock has a revelation and decides to stop his 50 year (In real time. More like five years in the comic.) crime spree in order to become good, and a “superior” spider-man, which leads into Slott’s new series Superior Spider-man. I don’t have high hopes, but I will stick with it. Amazing Spider-man 700 was a disappointing (And probably temporary) end to a legendary title, and a disappointing end to 2012, the year of comics. With brilliant new titles, like Saga and Fatale. Landmark events like the 100th issue of The Walking Dead, both Night of the Owls and Death of the Family in Batman, Avengers vs X-men. All new X-men, The Massive. Just to name a few. Also the TV series Arrow. The blockbuster movies Avengers, Amazing Spider-man and The Dark Knight Rises. It just seems to me that Spider-man 700 was a disappointing end, to what had been an epic year in comics. Hopefully Superior Spider-man will be good. Slott is not a bad writer, but the ending of Amazing Spider-man just seemed rushed.

Thanks for reading,

Ashley.

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Zom-B Underground

Posted on January 5, 2013 by ashleymanningwriter

Small spoiler if you haven’t read the first one.

Darren Shan has done it again. He’s taken a well-known, and loved, genre and recreated it. I’ve been waiting for Zom-B Underground, the second book in his zombie series, since I finished the first one back in September. I thought that the first one was so brilliant that downhill was the only way to go. I was wrong and the best thing about it is that it looks like it’s going to be the 3rd book where everything really takes off. 

I wasn’t sure where the series was going to go after the twist ending of B’s death at the end of the first book. I stayed away from anything that would tell me the plot or anything else about it. I really wanted to know what happened. The opening pages answer that question, with revealing that B has turned into conscious zombie, or zom head.After this quick revelation the pace is quick, with new characters introduced, a lot of gore and a few gripping twists. 

My favourite part of the book was seeing how B adjusted to being a zom head. The description during the first time she is fed, and has to throw it back up, is just brilliant. All the way through the book their is horrific descriptions of death, mutilation and gore, and it never gets boring or repetitive. 

I’m actually surprised by how good this book was. I really enjoyed it. A must read for any horror, zombie or Darren Shan fan. 

Thanks for reading,

Ashley.

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