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  • wildone

    Featured Story: What Happened To The Baxter Boys by Mancunian

    By wildone

    It seems like October is nearly over but today is still the second Monday of the month. That means that @W_L did a great review on a story that definitely has my interest!   What Happened To The Baxter Boys by Mancunian   Reviewer: W_L Status: Complete Word Count: 80,270   This reads like a British balm for a weary gay soul—comforting, warm, and restorative. If you’re trudging through a bad day, numbed by apathy, or worn down by the headlines, this story offer
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Book review

Book Review: Going Down in La-La Land by Andy Zeffer

Adam, an aspiring actor, makes the trip from New York to LA in search of fame and fortune. What he finds is a trip into the underside of fame in LA. Here is a modern-day Rake’s Progress; Adam (the narrator) arrives in LA with such high hopes, he has the looks and talent to be a star, but he finds an unfriendly city where he can’t get his foot on the bottom rung of the showbusiness ladder. This novel could have been a pro-faced, and even homophobic, grime tale, warning about the “evils”
Drew Payne

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Book review

Book Review: Holocaust Tips for Kids and Smite the Heathens, Charlie Brown by Shalom Auslander

Satire is a difficult form to get right. If it is too humorous then it might not be biting enough; if the satire hits home then it can be dry and even dull, and then it can be humourless and miss its target. These two short stories take a satirical aim at religious persecution and antisemitism in particular. Holocaust Tips for Kids is a young teenage American boy’s view of the Nazi Holocaust. It reads like that teenage boy’s scrapbook, facts and reportage sit all beside the boy’s own w
Drew Payne

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My Story

My Naivety Betrayed Me

It was spring 1996 and I was on my break at work. The staff room was an old storeroom at the far end of the ward. A collection of old chairs had been arranged in a haphazard circle around an equally old coffee table. It wasn’t highly decorated, or even been decorated in years, and was barely comfortable, but it was a staff room actually located on the ward. Back then that felt like such a luxury. I was on my own there, so often I had to take my breaks alone so we could maintain enough nurse
Drew Payne

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Book review

Book Review: Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why; The Science of Sexual Orientation by Simon LeVay

Gay marriage has been making the headlines recently and there are a lot of arguments for and against it. At the heart of a lot of these arguments is whether homosexuality is “natural” or “unnatural”. Simon LeVay is a neuroscientist and takes an evidence-based approach to his subject. He doesn’t just look at the theories behind human sexuality; he looks at the evidence for those theories, or lack of it. This is what lifts this book head and shoulders above previous books looking at the origi
Drew Payne

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Books

Dune - Adventures in the Imperium

I don't focus entirely on fantasy in my inspirations for world building.  I picked this up to explore some of the deeper side of the Dune universe.  This is a very nice book in quality and imagery.  It's interesting how different authors put together their worlds and make them work.
Myr

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Writing

Mythic Britain & Ireland

I supporter this one on Kickstarter as I have an interest in the mythologies associated with Britain and Ireland. (Scotland too).  This is another RPG, of course.  I'm using as an inspiration for more Irish/British mythology monsters.  This is an interesting book with some cool artwork. worth checking out if you deep diving into different world building inspiration or gaming.
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Gaming

Starfield in 2023 - I'm still Hopeful

I strongly suspect this game will be driving my interest desire to write sci-fi. It was originally supposed to launch on 11/11/22.  They missed.  Of course, I'll have to beat the game first.  And yes, I suspect a Bethesda game to have some bugs.  You saw some really big bugs in the trailer, though they looked like the variety that are supposed to be there as alien creatures. Anyone else looking forward to this game?
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Book review

Book Review: Mother's Boy by Patrick Gale

Charles is the apple of his mother’s eye, born in Cornwall just after the end of the First World War. He becomes the focus of his mother’s life after his father dies from TB. But Charles does not want to be a “mother’s boy” and when war breaks out, he leaves his claustrophobic life in Teignmouth, enlisting in the navy as a coder. The title of this novel has a double meaning and Patrick Gale uses both of them with skill and breadth. Charles is a boy raised as his mother’s sole outlet, the so
Drew Payne

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Writing

Pirate Compaign Compendium

Pirate Campaign Compendium is another gaming resource but this time to the dangers of traveling on the high seas in a fantasy setting.  This is just another book in my vast collection that I can reference for those "at sea" stories in the queue.  The artwork is also nice.  Cheers to world building, and ahoy matey!
Myr

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Writing

Showtime 2022

My big writing news this month is that my short story “Men Online in the Local Area” has been published in Showtime 2022. It is about Harry, a young man living in East London, who is finding building a new life in his new home difficult. Superficially, it is about the ups and downs of using dating apps, but its real subject is about how a big, busy city can be a very lonely and difficult place to form new friendships in. This anthology, Showtime 2022, is special to me because I am one of th
Drew Payne

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Writing

Remarkable Cults and Their Followers

Another gaming book that I use as inspiration is Remarkable Cults and Their Followers by LoreSmyth's JVC Parry, Jeff Lee, and RP Davis. Every fantasy world needs a bad guy and every bad guy needs a cult.  This is a great inspiration for different ways you can put things together.  More fodder for world builders.
Myr

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Writing

Ultimate Kingdoms by Legendary Games

Another gaming-related book in my library that I also supported on Kickstarter when it was running.  This is a handy tool for world building and setting up underlying rules of how things work... even if you aren't talking about it. It makes your created work function in a consistent way.  This makes it believable in your writing bubble.  This helps immersion in the story world.  I find this worth it, but only for really big world builders.
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Movies

Uncharted (Movie)

I'm not going to complain about a movie with Tom Holland... This movie is entertaining as a stand alone thing.  I've only played the game a little bit, so I'm not as married to the source material.  That said, it is a rip-off of Lara Croft's Tomb Raider which is itself a rip off of Indiana Jones.  I'm sure there is a deeper dive there too.  To be fair, I like all the franchises and pretty much most things that fit in this sort of genre. (Don't get me started on National Treasure ) Enj
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Movies

Moonfall

Moonfall is another movie from groaner disaster movie guru Roland Emmerich.  This movie is one of those -turn your brain off completely sort of movies.  If you are familair with physics, turn that off.  the laws of physics are even more optional in this movie than in 2012, which features a limo doing jumps under a subway train...  the groan are more than that. The special effects are pretty good though. Interesting sci-fi story but we're not talking Arthur C. Clarke here either... If y
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Writing

The Positive Trait Thesaurus

The Positive Trait Thesaurus: a Writer's Guide to Character Attributes by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi.  As you might guess, Positive Traits is the opposite of yesterday's Negative Traits.  Like yesterday's book, this should be in your library too.  Also with yesterday, this helps you fill out your character and make them more well-rounded.
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Writing

The Negative Traits Thesaurus

The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Flaws by Angela Ackerman &  Becca Puglisi is another great book in the Thesaurus series.  As the subtitle tells you, this book focuses on character flaws.  Like the other books in the series, the book gives a lot of details around different flaws and common interactions and conflicts that result from those flaws.  This book is very helpful for adding depth to characters you are writing.  Another one to have in your library if you ar
Myr

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Writing

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: a Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi is another book in the Thesaurus series that helps writers round out their writing.  This one is focused on traumatizing your characters and giving you all the dirt on what that causes. This gives you plenty of drama related to the trauma, what results from it, how to overcome it and the traits and behaviors a character would have when they suffer from it. Strongly recommended for
Myr

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Writing

The Occupation Thesaurus

The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Jobs, Vocations, and Careers by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi is another book in the Thesaurus series of writing support books that gives you details on various occupations. Common traits, common skills, common conflicts they are involved in.  A great resource for making a more well-rounded, less cliche characters. Definitely another one a writer should be keeping in their library.  
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Gaming

Hades (Game)

This is a very addicting game.  You play as long as you can survive, die and start over.  What keeps you going is finding out the story, which is really quite interesting.  The music is cool and the voice acting is top notch.  Excellent game. I sunk a LOT of hours into it as a way to unwind after a long day of work.  Pretty inexpensive too.  And it's on all platforms, I think. worth checking out!
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charity, christmas, help

Is It Too Early To Talk About Christmas?

Well the blog title asks the question, so it too early to talk about Christmas? I hope not, but then this isn't necessarily what you think it's about. This isn't about my Christmas, well may be it is in a way, or even your Christmas, It's about what I and many other people have been doing lately and how it affects Christmas for others. Some of you may know that I volunteer with a local organisation that supports homeless people, as I'm currently not face to face with our clients I carry out
Movies

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

I figured I'd wrap up the current 3 movie timeline.  (For the record, the money-losing disaster that was the start of the Hollywood crap show of the last few years "Ghostbusters 2016" is not part of canon at idiot director Paul Fool's insistence) This movie is kind of an apology from Sony for the above mentioned crap show.  It has plenty of little fan thank yous.  And the main plotline is actually a pretty touching tribute.  Also of interesting note, they forced Bill Murray to appear i
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Movies

Ghostbusters II

Ghostbusters II was not quite as good as Ghostbusters, but it was still an enjoyable movie.  Well worth watching nonetheless.  Funny. I love the ghost train and ghost titanic.
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Movies

Ghostbusters

Truly a comedy/horror classic.  I, of course, have the 4k movie.  Definitely worth the entertainment factor.
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