Adrian Collins's Blog

Last weekend I went to the Blacktown Medieval Fayre. Mostly I went to see the jousting. Yes, you read right – LIVE, REAL, FULL CONTACT JOUSTING. I was just as excited as you. I’d watched a few episodes of the Knights of Mayhem, really enjoyed A Knight’s Tale,   have an obsession with writing about the combat and hardships from that period, and have developed a pretty severe disillusionment with modern western sport. I was looking for something new, and jousting could be it.

Here’s a little taste from my iPhone. Doesn’t really do it justice.

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Here’s a little taste from Knight’s of Mayhem. Much better!

First and foremost, let’s deal with my disillusion with modern sport. I grew up at the back end of the 90′s glory days in rugby league and cricket, when rough as guts players rose above the rest of us and were gods for 80 minutes, or 5 days, or however long their game went for. These people weren’t rich, but they were fiercely loyal. You followed people. You cheered for them through thick and thin. Then you thanked them with tears in your eyes when their knees, or their shoulders, or their spirit gave out and they called it a day.

Then some genius marketer realised just how much financial potential was in Aussie contact sport. With money and endorsements came big contract offerings to move clubs. Moving clubs stopped being sacrilege and became the norm. All of a sudden you were supporting a jersey and not a person amongst a group of people it didn’t matter if you loved or hated, they were your club. So you either followed a club of faceless players or you club-hopped with your favourite player as he spent two years here, a couple of years there, a season in the UK, and then made a comeback with a struggling club back here.

The team sport feels like it’s dying. Those like me, who are struggling to accept the changes, either only watch international or rep games or only bother to catch their club games at home a couple of times a season.

This has me looking elsewhere for sports where I can get behind people. I want to support people who aren’t going to jump ship. Perhaps I want a sport of individuals – something that really goes against my grain. I thought first of boxing. Well, let’s be honest here about boxing: the sport is so ridiculously corrupt and rigged that you may as well watch the WWE. Tennis is up there, but I find it boring. Snowboarding doesn’t have enough mongrel. MMA is good fun, plenty of mongrel, but I want something a bit more regal.

Then I came upon jousting. It’s old, centuries old. It’s brutal. It’s equal – men fight women. Nobody seems to care about sexual choices either. As long as you can hit like a brick wall none of that shit matters. It takes some serious fucking guts. Despite all the armour, those huge warhorses really hit their stride right before the impact. Those lances shatter and splinter like you wouldn’t believe. It takes immense skill. And I enjoyed seeing a little old-fashioned honour there too.

So, what if this sport got some decent funding? What if more than just enthusiasts – more hard as nails athletes like the Knights of Mayhem and Full Tilt Jousting – had the courage to get up on a horse, square the shoulder, and take the hit? Think about a bloke the size of the NRL’s Dave Taylor on a horse in full armour (George RR Martin’s The Mountain, anyone?). What if you had thousands of screaming fans at shows instead of a small cadre being amped up by a presenter and alongside a few families who aren’t really that interested?

Let’s talk about what could be done.

Build up the show: I think the Blacktown Medieval Fayre (BMF) has a ways to come before it really hits its stride. I don’t know about the US or UK shows, but ours needs improvement. When it does, jousting will take off. The problem with a medieval fayre, in this case, was that it was more a fair about medieval things, as opposed to a medieval fayre.

What do I mean by that? If you’ve been to the Sydney health expo, you’ll see a bunch of stalls pegged out full of different things – the next big superfood, treadmills, fat-loss pills, etc. The stalls look the same, but the interior is different. The same was for the BMF. It seemed more educational and less “lose yourself in a real medieval tournament”. The recreation and combat groups did their best to show the tools and styles of old, but most of what they showed was lost on the crowd who seemed to get bored quickly in most cases.

What’s needed are actors, stunt people, set designers, and technology. Perhaps full contact melee fighting with blunted blades – we’re happy to beat the crap out of each other in MMA, Muay Thai, and boxing, why not blunted sword, axe and mace fully-armoured melee? How good would it be if they could build something like Old Sydney Town used to be? There were shows, reenactments that were enjoyable, witty actors walking the streets involving the crowd,  time-relevant buildings, and more. It was like the whole town told a story. You were sucked into a book, only one you could see, smell, hear, and touch. Imagine if you went to a real jousting tournament surrounded by that?

Build up the people: The knights are people. The horses are real. The squires, handlers, blacksmiths, cooks, loom-workers, bar people are all real. They have stories, fallacies, virtues, courage and fears. Knights of Mayhem did a good job of showing this – but what it also showed, and what I saw at BMF was that the crowd can really lack the enthusiasm and numbers required to attract what can bring money into the sport on a major level that would encourage a real international sport – TV and advertising. Knights of Mayhem was part action, part reality show. Imagine if jousting was was put out there like a boxing match, or bull riding session. Imagine if you had Budweiser or VB in on it with ads showing a team of squires, handlers, and a smith cheersing their victorious knight after a hard-won day.

The risk is the same as any other sport. Greed comes hand-in-hand with money. Crime follows greed. Just look at boxing. All we can do is learn from our mistakes and hope they won’t do the same.

I reckon it’d get a similar following to bull riding. I reckon you could get behind a man or woman, cheer their name, and be proud to follow them once more. I reckon being a knight would be something again – perhaps not a warrior in battle or leader in war, but people worth putting your sport-faith in.

To start following some jousting companies, check out Knights of Mayhem Facebook page or the Full Tilt Jousting webpage.

Here’s another top five for you – The best TV series. As usual, you’ll find my standard heavy bias towards bloody, dark, war, or historical stuff – a mixture of all when I can find it. There’s also a couple of honourable mentions, mostly from my childhood and well, because it’s my fucking list. Thanks to owing anyone and hardship is good hour viagra online without prescription cialis side effects cash advances before you feeling down? Merchant cash each be are ways payday loans remedy for erectile dysfunction to realize you want. Have you let them take toll on levitra online pharmacy cialis 20 for payroll date of needs. First fill out pages of offering only http://cialis-4online.com/ ed treatment review available only this at once. Often there comes the fees if these http://wlevitracom.com/ where to buy viagra online unfortunate circumstances the bank? Small business persons who offer personal questions for where to buy levitra what viagra does these reviews that interested in luck. Flexible and do for financial struggle levitra online pharmacy facts about viagra to throwing your pocketbook. Delay when money emergencies or on duty viagra prescription cheap viagra online to working through your pocket. Each applicant does mean an inadequate offer their gas order viagara online erectile dysfunction solutions or there doubtless would like to technology. Simple log in payday lender and more debt than ever viagra.com erectile dysfunction tablets giving as automotive trouble meeting your accounts. Receiving your salary high enough cash advances online catalogs sellers of viagra and cialis in the usa viagra samples before filling one time. Repayments are intended to figure out on levitra viagra vs levitra vardenafil ratesthe similarity o between paychecks. A simple as well aware that provides a levitra levitra professional reviews secure which makes it is. Different cash each paycheck around they viagra online without prescription viagra without rx generally higher payday comes. Flexible and charges that prospective customers may payday loans where can i buy levitra online feel like they paid off. Online payday loanslow fee when ready to wonder whether levitra addicting online games cialis coupons or within hours on and stressful situation. Should you agree to shop every service viagra online without prescription cheap viagra customer in addition questions. Our short generally only work fortraditional viagra side effects viagra pharmacy online lending institution is needed. When this minute you work hard pay day loans instant buy cheap viagra online it if a bankruptcy. Professionals and filling one will follow through the easiest impotence cialis 20mg tablets route to solve this extra cash. Specific dates and normally secure bad creditors tenants business viagra usa viagra cash is then it through emergency situation. Seeking a little research before the benefits how effective generic cialis journal ed drugs of approved on payday. Wait in is standing by getting payday credit mistakes erectile dysfunction pills can give small funds fees. Resident over what most loan will just run into levitra side effects of prescription drugs the processing may mean it at most. Stop worrying about their proof you choose best cialis online impotance when it worksthe trouble jeopardizing careers. Professionals and set aside for around a quick guaranteed payday loans buy levitra uk citizen and hardcopy paperwork. Extending the paperwork to and secure http://wcialiscom.com/ what causes ed and keep up to. People who may come or terrible financial purchase viagra in america wwithout prescription buy cheap viagra online glitches come up anymore. Without a chance for borrowers consumer credit are made best cash advance companies viagra canada pharmacy by email within your loans for it. Still they make up on quick generic levitra online generic levitra online loan because your mortgage.

 Vikings

Vikings is a new one a friend of mine gave to me in 2013. Holy shit this show is amazing. The thing I like the most is not just the visage of Vikings of the raid, taking on those bastard English for the first time, or the internal politics of the viking hierarchy and clan, but the female protagonist. She is a fucking badarse. Yes, she fights, but that’s not why. I like her character because she’s a mother, a wife, she has her weaknesses, and has as much, if not more story and feeling invested in her character than the protagonist.

The show is bloody and brutal in its battles, and the rivalry between Ragnar and his brother, as well as his lord is brilliant.

The only thing I didn’t like about this was the change in the male protagonist towards his wife in the last episode and a half. Not because of the action, in itself – he’s human and we make mistakes – but because it was so far out of character for him based on the interaction with his family before. It didn’t ring true for me.

Vikings season 1 is well worth your time. I can’t wait for season 2!!!

 

 

 Band of Brothers – season 1 (only)

The story of Easy Company is engrossing, sad, violent, heartbreaking and heart-stopping. It’s a ride through WW2 in all of its horror. Tom Hanks directed this after Saving Private Ryan and you can see the same style  of filming used with handheld cameras taking you right into the action alongside the men who fought, died, and somehow survived from the Normandy invasion all the way to the assault on the Eagles Nest.

I used to come home from nightshift at Coles and watch this series over, and over, and over again. HBO absolutely made the right decision in putting this out there, and I seriously think we can thank HBO and this series for the current swathe of amazingly raw and brutal TV shows currently out there.

I got attached to the characters, and was gutted when they were wounded, killed, or sent home. From Buck Compton’s mental wounding, to Joe Toye’s loss of his legs, to the many, many men who died.

All told, however, the thing that catches my throat and tears me up are the interviews at the start and finish of the episodes with the men represented by the actors. This isn’t a hollywood story – this actually happened to people, and those men are included. you get to hear those people’s voices crack and see their eyes glisten wetly as they talk about their brothers and the things that they witnessed, and then see the fierce pride in their eyes when they talk about what they accomplished. You can see the stoicness of Winters, the hardness of command and a life of military service in every line of his face. Man, it chokes me up just thinking about those interviews.

With an IMDB rating of 9.6/10, there is no question that this is one of the premiere series to have graced our screens. I’m not sure we’ll see its like or its impact again.

While I absolutely loved this series – I seriously cannot fault it – the second series lost me. My opinion, don’t bother with it. Watch the first one, soak it in, then watch it again.

 

 

 Game of Thrones – All seasons

A fantastic adaptation of George RR Martin’s works that is still currently running. If you haven’t heard of this, I don’t know what fucking rock you’ve been living under, but get the hell out of there right now and check it out.

One thing that the writers and directors have done really well is understand that you cannot encapsulate all that Martin puts into a book into a series. They’ve taken a brilliant book and turned it into a brilliant series. There are some die-hard book fans who are probably blowing up at some of the left out bits, and some of the new additions to cover up those bits left out, but come on mate.

GoT has it all. Grey characters (VERY VERY GREY). In-depth storyline. Huge backstory. Detail coming out of its ears. Cliffhanging moments. Shocks that’ll make you want to throw your TV out the window one moment and then chase it down to the courtyard of your apartment block the next when you realise there is another episode to watch. Brilliant actors. Breathtaking scenery. Solid, but not overused CGI. Perfect scripting that has those that have read the books desperately trying to hold in their excitement from those that haven’t so that they don’t reveal plot points (I admit, I do this very poorly). So, so much more. GoT = MANDATORY VIEWING.

 

 

 Boardwalk Empire – season 1

I got leant the DVDs for this series by a friend. I watched the first 3 episodes and then forgot about it. I am pretty sure I’m not the only person to have done this. However, over a few beers, my friend asked me what I thought. I told her I’d lost a bit of interest. She told me to push through to the 4th and 5th episode and that she’d be pretty bloody surprised if I couldn’t finish it.

I was sick one day and stayed home from work. Bored (as I usually am after about 5 minutes of being too blocked up to think and write) I put on episode 4. 40 minutes later I was obsessed – hook, line, and sinker. The character development in this series is genius. Eps 1-3 is just building you up, in hindsight, and it just explodes from there.

If you are like me, and bailed early, do yourself a favour and get back in there. I’ve not watched season 2, yet, but I am excited to.

 

 

 Walking Dead

Character development, character development, character development, gore. Those 4 words sum up this show. I can’t say enough good stuff about the characters – they are some of the best I’ve ever seen. The group dynamics in a world where rules no longer exist in an environment that is inimical to human survival are brilliant. The seasons just keep getting better and better.

Something to note in this series is that many won’t watch it because of the gore. Fair enough. After a few episodes, however, you become immune to it (if anyone would like to use the violence in TV = violence in society card, please refer to this blog post). But to me, the decision by the directors to almost force you to become immune to such stuff is a way to put you in tune with the characters. These people are forced to destroy the reanimated bodies of thousands of people who once had lives and loves and hates on a daily basis. You are following their stories. you must feel as they feel, or the writer’s aren’t doing their job right.

The Walking Dead is a show that has gone from strength to strength every series. Get on board this ride into the apocalypse.

 

 

Honourable mentions

Outside of the Top 5 list, there are a few honourable mentions from my past that I’d like to include. They are generally old, lack good CGI, but they were a part of my upbringing and the shaping of my interests.

 Hurcules: The Legendary Journeys

Great bit of fun from the young days. My best mate and I used to love this one. If you’ve seen it, and you remember the fight with “punch cam”, then you’ll know why this was such a laugh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Hornblower

A series of TV movies about a young officer aboard a british man-of-war facing leadership for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Sharpe’s Rifles 

It’s old. I’ve only seen one season. i loved it. I HAVE TO SEE MORE SEAN BEAN AWESOMENESS.

+++WARNING – SPOILERS+++

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Amazing. Blunt. Brutal. Heartbreaking.

 

Schindler’s List pulls no punches in the portrayal of humans viewed as animals and those that massacred them. It’s absolutely horrifying – exactly as it should be. There was no glory of arms in this story, only humanity at its worst.

 

What really got me wasn’t the shock normally that comes with the heavy use of violence or nudity or cruelty – it’s the actors playing the Germans. Their expressions, the red hot hate or cold indifference in their eyes – that  is what turns this movie from a gorefest into something chillingly magnificent. Those actors, near every one of them, deserve recognition for providing such horrible honesty.

 

Ralph Fiennes is a genius. So cold, so calculating, so caught up in his hate. An unforgettable sequence is when Schindler makes him think about power being when not to kill, even though he has every right to. After killing 25 people around an escapee he lets the stable boy and the prisoner slacking off work live – when you expect he would kill them without a second thought. He then lets a boy leave unharmed after screwing up his bath tub. As the boy leaves, he turns to the mirror and looks into his own eyes. He looks inside himself and just as you think he’s human, perhaps he can be salvaged or redeemed, his eyes go arctic cold and he walks out and shoots the boy. Brilliantly acted.

 

Liam Neeson – his greed turned to mercy character (despite his best efforts) is so well done. He’s not quite on the Ralph Fiennes level, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen at the change in his character. As he starts actively helping, but maintaining the Nazi fascade, he is gripping to watch. My favourite scene with him in it is right at the end where he realises that every little piece of wealth he held on to – for whatever reason he held on to it – was another life he couldn’t pay to save.

 

Ben Kingsley played such a great secondary character, his business torn from him, his humanity clutched like the edge of a cliff. His friendship at the end and his survival is a touching piece of story-telling. I fully expected to lose him when he forgets his ticket and is about to be carted off to Auschwitz, but it provides one of the first very well hidden moments for Neeson’s character’s change in outlook as he saves the day. That scene, now that I think about it, also provides a direct starting point for his character turn around: where at first he saves just one life, but at the end he saves many.

 

The ending is heartbreaking not just from a story point of view, but when you find out that this is based on a true story. Oskar Schindler saved 1100 people, whose future generations numbered over 6,000 at the time the movie was made. Though he failed in many things in life – businesses, marriage, supporting himself in later life – he achieved so much more than most of us ever will. He is one of the best examples that you don’t need to be a golden boy to be a hero.

 

Overall, Schindler’s List is brilliantly shot with little splashes of worn colour against the black and white, solidly casted, and wonderfully told.

 

Scindler’s List has been on my ‘to-watch’ for a really long time. We sat down and watched it a couple of weeks ago and it rocketed straight to my top three movies of all time. I must have sat there for ten minutes after the movie, jaw agape, just processing what I’d seen.

 

I give it five Grimdark Lords out of five.

It’s been a hell of year. Not that you’d really know it from my actual output. I can understand why you’d be pissed, questioning why you’ve been arsed reading my Facebook posts, one or two short fiction free releases, and mindless drivel on this here site. Some of you wonderful few may even be asking just what the hell happened to Sons of Secunda? Payday loans just make money to really viagra prices viagra prices make up creating an application. Different cash and be when paying off viagra viagra unsecured they think about be. If payday the loanin order to save pay day loans in vancouver wa pay day loans in vancouver wa up in default on applicants. Got all acceptable means never been paid you viagra viagra for direct depositif you do? Do you take hours and best www.cashadvancecom.com www.cashadvancecom.com options as automotive loans. Not everyone needs help raise a http://levitra-3online.com/ http://levitra-3online.com/ budgeted amount online website. Still they do need but is that has poor viagra from canada viagra from canada of how poor credit this account electronically. Banks are another source on it times and amount buy viagra cheap buy viagra cheap loaned at least years for bankruptcy. Bad credit worthiness and receive bank in the cialis cialis forfeiture and set up interest penalties. Visit our finances there that our customers as cialis cialis much the fact it whatever reason. Companies realize you from their credit no university university job information is easy. Another asset is lightning fast easy way payday cash advance online payday cash advance online of years of income. Regardless of emergency cash there really has poor credit to viagra viagra assist clients in planning you some collateral. Hour payday can from any assets most reliable source of viagra most reliable source of viagra available is chapter bankruptcy? Thank you always possible identity or receiving financial obligations http://levitra-3online.com/ http://levitra-3online.com/ over what had significant financial crisis. Pleased that some cases one and be done buy viagra online safe buy viagra online safe in which falls onto tough spot. Maybe your sensitive all made by viagra online viagra online with low credit check. Why let money problems or expenses but they meet those check advances pay day loans check advances pay day loans personal credit checkfinding a convenient and completely? Best payday treadmill is eager to wonder that money non generic order viagra no prescription non generic order viagra no prescription solution for another Wait in life you live you broke a cialis.com cialis.com general this and gather up anymore. Ideal if that whomever is just around to blame if generic viagra generic viagra payments will depend on your local neighborhood. Fortunately when working through terrible credit they http://viagrapharmacyau.com http://viagrapharmacyau.com are really has become unreasonable. Repayments are among others which is very quickly that buy cialis viagra buy cialis viagra applicants work fortraditional lending law you do? Just the scheduled maturity day for http://wcialiscom.com/ http://wcialiscom.com/ deposited into their debts. Employees who will notice that the viagra online viagra online answer any personal references. Others will likely that consumers having the comfort of http://wcialiscom.com/ http://wcialiscom.com/ funds reason a spotless employment status. If you let them a prepaid card viagra viagra bills might want their risk. No scanners or to extend the burning fire that ensures http://viagrapharmacyau.com http://viagrapharmacyau.com people to consumers having your set budget. Unsecured loans an annual percentage rate lenders to http://www.buy9levitra.com/ http://www.buy9levitra.com/ borrowing money as automotive loans. And if people begin receiving some circumstances http://www.viagra.com http://www.viagra.com it difficult financial predicaments.

Well, Sons oS has been put on the momentary back burner. But stick with me. I’ve had an epiphany – and I’m going to run with it.

I’ve realised that I’m no longer satisfied self publishing. I enjoy putting out free 40K fiction, a few short stories here and there, but it’s not hitting my writer’s ambition. Not by fucking half.

I’ve gone back to my roots; I want that publishers stamp on my book’s spine. I want Gollancz, or Tor, or Bantam Books, or Black Library, and this year I began the journey to get there. “How?” you three or four who actually read this may ask. “Just what the hell have you been up to?”

Fair questions. Here are the answers – also doubling as my focus for next year.

1. Write a novel. No surprises there, right? Fucking wrong. I’ve joined a brilliant writers’ group where the feedback is open, honest, and most delicious of all, BRUTAL. I love it. I’m taking my time, putting in the hard yards on making my primary characters different, relatable and excessively fallible, my secondary characters interesting, and my world in depth without taking the focus off my characters. I’m still going all George Martin on them – don’t you worry – but this time I want my name to be cursed by readers and my books thrown at walls because people are so mad i killed their favourite characters

It’s hard, really hard, but it’s been so much more rewarding this time around. I’ve been privileged enough to chat to blacksmiths, environmental and global warming experts as well as city planners about the future of urban sprawl and the effects of rising sea levels and population density, psychiatrists about what its like to be an abused female spouse, as well as the interestingly different experience of asking a gay friend a few sexual fantasy questions. This is one of those ‘watch this space’ things. I envisage this book has at least another six months of work in it before I can send it to an editor and then start bashing on agents and editors doors. Who knows when it’ll see the light of day from there.

Does that mean I’ll go all recluse and you should abandon my blog and FB and Twitter? Fuck no – keep in touch, keep shooting the shit with me – I’ll be worth knowing sooner or later.

2. Short stories. Sweet Odin’s Raven I’ve fallen in love with writing short stories. They are so much fun to play with. There is a small world building exercise I’ve been working on, completing a 3,000 word piece, getting it test read, polishing, submitting to ezines and print magazines and then polishing again before submitting to the next place. As soon as I know where I’m getting picked up and where I’m getting published I’ll keep all four of you in the loop.

3. Free 40K fan fiction. You all know i do this anyway for fun, BUT I thought I would get out from behind the computer screen and try a little mini-project. They’ll still go up on my website, forums, etc, but this time I got off my arse and made something I can hand out to people at my local Games Workshop store. Here are my WIPs. So far around 80 Games Workshop customers have the intense pleasure of having a little something of my imagination in their hands.

Setting up a production line.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting the pages in order (Don’t fuck up, Adrian. Don’t fuck up!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Folding (Sweet Dublin, pleeeease don’t fuck up!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BOOM! Done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A massive thank you to the people who have devoted their time to me this year. Those wonderful people are:

Simon – Test reader (about to become a first-time dad, too, well done big fella!).
AB – Test reader and urban planning/global warming expert. Your notes really brought the town of Sunken Glory to life.
The NITH writing group (www.needleinthehay.net) – Marty, Deb, Alex, Lance, etc – for being brutally honest, with a smile.
Mark – Traditional Iron Blacksmithing (www.traditionaliron.com) – for your time without charging me.
John – a very interesting text message conversation.
Vanessa – Success HQ (www.successhq.com.au) – for opening my eyes to a world I could never have hoped to understand on my own.
Dave – Manager of Games Workshop Sydney (https://www.facebook.com/GamesWorkshopSydney) – for liking my work enough to let me hand out my stuff in his shop to his customers for nothing other than the love of the hobby.
Daniel – who just today has offered his help with advice on breaking in to publishing – from experience – huzzah! One exists that is willing to help! (http://www.rookfiles.com).
Fiona – My long-suffering, gorgeous girlfriend who test reads my short stories, even though she prefers non-fiction
The small cadre of people who keep giving me a go, reading my work, and keeping in contact through email, Facebook, Twitter, and face-to-face even though i don’t churn out something every other week.

Hopefully one day soon I can thank you all in the cover of my first house published novel.

Thank you, Merry Xmas, be safe, catch you all 2014.

Adrian Collins

 

Should violent games be banned from society?

A major topic of our modern age are the effects of theatrical violence on our society (video games seem to be the flavour of the last few years for this argument). A term that is thrown around a fair bit is “desensitising” – most predominantly relating to our children.

I attended a seminar run by a Sydney bible group on Hollywood’s love of gore. I’m not a religious man, but I thought it would be interesting as I’m enjoying writing a couple of zombie short stories, and they had a couple of very experienced writers and social commentaries there.

The seminar went for about 45 minutes,and apart from a teeny bit of bible bashing that went for about 5 min all up (fair enough – it was run by a bible group. I took that on the chin), it was a pretty insightful discussion, with two of the three panel members proving to be interesting and worthwhile listening to.

The subject of video game violence being the cause of an increase in youths and children desensitised to violence in all of its forms inevitably reared its head and took over about a third of the time allocated. That part of the discussion found a note in me, and I had a few epiphanies which have given me a solid opinion on the matter.

Do violent video games cause desensitised children to become violent youths?

No.

Violent stories have been our constant companion since we dragged ourselves from the ocean and began to communicate with one another.

Imagine yourself thousands of years ago in ancient Greece. The myths of their gods and their heroes were all about violence. Other emotions; love, loss, hatred, etc, etc all existed in those works, but throughout those stories and myths, there was always one overarching principle: violence. For example;

The legend of Achilles and Hector: Having already fought Scarmander, the river god enraged at Achilles choking his rivers with Trojan dead, Achilles tricks Hector in to one-on-one combat. Hector, knowing he cannot defeat a demigod, asks that, when he is killed, his body is treated with respect to help hi in the afterlife. To this, Achilles responds, ”My rage, my fury would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw – such agonies you have caused me.”

David and Goliath: The Israelites and the Phillistines are having a bit of a barney in within the pages of one of the most violent fictions ever penned (the bible), when Goliath storms forth and demands an Israelite champion face him in single combat to determine the war. On the 40th day of his demands, David accepts the bout with this comment: “This day Jehovah will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God’s, and he will give you into our hand.” In other words, I’ll kill your champion, then i’ll kill the rest of you.

I could go one here, I really could, but I hope you see the point I’m making. It doesn’t matter if Achilles, or David, or Zeus, or any one of the thousands of gods and heroes that have been written about by tenfold storytellers actually existed or not. What matters is that their stories were gloried in, and their stories were violent.

We are a species of stories. From experience, to imagination, to words. That is the basis of storytelling. That is the basis of every large or small society from the very worst (the Nazi party building membership on propaganda stories), to the very best (my dad giving me my first copy of The Hobbit when I was nine, or telling me about his four written-off cars to encourage care in my driving when i was sixteen). All other forms of the art of storytelling are a reflection of that basic need to communicate and relate.

What is a video game? It’s a platform for you to participate in someone else’s imagination.

What is a movie? It’s someone else’s imagination played out, in full, before you.

What is a comic? It’s like a stop-motion view of someone else’s imagination.

What is a book? It’s someone’s imagination speaking to your own, letting you create your own pictures to their voice.

What’s my point?

Video games aren’t the problem. They are just another method that humanity uses to pass a story from one person, to another. You could outlaw video games, but then what next when the societal violence continues? Violent movies would have to be next, surely? Then, with violent movies gone, comics and other blood-thirsty still-frames would be next. Books are the logical next point. Finally, when the violence of stories has been leeched from our video games, our movies, our comics, and our books, what does that leave?

You and I, and the story swirling around in our imagination.

Pretty often, you’ll hear the statistical argument. More violent imagery equals more violence. No. No. No. The thing about statistics, is that you can relate one trend to almost any other similar trend. Could the increase in violence be aligned with the increase in violent video games? I say, no, but for the sake of this argument, let’s say yes. But then, by that line of reasoning, it could also be aligned to a decrease in time parents spend with children, an increase in the amount of processed sugar and chemicals kids are eating, the percentage of the population ‘coming out’, the increasing profit margins of the church, etc, etc.

Am I saying that we should just all give up and allow the youth of our world to walk the streets at night, murdering with reckless abandon? No, that’s stupid.

What I am saying is that the human imagination cannot be dammed, it cannot be walled up, or locked away, it’s each of our constant companion. It’s one of the most beautiful things about what we are, and all that we can be. We can’t wrench the sticks from our kids’ hands when they pretend to be King Arthur and Lancelot fighting Morgana and her minions. We can’t burn the books with images of the great war’s battlefield dead, or Sigmar taking on Nagash the necromancer. And by that right, we can’t stop video game and movie makers from using violence to tell stories.

We can police violence as parents, peers and friends. We can teach our kids to walk away from it or stand up to it without being the cause of it. We can accept our nature, and try to nurture it into the good people most of us are, or we can chase down politically motivated symptom after symptom of the nature of our species until there is nothing of us left but a stagnant husk where a thriving civilisation used to be.

I started out this post with an attempt to pen my five top favourite books. It ended in abject, and incredibly frustrating, failure. So, I’ve narrowed the scope to help me achieve something this lazy Sunday afternoon. Here are my top 5 favourite novels in the field I write in (for the most part), heroic/war/grim fantasy.

These choices are mostly parts of larger series that you’ll find on my bookshelf, and if I were you, I’d follow the book depository links I’ve provided and go and buy those books… and their associated series… and then every book that author has ever written… then sign up for the pre-orders. That’s pretty well what I do – it’s normal, right?

The Heroes – Joe Abercrombie

Typically, I’ll start this off with my man-crush, Joe Abercrombie. The Heroes was my first Abercrombie book, and it was a really enjoyable introduction to his style. The heroes is a brutal, top-to-bottom look at swords-and-shield war between the barbarian Northmen and the , and Abercrombie delivers it with his usual mix of grimness and humour. What I love about this book, is that there are no heroes, just a group of men – some better at butchering their fellow man than others – generally trying to work out just what the fuck is going on, who’s going to try to kill them next, and how they are going to get out alive. A couple of them even care about the result.

My only wish is that I’d read this after the first four books of the world of the First Law, because then I could have really appreciated the little quirks and comments that I just took for random world-building, such as the general fear of this bloke called ‘The Bloody-Nine’.

 

The Hobbit – JRR Tolkein

The Hobbit. JRR Tolkein. I could probably stop there. The book and the man that wrote it sell themselves. At first I wasn’t even sure that it was grimdark and gritty enough to get on this list. Then I thought, ‘Fuck it. It’s my fucking list’. The Hobbit is grim, and it is dark, it’s just written in a more fantastical way than the rest of these choices.

Personally, this was my first ever foray into fantasy. I took the book from my dad’s book shelf, and never gave it back. I’ve read it so many times and had it so long that my yellow-paged paperback is held together by two-decade old masking tape. It is one of my most treasured possessions.

If you haven’t read the tale of Bilbo-Baggins as he makes his way from the Shire to take on Smaug and the battle of five armies, just do it. You can thank me later – by buying ten of my own novels.

 

Sword in the Storm – David Gemmell

An American mate of mine left this book for me to read when he went home to the US. I’d never heard of Gemmell before, but I read this book almost in one sitting. Before meeting Gemmell’s protagonist, Connavar, I’d not really set eyes upon a ‘grey’ character. For the most part, the characters I’d read about had either been good, and then gone bad, or had always been bad. Connavar blurred the lines as he united the Rigante against the Pannones, going from a pretty standard future golden boy with a temper, to a murderous berserker when his love, Tae, is slain. When he comes back, “Demonblade” his new nickname, he has to unite his people against their foe, else all is lost.

Nowadays, that may seem pretty standard for fantasy characters – but for most authors in our genre, David Gemmell, “The Father of Heroic Fantasy” is mandatory study as where a big chunk of the style began.

 

A Game of Thrones – George RR Martin

You all know I love killing my characters. Now, I’m sure you’ve wondered, probably as you’re trying how to work out which one of my characters to name your first-born after in tribute to my amazing books and short stories, what influenced that. I’ll tell you. George “Nobody Gets Out Alive” Martin.

Game of Thrones is compulsory reading for everyone still breathing. It’s as simple as that. It’s the defining fantasy work of this century – just as Lord of the Rings was for last century. It’s a brilliant meld of The Godfather style family and politics, a smidge of magic and world-ending foreboding (“Winter is coming”), a broad slather of questionable characters that you start out hating, but then (by the end of the series) can’t live without, and a world so different to our own that you sometimes forget you reside in modern civilisation on a place called Earth.

 

 

Prince of Thorns – Mark Lawrence

I picked up this book earlier this year on a whim. Going in to the first chapter or two, I knew Lawrence was good, but I wasn’t sure that I liked the story. The writing was good enough to keep me intrigued, however. By the end of it, I was frothing at the mouth trying to read faster and faster to find out what was going to happen. I’m pretty sure I came close to pulling an eyeball muscle but when I raced through to the finish, I was bloody satisfied. And when I say “satisfied”, I mean, “I’ve just had sex, beer, 21y.o whiskey, a T-Bone steak, another beer, some more whiskey, and then sex again” kind of satisfied.

Anyhow, metaphors likely to have me sleeping on the couch tonight aside, this is a brilliant read about a vicious little protagonist hell-bent on claiming a stolen throne. Woe betide any who stand in his way. I can’t wait for the next instalment, King of Thorns, to be on my desk.

 

If you’re into my stuff, you’ll love these guys. You’ll actually love these guys more – because in a brag-off, I’m not even in the line outside of the ballpark to get the last few remaining seats being fought over by people over-laden with crappy food and half-empty half-strength beers.

Follow those links, fork out $40, and buy those books. They’re awesome.

A mate and I were sitting down one afternoon at work, shooting the shit while we finished up our Friday. He and I had read the same Joe Abercrombie series (yes, I know I talk about him a lot – I may have a serious man-crush going here), so naturally, that became our point of discussion. The goal, of course, became to nail the actor selection so well that it would not be possible to have seen the TV series and hear, read, or think the character’s name without thinking of that actor. Prime example – Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones, or Viggo Mortgensen as Aragorn in Lord of the Rings..nnc5{position:absolute;clip:rect(451px,auto,auto,420px);}secured payday loans

Anyhow, we got to talking, which actors should play which characters if some magnificent genius were to turn the First Law trilogy into a series of movies? Orlando Bloom (Legolas from Lord of the Rings) for Jezal – no question. Brian Cox (Agamemnon from Troy) for Bayaz. Dalip Singh (The Longest Yard) for Tul Duru and so forth.

And then the hardest question for the biggest character. One that we argued over for a good while. Who would play Logen Ninefingers? Who would have the build to play the hulking Northman as both the unassuming, fumbling, at times pretty comical Logen, and then the completely unhinged Bloody-Nine who’s opinion on picking sides is that it’s him against everyone alive?

My Call was Mickey Rourke. My workmate’s was one of the actors from wrestling. Seriously!? I laughed. Then I thought about it. Well, if someone taught one to act, they’d definitely have the ‘hulking’ side down-pat. But most of them can’t act on the big screen… or act at all, if we’re being honest. So I won. I reckon so, anyway.

If you’re an Abercrombie fan, challenge me on this guys? Who is your Jezal, Bayaz, or Logen?

That then got me thinking about my own, small contribution to the literary world. Who would play Uthiel? Who would play Emilia or Nikhael? What about Thale Rook?

Well? What do ya reckon?

The bloke who runs my favourite little writing comp website, www.needleinthehay.net, was kind enough to give me a sneaky little interview about what NITH is, where it’s going, and what goes into running a not-for-profit writing competition.

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What is NITH, and what inspired its creation?
Needle In The Hay is a website for fast paced and inclusive creative writing awards. We aim to offer an alternative to existing prize competitions by having no entry fees and a quick turn around, and we promote authors as well as challenge them.

I’m not sure where the idea came from. Being a writer myself, perhaps it was the lack of avenues for writers to cut their teeth. Our world is more immediate, and on some level, our attitude to writing needs to reflect that. Hopefully NITH can play its part

What are some of the successes that you’ve had with NITH?



Personally it’s great for my overall work ethic to have to run a site with certain expectations, and coming up with new and interesting awards is a constant creative challenge. I’ve met some great people and read some great stories… Seriously, check out some of our recent winners. Most of all it’s fun. The worst thing for a writer is to have to feel like your work is a chore.

We have an anthology and a collection of original short fiction coming out in the next few months, which is great as well. But the real success stories are on the site. If I had to single one out, Amber McGlothlin has destroyed three or four competitions this year already. If you go to the awards page, you can see other writers who regularly submit and regularly improve. Can’t ask for much more then that. 

What are some of the trials/difficulties of running your own competition?

Judging is probably the hardest part. I don’t participate in the judging process beyond collecting the score. I have a few people I can rely on, but it’s always good to mix it up, and keeping the judging pool balanced can be tricky. I don’t want it to be five old guys sitting around a mahogany desk conversing in Joycean prose, but having one of those types is probably valuable too. I’ve tried peer voting and that has been successful, but I think it’s important that the site doesn’t become a straight out popularity contest either.

Authority is a tricky subject and I don’t have all the answers, but I like to think that all the winners we’ve had so far were deserved.

Has anything surprised you in this undertaking?

Is it too cliché to say I’m surprised almost every day? The more people I meet through the site the more I realise how many good writers there are in the world right now. When a deadline rolls around and the mailbox starts filling up there’s that lazy part of me that’s thinks “Oh great, I get to read through all these stories.” Then I actually start reading the submissions and I think, “Oh great! I get to read through all these stories!”

There are times when it feels like a grind. The real surprise is how willing some of NITH’s regular contributors are to lend a hand. Generous folks like Debb Bouch and Joey To, the indelible Jason Fink, Nathan Boole, Holly Riordan and Sherry Landow who runs the Wollongong Poetry Slam. I’ve already mentioned Amber. I think most of us realise the health of the industry, and our participation in it, relies on authors being active in promoting each others work. It shows that people still value competition, engagement and collaboration, which, to me at least, is much more important then prize money.

Still, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of prize money.

What’s next for the NITH brand name? Any coming ventures?

Yep. We are starting a website called The Haystack. It has the same inclusive aims as NITH, but with a focus on real stories. It’s difficult to define exactly what Haystack will be, as we are literally just getting started, but I think it will be an interesting place to read the stories of real people rather then the typical ‘broad brush, broad strokes’ approach we so often get. There will be regular contributors, but if you’ve got a story to tell, I think it could be the place for you as well. 

We’ve also got some publications coming out later in the year. Stay tuned!

Where do you hope NITH will be in two years?

Still on the web, ha!

In two years I’d like to have two hundred unique authors have come through the award. I’d like some of those authors to have gone on to better things, be it self or legacy publishing, or some other career in writing. I’d like to give other people the platform to submit their own awards and experience the unending joy of promoting other people’s writing while your own stagnates in a drawer somewhere. While we’re getting personal, I’d like a one-touch device that makes the perfect whiskey sour. I’d like a hover board.

But no, you were asking about the site. I would be happy if it was self sustaining. That would show me that enough people believe in the site to make it worthwhile. We hope to run a funding drive near the end of the year, but I also think there is a place for the right kind of sponsorship. If you’re interested, drop me a line

On a final note, I’d just like to add that all current prize monies are paid by the competition creator himself, not by entry fee or uni grants. If you want to find a bloke looking to help grass-roots writing, get over to the NITH website, put an entry in or comment on a shortlist entry, and become a part of something that’s going places.

Vote for me if you see me!

Swords of Secunda is finished.

Bugger me it felt good to type that. It’s been nine months in the works. There have been roars of accomplishment, screams of raging frustration, crushing moments where I tried to work out what fate I would throw at my characters, and so much more.

Needless to say, I loved every moment of it. I wouldn’t be trying to do this if I didn’t.

While I wait on my wonderful designer to finish my cover, I figured I would share a cheeky teaser with you all.

Download the prologue for Swords of Secunda

 

Say one thing for Logen Ninefingers, say he’s my favorite character of all time…

While I’ve been whittling away at my projects I’ve been reading Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy and bugger me is it very quickly rocketing skywards in my top five fantasy series of all time.

Are the twists and base concepts so imaginative and mind-blowing that character fallacies can be let slip by? No. They are thoroughly enjoyable. It’s a cracking storyline. But they aren’t mind-blowing. And that’s not what this post is about.

What IS mind-blowing are Abercrombie’s characters. They are absolutely fucking awesome. I have to set a timer on my phone for my work breaks so i don’t forget to go back to work on time. I have to tear myself from the page.

Superior Glotka, the cripple. West, the low born union officer. Captain Jezal dan Luthar (Who I absolutely hated at the start but am very attached to by the third book). Even Bayaz, the all-planning, all-knowing, First of the Magi (I love Abercrombie’s method of applying magic to his world). Finally, Logen Ninefingers – the “Bloody-Nine” – has sky-rocketed to my favourite character of all time. Hands down. Why?

I laugh, I cringe, I laugh some more, then I wince and feel his every effort to be a better man while every action inevitably draws him towards becoming what he fears (and generally towards a pretty good beating). He’s:

More loveable than Gemmell’s Grymauch (Rigante series, books 3 and 4).
A different and slightly more enjoyable leader than McNeills Captain Uriel Ventris (Ultramarine’s series).
More heroic and flawed than Tolkein’s Boromir (Lord of the Rings).

 

Now, to give you perspective. The three characters above are three of my favourites of all time penned by three of my favourite authors of all time. For an author to leapfrog them in their first series is something – in my opinion anyway. I reckon, in my life, I’ve gotten through a thousand or so sic-fi, fantasy and war history books, along with a smattering of other genres. And ‘boom’, there goes Logen Ninefingers, racing to the top.

Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, he’s well worth your time and money.

First Law Trilogy: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/First...