J.R. Manawa's Blog, page 8

London Goth Top Ten #3 Leake Street and the Necropolis Railway

Did I say Necropolis Railway? Like, you mean, a train for dead people, going to the city of the dead? Yes. Yes I did. One of my favourite areas in London is around Lambeth and the Southbank of the river Thames. Not only do you hit obligatory tourist landmarks like Big Ben, London Dungeon and the London Eye, but there are loads of great spots near by that folks who aren’t local often don’t take the moment to appreciate on their whirlwind tour of the Fairest City of Them All [London].

[image error]Burlesque [I mean…boylesque] fun at the London Underbelly FestivalIn summer, the London Wonderground, on the Southbank just past the London eye is a great central spot for an evening outdoor drink in pleasant and unique surroundings, though note that this year the Wonderground is merging with the Udderbelly!!!! to become the Underbelly Festival (Read my article here!) under the sponsorship of the Hilton Hotels! It’s bound to be a delicious summer. The Underbelly Festival is a haven for London’s burlesque and alternative cabaret performers. There’s a wide selection from the host of shows on offer that are perfect for taking your gorgeous goth date out one dark summer eve. There’s also the Southbank Centre, Lambeth Palace, Whitehall Palace Banqueting House, and many other delightful spots nearby.

[image error]A queen in my palace….the fabulous Banqueting House, all that remains of Whitehall Palace

But the biggest two draw cards here for me are as I already mentioned, firstly the Necropolis Railway – 100% a much more important selfie destination than Big Ben. Every city has a clock tower the tourists can pose before, but what other city in the world has a disused station entrance still in existence from a time long past when the Victorian and Edwardian dead would be ferried to their final resting places by London Underground? The original facade of the second Necropolis station (the first was destroyed during the war) stands on Westminster bridge road, now hiding behind the moniker of Westminster Bridge House, but it’s still there, every bit as gothic, regal and mysterious as a cemetery station facade should be.

[image error]The Necropolis Railway Station entrance, looming after midnight beneath the street lights

Once you’ve had a peek and a quick snap here, you can pop around the corner onto Lower Marsh where, just passed the Scooter Cafe (great indie stop for coffee), you’ll find the entrance to the Leake Street Tunnel.

[image error]Firestarter

Sadly this destination is under threat from development, but it’s one of my favourite London haunts, not only because I can pretty much detour any journey home via the tunnel, but because there is always something happening here. Always, no matter what time of night you are here. The Leake Street tunnel is London’s underground destination of choice for graffiti and street art, a tunnel that runs beneath Waterloo station from the Southbank to Lambeth North.

I’ve been a VIP at the Vans 50th birthday bash down here, I’ve watched the Fuel Girls partaking in a fiery after-dark photo shoot, seen fetish models squeezed into luxurious latex dresses, played with fire, watched business men from the City in their suits letting off steam by spray painting outrageous slogans on the walls after finishing work on a Friday evening, engaged in rap battles with local kids here after midnight, watched dance groups rehearse for auditions, and famous artists decorate the walls, only to witness the paintings disappear overnight to make way for new pieces. I’ve filmed down here, I’ve made friends down here, I even [rather awkwardly] posed for my photo when I was a finalist in the Ridley Scott Launchpad Manuscript competition down here.

[image error]Smile….just smile…..

Leake Street is a cultural destination, I sincerely hope it doesn’t just fade away, but if you are visiting London, you should pop by while you still can. The best time to go is early evening, or first thing on a Saturday morning when the art is getting started, making sure you return in the evening to see the finished works before they disappear.

[image error]Art from May the 4th
[image error]Got enough photographers, ladies?
[image error]The greatest joke perhaps is works of art like this that appear, and then disappear overnight
[image error]An abstract favourite of mine
[image error]Learning to juggle, fire breathe or spin poi, perhaps?
[image error]Halloween 2016
[image error]Art from …just last weekend?
[image error]Vans 50th Birthday Bash in the Leak Street Tunnels

 

Tagged: art, Burlesque, fetish, fire eater, goth, gothic, graffiti, house of vans, joker, latex, leake street, Leake street tunnel, model, necropolis, Necropolis railway, rubber, southbank, Star Wars, travel, Travel blogger, vans, waterloo

There is a Crow Cafe! In London this weekend!

OMG. Did you hear? There is going to be a Crow Cafe in East London on Easter Sunday!!!

I just died and went to heaven. Anyone who knows me well knows how emotionally in love with these birds I am. I have a friend, and we all know that bats are her thing, bats follow her wherever she goes, and I love bats too, buuuutttt, crows are my thing.

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Everywhere I travel there are two things that I photograph, gravestones, and crows. There is even a murder of crows that hang out on the edge of Clapham Common in south London and I talk to them every morning on my way to work. I don’t care who is listening, they are adorable, with cheeky little mistrusting faces….and basically no one will ever full understand my love of them.

[image error]Who you lookin’ at?

Until now. Now there is a pop up crow cafe. If you are anything like me, you don’t need to read any more, just go straight to crowcafe.eventbrite.com

The Crow Cafe is the brainchild of Charlie Gilmour (self confessed corvid-friendly) and Trevor Smith (As Gilmour said it, this man literally put the bats in ‘Bat’man – the film of course). There will be a range of members from the corvid family in residence, including a baby crow if we are very lucky (at last report she/he was still in his/her egg). There will be caw-fee available at the Crow Bar, and a range of other crow inspired gothic treats for Easter.

[image error]Gothic crow inspired Easter cookies? Where? Sign me up!

You must book your visit to the Crow cafe through Eventbrite, and you book for an hour slot between 12 – 3pm on Sunday 16th April, so this really is a fly-by-night operation. Get in quick, my crow-loving friends, before the opportunity has flown. I’ll be there at the 2pm slot, so if you make it, come say hello!!! *Edit* I forgot to add that all the proceeds from this event go to the charity Folly Wildlife, who help crows and other wild beasties

London Goth Top Ten #2 Garlic & Shot in Soho

Garlic and Shots is on my list of great things to do in London. Possibly my favourite place to go out and hang out for a Friday night drink, and probably the least pretentious of all destinations catering to the gothic heart. They also get extra points for still having my Graffiti in the loo after 7 years #MementoMori.

Garlic and Shots is a Swedish restaurant-come-bar on Frith Street in Soho (also a fun area to explore), with a garlic themed eatery out front, a cramped but cozy beer garden in the back and the so called “Vampire Bar” in the basement.

 

[image error]Garlic and Shots from the entrance, on Frith Street, Soho

You can guess which space I love the most, right?

You can even take a Blood shot over a coffin table in the dank dungeon-y arches of the Victorian street beneath Soho, but you must arrive early if you want to secure a spot in the dungeon, it’s prime real estate. Oh, and did I say Bloodshot? Yeah, it’s kind of like a Bloody Mary, but stronger, and drowned in chilli, in a shot glass, forming just one of the 101 shots that they boast on their menu. If you are feeling 100% brave, try the tequila aged in chilli…

My favourite London snack to eat when I’m out comes in the form of their giant chilli garlic bread. There’s even garlic friend haloumi bites, and garlic truffles on the desert menu; surprisingly non-offensive to taste though terribly and perhaps understandably, underrated.

Perhaps my favourite experience here was the time I was paying for my meal with a friend, the owner was behind the bar (a lovely older Swedish gentleman), and when he spoke to me to take my payment he clasped my hands and held them, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “You are welcome here. Your kind are welcome here.”

It may sound cheesy, but it was one of those ‘moments’ in life that tell you who you are was a person is okay, that you are on the right path, and you are valued. Come as you are.

www.garlicandshots.com

Read #1 of my London Goth Top Ten here!

Tagged: basement bar, bloodshot, coffin, frith street, garlic and shots, goth, goth girl, goth girl london, London, london goth, london underground, secret london, sightseeing, soho, travel, Travel blogger, underground bar, vampire, vampire bar

London Goth Top 10 Sightseeing

I started writing this as one post, and then I realised it was impossible to curb my enthusiasm for the subject, so I’m going to do ten locations over ten days, and then round it up for ease of reference! (insert laughing/crying emoji here)

So, where to begin? London has been my town for nine years now. I arrived here fresh out of home, and more or less fresh out of school. I was a rookie to life, and nowhere near an adult. So the adventure began as it does for most, finding a job, a place to live, learning to make new friends, and finding where the things I liked were generally located – and London is one hell of a big city.

There’s no place like London for a #GothGirl

When I first moved to Europe, I travelled with ‘fresh off the boat’ aggression and keenness, always Google searching subjects like “Goth Paris” or “Alternative sightseeing Paris” “Gothic in Paris” “Top 10 Goth Paris” to try and find things to do in each new city that aligned with my tastes. Very rarely would I get a relevant search result. Yes I do like Gothic architecture but no I don’t want to spend all my time on this long weekend away ticking off a visit to all the cathedrals in your fair city. So, I’m going to start compiling my own lists….

TOP TEN GOTHIC SIGHTSEEING FOR LONDON

#1 The Magnificent Seven.

London is drowning in graveyards, but in specific when the parish cemeteries began to overflow in Victorian times, the decision was made to consecrate 7 large new cemeteries on the outskirts of the city, where the dead could be housed in fancy new tombs to their families romantic Victorian tastes.

Highgate Cemetery is the most famous of these, and the only one you’ll have to pay for. If you do go to Highgate, make sure you go at a time when you can visit both the East and the West sides of the cemetery, because it is the tour of the West with a guide knowledgeable in the grave lore and funerary customs of the era who will make it 100% worthwhile.

[image error]Inside the tombs at Highgate, photo by J R Manawa.

And least we forget, you’ll get a personal tour of the catacombs, previously sealed for hundreds of years, where you are permitted to gaze upon the red velvet furnished and brass adorned victorian coffins, still mostly intact.

[image error]Victorian grandeur, the Egyptian Avenue at Highgate West. Photo by J R Manawa.

But Highgate isn’t the be-all and end-all of the magnificent seven.

My own personal order of visit-important is;

Abney Park Cemetery. Though the perfect and spooky gothic chapel in the heart of this great grave jungle is sadly being renovated at the moment (okay, maybe it’s a good thing. I’ll reserve my judgement for when I see it completed.)

[image error]The gothic funerary chapel in the heart of Abney Park, prior to restoration. Photo and edit by J R Manawa.

Kensal Green, because epic tombs.

[image error]Fly away, Kensal Green, photo by J R Manawa

Brompton Cemetery, because the layout of this cemetery is pretty cool. Word of wisdom, don’t try to peer into the catacomb vaults beneath the main structure. If you do, let me know what you find there…

[image error]Cherubs in Brompton Cemetery, photo by J R Manawa.

Nunhead, for which I currently can’t locate my photos

Egypt. The Gothic Traveller, the travel advice!

LAND OF GODS AND PHARAOHS

Rounding up my experience, my top advice for Egypt is……

1 Don’t be a tourist. Be wise, but also be friendly to locals. Your whole view on life will change the more you get out of your comfort zone with the vast range of human beings that call this planet home

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2 Travel in small groups with local guides. You’ll appreciate culture more and have a better time. You’ll also get off the beaten track more and discover things that people in tour buses and on cruise ships don’t.

3 Be nice, but firm. When it comes to getting rid of pushy people and marriage proposers. Usually you are never far from an armed police man.

4 Learn some Arabic. Basic words like ‘shukran’ for thank you and ‘As-salaam alaykum’ for greeting people. It will go one hell of a long way.

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5 People not pyramids. The pyramids look in the flesh exactly like they do in photos, and while it’s an impressive tick off your bucket list, it’s the experiences with people that you will come away remembering and cherishing.

6 Haggling is fun. If you don’t find it fun, learn to love it. The firm but nice rule applies here too, never back down and always remember you can smile and walk away. It’s only sometimes that you’ll need a thick skin.

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7 Hire a driver. Cairo is super fun when you hire a taxi for the day. Quite often the hotel will negotiate a price for you. And in my experience, no matter how lost you think you are, your taxi driver will somehow manage to find you every single time, with a genuine goal that he will get you home safe and make sure you enjoy every bit of your day

8 Sail the Nile the way it’s been done for thousands of years, on a sail boat. Don’t get on one of the hundreds of cruise ships when you do this journey. Sailing for three days up the Nile was the most earthy and relaxing experience of my life. I got to sail a boat on the Nile! How nuts is that?

HIGHLIGHT

Egypt as a whole was the highlight for me. I love this country. So story-rich and history-proud. The Bedouins of the Western and Sinai deserts are some of my favourite peoples for culture, food, humour and friendship.

LOWLIGHT

Getting absolutely 100% completely ripped off the first time I haggled for something. All my friends that I have ever travelled with since can thank me for this, because I learned a hard lesson and am now the master haggler. I paid for a dress somewhere in the region of 7x it’s regular market value, spending a large portion of my shopping budget on it. It worked out quite well though because the shop keeper felt so bad for his win that he invited my mum and I to tea with his family, I met all his children, and he gave me about ten extra items if I remember correctly, which ended up serving as presents for friends and family. If you know me personally, you’ll realise how much of a confession this is for how proud I am of my haggling skills. I have absolutely made up for that x7 in my travels since!

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FOR THE GOTHS, FREAKS AND WEIRDOS

Coptic Cairo is amazing. There is a great Christian cemetery there that is ruinous and overrun. It doubles as a rubbish dump but is super beautiful (Disclaimer; I don’t know how safe it is). You’ll also love the shopping in Coptic Cairo. The Royal mummy room at the Egyptian museum is 100% a must, and the photography around most ancient sites and grungy alleyways in Cairo is pretty epic. The white desert is beautiful, romantic, lonely and desolate. Luxor is my favourite city for openness to alternative culture. And lastly, St Katherine’s monastery in Sinai is a must visit if the Ossuary of the monks is open at the time of your visit. 

Oh, wait, of course you’ll also love Egypt for the mythology, the curious archaeological sites and the ritual embedded history. And the fact that there are tombs and monuments to death rituals (or the celebration of life, depending on how you look at it) absolutely EVERYWHERE!

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MY TOP SITES TO VISIT

1 The Egyptian museum. You’ll get Museum fatigue but it’s worth it.

2 Coptic Cairo. It’s quaint and cool and fascinating that Christ was raised near here.

3 The Western Desert. In particular the Farafra Oasis and the White Sand desert, and doing a camel trek to sleeping under the stars.

4 The mortuary temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor. Cause the woman Pharaoh was an absolute bad ass. And her biggest surviving relic is a mortuary temple – also too cool.

5 Valley of the Kings. Because we all wanted to be an archaeologist, or an Indiana Jones type when we were growing up. Also, it’s pretty cool to take a donkey as your method of transport to get there.

6 Luxor. More forward thinking in many ways and less “big city” than Cairo. The riverside is a great place to walk, to eat, dance and shop, and the iconic tourist destinations like Karnak and the Valley of the Kings don’t seem quite as overrun as Cairo does.

7 Abu Simbel. Cause, wow!

8 Sinai. Do the mountain hike. Hopefully you’ll get a better sunrise than I did. Do the monastery, because it’s so quaint and archaic. The burning bush that God spoke to Moses out of is said to still thrive here. The bone chapel is well worth the visit if you are a bit of a tombstone tourist.

9 Finish your adventure in a resort or beachside town. I’m not a beach holiday person, not by a long shot, but after twenty something days on the road, spending those final few days relaxing was a winner.

10 The Khan el Khalili & Alexandria. These are two places I didn’t get to see that I wish I could have. They still sit on my list of things to be ticked off.

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ON A FINAL NOTE

For me, so many stories came out of this land, as I’ve already mentioned, it was the birthplace of my fascination with death rituals, and a land that nurtured my need for storytelling. Egypt will awaken your imagination.

The biggest revelation for for me was that I went for pyramids and history but I came away inspired by people and culture. Afterall, it was the people of this land who created the mythology and monuments that we all know and have come to love.

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Tagged: Abu Simbel, Cairo, Coptic, Dahab, Egypt, Egyptian, Egyptology, Hatshepsut, Holiday, Khan el Khalili, Luxor, Pharaoh, pyramids, Sinai, Sun, tomb, travel, Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings

Egypt. The Gothic Traveller, part two.

Given I spent a month in Egypt, it makes sense that I dedicate a couple of blogs to telling the story…!

NECROPOLIS LOGIC

Eventually we wound our way back toward civilisation and crash landed in Luxor. There is an important bit of knowledge here for the graveyard geek in all of us. Every city in Egypt was built on the Eastern side of the Nile. The reason is linked to death and the afterlife. The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. To the ancient Egyptians the sun was born every morning over the eastern horizon, and then died when it set in the west, only to be reborn in the east the following morning.

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So you were buried in the west for hope of rebirth, and you lived in the east where you would prosper beneath the risen sun. Egyptian burial grounds are all on the western bank of the Nile, and the cities are on the eastern bank. Arriving in Luxor brought us to the heart of Egyptian civilisation. I fell in love with Luxor. Its a city of idyllic ancient temple, street markets and good food along the banks of the Nile. I danced for a bride at an Egyptian wedding one evening (because that can happen, you can be on your way out for dinner and suddenly you are stuck in the middle of a big Egyptian wedding where someone decides you should honour the bride by dancing for her). I found an internet cafe run by a lovely transgendered woman, we went out clubbing in a night club with alcohol free beer, and oh, let’s not forget, Luxor’s western bank is inhabited by the most famous necropolis of all, the Valley of the Kings, burial place of several dynasties of Egyptian monarchs. Including the boy king, Tutankhamen.

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I loved Luxor. It was the first city outside of my birthplace where I could have said that I would love to live there. I still would.

WOW IS A CLICHE

The 2am convoy moved us down closer to the Sudanese boarder, stopping in the city of Aswan. From Aswan it was another early morning convoy (safety in numbers, as they say) that dropped us on the doorstep of the Aswan dam.

What’s so interesting about visiting a dam, you ask? Yeah I know. We flood valleys all around the world to accommodate hydropower stations, but to build the Aswan High Dam required the removal and relocation of some of the ancient world’s largest and most awe inspiring temple structures. The Abu Simbel temples were literally cut into chunks and moved from the valley walls to a new home on the high banks of the plateau so the dam could be flooded. Interestingly, it took 20 years to build the temples, and 5 years to relocate them, despite the advance of over 600 years of civilisation.

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Sameh, our local guide had forewarned us that when we rounded the man made mountain and saw the monuments for the first time, we were going to say “Wow!” whether we intended to or not.

He wasn’t wrong. If you ever go to Egypt, the 2am convoy from Aswan is well worth it.

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In Aswan, we also spent some time with a Nubian family and visited a Nubian school before we boarded our own private sail boat and began the three day sail back up to Luxor. For me, this was pretty epic. The only unfortunate part of life on the deck of an Egyptian sail boat is the waiting for land to pee or see to other bodily functions. An Egyptian sail boat makes its way upstream toward the source of the Nile by zig zagging across the river and channeling the wind to keep upstream motion against a rather powerful and constant down stream current. We spent time in the night ducking between the mammoth cruise ships that populate the river like head lice, and during the day we played games on deck, learned songs, cooked, swam in the Nile and generally had a great time.

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THE PEOPLE AND THE WILDERNESS

My final week in Egypt involved the overnight train back up to Cairo once we arrived back in Luxor, (top tip; don’t use the loo. Ever.) and then another road journey into a new desert. Technically this was the third desert I visited in Egypt and though I prefer to call it a wilderness. Somehow the land seemed more lost and alone that the western desert had ever felt. In the western desert I could see that no one was there. In the Sinai wilderness I kept questioning and wondering what I would see around the next bend. Nothing. There was nothing there. The Sinai peninsula is a desolate and lonely spike of rocky landscape. A harsh world of rocks and mountains cut like shards of glass with incandescent veins of colour running through each crack and crevice. I’ve never seen so many colours in such a barren landscape.

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At the base of mount Sinai (yes, think Moses and thousands of Israelites) we stayed at a camp for the first few hours of night. We ate dinner and danced with the bedouin people who lived there. I even played dress up and was taught to belly dance by an Egyptian boy (yes. A boy.) The one surviving photo of me in Egypt was taken on this night.

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At 2am we left for the mountain. While our goal was to see the burnt orange disc of the sun rise over the edge of the earth from the highest peaks of the mountain, over four and half thousand feet above sea level, our morning didn’t quite work out that way.

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Yes we made it to the top, but the dawn was shrouded in an ethereal mist. There was no resplendent sun, but it was enough for me, a magical land above the earth where I could see isolated fortresses peaking up out of the clouds on distant mountain tops. 100% one of the most fantastical experiences of my life to date. Our path down took us via the Siket Sayidna Musa, three thousand, seven hundred and fifty stairs to the monastery of Santa Katharina at the mountain’s base.

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The stairs were carved by a monk several hundred years ago in penitence for what he must have perceived as a hell of a lot of sins. At least we can give thanks years later that he made the stairs, because they are kind of cool. I met a cat friend on the stairs. I counted that he followed me for eight hundred of them

Egypt. The Gothic Traveller, part one.

With the discovery of a new relic in the slums of Cairo this week just gone (see here), I thought it may be time to unearth some thoughts on my past exploration of the land of the pharaohs….one of my first loves.

There’s a quick point to note here, when I left school, I didn’t go go study right away. I was a bit of a rebel with a deep seed for wanderlust rooted in my heart. I’d already lived a childhood dreaming of far off lands and hidden places, and if I couldn’t study Archaeology or Egyptology  (which you couldn’t at the time in lil ole New Zealand) then why bother. So what did I do?

I WENT TO EGYPT 

Ask the writer. My Goodreads questionnaire on how to get creative, and keep writing!

A handful of wise people kicked me into action with getting a Goodreads profile set up. I did it. Well, I started it, and I got myself logged as the author of Emmeline, as some of my internet savvy readers had already logged Emmeline onto Goodreads (you guys are legends, seriously!) Anyway, on an interesting note, the Goodreads team give each new author a selection of questions to answer, and I thought they were actually really good questions so I copied my answers and decided to blog about it too. If you are an author or a blogger, these are a selection of things your readers are bound to want to know about you!

And don’t forget, you can check out my actual Goodreads profile here….! (Wait…how do they even know I was born in New Zealand…..!!!?)

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And, a little bit of exciting news, Emmeline is now globally available in paperback through Amazon!!!! (How cool is that paperback button??? Don’t worry, my excellent advice and answers from Goodreads are coming after this…!)

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Goodreads Author Questions
Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Emmeline was born out of a writing challenge similar to NaNoWriMo, where I was challenged to write about a different topic every day for 31 days. I asked my readers to give me topics to write about, but to make it even more of a challenge I then decided to see where the topics took me, and if I could tell a story from the trail of topics I was given.

I also love London, and I love graveyards, mythology and fantasy, which made it easy to set the scene for Emmeline’s story.

How do you get inspired to write?

Little things inspire me to write. The name of a girl on a gravestone, the haircut of a boy passing me as he walks down the street, the smile of the barista steaming the soya milk for my morning coffee, the cheeky techniques of a young man selling lamps in a Moroccan market, a boy fumbling over tying a ribbon at the counter in Fortnum and Mason. These moments inspire characters in my mind who become real people in my stories.

Environments are even easier. I’m fascinated by the way fantasy bleeds through the cracks of reality. The mist that never lifted off the city that morning, the alley that appeared in the corner of my eye, wending away into the darkness as I rushed down the road to an appointment, the tiny boxes of ash stacked like skyscrapers in little avenues beneath the feet of worshipers in All Hallows by the Tower, spools of wool trailing over ancient mud brick walls in Casablanca, mud boiling like dragons breath in the geothermal pools of my hometown.

It’s all there, ready to open up into new worlds, new places, new pictures of things I’ve yet to see and places I cannot wait to explore.

What are you currently working on?

I’m currently weaving so many threads that I often don’t know where to start when explaining what I do.

Most immediately at the moment, I’m promoting Emmeline, and talking options for Loretta of the Lamp after the manuscript placed as a finalist in the Launchpad competition last November.

I’m also editing Loretta, and looking at planning for the next book in Emmeline’s story.

I’m also starting work on two very exciting projects that involve travel writing – watch this space!

And my blog, this side of darkness (www.thissideofdarkness.com), thrives from my need to brain dump gothic short stories and my thoughts on life every now and then.

…I think that’s all!

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Keep writing, or start writing, and don’t stop. You are never too young or too old to start. Don’t keep your heart set on big financial success, instead write for satisfaction, or write for change.

I write because it satisfies me to create, and to bring people into those worlds I create. I also write because I’m passionate about setting a catalyst for change in the way our world pigeon-holes beautiful young people who find expression through alternative subcultures. Through my novel, Emmeline, I’m proud to support the Sophie Lancaster Foundation (www.sophielancasterfoundation.com), who’s aims are to Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred, and Intolerance Everywhere.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Writing! I love writing. I love telling a story. I love weaving words together to creative something on a page that a reader addictively wants to consume. I love absorbing myself with the dialogue of my characters to the point where they are so believable that their conversations continue in my mind and the worlds and scenes they live in become so real that I am no longer the creator, I am the storyteller recounting the events as they happen.

#Geek #100%

How do you deal with writer’s block?

Writer’s block is cruel. Even when you are not a professional writer, and you are writing for university, school, or for your day job. I’ve had moments where I’ve stared at a screen for hours and written 100% nothing. There are so many droplets of advice or steps I could suggest for getting over it that I’ve learned over the years. The main one is DON’T STOP. So many people give up, but writing is about discipline as much as inspiration. If you set yourself time aside every day to write, and you fill that time with writing, even if its absolute crap and you delete it all at the end, keep doing it. Practise makes perfect.

And eventually, when you are in a routine, it will come naturally, and regularly, like clockwork. Imagination is a muscle that responds well to regular exercise.

My own quick tips for instant fixes include;

• Go for a walk or do some exercise and then come back to it.

• Delete it, and start again.

• Ask someone for a topic, and write about it in your own style.

• Stop it for now, and pick up a different piece of writing to continue in that moment.

• Read in between times, because learning is just as important as teaching.

If you want to provoke me into answering any other questions, head over to Goodreads.com and ask me ^_-

With love from this side of darkness x

Tagged: advice, Amazon, Amazon KDP, answers, author, book, Goodreads, goth, goth life, indie author, publishing, publishing advice, questions, writer's block

How do I get out of this rut? A gothic word.

Have you ever been in a rut? I feel like so many of us have been in this place lately. You know what I mean. It’s not specifically a financial rut, a relationship rut, a job satisfaction rut, a creative rut. Maybe it is a bit of all of these in someways, and yet, I’m referring to the deep kind of valley that a soul falls into, wanders off of its own accord, gets lost in a morbid wonderland of nothingness.

A wonderland where everything is on the edge, where your mind is creative, awake, and pushing for freedom behind the wall you’ve put up. You can see the lights of the next breakthrough shining like the city beyond the next hill, the highlights on the distant horizon of your night time.

And yet, you can’t quite reach it. You’re burdened down by everything else around you, the sometime meaningless and misery of life. But you should keep going, because you know you must, because it’s that light beyond the hill that drives you forward, that keeps your dreams alive when you sleep at night, that pushes you from your bed to tackle the day when the sun finally rises.

I’m here at the moment. If you are with me, let’s push on. Let’s search for the dark road forward….

The Dark Road Forward. J R Manawa.

The dark mist filtered over me, shrouded my body, and then plunged into me. Cold to my bones. There is always a dark awakening before the storm. The onset of fear and full immersion into the Nether.

Let’s be clear. It’s not a tipping point. My mind is a perilous world, but I dance with confidence along the edge of the crevasse, clutching tight to the hand that steadies me, like a child reaching for the beauty of the flames, despite living a life that is once burnt and twice shy.

And yet now, as the storm approaches, a whisper of a smile haunts my face. A knowledge that the night is always darkest before the dawn, and that I would rather walk loved in the darkness than alone in daylight. I know where love beckons me to go. I know what I’m called to do.

I’m not perfect, and I’m headed for the lonely path, the distant mountains. Just me, and you. Free-falling off the main road and into the thick mist, forging a path less known, searching for the missing. Plunging forward and pressing on. If not running, then walking or crawling when I can’t see the path ahead clearly. I’m not afraid, and words fail me, but these bones that lie beneath my crawling hands and knees spur me forward. This is my motivation.

And so I dance in the dark world, shrouded in the thickness of the love that leads me. I dance in the dark world, fearless for the love that rescues me. I dance in the dark world, confident of the path I’m on, the chosen road, less-travelled.



Tagged: advice, creative, Creative rut, dance, darkness, fiction, Finance, God, goth, hurt, lost, love, motivation, pain, psychology, Relationships, short story, vampire

London artist Daecolm isn’t scared of the “Jungle”

I get to reblog this because Daecolm is someone I consider a friend, and one of Kowhai’s many snake/babysitters (It’s a long story, I worked on one of his music videos, and Kowhai worked with him too, they made friends ^_^ ) Anyway, I wish him all the best and hence I am sharing with you his new single “Jungle” (Oh, and that lion artwork on his hand, that’s a collaboration between myself and my favourite make up artist Phebe Wu!!!!)

Born in Zimbabwe, raised in South London, educated in New Zealand where he landed his first number one single, Daecolm (“DAYK-‘M”) is now set to burn up the music scene in right here in the UK, starting with the premiere of his new track “Jungle” released today via Wonderland audio premiere.

Daecolm is a name you’ll want to be remembering – even if you must pause over the phonetics for a moment. The producer-artist has already worked with Chris Brown, Desiinger and Labrinth.

Are you scared of the jungle? Daecolm certainly isn’t.

But it’s a fresh collaboration with London producer Detonate has brought use his latest single “Jungle”. As an artist Daecolm is set to deliver his own smooth mix of R&B, soul and pop sounds to our music scene. Wonderland learned from the artist himself that “‘Jungle’ is a metaphorical representation of what life is like for someone working to make…

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