J.R. Manawa's Blog, page 9

A gritty review of ‘Emmeline’

Tylean reviews ‘Emmeline’ by J R Manawa.

My reading list never shrinks. Not because I don’t read – au contraire! For every book I read, I end up adding at least two more – either because I enjoyed the author so much, or because it referenced other work, and I can’t resist diving down a rabbit hole of information. So despite being an avid reader, I’m never really on the lookout for new books to read. I have enough reading lined up on my shelves to fortify me for a nuclear holocaust.

But when I saw that J R Manawa – who I worked with on the Corner of My Eye music video – had her first novel published… I simply had to read it immediately. Though to be perfectly honest…. to me, the subject was irrelevant. Manawa is a thoroughly fascinating individual. A wonderfully diverse and compassionate person who is always full of surprises… and if a person who can surprise me writes I book…. that is a doorway to crawl into that person’s head and perspective on life. How could that opportunity be passed up?

Emmeline is the story of a 21-year-old woman on a journey to discover what happened to her parents 11 years earlier and discovering that her birth was nothing more than a form of soul-harvesting… continue reading ‘Emmeline’ on Tylean.com

Reading Festival announce Eminem and Korn! Finally an epic line-up for 2017 has landed

Whilst I am still trying to figure out the wasteland of my beloved Download Festival’s lineup for 2017, I’ve finally jumped ship for at least one day when I learned that KoRn were going to be at Reading and Leads Festival. Throw Eminem into the mix and I can now tick off seeing another one of my wayward childhood heroes live (it was only for a short moment when I was fourteen I promise, my heart and soul returned to the good old land of mental and rock’n’roll rather speedily)

Reading announced Eminem will be headlining Saturday at Reading and Leeds Festival on Friday. And let’s be honest, with nu-metal rockers Korn, Muse, Major Laser, and Kasabian already in the mix, the twin festivals were already looking like a hot mix.

We’re excited, and we’re going. End of. We waited the 2o minutes on Friday lunch time that it took for our phone screens to final refresh enough times to secure tickets.

Reading and Leeds have well and truly set the standard for this year. We’re pretty sure no UK festival to date has secured such impressive headliners, and on the day that single day tickets go one sale too. It’s not hard to do the math and figure out we’re on a winner. It’s upwards of £150 to see Eminem alone, combined with the £120 our editor paid to see Korn and Limp Bizkuit at Wembley in December. Without…

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The perilous slumber of day. A poem.

I tend to think poems are a bit pointless except as a form of expression for the writer, often voicing things they otherwise cannot. I don’t say that to degrade their value or beauty, mind, and I am certainly no poet! When I was younger, writing poetry was solely a form of catharsis, vomiting out painful words in my teenage angst to allow me to deal with life. There was also something about twisting and grafting together words that were beautiful in form, into sentences laced with pain and other meanings. This poem was a bit of a strange one, an anomaly. Like cakes, onions, or ogres, this poem has layers.

And for you, the reader, of course!

The Perilous slumber of day. J R Manawa.

One night I met a man a-walking

Upon a lost and lonely road

We got around to talking,

And I agreed to share his load.

The woods in which I found him strolling

Were a most enchanting place

Hidden behind the hills a-rolling

Unknown to most the human race.

He was a beggar through and through

But a king I saw behind his eyes

And the truth, if only he knew

Was indeed his greatest disguise.

For he tried to hide from me

But I saw through his mask

A great king was he chose to be

But first must complete this task.

And what be that? I asked.

For you to tread alone these perilous paths?

T’was a secret, should I care to know

And though he beckoned, I let him on his way

Down darker paths where I will not go

While I turn, instead, to the dull of day.g

Tagged: beggar, dark, fantasy, goth, king, magic, poem, poetry, princess, spooky, woods

The red regret. A vampire drabble.

As occasionally happens with the curious creatures of the night that I meet along the road, they do sometimes return. Surprisingly, Rihan wasn’t gone for very long at all. Only a breath, only a moment, and she returned in a flicker of light and shadow with another small chapter to her life, a glimpse into her mind and into her anguish…

The red regret. J R Manawa.

In the alley, Rihan breathed. She knew what she needed, what she wanted. Desired. But she had to escape it all. She pressed her forehead against the brick wall, feeling the condensation drip down its surface and onto her face. She wiped the blood out of her eyes and wrung her hands together. “I’m not a killer,” she whispered, knowing she was only lying to the dead. At the head of the alley, a noise, a scent, a scruffy boy on a beaten-up skateboard. Rihan’s throat screamed to his fluttering heartbeat.

“I am not a killer,” she begged the living.

 

Read Rihan’s first chapter of 100 words here, The red rain.

Tagged: blogging, dark, death, God, goth, goth fashion, goth life, gothic, life, love, night creature, romance, vamp, vampire

The red rain. A vampire drabble.

It’s Friday!!! Yes! Okay, and a little gift for you, just a little one, 100 words of drabble to tease your senses. Literally, a bite sized tale. I hope you enjoy it.

The red rain. J R Manawa.

In the crowd, Rihan stood. She raised her hands in darkness to the ceiling and closed her eyes as the blood began to fall like rain. It fell in perfect drops onto her finger tips, running like rivers down the palms of her hands. The frenzy began, as the cascade fell and the crowd went wild. She could feel the fire in the blood as she licked it off her fingers, electrifying the world around her. Everything became light and sound and hunger. Shadows melted away and darkness turned like the sun rising in the east. Rihan was alive.

With love from this side of darkness, J R Manawa x

The red rain

It’s Friday!!! Yes! Okay, and a little gift for you, just a little one, 100 words of drabble to tease your senses. Literally, a bite sized tale. I hope you enjoy it.

The red rain. J R Manawa.

In the crowd, Rihan stood. She raised her hands in darkness to the ceiling and closed her eyes as the blood began to fall like rain. It fell in perfect drops onto her finger tips, running like rivers down the palms of her hands. The frenzy began, as the cascade fell and the crowd went wild. She could feel the fire in the blood as she licked it off her fingers, electrifying the world around her. Everything became light and sound and hunger. Shadows melted away and darkness turned like the sun rising in the east. Rihan was alive.

 

With love from this side of darkness, J R Manawa x

A video update behind the scenes into making a Young Adult Gothic book trailer…

Hey beautiful people!!!!

It’s almost a month since Emmeline was released and I’m so happy with how it’s going. The support coming in has been crazy silly awesome.

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I’ve done another little video update for you, along with a bit of a fun behind the scenes look into making the book trailer! Thank you to everyone who has made comments and shared photos! Keep your comments and photos coming ^_^ I love the fact that Emmeline has been arriving in America, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Belgium, Germany, and I’m sure there are others I’ve forgotten too.

If you want to read some of Emmeline for yourself, you can download a .pdf here!

Let me know what you think!

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This post is dedicated to Brian, Helen, Lidka and to Lilly, who were the team that brought Emmeline to life for the trailer. Just for fun, I’ve got a  for your support in the production of this video!

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Okay I’ll stop bombarding you with photos….here is the video!

 

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Warnings for the year ahead. A gothic thought.

Starting the year off as I mean to continue….by inflicting upon you, or sharing with you (depending on your opinions) the beauty of the world as I see it.

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I took this photo quite a few years ago in the #catacombs beneath Paris. On this particular visit, my sister Sarah and I were mostly alone in the caverns. It’s unusual for the catacombs to be so quiet, but for some reason that were. Like a deserted playground under the earth left for us alone to explore.

1.3 miles of tunnels are open to walk through, between avenues of human bones carefully stacked by kind. I would argue with anyone that it is one of the most enchanting places I have ever visited. The kind of place that makes my weird little heart

Carrie Fisher : 1956 – 2016 The iron-bikini-clad princess of our hearts

Carrie Fisher was definitely one of my heroes. Not ashamed to say that as a fresh thirteen year old I much cherish my first taste of Star Wars being the experience of watching Princess Leia murder Jabba the Hutt whilst wearing an iron bikini….#girlpower

Best adored for her iconic, style-defining role as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars, and set to feature in all three of the new Star Wars movies, Carrie Fisher has passed away today at only 60, after suffering cardiac arrest on a flight from London to LA, minutes before the plane was due to land on the 23rd of December.

Having made it through Christmas with her family close by, her daughter reported her passing through their publicist at 8:55am this morning. She leaves a family riveted with sadness, and several generations of fans heart-broken, not in the least because they were hooked into her reprisal of Princess Leia in the latest trilogy of the Star Wars films.

In 2015 an older, more venerable Leia returned to our screens in The Force Awakens, still bringing the fight, commanding the attention, and carrying a torch for Han Solo, despite the loss…

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Tagged: Carrie Fisher, Han Solo, Harrison Ford, Jabba, Leia, Princess Leia, Return of the Jedi, Star Wars

That time I got interviewed???

Okay, so I’m not that interesting, I’m sure, not by a long shot. I got interviewed once by Starbucks for camera and they paid me in coffee vouchers. But I did get interviewed by my friend’s company back in October, and yes, there was a reason for it. Something along the lines of me not being able to shut up when I’m passionate about something….more on that later…

Frame Your World is a company that makes really pretty inspirational things with words, journals and wall art and stuff. It’s super girlie, super chic, and not a skull in sight, but I’m who heartedly on board with the ethos of founder Leanne Mac Duff, “To inspire the world with words that make a difference.” She asked me for an interview as someone who believes in that philosophy. And I do hope that somewhere, some day, a way down the road, my words and my stories will make a difference.

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Maybe next season I’ll convince her to bring out an inspirational line with skulls and pretty dark colours?!!! ^_^

So I wanted to share the link to that interview here! Let me know what you think…sorry if I ramble a bit! Here’s an excerpt…

“Name your passion/business? I’m a writer, a blogger, and above all a storyteller. My passion is for the alternative sub cultures of our society who feel cast out, marginalised and abused for the way they see beauty and the way they choose to present themselves. In particular my heart is for the goth kids of our generation and the ones who will come after us; kids who are branded in such a way by society that they grow up pre-dispositioned being outcast, marginalised, misunderstood and feeling generally worthless. Kids who are told that there is no beauty in who they are, that they are just going through a troubled and dark phase. I believe we shouldn’t judge someone just because they see beauty through different eyes…[Read More]”

http://frameyourworld.co.uk/in-the-frame-with-jo-manawa/

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More stories coming soon, watch this space!