Jonathan Kent's Blog, page 6

Meadowbank - Out Friday 28th April

Meadowbank: A dark fantasy thriller. Available from the 28th April ONLY in the Amazon Kindle Store.

Meadowbank is the chilling second volume of the Shael chronicles from author Jonathan Kent. Following on from the events in 'Homecoming', an idyllic North Dorset village awakens to discover two women have mysteriously been taken during the night. As a small group of villagers rally round to unravel the mystery, all evidence begins to point to the dilapidated mansion at the end of the lane: 'Meadowbank Hall'.

Uninhabited for decades and filled with an unknown host of secrets, our four protagonist's must search the deepest bowels of the house where they learn of the final days of its previous inhabitants. Then begins a desperate race against time as they are thrown into the strange alternate reality of Shael and the real truth behind the women's disappearance.

Shael, the world that really doesn't want to be found.

Check out the official Jonathan Kent website: https://jonathankentauthor.wordpress....

Meadowbank - Available from the 28th April

Yes folks, it’s finally here!

The second volume of the Shael chronicles – ‘Meadowbank’ – will be available to download from the Amazon Kindle store from the 28th April.

The action picks up only days after the shocking finale to 'Homecoming' and takes us deeper into the weird and wonderful world of Shael.

I am really pleased with where the story has taken me and I hope you will be to.

All the best

JK…

The Waiting Room - Now permanently FREE!

The Waiting Room - Now PERMANENTLY FREE in all Amazon Territories.

The waiting room was a short story I wrote over the Christmas period in 2016. I have great pleasure to announce it will now be permanently free in all Amazon Territories.
Just click on the links below to grab you FREE copy today.

Happy reading

JK...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.it/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.es/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01MS4I0Y3
https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B01MS4I0Y3

The Waiting Room: A dark fantasy short story

The Waiting Room is a chilling short story from Author Jonathan Kent. With no knowledge of how he got there, all Gary can do is follow the crowd and shuffle forward towards his allocated serving hatch. The only person that is paying him any attention is an annoying Scottish man in the next queue. A man that seems to know more than he is letting on.

As fragments of memory return, he is swept along by the crowd until he finds himself in his allocated Waiting Room to face the shocking revelations that follow.

Check out Jonathan's other titles including his debut novel 'Homecoming' available in the Kindle store.

The Waiting Room: A short story fantasy thriller

Meadowbank - COMING SOON!!

I am just in the final stages of finishing off the second 'Shael' book titled 'Meadowbank'.

I thought I would share with you the cover artwork for the Kindle Edition. The picture was taken by my daughter and I think it perfectly encapsulates the run down mansion at the centre of the story - 'Meadowbank Hall'.

Still a few weeks until publication, but please keep popping back for updates.

Have a great day

JK...

Santa Clarita Diet - Interesting but definitely on the odd side!

Spent the last three nights binge-watching (not sure if I like that phrase yet) 'Santa Clarita Diet' on Netflix. I have read mixed reviews so wasn't 100% sure what I was letting myself in for.

Stars Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant do a great job with an eccentric script that goes from knockabout screwball comedy to all out gore-fest in a heart beat. In the first episode a manic house showing scene is flipped on it's head with the grossest vomiting scene you are likely to see in a decade. And from this point on it never really lets up.

Timothy Olyphant is the manic husband desperately trying to keep his family together as his wife gradually turns into a Zombie with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. It's a bright bubbly 'A-lister' gross out gore-fest (sorry for using that twice) and thoroughly enjoyable.

Frustratingly, just as it gets interesting, the series ends with no great resolution. Setting itself up for a second series.

If seeing Drew Barrymore spending the night trying to eat a whole corpse is your thing, then this is right up your street.

Well worth a watch if you have the stomach for it.

Dark Tower Movie - Only four months to go!

Some pretty impressive images from the upcoming movie adaption of Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower'.

Can't wait for July

JK...



Dark Towers Boxed Set

Homecoming - International FREE ebook giveaway.

To celebrate 'World Book Day', for the next five days, my first novel 'Homecoming' is available as a FREE ebook download in the Amazon Kindle store.

Follow the links for your respective Amazon region and it will take you straight there.

Happy reading.

JK...

Amazon US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon DE - https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon FR - https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon ES - https://www.amazon.es/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon IT - https://www.amazon.it/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon NL - https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon JP - https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon BR - https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon CA - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon MX - https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon AU - https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01N004NHN

Amazon IN - https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01N004NHN

Assassins Creed (The Movie) - Please stop making these films!

I am a complete movie addict. I will watch anything with a subject matter that vaguely piques my interest. I always get excited around Oscar time and make it a priority to watch all the 'Best Picture' nominations before the ceremony.

For me, 2016 has been a strong year for cinema. We have had a continuation of the excellent Marvel films with the impressive 'Captain America: Civil War' and the fun curve-ball of 'Doctor Strange'. We had a further addition to the Harry Potter universe with the magical 'Fantastic Beasts and where to find them'. And we also had (arguably) the best Star Wars film since 'The Empire Strikes Back' in the form of 'Rogue 1'.

We had some fascinating movies such as 'Arrival', 'Hidden Figures', 'Silence' and 'Hackshaw Ridge'. Plus some real life stories in the form of 'Sully', 'Deepwater Horizon', 'Patriots Day' and 'Lion'. Animation had a strong year with 'Finding Dory', 'Moana' and the excellent 'Sing'. We also have the chance of a musical winning the 'Best Picture' at the Oscars!

This list barely scratches the surface of the excellent films we saw in 2016 and so it really grates me when films like 'Assassins Creed' are still being made.

Game adaptions have always struggled to make the transition to the big screen and for me this was one of the worst. Over reliance on special effects and insistent out of context music made it an incredibly dull watch. I am a fan of Michael Fassbender who has the ability to bring gravitas to some high profile characters, but even he seemed to be struggling with the clunky script and overly serious plot. The game itself has some impressive visuals and a lot of the time I was left feeling the film-makers were contriving the plot to show off these visuals; much to the expense of the story.

It seems the film-makers have forgotten the fact that this movie was based on a game and that games should be fun! The action scenes set in supposedly Andalucia in 1492 were poorly edited and set behind an almost constant film of dust that made it hard to understand what was going on. There was also a plot concerning the McGuffin of the 'Apple of Eden' but by this point even the cast seemed to be scratching their heads.

Like I said at the start, I am a complete movie fanatic and have never walked out of a movie. Even in the more lamer releases, I will look for some redeeming features. Unfortunately 'Assassins Creed' did not have any and considering this was released during the Christmas holidays whilst 'Rogue 1' was still playing and heading into the top 5 biggest grossing movies of all time, all I can say is poor show Hollywood. Just because you have the money to spend, doesn't mean you have to.

Please stop making these films.

1/5

JK...

10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in pictures

Iron Man (2008)


The Incredible Hulk (2008)



Iron Man 2 (2010)


Thor (2011)


Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)


Avengers Assemble (2012)


Iron Man 3 (2013)


Thor: The Dark World (2013)


Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)


Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)


Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)


Ant-Man (2015)


Captain America: Civil War (2016)


Doctor Strange (2016)


Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 (2017)


Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)


Thor: Ragnarok (2017)


Black Panther (2018)


Avengers: Infinity War (2018)


Ant-Man & The Wasp (2018)

Remus - A band that could have been

Like a phoenix rising from the flames, the band that was to become Remus, first emerged from the dying embers of a renowned local covers band called Noose in the late summer of 2002. When the singer and drummer quit, guitarists Tim & Simon and Bass player James, who had always been frustrated by the inability to focus on original material, decided to form a new band and only play original compositions.

Freed from the need to learn entertaining but rather shabby (it was all in the delivery!) versions of U2, Radiohead, Streophonics and (yes) Metallica covers, and ably assisted by work colleague Mike on drums.



They set to work on a bunch of songs that would come to make up a 7 track EP – Signs (2003). This was released under the name of the previous covers band ('Noose'), although the band was the same line up as the initial 'Remus'.



Patchy in places, the 'Signs' EP was well received by the local press. Marco Rossi writing for the Dorset Evening Echo saying the EP ‘had a fresh and energetic spirit’. Standout tracks ‘I don’t want you to’, ‘Where the sun don’t shine’ & ‘Johnny’, made regular appearances when (much later) they eventually began to gig. The band were naturally pleased with the response the EP was getting, and in 2004 the decision was taken to change the name of the band to 'Remus', to reflect the fact that the band had morphed into an all original material band, with no interest in playing cover versions.

As 2004 melted into 2005, Simon, Tim and James wrote every week, and Remus gradually added more and more new songs to the pile of unrecorded material and so in the spring of 2005 decided to head back to Mike Hallets studio in Weymouth to start work on their first album proper – ‘Fighting against the tide’ (2005).



With a mix of rock songs played with acoustic rhythms, this was a much more confident and robust set than their debut EP, and there was a noticably higher quotant of original ideas within the songs than local bands are expected to have! The album had a striking cover of a man wading out to sea in a smart business suit and a suitcase, which further differentiated it from the usual 'shot of a band' run of the mill. The fact that (a rather bemused) James' life was 'saved' by a major police/coastguard 'rescue' operation during the photo shoot, and this was reported by the local press, only added to the folklore that was beginning to surround the band. The initial run of 500 CD’s was selling well within weeks. However, this occured without the promotion of gigging.

To ride the wave that the album was giving them, remus returned to the studio in the summer of 2006 to record 4 new tracks which made up the ‘Broken/Misunderstood’ single (2006).



The band felt that ‘Broken’ was by far the best song they had written and were very excited about the year ahead. But as is always the case, good things don’t always last. Mike the drummer had begun to grow disenchanted with life in Weymouth and in October 2006 decided to leave and start a new life away in London (well, Guilford as it turned out). This put a stop to any possibility of live work and for the next few months James, Simon & Tim carried on working on new material, but deep down felt that just after releasing their best set of songs to date, the opportunity to really push on had passed.

These fears grew more and more as 2007 moved on. New songs were coming thick and fast, James & Simon had played a number of acoustic sets in a couple of local pubs, but the search for a drummer was not yielding any real promising results. But then in August 2007, after one particularly frustrating band practice, Simon decided to place a ‘wanted’ add in the local Dorset Evening Echo. This didn’t actually lead to any direct applicants, but the Sub Editor of the newspaper was a drummer himself, and within a week had met with the band and had passed his first audition with flying colours! James actually commented at the time that in pure skill levels, we were going to have to pull out all the stops to keep up with our new drummer ‘Nick’. And so Remus were very much ‘Back’.



With a whole new bunch of songs to draw from, gigs were arranged and on the 21st December the new line up of Remus made their live debut at the ‘Tuatara Bar’ in Weymouth. From that point onwards the band hasn’t really stopped. 2008 has been their busiest year by far. Along with regular ‘pub’ gigs, Remus have played some massive outdoor festivals in Weymouth. Including the ‘Weymouth Sea Festival’ supporting ‘The Steeples’, and the ‘Cove House Festival’ in front of an estimated 3000 people (causing much speculation as to its future due to overcrowding).



The Cove festival proved a seminal moment for the band-playing an all original set (as ever) they played well, and as they left the stage after three quarters of an hour, they could feel the warmth of appreciation from the audience. The material written for the follow up to 'Fighting against the Tide' had been comprehensively proven. In August they had an interview with Maria Greenwood on Wessex FM, where they also played an acoustic version of ‘Broken’.



Early 2010 saw Remus complete their second album proper 'The Complete Piece Missing'. A much more rockier affair than 'Fighting Against the Tide' with a much more 'Live' sound. Big songs like 'Parachute' and 'Nightwalker' which had been polished live during 2008 and 2009, sat well with the more delicate numbers like 'Eden Rock' and 'This Autumn Storm'. The album showed a step on from their debut, not only in the quality of the songs, but also in their playing with new drummer Nick bringing snap and energy to the band.



The rest of 2010 & 2011 saw Remus taking their new album out onto the road and then, as these things tend to do, real life took over and the band that could have been was no more. After 16 years, countless live shows and (counting the early Noose recordings) six studio albums, the band went their separate ways. There is still a whole host of unrecorded material and maybe one day we may actually hear the (unofficial) movie soundtrack they were working on towards the end. Who knows, but for 16 years they gave this fan some pretty cool memories.

Thanks for the ride!