Troy Dennison's Blog, page 17

A Festive Flavour

He is a ghost, a whisper, a rumour, a myth… And on a cold winter's night he is a man determined to reach his target inside an isolated, snow bound house. Spy, soldier, assassin, thief… X could be any of these…or all of them!

I started publishing my short stories a little over a year ago and most of what I produced would be unsuitable for kids to read because of the content; usually blood, death, violence and swearing. I guess that's part and parcel of the genres I tend to write in. What I wanted to do was write a story that my own children could read, but I didn't want to do something twee and schmaltsy. I wanted it to be something that I'd enjoy reading myself; which meant mystery, intrigue, a twist in the tale…

So I developed X is for X-mas; a tale of a man on a mission. The front cover image was taken by my youngest during a cheerfully snowy day, and last Christmas Eve I read it to him for the first time before unleashing it on the world. It's become one of my most widely read stories and it's still one of my personal favourites.

It's available in all the major eBook formats; Kindle, Nook, RTF, PDF etc. from all the usual suspects; Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony etc.but th ebest place to pick your format is probably Smashwords where it was first published exactly a year ago.

So, Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, Peace, Goodwill, have an awesome time with your friends, family and loved ones. Be excellent to each other – and party on dudes!

did I mention that it's free? ^_^

The Comfort Zone

We all have comfort zones.

Places we feel safe and secure, things that we know and are happy doing because we're used to them. They're familiar and we can engage in them without thinking. Perhaps it's cooking or driving or listening to your favourite band? Perhaps you love to dance or sing or any one of a million other things. We all have a comfort one when it comes to certain tasks that we engage in.

For writers that comfort zone could be the style we write in, or the tense we use or the genre that we engage in.

I know I have my own particular comfort zones when it comes to my writing. Example?

My short stories are always written in the first person – I noticed this a while ago. I'm not really sure why but it seems natural to me. Perhaps on some level I feel that it gives the reader a more intimate personal connection with the story? They can imagine themselves as the narrator. Whatever the subconcious reason, every singler short story I've ever written is in first person.

My other particular comfort zone when it comes to my writing is my genres of choice – Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi – I tend to write about the fantastic, the improbable, things that are beyond the normal boundaries opf everyday life. I guess I just like using my imagination.

Last night someone challenged me.

She asked me to write something very specific in a genre that is so far beyond what I do it could be another planet. Even the subject matter was something I've never, ever considered writing about.

So I accepted the challenge and produced a couple of thousand words – a short story, written in third person, about a subject tha was unfamiliar to me. It was scary and liberating at the same time. The finished piece was a little rough in places but it hit the right tone and was everything I'd been challenged to write. It needs a second brush, but in its entirety is a pretty decent read.

I enjoyed the challenge and it felt good to be able to write about this unfamiliar subject, to produce something that still demonstrated my skill as a writer. I guess the point here is that sometimes I think we all need to have a go at something different. It may feel scary at first but teh rewards of succeeding far outweigh the possibility of failure. And so what if it doesn't work out? At least you tried right? And honestly, I'd rather try something new and fail spectacularly than continue trundling along, stuck in the same old stagnating rut.

So go for it.Challenge yourself. Try something new.

It may turn out to be junk, but then again…what if it's solid gold?

 

 

 

But is it art?

I'm going to start this with something I wrote elsewhere…

This is really a straightforward venting of the good old spleen on a topic that's so near and dear to my heart – art. This touches on a something I mentioned previously – WHAT ACTUALLY CONSTITUTES ART?

The Turner prize to be exact.

I've just looked over what won £25,000 and honestly? To say that I don't get it would be a HUGE understatement.

Looking at all the entires the only one I really liked WAS art – photorealistic paintings that were genuinely good in my less than humble opinion. But the so called sculpures and the rest – honestly I wasn't impressed. Lookinng at the language the judges used in describing the winner the only thing I could think of was "pretentious bollocks"

I quote: "…he employs his grammar of forms, Boyce's sparse, intelligent sculptures evolve each time they are exhibited, exploring new tensions…"

huh?

Honestly there are GREAT artists out there that are both under-rated and underexposed while stuff like this gets HUGE props, major exposure and a buttload of money chucked at the artist so he can go do something similar.

I was looking at some graffiti the other day and the work was gorgeous. The artists were genuinely talented people (with an unusual urban medium to be sure) – nobody knows who they are, nobody really cares and the odds are on they'd more likely land community service than a monetary prize for exhibiting their work.

But there's no pretention, no airs and graces, and no gallery offering them praise and prizes.

To me those graffiti artists should be recieving the recognition for their talent – what they produce is ART in its purest form – unadulterated, from the heart and there to be enjoyed (and possibly removed later by the local council).

I'd rather see that than a bedfull of ham ANY day of the week.

I'd pick Banksy and artists like him over Boyce and his crowd every single time.

which brings me to where I came in – Banksy.

I was looking over his website earlier and cheerfully chuckling along to his work. I love the sensibility and sense of humour he brings to the table. I like the way he takes the serious and deflates it by pointing out the absurd at its heart. This is genuine art – it challenges you, it makes you react, it makes you THINK. Its never boring, it never tries to be anything other than what it is. It is fresh and original and bold and inventive and the best thing of all is that its NEVER pretentious and never EVER dull or boring.

Taking Notes

I got into a habit some time ago, not a bad one - before you start to worry.

I started carrying a notebook and pen everywhere with me if I left the house.

It used to be just a pen, but after a while you tend to run out of space on the back of your hand to scribble down ideas and if you start scrawling on your own arm people start giving you strange looks (and a wide berth!).

The reason of course is because you never know when an idea is going to strike and if you don't scibble it down when you have the chance the odds are good that you'll have forgotten by the time you get home.

So I went through my notebooks, looking for the ideas that relate to the chap books I'm working on. And I had over a thousand words worth of scribble that was for three stories.

Now that's not bad going at all.

On Writing (sort of...)

I should start with a mild warning - Don't expect anything earthshattering or insightful from this. Sorry about that.

Anyway, I released a brand new short story into the wild today. It's out there on its own now, free and able to be read by just about anyone in the world with access to an internet connection. Now that's rather cool in and of itself right?

Of course it is.

But the best part about it was that I rolled right off the back of writing a story about obsession and murder and jumped headlong into one that's set in the world of RPGs. Of course there's a nifty bit of a twist, which is one of the thigns I love about writing. The story can twist and turn, it can shock and amaze, it can entertain and hopefully leave you wanting more.

That's probably the best feeling in the world for a writer; knowing that someone enjoyed your story and wanted more. It's like having a fine meal and asking for seconds or going to see a cool movie again and again.

Some people find writing easy and they can churn out the words day in day out. I love it when that happens, but it doesn't happen that often for me. I have to work at it. I put down two and a half thousand words in the space of around ten hours over the weekend. That's a little over two hundred words an hour, and what's two hundred words? Barely two paragraphs.

So yeah, I can be kinda slow at times but the end result was a story I was happy with. The speed didn't matter, just what I had at the finish. In the end I'm writing because I enjoy telling stories and I love the fact that people are reading my work and enjoying it.

Something old, something new…

Today has a good point and a bad point.

Let's start with the bad. I got cast in a radio drama, which was rather nice for me as an actor. The producer asks me to record the dialogue and forward it by today because they have a deadline to hit. So I record everything for them – it's only five lines but I give them multiple takes, nice clean MP3s of what they need. The problem is that they haven't given me a contact email – our only point of contact is via an acting jobs website. Despite having sent several messages through the system I've still not heard back and their clock is ticking. It's very dissapointing especially I took the time and effort to give them exactly what they needed. Once again illustrating my favourite point that other people have a tremendous capacity for being able to let you down no matter what you do to help them.

But then there's the reverse of that – as I writer I work alone. I write the story, produce and compile the cover artwork and select how and where to publish. Everything is down to me, and the only person I have to blame if something goes wrong is myself. In some ways I prefer to work this way because I take the fall if it goes wrong and all the pressure and responsibility is on me. I spent this weekend putting together a short story that I've e-published today in various digital formats. People are already downloading it and liking it – and THAT is probably the most gratifying feeling in the world. I did that, it's all down to me.

I'm not sure if I have a message here – it's more a case of reporting the facts. I'm sure people can look at this and draw their own conclusions.

 

Sheldon Says - An original song to put a smile on every physics...

Sheldon Says - An original song to put a smile on every physics loving nerds face this fine and sunny Monday morning…

vincentfuckingprice:Basil Rathbone, Vincent Price, Peter...

vincentfuckingprice:

Basil Rathbone, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff, along with Rhubarb the cat.

Genuinely awesome

Hunters

Hunters :

Hunters is my first novel - and it's a non-stop, bullet riddled, survival-horror thrill ride. The near future. The ultimate biological terror. The ultimate reality television.

A deadly virus, a city under quarantine and a team of highly trained soldiers sent in to eradicate those infected. The Hunters are fighting for their lives against overwhelming odds and the whole thing is being televised in all its high definition blood drenched glory.

Available in every digital format you can think of - here's the link for the iStore.

Now where else can you buy a novel for less than the price of a cup of coffe?

Musically Yours

Sometimes I write in silence, most of the time though I like to have music in the background.

Music is amazing - think about it for a moment - it can make you happy or sad, energise you or make you angry, it can bring back memories or help to soothe your pain.

Some stories I've written exclusively to a particular band or piece of music. Hunters was written entirely to the HALO 2 soundtrack - which I love. Hunters is an action packed romp and the HALO music suited the mood for writing it perfectly.

Requiem for Golgotha is another good example of music suiting the story - Requiem is about friendship and loss, relationships and clawing your way from the bottom back into the light. Papa Roach were the perfect choice for me - songs that come from the heart.

My idea of easy listening music is a bit of Ozzy, and if I need to concentrate I found out years ago that nothing focuses me better than AC/DC. Weird I know, but it works for me and I do love my music.

In all fairness I enjoy a lot of different types of music from rap to soul, classical to country, pop to motown, R&B to reggae. But by far my favourite type of music is Rock - metal, punk, grindcore, grunge, industrial, whatever the hell label you want to dish out. Driving rythms, powerful guitar riffs, strong vocals; all the things that make this type of music in all its forms my absolute favourite type of thing to listen to.

I hope that some of the energy and passion from the music I'm listening to becomes part of the story I'm writing, that the melodies, licks, riffs and lyrics guide me as I weave a world of words from my head.

Good music + good coffee = the perfect formula for me to write.

By the way, I can't STAND drum and bass!