Joseph Hunt's Blog, page 14

Writing is...

On Monday I said to you guys that writing poetry is a way of getting out your emotions and knowing how you feel.



Well they aren't the only reasons people write...



Here's a list of all the reasons why I write... and then in the comments, I'd like to know what it is that makes you write and why you write.



Expression: I use writing as a way to get out my feelings, more often than not this is in poetry, but I have wrote a few prose driven pieces that have addressed issues of internal conflict etc.



For people: yes, I do write for people, in fact, if you're reading this then it's pretty likely that I'm writing for you. I have an audience in mind when I'm writing, and you might not be the intended audience, but if you like it... then it was written for you! I write for other people to enjoy it.



Evoke a response: a few years ago I wrote a really bitchy poem and sent it to a lot of people, even the person it was aimed at... I regret that completely, but it evoked a response. It was like one of those letters you write but only for the satisfaction of getting down your feelings. Also, I know I've done well when someone tells me that they started crying at the parts which I cried writing etc.



A career choice: people work out on a daily basis to get into the army or to be a personal trainer etc. and that's no different to being a writer, I write everyday and I talk about writing everyday, and the reason I do it is because it's what I see myself doing until the day that I die... and so if I died tomorrow *touch wood* I'd know that I was on the path/doing what I wanted with my life.



I want to know...


What is writing to you?


-Joseph




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MFT - The Salem Gates (excerpt)

So I asked you guys which you wanted... poetry or an excerpt from The Salem Gates... and the majority of you guys tweeted me, asking for The Salem Gates! So here it is.



This is rough, but I tried to tidy it up a little bit for y'all.




The Salem Gates

(Excerpt)

"If you're looking for time to kill, go and explore the neighbourhood, we have our own tomb in the graveyard," Wren's mom said, oohing and wriggling her fingers at them.

"Graveyard it is," Kady said, rolling her eyes and turning to see Wren standing behind her. "Come on then."

Wren dawdled, flexing his own eyes at the thought of hearing more of Kady's voice. "Do you need any help mom?" he asked.

"No, we're not painting for a few days yet," she said, "go and learn something about our family."

"Like how they came to get such a huge house," Kady smirked, "that's the kind of stuff I want to know."

"They built it," Wren said. "Do we have to go to the grave yard?"

Kady shook her head and gripped Wren's jacket, pulling him out of the front door, down the path and out of the fence. "It's just down here," she said, pacing down the street.

They stopped at the thick iron fence at the bottom of the path. The gates were rusted shut. Kady pushed at them, slamming them with bottom of her hands, grunting and sighing as they didn't budge, she gave in to kicking them.



"Are you going to help?" she asked, swiping back her hair in frustration.

"Maybe it's off limits," Wren suggested, peeking through the iron bars.

"Or maybe it's where all the fun stuff is," she grinned, pulling at one of the rusted bars.

"Yeah—I mean, how much fun can be had in a graveyard!" Wren sighed. "We should go back and take a car, go into town, explore."

"Or," she said, smiling, "we try and get through here." She tried again at wielding the bars apart, figuring that she might be able to get through the slim space.

"Can't I jus—"

"Wimp!" Kady shouted, putting a leg through and then shimmying the rest of her body through, oohing and aahing until she popped out into the graveyard. "You have to come through now."

I don't have to do anything, Wren rolled his eyes and measured the small space of the gates. He tried to make the gap wider, but it didn't budge, and he didn't expect it to, it was worth the try though. He pushed himself through the gate, falling to his knees as he thrust himself through.

"All we need to do now is find the tomb," Kady said, looking at the field of gravestones.

Wren climbed back to his feet and walked down a small path to a huge clearing. The grass was mowed and colourful plants grew near the graves and making veins across the marble headstones, all of them in what looked like a table, neat rows of gravestones all white marble.

"Here, I found it!" Kady called, from across the graveyard, under several trees. "It's one of those walk in ones.".

Wren hurried over to the vault. By the time he walked inside, Kady had already started to light some candles.

"Why do you have a lighter?"

She rose an eye to him. "We're living off candles," she said, as if it had been blatantly obvious. She continued to light the rest of the candles that were already there.

Two statues, one at either side of the tomb, both of them were woman, similar in looks, although one of their heads was bowed, while the other looked angry.

"Is this great-aunt Dierdra and great-gran Carolyn?" Wren asked, touching the soft powder stone of the statues faces.

"Who?"

"The people who lived here when my mom was a child—and the amount of times I've had to do family trees is quite unreal," he chuckled to himself, starting a new school each semester he'd learnt how to do things more than once—his family tree was one of them.

"It isn't that big of a family though is it? And you don't know who your dad is—" she said, glancing up at Wren in the candle light, trying not to smirk.

"My mom won't tell me his name, she thinks I'll go searching for him when I turn 18."

"Will you?"

"Probably, I want to know why he left my mom on her own."

Kady snorted. "My mom told me a story about aunt Jen, she said, it was her own fault that she got pregnant when she did, and the man she was meant to elope with stood her up." It was true, Wren had heard the same story, but it had never been his mom's fault in her version of the story.

"Yeah well, I just wanna know why he did it," Wren said, brushing a patch of stone to sit on.

"Cause he's a jerk, that's -" before Kady could finish she was tossed across the tomb.




The ground started to shift, sending them both wriggling around and trying to keep still. Wren tripped over his own legs, falling into the bowing statue and tearing the stone hand from it.

Back so soon, faint whispers snapped at the back of their necks as they lay on the floor unconscious. Teach a lesson, learn something, another outburst caught them, slapping their faces with its breath. Take control, eh? It whimpered, see the sun, again.

Kady shot up as the voice chopped at her. She started choking on the dust as her throat hitched at the coarse air. She began cursing about what had happened, and then she touched her head and felt something warm. It was blood. She looked down at where her head had been to see a small pool of it. "Wren!" she shouted, seeing his body sprawled across the floor. "Oh, god! You better be okay," she said, shaking his leg.


What did you think?

Are you adding The Salem Gates to your GoodReads 'to-read' list?


-Joseph




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Review: Generation by William Knight

Now, I'm not usually one to read zombie, thriller kind of books, and even when I watch them on TV I have to watch them with someone else. But I enjoyed it... see the little section 'Review' for my thoughts.



Blurb



Journalist Hendrix 'Aitch' Harrison links bodies stolen from a renowned forensic-research lab to an influential drug company.

Aided by Sarah Wallace, a determined and beguiling entomologist, he delves into a grisly world of clinical trials and a viral treatment beyond imagining.

But Aitch must battle more than his fear of technology to expose the macabre fate of the drugged victims donated to scientific research.


Review

So that cover! I know what you're all thinking, scary, right? Well, I actually love it, I especially love those symbols etched into his face, the unnatural eyes and the doctor's mask. You know exactly what you're getting into, or do you?



The author goes into great science detail, you could tell that he'd done his research, and I always love that! When I read the synopsis I thought it was going to be a little bit like Amanda Hocking's zombie series, but no, this was so much better!




The book is about Hendrix 'Aitch' Harrison, a journalist who works for 'Strange Phenomena', and he's searching for something to write when he comes across some tales about ghost sightings. From here, Aitch meets Dr. Sarah Wallace, she's a research scientist and all of her research has been destroyed, it's been destroyed by the people who are manufacturing the drug that allows people to live forever.




It isn't all from their perspective, you do get to chapters that are from those who have been infected by the disease, and they're decaying, but not they're not dying.




I loved how both Aitch and Sarah were portrayed, although there was a fairly predictable sex scene between the two of them that I felt did nothing for the book. However, that's something for the market who enjoy those scenes *wink wink*.




Now, I'm not really a fan of thrillers, but I really did like this book... and I don't want to give too much away, but it really is a great read if you're into thrillers, or like me, you want to give something new a try.




One of the other things that I loved about this book was that it's set in the British countryside, which was really refreshing because I'm from the UK and also because the majority, if not all of the book that I've read lately have been set in the US. Also, William Knight is from the UK. Go us Brits.

My Rating: 4 *'s!





Have you read it?

Are you going to read it?


A very Little Excerpt

'In 2001 the New Scientist reported that researchers had isolated a gene for regenerating damaged organs from the DNA of a South American flatworm. Within five years it had been spliced into the chromosomes of mice, pigs and rhesus monkeys, transported through the cell walls by a retro-virus denuded of its own genetic material.

Results remain secret, but success could yield extreme rewards. If ageing could be stopped or even reversed, and diseased or damaged organs regrown, life could be extended well beyond a natural span. No longer would you expect to retire and wait for death. You might remain fulfilled and active for ever, your worn out parts simply regrown and replaced.

Attempting to regrow impaired or elderly tissues, a scientist will one day modify the DNA of a human being by injecting the gene-carrying virus. It is just a matter of time.

Before consenting to treatment, you may want to ask a simple question: could there be a situation in which you would want to die but were unable to do so?'




My thoughts... YES!



Novel Publicity



Get Generation on Amazon or Barnes & Noble – you know you want to! And be sure to enter for your chance to win an autographed copy of Generation : ENTER HERE!


ALSO... because I know how much you guys love my blog...


VOTE FOR ME!

All you have to do is scroll to the bottom and click 'Joseph T.J. Eastwood's Blog' to vote for me. The blogger with the most wins a $50 Amazon gift card, and I know you guys want that to be... right? ;)




Author: William Knight

William Knight is a British born journalist and technologist currently living and working in Wellington, New Zealand. He's chased a varying career starting in acting, progressing to music, enjoyed a brief flirtation with handbag manufacturing and was eventually wired into technology where he's been since 1989.



In 2003 he published his first feature in Computing magazine and has since written about the many successes and failings of high-tech for the Guardian, Financial Times and the BBC among many others publications. He continues to maintain a lively IT consultancy. Connect with William on his website, blog, Facebook, Twitter or GoodReads.




What did you think?

Are you going to vote for me?




-Joseph



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I Took a Day Off!

So, if you didn't realise yesterday, I was absent... I didn't go on the internet for a whole day! Yes, a whole 24 hours! And believe me it bloody hurt... but as the day progressed I eased into it, I eased into something that I thought I'd lost.




I was productive.


I wrote 10,000 words, although admittedly it wasn't all in one sitting, but it was all in the space of 24 hours! And I'm proud of that, so yeah, today I'm going to tell you guys that I wrote A LOT of words! And now, in fact half of The Salem Gates has been written... so yeah, I'm really happy for that.



It's has been one of THE most productive days of my life... I'm still a little bit shocked by the whole thing and I keep checking that I'm right, I did write 3 chapters yesterday... and I wasn't going to come online today, but then I realised that I needed to tell you guy about it, and I needed to blog.



I have some tips here:


Coffee

Planning

No Internet

Just Write!


So, if you close the internet window that's open right now (but obviously after you've commented *wink wink*) and open up a word document, and then just type, and that's the hard part over with. The hard part is going away from the internet, but once you've done it, you'll feel relief and happiness.




Are you going to take a day off?


-Joseph




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Poetry: Inspiration

April is National Poetry Month... and we all know what that means, right? It means weekly posts by yours truly!



I know that some of you guys might hate poetry, and I don't blame you, I once hated it as well, but now I don't. You might be all, "heck, I can't write poetry, I'll just be a hater".



I'm afraid it doesn't work like that, and here's why... because we all have this little miniature poets inside of us, bursting to get out and bleed all over the page. It's up to you whether you want to call yourself a poet and share your writing.



One means of finding inspiration to write poetry about is your emotions, and it's easier to create poetry when they're emotions like: grief, hate, hurt, loss, anger... but they don't need all need to be like that, you can use lust, love, humour, family, friendship and other feelings and themes.



So those little monsters inside feed on our emotions, and the stronger the emotion, the thicker the glass bottle is that they're kept in... and you don't want that breaking accidentally. So see my tips on how to tap into your emotion without necessarily going through a breakdown.




Tips on Tapping into Emotion!


Be honest with yourself. Tell yourself how something is... if you're angry at someone, don't bottle it up, never bottle it up, that's how breakdowns and depression happen. Also, therapists recommend writing how you feel down, at least you'll know how you feel---so even if it's just for you, poetry is useful.



Make spider diagrams! I'm writing a collection of romance, love, lust poems and I've created numerous 
spider diagrams  for that. You start with the key word: emotion, theme etc. and then you draw the spider's legs with other ideas, and so on until you feel that you've got enough to write what you want to write.



Or, you can always go into it head first and bleed all over the page. It depends on how you like to write.



So if you go away from this post with one thing, remember that not all poetry is bad... and sometimes it can help you out. I've actually wrote poetry off the top of my head and realised later on that it revealed quite a lot about my state of mine and the emotions that I was feeling.




Do you write poetry?


-Joseph




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Success is NOT Overnight!

Last week a wrote the post: 'Slow and Steady Wins the Race' and I'm posting today because it was the next available day for a blog post! Ha.



I know that every writer will say this at one point on their blog... or in general. And now it's my turn. So, here goes.



Success is NOT something that can be achieved overnight... and you'd be a fool to think otherwise.



I've written a little something on how you might be able to achieve a little bit of success... and that comes from improving... but improving on what? Well, read below.




How Can You Improve?


For a writer who is choosing to self-publish, I would consider sales playing a major role in their success. I've not self-published anything yet, however, when I do, I know that I will weigh my success on sales.



I'd like to think I was pretty successful in blogging, I receive a fair few amount of comments on my post, each posts has on average of 100 hits -- but it wasn't always like that, I used to blog and there was nobody reading my posts, or commenting, or tweeting me, telling me how much they loved what I said... but then again, that was almost 2 YEARS AGO! So success can take years... and I'm sure that even now I'm still a minnow in the blogging world. I'm constantly improving my blog---example: I'm blogging EVERYDAY! Yes, you heard right, if you want more of Joe's awesomesauce, then you don't have to wait long... just 24horus! WHOOOO! (I'm sorry, I get a little bit carried away.)



So, determination, dedication and persistence... those 3 words need to be etched inside your forehead, and every time you close your eyes, there you will see it, those 3 words, in block capitals, surrounding your dreams and ambitions.



Now, for those 3 bee's ;) Be DETERMINED. Be DEDICATED. Be PERSISTENT.



ALWAYS. And I say ALWAYS want to improve your writing, ALWAYS feel the need to learn new techniques, new ways to develop yourself. A friend told me that "your writing in 3 minutes will be better than it was 3 minutes ago, because you're always getting better" (not her exact words, but you get the point). So that's one way in which you can improve and also improve your chances of succeeding! This includes, being open to criticism, and being an open person in general... example: if you're closed off from the world, and a pretty anti-social person, then you're less likely to be a huge success.



On Tuesday I'll be posting another post about How NOT to go about Sales... I was going to go about it in this, and then realised that it would've been a really long post. I hope this was useful, and please don't try cutting those words into your forehead! Sincerely, Joe!




What do you weigh success on?

What are your goals as a writer?


-Joseph




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My Blog through April!

So March is over and April is just settling in... and I just have to tell you April... March has been a pretty epic month for me, so I'm not sure what you're going to do that could make it better. Did you see those statistics?



April is, among many thing, National Poetry Month... and so during this month I will be posting about poetry, I'll be posting my poetry and my plans for the future with poetry... I do have a lot of plans for this month and I hope that you guys will also be getting involved! The poetry posts will be posted on a Monday!



I'm going to continue to blog Monday through to Sunday... so I hope you're all glad for that! March was an amazing month as I made so many new friends and there are a lot of you who have just been amazing and supportive, and you're giving my blog praise, left, right, and centre.



This is what I want to achieve based on how I went through March.

Blog: I'd like to reach 300 followers on my blog! That's 61 new followers... I hope that if I write some great and personal posts for you then you'll share them and I'll get to that 300! Ha.



Oh, and I almost forgot but I'm also accepting guest posts! If you're interested, then email me: josepheastwood@ymail.com -- hope to here from some of you soon!




Some Really HUGE news:

Lumen is almost ready for your Kindle! Are you excited? I hope you are... and if you're not... then what can I do to get you all excited for it? 


-Joseph




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March Round-Up!

This is something that I started last month... if you want to see, here's February Round-Up.





There are 31 days in March... and this will be post 33! That means I've posted every day and then some.


So without any further excitement, here's the statistics for March... and the numbers in the brackets are how much I've increased, because I've got up on each of my social platforms.




Facebook: 1,555 (+113)

Twitter: 1,641 (+181)

Blogger: 240 (+63) with 23,033 hits (+7,620)

Scribd: 206 (+10) with 10,854 reads





Facebook| Joseph's Writing

Twitter| @Joe_Eastwood

Scribd| Joseph Eastwood

Goodreads| Joseph Eastwood


Add my books to your Goodreads 'to-read' list: And everything in my life is a little bit hectic... so I'm going to put some months beside them.

Lumen (Blood Luminary, #1) - April

The Salem Gates (The Caldwell Witches, #1) - June

Clandestine (Night Falls, #1) - August



Last month I said... "all these figures will rise." and like a psychic I was right! Also, if you check from February to March I had a whole 3,062 more hits to my blog! Soo I'm going to say the same thing for February... ALL OF THESE FIGURES WILL RISE!




March has been an amazing month... but APRIL will be soo much better! And I will do my best, and I will try my hardest to post Monday through to Sunday... although it doesn't seem hard any more because it's in my routine.




WHAT'S IN STORE FOR APRIL? Well... April is National Poetry Month! So I'll be writing a weekly poetry section! And Lumen is sure to be released this month... IT'S READY GUYS! I'm just getting all of this feedback (great feedback) and I can feel it in my bones that I know it will be ready!




Check back here tomorrow to see what else my blog has to offer you in April! ♥




How was March for you?

What have you got planned for April?


-Joseph




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Audition Your Characters!

This post was brought about through a comment I received on my blog post: 'Write Like You Speak...', I said in the comments that I felt I should go deeper into the subject, so here I am.



Damaria (her blog), the person who commented said that she wrote her characters in 1st person to get a feel for them, she then wrote through a different POV, and then 3rd person so she got a good view of their world.



I felt that this was a little bit unnecessary because I always feel that if I've chosen a POV, then I must stick with it. I wasn't too sure how other people worked it out, except when Damaria told me... I was like... well that's definitely unique.



So... on with the post... before I do any 'real' writing, I kind of make my characters audition... this might be weird, because I've never heard anyone else say that they do this before, but hey, I like to think I do things differently, and I like to think it works.



In the audition I give the character a scene... and in that scene they must show their character/personality, so whatever personality traits that I've put down on their sheet, they have to show that, if they can't, then they're out. I then either go through some characters that I've jotted down or I change the character.



The whole purpose of making your character audition in a scene is getting a feel for that character... it doesn't have to be a huge scene or anything, just 500 or so words. And then through this you might already tell which POV you're going to take with it... for me, it's usually 3rd person, although Clandestine is going to be braved with a 1st person.



I hope this post proved to be less rambling and more of an informative post... either way, I'm sure you learnt something.




Are you going to audition your characters?

Or do you have your own method?


-Joseph




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Dressing Your Characters...

I have to be inspired to write my blog posts... and usually I have one planned for today, well today was supposed to be a Greek Myth post... but I didn't want to do that, and you know how it is when you try and force yourself to write something that you don't want to... it just won't happen.



SO... I didn't think this was real inspiration, but it's the only thing I can really think about lately, I am getting some money in a couple of weeks and it's enough to take me through France and Italy, and also buy myself a new wardrobe... so all I've been doing is looking at clothes. And like all great minds, I applied it to writing and called it "research" -- but I'll say it how it is for you guys, it's procrastination.




I really do love looking at clothes... if I get upset, or mad, or angry... guess where I go... to the internet clothes shops. I have actually saved pictures of clothes that I really like so that when I get the money I can buy them. I do nothing but reinforce the gay stereotype... so, I'm sorry if you're gay and you're not like this at all.




Clothes, and Why They're Useful!




Well I assume you wear clothes every day... and why should your characters be any different. And let me guess, you don't just wear anything... you choose what you want to wear, whether it's for comfort, for style, for practicality, you choose the clothes that you're wearing.




I think a key element in creating any believable character is giving them a wardrobe that shows who they are... because that's kind of what clothes do, other than keep you warm.




I have a lot of stripey t-shirts and a lot of plimsolls (shoes)... in fact, I do have a quite a lot of clothes, but they're all of a certain type, they're all sort of similar, they all say something about me and my personality. I'm clearly not an outdoorsy, adventurous type because that would just ruin the soles of my plimsolls... it's the little things like that you need to think about when you're writing your character profiles.




Other things might include a certain colour of clothes... or habits... they might wear odd socks, they might have cute socks with bunny rabbits and carrots printed on them... I don't know... you're creative too, so use your creativity and create some characters that POP!




Do you think about clothes when writing/planning?




-Joseph




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