Rae Gee's Blog, page 14

Interview: Mark Barry

I've been itching to interview Mark and I've finally been able to snare him! Mark's latest book, The Night Porter, is out now (The paperback looks amazing and I can't wait to get stuck in!). As well as that, he's a HUGE supporter of Indie authors and self-publishing. He's also written a slew of books with subjects ranging from witchcraft to football violence to the life of the night porter. Sticking to genres? Not in Mark's world!!

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Hi Mark! How are you?
I’m in terrific form, thank you, Rae. And how are you?
I'm doing good! Packing my bags ready to go travelling. Tell us a bit about yourself.
The gorgeous Mark BarryI’m a writer and publisher of Independent contemporary fiction. I am approaching my fiftieth birthday (if anyone wants to send me a card and a biscuit), have one son (who I adore) a close family and some terrific friends. I support Notts County, enjoy horse racing, rock music, collecting comics and most of all, reading and collecting books. I also run the Wizard’s Cauldron dedicated author interview site where you and I first spoke, oh great Steampunky one.
How did you get into writing? What inspired you to start? What was the first book you put out?
I’ve always written but it was the advent of Kindle that inspired me to set up the business. I mean, WOW. Look at the environment we work in, Rae.
No evil publishers obsessed with sales and marketing. No vicious, nasty slush pile guardians, (frustrated writers all); no three year wait for your book to go live and no pernickety editors telling you what you can and cannot do with YOUR OWN work.
“Ultra Violence” has to be one of my favourite books of the year. It’s gritty and real and doesn’t sugar coat the topics it approaches. Your writing is brilliantly unapologetic which I think is one of the reasons I’ve really been enjoying it. What made you say, “Right, I’m going to write a book about football hooliganism.”?
I have, er, some experience of the lifestyle that UV portrays. Many other clubs had their own books on hooliganism – particularly the big ones, the Birminghams, the Millwalls, the West Hams – but I thought there were enough stories from my club, Notts County, to justify a short novel. It made the right decision as it has proved popular.
For the uninitiated, what exactly is a football firm?
It’s an organised gang of men whose intention is to fight opposing football supporters at football matches. They usually have names, like Millwall’s Bushwhackersor Sheffield United’s Blades Business Crew or Birmingham City’s Zulu Warriors. The newest phenomenon is the ages of the men involved. You might think that a sixty three year old being arrested for fighting on a Saturday afternoon is a bit far-fetched, but it happened in January in Burnley. Several fifty year olds were also arrested. I wrote about it in the sequel to UV and this kind of over aged scrapping is becoming more and more common. It is clearly extremely addictive and difficult to give up.
We don’t see as much about the football firms as we used to. At one point, they seemed to be in the news every weekend. Have they died down? Or do they just not get the news coverage they used to?
Rae, I must stress, football violence is a shadow of its former self and you can go to most matches now and not see an eyebrow raised in anger, thanks to brutal, neo-fascist policing, draconian prison sentences from a compliant judiciary, soulless all-seater stadiums, a fly’s eye array of CCTV cameras and most of all, changing attitudes, as I wrote about in the second last chapter of UV. We might live in a shitty society, Rae, but it is no longer a particularly violent one and hooliganism of many kinds has gone out of fashion. Saying that, you do see it about. I know the dad of one of the lads in the article below. His son got a three and a half stretch for his (minor) part in this Saturday afternoon disagreement between Lincoln City and Luton Town.
http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/LIVE-Lincoln-City-football-hooligans-sentenced/story-20319243-detail/story.html
You’re quite a sports buff. Do you have any tips for us for the coming year? Who do we need to look out for in the Grand National?
Two horses. Tidal Bay and Long Run. I love my horse and greyhound racing, In the days before mobile telephones, my ex-wife and friends knew to find me in the bookies at the end of the road. These two horses are quality animals and, now the fences are a lot safer than they used to be, classy animals tend to do well. The latter won the Cheltenham Gold Cup a couple of years ago.
When it comes to writing, you’re quite a genre buster and don’t stick to the same topics in every book. We’ve had witchcraft, football, and now one about modern publishing. How do people respond to you not staying in one little niche? Do the readers enjoy not knowing what they’ll get from you next? Do you recommend that authors explore outside of one genre?
Genre is absolutely critical in Indie, Rae. This may seem surprising for me to admit, but its been my experience. Unfortunately, I don’t have a genre so this has hampered my progress. With the exception of one book, I have been quite well reviewed by the community and readers have been kind. One of my books sold a respectable amount, but I do suffer from this wandering soul tendency. I don’t read genre books and therefore I don’t write them. I like books which defy characterisation. The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart. Night Train and London Fields, Martin Amis. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace.
My best written book is Hollywood Shakedown and yet, because it doesn’t have a genre, I cannot sell it. It is a paradox I cannot break out of. Even I don’t know how to categorise Shakedown and if I cannot do it, how does a busy reader do so? Technically, I have never written a more complete book and I doubt whether I ever will. Seven or eight people who have made it through its hundred thousand words think it is a fantastic book – and more of my readers consider it my best than any other - but I do wish I had added a whodunit to turn it into crime fiction or a talking goblin to turn it into fantasy. For me, not having a genre has killed Shakedown and its lack of success has been the saddest part of my journey into Indie. As a book, it pees all over UV, yet the latter has sold thousands more because it has a specific, notarised, unimpeachable, indisputable genre.
What are your views on publishing at the moment? Do you think, much like the music and film industries, that they’re still playing catch up with modern technology? Do you think they there’s any more changes the industry will make in the coming years?
Unless you are very, very lucky. I suspect the days of writing for money are over, Rae. Expectations need to change. Too many writers (and I feel a hypocrite for saying this, bearing in mind an earlier answer), chase too few readers. Look at music. Once a goldmine as deep as the Grand Canyon, now a talented wannabe band will be lucky to make a pie and a pint after a birthday gig at the local boozer. Shared between four. At one point, bands made all their money from albums and lost money from tours. Now, thanks to Napster and download culture, its reversed.
Also, I think that the much anticipated gatekeeper at Amazon is coming, Rae, and not just for formatting, spellos etc. They have bought several publishing imprints and are pumping out their own authors – as my terrific friend Lelani Black told me – and they will probably feel that the presence of a rougharse Indie book is more trouble than it is worth.
The kids have it right, Rae. At the street level, the kids are fantastic, all that YA stuff. They work together, support each other to the end, run a barter economy, reciprocally buy each other’s books regardless of quality, blog tour each other, review each other, act like a tribe, and generally play the game properly. Many authors my age could learn a lot from the YA community. I know I could. Some older authors I have bumped into would rather remove their own teeth with a lump hammer than retweet another author’s work and that’s a shame. The only way to sustain this level of quite bizarre economic madness is to create barter economy groups between authors, but that’s for another post….
One of my huge gripes is the amount of different file formats we have for e-readers. This, of course, isn’t the fault of the publishers and I’m forever thankful to all the publishers who offer different format downloads. But often I find that I can’t get a book for my reader (I use a Kobo because, unlike many other devices, it’s survived the “Rach Warranty Test” and not broken into a million pieces). Do you think there will come a time when, like with digital music, there will be a standard file format which is used across all readers? Is it something that companies need to look at, especially as many formats are DRM protected and unable to be converted to be used on other devices?
Rae, do you know what, you’ve stumped me here. I only ever deal with Amazon and Createspace. I figured B & N and Smashwords were only really beneficial to American writers, so I stuck with those. Personally, I think that if there were to be a standard file format – and you won’t like this, my friend – it will be a Kindle one. They are a global locust swarm who could eventually monopolise publishing in a couple of decades. Sorry I couldn’t give you a better answer – I know how much you love planes and engineering 
If you had to give one tip to an indie author, what would it be?
Write short books. Noone can be arsed to read long books, sadly, as my shelves are full of the blighters and I tend to write them too. A book less than 50k should do it.
Oh, and don’t stop reading. An author who does not read defeats the whole object of Indie and will not develop either. In fact, you need to read more and more the more you write.
Be nice to people on the way up because you are sure to meet them on the way down.
You’ve just brought out “The Night Porter”, which I’m really looking forward to reading. What’s it about? What inspired it?
It’s based in a hotel at the end of my road which houses four authors who are about to attend a prestigious literary awards ceremony. One writes thrillers, another YA, another romance, and the fourth is a self pubbed contemporary fiction author. The hyper-professional Night Porter looks after them all for the duration of their stay. There is a whodunit, commentary on the world of writing, some nasty observations, ego, bitterness, laughter, snappy patter, a beautiful hotel, a betting market for the categories and lots of book chat and plenty of jokes. It’s my most accessible book – my biggest critic likes it, which is a HUGE relief – and I enjoyed writing it. It’s inspired by many things, but mostly people. I like writing about people and I like conversations. Not dialogue – there is a difference between dialogue and a conversation – and the book is full of the latter.

I also wanted to write a paperback book that is so professionally produced, no one would ever know it is Indie. The back blurb is going on after the notices are returned, but I think I am on the right lines, Rae,
Pimp yourself! Where can we find you online?
http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Barry/e/B008479RWI
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mark-Barry/e/B008479RWI
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreenWizard62
Dedicated Interview Blog: http://greenwizard62.blogspot.co.uk/ Information about Green Wizard, Extracts etc http://greenwizardpublishing.blogspot.co.uk/
Thanks so much, Mark! It’s always awesome to talk to you! The Night Porter is out now in paperback and on Kindle. Enjoy!

Things I've Learned From Fan Fiction 2: Formatting

Writing is something millions take pleasure in doing. For some it's a hobby while, for others, it's their job. One question I keep seeing is "How do I get more positive reviews?". Or "How do I get more people to read my work?".

Whether writing for print, e-book, or website publication one of the answers is formatting. Pretty much every website will have a formatting style guide. This may be in FAQ's or help section. If it's not, email the help point to ask. There's no such thing as a bad question!

Another way is to take a look at work that's already been published. If it's on a writing website, take a look at popular stories to see how they're laid out. Many will follow a particular formatting style which will have been drawn up by the website. This is not them being picky. It stops the reader having to look at a wall of text. This is a point to remember if you're publishing on a website. Most of the readers will be reading on a shiny screen and massive blocks of text are harder on the eye than ones with breaks between paragraphs. If you want people to read your work online help them to help you by giving their eyes a break!

For example, this is easier to read:

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often 'came down' handsomely, and Scrooge never did.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?' No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and, when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, 'No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!'

But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call 'nuts' to Scrooge.

Than this:

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often 'came down' handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?' No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and, when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, 'No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!' But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call 'nuts' to Scrooge.

A good way to remember it is like this:

 From Amanda on Writing 
 It's fine to ask questions, even of people who look like they've been on the site for a million years. In fact, more often than not, they'll be more than happy to help! Clear and easy to read pieces are much more favoured over huge, seemingly unending blocks of text. And readers will love you for it! Once you've got your formatting right, you've won half of the battle!

Happy writing, and thank you for reading!

Tales from the End of the Pier

It's here! I promised to compile a book of some of the spin off stories relating to the Veetu Industries series. You can now buy it on Amazon. The e-book is DRM free so you can use a converter to read it on any device. E-books are 77p/$1.29 while the print edition is £2.75/$5.24. Perfect for getting you to that free postage!

This book is the perfect introduction to the Veetu Industries series. If you've never read any of the series, take a look at this to see if you like my writing style. If you're eagerly awaiting for number three, hopefully this will quench your thirst for a while!

Take care and thank you for reading!

Amazon UK: http://tinyurl.com/talespier
Amazon US: http://tinyurl.com/talespierUS

Drunk But Not Drunk

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted here and, for that, I apologise. In that time I've been diagnosed with a little known, but quite wide spread, ear infection called "Labyrinthitis". While it displays no physical pain, its primary symptom is vertigo. The afflicted person acts as though drunk, wobbling, swaying, and slumping against walls. It also makes it difficult to sit and type for long periods of time, or even to think in a straight line. As I try and type this, I'm constantly having to go back and correct words, all the while struggling to think about what to write about. Normally I can crack out a thousand words in under an hour. Now I'm struggling to to reach a hundred in a day. The way I formulate sentences has changed and I often sound, both in speaking and writing, as if I'm struggling to speak English (English is my primary language).

It's scary. Really, really scary.

Thankfully I'm now taking medication to stabilise the vertigo which, in turn, should help the inflammation deep inside the ear. The symptoms have eased off but there are still days when I struggle to get my head together and approach the day logically. The only downside is that this is an infection which, even when it's cleared up, can leave the symptoms behind for months, years, or even an entire lifetime.

Luckily, social media has helped me to connect with others who have the same symptoms and I'm taking their advice to heart. Hopefully this won't be a long term issue.

Thank you for listening and have a great Sunday!

Labyrinthitis

Heavy Metal Solidarity

That was the only message that Australian fans received that a band they'd paid to see wouldn't be turning up. No apology, no other explanation.
Megadeth fans watched the drama unfold as the band pulled out of the Soundwaves/Sidelines tour in Australia due to a spat with a promoter.
Let me reiterate:
THEY SAID THEY WOULDN'T PLAY BECAUSE A PROMOTER SAID SOMETHING THEY DIDN'T LIKE.
I don't often swear on this blog but what the fuck?! Can you imagine if we told our bosses we weren't turning up to work because we didn't like them and we weren't coming in until they apologised for who they were or what they'd said?! We'd get fired!
The band demanded an apology from the promoter and received one. However, the pleas of the fans fell on deaf ears and the band have continued with their tour, including a date in New Zealand (in the last few days, Megadeth have also rescheduled an Indonesian date, leading to speculation about the rest of their 2014 dates).
So why is everyone pissed about this? Let's go through it:
Australian fans see Megadeth once every 3 or 4 years, while the US and Europe will see them at least once a year.The Australian fans get none, or very few, of the extras that US and European fans get (meet and greets, signings, clinics, fan club extras etc).Only one portion of their $150+ tickets is refundable (the Sidewaves tickets. From what I can gather, Soundwave tickets are non-refundable unless a headliner cancels.).Many are travelling distances which a lot of us would shun. This also means that they've paid out for travel, as well as accommodation which may or may not be refundable depending on the hotel/airline.No formal apology or explanation, bar the brief Twitter and Facebook messages, has been issued leaving fans feeling like unwanted children.

People have said “Oh, it's a festival. There are other bands to go and see.”. Let me try and put this into perspective. Here in the UK, we see Metallica once every couple of years. They play a single festival date (normally Download or Knebworth if there's something happening there) and that's it. There's no other stadium dates, no other venues. One date and they're gone again. So we do what good fans do and we'll buy a ticket to see them, and only them, play because it's the only chance we get (unless you can get time off work during the busy school holiday period to go trotting around Europe). If Metallica pulled out of this single UK date there would, understandably, be uproar. If they gave the same piss poor “explanation” that Megadeth have given then there would probably be anarchy. Admittedly, because they're a headliner, we'd probably get a refund on those tickets, but you can see where I'm coming from. If a band you really want to see is ONLY playing festival dates, then you go to those to see them. You don't have any other choice. And if that band then pulls out, you have every reason to be mad because you can't just pop down to the local music venue to see them play and will probably be waiting another 3 or 4 years before they return (of they do).
I've worked with shitty promoters. I've wanted to pull out of events I've been working on because I've been treated like shit. But you know what? I go and do what I have to do because there's people there who want to have some fun and who'll be really fucking happy to see you. And that's what I live on. I live for the the hugs and the smiles and being able to make people laugh. It brings me massive amounts of joy to have someone come up to me and offer me a hug because they've really enjoyed something I've done. There is nothing better in this world. But obviously this band can't see that. They don't see the messages from people whose last chance to see them play was this festival. They don't see the minimum wage workers who've scrimped and saved to go to this concert only to have their hard work thrown back at them. They don't see the people who've rearranged their entire lives to go. They don't see the people who've had to beg for time off work in a tough economic climate. They don't see the people who are battling through illnesses and had decided on this show to help them deal with what they were going through. All they can see is some promoter who may or may not (depending on who you believe) said something which they didn't like.
I'm siding with the Australian fans on this one. I'd be pissed off and angry as well. And, on their behalf, I am. I'm a minimum wage worker who's glad to have a job in these tough times. Concerts are one of the ways I relieve some of the pressure and to have years of loyalty and love thrown back in your face because of something so stupid is downright offensive. And if Megadeth's current behaviour continues, then the show I'm going to see in April will be the last one. There'll be no more merchandise, no more albums, and no more concert tickets. I can think of bands far more worthy of my money than one who doesn't have an ounce of respect for their fans (and before anyone starts, yes, I know this may be “typical Mustaine behaviour” but it's still piss poor and uncalled for).
While I'm hoping these “Unforeseen circumstances” aren't something bad, I'm also hoping for an explanation for everyone down under who's been left out of pocket and feeling left down. Keep the faith, Australian metal fans, and may all your love and loyalty be rewarded.

Things We Can Learn From The Minions

Recently I watched Despicable Me and, like many people, I became an instant fan of the small, yellow, and extremely cute, minions. With their boundless energy and never ending love, it's no surprise that so many of us have fallen so hard for these cute as Hell creatures. There are so many things we can learn from them and use in every day life.

Unconditional Love
It doesn't matter that their boss is a villain, the minions love him with all their little hearts. They cheer whenever he appears, do whatever he asks, and queue up for goodnight kisses. Their love knows no boundaries, extending beyond Gru and to whoever else crosses their paths.

Do Your Best
It doesn't matter if they're working for the world's worst villain or trying to find a toy for a sad little girl, the minions go above and beyond the call of duty to do what they need to.

Unending Happiness
The simplest things make the minions happy, from music to bananas to going to the store. Words we consider childish send them into fits of laughter.

Stay Healthy!
Their love of fruit borders on the almost obsessive, to the point where they have a song about bananas.


They Wear Their Hearts On Their Sleeves
Their emotions are completely on display, whether they're happy, sad, or angry, they let everyone know what's going on. And they tell the other minions if they're angry with them, normally with a punch to the arm!

Interviews and Articles with Rae Gee

Interviews and Articles

Examiner

The Wizard's Cauldron

WEbook  (First of three interviews)

Josephine Myles

Craig Hallam


Videos

Alternarivemedia

Author Interview

It Started As A Sketch In My Notebook

Another funky radical bombtrack
Started as a sketch in my notebook -“Bombtrack” - Rage Against The Machine
“I can't write long stories!”
That's something I've heard a lot. People get the core image they want to use but can't expand on it. They want to write something long but find themselves stuck after a couple of chapters. Or write a single scene story rotating around that kernel of an idea.
Do you want to know what I started with?
The body was laid out on the hard wooden floor, naked, limbs and torso delicately curling as they tried to reach each other in some far off dreamland. Fingers, splayed and broken, spread over the varnished floor, bloody trails left in their wake as the body's occupant tried to pull itself into a different, less awkward position. Across one hand swirled the unmistakable image of a mouse crouched in a claw.
But that would not happen. Never would the lithe creature on the floor walk tall and proud again. Never would its face twist into the smile that had dazzled a million people. Never would its eyes gleam with the innocent charm of the forever young. And never would its childlike laughter fill a room. Instead, it would remain the discarded toy, only picked up when its owner needed something to shake and break.
The fingers slowly inched through the pooled blood, making grotesque curls and swirls as they spidered closer to the leather bound book. What was written upon its crisp, white pages had once been a secret between it and the person on the floor.
But no longer. Once the snarling menace that ruled the secluded house had found it, the special bond between writer and written had been snapped like a twig. Pages, as pale and as bloodstained as the whimpering human'sskin, were scattered about the empty room. Some lay in piles while others, jagged tears separating words from their partners, had been thrown to the wind, escaping through the room's one broken window. The window that now hid its healing light behind heavy, bolted shutters.
A tiny, kitten-like whimper left the child-man's mouth as his fingers swept over the supple leather, imprinting and marking it with his fingerprints. It was the only thing which linked him to a life long forgotten.
That's the prologue from “Mars on the Rise” and that's what I started with. That was written on a train and was intended as an inspiration piece for a friend to illustrate. That's the tiny seed which has so far spawned three books.
What happened next is what I call the “Particle Collider Method”. One tiny idea breeds another. Which breeds another, and so on. After I'd written that short piece, I was sitting at Crewe train station. The station has a number of bricked up arches. I wanted to know what happened behind the arches so I began making notes as I sat on the next train.
And then?
My destination that day was Brighton (a city I love dearly). I was already writing short pieces of gay fiction and it had been an age since I'd attempted anything over a couple of thousand words. But as I was walking around this beautiful seaside city, I found myself wondering what would happen if the arches of that city were bricked up. And what was going on behind them. So that night I started sketching more ideas, which slowly built in to the first novel (very slowly! It took nearly two years before I had anything resembling a finished story. I also didn't know what I was working on was called “Steampunk”. I called it “Science fiction from another era”.).
Building a story doesn't happen overnight which, in this world of cheap entertainment and instant gratification, can be frustrating. I know it's frustrating for any kind of artist whose fans want the new thing RIGHT NOW!
There's one idea I've been working on since 2007. It started as a scene in my mind, set at Heathrow airport, and I couldn't do anything with it. So I made a bunch of notes and put it to one side.
Then, in 2010, I had another idea which was completely different. It was set in a snowy, sleepy little town in America. Again, it was a scene I couldn't do anything with so I made a bunch of notes and put it to one side.
In 2012, after listening to a radio show, those two ideas came together and have become the basis of another novel. But that's still not without it's problems. There's still a lot of other little ideas which need to be put into place to make it work. There's still a lot of “colliding” to be done yet.
If you want to write something longer, make notes. Obsess on an idea (although my kind of obsessing right now is playing with flight simulators and staring at the London Underground map). Do things which are related to your idea.
One thing I do is keep “style books”. These are blank notebooks filled with ideas, photos, quotes, postcards, snippets of scenes. Whatever comes to your mind. Flicking through them is fascinating and, slowly but surely, those tiny little seeds of ideas begin to grow into great trees.
Never give up!

Things I've Learned From Fan Fiction

Contrary to what a lot of people think, fan fiction's a great way to get started. A lot of authors got started that way, myself included. I started out writing original fiction, fell into fan fiction, and then went back to original works. I'm still a part of a couple of sites and I love going there and seeing what's happening. Fan fiction's a great way for people to hone their craft, have some fun, and meet like minded people. It's a chance for people who wouldn't normally write to write and be creative. However, after several years in the fan fiction world, there's a few things I've learned. Here's one of them.

Change it up

Often you'll see the same thing written a million times by a million different authors. Is there safety in writing the same thing over and over? Is it a way to blend in with the crowd and not draw attention from people who may not like your writing? If you look at any particular fandom, you'll often see the same two main characters doing the same thing again and again. How do you get out of that pattern?
Change it up. Think outside the box and do something different. For example, I can't write straight up romance for shit. It has to have a twist or some crazy subplot. If I'm given a romance prompt, I can't do it. I just implode. My brain isn't wired that way. Instead, I take that prompt, hug it close, and run in completely the opposite direction.
So how do you change it up?
I'm going to get murdered for this, but let's take a current popular fandom.
Sherlock (For the record, I'm using the current TV series rather than the books).
The prompt
Sherlock and John share their first kiss.
(Put your weapons down!! I write gay fiction. What else did you expect me to do?!?!)
Change it up
It happens just as nuclear war is breaking out and they only have minutes to share their innermost thoughts and feelings.
Change it up again
It takes place in a bunker and they're watching as missiles begin to launch towards their intended targets.
Change it up yet again
One of the missiles is heading straight for the bunker and no one knows if the structure will hold.
There's questions!
Of course there is! Ask yourself questions as you go along. What are they doing there in the first place? Were they trying to halt what was happening? Did they have answers? Could they have stopped it?
You can apply this to pretty much anything if you find you're in a funk and writing to a formula (like I am right now. Burn out ain't fun!). Most of all, make it fun. Writing's supposed to be fun and not a chore. And fan fiction's supposed to be super fun!!
Take care, have fun, and keep writing!

My National Health Service

Buying travel insurance is a pain in the ass. It gets even worse when you have a “pre-existing condition”. Suddenly your insurance goes from “Hmmm... that's good” to “Holy Hell! I better sell a kidney!”. I had to buy some recently and, for a week and having bipolar, it cost me the best part of £50. Touch wood I won't have to use it.
Which got me thinking about our own health service. For those who don't know, I live in the UK, home to one of those branches of socialised medicine which has been held up as an example for Obamacare. People moan about the NHS, and there's rarely a day when it's not in the news. Normally for the wrong reasons. Across the world, people only seem to pick up on bad nurses, or killer infections, or overpaid managers (Yeah, I agree on getting rid of them), or a multitude of other little things. Apparently the NHS is on the brink of falling apart or is about to be sold off to private companies. Apparently we live in a third world country because we have socialised medicine. Rarely do they look at the bigger picture.
Thankfully, despite a number of accidents, I've never had to take an ambulance ride to accident and emergency (although I seem to have spent an awful lot of time there for various things including burns, one overdose, several broken bones, a couple of snapped ligaments and after care for a few bits and pieces). Thankfully, I also don't have an on-going illness (other than the biopolar, which I'm able to manage myself) so my story is probably very different from other peoples. But the treatment and help I've received is nothing short of outstanding. Yes, I moan when I can't get through to my doctors because the phone line seems to be constantly engaged. But, much like in places which don't have socialised medicine, I can choose which doctor I want to see. Heck, I can change medical practices at the drop of a hat (and am planning on it).
When I overdosed, I wound up damaging my brain. I was put into a protective bubble of doctors, social services, mental health practitioners, and pharmacies. Without it, I probably wouldn't have been able to get back on my feet.
Not all treatment in the UK is free. Dental care and eye tests still have to be paid for. It's the same with prescriptions, but having seen how much my drugs cost PER pill, £7.85 for a month's worth of medication is a bargain. But, because I'm a low paid worker, the only thing I have to pay for is my glasses. Everything's paid for through National Insurance, a tax which is taken out of my pay check. And it's not thousands of pounds per year. It's a few pounds. Tax from other things (sales of alcohol and tobacco) also helps to fund the health service.
I'm blessed to know, and work with, several nurses who've been involved with the NHS. All of them speak highly of their time there, only changing jobs because they wanted a change of scenery. All of them are the kind of people you'd expect to be nurses; kind, caring, always smiling, and with a solution for everything.
To put it bluntly, our now privatized rail system (once British Rail) is now worse than the NHS. You pay stupidly high prices to travel a few miles, yet none of the money seems to go back to fix a struggling system. And the prices for rail tickets go up by at least 4% every year.
Other people might despise it, but I love the NHS. I love that we pioneered socialised medicine. But what Obama needs to do is come over here and see how it really works. Our system wasn't built overnight, and it doesn't require us to hold a several thousand pound a year policy. Like any kind of service, our NHS isn't perfect. But it's always been there when I need it the most, and I'm truly and honestly thankful for it.