Bryan Murphy's Blog, page 12
January 18, 2013
Murphy's Laws
As promised!
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Even when you live in a country where the language is spoken
Failing completely to learn a foreign language need not be an impossible task, especially for adults.
[to be continued]
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Even when you live in a country where the language is spoken
Failing completely to learn a foreign language need not be an impossible task, especially for adults.
[to be continued]
January 15, 2013
Murphy's Laws are on the way
It will soon be time to learn how NOT to learn a foreign language. I’m going to make the fruit of my decades of endeavour and experience online. Watch this space!
December 20, 2012
How not to ...
Coming soon: How Not To Learn A Foreign Language. In 10 easy steps. Watch this space.
December 19, 2012
Postcards from Italy
I'm really pleased to announce that I have an online chapbook ready for your perusal at the Camel Saloon, where "the beer is cold, the whiskey Irish & the door always open", thanks to head barkeep, Russell Streur. Please visit, read some of my "Postcards from Italy" and maybe do me the favour of leaving a comment. Here's the address:
http://booksonblog38.blogspot.it/
http://booksonblog38.blogspot.it/
December 18, 2012
500 down
“Linehan’s Trip” sails past the 500-download milestone. See why: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view... For lovers of sci-fi, soccer, Italy and our future.
December 15, 2012
La Grotta del Sergente
Vi invito a raggiungermi nella Grotta del Sergente: un luogo affascinante:
http://brigantaggio.blogspot.it/2012/...
http://brigantaggio.blogspot.it/2012/...
November 30, 2012
Padania addio
La chimera diventa incubo, quindi “Padania addio”. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Esce oggi la versione italiana di "Goodbye, Padania". Traduzione di Eva Bruno.
Esce oggi la versione italiana di "Goodbye, Padania". Traduzione di Eva Bruno.
November 28, 2012
November 26, 2012
China 1991
I’ve been posting impressions of China when I returned after 20 years. The country has changed enormously, mostly for the better. Last week, the place where I lived back in 1991 made headlines, and for the worst of reasons. It is not a city, it is a small town, a speck on the map, and without some grisly occurrence like this, nobody was ever likely to hear of it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-...
November 22, 2012
Blog Hop
We are hopping our way through some great reads. For those who aren’t familiar with a blog hop…it’s a lot like a treasure hunt — once you find something on one blog, hop over to the next blog link for more treasure. In this case, the treasure is a wealth of new and exciting books. Some are still being written, some are just being released. Either way, for fiction lovers…it’s a treasure, and I’d like to thank my friend Delinda McCann for asking me to take part.
You can find Delinda here: http://delindamccann.blogspot.com/2011
Here are the questions Delinda asked me, and my answers.
1) What is the working title of your book?
“Goodbye, Padania”.
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
My protagonist, Daria, was a minor character in an earlier story, also set in Padania. I wanted to flesh out her personality and look into her mind.
Italy has often had small states within its territory. Venice, Genoa, even Pisa have all been independent. Today, only San Marino and the Vatican State remain. Some people are pushing to carve a new one, called Padania, out of the north Italian lowlands, to be a haven of wealth and racism. I want to suggest that wealth and racism are incompatible in today’s Europe.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
It’s a kind of noir thriller set in the future, so I’d label it “speculative fiction”.
4) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
For Daria, I’d want authenticity. I’d cast among southern Italians for someone short, dark and capable of glaring razor-sharp daggers. I’d go to Hollywood or Cinecittà for Mercurio. Di Caprio or Raoul Bova might do. A gaggle of the latest pretty boys for Daria’s disciples who become her lovers. A real priest for Father Francesco, and a hologram of Charles Bronson for the villain in the final showdown.
5) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Amid the death agonies of a pariah state, a young woman tries to escape the role that fate has apparently designed for her: killer.
6) Is your book self-published, published or represented by an agency?
For an anarchist like me, it has to be self-published.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I wrote it as a series of short stories over four years. I ran them together in a week.
8) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
The rise of racism in the country in which I was living.
9) What else about your book might pique the readers’ interest?
The psychology of Daria, I hope. The paradox of an ordinary girl who loves shopping and overeating, yet is a highly successful, cold-blooded killer.
10) What other books in your genre would you compare this to?
Nicoletta Vallorani’s “Eva” is a whodunnit set in a future, dystopian Milan. Irene Dische examines the banal mind of a contract killer in “The Job”. Harold Pinter often featured ordinary-seeming people who may or may not be killers. And Phil Zimbardo deals extensively with the psychological aspect in “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil”. They go beyond a single genre, but I hope that “Goodbye, Padania” does, too.
Continue on the blog hop by checking out these other wonderful authors!
Rosemary Adkins: http://www.extraordinaryireland.blogs...
Dan O’Brien: http://thedanobrienproject.blogspot.i...
Steven Nedelton: http://www.snedelton.com
Maggie Tideswell: http://maggiestorm.blogspot.com/
Delinda McCann: http://delindamccann.blogspot.com/2011
You can find Delinda here: http://delindamccann.blogspot.com/2011
Here are the questions Delinda asked me, and my answers.
1) What is the working title of your book?
“Goodbye, Padania”.
2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
My protagonist, Daria, was a minor character in an earlier story, also set in Padania. I wanted to flesh out her personality and look into her mind.
Italy has often had small states within its territory. Venice, Genoa, even Pisa have all been independent. Today, only San Marino and the Vatican State remain. Some people are pushing to carve a new one, called Padania, out of the north Italian lowlands, to be a haven of wealth and racism. I want to suggest that wealth and racism are incompatible in today’s Europe.
3) What genre does your book fall under?
It’s a kind of noir thriller set in the future, so I’d label it “speculative fiction”.
4) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
For Daria, I’d want authenticity. I’d cast among southern Italians for someone short, dark and capable of glaring razor-sharp daggers. I’d go to Hollywood or Cinecittà for Mercurio. Di Caprio or Raoul Bova might do. A gaggle of the latest pretty boys for Daria’s disciples who become her lovers. A real priest for Father Francesco, and a hologram of Charles Bronson for the villain in the final showdown.
5) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Amid the death agonies of a pariah state, a young woman tries to escape the role that fate has apparently designed for her: killer.
6) Is your book self-published, published or represented by an agency?
For an anarchist like me, it has to be self-published.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I wrote it as a series of short stories over four years. I ran them together in a week.
8) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
The rise of racism in the country in which I was living.
9) What else about your book might pique the readers’ interest?
The psychology of Daria, I hope. The paradox of an ordinary girl who loves shopping and overeating, yet is a highly successful, cold-blooded killer.
10) What other books in your genre would you compare this to?
Nicoletta Vallorani’s “Eva” is a whodunnit set in a future, dystopian Milan. Irene Dische examines the banal mind of a contract killer in “The Job”. Harold Pinter often featured ordinary-seeming people who may or may not be killers. And Phil Zimbardo deals extensively with the psychological aspect in “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil”. They go beyond a single genre, but I hope that “Goodbye, Padania” does, too.
Continue on the blog hop by checking out these other wonderful authors!
Rosemary Adkins: http://www.extraordinaryireland.blogs...
Dan O’Brien: http://thedanobrienproject.blogspot.i...
Steven Nedelton: http://www.snedelton.com
Maggie Tideswell: http://maggiestorm.blogspot.com/
Delinda McCann: http://delindamccann.blogspot.com/2011
