Callum McLaughlin's Blog, page 54

Iceland in Pictures

I returned home from my second trip to Iceland a couple of days ago with some fantastic memories and a camera full of pictures, so I thought I’d share a few here on my blog, especially for those of you who aren’t yet familiar with the immense beauty this wonderful country has to offer.

—

The small but charming Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall with the Kirkjufell mountain in the background.

The contrast between gold and black sand beaches found in the Snæfellsnes peninsula, Western Iceland.

Walking inside a fissure, where a huge ravine has been created by tectonic plates pulling the earth apart.

Beautiful cliffs in the West.

Basalt columns, which are created when lava cools at extreme rates when it hits cold air on its way down a mountainside.

Strokkur, a geyser that erupts about 20m into the air every few minutes.

Gullfoss, a vast and striking waterfall that is understandably one of the country’s most visited sites.

Exploring a lava cave, 35m under the ground.

Skógafoss, a waterfall in the South of the country, close to the coast. Notice the person on the top right for an idea of scale.

The old harbour in downtown Reykjavik.

Tjörnin, a lake found in the heart of the capital city.

Þingvellir, a sprawling National Park and culturally significant site, where the country’s earliest parliament would gather.

Harpa, Iceland’s main concert hall and home of the country’s symphony orchestra and national opera. My favourite artist and local Icelander Björk is performing here less than a week after I left; how cruel the universe can be sometimes.

Various imposing mountains which form the backdrop to much of the country.

Hallgrímskirkja, and the view over Reykjavik from the top.

The Northern Lights even came out to play! This was quite the tick on my bucket list.

Icy Intermission

See you soon, Iceland!

Just a very quick update today to let you know that things may be a little quiet from me for the next week or so, as I’ll be away on holiday from tomorrow. After fulfilling my long time ambition of visiting Iceland last year and loving it so much, I couldn’t resist going back to explore some more. I’ll keep somewhat up-to-date on people’s posts whist I’m there if I can, but will otherwise try and catch up once I’m home.

I hope you all have a nice week!

Simpler Times

When all we knew of conflict

was pencil case frontiers

and glitter gel pen warfare,

the only walls between us

adorned with Hello Kitty smiles,

guns loaded with tepid water

fired at aliens from mars.

Let’s Recommend | Halloween Reads

Let’s recommend some books for Halloween!

With Halloween right around the corner, this time I’ve decided to recommend some books with varying degrees of creep factor to help get you into the spooky spirit. As always, I encourage you to share your own recommendations in the comments.

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

I can’t stop thinking about – or recommending – Bird Box. This creepy dystopian-esque story really plays on our senses and is a masterclass in the power of the unknown. We follow a young woman and her two children in a world where something is lurking outside; something that can drive people to insanity with a single glance. Having lived in the shadows for years, our heroine must blindfold her children and set out in search of safety. The climax of this book in particular is truly haunting.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

If it’s a classic you’re in search of, The Turn of the Screw would be a fine choice. This creepy novella follows a young woman who begins a new job as a governess, but when she becomes convinced the children she has been charged with protecting are under threat from ghosts inhabiting the manor, her very sanity is called into question. This is perhaps one of the earliest and best examples of an effective unreliable narrator.

Misery by Stephen King

If you prefer your monsters to be of the human persuasion and your horror all the more unsettling for the fact that it could actually happen, Stephen King’s Misery is a great pick. Tense and at times deeply disturbing, we follow a writer as he is kidnapped by his ‘number one fan’, Annie Wilkes, who is not happy at all about the way he ended his last book…

The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

If you opt for the Penguin Little Black Classics edition of this celebrated short story, you get another two brief tales by Perkins Gilman as well, both equally as atmospheric and worthy of a read. The title story follows a woman’s slow descent into madness after she is confined to a single room by her husband, whilst the others follow two men who become infatuated with the ghostly figure of a woman they glimpse through a window, and a young woman who becomes the target of a lecherous man, respectively. The author cleverly flips gender perceptions common at the time and packs a punch with few words.

Monsters in the Movies by John Landis

If non-fiction is more your kind of thing, Monsters in the Movies is a great coffee table read that you can dip in and out of, getting interesting insights – as well as gorgeous, high quality visuals – from horror films throughout the years, so you can learn about how they brought our favourite monsters, be they vampires, werewolves, devils, demons, zombies, witches or such like, to life. It is therefore a great place to find movie recommendations to also help you get in the Halloween mood.

—

What creepy reads do you recommend for Halloween? Let’s chat about them.

A Bestseller, You Say?

Just a quick update today for the sake of my own amusement. In spite of knowing that it was most likely in a fairly niche category, and that these lists are updated so often that it doesn’t necessarily mean much in terms of actual numbers, I had to chuckle at the fact I will forever be able to say I was technically next to Shakespeare and Poe in a poetry bestsellers list. I’ll take it.

Well this was a nice surprise…

You can still get a copy of Seeking Solace on Kindle for FREE in celebration of National Poetry Day. Click here to find it on Amazon UK, or click here to find it on Amazon US. Huge thanks to anyone who has already done so, as well as to anyone who does so now or in the future.

Happy reading, and happy National Poetry Day!

Poetry Giveaway

Some lovely things people have had to say about my collection of poetry.

To coincide with both National Poetry Day on the 6th October and Indie Author Day on the 8th, my own collection of poetry will be available absolutely FREE on Kindle from today until the end of Saturday.

Seeking Solace contains 60 poems exploring universal themes in a bid to make poetry that is accessible and relatable. You can find it on Amazon UK by clicking here, and on Amazon US by clicking here. National Poetry Day is the ideal motivation to pick up some poetry, whether you normally do or not, and considering you can get mine for nothing, there’s really no excuse not to give it a try 

September Wrap Up

All the books I read in September.

With October almost upon us, it’s time for a wrap up. September was another fruitful month, in which I managed to finish 12 books altogether (5 novels, a novella, two non-fiction books, a poetry collection, a short story pamphlet, a graphic novel and a play). Can you tell I like to read broadly? All-in-all, this put me up to a total of 103 books read so far this year, surpassing my goal of 100 earlier than expected, which was a nice surprise.

I’ll start by talking about the play, firstly because it’s so unusual for me to read one, and secondly because I absolutely adored it. Peter and Alice by John Logan tells a fictionalised account of the real life encounter between the man and woman who inspired the main characters from Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in their youth, in which they discuss the highs and lows of trying to live up to the legacy that was bestowed upon them. It’s powerful, playful and utterly heart-breaking.

Another highlight was Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, which, though difficult to stomach at times in terms of its subject matter, was undoubtedly a skilfully realised piece of literature.

Other enjoyable reads included Alice Through the Looking-Glass, a rare re-read for me which was lots of fun and packed full of great word play and bonkers goings on; Misery by Stephen King, a dark and gripping thriller about a writer kidnapped by his ‘number one fan’; Undying by Michel Faber, a series of brutally honest poems documenting the writer’s grief over his deceased wife, and A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle, the first Sherlock Holmes story, which was a surprisingly readable classic crime story.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable and successful reading month with only a couple of slight duds along the way, and I hope that trend will continue into October.

—

What was your favourite read in September?

Effigy

The light is starting to show through the cracks

on that frail, self-made effigy.

Stitched together with heartache and poetry

its days were surely numbered,

those wasted words spilling out like guts

you never knew existed before.

The clock tick-tocks and the puppet slips like sand

from my clumsy fingers

at a rate unmatched by any pen or voodoo.

It’s not the absence that hurts

but the grind of grit left in the pathways on my palms.

Women in Fiction | Ellen Ripley

Ellen Ripley

Though things have come a long way, there’s no denying that the representation of gender in fiction is still skewed in favour of men. Just look at the slander thrown at the female stars of the recent Ghostbusters reboot or the ongoing debate about lack of female representation in superhero movies, and it becomes clear that there’s certainly still room for improvement.

To celebrate some of the golden examples that have emerged from the male masses over the years however, I thought I’d start a new series on my blog, highlighting women in literature, film, television and gaming who broke the mould and gave women (and men) decent role models to look up to and admire.

Let’s start with one of cinema’s most iconic leading ladies: Ellen Ripley.

—

Ripley was one of the first women to lead an ensemble cast in the science-fiction and horror genres. Interestingly, the original Alien script was written to be gender neutral, allowing the casting directors and actors the scope to interpret the roles as they saw fit. Eventually, the decision was made to cast a woman in the primary role to help add an element of surprise, since audiences at the time would never expect her to survive. Thus, a screen icon was born.

Though she has portrayed Ripley in four entries in the franchise (with speculation currently surrounding a possible fifth turn), it is the second movie, Aliens, that is often considered Sigourney Weaver’s most impactful outing, and the one that saw her truly cement the character’s place in cultural, feminist and cinematic history.

Throughout Aliens, Ripley evolves from a weary survivor to a hardened, passionate warrior. Bonding with a young orphaned girl who is the sole survivor of her former colony, her maternal instincts kick in, making her a force to be reckoned with, particularly in the final quarter of the film, when she comes into direct conflict with the Alien Queen in an epic battle of mother vs. mother.

What is so impressive however is the way the writing, direction and superb acting from Weaver allow the character to display her softer, more feminine ways without ever diminishing her power or believability. Her womanly intuition and mothering instincts become arguably her greatest strengths and certainly never a weakness.

She is not an immovable and emotionless caricature (as many ‘kick-ass’ women in fiction are), nor is she the damsel in distress. Instead, she is able to be both feminine and strong, sacrificing neither side of herself in order to appease the men around her, and thus surviving on thrifty use of her own determination, resourcefulness, intelligence and bravery.

Let’s Recommend | Poetry

Let’s recommend some poetry.

This time round I’ve decided to recommend some poetry collections, and as always, you’re all invited to share your own recommendations in return. Since some people can feel a bit intimidated by poetry, I decided to pick collections that I think are approachable no matter how experienced or otherwise you may be with the form.

Undying by Michel Faber

This is actually the most recent poetry collection that I have read, though for its stark honesty and raw emotion, I had to include it here. Through these poems, Faber chronicles the loss of his beloved wife to cancer and certainly doesn’t dress the situation up to look pretty. So whilst this may not feature the most intricate of word play and so forth, it will hit home for anyone who has experienced loss.

Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy

Duffy is the UK’s current Poet Laureate, and as such, she tends to write for the masses. As such, her poetry is very easy to approach, tackling universal themes, though is in no way lacking when it comes to beautiful language and imagery.

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire

Shire’s work in this short collection has an incredibly sensual feel, exploring topics such as gender, sex and religion, wrapped up in beautiful language. Speaking for itself, my favourite poem from here is called In Love and In War and simply reads: To my daughter I will say, / when the men come, set yourself on fire.

milk and honey by Rupi Kaur

I think this one is a particularly great choice for anyone new to poetry who worries they won’t ‘get it’, as the tiny poems found in this collection read more like journal entries, daydreams or fleeting thoughts and ideas captured in words. It makes them very readable, but charming in their simplicity.

Why God Is a Woman by Nin Andrews

Perhaps another good offering for those normally a lot more comfortable with fiction – though I recommend it to pretty much everyone – Nin Andrews’ collection of connected prose poems tells the ongoing story of an island where men are descendants of angels and women come from the sea. Their gender roles are the polar opposite of our own world, with the women browbeating their husbands to prepare them for a life of domesticity and sexualising young boys when their wings begin to sprout. A fiercely intelligent and beautifully written satire; it has a lot to say, all of it relevant.

—

Which poetry collections would you like to recommend?