Is Charles Ramsey a hero?

By now we should all know who Charles Ramsey is. He shot to instant fame when he gave an honest and very animated account of his rescue of Amanda Berry; one of four females held captive in the house of Ariel Castro.

Ramsey kicked Castro’s front door in when he heard and saw Amanda Berry trying to escape, after approximately ten years of torturous captivity. It goes without saying that Ramsey’s deeds were nothing short of heroic. His selflessness ended years of rape, forced-imprisonment, physical and mental abuse, and a plethora of horrors we are yet to hear about, and others which we won’t.

The twist came a few days after Ramsey’s live news interview, that he had a criminal past. Ramsey was previously convicted of three separate accounts of domestic abuse against his ex-wife, which resulted in him going to prison, and rightly so.

What I personally find interesting is that up to the few seconds before Ramsey heard Amanda Berry’s cries for help, he was NOT a hero. He was a convicted felon and a former wife beater. But in the moment he put his foot through Ariel Castro’s door, he rose out of that mire and became something more.

What he did was heroic, but I would not call Charles Ramsey a hero. 

Heroes are pure, and good, and constant in their ideals – hence why they are so rare and mainly exist on the screen or in written fiction. Search long and hard enough and you will find stains on almost anything - or anyone.

Charles Ramsey is an anti-hero, and that is by no means a derogatory term. Anti-heroes are flawed, they are broken, they are human, and they are real. 

His past is blemished and his moral principals are likely conflicted. But even though he was once a villain, it should not be forgotten that he did something spectacular this week, something extremely benevolent.

He deserves all of the praise he gets.

Updates and some extra thoughts on writing

First blog post in what seems to be a while, but it’s simply because I’ve been busy with holidays, work and life in general.

The short story originally prepared for April will most likely come out later in the year (or maybe never at all), it just didn't feel ready. The good news is that April’s new short story (although late) will be part one of a three part series, based on an idea I jotted down over 3 years ago.

The words are flowing as well as I could hope, and I’m enjoying writing it. I’ll probably spend the weekend finishing it off and polishing it, so it will be slightly later than expected. But “better late than never” I guess.

Lastly, some profound musings: There are times when I don’t feel like writing, and would much rather do something else – like watch TV, play with my computers, have a few drinks after work, go to the gym etc. But whenever I’m torn between writing, and procrastinating/doing something else, I always regret doing something else, and feel as if I could have been more productive.

But I have not yet once regretted sitting down and writing, even when I didn’t feel like it.

Apart from spending time with my family and girlfriend, there really isn’t anything else that I prioritise as much at this stage when it comes to utilising my free time. And I’m happy that things have turned out that way; as it means I’m taking this seriously.

April's short story will be up soon. Stay tuned.

REPOST: My views on self-publishing (from May 2011)

This is a repost from May 2011. Although we are nearly two years on, I still strongly believe in what I've written here. I hope you find my insight useful:

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I'm still learning about the "phenomenon" of self-publishing, but wanted to say a few things about it regardless.

I was just reading Nathan Bransford's blog post regarding self-published millionaire author Amanda Hocking (who is now published via a traditional house). I'd never heard of her until ten minutes ago, but clearly a lot of people have, most likely tweens; as her books seem to be based on teen romance/fantasy.

Anyway, Amanda has obviously done very well for herself through the self-publishing of her first nine novels, as she has made over $2million from ebook sales alone.

As will be argued, this kind of success is most likely to be the exception and not the rule. I am sure there are many self-published authors out there who have also priced their books at 99c and are making zilch.

But here is the interesting part: people clearly like Amanda's writing, her words strike a chord within them; even though Amanda's words were not what the many agents and publishers she approached (before she began to do it herself) wanted or deemed fit to publish.

Just 5-10 years ago, someone in Amanda's position would have had very few options after the usual rejections from agents and publishers:

1) brush yourself off and start/continue with your next novel in the hope it may be "the one".
2) become dissuaded and abandon all hope of success/publication.

But times have changed, and there is another option available for the unpublished writer: self-publish your work online.

Now, in 2011 we see that in the UK alone annual ebook sales have reached £180m, a 20% rise from the previous year. Despite libraries and bookstores closing down at frightening rates, people are still reading, and they are reading a lot. But the standard medium for the delivery of the words they read is changing; adapting with the ever advancing technology at our disposal.

I have highlighted words for the simple reason that I believe that words are the only thing which matter in all of this. I do believe ebooks will eventually outsell (not eradicate however) the traditional paperback and hardback. Just as online news has decimated the printed-press industry, the same will happen within the next 5-10 years to paper books. The e-media age is upon us.

Similarly, one could look at the demise of the vinyl record caused by the arrival of the now virtually extinct compact disc. And the same about the dominance of mp3s over the CD. The e-media age prevailed yet again, and both vinyl and CD's (along with minidiscs and tape cassettes) are virtually dinosaurs; extinct, rare or dying out.

It seems as if humans are evolving into a species that no longer want to hold physical things. We want the intangible and we want it readily accessible and as cheap as possible. Information (be it audio, text or video) will soon all exist online, held by servers and carried through fibre-optic cables, as opposed to being confined by physical discs or paper.

But as a writer/aspiring author, I am not afraid. For as long as I keep producing words there will always be something to be read. Words are meant to be read, regardless of the format they arrive in, and although I will try the typical agent-->publisher-->physical book route first; my ultimate goal will be to have the words I have spent hundreds of hours writing, read by as many people who deem them readable.


I am a romantic in the sense that I do prefer to read a nice paperback, hopefully untouched by anyone else before me and slightly worn by my own use over time. I also like the feel of books, their weight and texture. I don't make a conscious thought about it whilst I read, but I know I like to actually hold a book.

There is a certain mystic charm within a good printed book that will never be replaced by a Kindle or iPad.

But the following will remain constant regardless of the novel's new format:

The covers will contain pages, the pages will contain paragraphs, the paragraphs will contain sentences, the sentences will contain words and the words (hopefully) will contain enough magic to take you away from wherever you are and straight into the world the author has created.


No matter where we end up, it shouldn’t be forgotten that words are all that matter.

tl;dr :p

March’s Short Story is up!

The short story for March is now live on the website. This one is a bit different from the fairytale vibe of the first two, as is titled Necroleptic.

Like most of my ideas, this one was borne of the simple concept of “what if”? In this instance, what if instead of a person being narcoleptic [i.e. falling asleep and regaining consciousness randomly] they were necroleptic instead [i.e. they died and regained consciousness randomly]?

The story is brief, but could easily be a something I could revisit and explore at length in future (and who knows, maybe I will). It also shares some concepts with the Spirit Broker, in that the place we go to when we die may well be the very place we were before we were conceived.

The next blog post will be my review of the Nexus 7 tablet. I’ve been using it a lot since buying it a few weeks ago and will write up a breakdown of my thoughts so far.

M

February's short story: Lady of the Snow

This shortstory is a tale loosely based on the Japanese legend of Yuki-Onna. I borrowed the name of the story from a Symphony X song (Symphony X are a bad-ass progressive metal band from New Jersey. Check them out…if you like progressive metal).

This is another story based in the realm of New Eden, and after reading through it again I realised that New Eden probably isn’t a great place to live if you’re a guy.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story. Feel free to comment on my facebook page or on Twitter.

M

Hangover preventing smoothie

A quick non-writing related blog post:

How to make a hangover-preventing smoothie.

Firstly, there is one very important disclaimer, you must drink this smoothie BEFORE you go to bed. It will do its magic whilst you sleep, and ensure that when you wake up you’re not depleted of essential minerals and vitamins etc.

Ingredients:

1 x banana

A fistful of blueberries (i.e. 20 berries)

A teaspoon of Chia seeds

300 ml of milk (I prefer whole, organic milk)

3 x Ice-cubes

Pour the milk into the blender first, and then add everything else, give it a good 30 second blast and enjoy.

I had a fairly big night last night, mainly drinking vodka and whisky. But when I got home after midnight, I was still able enough to make this smoothie. Banana’s are very high is potassium, Chia seeds are higher. In fact, Chia seeds are probably the most important ingredient in this smoothie, as they are packed with calcium, Omega-3, potassium, amino-acids, protein, iron and most likely a hundred other things. Your local supermarket or health store will sell these. Get the mixed (black & white) seeds.

Up until a few months ago I had no idea what these seeds were. A good friend of mine recommended them to me, and now my girlfriend and I are hooked.

Blueberries are full of anti-oxidants and should help fend off any free-radicals coursing through your body after your  big night out.

I woke up this morning feeling 100%. Try this smoothie out and let me know if it worked for you too!!