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!!

Short Story is up on website

Due to my internet deciding to stop working a few days ago, I couldn’t post my first short story online on the last day of January. So I put it up today instead.

The story is the Jeweller and the Witch, so feel free to give it a read!!

Without getting too deep, this tale focuses on our natural inclination to make others feel how we do; the transfer of emotions. For example, when we’re feeling great, we tend to make others around us feel great too. We are fun to be with, and people feel energized and motivated to be in our presence.

Sadly, on the flipside, when we people are in a foul mood, it also tends to rub off on those around them. Whether they do it intentionally or not, people’s negative emotions are very transferable.

(Ever had that person at work who you avoid, simply because they make you feel depressed? Or a friend whose melancholy Facebook updates are nothing but moaning and complaints?) Just a few examples of how we can seek to share our emotions with others.

I believe that those who seek to make others feel crappy on purpose eventually pay the price for it, and that's what this tale is all about!

It’s not a long story, and I hope whoever reads it enjoys it.

Feel free to comment below if you get the urge!

Neil Gaiman

Last night I saw Neil Gaiman at the City Recital Hall in Sydney, a place I had no idea even existed. It was a great night, with Neil starting off by reading the prologue and first two chapters from his latest novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

  

The tale seemed to be written in first person, and started as a very pleasant foray into a middle aged man’s childhood. There were elements of melancholy, nostalgia and the supernatural in it, but only hints. I’ll definitely be buying the book when it comes out in July.

After the intermission the band FourPlay took to the stage. An excellent string quartet with progressive rock, folk, classical and country elements to their arrangements. Like the City Recital Hall, FourPlay was also a new discovery for me, and they were excellent. The cello player has some very cool tapping and strumming techniques, and the other three violinists were extremely melodic and playful.

FourPlay started with a very cool introduction, and then went into a rendition of the Dr Who theme tune (which delighted a lot of geeks in the crowd). After that Neil took to the stage. He spoke briefly about Gerry Anderson, the recently deceased creator of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Fireball XL5 to name a few. FourPlay then played the Fireball XL5 theme tune, with Neil singing the lyrics! 

His singing voice is basically his speaking voice but louder. It made me smile to watch him perform, as he was enjoying the moment very much.

Neil then read (for the first time ever) the first third or so of his new absurd short story Fortunately the Milk, a tale about a father who goes out to buy milk for his children’s breakfast, but finds himself travelling through the space time continuum provided by an alien spacecraft, landing on a pirate ship 300 years in the past and then being rescued by a speaking stegosaurus in a hot-air balloon who claims to have invented a lot of things, including his own cardboard box time-machine and coconuts.

Phew. After that Neil did a quick (approx 15 minutes) and very entertaining Q&A session and then called it a night!

Finally I bought my two year old nephew a copy of Neil's latest children's book, Chu's Day. It will be a nice bed time story for him.

Money well spent :)

Birthday Gift

It’s my birthday tomorrow, and I’m going to treat myself (and hopefully any people reading this) to something new and a bit challenging. 

I am going to release a new short story on my website on the last day of every month for the year of 2013.

There will be one rule with my stories: they will be short. That’s all I can guarantee.  I hope they will be enjoyable, and offer a glimpse into my imagination.

I am still writing my second novel, but this will be something I’ll do on the side throughout the year. 

It will also be a good reason to get me behind my keyboard more often!

More to come soon :)