My Story- Part One

"Our time is running out
You can't push it underground
You can't stop it screaming out,
How did it come to this?"-Muse, Time Is Running Out

"The lucky ones die first."- Tag line for 'The Hills Have Eyes'

PART ONE
Because fate has a sense of humour the beginning of the end started on Friday 13th March at almost one in the morning. I was working the graveyard shift at the hospital (which is never as quiet as the nickname suggests) when the building began to shake. At first I thought I was going crazy as the walls began to vibrate and a chair moved from one side of the room to another, but when I popped my head out into the corridor everybody else had that dazed look of confusion on their faces so I knew I wasn’t alone. I waited to see if any alarms would go off but they didn’t, so I took it that meant that the hospital wasn’t going to fall down or anything. I guessed it was a little earthquake or tremor or something like that, either way I knew it’d be the topic of conversation for the next couple of days, or at least until my shift finished.

At half four I said my goodbyes to hospital and got in my car to head for home. As soon as the car came to life the radio switched on, but I didn’t pay any attention to it- I just plugged my iPod in and drove on. I wish I’d listened to the radio now, it had been the news that was on. I have often wondered if I knew beforehand what was going on things might have been different. Then again, if I’d heard what was happening I probably wouldn’t have believed it.

So, there I was just- driving back to my home on the other side of town, quite tired and not really paying much attention to anything. Then I caught a glimpse of something in the road and my mind came back to planet earth when I realized it was a person. I swerved the car and just missed knocking the guy over. I stopped the car and looked out the window and the guy was still standing in the middle of a road, like a deer.

I opened the door, got out and the guy turned to face me. He was large, balding and wearing a dirty red dressing gown. “Hey,” I said, “What the hell were you doing in the road?”
He took a step towards me and opened his mouth, blood trickled out of its corners. “Please…” He murmured through the blood “Help me…” He shuffled forward towards me and as he did the dressing gown began to open and I could see his chest. There was a hole in the middle of it as if someone had shot him.

I remained still as he shuffled towards me, and in the orange glow of a streetlight I could see there was something moving inside the hole in his chest. “Christ…” It was sickening. I turned to get back into my car but I froze when I saw something on the roof of it. It was like a bug, well more like a children’s interpretation of a bug- a thin body with many spindly legs jutting out of it. It had two large black eyes on its head, like a dolls eyes and a mouth that was a rounded ‘O’. The thing could have been no bigger than a Coke bottle.


It leaned back on its legs and I realized it meant to leap at me. It moved so damn fast I was lucky just to step out of the way of it. I turned around to see where it had landed but the large guy was centimetres away from me with hands outstretched. His eyes looked a shade of grey. His fingers brushed my neck, so I flung my arm to knock his aside, and it knocked him back a bit.

I leapt into my car and slammed the door too. I turned the ignition on when the bug thing crashed into the side window leaving a rather large crack on the glass. Not wanting to see if it were alive or not I drove on as fast as I could.

Update

Yes, my story is coming along, I haven't forgetten. I re-wrote the first part becasue I was inspired by recent events and I thought it's make a great start to the story. You can expect to see the first part on here either tonight or tomorrow (but as few people read my blog I'll have to start beating people so that'll they'll read it) as I was hoping to generate some interest. Anyway, becasue I like hinting at what my story will be about and because I like posting videos here's a clue as to what my story will be about-

Just A Quick One...

To say that if you're ever bored why not try reading some of the works of Charlie F. Kane-

http://www.poemhunter.com/charlie-f-kane/

Other than that I have nothing to say other than that I'm in a Bob Dylan mood today. So, here's a wonderful Bob Dylan song I shall dedicate to all those of you who are young at heart. Listen to the words and then try and tell me Bob Dylan isn't amazing.

My Message To You (Yes, You)

Ok, so I'm definitely going to go ahead with this serialized story- I've done the opening of it, have an idea of a plot, just about know who my characters are and where they're going (mostly created up on my journey from Solihull to Leicester), at the moment it looks as if the story is definitely going ahead. But I got thinking (uh-oh) about the idea of the serialized story format and the fact that people can give feed back at each chapter, what I'm trying to say is that if you comment you could change the story. I thought that if people think certain characters don't work, then I'll work on them, if they don't think the plot line is going as well as it could, I could change it, if you do think it's gong in the right direction then it'll stay in that direction and so on and so forth; so it becomes reader participation, you see?

What I want to write is a horror story because I like horror and generally my prose work is divided into two categories- horror and depressing stuff. Don't get my wrong, it's get to use all these literary techniques and have lots of clever symbolism and lots of deep and meaningful themes, but every now and again, I just want just plain horror, just simple, running and screaming, oh-no-it's-going-to-get-us, cathartic horror. Maybe it's just me being crazy (most likely) or maybe it's because I recently watched horror movie classic 'The Fog', but that's fuelled my dark muse who is telling me to write horror, so I shall write. And with your help (yes, you) I change and alter the course of the story as it develops before you, so if you don't like a character they may meet a grim and grizzly demise, and if you really like a character they might met a grim and grizzly demise (if I'm feeling cruel).

So there it is- my declaration of principals as it were. On a side note once I do start posting parts, I have set myself the target of a maximum of 4 days before the next part and try not to write more than 750 words a chapter. And that's that.

Going off on another topic if you have a peek at the blog about the Oscars I was right about the Coen brothers winning, but wrong about Cate Blanchett. You can't win 'em all. Anyway, this video made me laugh, and not just because it mocks Johnny Depp-

My Challenge For The Week

I'm going to write this now while I think it's a good idea rather than in 10 minutes when I actually think about the challenge I've set myself and change my mind (which will happen, though it's likely I'll post this and think- 'My God what have I done..')

I've been moaning and rambling about how I want to write a serialized story to put in this blog, well my challenge for the week is to bloody well do it! I think if I actually set myself the challenge of doing I can force myself to write, so hopefully by this time next week I'll have at least a first part, chapter or whatever I want to call it to post. Then (in a rather smart move) I can use my blog to discuss the writing process- everybody wins, but especially me.

So there it is- the gauntlet is thrown down, if anybody else wants to take up this challenge then feel free to. Writing will be my main focus of this week (other than attending Cultural Exchanges, of course) and hopefully I'll actually have something of merit to put in my blog!

My Predictions For The Oscars

Now, I'm pretty sure the Oscars are this weekend, so I thought I'd post up my predictions. Those unsure what's going on here's the link to the full list of nominations. Last year I won £10 because I predicted the Oscars correctly, so I want to see if I can do it again this year.

Firstly I really think that this year will be the Coen Brothers year, I think there is a very strong chance that they will scoop the best director prize. But on the other side it depends on how friendly the Acdemy is with the Directors Guild of America becasue the Cohen brothers resigned from it becasue the DGA states that no more than one person can be credited for directing a movie. If they don't win then it'll be Paul Thomas Anderson who'll likely win. Don't get me wrong- he's a great director, but he really should have won for the superb film 'Magnolia' about 7 or 8 years ago.

Cate Blanchett will win something- she's got nods for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. I don't think it;s all that liekly she'll win both but I reckon she'll get one, though which one I'm not sure. When you look at the Best Actress category you can normally see the pattern of at least two likelys, one British actress for good measure and one comic performance. Then with her Supporting nod her performance has been universally praised.

Other than that my one is prediction that in the Best Song category 'Enchanted' will win, after all it does have three out of the five nominations.

Random Song Lyrics I Really Like

My blogs won't always this unfocused, I'm just doing my best to work out what I actually want to write about.

"Well, never mind, we are ugly but we have the music."- Leonard Cohen, 'Chelsea Hotel #2"

"I once loved a woman, a child I am told, I gave her my heart, but she wanted my soul."- Bob Dylan, 'Don't Think Twice, It's Alright'

"And you may ask yourself- What is that beautiful house? And you may ask yourself- Where does that highway go to? And you may ask yourself- Am I right?...Am I wrong? And you may say to yourself- my God! What have I done?"- Talking Heads, 'Once In A Lifetime'

"They hurt you at home and they hit you at school. They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool, till you're so f*cking crazy you can't follow their rules."- John Lennon, 'Working Class Hero'

"It's not the side effects of the cocaine- I think it must be love."- David Bowie, 'Station To Station'

"Ooh it gets dark, it gets lonely on the other side from you."- Kate Bush, 'Wuthering Heights'

"And if the band you're in start playing different tunes, I'll meet you on the dark side of the moon.'- Pink Floyd, 'Brain Damage'

"In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man, now I've reached that were I try to do all those things as best as I can."- Led Zeppelin, 'Good Times, Bad Times'

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and of taste, I've been around for long, long years and I've stole many a man's soul and faith."- The Rolling Stones, 'Sympathy For The Devil'

"I was born, lucky me"- The Kinks, 'Victoria'

"That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight."- R.E.M, 'Losing My Religion'

"Only hope can keep me together, love can mend your life but love can break your heart."- The Police, 'Message In A Bottle'

"Maybe there is a God above, but all I've ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you, and it's not a cry that you hear at night it's not somebody who's seen the light. It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah."- Leonard Cohen, 'Hallelujah'

"From War of Worlds- invaded by Mars"- Queen, 'Radio Ga Ga'

"And as we wind on down the road, there walks a lady we all know, who shines white light and wants to show how everything still turns to gold, and if you listen very hard the truth will come to you at last, when all is one and one to be a tock and not to roll."- Led Zeppelin, 'Stairway To Heaven'

"What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you, but I know it's mine."- The Beatles, 'With A Little Help From My Friends'

"Now Ophelia, she's 'neath the window, for her I feel so afraid, on her twenty-second birthday she already is an old maid to her, death is quite romantic, she wears an iron vest.Her profession's her religion, her sin is her lifelessness"- Bob Dylan, 'Desolation Row'

"When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse, out of the corner of my eye, I turned to look, but it was gone, I can not put my finger on it now, the child has grown- the dreamis gone."- Pink Floyd, 'Comfortably Numb'

My last offering-

"I met a girl who sang the blues and I aksed her for some happy news, but she just smiled and turned away."- Don McLean- 'American Pie'

That's all I can think of right about now. Any personal suggestions would be good. I know as soon as I post this I will think of a 100 more I could have put.

7 Deadly Blogging Sins

Found this on MSN- it's their list of '7 Deadly Blogging Sins'... couldn't have found it at a beter time really...

A Blog For Blog's Sake

I figured that since it's been Sunday since I posted I might as well put something up just to get this ol' thing moving along. Well... I think I am a little closer to knowing what I want to do with story-wise, but it's still early days (and I don't want to say too much incase I jinx it... fate has it in for me recently)

So for something to write about here is my dedication to the women of rock, oh yes, becasue lets face it- rock is dominated by men, but these women simply (for want of another word) rock.

Firstly I take my hat off to Patti Smith, a punk poet whose album 'Horses' is a very important album in the history of rock music-


To the legendary Stevie Nicks from the ever changing line-up of Fleetwood Mac, great solo artist and fantastic songwriter-


To Chrissie Hydne, frontwoman and lead songwriter of 70'/80's band The Pretenders and quite an underrated writer-


My last (and by not means least) dedication is too the one and the only Janis Joplin- the grandmother of all women rockers in my opinion. Nobody ever sang with so much conviction and soul-


I've probably missed a load out (especially Kate Bush, but I don't consider her rock- she's in a league of her own) but those sprang to me mind.

Enjoy, folks.

Banging Your Head Against A Mad Buggar's Wall

Last night I thought I had it all sorted out, thought that I had worked out what I could do with my blog by serializing a story- but yet this morning as I sit here ready to carry on writing it all my passion and love for it has dissappeared. I just didn't want to write it anymore!

I wrote a good 2000 words of this story last night, yet when I look at it now I don't feel any enthusiasm what so ever. Made it's just the harsh light of day clouding my judgement, I don't know. Who knows I could change my mind again by the end of the day!

I just really, really, really don't know what to do with this blog! I want to do something good so people will read it! ARRRRRRRRRRRAAAGH!!!!!!

My 'Technical' First Post

I know I've done one post already, but that was simply to help find my feet with this new fangled tomfoolery. This is the first post that Kathleen wants us to make so here it is-

I really don't know what this blog's going to be about, here are my options- I could write day-to-day events, I could invent a life, I could post a serialized story or I could just rant about why music was better in the 70's. I don't know!!! The one I am quite tempted to do is the story one because I like the idea of having people's comments influencing the direction of the story, and I am interested in the format... but on the downside it'd take time to write something. I don't know.

No one will be more surprised than me when I work out what to do with this blog.

What's In A Name?

This is my blog for my Creative Writing lesson, and this is pretty much a test so I can work out what I'm actually doing with it, so if this looks really werid when you read it, it means I haven't quite the hang of it yet. And there's a picture of Bob Dylan!

I've practically spent 40 minutes debating what the hell I should call my blog. The name seems so import to me because I felt it should be a representation or summary of myself. A kind of prelude, if you will, to the blog. Here are some of the selections I went through- 'I'm Sure Bob Dylan is My Father', 'Who Said the 70's Are Dead?', 'Tea and Trilbies', but I couldn't deicde if I should call it something profound or something a little silly. Then I thought I could call it after one of my favourite albums, so it could have been 'Dark Side of the Moon', 'Rain Dogs', 'Scary Monster (And Super Creeps)' and so on and so forth. I eventually settled on the simple- 'Make Tea Not War' because it highlights my love of tea and my dislike of war. Really deep, huh?

The url was easy to do, I just combined the names of my two favourite David Bowie albums- 'Low' and '"Heroes"'.

Anyway, here's a song for you all to enjoy-