The Shanster

If you read my blog post yesterday, you would have read that I sent an email to Darren Shan regarding my joblessness and the woes around it. Well, he's taken the liberty of posting my email on his blog, with his response, my response, and then some additional made-of-awesome comments to go along with it.

As a direct result of this blog post, I am jumping off the walls with excitement, and I can barely contain myself long enough to type this post. Just thinking about it gets me ecstatic all over again.

I encourage you to go read the post, here. It's really awesome.

In other news, that isn't related to Darren Shan, I got most of my essay done for my Justice and Peace module. I had thought I was finished, until I discovered that the word count was meant to be two hundred words higher than what I'd written. Personally, I blame the lack of a posted word count in the email the lecturer sent us... but don't tell his son I said that. (I'm just complaining for the sake of it, of course; I'm sure I can find something to write about, with regard to a message of justice in the book of Amos in the Old Testament).

Also managed to buy some paper. It's been a while... and we were running out. I think my dad is repaying me... if not, he's not allowed use the paper. I'm unemployed, and I demand to have full use of what I pay for. (Now I'm being bitter for the sake of it...)

With said paper, I printed out a good few more pages of Meet Sam to be edited as soon as this darned essay is done. And my tutorial work is finished... And when I can successfully begin my coursework journal for my Fiction to Film module... which all requires an essay. Bugger. Well, I will edit, I promise. I have more time at the weekends than I used to, so I will. I will. Stop looking at me like that, I WILL!

*ahem* I was talking to you, reader. There's no one in my head who ought not be. Fictional characters, yes, but they ought to be there.

I sound crazy...

Back to Shan related news, there's only two full months between me and The Thin Executioner. I know what you're thinking - "Paul, you just lost your job! Should you really be thinking about buying more books?" The short answer, yes. The slightly longer answer, Yes, I need them. The unnecessarily long answer...

Books keep me at the stable balance between normality and insane asylum. Without access to literature, my mind melts into a state of not being able to function properly, which then needs to be treated with several intense doses of reading before I can write again. By several, I mean about a dozen. By intense, I mean four hours at a go. Otherwise the process takes much longer, and while I can write, I can't write anything that's worth reading. Even with editing. This is partially why I'm editing now, and not working on something new. I haven't had the chance to dive into a book properly since Mr Mumbles, which didn't take very long. I have to whip out a novel of some description tomorrow or my brain will turn to mush. Fact.

And before I go, apparently I don't want to know what Maureen Johnson did before she was a full time author... Gotta love Maureen for her small bouts of revealed insanity.

First Day

I've never experienced a Saturday off that I wasn't supposed to have off. The closest I got to that was when the English Paper 2 was shown on the wrong day in the Leaving Cert, and we had to sit the backup paper that Saturday. But other than that, I've been in work most Saturdays, or in work the Sunday instead.

Admittedly, I was still a little spooked about not having a job. I ended up on the phone to Sandra, one of my ex-collegues at Hughes and Hughes, and she's just as shaken up about it. And she almost lost her dog, but that's a different story. She hadn't heard anything about the company collapsing like this either. She did know that those present at the time of closing had paperwork to fill out... that'll be a fun thing to do... not!

I watched Glee to cheer myself up. Okay, so I almost cried at one point, but the destruction of teenage life kind of does that to me. Actually, the destruction of any believeable life in fiction does that to me. Not a bother on me in a ridiculously murderous movie like From Paris With Love, where many people get killed... they weren't believeable deaths. But Glee set me off, almost. At least the songs were great!

I emailed Darren Shan as well, to see if he might be able to shed some light on his own experiences with unemployment and writing. He went through practically the same thing, except his jobs weren't funding his writing, and he willingly gave one up. But he gave me some very sound advice and made me realise that I should take advantage of the time I have and do some work. As a result, I wrote a very short story that won't be used...ever... and around 13 Doctor Haik-Who. Okay, exactly thirteen. And I edited the same number of pages of Meet Sam, before I ran out of printed material. It was a load of fun though!

I printed that email too, to make sure I can always look at it and remember that I have something many people lack - time to write. Hughes and Hughes didn't give that to me, Darren Shan did. I might have wasted the day if I hadn't been told that.

Of course, I spent time watching television too. I watched Nanny McPhee with my mum while we had dinner, and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I've seen the latter before, and I always enjoy it. The former... didn't expect it to be as fantastic as it was! It certainly attributed to the brightening up of my day (which really only felt great after Darren Shan's amazing email!)

Too late to do any work now, but I'll be waking up to an essay on Justice and Peace. 1000 words. It's not too bad, and if I can get it done quickly, then I have time during the week to do other things... like my tutorial work. But I'm going to catch up on everything. I'm promising myself that.

Holy Cow. Ever get one of those "I just realised something" moments? Well, I did... just now. Yes, I voiced my surprise in my blog, sue me. (don't... I'm unemployed and can't afford to pay you). Well, I just realised that the Irish Student Drama Association competition is next week (starting the 8th). Drama is almost over for the year! Ah!

Oh, brightside of yesterday I never got around to, because of the joblessness... well, I went to the cinema, saw the aforementioned From Paris With Love, and Eileen texted to say that we have our tickets to One Republic in April! Good thing I forked out the money for that before I found out about work, or I might have had to change my mind!

Hmm, did I just see the brighter side of life? So much for my misery of yesterday!

Bye Bye Job

I'm unemployed, it seems. I had a job three hours ago, and now... well, I found out over the radio that the bookshop I work in, Hughes and Hughes, was closed, due to the fact that it had to go into receivership. We had an idea that the company wouldn't last long, what with less people travelling, and so less sales at the airport, but we never thought it would happen so soon. I literally said to someone at six o'clock last Saturday, "See you next week!"

Unless we all meet up tomorrow, that's not going to happen.

I feel oddly empty knowing I've no work tomorrow. It was different when I took a holiday before, to study for my mocks. I knew why I wasn't in work... I knew I wouldn't be in work... this just came on very sudden. And I had to pass the shop too, on my way to the cinema, which is where I was going when I found out about the dead company. It looked so dark, so lifeless... okay, so the lights were off and it was empty, but that's not what I meant. The soul of the shop was gone.

But even still, now as I type this, I can't claim it's all about me. I don't know most of the people who are now unemployed, but I knew the people in my shop. Two of them are the main income earners in their families. Two are in college. One just moved into a new apartment. One's living with his girlfriend, but he'll need a new job if he's to keep that up. And the last is my boss, whose wife doesn't work... well, not in a company. She's a writer. I think lots of us know how little money that will get them.

I'm going to be stuck thinking about how they're managing. I won't be able to help it. These people are my friends, and now we're all without a job, just suddenly, without direct warning from the company. Unless someone else buys out the place and keeps all the shops running...

My parents are advising me to look for somewhere else. My mum said it doesn't have to be a bookshop. But she doesn't get it. I loved working in a bookshop. It was my thing. If I had to get a new job, I'd love for it to be in another bookshop. Nothing else would feel right.

Nothing else could make me feel happy like Hughes and Hughes did.

I Gave You My Music...

I'm a big fan of music; I tend to find new types that I like every year; when I was fifteen, it was rock, sixteen was the soul year, seventeen was when I started getting into R&B and Pop and eighteen was when I discovered DFTBA Records. I believe it was also when I fell in love with Phantom of the Opera... or maybe that was when I was seventeen. Whatever... That's where the title of this blog comes from - "I gave you my music, let your song take wing.." Lovely stuff.

I'm here to talk to you about DFTBA Records, though. I'm currently listening to one of their hit songs, Can't, played in six different ways. It's from their new Can't Remixed CD. Very awesome. It's a great way to discover new sound in DFTBA; I'd never listened to MC Lars, Eddplant, Dr Noise, ALL CAPS or Alan and Paige... or Hank, really. I'd heard a couple of songs from Dr Noise, ALL CAPS and Hank, and Alan, I believe, from another EP, but I hadn't heard much of the sound they were capable of. Well worth the buy.

My first taste of DFTBA was through the Trock (Time Lord Rock) band Chameleon Circuit, with their album of the same name. If I remember correctly, I purchased their Volume 1 Compilation album and Taking Leave from Alan Kastufka and Tom Milsom, next. They are awesome! Chameleon Circuit is filled with songs about Doctor Who, and is actually why I was bothered watching an episode of it. The Volume 1 Compilation got me into a number of different sounds from DFTBA, including Molly Lewis and Tom Milsom's own work.

Somewhere along the line I purchased Alex Day's album Parrot Stories. It's a fantastic collection of love songs, and well worth the listen!

I bit the bullet and bought Trock On! and I Made You A CD But I Eated It (the latter from Molly Lewis) a while later. I didn't like Molly's CD until recently... the problem was that I listened to only two songs on it - I Pity the Fu and Peep Fight; I already knew the former, and I didn't like the latter. But I listened to the whole thing and loved it! Trock On! is an amazing compilation of Trock music. Good for Doctor Who fans!

Most recently I've come into possession of the aforementioned Can't Remixed and Tom Milsom's album Painfully Mainstream. Next in line for purchase is Be Mine from ALL CAPS. I can't wait for that one. And I believe Charlie McDonnell is releasing an album at some undefined stage in the future - can't wait!

I have to say, I love Painfully Mainstream. Especially Indigo, which I understand you can listen to online for free! Just go to http://www.dftba.com/ and you'll find all the albums and artists I've mentioned here. When you click on an album, you get a chance to preview the album with a sample track. Made up my mind about Tom Milsom's album, to be honest!

And with that, I bid you adieu. It's time for me to get Lost... okay, bad pun. Lost is on in five minutes! I need tea!

There's Always Tomorrow

I'm having a problem; tomorrow is always there for me to say, "I can do it tomorrow." This gets a lot of stuff put off until a later date, like a project I thought up last night when I couldn't get to sleep, and all of my college work.

I've got a coursework journal to do, on top of two essays, my religion tutorial work (every week for that one...) and I have my own writing to do, as well as maintaining my blog, the Literary Den blog, releasing the Poetry Against Cancer book, and promoting it, and I've got reading and stuff to do... and drama. But that'll last two weeks - the competition will be over by then.

Aside from my "Wrote Today" Chart, what else can I do to keep getting things done? I mean, there's so much to do, so little time, and I can feel my exams creeping closer! Ah!

And yet... here I am on Facebook, playing Cafe World, and watching television. Call me crazy... Actually, that's about it - call me crazy. It might help.

When I find myself able to control the madness in my life, I'll let you know. It might be June by then, but hey, I'll have control....

Obsession

I'm probably the first person who'll admit that there's something a little weird about me. I write - a lot of writers I know are at least a little crazy. I think it's something to do with characters disagreeing with our plots... in our heads. Crazy! I also Vlog, though, which is weird in itself if you're not used to it, like my brothers.

Then there's my ability to become obsessed with things very easily. At the moment, my obsession has led to the fourth playing of Tom Milsom's album Painfully Mainstream today alone, and a total of 73 Doctor Haik-Who so far. That's two obsessions at once... I'm learning. Normally my attention is focused entirely on one thing in such a horrendously... okay, obsessive is the only word coming to mind. Horrendously obsessive. That's me.

Okay, so I'll admit my Doctor Haik-Who are at least productive. I'll be writing a letter for one of the potential agents soon. And of course, I still have to write them. Can't stop that. (By the way, my new video is directly related to the Doctor Haik-Who!)

I do find that my obsession gets work done, though. Not just the Doctor Haik-Who, but all my other writing. I get thoughts going through my head about The Jump and Riders of Nebwey all the time, and occasionally The Hero of Edge. It's fun, actually. Bizarre, voices-in-my-head fun, but fun nonetheless.

And I've my "Wrote Today" Chart too, now. That's a positive step towards increased productivity, I reckon. Go chart!

Speaking of that chart... I think I need to update it. This blog will only consume more time that I don't have if I keep writing tonight. I've got to check stuff for college... secretly, so my parents don't know that I haven't done the work yet. *whistles nonchalantly*

In Preparation

As we go through each of the days of our lives, we are often left to prepare ourselves, or others, for things to come. Mostly, this can be fairly bad things. But in the world of writing, there's whole lot of preparation towards greater things, like a book getting published, or an author just steeling himself for the days when the copyright of his work might be brought into question.

I decided, in the preparation of getting in touch with agents and other individuals, that I'd begin the copyrighting process for my Doctor Haik-Who, by writing them down, and posting them to myself. This is a very common technique of ensuring the authorship of your work isn't called into question, particularly if you like to share your work with a number of individuals you've never met.

I've already done with eleven of them, though the remaining forty nine written will need the same process soon, so I might be writing them up sooner rather than later. This doesn't count towards my "Wrote Today" Chart, of course, but it's a necessary step in ensuring the safety of my work. If I can get them all done within the next couple of hours, then I'll be sorted - I have dinner plans tonight, my birthday celebrations extending somewhat now that my parents are back from the West.

This is also a good time for me in preparation for the broadcasting of a few Doctor Haik-Who online, via YouTube. This will be happening sometime in the very close future, so I need to make sure I have the Haiku protected. While I'm broadcasting, I'll also be asking for topic suggestions for more Doctor Haik-Who; I may have already touched on the topic, but at least then I know I've covered some of the big areas of the show. There's also the episodes people forget about that need writing about, like the Gelth in the third episode. They were the villain, but Charles Dickens was the focus of the episode, and Rose's inability to keep her mouth shut. It's an important lesson for her as she continues her time travelling journey with the Doctor.

I've also discovered my strange fascination with the Face of Boe... I wrote at least three Haiku about him. I'm weird...

Anyway, about those agents... I scoured The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2010 for suitable agencies... I got a total of two suitable people. I'll be getting in touch with them soon to see if I might be able to submit. *fingers crossed*

That's it from me, I suppose. I don't want to steal from writing up the Haiku time, so I'd better let you go. (oh, and I'm not the only one preparing for something today... but I won't say who it is that I'm talking about.)