Review - Skulduggery Pleasant

Very quickly I'd like to raise people's attention of a Read-A-Thon idea. Before I put any serious amount of time and effort into this, I want to know if there's sufficient interest in it. Leave a comment on this post if you're interested, and state whether you want to be a reader or a moderator, and whether you'll help with PR or not. When I have an idea of how many people are involved, then I'll be able to announce whether or not this will be going ahead as planned. (And any help in planning it would be greatly appreciated).*

Now, onto that review - very simple video review, this time, of Skulduggery Pleasant, the first book in the series of the same name, by Derek Landy.

And there you have it - the first video review for The New Book Club. To join the club, just subcribe to the channel. It's that simple. Then, when a review is posted, you just reply with a comment or a video of your own. It couldn't be easier!

(also, Skulduggery Pleasant makes a great book for Read-A-Thons!)

*Read-A-Thon idea has not and will not go ahead (29/08/10)

Painful Awareness

[TOM is sitting alone in a cafe, hugging himself lightly. He's staring at the table in front of him]

[Enter AMANDA]

AMANDA: Hey... what's with the look?

TOM: What? Oh... just became a bit...

AMANDA: Nostalgic? You look nostalgic.

TOM: A bit... We're eighteen, Amanda. Did you realise that? We're eighteen and... and what? We pick our college courses and... and...

AMANDA: And we're finally free of this God-forsaken school!

TOM: And we're adults.

AMANDA: Yeah... That happens, you know?

TOM: But it's happening to us. We're not going to be able to say, ever again, "When I grow up." We're going to be grown up. It's messed up.

AMANDA: Is that what's bothering you? Growing up?

TOM: A little bit, yeah. Doesn't it bother you? Haven't you noticed that your childhood is gone?

AMANDA: I've noticed, Tom, but I don't let it bother me. [AMANDA takes TOM's hands] Look, you're just going through a phase. You won't always be so aware of your own...

TOM: Insignificance as a person to date?

AMANDA: Suuure. You won't always be so aware of everything you haven't done. Yet.

TOM: Painfully aware.

[Enter ROBERT]

ROBERT: What's up with him?

AMANDA: [half-mockingly] He's painfully aware of his own significance as a person.

ROBERT: That sucks. Oh hey, you want anything while I'm up?

AMANDA: Coffee. De-caf. Cheers.

TOM: [groans]

AMANDA: And an espresso for Tom... He looks like he could do with a lift.

TOM: Kill me now, before I get any older. [pauses] Too late! I can feel my youth slipping away from me.

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Spontaneous script-writing helps some times. Okay, so admittedly I had the idea all day, but I hadn't planned on putting it down anywhere, especially not in this post! But that's the thing about writing, about being a writer - we're not always in control of everything that happens in our lives. Heck, that's being human!

I got the idea earlier, during one of my bouts of almost forced... I don't know what word I'm thinking of. Depression is going too far, because I wasn't sad, or elated. I just had a feeling of... I don't know. I guess I realised that, like Tom, I'm grown up already. I don't have a "when I grow up" situation any more. I'm going to be a teacher. I suppose this is the aftermath of teaching practice in college. Regardless, I got the idea hours ago, and I wasn't ready for it. Like I'm not ready for most of the ideas I get about The Jump. I haven't written it in months, and yet I'm still getting ideas about it.

But there's another thing about writing. When you sit down to write something - anything - you might just find a tale you remembered, and find that it's ready to be written. Whether you like it or not. Many authors - probably most, if not all - carry around with them a note pad to take... well, notes with. I recommend the same. Write down any ideas you get, but just briefly. No real detail. When you read back on it, you should be able to remember the idea, because it should have been that good.

Now, with a knocking on my wall to signify that I need to get to bed/my typing is too loud, I must leave. Remember - there's a time and a place for writing, and typing away at 11:15pm in the room, at the wall, adjascent to two people - my parents in this case - trying to sleep, is not the right time or place. Now, if I had set up downstairs... This might be the plan for tomorrow if I plan on writing at this hour. Toodles for now, though.

PS Let me know what you think of the wee script.

Review - Lord Sunday

The tide of Nothing rises, and the House is coming to its end...

SPOILER WARNING

This is more or less what you need to know about Lord Sunday, the stunning conclusion to Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series. That, and that Arthur Penhaligon can possibly save the whole universe if he recovers the Seventh Key Lord Sunday. To do that, he has to free The Seventh Part of the Will of the Architect.

Initial thoughts on the book? Okay, so I had to read it with an Austrailian accent in my head every time I had trouble getting into it, but that wore off very quickly once the pace had been discovered again. The plot fits in well, up until the ending, which I felt was a bit of a let-down. Not entirely bad, but it could have been written better. It served its purpose though, and that was to successfully conclude the bestselling series.

How does it fit with the other books in the series? Considering it begins exactly where Superior Saturday left off, quite well. In fact, each of the books does this, and by successfully linking with each other, the seven book series can almost be read as one book, in seven volumes. The template for the books is the same throughout too - find the Will, get the Key, put the Trustee in his place. More or less.

Major themes explored... please? From my own experience, a question along the lines of "So what's your book about?" must have been asked of Nix at some stage by a curious friend, family member or acquintance. If I might interject and answer for him, it's a tale of epic proportions, demonstrating the problems with ultimate power, infused with Christian idiologies.

Each of the books demonstrates a Deadly Sin from Christian Theology. Mister Monday shows the title character as a lazy being of power, a victim of sloth. In Grim Tuesday we meet a man who aims to take much more than he aught to have - greed. The Trustee of Drowned Wednesday is a glutton, eating everything she can, while just ahead of her, in Sir Thursday, a wrath-filled general wages war against a being from a nursery rhyme. The vain mistress of Lady Friday brings us into the darker parts of the tale as far as Earth is concerned, while the green-eyed antogonist of Superior Saturday wishes to steal all the power she can within the House - you guessed it, envy. Then we meet Lord Sunday, a being of such unwavering pride that he refuses to help fight the tide of Nothing in the House, until it would destroy him too.

These are contrasted with the seven virtues of Christianity, found in the Parts of the Will. There's not much point listing them, as some are difficult to tell from the others within the book - the Sins are better seen in the Trustees than the virtues are.

Then there's the ending, which I won't spoil. I'll just say this - you can tell Nix is a Christian.

What's it most like? If I'm to ignore the fact that it's a series book, I would say the ending most resembles Hell's Heroes by Darren Shan. (see the Reviews page for a link) You'll understand when you've read them both. Which you really should.

Overall opinion? Fantastic! Nix should be proud to have created such a gripping tale. Aside from the times when I had to prepare food or use both of my hands for something else, I couldn't put it down. Literally, from... I'd say half ten, but it was probably later than that, to eight, or a bit earlier, I was reading it, with my lunch and dinner in between, and a number of chores. Not many books can get me to do that.

Now, why are you still reading this review? Go get the book! (though you should start with Mister Monday, or you'll be a bit lost as to what's going on.)

Review - Yuck's Fantastic Football Match

This lovely two-in-one book is a hilarious little book for children aged five and up; two stories, lots of fun. I received this book from Simon and Schuster Kids only earlier this week, read it today, and I have to admit, even though I'm a little bit older than their target market, I still enjoyed the book. This, I reckon, is good news for the authors, Matt and Dave (they have surnames, but they don't announce them on the cover - Morgan and Sinden respectively, in case you were wondering.) Before I get into the guts (well, there aren't guts, but there are equally disgusting things) of the book, I want to say that this book is perfect for parents who still read to their children! Plenty of times in the book to comment on the book and keep the child thinking - we've been told in college that asking children their opinion of something is very helpful for their education, and I don't believe it should be any different at home than at school!.

So, the book. I'll start with the title story: Yuck's Fantastic Football Match. Straight away I thought, "Oh no, football. I hate football." But it didn't matter. The book doesn't dwell too much on the football side of the story. All the little football terms really are little - heading and passing and chipping - and are completely understandable for any five year old. Just because it's about football, doesn't mean they can't read it.

The book, the entire thing, not just this story, is filled with disgusting things like mud and boogies and insects - in other words, all the stuff children love! The more disgusting, the better. At the age they should be read this, they'll relish in the idea of all the filth.

I read this on the book and had to hide two things - one, obviously, that I was reading a book for five year olds, and two, that I was enjoying it! It's full of humorous jokes and tricks that will have kids filled with delight. Story two in the book, Yuck's Creepy Crawlies, is a much funnier tale, I'll admit, and much grosser. In case you haven't guessed, lots of bugs and insects, slugs and even a big fat spider! I know some children are afraid of spiders, like some adults, but it just makes it even funnier when you reach the story's climax!

It can't be stressed enough - this is a must-read for children, especially if they're just learning to read. It's fun, giggle-inducing and packed full of disgusting ideas to keep them amused for hours!

Yuck's Fantastic Football Match comes out in the UK on April 1st, 2010, from Simon and Schuster. It retails at £4.99.

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Just a quick note while you're on the page - there's now a Review tab on the blog, so you can find any review I've done on this blog easily. More will be coming in the near future. Thank you, and enjoy!

Poetry Against Cancer - On Sale Now!

Well, the day is here! Poetry Against Cancer is now on sale.

With an amazing cover and fantastic design work by Rachel, I know people are going to love it, even without reading the wonderful poetry inside! I've read this book three times now, so I know the poems in it are good.

I really do hope you'll purchase a copy - all the money raised goes to St John's Ward at Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Dublin. It's a children's cancer ward, and it could do with our help to ensure the continued service the hospital gives to its young patients.

Please visit this page and place your purchase - available for €7.50 plus P&P, and in e-book format, for €4.

Thanking you on behalf of all the staff, patients and families of St John's and Crumlin hospital, and all the people who made this book possible,
Paul.

Thirteen hours - Six minutes

That may look like an odd title for a blog - I certainly thought it would be vague. It signifies two things, things that some people know and some don't, and things that some people might have an inkling about and others will just get annoyed about, because let's face it, clocks aren't all that fun to work with.

In thirteen hours, the doors will close on the "classroom" in college, with a bunch of kids and the students they'll be teaching in there for about an hour. The kids have to teach for six minutes each, to students ranging between the gaes of nine and eleven (eleven at a stretch).

If you're confused, then I've done my job. Thought I'd become entirely straightforward these past few days, but thankfully that's not the way it is. The kids are actually third level students. I just thought I'd emphasize our youth... we're all very nervous about having to teach the students, who are actually little girls, because we have to be professional when we do it (in "teacher clothes" too!), and we're going to be recorded doing it. To make matters worse, we then have to watch ourselves teach.

I don't get why we have to watch ourselves teach. I don't see why we have to be subjected to it.

I can see something going wrong in the next couple of days. Not for me, specifically. I'd be more concerned that Meadhbh will lose her voice, or the computer will shut itself down on Aisling... but it's her own fault. But what if it shuts down on Meadhbh too? I hadn't thought of that one...

WARNING. WARNING.

Yep, she's screwed. That computer can only be on for so long before it decides it wants to shut down unless you tell it not to, and no one is allowed to interrupt the lesson to make sure that the thing stays on.

THIS IS WHY I AVOIDED SUCH TECHNOLOGY!!

My lesson tomorrow will consist of a poster and a handout. I plan on keeping things very simple. Get the kids calmed down at the end of a long day, etc etc. I get to summarise everything else too, which will involve asking them questions about the previous twenty seven/eight minutes of lesson. Fun fun fun.

In other, not-related-to-teaching news, I've finished reading Skulduggery Pleasant, and will be reviewing it on The New Book Club channel on YouTube. Yay! You can subscribe to that channel by going to http://tiny.cc/tnbc - it even has its own tiny link. That is how much I love it.

Poetry Against Cancer available for Pre-Order!

Well, the day's finally come when Poetry Against Cancer is availabe for pre-order! It costs €7.50, plus postage and packaging of €1.50 (€9.00 in total), and will be like that for one week, until it's release. The button to pre-order is in the right-hand sidebar on my blog, right there at the top of the page. Click it... you know you want to.

Just make sure to leave your address so I know where to ship the book. Shipping in the same for everywhere, so you don't have to worry about that.

I was asked earlier - why the pre-order period? Why not just let the Print On Demand do its job? The answer: we plan on having a launch for the book. Right now, I've just waiting for a reply from a bookshop about it, and then we'll be set. If the owner says no, then I'll have to try organise something myself. I might see if Niamh can get the choir to perform for it. That would be awesome indeed. Would need a few songs for it, but it would be during the Easter break, so I'm sure they could muster something... I'll have to see. Everyone's fairly busy these days.

Of course, I can always ask the likes of Rob N' Eoin and Slow Motion Getaway from college to perform, but I'd like to ask Niamh first, based on the bookshop's response of course. Will need a number for the latter band if I'm to ask them though. They're music option number three, since I haven't heard them play before (in actual fact, I've only really heard Rob N' Eoin in class and at mass...)

I would also need a venue that's accessible to everyone. A pub launch might work... it'd be a venue for the musicians and an easy place to contact. The Pint Pub seems to go down well...

Okay, enough hypothetical scheming! This is getting crazy. It hasn't even happened yet. The book isn't even ready for public purchase through Lulu.com! Calm down Paul!

In the meantime, tell your family and friends to buy the book. It's not too expensive, and it's for a good cause! All the money raised goes to St John's Ward at Our Lady's Children's Hospital!

Once the pre-order period is over, the book will only be available from Lulu.com. The postage will be higher then, so don't delay! Order soon!

All the very best,
Paul.