Sunday, April 28, 2013

Burnt Out

I haven't been in here lately, and there's a good reason for it.  Over the last fortnight, I've been so very busy that I finally burnt out yesterday while working at the Logan Art Gallery during my volunteer work.  I just felt horrible and I really didn't want to be there.

So, I haven't been reading anything, doing much and even my house is only just starting to see the sight of being cleaned up because I need to cook meals.  But the rest of the place isn't good.  

I'm sure I'll be feeling better soon and back to my usual antics of reading, looking at books and book-related things.  But my system just needs a well-earned rest for a few days... you know, plenty of TLC and I'll be back to my old self again in no time.  Otherwise, until my next post, happy reading! 

Monday, April 22, 2013

Ged Maybury's Book Launch

Yesterday, and over the weekend, was the Logan Arts Festival at the Kingston Butter Factory.  However, I only arrived there for the afternoon yesterday to do a speech for Ged Maybury and it finished up for this year.  

I wish I could have spent more time this year than I did.  But I had a family get-together for the first year that marked the passing of my Uncle Allan from Prostate Cancer last year.  We all had brunch at The Coffee Club at Stones Corner and Mum, Dad and I made it to the Kingston Butter Factory by around 1:30pm.  We managed to have a good look around, grab a coffee and enjoy some great live music while we were there.
And I also touched base with The Logan Writers Group to let them know I had arrived for Ged Maybury's book launch - as I was to launch him and his book with a speech.  However, he hadn't arrived as yet, so this gave me time to sit and relax to take in a talk from the organisers of the whole event.  I enjoyed knowing exactly who was working so hard to have us artists heard.

However, soon enough, it was time for Ged and I to take the stage.  Beforehand, I called Mum and Dad to let them know it was about to happen and they showed up and I introduced them to Ged and Anna (Ged's wife) and soon, he and I were preparing the stage to do the book launch.  I nervously took the microphone from the spokeperson of our group and I found myself full of nerves and fumbling my way through my very organised speech... don't you just hate that!  Yeah, me too.
Well, I made it through and everyone laughed in the right places - especially when I said I was nervous - and finally, Ged had a giggle over my nerves too; as he was almost as nervous as me!  So, I guess they're catching.  Anyway, here's the photo album to the day.  I enjoyed myself... as did Ged, Anna and my folks. Until my next post, happy reading.

Logan Arts Festival 2013     

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Logan Arts Festival

The Logan Arts Festival is on this weekend from today - Saturday - to tomorrow.  It's a great weekend to be out and about around the Kingston Butter Factory Art Centre to see the who's who in the arts industry around Logan City.  And I'll be there launching Ged Maybury's new book 'Nosebleed' tomorrow afternoon at around 3pm or so.

So, if you'd like to have a good look at some very talented writers - or just to catch up with other artists as well - drop around to the Kingston Butter Factory next to Kingston Train Station.  It's sure to be a wonderful day out for the whole family as this place is not only an arts centre but also one of the historical sights around Logan.

The Kingston Butter Factory used to be used to produce butter for a good part of South East Queensland before demand became too much in the 1970's; and the place was shut down.  The Logan City Council refurbished it and it's now a museum, an arts centre and houses The Butterbox Theatre (which is rumoured around the theatrical community to be haunted... and believe me when I say, it is.  I've worked at the theatre and seen some strange stuff happen there I can't explain!).  This is a great place to visit even when it's not a grand event such as this; and it's free entry too. 
I can't wait until tomorrow to see the place and the whole festival.  I'll be also uploading photos of the event too for those of you who can't make it there for the day.  Until my next post, happy reading!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Creepy Books

There's books in life that creep just about anyone out; and I gotta say I own a quite a few of them (well, when you take into account that I'm a Stephen King fan, there's more than a few!).  But there's more than just the scare factor that can be named as creepy.  Sometimes, there's something about a book, where you just can't read it, to make you steer clear of it completely.
In my collection, I have quite a few books that can do that.  However, if you asked me which books I can lay my hands on can do it and why, I'd be able to show you about five or six for some of the right reasons and some interesting ones.  And that's what we're going to talk about today.

When I was young, Mum bought me a book call 'The European Tale Fram'It was a big book about a Polar Bear taken from the wild and pulled into captivity.  The illustrations are gorgeous, the way it's told is breath-taking and it's in hard cover too.  However, it the first thing I mentioned that really put me off - the illustrations.  I have tried to read this book a number of times and have found the eyes of the people in the book stare right into my soul... and it's not what a painting does normally in an art exhibition.  These eyes are creepily too real.  I have never liked it and to this day have never finished reading this book; but I haven't gotten rid of this book either as it's worth a bit of money now.

Another one I've got in my collection and won't sell or give away is 'Ghosts & Boggles'.  It's a very old-fashioned book about these two things and it's out of print.  Mum and Dad bought it for me to read when I was young and I loved it.  Its illustrations were creepy, but they didn't scare me the same way that 'Fram' did.  These illustrations are all in black and white and the stories were fantastic.  Mum covered it in the plastic that libraries used to use in schools to protect it; and it's still got the plastic on it today and is in the same condition it was in all those years ago when I received it.  It's a creepy book but I love it.

Then, you have the creep-you-out, make-you-leave-your-lights-on kinda horror that I've read in the past and still do read that I collect now.  I have a book on my shelf by Irish writer, John Connolly called 'Nocturnes'; and it's a signed copy.  I have yet to read it but it sits on my shelf waiting for me to pick it up and read it at the right time.
Along with John Connolly's book - actually the shelf above - I have a shelf full of Stephen King novels.  However, there's books there I have attempted to read and put them down because they got just too darn creepy!  There's 'Night Shift' and 'Just After Sunset'.  Both books are full of short stories or novellas and both books go from spooky to downright creep-you-out kind of creepy.  I get the feeling that when I read one of Stephen's books that he's sitting next to me whispering the story in my ear and I somehow can't get away from him... strange but true.  And this kind of creepy is the kind of thing that is difficult to turn into a movie all because the script-writers and directors miss the point; even if it is a creepy thing.

So, what creepy books do you have in your collection?  Are they ones you've read and been spooked by, or do you just collect them because they're there?  Until my next post, happy reading!        

Friday, April 12, 2013

Fifty-Two

Yep, Fifty-two... this is how many biographies and autobiographies I have now in my collection since I last wrote about how much I love them.  And yet, I don't read that many.  
It's a strange irony that I enjoy buying books on and about people and bands and yet, I don't read them.  I think it's a curiosity of having them in my bookcase to show I'm interested in them that keeps me buying books about them; that keeps me interested.  
However, I'm sure that even though I don't open the covers of the books, one day, I'll find the time to sit down and read a few of these books... I don't know when, but I will.  I have read a couple of them, though.  However it's not enough seeing that the collection of this particular section seems to keep on growing on me, and I'm quickly running out room on the shelf.  
Anyway, what books have you collected and yet to read?  And do you have plans to read them at some point - like I do?  Until my next post, happy reading!  

Monday, April 8, 2013

Reading and Writing

As much as I love to read, I also love to write; it's like oxygen to me.  However, there are times where my passion for the written word wanes in one part of my life whereas it flourishes in another.  Over the last week or so, that's what has happened to me.

I've been reading a lot lately.  There's been 'The Wastelands' by Stephen King, 'The Invisible Man' by H.G Wells and 'Nosebleed' by Ged Maybury.  However, only one of those books was finished by me, another got posted away on its merry way to the next person the bookray list unfinished (as I barely got up to chapter 2 in it and put it down); and I got to read over 30 pages in Stephen King's book while I was away at Brighton.  But I feel as though I didn't get anywhere as I'm only barely halfway through it.

Now, I'm back at home, I've gotten back into my writing and painting again.  But my writing is fresher as I have been away from it for a while.  And while I write, I don't read - which is a bummer - but instead, I work on my writing, to keep my brain into it.  
I'm currently working on my Fry Nelson:  Bounty Hunter book... and I'm up to the final fourth book of this series.  It's been a great couple of years writing this book.  I'll upload it onto his blog right up until the last chapter, then I will close the blog and make it into a real book for everyone to read properly.  This will take time; time is what I have.  

So, what projects are you currently working on that don't have anything to do with reading but everything to do with books?  Until my next post, happy reading!   

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

A Flash In The Pan!

I love to read short stories; as anyone does.  But I also love to read flash fiction.  This is a story which is 1,000 words or less.  It takes you to the very epicenter of the story quickly, throws you into the action, the characters without too much adieu and then, the next thing you know.... it's finished, leaving you all mixed up and wanting more!

Yep, that's flash fiction.  I've been reading it and writing it for a little while now; and love it.  It's great for my editing and style.  And I've been doing challenges on the Terrible Minds blog too, and it's been fun!  And when I've done it, I've linked it back to Chuck's comments log and had other people go to my main strange-writing blog (yeah, I have a blog where all my vampire and weird writing goes) and they can have a read.  Very cool!  Not only does my blog there get a lot of hits, but people get to know what I can write, what I can't write and find out how far my imagination can stretch (gotta thank Chuck on this one as I've begun to get right into writing better).  

I've gotten to the point where I'm looking for books that have flash fiction in them; and today, I found a book with 5 flash fictions in it for free off iTunes.  Do you like flash fictions?  The ones I found on iTunes is horror, however there's different types, which ones are you into?  Until my next post, happy reading!