Notes from an Anglo-American Man

OK I’m going to start off by saying I’m totally in love with Name of the Wind, it’s the best book I’ve read this year(and you guys should know just how much I read.

But he’s more then just the guy who wrote Name of the Wind, he is in fact a totally awesome dude. (yes i know that sentence makes me sound like I’m some kind of surfer, that was not my intention)

I’ve been regularly reading his blog, and now I just found out about his facebook group, boy oh boy was I happy about that. Now I can not only feed my overwhelming facebook addiction but I also get to check up on the latest Pat news. It’s like being in “the circle”, you know the circle of “knowledge”.

I don’t think I’ve been this into an author in a while, if ever. I think I’ve got a severe case of fanboyitis.

The worst thing about it is this, after reading his writing, then looking at mine I realise just how much difference there is.

I seriously have to get myself better at writing, I will do it and someday (hopefully) I’ll have fanboys of my own!

So after 3 years and several months The Mountain King went off to the printers today, minus the final cover. I finally finished the edit on it and mocked up a cover using an early image that our talented cover artist provided for me.

In 10-15 days I’ll have one of the only Hardcover copies of the book that will ever be made (as its just not feasable to produce it in HC for everyone as i’d lose money on the deal!)

I’m both excted and not at the same time, if my brain didn’t feel like it had been squashed by a giant melon (not like a giant melon, by) then maybe i would be able to enjoy this moment more.

But as it is I’m ambivilant (is that the right word?) I suppose when I get the copy I’ll feel more excited.

I figured Id continue with my “on” series.

So I just spent the last 20 minutes reading the entire history of my MSN chat with one of my friends… its a bit sad but at the same time pretty fun remembering all the fun times

I think they area good thing, they help you remember several things

1) who they are if they change their screenname a lot (like I do)

2) what on earth you were talking about while semi-hyper/drunk/whatever (this is useful so you can apologize for acting weird…)

3) if worse comes to the worst and you lose your friend, you have a log of time spent together, think of it as photo’s but more strange

MSN is one of my main ways of communicating with the world I would have lost contact with multiple friends if it were not for it.

So all in all MSN chatlogs = fun fun fun

It annoys me to no end when movies have no endings, I don’t mean has a bad ending, or an unsatisfactory one. But just end, not resolving anything that’s been brought up in the movie, it just ends.

It’s so easy to just label the movie “arthouse” or “indy” like that makes a bad movie good. Now granted sometimes having no ending can work for a movie, but the examples of movies that do that well are few and far between.

Of course you have the oposite end of the scale with movies that just won’t end, that have everything resolved but just won’t die.

It’s hard as a filmmaker to get the right balance, each and every aspect of the movie has to be looked at and given full consideration. It is far too much for one person to do which is why you tend to find lone man films (where the film was written directed edited etc by the same person) have obvious flaws in them, its almost impossible for us to notice the flaws in what we create,

I’m so grateful for everyone who’s been involved in any project that I’ve worked on from the ones that went really really wrong, to the ones that went great and all the ones in between. It is a learning experience and one that I’ll continue until the day I die.

Ok so I had a bit of time on my hands, and didn’t really want to do any writing so… well here is the first chaptero f one of the novels I’m writing read by me. Please please feel free to comment on it, Its not perfect I did the whole thing in about 45 minutes and in a not soundproof environment. so anyway here it is

http://bengulick.com/black%20tower%20chapter%201%20v1.wma

enjoy

Oh and if you want more info on The Black Tower feel free to ask in the comments hint hint nudge nudge

EDIT

Ok sorry guys My MP3 codec has gone funny so I can only encode it into a WMA for you at the moment, If you downloaded the mp3 please download the wma. Sorry about this, also if anyone knows of a non LAME mp3 codec and where to get it I would be appreciative. Thanks

EDIT 2 LAME the name of the codec I was not as some of you thought calling the codec lame… that;s so 90’s :p

Well it’s summer, again, and this means one thing for me (aside from not getting a tan) and that is friends leaving for home.

Today one of my closest friends left town for good, it still hasn’t fully sunk in, you know that I’m not going to  be able to just pop round his house.

When I was in the US I had a good half a dozen or so friends that would just turn up at my house and hang out, there was never an invitation because the invitation was always open, that’s the way I am. But over here in the UK i’ve yet to ave that. I’m not sure if its a cultural thing or what, but I don’t think any of my friends get it that they can call me on the phone anytime and chat, or pop round my house etc etc.

I had that kind of relationship (in reverse) with my friend Iain I knew I was welcome to pop round his house anytime, and I spent at least one day a week hanging out there. I even had my own sofa bed there (long story)

But that’s gone now, and it’s strange. I’m not afraid of making new friends, or becoming better friends with already existing friends, but there is always a sadness when this happens. and to be honest this is the first time its not been me moving away.

Its nice to know that I’m settling here for a while, I know that I’m going to move around in the future again, but to have some roots is nice. But home is wherever your heart is, and my heart is with my friends.

I’m in a writing slump at the moment, I have several novels that I’m working on but I’m not sure what I want to do.

The one book I’m writing tinker, sailor, solider, spy is a great concept, but I’m going to have to change it around.

It was originally supposed to be a retelling of the adventurers that we were having in my friend Iains world. But I want more then that, I’m going to have to change what Ive written around a bit and then continue on in a new way, as I know it can be an amazing story, far better then anything I’ve written previously.

And then there is the black tower, its somethign I’ve been waiting years and years to write it but I want to do it justice…

Tis a bit of a bind.

One step into the unkown he takes

One jump into the future

With hope he looks into the past

To make the world much brighter

*just though I’d share that *

well guys it was inevitable that someday I would write a post about this guy, in fact expect more posts about him as I continue my reasearch into pre-patrician Ireland and the years directly after Patrick.

So heres a few fun facts about St Patrick.

1) he was roman nobility

2) he was captured and made slave by Irish raiders

3) he spent 7 years in slavery in ireland, he was a shepherd for much of that (i believe)

so after those 3 points I want you to think about this. THis noble man escaped slavery and then came back, not for revenge, and it would have been easy to want that, but to spread the word of God.

Think about it, if you were a slave for 7 years would you want your former master to have the life that Patrick (and I) believed that you can get through Christ?

I’d like to think that I would but I could very easily be kidding myself. Fortunatly for me I’m not likely to be taken a slave.

well i’ve started re-reading stranger in a strange land, Heinleins most controversial book. Its interesting. I don’t know what it is about the book that I enjoy so much, perhaps its reading something that is so opposed on many points and similar on some to my own beliefs.

I’ve never been one to just simply ignore a book because it doesn’t agree with me, whether it is fiction or non-fiction. My beliefs have been tempered by oposing thoughts and I would not have it any other way, if my beliefs cannot stand up against these things then they are not truly my beliefs.

I ask you right now, just how strong are your beliefs? would they stand up to someone criticizing them, perhaps sharing things with you that are opposed to it?