Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time. H. P. Lovecraft Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/hplovecr278136.html
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As I think I've said many times before, I love Urban Fantasy. So much so that I've actually started writing some (set in Birmingham) - I won't say more but fingers are crossed that something cool will come out of it. In that spirit, I thought I'd look for some songs to serve as inspiration. Depeche Mode: World in My Eyes Enticing us to step into the dark, to see the world differently, this song seems to sum up what all fiction is all about, but because we are an urban species now, this feels like a call to see past the hoardings and shop fronts to look at the cities we live in with fresh eyes and see the magic hiding there. Step off the path you know, wander into the dark a bit and see what's lurking out there. Die Laughing: Safe Little World As a complete counterbalance to that idea of stepping into the dark, this song serves as a warning in some ways, suggesting that going too far might not do you the world of good. Clinging to some sort of normalit...
There are such beings as vampires, some of us have evidence that they exist. Even had we not the proof of our own unhappy experience, the teachings and the records of the past give proof enough for sane peoples. Bram Stoker Read more at: http: //www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/bramstoker359617.html
FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, has become a pretty big feature of the lives we live today, one that seems to dominate a lot of Culture when it comes to things that are perceived as easy to consume, films, TV, perhaps music (I don't think I've seen it extended to books yet, but I imagine that it will when the next Harry Potter novel is published). As a committed Cultural Contrarian, as explained by Oliver Burkeman in the Guardian , which is a position I've sort of stumbled onto over the years probably starting with an over enthusiastic friend telling me I'd love Rocky Horror back at university, I tend to look at these things with either bemusement or irritation. Partly that's because I quite dislike being told what I should like, especially by strangers on the internet, and partly because the more people go on about how I must like a thing, the more I resent it and dig my heels in (stubborn me, never!) I imagine that Mr Burkeman and I aren't the only ones out the...
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex I love this show and the track from the start and it's so strong and innovative, mixing Russian, Japanese and English lyrics. It's from the second season, and I may be odd in preferring it to the first season's. Fullmetal Alchemist A lovely piece of J-Rock, this has a beat is great and makes me want to dance. Read or Die This sounds like a Bond theme, and I think it's great. It really feels appropriate to the genre, and as if it could actually be attached to a big film. Serial Experiments Lain Beautifully melodic and well written, this song captures the isolation Lain feels as she learns the truth about herself. XXXHolic Reminding me of INXS in many ways, this is a great track.
Starting with the latest part of fiction, this chapter deals with character generation and we finally encounter the door and the sense that things are lurking beyond it. Moving on we start the chapter with a quote from one of my favourite films, Dark City, which is a nice touch. After that, we get into character creation, which happily starts with the reaffirming that Mages are human, not from the planet Zog. Starting with concept and Aspirations, things that you want to achieve in play for your character (not things that your character will want, necessarily, but that the player wants their character to experience). After this, we move onto the Attributes and Abilities, which are all pretty much as I remember them. I'm still glad that Appearance vanished with the Classic World of Darkness, not because I dislike it as a concept but because I don't think character's looks should matter that much (and I always feel it was only ever included because VtM's Nosferatu had...
Paul Cornell's third Shadow Police novel is, frankly, a corker. Set soon after the Severed Streets , it gives us a team shattered by the events of that novel, trying valiantly to pick up the pieces and to solve the new case they are faced with. A seemingly impossible case, who did kill Sherlock Holmes, and how can a fictional character be killed in the first place? With Quill confronting the terrible knowledge he learned in the last book, Ross deprived of a human emotion, and Costain suffering an immense amount of guilt over his role in betraying her over her father, only Sefton is anywhere in a good place - and his role as the team's resident weirdness specialist makes him the most likely to suffer if anything odd comes up. The fact that the book begins with him suffering a nightmare about the death of Sherlock Holmes serves as an illustration of this. As a series of impossible crimes, drawn from the Sherlock Holmes stories rock the city. Despite the nature of the crimes, and ...