Book Review: Vampire Diaries - The Awakening & The Struggle

I recently finished reading the first novel of Vampire Diaries - The Awakening & The Struggle (Books 1 and 2). I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I love the TV Series, and watched the first two seasons before reading this book. I got quite a surprise, the characters do not exactly match those in the series, sometimes it's just hair colour and history, and small differences in names, like Tyler Lockwood in the series, is known as Tyler Smallwood in this novel. But there are also large personality differences, and major plot differences, certain characters are killed and others turned into vampires that certainly hasn't happened in the series.

So in summary, if you are not too worried about differences between plots, characters and mythology between the series and the books, and you aren't looking for something to mirror the TV series you know and love, then happily read this book. Otherwise, I'd just stick to the series.

Writing Exercise - Describe a pen

I found a writing exercise I wanted to have a go at, asking me to 'Describe a pen!' Such an ordinary object, I think everyone knows what a pen looks like! So I've tried to give it a life of it's own, so that you can see it and imagine it with a personality! A fun little challenge that makes you think of the details! :)

"The cold metal pen felt alien in her hand. Even the raised 'MICRON' logo stuck out sharply, embedding itself in her hand. Almost as if trying to brand her."

Ghosts Of Time - Pages 2 & 3

Anya races down the corridor with superhuman efficiency, the stunned and staggering personnel in their blue uniforms, some dead some dying, don’t even slow her down as she weaves and leaps past them. She is a blur of deep red pvc and paper white hair streaming behind her, her artificial red pupil eyes fixed dead ahead in concentration of achieving her mission. Sparks fly and bodies strewn across her path don’t even slow her down.

Suddenly sliding to a halt in front of an access panel, Anya pulls a sidearm from her jacket and shoots electric bolts at one edge of the panel, burning a small hole through the locking mechanism. Smiling, she swings her right foot and kicks the panel in with one smooth movement. Replacing the firearm in it’s holster, she dives headfirst in.

Landing in a crouching position, Anya looks up to see she is in a smaller, more hexagonal corridor. Used more for maintenance than as a general access way. Though it would have to do for now. As she straightens up, she can hear an explosion behind her, and the screams of her comrades as laser fire fills the main corridor she just left, and the smell of burning flesh begins to seep into the access corridor she now stands in. Wrinkling her nose, she strides forward with renewed determination, putting as much distance between her and her enemy as she can. Reaching the end of the short corridor, she leaps up at a metal access ladder, grabs hold, and hauls herself up in double time.

Emerging from a hatchway in the floor, Anya finds herself in a small low ceiling compartment with various consoles and cables scattered around the edges. She closes and seals the hatchway beneath her. And rushes over to the console. Grabbing hold of what looks like a fancy dark green-grey metal cuff bracelet, Anya slips it on. She then starts punching keys on the console, and the viewscreen above starts lighting up with alien sigils. They had once seemed new and exciting to the human people, they had thought the aliens had come in peace, to share their technology with us. We should have learnt from our own past what happens when we discover new civilisations, at first we show them new and shiny things, then we want their land, and are willing to imprison and slaughter the so-called savage occupants of that land to get it. Only we aren’t the advanced civilisation arriving on new uncharted territory. This time we are the ‘savages’ fighting to keep our whole planet.

A bump from under the hatchway catches Anya’s attention away from the console. Startled, she looks at the hatch with wide eyes. “More time,” she mutters, “I just need a little more time.” With a shrug, she realises she’s in a time machine, time is the one thing she should have plenty of. Hammering away at the console’s keys, small windows flash up on the bright blue-lit viewscreen, only to disappear as more windows constantly flash up. Then one window lights up with a few short sigils and three dots after it. “Where to… ?” she breathes. Staring at the screen for a few brief seconds, Anya hears a heavy thud directly underneath the hatchway, making her shoulders physically jerk as her heart skips a beat. They’re close. She hits for keys in quick succession, hovers another second, then hit’s the bigger key on the right. Hovering paused a moment, Anya hears the reassuring sound of a whirring engine start up, and the whole compartment begins to vibrate. She smiles, she’s made it.

BOOM! The burst hatchway flies up into the compartment, hitting the low ceiling, and comes crashing down again, narrowly missing her nose as she ducks instinctively backwards. A deep throaty groan, and the ugly green skinned muscle-bound brute rears it’s heavy body through the hatchway. As it struggles, Anya draws her firearm, takes aim, and shoots an electric beam right in it’s eye, straight through what she thinks is it’s brain. The beast falls straight back down through the hatchway.

The compartment lurches and spins, so much so that Anya struggles to maintain her balance, knees half bent with her arms unsteadily held out, firearm still in hand. With a final lurch, and a blinding white glow all around her, Anya feels a wave of dizziness and nausea washing over her. She teeters, then her knees give way, she falls to the floor, unconscious before her head hit’s the metal grid floor.

Ghosts Of Time - Chapter One

Tumbling to the ground, Anya rolls onto her back and stares at the shuddering ceiling. The neon strip-light above flickers then sparks as it breaks loose at one end, dangling dangerously above her. Briefly flinching, Anya draws her arms and knees up to defend herself, sure her titanium bones will be able to protect her from any falling debris - so long as she protects her fleshy stomach. Why didn't they make bones to protect your abdomen? She's lost count of the amount of times some sharp instrument has pierced her gut.

A sudden hissing sound distracts her as she glances down the metal lined corridor to see the General stagger out of the lift shaft into the still-shaking corridor. He leans heavily on one arm propped against the wall. A portly man in a light blue military uniform, with plenty of honours emblazoned across his left breast pocket. In one lithe move, Anya flips her feet down to the ground, using the momentum to pull the rest of her body upright, and immediately salutes her superior officer.

"Enough of that," grunts the General, "I have a mission for you cyber-soldier."

Any snaps her saluting arm back to her side in fast military style. She nods in acknowledgment of his orders.

"The damned aliens have found us. You need to get the time machine and stop them." the General briefed her. "Go back in time, find where they have been before. They know our every move before we do. You might need a hacker." He paused, then added as an afterthought, "Don't use anybody alive. They might be a doppelganger alien. Only trust the dead, snatch them before they die, but cover it up. No one must suspect."

"Yes, Sir!" Anya answered obediently, as another shudder almost knocked them off their feet.

"And cyber-soldier?"

"Yes, Sir?" Anya replied.

"You're on your own. You screw this up, the whole damn world is doomed." the General warned. And as Anya eyes seemed to search his, he added, "Don't screw up!"

"I won't." Anya answered quietly.

For all her cybernetic enhancements, Anya was still human. A genetically grown and enhanced human, but she still had a living human brain alongside that cybernetic implant in her skull, she still knew fear, and pain, and hope. And she wasn't about to give up.

"Now go!" commanded the General.

Anya nodded, then turned and hurried away.

Watching Anya turn and hurry away, the General sighed, pulled out a small firearm, and pointed it to his own skull. "Godspeed you cyber-soldier, and don't let us down. We're all counting on you." he said grimly, then pulled the trigger. A short electronic sound, his body tensed, then collapsed like a heavy sack of potatoes and thudded to the ground, never to move again.

Drabble Day "Abandon"

I haven't attempted the Aheila's Drabble Day Challenge for a while, this week's challenge is "Abandon" - and it inspired me to write this. I hope you like it!

"As I inch forward on my belly, on the gravel-strewn ground of this godforsaken land, I close my eyes and let my mind wander to what I’d be doing back home at this time on a Saturday night. Dreaming of that mouthwatering smell of freshly fried chips, heavy with fat, curling tenderly over beautiful haddock, steam gently rising from them, as I happily hand over a crisp five pound note, eagerly anticipating the salty taste awaiting me.

The sudden metallic click beneath me brings me sharply back to the present. Eyes snapping open, inky blackness surrounding me and the gritty sand between my teeth, I glance down. A landmine freshly triggered beneath me. So far from home, I feel abandoned and lost."

I Want To Be A Skilled and Great Writer!

Lately I've been organising my somewhat chaotic bookshelves, and seeing what novels I want to read. I used to read a lot of novels when I was younger (in High School), and when I spent over an hour each way travelling to and from work. It was either that or fall asleep on the bus! But since then, I haven't read much of anything. I've joined the site Goodreads.com, you can find me as Sketching Girl here. I set myself a challenge to read 12 novels this year, and so far I've managed two, including a graphic novel.

I started reading one and found I didn't like it, the style of writing I didn't care for, the lack of description and not being able to picture what was happening put me off. I have read amazing books like A.C. Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy, and Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. They have amazing descriptions I can picture vividly, and main characters I can believe in, and thoroughly love learning more about.

But reading a book I really don't care for, and I believe has inferior writing quality, has really shown me what I don't want my writing to be. I don't want to get a book published only to be ashamed of it. I would hate for that to happen. So although in the future I want to be a successful and published author, I want to earn that right properly. I want to write and practice my craft until I consider it really good. I want to be proud of what I submit to publishers/agents. Please don't let me produce rubbish! Thank you to the poor author (who I shall not name) for giving me the spurt of inspiration to write more and to hone my skills. I don't just want to be a published writer, I want to be a GREAT AND SKILLED WRITER!

Researching A Novel...

I am currently researching my novel, (hence my apologies for not posting as much on here). The novel I am planning and putting together at the moment has a working title of: "Ghosts Of Time" - it's a science-fiction fantasy story about various people from different eras of time brought together to save the world from a hidden threat travelling through time. As there is a lot of travelling to different eras in time, and my characters all coming from different eras in time, I am finding this novel needs the most research. I am currently researching the Victorian era, an era I love also as I love dolls house miniatures, I find myself more familiar than I would normally be with the fixtures and fittings in a Victorian home.

Funnily enough, the more research I do, the more questions I seem to find I want answers to. Although I am finding out more about my characters, and there personal backgrounds, I also wonder what else I can do with them, and what other skills I can give them. I know the Victorians were very interested in the Occult and did seances and things, and I wonder if I can make my Victorian Lady character a witch? I know that prior to the Victorian period witches were hunted and burned at the stake, but that Queen Victoria got rid of the laws on witchcraft, so that they were no longer hunted and burned at the stake. Does this mean that witches were more accepted and more open? Or did they still feel the need to be in hiding? How open were Victorians about witchcraft, and did they consider seances to be a part of witchcraft, or just an interest in the occult and the afterlife?

Research does fascinate me and you can learn more to add to your stories, and more questions always seem to arise out of more research. For me, research is exciting and fun. I love discovering new things and picturing my world and my characters more clearly, and finding exciting new things I can add and adapt to my story!

But how much Research should you do? And at what point should you stop researching and concentrate on your story? I can easily get lost in research and planning and never start writing my story! Still, I'm having fun at the moment! Off to research some more now...