Happy New Year, 2016. Farewell, 2015

Happy New Year everybody! All of you, to the people who have been in the New Year for a day, for those just entering the New Year and those of you who are watching it approach on the clock.

Last year... last year in all I think was good. It was so long and so much happened that I struggle to believe it was just one year, yet at the same time I'm surprised at how fast it felt it went. Last year I hit a few of milestones. I turned 18. I survived 1 year at my job. I had my 5th year anniversary on Shelfari. I also, sometime between August and Christmas, passed the 5 year friendship mark with my best friend in the U.S.

Throughout 2015 I began studying acting, I finally stepped out to follow my dream of one day becoming an actor. I found an awesome class and had an amazing teacher who taught me so much and helped me discover the confidence I needed to step out of my shell and begin chasing that dream. I had the extreme pleasure to be an extra in a few short films, and met some amazing people who also helped me so much by giving me advice and encouragement. One of my new year resolutions is to be in more films and improve my acting, work up from just being an extra with non-speaking roles to being in a main part.

As well as starting acting last year I began studying. I started a BA in professional writing and publishing, studies to help me improve in my writing and hopefully help me succeed in becoming a known published author. I have a few years ahead of me yet, already I have learned much from the course and it has caused me to question many things and reflect on a lot of things I probably would never have thought of. All of it, of course, helping me improve my writing. I have mixed thoughts on the course, but I am actually looking forward to finishing it and learning new things.

But while both acting and writing are two things I adore being able to do, the absolute highlight of 2015 happened between the 3rd and 28th of December. Through a year of work I began saving, saving for many things: being able to study, saving with the intent to buy a car, but most importantly saving to visit America. Back in 2010 I met a girl online and I never thought anything would come of it. I live in Australia and she lived in the States. It was completely random how we met, it was on a book site and she detests reading, the site had thousands of people on it yet somehow we ended up in the same superhero fan group. 5 years later she is my best friend. On the 12th of December I got to meet her in person for the first time and it was a feeling that is impossible to put into words.

For 2016 I have many plans. I have a book to finish this year and edit up, I've got a full year of coursework ahead, I want to act in more films, and I want to work on some private resolutions. Like the year before and the years before that, I have no idea what 2016 holds, but I am hoping that it will be an improvement from all the years before. Not because the years before were bad, but hoping for the new year ahead to be worse than the others is just odd. I also hope that the year ahead of you is fantastic.

The Scarecrow

One of my assignments for the unit I'm currently doing for my BA is to write a remediation of a text and post it online. So here is my remediation of the song The Scarecrow by Avantasia.

The man woke in the dust. A pale blue, hazy sky greeted his eyes. A burning sun just beyond his peripheral vision made his eyes water. Already he could feel the skin on the back of his neck burning. Hmm, skin. That is interesting, the man thought as he pulled himself to his feet. He looked at the desert surrounding him and his heart ached for the beauty that could have been. It could have been sprawling green fields, rivers and waterfalls, cattle could have grazed on the land and survived, fit and healthy. But it was nothing.

The man moved, his thin, skeletal legs barely supporting his weight. A body, he thought, his mind filling with ideas and thoughts as he examined his hands and arms. He could feel the sun and the dirt beneath his feet. He was hot, his body burned, but it was nothing compared to the burning as his body fell from heaven.

Slowly the man made his way from the desert and entered marsh and swampland. His body struggled to push through tangled vines and peat mud. The cacophonous sounds the jungle insects did nothing to dispel the voice in his head demanding answers to questions he tried so hard to think about. He tried not to think about her, but he wanted to know what had happened to her. He wanted to know how he came to be down on earth, but he tried not to think of the answer he knew awaited him. But he knew there would come a time when he could run no more. There would always be time.

The jungle vines parted before him and he stopped in shock and fear. A bamboo chair took up space between two enormous trees and on it sat a tall, imposing figure in black. The man stepped back in fear, finding himself suddenly trapped as the trees and vines behind him moved to block his way.

‘Who are you?’ the man in the chair asked, straightening up and peering at the lost man.

‘Scarecrow,’ the man replied.

‘Yes,’ replied the man in the chair. ‘And you are very lost. Welcome to my domain, Scarecrow. I wondered how long it would take for you to find your way to me.’

‘Who are you?’

‘Hah! You have fallen from the sky, just as I once fell from the sky. You didn’t believe the rules applied to you, just as I don’t believe they applied to me. Yet you ask me who I am?’ the man did not seem angry, more amused than anything else and Scarecrow found himself trying to take another step backwards. There was something mystifying about the man, the way his face seemed to change from young to old without really changing, and the way his eyes seemed to hold the whole future of the world in them. Scarecrow looked deeply, and found he did not like what he saw.

‘I am, Mephistopheles,’ the man on the chair said at last, rising and moving towards Scarecrow. ‘I am the one to push the pained, I am here to take the fallen away and treat their fears by forcing them to confront them. I am here to penetrate your soul and drag it through this unholy ground until there is nothing left of you that was once holy.’

Scarecrow shivered, but he found himself immersed in what the man had just told him. He felt as if he should be trying to run, but the man’s voice was so sweet and peaceful that he did not know why he should be trying to run.

‘I don’t want to be here,’ Scarecrow managed to say, breaking from the trace the man’s voice had him under. His head left groggy, but the questions still pounded. He remembered her.

Mephistopheles outreached hand snapped back from the inch it had been from Scarecrows head. His face contorted in a glare and he snarled. ‘I can see your thoughts, you think they are pure.’ He spat. ‘Wake up to this world! If what you had was meant to be you would be with her now and not with me!’

Scarecrow stared, his pulse racing as he stared at the suddenly huge and menacing creature before him. It was huge, snarling and vicious, black and winged.

‘No!’ he cried. ‘It was meant to be. There was a time!’ He moved away from the beast, forcing his body through the vines and then his feet were running and he was breaking free.

Trees blurred and swayed, vines swished and creaked around him as he ran for his life. Behind him, he could feel the beat of the giant wings as whatever the man was chased him from above. He broke free from the trees and his bare feet burned as they touched the burning desert.

A dark shade covered and then Mephistopheles had landed before him. The shade disappeared and Mephistopheles was a man again. He held his hands up, non-threateningly, calmly wishing Scarecrow to stop and listen to him.

‘I’m sorry, my friend, if I scared you,’ he purred. ‘It’s obvious that you don’t want to believe she gave you up and made it seem like it was somehow your fault. But your time has come. The winds have changed and blown you here. You believe it’s divine, well push all your stakes in with me and join me, together we will fly away and live peacefully.’

Scarecrow knew, somewhere deep inside, that the sweet words were dangerous. It sounded like he had offered him help, comfort and pity. But what he had heard wasn’t what the man had actually said. Scarecrow also knew that he did not have a choice and that the man would always follow him until he gave in. He knew this stranger was dangerous, but he also knew his time was long since up. He nodded.

Mephistopheles grinned. It was a short flight to hell, but, for Scarecrow, it would last eternity.

NaNoWriMo and Dastardious Hollow Approaches.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is just around the corner, and a very special detective is about to return to life in The Cold Road, a Dastardious Hollow prequel.

Blood bodies are showing up tied to road signs, their hands pointing in the direction of the signs. In the silent dawn there are whispers of unholy things that happen out in the fields late at night, secret ceremonies attended to by hooded men. The townsfolk are freaked, and as the weight of the  deaths threatens to crush the town a young girl is kidnapped. The only evidence left at the scene is a note "The Moon rises in 6, Death rises in 7 and the first blood will water the crops". To James Holland, a fresh up and coming detective, the note makes little sense, but as it is his first case he knows he has one week to find the girl before the moon rises or risk having a black mark across his name.

I am very excited for this year's NaNoWriMo and can't wait to begin writing Hollow's prequel. It's going to be a very busy month as I will still be studying the two units I am taking as well as working. I am not sure how much of the novel I will actually be able to write, but the life of James Holland aka Dastardious Hollow will come to light.