Dystopian Era Part 2

Back on to the Dystopian theme and it's Book's turn !!

These are my favorites :

Host - Stephanie Meyer - is my all time favorite book.

I am Legend- Richard Matheson , written the same year as The Lord Of The Rings, both great books.

Legend Series- Marie Lu

The 5th wave Series- Rick Yancey

Monument 14 Series, Emmy Laybourne

The Maze Runner - James Dashner

Divergent Series (did not like the ending arghh!)- Bad Veronica Roth :(

The Hunger Games Series- Suzanne Collins

Gregor the Overlander - Suzanne Collins - if you liked any of the above books - you will love Suzannes Gregor and the Overlander Series!! Boots cracks me up !

Please feel welcome to comment any books I haven't listed that are worth mentioning :)

One of my favourite songs at the moment is

Hooziers - Take me to Church

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYSVMgRr6pw

But everytime I listen to it I go "Eh, what did he say? he worships like a dog what?

So I finally took the time (while making frothy skinny caramel lattes with extra sugar for me and my husband on our lunchbreak of 2.5 minutes..) and looked up the lyrics. This will be on my song list for Golden, though I had long finished the book by then , so it is a bit cheating.

As I am sure I am not the only one who doesn't quite get what he says, here you go.

Take me to church * The Hooziers

My lover's got humour
She's the giggle at a funeral
Knows everybody's disapproval
I should've worshipped her sooner

If the heavens ever did speak
She's the last true mouthpiece
Every Sunday's getting more bleak
A fresh poison each week

"We were born sick" you heard them say it

My church offers no absolutes
She tells me "Worship in the bedroom"
The only heaven I'll be sent to
Is when I'm alone with you

I was born sick
But I love it
Command me to be well
Aaay. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[Chorus 2x:]
Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

If I'm a pagan of the good times
My lover's the sunlight
To keep the Goddess on my side
She demands a sacrifice

Drain the whole sea
Get something shiny
Something meaty for the main course
That's a fine-looking high horse
What you got in the stable?
We've a lot of starving faithful

That looks tasty
That looks plenty
This is hungry work

[Chorus 2x:]
Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife
Offer me my deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

No masters or kings
When the ritual begins
There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin

In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene
Only then I am human
Only then I am clean
Ooh oh. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[Chorus 2x:]
Take me to church
I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife
Offer me that deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life

This last few years, everything I come across has been Dystopian.

I'm going to segment this blog into "episodes" my fingers just fly over the keys and otherwise it will get to long.

It started slowly on tv 

(I'm not a big movie buff, so if you want to ad some films to watch out for in the comments, please do!)

The first show we noticed was "The Walking Dead" which does not need any introducing. 

From Rick to Carol the Characters are all individual and interesting. And there sure is some serious soul searching to be done with some of the situation the survivors find themselves in. Me and my husband have spent hours afterward discussing what would we do, how, where and what ? All the way done to deciding on a action plan should it happen. We are still fussy on the reason why they have not pointed out attics as a perfect hiding spot (except that you are locked in, but you could batter them to death from above with a plank of wood - o.k, killer for the arm muscles, but it's all about survival here).  You pull the ladders up and no un-dead can get in!

Michonne and Daryl have been my favorites from the start.Bow and arrow and swords. Yes!

Falling Skies : What a show! Not a renowned here in the Uk as THE WALKING DEAD, it centers around a worldwide Alien invasion/ complete takeover. There are pockets of survivors dotted about. The main group led by former ER Resident Noah Wyle.

My favorite is Captain Weaver followed closely by Ben Mason - Son turned part Alien. As you can tell, I am very fond of Falling Skies.

Revolution: Some (a bit strange theory) of nano bugs wipe out all power and electricity worldwide, the show then jumps to 1 or so years later and Americas states have fallen and we are back to cowboys and militias so it seems. The USA is devided into Republics and they are all at war against each other. All the while this little group of very clever people are trying to get the power turned back on. At times this series wobbles along the lines of LOST, it starts getting a bit on the "What the.....just happened" and "I don't get it" side.So you have to pay attention while watching otherwise you can't keep up.

Defiance: We are proper in to the world of Sci-Fi here, where the earth has been Terra-formed by invading Aliens. Its not so much about survival in this one and rather more about how the aliens interact with the humans.

And last but not least  "The 100".

This one has a bit of everything! 

We start of in a giant satellite orbiting earth, where the survivors of a worldwide nuclear war have been waiting for almost 100 years to be able to go back down to the planet. (Earth had been made inhabitable from the nuclear fallout.) Now there is a good 2000 odd people living on this satellite and resources are running out. To in force their rules they have developed a "one punishment only" system. Where every rule broken results in you being "floated" out into space. The only exception is for under 16's who get held in a sort of makeshift prison. As the satellite starts failing, the leaders decide to kick the 100 kids out by putting them in a rescue pod and sending them to the surface - not knowing if it is survivable or not. It is! But the kids are not alone, unlike believed, not everybody died during the nuclear apocalypse - the under 16's are not alone!

It's good, I like it.

All of the above have given us all here loads of topics to be avidly discussed and enjoyed,and 2 of them are of course based on BOOKS!! 

The 100 is based on a book by Kass Morgan and The walking dead is based on a comic series by the same name by Robert Kirkman

Please ad to the comments below which are your favorites or if there are any to ad ::

Will do books next time -

I went to the mirror and looked into

a pair of brightly glowing eyes.

A strangers eyes.

My eyes.

Image credit of google image commons

Am I better than everyone else?

We all have lives outside of the WorldWideWeb where we converse with strangers -

( Hello my dear strangers, how are you this morning? ) and I would like to introduce you all a little to mine.

Some for work, some to gather information, some for fun.

This morning some random person had a go at me (online) because they had "liked" my Facebook page and I had not "liked" theirs back. I replied with a little sad face and did not give it a second thought. I have better things to do then to start up an argument with somebody I do not know, will never meet and for all I know could be a 12 year old girl called 'Ruby', and not 'Steven whats not' who choose a picture of a snake as his profile. 

In the physical world I am not a very patient person when it comes to who I tolerate around me.

Indeed you read that right: "tolerate".

I am not full of myself but to be honest, I would lie if I did not at times think myself better then other people - not ALL people, and I know a lot of people who are better then me.

But take the woman who decided to go shopping in her pyjamas (I have also been guilty of that..). 

I watch her standing in front of the frozen ready meal section screaming filthy swear words at her 2 year old who is sat crying in the trolley in front of her. 

And all because he dropped his dummy! - HELL YA I am better then that! 

The slackers that live of welfare, for no other reason as that they can and have never worked a honest day in their lives - got you beat on that one guys! 

The list goes on.

Whats with you people? "I know I am not better then anyone else" - you do? Haven't got a very high opinion of yourself have you? Might want to work on that.

There are sooo many "not good" people out there, to even think about it gives me heart palpitations!! So lets not dwell.

Back to my friends - the list is short and feel honored if you are on it, as I have no time!  I do not have time to brush my hair in the morning - let alone text, tweet, facebook, phone X , Y and Z to ask how their morning is going. 

Meet up for coffee with P ? Do I really care how her husband screwed up yet again? Nope!

So I cut them out of my life - saves time and energy. Either they are really close friends - or in my world I don't see them.

My other half is different, he gets on with everyone and knows everyone. Knows who is married to whom, who just had a baby, who ran of with the milkman - he could even tell you which car they drive. I just don't have the space for all that info in my head, so I rely on him to fill me in when I meet "new" people ("no Kathryn, that's so and so's mum, you met last summer, remember???". Nope! sorry:(

And I don't mean it in a mean way at all, it's not that I go out of my way to ignore everyone around me, quite the opposite. I spend so much time paying attention to my family and friends I love, that I have none left for passers by.

Especially if they are idiots.

I do not tolerate stupidity.

If however you have managed it onto my friends list, I am the best friend ever. I will literally do anything for my friends and family, all they have to do is ask!

They are all very good, they do not ask often as they know I have no time:( 

In fact they generally do more for me then I do for them.....

But they all know I am there if they need me.

                                            Sneak preview of Golden's prologue (unedited)

Reading, writing and music

Now this is a subject I am passionate about - writing while listening to music.

How can you concentrate with that racket! My mother used to shout at me when I was doing my homework - easy better then without. Music gets me in a better mind set to get something done.

Our house comes alive with music everyday. We have our breakfast with the radio in the background, I crank up the tunes when I do the house work. The most unpleasant task - the louder the tunes need to be!

From a early age I discovered that listening to music in the background made the books better. Till this date, if I hear a certain song, it will bring alive the characters and story line of the novel I was reading at the time. Growing up it was mostly my parents music, and I am sure I get my love of music from them, as my childhood was filled with it!  It is funny which songs remind me of my Stephan King and Wolfgang Hohlbein favourites , I have everything mixed in there from Queen to Meatloaf and quite a few oddballs nobody else will have ever heard of! I daubt any of you have ever heard of Wolfgang Hohlbein for that matter. 

You see, I grew up in Germany and consequently went to school there, so I speak fluent German. Wolfgang Hohlbein was my author back then He literally has written hundreds of fantasy books (alas all in German), is very famous for them and they are all fab. Harry Potter meets Gregor the Overlander (thank you Huger Games Author Suzanne Collins - I devoured those books!!). So to all my German friends out there - give him a go and awaken your inner adventurer - but be noted, his books are not just for kids, some get very very dark.

Back to my writing adventure and music. I always had a list of songs playing in the background while writing, and they set the scene for my story in my mind, so I will share my song list with you, in the hope that you compile one for yourselves to listen to as you read Golden.

So keep an Eye open for random songs cropping up inbetween the lines of this blog, like breadcrumbs !

Wolgang Hohlebein : http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Hohlbein

I take it back, he has had one or two translated in to English. Maerchenmond is my all time favourite of his and it has been translated to English as Magic Moon. Not a very good translation, as the actual Book is called Fairtale Moon, there is little magic in the book, its all fairy tale. Its is very very simelar to "once upon a time" tv show, but it's a good 20 years old now I would have thought.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wolfgang-Hohlbein/109403352412981?fref=ts

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Moon-1-v/dp/159816452X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1428753659&sr=8-2&keywords=wolfgang+hohlbein