The Testament of Caspar Schultz

This book by Jack Higgins is part of the Paul Chavasse series which I absolutely love but cannot find the books in it. That might be partially because they were originally published under the name Martin Fallon (I think, don't quote me on that). That's odd. I've just had a look on the Fantastic Fiction site to see if I can verify that, and they don't have any record of Jack Higgins ever having written The Testament of Caspar Schultz or any of the Paul Chavasse series. Hmm... I shall have to investigate. Ooh, it says it's the first book. It also says it was written as Martin Fallon, a psudenym of Harry Patterson. Now I'm really confused. Especially because the book cover it shows says Jack Higgins on it. Ok, so Harry Patterson and Jack Higgins are both the same person. All the book covers I can see on the right show Jack Higgins as the author. But they aren't on Jack Higgins' page on the site. I think it's a bit screwed up. That's odd. Really odd. Anyway...
It's a fantastic book. It's the tale of the quest for a book to be published by an ex-Nazi by a British spy. There's a pretty girl who gets involved (an Isreli who wants to get hold of the book) and her step-brother, and there's plenty of excitment. Apparently it's the first book in the series, but I'm no longer quite sure I trust Fantastic Fiction after what I've just found out. Hmm. Anyway, it's well worth reading if you like action. If not, well, you might still enjoy it, because it's very well written and there're plenty of twists in the plot, but it is a thriller. I'd really recomend it. Haven't yet read a Jack Higgins (or maybe I should say Harry Patterson!) book which I don't like.

RAF Harrier Ground Attack Falklands

Yes, I actually read some non-fiction. And very interesting it was too, even though I know absolutely nothing about the Falklands War. Or I didn't until now. It's basically the autobiography of Squadron Leader Jerry Pook, spreading the (as far as I can tell) pretty much untold story of the ground attack sorties flown pretty much exclusively by the RAF pilots who were sent in as attrition replacements. He tells of how the navy was incompetant, the Harrier equipment dodgy, and gives plenty of detail about just what went on. I really enjoyed it actually. It was a lot longer than it first looked because the print was pretty tiny. So if you've any interest in history or aeroplanes or anything like that, it's a very good book to read. If not, you might still find it fairly interesting. I should probably start assessing the reliability and all that of the book now as source material, but I don't think it matters. It's an eyewitness account. Maybe it has a little bias, maybe it says very little about anything bar the ground attack sorties, but I read it out of interest, not after using it as a source. Anyway, it's well worth reading.

The Romanov Prophecy

Set a short distance in the future, this book is about what happens when the Russians decide they want their Tsar back. So begins a discussion over which person has the closest relation to Tsar Nicholas II. Several contenders appear, and Miles Lord has been ordered to check for any weaknesses in the candidate a group of powerful men decided to support. He discovers a suggestion that the two youngest children may have survived. Guided by an ancient prophecy from Rasputin and a secretive group that has been around since the fall of the Romanovs, Lord is launched into a quest to find a direct descendent of Nicholas II. However, the men who have their puppet Tsar ready and willing to step into position are not so happy about this, and try to stop him. It was quite an interesting idea. However, it wasn't that well written I have to admit, and it would've been much more interesting if the reader wasn't told pretty much straight away that Lord's boss was working for the group trying to bring in a puppet Tsar. I've not spoilt anything by telling you that--you find out pretty much as soon as the group is first shown to exist. So, it's not a terrible book, but it's certainly not the best thing I've ever read either. If you've an interest in Russian history at all, or conspiracy theories about the survival of Anastasia, you'll probably find it fairly good. If not, you might not want to bother reading it.

Whoo! I am now an official winner!

So, here are all the badges etc... Haven't yet decided which one to use. Maybe you can help if I can work out how to use that new voting thing...

Whoooo!!!!

Hello. I finished my story this morning. Just over the 50000 mark, though the nanowrimo word count checker seems to eat some of the words that OpenOffice gives me. Humph about that. But never mind, the official count is still enough. I finished One For Sorrow (before version). Which means I need a new name for the original One For Sorrow, but I don't yet know where in the series it's going to come. So I guess I could just call it after version or something temporarily. Anyway. My story involved lots of explosions and fighting and so forth, was pretty good fun to write, and didn't go anywhere near as random as last yaer, despite the fact taht I started with no clear plan at all, and the fact that plenty of unexpected characters or characters with unexpected twists (such as Jon being in a wheelchair, and the appearance of a love interest in Lady Irin...). I enjoyed it. Needs a little editing, but not so bad as last year's needed it. Shall now try and finish The Desert Rat, which needs renaming, perhaps to The Snake of the Desert because the title hasn't shown up how I expected it too. Anyway. Maybe I'll call it something completely different. Still. Just thought I'd tell you that. And I'm not dead, despite the fact my lack of posts seems to suggest otherwise...

Brisingr

Have just realised I never reveiwed this. It stole me from writing last Friday. Started reading it in the car on the way to Aunty Gladys' funeral. Should've posted about that too. Ooops. Anyway, I borrowed it off a friend, and I couldn't put it down. Finished it at ten past midnight that night. It was AMAZING! The only thing that really annoys me is that you still don't find out who the new rider is. But the revaltation about Brom was incredible. I was just stunned. Wow. Won't tell you, as it happens near the end of the book and I don't want to spoil anything for you. Eragon learns where the emporer gets his power from too, and that's pretty impressive, a very clever idea indeed. Didn't see it coming. But again, you find out near the end, so you'll have to read it yourself. Don't read it before the other two though. It'll spoil them. And it won't make as much sense. I have to admit I thought the whole thing rescuing Katrina could've been made more of, but then it would've detracted from the rest of the story.
Gotta go. Worth reading for sure. Very good book.

I'm Alive!

And loads of stuff has happened recently. I've just been writing waaaay too much to post. :D Sorry. So. My nano story is on 34147 words, which is *fishes out calculater thing on computer* 9147 words above where I should be. Yay! It's going well. Random events, but going well. And I can hardly claim it isn't going to plan when I had no plan to start with. Lady Irin showed up and Ash fell in love with her. She was a bit of an unexpected character to say the least. Ash ran into a room when the building was under attack by a load of Birdie terrorists (it followed naturally from the one scene, a broken lift, that I had planned. Actually, I had kind of planned that attack. Just not Ash meeting Lady Irin and managing to fall in love with the head of the police, and not the whole blowing up police headquarters that followed that). She's a great character though. Very interesting. As is writing the romantic bit, which I'm really enjoying. Have settled on the piece I'm using for my English coursework. I would post it up, only that might be a bit of a cutting your own throat type thing since they search the web to check you've not nabbed it from anyone, and as this doesn't have my real name, that could prove interesting. I also had an unexpected abused small child show up, called June. She's Ash's ex-girlfriend's daughter, and she betrayed him to the cops, and pretty much straight after that had the girl, who definitely isn't Ash's child. He was pretty miffed about that, as you can imagine. I'm amazed he didn't just kill her when he found out to be honest. Um... What else?

Mum's started back playing her oboe at church, which is great, it makes me feel like she's actually better now. I have to admit I've missed hearing it, even if it is a pretty noisy instrument (almost as bad as James' tenor horn, but it usually sounds nicer). She's going back to work in January all being well.

College is great fun and I still love it. History is hard work though. As is English Lit. Sociology and maths just aren't though. Although we're starting Decision next week, oh heck I have maths homework, I forgot all about that, and apparently that's quite different. It's all been algebra so far, which I love. (Weird, I know, but I can't help it.)

I'm listening to WOW Hits 2009 as I post this, which is basically a complation of 30 songs by Christian artists. It's really good, I'm enjoying it. I hope it'll fit on my iPod. Should do. I only have 2 GB, and I doubt there'll be a whole lot of room left now. Maybe I should start saving up for a new one. Especially if I ever get round to writing a reveiw for Crossrhythms and joining their reveiw team, getting 'paid' in CDs. Which could fill up what remains of iPod space pretty quick.

3 Hours and 15 Minutes!!!!!

Yay, only three and a quarter hours to go until Nanowrimo starts!!! I can't promise to be very good at updating during November. Most of my spare time will probably go towards writing. Must fish out the notebook I used last year, as I used probably less than half of it and it has my Nanowrimo sticker on it. It says: 'be nice to me or I'll put you in my novel', or something along those lines. It's probably my favourite notebook... (Yes, I'm sad like that, I have favourites. I prefer squared paper to lined, and usually prefer lined to plain as it stops me writing too small, provided the lines aren't ridiculously large, tempting me to fit three/four lines to a printend line... I have no idea why I like lined paper, it's just nice to write on.)

Death's Door

So, it's by Quintin Jardine, and I think I'm right in saying that it's the most recent in the Bob Skinner series. It's certainly the furthest along the series that I've read. Oh no, sorry, it's not the most recent to be published. Aftershock came out in May and it follows it on. Well, it's very deep and serious, a crime novel with a lot of human content in their too. I couldn't believe what happened to Stevie! And Maggie too, that was just creepy, but especially because it struck so close to home, and plus it's pretty much exactly how I imagine Nutmeg dying in the end. It's very well written, but I would recomend starting at the start of the series, or at least as near to it as you can get--I admit that I haven't, and I think I've lost a lot by not doing so, but the libraries never seem to have all the books in a series, and certainly not the first few. Especially when, like with the Bob Skinner ones, they started a fair while ago, even if they are still continuing now. Anyway, do your best to read the others first, but even if you don't, it's still a cracking read. The crime aspect is very well done, has a realistic feel to it, but I think to me what makes it so good is the way the people are actually people, and you can completely relate to them. They aren't perfect, they have differing relationships with each other, and the difference between this and the James Patterson ones which I also quite like, is that they're much more discrete when the boyfriend/girlfriend thing gets serious. James Patterson has a tendency to go into waaaay too much detail on that and you lose out on the plot in that way. I'm not saying his books aren't good--I love them--but I am saying that they aren't perfect. I don't think any book ever can be. Anyway, you should certainly read the Bob Skinner books if you like a good bit of crime, and even if you don't there's a good chance you'll enjoy them.

Shaman's Crossing

It's another of those by Robin Hobb that seem determined to steal all your time until you finish them. It's the first book of the Soldier Son trilogy, and boy is it good! I really struggled to put it down, stayed up till past midnight to finish it. Like the others of hers, it is quite a long book, so don't start reading too late or you're liable to not go to bed. The world she's created is amazing, and the characters are as good as ever. I have to admit, I would like to see a link with the world of the other novels--the magic of the old gods would work well as being the Skill and the Wit and the Hedge magic she used in the Farseer and Tawney Man trilogies. However, I can see why she's done it in a totally different place--you can't keep reusing the same ideas forever, no matter how good they are, and I think I'm right in saying the Liveship traders books are set in the same world as those two, although I haven't been able to find them. Anyway, it follows the tale of Nevarre, and his experience with the old magic that tries to claim him as he tries to make his way in a training camp biased against sons of new nobles like him. It really is awesome, and I so want to read the next book. Just hope I don't find it during Nanowrimo, or I'll never get my story finished!

Aunty Gladys

Ok, so I've just had even more bad news, as if what I've had so far hasn't been enough. My Aunty Gladys (she's actually my great step grandmother, but it's a lot easier to call her Aunty Gladys) was taken into hospital yesterday and died this morning at about two. It hasn't really sunk in yet, I mean, she had just moved into an old people's home, because she couldn't look after herself at home any more, but she was still pretty with it and smiling and all that the last time I saw her. My mum's quite upset, because they were close since mum went up pretty much every other week for ages to do her shopping for her and help her around the house and so on. It seems quite sudden to me. Admittedly, she was fairly old, and not especially mobile any more, but still.

This is quite amusing...

I can't claim credit for it, my mum e-mailed it to me and I don't know who she got it from. However, it does put a good spin on the 'credit crunch' or whatever they're calling it now.

Uncertainty has now hit Japan.

In the last 7 days Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up
and Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches.

Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will
likely go for a song, while today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended
after they nose-dived.

While Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks, Ninja Bank
is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black.

Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report
that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared
that staff may get a raw deal.

Religious Freedom v Equal Rights

So, it seems to me these come into conflict a lot. The recent changes to make it legal for homosexual couples to 'marry' have annoyed a lot of Christians. (Other faiths too I'm sure, but as I don't really know much about that, I'll stick to my own beliefs, and I don't pretend to be representative of every single Christian). Now, I'm sure you can understand why, if you believe something is wrong, you wouldn't want to be involved in it. For example, if I say that I believe that having sex before marriage is wrong (and I do believe this), then I wouldn't want to be involved in giving contraceptive advice to teenagers. However, if I was a counsellor and suddenly my job description was changed so that I had to do so, I would naturally be a bit upset. I would ask to be excluded from such issues, and to concentrate on counselling people with other issues. Fair enough, I'm sure you'll agree, whether you think my belief that having sex before marriage is wrong or not. However, a few weeks ago, I became aware of a case where a Christian registrar, who asked not to perform Civil Partnerships as they went against her beliefs, was suspended and treated cruelly and accused of being homophobic. Today, I found out about another case, where a counsellor who refused to give advice on sexual problems to homosexual couples has been dismissed. He hadn't even refused to counsel them on relationship problems, but when it came to this, he felt he had to draw the line. And I might add, that I wouldn't feel comfortable giving advice on sexual problems to anyone, on the basis that I don't have experience in that side of things. Naturally, he wouldn't have experience in that area either. He spoke to his supervisors, who leaked details of the meeting to colleagues, damaging the relationships between them. Now, I don't think you can say that refusing to counsel same sex couples on having sex is discriminating against them, certainly not when you have religious reasons to do so. I could go on, but I won't. I think those examples are enough.
Anyway, what do you think? Should a person be forced to sacrifice their religious beliefs in order to make some pretence at equal rights? Is it not much better that those people are allowed to make a stand for what they believe is right, without being labelled homophobic? I might add, that they said nothing against the people involved. After all, God does not hate the sinner, but the sin. And if you view homosexual relationships as sinful (and I'm going to invite a lot of controversy by saying that I do think they're wrong and go against God's plan for the world), that does not mean you have to hate the people involved in it. On the contrary, Jesus called for us to love the unlovable, to care for those who would go against us, and in that vein, I don't believe it's fair to simply dismiss anyone on the grounds of their sexual orientation. I would protest against their practising it and encouraging others to do so, I would protest that we haven't yet seen the consequences for it, but I wouldn't out and out say 'you are evil for doing so'. They're not. This is a rather thorny issue, I'm sure you'll agree.
Just one little thought I'd like to leave you with. The guidelines laid out in the Bible are there for a reason. The reason behind no sex before marriage is because it should be something special, and if you look at what's happening now, with the increased spread of STDs, you can see that it does have detrimental effects upon people. The incredibly complicated guidelines laid out about what to do with mouldy things may not have made much sense then, but if you remember that they had no way of destroying mould, and that it would rapidly spread to contaminate everything, then it makes sense. So there you go. There's a good reason why the Bible condemns homosexuality, we just haven't stumbled onto it yet. Please respond, but please don't start slagging people off with generalisations. I'm not trying to offend anyone, I'm just stating my views. I am not homophobic (i.e. afraid of people who are homosexual, because that's what the word means, not that I disagree with it), I just don't think it's morally right.

Tomorrow...

So, I'm really not looking forward to tomorrow. My nana died last week, I haven't posted about it because I really didn't know what to say, and it's her funeral tomorrow. I still don't know how I feel about it. She'd had Parkinson's for a while, and the last time I went to see her, she didn't really know who I was. She went into hospital a few weeks ago, and she was refusing treatment and food. They said she didn't have long, maybe two, three days, and then the next day she died in the morning. She hadn't even really recognised my granddad, or my parents. So I guess in a way, she'd been gone for a while, but I still don't know how I feel about it. Anyway.

Nutmeg Angel

Well, I've worked out how to format it all. Kind of at any rate. It's a start, even if it isn't complete. I'm going to do this one, because what with it being my first, it has a special place in my heart. So I intend to go over it once more, and the it'll be up on Amazon. And I'll try to get the second one, Winged Fire, which can make perfect sense without the first one, and has a more exciting plot (in my opinion at any rate), published for real.