Karl goes Kindle

After a bit of a delay I can finally announce that the first volume of the Karl trilogy has gone live on the Kindle. Other formats may follow in the later part of the year, at the moment the e-book version is exclusive to Kindle.

A provisional schedule is set for the other parts of the trilogy,  and will be announced here soon.

The uncertain future of 100 Publishing has meant a little re-think in the plan. However in the meantime paper based copies of the original are still available through the links on the right, direct from me via the 100 Publishing website, or through Amazon Market Place. 

Signed copies are also still available from 10th Planet Events - link is also on the right.




Link for Amazon.co.uk
Link for Amazon.com
Link for Amazon.es
Link for Amazon.de

Link for Amazon Marketplace for UK Print Edition

Oh and BTW... You don't need to own a Kindle to read Kindle books.
You can download a free app to your laptop/pc,  iphone/ipad etc. from Amazon
And, as if that's not enough Amazon Prime customers can rent a number of titles for free,
Karl - Birth of Mystery included.

Theatre Roundup March

Only three visits this month, and what diversity...

Early on in the month saw two quite crazy productions come my way.

Dorothy in OZ

by James Michael Shoberg

Immersion  Theatre  at Waterloo East

26th February to 17th March 2013

Coming with a warning that it was not suitable for children should give you some idea what might be on the cards. Set in the facility for mental illness, ‘The Ozlin Centre’  this play made no excuses for itself. A brilliant parody of the Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy having to escape from the centre via the Great Administrator Oz, having been put in the care of the wicked witch of a doctor by her Auntie Em. On route she meets up with Tin Man who has anger management issues, Skarekrow (with two Ks) the junkie and Lion Man with sex addiction and performance problems. Very funny, the only issue was the Tin Man was styled too heavily on Adrian Edmondson's Vyvyan from “The Young Ones”.

Mile High – The Musical.

A new musical by Mike Hume and Terry Newman. 

The Lost Theatre

5th March to 24th March 2013

Two rival airlines in a battle to win the coveted title of Mediterranean Small Airline of the Year. One a cheap budget airline (Icarus Royal Airline ) and the other a snobby business class over priced airline who usually win. A pair of Kylie’s hot pants bought on Ebay is bet against a date with the steward of the high class operation (Fantasy Airlines). The main story revolves around the Richenda, the hostess who has never known her father and would rather be a pilot.

The audience had great fun and everyone seemed to really enjoy the show with enthusiasm and the only fault I’d pick out is that the cast should have been miked up rather than rely on a couple of free microphones.

The review for Mile High in The Stage was very harsh and I have to disagree with them entirely, it was a good evening’s entertainment. However I’m in total agreement with their review of the big West End Production of Viva Forever.

Viva Forever

London’s Piccadilly Theatre

Current.

A New Musical based on the back catalogue of songs from The Spice Girls.

Now I’m not the biggest Spice Girls fan, but the songs I do know are great party numbers and so I was prepared to give this a try although this has now firmed up my misgivings for shows that take a catalogue of songs and try to shoehorn a plot around them. It generally does not seem to work, there are just a few exceptions.

The plot was weak, a parody of X-Factor called Star Maker would have been funny ten years ago, but these shows have become a parody of themselves – you only have to watch the Twitter feed on a Saturday night to see that. 

And speaking of which, to encourage the audience to Tweet throughout the show is in my opinion a great big NO NO!!!

It was a pity, the script was written by Jenifer Saunders and I hoped for much better, but the characters were a poor man’s left over from “Absolutely  Fabulous”. Mum was too much Edina, mum’s best friend was a poor Patsy and even one of the judges had an assistant that was Bubbles. No originality there then.

The best parts of the show were when the full cast and ensemble took to the stage and performed the well known numbers, they sang and danced like troupers and full marks have to be given to them, but for the rest it just did not work.

Little Shacks 3

Not a lot to say about these at the moment just thought you’d like to see some progress on them, albeit a slight one. At least working on the roofs separate from the buildings does make clamping them a little easier.

Currently working on the sides of the roofs and starting the beams as a top layer on the main buildings.

Little Shacks 2

I promised a quick update on the latest models, not much has happened recently with these. I have now covered both with the base layer of sticks to give the basic layer planking effect. The second layer will add the cross beams and edging. 

A few deliveries this week have provided some cardboard which I’ve cut into the first pair of roofs.  These will be covered with sticks once they have dried properly. Because I’m making the roofs separate I’ll probably make a couple of variations to the roofs so that they can be changed about to get multiple use out of the models. 

These are going to be a small collection of rough and ready shacks that can be used on the outskirts of the larger ghost town or even as ... 

(Sorry can’t say as I might give a future plot away.)

First post in this series

Theatre Roundup February

It proved to be a better month for theatre selections, although there were quite a few more this time.  A couple of the performances I’ll have to come clean up front and say they are not really being reviewed because I have friends who are or have been involved in their productions, and I wouldn't want to be accused of favoritism. Also apologies for the late posting of this blog, hence I've called it a round up rather than a review.

4^th February 2013 

Anjin: The Shogun and the English Samurai

Sadler’s wells.

Directed by the Royal Shakespeare Company's Artistic Director Designate, Gregory Doran.

The story of William Adams, known in Japanese as Anjin, was an English sailor who was believed to be the first Englishman to ever reach Japan. The play was advertised as “An epic tale of friendship, honour, love and sacrifice.” It was certainly epic. Presented in a mix of English and Japanese with alternating subtitles for which ever language was being spoken meant that you actually spent a lot more time looking either up above the stage or off to the wings to read the subtitles rather than watching the performances. This did become quite tiring on the eyes after a time. However, the overall presentation was good and the international cast blended well to tell the story.

The show ran between 31 Jan - 9 Feb 2013

6^th February 2013 

Circles

The Lost Theatre.

A new short performance from physical theatre group Limb2Limb.

Alex and his sister Kate have that typical relationship, friends one minute and fighting the next. However, as the story progresses all is not what it seems in this slick and quirky short play.

This is theatre group I hope to see more from in the future.

8^th February 2013 

Romeo & Juliet

Upstairs at The Gatehouse

A modernised to some degree version of the play by Mr Shakespeare. Set in the 1960s and in Brighton, following the great bank holiday fight between the Mods and the Rockers.  For me, if you want to try resetting a play like this then either do it right or don’t bother. The dialogue followed mostly the original but with some changes, but not the obvious ones, money was left as written and so were location names even though the set was clearly under the pier at Brighton. The set was obviously designed before the theatre was seen as I’m sure the pier was supposed to be for the balcony scene, but as it was hitting the roof and with no way for the actors to reach it – it felt clumsy.  I can’t say I’m a great fan of theatre seating where the audience sits on 3 full sides of the stage, you lose so much and in this small space I felt the audience were very much in danger of having the cast land in their laps or having their feet following the same fate as some of the characters.

14^th February 2013 

Glasgow Girls

Theatre Royal, Stratford East

From 8th February 2013 to 2nd March 2013

A moving and dramatic musical telling the true story of a group of teenagers in 2005 from Drumchapel High School in Glasgow who fought against the deportation of a Kosovan school friend. With good support from their teacher Mr Girvan (Callum Cuthbertson)and histerical neighbour Noreen (Myra McFadyen), this show delivered laughter and tears.

19^th February 2013  (Preview night)

Coalition

Pleasance Theatre

From 21st February to 10th March

The first I’m ducking out of reviewing as along with Phill Jupitus as Sir Francis Whitford the cast also boasts an old friend Mr John Dorney, he of the Big Finish acting and writing fame.  (See shameless promo spot below)

The play did well last year at the Edinburgh Fringe so transferred for a London run. Although styled on the Yes Prime Minister  productions the play was carried by the manic performances of the cast giving the laughs rather than the plot.

20^th February 2013 

Chess

Union Theatre

The second I’m going to duck out of, for amongst the creative credits is Mr Andrew Ashenden, Fight Director. (I’ll include a shameless plug for his books below)

Not one of my favourite musicals to be honest and staged in the three sides I mentioned above. However the fight really got the audience’s attention at the start and as I sat there with Andrew watching it we had to take pleasure in the intake of breath from the people sitting around us.  My main problem, even though it was a small venue and full sold out for the whole run, if the performer turned away no matter how well they belted the songs out the words became muffled.

22^nd February 2013 

Dear Edwina

The Lost Theatre

From 20th February 2013 to 23rd February 2013

Edwina Spoonapple, advice giver extraordinaire solves people’s problems to music. But Edwina has her sights set on appearing in the 'The Kalamazoo Advice-A-Palooza Festival', but will she and her team make it? Two different casts performed over different matinees and nights for this youth theatre production from Act Now Entertainment. I’m not sure which cast we saw, but there was some very promising up and coming talent on show.

28^th February 2013 

Tomorrow I’ll Be Happy by Jonathan Harvey

The Lost Theatre                                                                 

From 28^th February 2013 to 2^nd March 2013

Another youth theatre production from Lost Theatre.

When a stranger comes to town asking about Darren, the boy that was recently stabbed to death, we find out all is not quite what it seems. The play starts at the end and works backwards which is ok but does require a level of commitment that did not quite come over from all the cast. With the audience being presented with the effect before the cause everything has to be crystal clear and some cast were too busy delivering ‘attitude’ and as a result were at times unfortunately quite incomprehensible.

 Next post will be an update to the coffee stick house models. Promise !

Oh and I nearly forgot ..
SHAMELESS PLUG SPOT

John Dorney's latest Big Finish audio adventure

Andrew Ashenden's Stage Combat books

Book Review January / February 2013

I decided to tackle some of the classics of the horror genre these last couple of months. 

I'm sure we all think we know these stories but unless you actually read the original, then all you know is an adaptation which in many cases contain just a fraction of what the original author imagined.

Wordsworth Editions - Classics

Frankenstein

By Mary Shelley

ISBN: 9781853260230

We're all familiar with the square headed, lumbering and mono-symbolic monster of the Hollywood films, but the creature originally created by Mary Shelly bears no resemblance to this image. At times he is very articulate and despite being the perpetrator of several murders the reader has to accept a degree of sympathy for him, and the real villain of the piece is the monster's creator Dr Frankenstein. The story is not so much a horror story, having been polished and tweaked by Mary Shelly since its initial concept that wet week spent in Geneva, but is a love story and travel journal of the scientist who gave life to his created cadaver.

Wordsworth Editions - 

Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural

The Phantom of the Opera

By Gaston Leroux

ISBN: 9781840220735

if this was published today no doubt it would find itself on the 'Dark Romance' shelf, for the mysterious phantom is besotted with the opera singer Christine Daaé. When he finds that he cannot have her by fair means then foul will have to do. Again this is another story that has had many variations turned into stage and film, but how many actually capture the true feeling of the original? Presented as a report of an investigation to add further weight to the mysterious detective story.

 

Wordsworth Editions - 

Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural

Dracula and Dracula’s Guest & Other Stories
by Bram Stoker

ISBN: 978-1-84022-627-0

This is a double volume, Dracula and then a short story collection Dracula’s Guest & Other Stories. For the moment I've just read Dracula, the other volume in this book will come later in the year. This is another one those stories you think you know because of the many films and uses of the character, but it's one that I'm ashamed to say I had not got round to reading. For those of you who haven't read it either I suggest you grab a copy or download to your ekindy-pad-dodar-wotsit of choice.

Presented as collection of documents written by several of the main characters of the book, the collected works tell of Mr Harker's initial visit to Count Dracula as he arranges to come and live in England. Obviously not a good advertisement for immigration. The Count arrives and brings with him his dark cloud of vampirism, and soon sets about spreading himself across London. There are points in the book, maybe because we're more familiar with the old vamps these days that you want to take the characters and shake them but remind yourself this is one that set the bar in the first place.

And finally for something a little more modern.

Titan Books

Supernatural: Rite of Passage 
by John Passarella

ISBN: 978-1-78116-111-1

The boys are back! It seems like an age since I last read a book based on the TV series Supernatural. It was great to get into an old banger alongside Sam & Dean with Bobby in toe for an adventure set during series 7.

An Oni is in town, here to cause disaster and death to the local population by manipulating bad luck and disasters waiting to happen so that where ever he goes a trail of devastation follows. But this isn't his first visit, and he's back for a reason...

With Sam having moments of madness and chatting to his old bunk buddy Lucifer, Dean has a lot more to keep his eyes on. The book captures the mood of series 7 well, and provides a nice stop gap between episodes to help any withdrawal symptoms.

For more info on these books:

http://www.wordsworth-editions.com

http://www.titanbooks.com

Little Shacks

I’ve managed to find a few minutes this week to actually glue some sticks to some foam board. Miracles happen in small doses once in a while. I’ve covered one side of each of the small shack buildings I started earlier in the year.  The aim with these is to keep them simple, rough and ready. They will be the outskirts of town buildings, and I’m going to build them in pairs one slightly smaller than the other, this is to aid storage, as I’ll sit one inside the other in their boxes.

The roof sections will also be made separately so that they can be stored easier and maybe if I plan it right, they may also be interchangeable to some degree just for a bit of variety.

Next post in this series