Year: 2016

Demons, Dresden, and… Sea Legs? (Reading Wrap-Up March ’16)

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

The first book I read this month is one that I got for Christmas, but forgot to mention in my December book haul: Demons of the Hellmouth – a Buffy the Vampire Slayer companion book. Now, I love this book for many reasons – not least of which is the fact that I’m a massive fan of the show.
With its hardback cover and good quality binding, it’s a nice novelty item, written from the perspective of Rupert Giles and including amusing annotations from the rest of the main gang. But there were also bits that irritated my inner pedant, that left me wanting to annotate the thing myself.
At many points, Giles gives details about events that he wasn’t there for, and couldn’t possibly know about, including goings on in an alternative universe. That’s bad enough, but sometimes he even goes further, including direct quotes for some reason. Even if there was a small chance that someone somehow could have passed him details about goings on he missed, I highly doubt they’d tell him what people said, word for word.
These things probably wouldn’t bother most readers but, for me, it kind of broke the spell and detracted from the experience. I gave it three stars.

Carrying on the vague Buffy-related theme, I’m still working through audiobooks including voice work by James Marsters (the actor who played Spike on the show). As such, I listened to She Stoops to Conquer and Hound of the Baskervilles, and am now onto the Dresden Files audiobook series, finishing books one and two (Storm Front and Fool Moon by Jim Butcher) – Loved all of them!

Finally this month, I read Sea Legs and Other Stories, a poetry book by Candice J O’Reilly, leaving my Goodreads reading challenge at fourteen books off my forty-five book target for the year (thirty-one percent complete, three books ahead of schedule).

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27 Life Milestones

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

Having just turned twenty-seven a couple of days ago, I thought it might be nice to mark the occasion by listing twenty-seven things I’ve done or achieved, so far. The list is (mostly) in chronological order, starting with the earliest things first. One thing I learnt about myself from compiling this list, is that I tend to do the same things multiple times.

birthday cupcakes

  1. Appeared as a main character in a school play (got an award for it, too)
  2. Moved out of my parent’s house
  3. Went to university (hence the above)
  4. Lived in a different country (again, see above)
  5. Got a pet (okay, several pets)
  6. Gave blood
  7. Got a tattoo (I have three, so far)
  8. Became a Sunday School teacher (briefly)
  9. Travelled outside the UK
  10. Volunteered for charity (1000 voluntary hours and counting)
  11. Went on holiday on my own (countless times)
  12. Moved out of my parent’s house and lived in a different country (a second time)
  13. Published a book
  14. Published a second book
  15. Completed a ‘Photo-A-Day’ project
  16. Had a normal job
  17. Had a breakdown
  18. Jacked in the normal job and started my own business
  19. Published a third book
  20. Went to a music festival (one of those holidays I had on my own)
  21. Saw my favorite band live (at said music festival)
  22. Became an aunty
  23. Fell in love
  24. Got engaged
  25. Published a fourth bo- you get the idea. It’s a lot of books.
  26. Moved out of my parent’s house (again!)
  27. Became a god-mother 🙂

Women Aloud Lists

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

Women Aloud LogoInternational Women’s Day may be over for this year, but that doesn’t mean we should stop promoting awesome ladies until March 8th 2017 rolls around.

Women Aloud NI have been continuing their work of supporting and encouraging writers in Northern Ireland wonderfully, mostly by keeping their social media feeds hopping with all kinds of great news and links – if you don’t already follow them on Facebook and Twitter, you really should!

I’m pleased to announce that the movement now has a YouTube Channel, run by yours truly. But that’s not all!

Let’s Talk about Spike

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

William PrattMy favorite character of all time from anything ever is Spike, from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

As a reader, and a writer, and as a person, I find his character so rich, and layered, and engaging that I can’t help be sucked in (pun not intended).

Yes, he’s a vampire from Victorian times, but he comes across realistically, and that’s impressive. That’s why I want to talk about him. It’s why I love him.

So, what’s the sitch on this Spike guy? First thing you should know is that he’s a killer. There’s no sugar coating it, and no escaping it. He’s also a lover, a warrior, a poet, and a punk.

Throughout his long existence, he’s been human, a soulless vampire, a soulless vampire with a chip, a souled vampire, and a souled vampire-ghost-hybrid. He’s been brilliant, and he’s been idiotic. Clever and ridiculous. Merciless, protective, and loyal to a fault.

Despite the fact that he’s hyper sexual and masculine, he’s never shy about his feelings, and never apologetic about his tears.

I once posed the question to my Facebook friends, about whether Spike is a misogynist or not, and the conclusion is that yes, he is, and no he’s not. He loves women. He loves strong women. And he’s also used and discarded various women at various times.

His moral compass often completely lost in a sea of desires, he’s been both selfish and selfless.

He questions himself, his actions, and his motives, but never tries to justify the many wrong moves he makes. He tries to be better – going completely against his demonic nature – and he succeeds.

Most of the fan fiction I write is either about Spike or from Spike’s perspective and, as divisive as he is, I often find myself torn over the little details concerning him. Sometimes, in my stories, he has calluses on his hands from all the fighting he does, whereas sometimes I depict his hands as smooth, and soft – exemplifying the huge, intrinsic part of him that is a lover. William the Bloody

He can be both gentle and firm, I know this without doubt, but what would his handwriting be like? Like everything else, I can imagine it two ways – as an immaculate, almost calligraphic, cursive script he no doubt learnt in his days as an upper class London gentleman; and as a grungy scrawl portraying his adopted working class persona.

I’m sure he can and does use both, depending on the occasion, but that’s not to imply that he’s anything less than genuine. More than anything else, he’s just himself. Crazy and compelling as that is.

To quote one Tumblr user on the topic: “I love how Spike is both super cool and also a HUGE FUCKING LOSER!!” Or to put it into the words a different user used to caption the two photos included in this post: “…if that isn’t an awesome character development I don’t know what that is.”

The Run-Up to Reading

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

Before I take part in an event – big or small – my nerves are on edge. I feel sick, and flighty, and weepy.

…so, that’s me, pretty much now-ish. My reading at Women Aloud NI is happening TOMORROW!

Situation clearly dire, I just had to run out for a stack of emergency chocolate (don’t eat your feelings, kids!). And I made myself so flustered that I almost said thank you to the cashier, completely forgetting that I’d just used a self-serve till :-/

Now, seeing as it took me six attempts and three Google searches to spell the word dire correctly, I’m gonna go eat said chocolate and have a little cry to myself.

How are you this evening?

Experiments in Mixed Media

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

Today, I’m feeling inspired.

I love photography, and poetry, and art; and what I want to create is a pamphlet that not only includes all three, but mixes together all three, right there on the same page.

In the same space.

I want it to be art in and of itself. A collaboration of words and ideas, but not focusing on the words, too much.

Can someone tell me: Do such things already exist? Is there a name for what I’m after? Please, let me know.

A Book for Black History Month (Reading Wrap-Up Feb. ’16)

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

The Lonely Londoners BookFebruary being Black History Month (in the US), I decided to read a book that had been on my shelf for quite a while: The Lonely Londoners, by Sam Selvon – a novel set in the 1950’s about West Indians in the English capital. Because it’s always good to educate yourself about other cultures and perspectives.

Also, I finished reading Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, finished listening to the audiobook of The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer, listed to an audiobook performance of Macbeth, and re-read a novel length fanfic, leaving myself ready to start its sequel.

Those last two (Macbeth and the fanfic) don’t count towards my Goodreads goal, seeing as I’d read them before, so my stats stand at eight books read off my forty-five book goal for the year, meaning I’m currently one book ahead of target.

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Event News: Women Aloud 2016

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

International Women’s Day 2016 is fast approaching (faster than I realized, in fact), so it’s time for me to tell you all about the project I’m involved with, in celebration of it.

Women Aloud EasonsOn March 8th, as part of Women Aloud NI, I’ll be reading at an event at Easons bookstore in Belfast along with a great selection of other writers of all kinds (pictured above).

There are more events than just the one I’m at – including ones linked with Women Aloud, but happening outside NI – so, have a look at the full list to see what’s happening nearest you.

If you want to come along and hear me read, specifically, here’s more details of the event I’ll be at:

Location –  Easons, 20 Donegall Place, Belfast, BT1 3BA
Time – Full event runs from 12 noon until 2pm. I’m reading at 12.40 on Platform 2.
Price – Free! Booking not required.

View the event on Facebook here

10 Ways to Deal with Being Doxed!

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

Dealing with DoxingIf you find out you’ve been doxed (had your private information acquired and shared online), you have my genuine sympathies. I’m not suggesting you follow all of the steps below (beyond numbers six, seven, and nine), this is just how I reacted…

  1. Be Shocked
  2. Be Scared
  3. Panic a Bit
  4. Wonder if You’re Over-Reacting
  5. Go Through a Few More Cycles of Shock and Fear
  6. Take Screenshots of the Harassment (as evidence, in case the person deletes and denies it)
  7. Find out How People Got Your Details, and Just What Information is Actually Online About You (HINT: It’s probably a lot)
  8. Despair at Humanity
  9. Block and Report the Trolls
  10. Write an Angry Blog Post

There are a few ways I could start this blog post – this is not the blog post I had planned to be writing; I was actually feeling really productive and had planned to get shit done when someone ruined my night; I’ve recently been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and I don’t need any of this stress right now – but all of that boils down to this: last night, some guy I have never met, decided it was appropriate to share part of my address on Twitter because I’m taking part in an event and his partner isn’t.

Yup. For real.

I’ve considered naming and shaming, but have ultimately decided not to give any more details about the situation – at least not right now – beyond saying the person did it to more than just myself, and that he’s been reported to Twitter for it.

Tomorrow, I will be promoting the event as I had originally planned, in a separate post not connected to this negative crap. I don’t want to risk bringing a really positive movement down any further. I just really needed to vent.

This is so far from okay, but I will not be scared into silence. Not over something so stupid.

Having that anxiety disorder I mentioned, and after watching my friend go through a much worse case of doxing just before Christmas, I’d been worried something like this might happen to me, and I recently bought extra security for this site – insuring that my personal details aren’t on who.is, as a result.

The take-away message is that people can still get your details easily enough. I recommend doing some searches to see what’s floating around online about you (start with Google, but also look at pipl.com), and adjusting your privacy settings accordingly.

Hel and Rebelle (Flash Fic)

Posted on by Ellie Rose McKee

Hel and RebelleI recently signed up to be a writing mentor for children and young people as part of an organization called Fighting Words Belfast and, in training for this voluntary role, a group of us went through the writing exercise that we would normally set the kids, to get a first-hand idea of what it’s like.

The gist of it is this: people suggest ideas for a main character, a secondary character (the best friend of the MC), a desire for the MC, and the MC’s main fear. These ideas then get voted on, and a story begins to be built around whatever combination of details that were picked.

My idea of a story about a pink-haired warrior princess with a helicopter for a best friend wasn’t picked, but I decided to write a little story about her anyway – mostly because my partner, who’s also a volunteer, was a little dubious about it…

Behold:

Rebelle was the last in a long line of warrior princesses, hailing from a tiny island, just off the coast of Estonia.
Insurgent groups had just overthrown her parents, and now she was fleeing for her life.
Her best horse was galloping at top speed towards her other best means of a getaway – her best friend, in a lot of ways – a helicopter, affectionately nicknamed Hel.
If grown men could love cars and spaceships, referring to them with female names, Rebelle saw no reason why she couldn’t do the same.
Hel was like a miniature, one-pilot version of a black hawk – completely Rebelle’s own design. A black sparrow, she called her. One of a kind.
But none of that would matter if Rebelle couldn’t make it to the waiting copter in time. She’d voice-activated it, via her wrap-around headset, and the blades were already whirring around – Rebelle could hear them even over the sound of Jasper, her horse, panting, and over the roar of the mob. Many of them were mounted on quad bikes, and Tracktor-Xes. If she didn’t keep up her pace, they’d soon steal her sliver of a lead.
Hel couldn’t come any closer to Rebelle by herself, obstructed by the forest as she was, but the engine was warmed up and ready to go.
Closing the final distance, Rebelle stayed on Jasper until the very last second, at which she had to jump from the horse directly through Hel’s open door. Her high ponytail got sliced off by a chopper blade in the action, leaving Rebelle’s pink hair to fall down over her eyes in a fringe.
With no time to mourn for it, she slammed into her seat and rose into the air even as her seatbelt came around her waist.
Jasper continued running, off towards the horizon, and she missed him already; knowing that she likely wouldn’t see him again, and hoping that he wouldn’t be caught, or trapped.
Rising higher and higher, the mob was now only a series of dots to Hel and Rebelle.
The princess flipped them the bird as she took off towards the freedom of another land.