INKY SQUIGGLES

I recently read an article about "imposter syndrome" and recognized myself within it. Imposter syndrome is basically the feeling of being inadequate, in spite of evidence of high achievement; it leaves people afraid that they will be "found out" and exposed as frauds in their field. I've felt this way...

'Without even thinking about it, I used to be able to fly. Now I'm trying to look inside myself and find out how I did it.'  - Kiki, Kiki's Delivery Service After my fellow blogger Lynette shared a climactic passage from one of her first stories, in the interest of fairness, I dug around in my own under-the-bed reserves of shame (the writer's equivalent of the dirty magazine collection, if you will). I present to you an extract from one of my earliest longer story attempts, The Lightbearers :

I have just reread one of my first works of fiction , grandly entitled: "The Jealous Rival: In Death Not Divided". Featuring beautiful maidens, awful love poetry, and grisly deaths, it is a masterpiece of my 10-year-old imagination. Here's a gem of a scene: "Bertram and Geraldine were immensely happy and started to make plans for a grand wedding. But then, alas, shadows began to darken over their paths. Cordelia was secretly in love with Bertram de Vere herself, and when Geraldine told her about the engagement, she was simply furious...One evening, Cordelia, thinking they were alone, pushed Geraldine off a bridge with a wild mocking, 'Ha ha ha! You will never marry Bertram now!' But Bertram saw it all and at once he plunged into the dangerous current, exclaiming, 'I will save thee, my peerless Geraldine! Have no fear!' But alas, he had forgotten that he couldn't swim, and they were both drowned, clasped in each other's arms." Well,...

Three stories up. Unforgiving concrete below. My heart was hammering in my throat as I swung my leg over the balustrade of the balcony, and I froze, suddenly and acutely aware that dying was a possibility if I messed this up. But I had to get out of the house. Everything I wanted was out of the house. I simply couldn’t stay in the house any longer. Climbing from my balcony to my next door neighbour’s balcony was the only way out, since there was a party in the street below and many guests had parked their motorbikes and were sitting at tables right outside my front door. I didn’t know how long the party was going to continue. Eyeing the celebrations below me, I wondered how traumatic it might be for the guests if a phalang (foreigner) suddenly crashed their party—literally.

When a friend recently challenged me to list ten books that have influenced my life in some way, I was presented with two problems. The first was the painful process of whittling my favourites down to just ten. I hummed and hawed over the issue for several days and had to suppress some serious feelings of guilt at 'betraying' some of my other favourites before reaching any kind of resolution. The second was the frustrating feeling that Facebook (where the challenge was circulating) wasn't an adequate platform for conveying just how much I loved these books. After all, as Jorge Luis Borges wrote, 'I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met... all the cities that I have visited.' To redress that wrong, therefore, here are my picks in the order that I discovered them, alongside some of my favourite book covers and quotes for each. 1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien Collins edition (2002)

Strata by Terry Pratchett My rating:   ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ THE COMPANY BUILDS PLANETS. Kin Arad is a high-ranking official of the Company. After twenty-one decades of living, and with the help of memory surgery, she is at the top of her profession. Discovering two of her employees have placed a fossilized plesiosaur in the wrong stratum, not to mention the fact it is holding a placard which reads, 'End Nuclear Testing Now', doesn't dismay the woman who built a mountain range in the shape of her initials during her own high-spirited youth. But then came discovery of something which did intrigue Kin Arad. A flat earth was something new... An intriguing early work, connected as it is to the grand vision of Mr Pratchett. Strata also happens to be one of Pratchett's few forays into science fiction. Nevertheless, fans of the Discworld series will notice foreshadowings of Pratchett's later work and sparks of the humour and a preoccupation with the existentialist philosophy t...

This is a gorgeous game with a cast of fun and well-voiced characters (if not somewhat typical for the genre) and stunning music to match; I had high hopes for this title. However, the exasperating ' your princess is in another castle ' gameplay pattern that emerges after the first chapter is a serious let-down. I felt slightly hoodwinked into playing on in the conviction that [ they couldn't possibly make me do everything again, *again*, right ]?! ( highlight to view spoiler ) Granted, many of the repeat tasks are optional, but after a certain point the game offers little that's new in terms of gameplay, plot  –  or even dialogue. Extra quests and activities should enrich the gaming experience, not drain the life out of it. Unless you get a kick out of recycled mega bosses and grind-fests, in which case this could be the game for you. You are rewarded with some intriguing character revelations, but it all gets a bit lost in the sheer repetition of it all. You mi...