Author: admin (Page 26 of 51)

Anti-trafficking is a cause that’s very close to my heart. I gave half the rights to Innocent Hearts to a local charity that helps with the aftercare of trafficking victims as well as providing support for any child who’s gone through trauma. So you can imagine my excitment at finding out there was a hollywood film, with one of my favourite actors in, all about trafficking.

The premise is that Liam Neeson’s daughter is going to europe on holiday and while she’s there she gets taken by some traffickers. Just as she’s taken she manages to phone her father. He then goes after the people who’ve abducted her, killing msot of them along the way.

Now don’t get me wrong, in terms of action films this is a pretty good movie and it’s also really really awesome that there’s a major hollywood film that has trafficking in it, which for the most part was accurately portrayed.

My biggest problem with this film was him leaving lots of girls behind and not helping them all. It was gut wrenching to watch as he killed trafficker after trafficker but left all the girls locked in their rooms/chained to beds, except for one who has his daughter’s jacket. The annoying thing is I totally understand why he did this. He had to get to his daughter incredibly quickly, before they could do anything to her, which meant moving on and not taking the time to rescue anyone else. Let’s face it, what parent wouldn’t do exactly the same. But right at the end when he rescues his daughter there are two other girls on that ship. I’d have liked it if he had rescued those two as well, or it had at least shown us them being helped off the boat or something like that. It wouldn’t have needed much.

Back to the movie as a movie though, I have to say I really liked it, the more I watch Liam Neeson, the more I like him and it was only watching this film that I realised why his voice was so amazingly familiar in a very comforting way. He’s Aslan! Well his voice was the voice of Aslan in the Narnia films. Either way that made me very satisfied as I half imagined a ferocious lion in his place as he went hunting for his daughter and it may have added to the idea of the film in a very interestingly spectacular way. I will definitely be adding Liam Neeson to my list of favourite actors thanks to this film.

I felt the action was a little Bourne like at times though I think Neeson had a bit more of a mean streak in him. Normally the levels of violence in a film like this would make me feel a bit more queasy and I’d have probably looked away more but he was beating up traffickers (and sorta torturing them) and I have to admit I felt a small amount of satisfaction at that. Maybe I’m not as compassionate and merciful as I thought I was.

Either way I liked the film and I have seen the sequel as well now. I’ll review that soon.

Sherdan poured himself into his work that evening. Every time he pulled another few bricks out of Anya’s walls she retreated from him or got angry. Now she’d started reading the Bible in front of him and the message was clear: she wanted him to back off because she was a well behaved Christian girl who didn’t get involved with the likes of him.

Anya went to bed at her usual time and Sherdan sighed with relief. The evening had been horribly awkward. He’d actually done more work than he needed because he hadn’t wanted to stop and have to force another conversation with her.

As soon as he was alone, he got up and poured a drink. Tonight he needed it. He sat and thought over his problem with Anya for another hour.

He felt like they were getting close to a tipping point and, if he didn’t have her won over by then, she would leave forever. Sherdan knew he needed help again so he went to call on Nathan’s advice.

Nathan was as quick to join him in the study as the last time.

“What can I do for you, sir?” Nathan said, taking a seat but refusing a drink again.

“I need more help with Anya. The kitten worked very well but I’m not all the way there yet.”

“How did talking to her about her faith go?”

“I’ve not done so yet. I don’t really know where to begin,” Sherdan explained.

“Ask her what convinced her to become a Christian. If you can understand why she chose that faith she’ll be less confusing to you in general.”

“Maybe. I don’t know if I can talk to her about what she thinks without arguing. She sat here with her Bible all evening to show me she thought her moral opinions to be more sound than mine.”

“Had it occurred to you that she may have read her Bible in front of you because she wanted you to understand it meant a lot to her and to ask about it?” Sherdan looked at Nathan as if he’d been slapped and he had to stop himself responding in his anger. The guard was just trying to help.

“She wants to come to the ball on Friday.” Sherdan changed the subject.

“So let her come.”

“I don’t want to put her at risk.”

“At risk of what?”

“If she comes, people will know she’s been here. If she then leaves, the British government might capture her and torture her for information. I promised her that would never happen to her again.”

“With her ability she could just walk out. Just like she can here,” Nathan pointed out.

“I didn’t think of that.”

“Does Anya know of your reasoning?”

“Not exactly, no.”

“Then I’d explain it to her and give her the choice,” Nathan said and got up.

“That’s it?”

“It sounds like most of your troubles are caused by not communicating with her properly. Talk to her. If you still need help after that, I’ll be more than happy to sit down with you again.” Sherdan nodded and let Nathan leave.

He poured himself another drink as he mulled over their conversation in his head. A lot of what Nathan said made sense and, whether he was right or not about her reasons for reading the Bible in front of him, it was worth talking to her about what she believed.

With a resolution in mind, he finally got some sleep. He needed to stop getting such late nights. It was the early hours of the morning again. Hopefully, Hitchin would have some good news about his ability the following day, and he would also make some more progress with Anya.

Sherdan was woken up before his alarm by none other than Anya. She still wore her pyjamas and had a slightly tear stained face.

“I had another nightmare,” she told him as if it explained everything. He went to get out of bed to hug her before he thought that she might not want to see him in just his boxers. Instead, he patted the edge of the bed. She shook her head.

“I just wanted to say that I was sorry I was so argumentative yesterday. I’m finding everything that has happened in the last six weeks very difficult.”

“That’s okay, I understand. I’ve not always done much to help,” Sherdan glanced at the clock and notice his alarm was going to go off in less than five minutes. “Why don’t we talk about this later? I’m needed in the compound shortly.”

She nodded and left, leaving him unable to follow. He hastily pulled on some clothes and went through to her room. She’d got back into bed again but she was sitting rather than lying.

“Are you going to be okay?” She nodded at his concern.

“I’ve got a karate lesson in an hour.”

He reluctantly left her and headed over to the compound. Hitchin awaited him in his easy room. He smiled at his friend who appeared much happier since Sherdan had let him run all his tests.

“How is everything?” Sherdan asked.

“We have a delightful new batch of test subjects… perhaps one female in particular. Quite the bright young lady. I may train her as an assistant.”

Sherdan recognised the familiar twinkle in his friend’s eye. This particular woman had evidently caught his eye for more than professional reasons.

“I’m here to let you know that all your tests came back perfectly fine. You don’t even seem to be fatigued enough to explain it. I can only assume it has something to do with Anya,” Hitchin continued.

“So, if Anya stays, I won’t get my ability back?”

“Not necessarily. I won’t know for sure unless I can find out what gave her the ability she has.”

“Fair enough. I’ll bring her in for more tests as soon as I can make her see it’s necessary.”

Sherdan went into the command room to get away from Hitchin before he could continue talking about Anya. She wasn’t going to be made to do anything. He was still determined to win her over properly and had a couple more things he could try.

“He’d sent an email with Anya’s measurements to one of his colleagues. They were picking up a ball gown for her today. That evening he would present it to her.

For the majority of the day, Sherdan had to deal with the American President. The Americans were demanding some of his defence technology in return for becoming allies. He wouldn’t let them have anything they still used regularly so he instead tried to offer them some of the country’s other advances, something that affected less military matters.

There had been other breakthroughs in medical treatments as well as food production thanks to studying the abilities and how they worked. Parting with things like that would benefit whoever received it but not increase any potential threat to Sherdan.

The Americans believed they were a powerful enough country that Sherdan would give anything to be allies. They were wrong. America had very little to offer them and other countries were willing to be amicable for less.

Sherdan repeatedly said no until the President got so cross he slammed the phone down on him. He left his diplomatist, Sharon, to continue trying to deal with it while he got on with other work. His work was never finished.

It was gone eight before he got away from the compound. Anya wasn’t anywhere downstairs so Sherdan rushed up to his room to check on the dress he’d had Anne smuggle up for him. It was a gorgeous, deep-blue, floor length ball gown.

He picked it up off the bed where it lay as he heard a rap on the door frame behind him. Anya gasped as he turned around. She stood there with her hands over her mouth.

“Yes, it is for you,” Sherdan said as he held it out to her. She didn’t take it.

“It’s gorgeous, but I haven’t decided if I am staying.”

“I know. I’m letting you come to the ball, if that’s what you wish to do.”

“Really?” Her eyes lit up.

“Yes, but please understand, if you leave it could put you in danger, being seen here, with me.”

“I know. I appreciate your concern but I’d like it to be my choice, just like leaving or staying should be.” Sherdan nodded and walked towards her to place the dress in her hands. This time she took it. She held it up against herself.

“You’ll look gorgeous in it.”

“Thank you.” She beamed and scurried off. He slowly walked out into the hallway. Her door was shut so he waited outside. He didn’t have to wait long before she flung the door open and came out wearing the dress. She twirled.

“So what do you think?”

“It really suits you.” She spun again, obviously pleased. “So will you come to the ball with me then?” Sherdan asked. She stopped spinning and paused for a moment.

“Yes, yes, I think I will.”

“Really?” He took her hands and pulled her towards him. She nodded and his heart beat faster. He wrapped his arms around her in another embrace but she pulled away after only a few seconds.

“You don’t want to crease it, let me get changed again.”

“She rushed off before he could reply and shut her door on him again. He chuckled to himself and he went to find some food. Anne had gone home earlier than normal as it was one of her son’s birthdays.

It was his turn to be surprised when he walked into the kitchen. Two trays were already laid out ready and, a casserole and some roast potatoes were in the oven. He noticed there was ten minutes left on the oven timer. Anya came up behind him as he stood, unsure what to do.

“Anne assured me you liked sausage casserole so I made one for dinner.”

“Umm… thank you. I have to admit it’s quite unexpected.”

“I thought I might as well. When Anne said she had to go but you weren’t back yet.”

“Thank you. I don’t think I’ve ever had a woman, other than my mother or housekeeper, cook for me.” She blushed at this and busied herself tidying the kitchen to cover her embarrassment

Sherdan was touched by the effort she had gone to and hoped it was a sign their evening would go well. He planned on trying to talk to her about her faith, if he could find a way to bring it up. It could wait until after the food, however. He intended to enjoy her company and her cooking.

They ate right there in the kitchen, sat on stools at the breakfast bar. Something Sherdan had never actually done. He didn’t spend that much time in the kitchen so he’d allowed Anne to design the room how she wanted it.

Anya finished eating first, evidently hungry from waiting. He wasn’t far behind, enjoying the meal she had made him.

A smile lit up her face when he had cleaned his plate and put his knife and fork together. It had been delicious.

“Thank you. You’re a good cook.”

“Not really. I know how to make one or two things well. It’s good to have a few dishes that can be cooked well,” Anya replied, her cheeks flushing red again. He laughed at her sound logic.

“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” He got up and went to her, took her by the hands and led her through to the living room. They sat side by side on the sofa with her hands in his for some time. She blushed a lot but didn’t pull away.

“Has your God said anything lately about why you’re here?” He asked and then frowned. It had come out sounding a little harsher than he had meant it.

She pulled her hands away from him.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I am trying to understand.”

“Understand what?” she demanded.

“I know your faith means a lot to you. I love you. I want to understand you and your beliefs better.”

“Oh… I… I don’t really know how to explain it entirely.”

“You said God told you to come here and has said to stay. Did he literally speak to you?”

“No, I don’t know if God literally says things out loud. For me, it’s more like thoughts that come into your head, combined with feelings. It feels ‘right’ to do as God asks.”

“And He’s asked you to stay here?” Sherdan asked.

“For now, I think so yes, but I will have to leave at some point.”

“Why?”

“I will need to go back to my church.”

“But you are here now, did God say why?”

“I’m not sure. I had a dream but I didn’t completely understand it,” Sherdan nodded, “so I’m waiting here until I know why.” He reached up a hand and stroked her cheek.

“I am very glad He asked you to stay longer. I would not have known the feelings I have now.”

“I’m glad I’m here too but I don’t think I can stay. At some point I will have to go Sherdan.” She looked away, “I’m sorry.” He lifted her chin back up.

“But you are here now and God wants that.”

“Yes, I am here now…” Whatever she had been about to say was lost as he lent forward and pressed his lips to hers. When he pulled back to look at her she followed and kissed him again, more passionately than he’d expected.

He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer.

“I love you,” he whispered. The words sounded so foreign to him but, in that moment, felt so right.

“I… I love you too.” He kissed her again, wanting to show her the delight and joy her words stirred in him.

He had dreamt of this moment on several occasions but the reality was so much sweeter. His fingers caressed her cheek as his lips touched hers again and again.

After many minutes she pulled away. Her eyes shone and she smiled in a way he had never seen before. She breathed heavily and had a brightness to her he liked. He remembered the only other time he had seen her like this. It had been right after she had gained her ability but before they had fallen out.

“You do know I can’t… Before marriage I’m not meant to…” He put his finger up against her mouth.

“I understand. We don’t have to go that far. I’ve… Well, there have been many women I have rushed into bed with and I do not want us to be like that. We can go much slower.” She nodded her gratitude and he pulled her in close to him again, studying her features.

She blushed at his intense gaze, making him chuckle.

“Are all Christian girls so delicate and shy? You’re perfect. Had I known I would have found one of you sooner.” She frowned. “I’m teasing. I’ve never met anyone like you and I am really not used to feeling like this, about anyone.”

He shrugged. His feelings couldn’t be easily explained and it frustrated him a little. Without hesitating, she settled back against the sofa back and pulled his arm around behind her so they were cuddled up close.

They talked of happy subjects like family memories and silly things they did as children, whiling away the time. Occasionally he would give her another kiss as if he couldn’t believe she was reciprocating.

Neither of them mentioned the future and where they would go after that evening. He couldn’t bring it up in case she still said she intended to leave.

Sherdan didn’t know if he believed in her God but, in that moment, he prayed anyway; that He wouldn’t take Anya away from him. He’d found his little piece of heaven and he didn’t want to lose it.

–

If you can’t wait until my next blog post to read what happens next you can now buy the ebook from Amazon, in the US, UK and many other places.

I started this very epic novel about March/April last year and managed to finish it in December, which resulted in me proudly letting everyone know on facebook and twitter. Here’s a few of my thoughts on this 550k (that’s 100k words longer than lord of the rings) epic russian novel.

It probably took me about the first 100k or so words to actually get into the book. There are a lot of similar character names and Tolstoy goes into a lot of detail about their looks, habits and conversation.

I got the feeling that when the book was written and reading others in a similar period that it was more common to describe social interactions in more detail and include more of the authors own thoughts on everyday character study. I quickly realised Tolstoy had an insight into people, their character defects and natural inclinations that is rare today but must have been much more common then. In short he’s a great thinker on the human character and it comes across well.

The book spanned a period of wars between France and Russia towards the end of Napoleon’s campaigns and bounces between the activities of the army and several important officers and the other social elites of Moscow and Petersburg. It’s also split into several ‘books’ and the first chapter of each is Tolstoy directly addressing the reader to explain his opinion on why this particular part of the war was important and how it fits with the greater whole.

Despite the slow pace of the book and the extra concentration needed to understand the complicated sentences I really found myself growin rather attached to the people and I had to put the book down and shed a few tears when a character I particularly liked died. So all all I’d say this book is still a classic. For people who can chomp through the weighty prose it’s still well worth reading.

And on top of that the second of the two epilogues was again directly from the author to reader and went into all manner of interesting thoughts concerning where ‘power’ comes from and how much of life is down to fate and how much freewill.

The next great classic on my list is another of Tolstoy’s Anne Karenina.

Happy New Year everyone! Yes I know it’s a little late now. I’ve been a little busy.

I know I haven’t done my usual start of the month blog since September. I didn’t see much point doing one for November and I plain forgot about December until it was a bit too late. This month I thought I’d talk about the whole of the last year and some of my goals for the year ahead.

I wrote a significant word count in 2012 – 184,717 words to be exact. This is over 60k more than 2011. This was just on stories too and doesn’t include the word count for all the blogs I’ve written this year.

Research has been another big thing in the last year. I’ve had to learn about all sorts of things for the current works in progress, ranging from, the best place to hijack the tran Siberian railway and smuggle people off (see Shattered when published) to research into end of the world prophecies (see Sherdan series) and many things in between. I think  anyone looking through my internet history would be mildly concerned if they didn’t know why I just happened to be looking that kind of stuff up.

I’ve published two novels this year, both Chains of Freedom and Sherdan’s Prophecy and all the reviews I’ve had of those two so far have been very positive. There’s definitely a lot of evidence that I’m growing as a writer, which is always a healthy thing.

Future plans include the print version of Sherdan’s Prophecy as well as the eBook of both For Such a Time as This and Sherdan’s Legacy as this years releases. I also hope to finish the first crafts of both my other two works in progress, Shattered, and The Fire of Winter. On top of that I want to start the third book in the Sherdan series and another book which is still totally under wraps for now but involves another writer. I’d like to see how that goes before I do any big announcements.

In terms of word count I’m going to aim to do a little more every month than the matching month year on year to try and hit that illusive 200k word goal. We’ll see how that pans out with my goal to also step up on the marketing in the early parts of this year. I really want to promote the Sherdan series over my other works as I think its my best work by far but it will probably depend on how well I’m feeling. 2012 was a crap year for me health wise and I’ve still got hospital appointments and tests trailing well into this year.

So there’s my work related goals. Anyone else have anything similarly ambitious (or even more so)? Or anyone want to remind me of things I said I’d do that I might have forgotten? Sometimes I forget I wanted to do a project.

Yes I know that conflict is not something most people want more of, especially at this time of year, thankfully I’m talking more about writing stories than I am about real life.

Conflict keeps books moving and keeps readers interested in what’s before them. That person trying to split up the two love-birds or that dodgy radiator on the race car that doesn’t have time to be fixed before the big race are all conflict creators. Conflict is the things the characters have to overcome to reach their goals. The spanner in the works.

Often a full length novel has more than one thing causing that conflict. A single main problem and several little ones along the way. Sometimes even a series of problems that have to be overcome one after the other.

All too often in creating a book I hear of people getting part way through and finding the book drags a little. The conflict is already sorted out and without some more the book has no where to really go.

I plan my conflict around several things. Here’s a list of the questions I ask myself to decide what I could add to make the book more interesting.

What conflict could challenge a defect in an important character? If a character is too shy or not brave they need something to challenge them to be brave and face up to a fear. Character’s all have weaknesses but life often teaches us to grow past those. Realistic characters with depth all manage to grow as well.

What conflict could be a result of character flaws or earlier bad choices? If a character chooses to share a secret that’s not their own out of a desire to stop someone else from saying something stupid, there could be conflict when the people find out that secret has been shared. It could lead to the wrong person finding out about the secret.

What conflict could arise thanks to the setting? If the book is set in a prison then another prisoner could break out, forcing the officials to bring in harsher restrictions. In a book set in the Caribbean islands, there could be a hurricane or a massive storm. The surroundings can be a great source of conflict and delay to the ending of the book.

Whatever ends up being the conflict that stops our hero’s from achieving it’s the thing that hooks a reader and keeps them reading. People want to know how the main character it going to get through it all. They want to be tricked into thinking they might not manage it and to be held on the edge of their seats until right at the last minutes, when everything is finally overcome.

And of course, there’s always real life inspiration. I’m sure most people can think of something that’s probably gone awry over the last week or so.

So I eagerly went to see this film, trying really hard not to let the hype of this being another epic from Peter Jackson automatically make the film a dissapointment (films rarely live up to the hype of a trilogy where we’ve forgotten all the not so good bits and made the predecessors into the best films ever in our minds, on top of the excitment of delving back into middle earth).

So ignoring all the hype and ignoring the lord of the rings this film was amazing. The Hobbit is a lighter book than it’s sequel and Jackson managed to capture the extra child friendly atmosphere while still showing middle-earth to be a dangerous place.

It started off fairly slow, although no way near as slow as the Fellowship of the ring did and therefore matched the book again. The Hobbit was faster paced and I got the slight sense of must rush off and do this now.

Interestingly enough it was some of the quietest scenes I loved the most. There’s a beautiful scene not too far in where all the dwarves start singing. It’s the one from the trailor so forgive me for mentioning it, those who don’t like spoilers, but it had the entire cinema full of people in total silence, enraptured and I could feel the atmosphere it created in the room.

I do think it helped I was surrounded by a particularly engaged audience. There was a lot of laughter in all the right places and there was a collective ooo, and intake of breath hissed through our teeth when Bilbo said something he shouldn’t have done to one of the dwarves. I really think we all expected him to get a good smack for it.

On top of all that the fantastic cast were back from the first Trilogy. Galadriel being a particular favourite of mine and there were some gems between her and Gandalf. Those two know each other well and are evidently fond of each other.

Armitage made an absolutely fantastic Thorin Oakshield and really brought that role to life and Martin Freeman more than delivered as Bilbo. There was a hint of Frodo with a lot of Bilbo sillyness thrown in. Golem was also back and perfect. Everything had a pre-lord of the rings sort of innocence about it and yet still hinted at what might come later.

I also really liked how they managed to include enough information (depsite the faster pacing than the fellowship) to make sure anyone who hadn’t watched the first set of films would still know enough to understand what was happening. It’s actually made me quite hopeful that when this trilogy is done as well, they can all be watched in chronological order and feel like they belong that way arounfd.

Over all I actually think I liked this film more than one and perhaps even two of the trilogy (it’s going to take a little more to beat Return of The king). I am very excited about seeing the next two and have no qualms that Peter Jackson will manage to make it seem like it should be a trilogy as well. They hinted at quite a few things in this film that are events glossed over in the hobbit book but will be included in the trilogy and I am eager to see what they do with all the appendices material that belongs in this time frame.

The nightmares had greatly diminished since Anya had been given her pet, Antonio. Sherdan had surprised her with the gift but it had been the perfect choice. It had almost torn down her guard completely and she’d had to remind herself that Sherdan had tortured her for several days.

Several time now he had said that he both loved her and wanted her to leave if it would make her happy, but no matter how many times he said it she couldn’t decide if she believed him. His words were still as fresh to her as the moment he’d said them.

Anya wasn’t sure how she felt about him either. She had considered leaving several times recently before she did something she regretted and got herself in too deep.

Every time she told herself she was leaving she’d have the same dream again about saving Sherdan’s life. Thankfully, it didn’t make her throw up any more.

God evidently wanted her to stay. She hoped she could bring herself to leave when it finally came down to it. The longer she stayed the more she felt attached to Sherdan and his country’s fate.

There had been one moment when she’d almost allowed Sherdan right under her skin. She knew that couldn’t happen. He wasn’t why she was here and she would have to leave at some point soon. She couldn’t have a relationship even if she wanted one.

Anya sat down with a thud, surprising herself at thinking seriously about being with Sherdan. Before today she’d denied any desire for anything of the sort. She’d put any feelings down to Stockholm syndrome.

Her thoughts were so muddled. She couldn’t think of anything to do but pray and hope she could leave soon. Her feelings could be worked through in her own home and church, safe from Sherdan’s unhealthy affect on her.

She absent-mindedly stroked the kitten beside her as she prayed. Strength and focus would be important until her task here was done, even if she still didn’t know what that was.

Her karate lessons were going well. Nathan had taught her a lot in a short space of time. They’d gone through all the blocks so many times that Nathan now struggled to land a blow. She had then begun learning attacks, but she wasn’t as good at those yet. Her punches were very weak, although her kicks weren’t too bad.

Nathan had suggested she try sparring with her ability turned on. In her half way stage she’d be invisible but be able to strike back at an assailant if needed. If she thought she was going to be hit she could move into the full state of her ability and any blows would go through her.

She’d turned down his offer to practice this as she’d not felt completely comfortable fighting him naked, even if he wouldn’t be able to see anything. Also, she didn’t know if she would be able to keep herself invisible and concentrate on karate at the same time. His suggestion had merit, however, so she’d spent a further hour each day practising alone whilst invisible.

Another Sunday passed, with her still away from her church, and another week began, leaving Anya feeling down again. She knew she’d need to leave soon. She finally felt like her time here was coming to an end. It still felt like something needed to happen first but, as the week began, her feelings of expectancy grew.

She could hardly focus on her karate Tuesday morning and did very little in the way of research for Sherdan. The public opinion on him hadn’t changed much lately anyway. People mostly thought he was amazing. The houses he’d robbed people of were largely forgotten already.

He joined her earlier than normal that evening but looked even more tired than he usually did. He smiled at her and went straight to his laptop. She came and sat nearby.

“So what’s the plan this evening?” she asked, expecting him to suggest something as he had for the last week.

“I’m too busy this evening. I didn’t get enough of my work done.”

“Why ever not? You’ve been gone since seven?”

“I… Hitchin had me in the lab a lot of the day.” She raised her eyebrows, “I needed some tests… it seems my ability has disappeared. Hitchin is the only other person who knows, however.”

“I won’t say a word. How will this affect your country?”

“Hopefully it won’t. It seems to just be me, and it also appears that there is no discernible scientific reason, but we don’t have the results from all the tests yet.”

“Oh. I will let you work then.” She got up to go, feeling sorry for him.

“Please stay? At least until dinner. Tell me about your day.”

“Nothing really happened. I’ve been practising my karate and my ability but not much else.”

“Keep practising, it’s good for you.”

“What kind of work do you have to do?” she enquired.

“I have to work out some trade agreements with some of the countries that have asked to trade. I don’t want to give them any of our advanced technology so I’m having to come up with other things we have to offer. Trade will be important to us; with some of them at least.” Sherdan looked thoughtful for a moment. Anya thought it sounded rather tedious but let Sherdan continue.

“Also, a few countries want embassies here. Finally, there’s the ball in three days.”

“I’d like to come to that.”

“I’ve already said. If you are staying then I think you should come.”

“I’m not sure I am staying and even if I were, I have no dress.” Anya got up and walked away to inspect the books. She’d looked over them so many times before but the familiar names soothed her agitated mind. A part of her considered saying she’d stay just to go to the ball but she couldn’t lie.

She lost herself in thought until Sherdan made her jump. He had stopped working and come up behind her. He took her right hand in his and turned her to face him.

“I want you to stay. Be on my arm at the ball, in front of my whole country.” She looked away and then back again. “Stay.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Do you want to?”

“No… Well, maybe. I can’t decide.” She couldn’t lie but hated that he’d asked her. “I have things I need to do back home.”

“So do them and come back. I’ll even drive you myself.”

“It’s not that simple.”

Before either of them could say anything else Anne popped her head through the doorway and told them dinner was ready. Anya immediately tore her hand away from Sherdan and went into the dining room. It gave her a moment to compose herself.

She’d come so close to giving in and saying she’d come back. He made her head spin and she was very grateful when he had to carry on working after they had eaten. It gave her some respite to his attentions.

She deliberately fetched her bible and sat reading it in the same room as him. It wasn’t something she’d done before while being in the same room as him. He’d made such a mockery of her beliefs that she hadn’t wanted to draw any attention to it, but it seemed like a good idea now.

The whole evening Sherdan said very little. His work absorbed his attention and she often looked up to see him frowning over it. A part of her wanted to help him. His work load was obviously too much but she’d already got herself far too attached to him and his country to offer any more help. Enough was enough.

–

If you can’t wait until my next blog post to read what happens next you can now buy the ebook from Amazon, in the US, UK and many other places.

I was given this Young adult ebook by Susan Francis to review, so here’s what I think.

The book started off following Tasha as she got ready for her prom at the end of high school in Trinidad. It talked of them all saying goodbye and laid the groundwork of the book and the plot well. Tasha had decided to come to England to continue her education under her father’s roof and was saying goodbye to her mother, friends and brother to do so. I was intrigued right away, although I had one small moment of confusion when the dresses were talked about in terms of 1920’s and 1950’s and I had to try and work out when the book was set. The date’s made me think this might be a historical fiction book but it wasn’t, as I found out when the usual technology was mentioned.

I really liked Tasha and her prickly personality as well as Kai and his extroverted nature. The two were wonderful opposites and as we all know opposites attract.

On top of that I loved the way the estate they lived in worked. Aintree Court, being a closed off area where every neighbour is meant to look out for every other neighbour was the perfect example of good intentions not going quite right. I loved all the little quirks this brought to people’s behaviour and expectations and the way the upper middle class area looked down on anyone not part of their special ‘club’.

I did have a few niggles with the book, however. Mostly, the ages of the children. Half the kids were doing AS levels, including Tasha but all of them were 17 before they started and had 18th birthday parties throughout the year and following summer holidays. It confused me at first because that’s a year too old. English children are normally 16 and have 17th birthdays in their first year doing A-levels. This confusions continued with the kids in the year above, all of them were 18 before they even started their second year. At that point English kids go off to University, even if they only turn 18 in the summer holidays before hand. It just kept me confused a lot of the time, trying to work out who was in what year. I was surprised when Kai went to high school with the others for example,. He’d turned 18 before the book started so I expected him to be off at Uni and the only birthdays that were mentioned all seemed to happen in the summer holiday too.

My final niggle is actually the title. While it’s meant to describe the personality of Tasha, I didn’t get that until the last few pages and didn’t feel it entirely added to the sense of the book. It’s a YA romance book that I think would be served better by having a gender neutral title.

The book was still good and the romance was very sweet but I got a little put off by the lack of research. I still think I’d check out the sequel, however, now that I know the author had everyone a year older for where they are meant to be.

I like Christmas and it’s only one week to go or seven sleeps as people keep saying. The big problem I find, however, is I don’t get much work done in December.

Planning for Christmas actually takes a lot of time each year. There’s all the present buying (which I usually quite enjoy), wrapping, putting the decorations up, writing cards and christmas letters to people we don’t see so often, organising who’s going where over the holiday period and making sure there’s enough food in the house of the right sort (ie, a big enough turkey), christmas dinners, nativity plays, carol services, and all sorts of other little things that all add up to make December a very busy month.

All in all I often find that it’s actually quite a lot of fuss over something that tends to be over quickly and not always very pleasant. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for remembering the true spirit of Christmas and I love watching the kid’s nativity every year. I also really love seeing Santa Claus the Movie with Dudley Moore as Patch the elf, but most of the preparation is part of the Christmas day celebration itself, which tends to revolve around giving people presents, hoping I don’t get anything where I have to fake my smile of gratitude, and eating far too much food that probably took longer than really necessary to prepare. All the while, hoping that everyone gets along and no one says anything that’s going to cause offense (which can be really easy with a lot of families). In short Christmas can actually be really stressfull, not to mention the fact it’s never anything like the Christmas that movies and advertising imply we should have.

I’m not going to go into the details about what Christmas should be. I actually think enough other people will cover the Jesus angle. I just find myself wishing we did some of this all year round. I think I’d like to be able to make less effort at Christmas to include all these things and instead do them spontaneously the rest of the year. I want to have people over for a good dinner in other months too and give people presents on other days that aren’t their birthdays. I’d like to have pretty things in my house and the smell of yummy things baking regularly. But mostly I want to celebrate, appreciate and smile about good things all year round.

This is the third James Bond film with Daniel Craig as the main character and it came out to celebrate 50 years since the first ever bond film. For a series where there’s no logical explanation why the Bond character changes appearance every now and then it’s doing remarkably well with it’s format and I was eager to see yet another in a quintisentially British series.

The first two with Daniel Craig in, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, were both prequels and both a little dissapointing. Casino Royale being the better of the two as Quantum of Solace just felt like any other standard revenge film and not the different swaggering spy movie Bond normally delivers.

This third one was the same and also delivered us with a prequel, thankfully, no where near as dissapointing. I had found out, not long after the previous Bond film that Daniel Craig actually played Bond much more like the original author intended, which helped me to try and see it from the author’s eyes. In Skyfall I think Craig really came into the role and It completely redeems him for me as a great Bond.

The plot was fantastic and I loved getting to see a bit more of Bond’s previous life and childhood as well as a modernisating effect on the whole team behind him. I was also kept very amused by the references to the old films and hints at beginnings of habits we know Bond well for, like his shaken not stirred drink and his habit of ignoring the rules, tests and anything else anyone tried to give him boundaries with.

On top of all that the support acting was fantastic. The villian felt believably psychotic and had me thinking he really might get to achieve his nasty plot before 007 could stop him, even though a part of me knew Bond always comes out on top. M was again superb but Dench is one of the best actors we have so no real surprises there. The actor who stole the show for me though, was Bérénice Marlohe, who played Sévérine, the trafficked girl owned by our bad guy. Her fear at being in his power and her trepidation at wanting to hope Bond could rescue her had me on the edge of my seat. I’m sure it helped that I’m passionately against trafficking and know more about it than the average person but for me her fear and emotions in those few scenes were so perfect.

However, the only major downside with the film was what happened next with Sévérine. As is normal in a Bond film, he gets to sleep with someone at somepoint (occasionally more than one person). Unfortunately they picked our broken trafficked girly as the one to fall for Bond’s charms but that just wouldn’t happen. No trafficked girl ever feels like they can jump right into the arms of another man just because he ‘might’ be able to rescue her. Especially when they’ve only just met.

Had they not been so unrealistic I think I’d be chalking this down to the best Bond film ever, but I just can’t quite bring myself to do so. Even with the fantastic settings, including the house, skyfall (to the left), I just couldn’t quite forgive it for this slip up.

I will be looking forward to the next Bond film, however, and I hope they don’t keep us waiting long. I’ll also be adding this one to my film collection, I just might have to fast forward the shower scene to keep myself calm.