Next on Netflix: Fright Night

Next On Netflix: Where I take my guilt from all my Netflix procrastination and turn it into something I can justify.

So I watched me a new movie on Netflix over the weekend. The one that I picked, on account of it having a certain Doctor in it, was Fright Night. 

Now, the advantage of watching movies after they've been out for a while means that you tend to have a general feel of whether you're going to like it before you watch it. For example; with this movie, I hadn't exactly heard bad things about it, but I also knew it wasn't going to be ground breaking. I think it ended up with a fairly low key cult following, in the end...

As such, I started watching the movie with fairly low expectations of what I was letting myself in for. My main reason, as mentioned above, for choosing this particular movie above any of the others was that the lovely David Tennant was in it, and being a whovian I tend to gravitate towards his work, regardless of whether I think it's going to be good or not. 

Having said all of that, I've gotta say that I didn't hate this movie. It was low budget, and nothing amazing, but it flowed well and I can't remember getting bored at any point. It was also short and sweet at only 1 hr and 30mins long. The plot of the movie was your standard 'vampire moves in next door to hero of movie... death ensues' story, and if you're looking for something more substantial than that, then you're probably going to be disappointed. Also, if you're looking for a lovely romantic tale between vampire and human, as is the popular demand these days, then alas you will find it lacking. No sparkling skin here, and whilst the main vampire is Colin Farrell and so very easy on the eye, there is nothing really romantic about him at all. But if you fancy a nice and easy vampire tale with a fair amount of killing, a dash of comedy and just a little bit of romance, then this is the movie for you. 

Plus, you are all welcome to play the game I play whenever I watch anything that the Doctor Who actors star in that isn't Doctor Who. This game is simple, and will certainly make a solo viewing of a movie a whole lot more entertaining. Basically, I like to pretend that any character in a movie played by a Doctor Who actor (in this case David Tennant) is actually secretly still the Doctor but just undercover. For example, if Tennant decided that he was too creeped out by the vampire in the movie and decides to cut and run, instead of stay and fight, you might catch me yelling at the TV (as the hero watches him run away, with disappointment) "Don't worry! He's only joking with you, he's the Doctor, he doesn't run away from anything! He's probably just grabbing something from the TARDIS." Or if you're watching the Tennant play a bad guy, like in a certain Harry Potter movie, and suddenly you're faced with a scene where he seems to be trying to destroy mankind, you can reason with the other characters in the movie by stating the facts, such as "I know it seems bad that he's hellbent on bringing back He Who Must Not be Named, but if you look at it on balance, and take into consideration the amount of times he's saved the world, I think we can allow him this one lapse in judgement. We'll just get that dark mark laser removed and he'll be back kissing Rose before you know it."

Now, this could prove to be annoying (apparently) if you make these comments whilst in a room with other people, especially if they are not of the Whovian variety, but it is nothing but hilarious when you are alone with a glass of wine... yes, I said hilarious and not sad and lonely... deal with it. 

So all in all, if you want a light movie that is entertaining and doesn't require a large amount of thinking involved, then I recommend Fright Night. It's simple, fun and not all that bad... just don't go in expecting Oscar standards and you are golden. 

Until tomorrow. 

Peace out my lovelies

Busy and busy and busy some more.

Guys, again I am crazy busy today, so it's going to be another short one... I know I promised you a review, but I'm nothing if not unpredictable and an overall let down... I mean that in a happy way of course!!

As such, I'm going to leave you with a video that made me laugh and say have a fantastic Wednesday in all that you do! Also, check out the last day of my book Utopia being free for purchase! Grab it before I get nasty and start charging again!! The links to the book are in the right hand column! Go nuts.

The video below is an oldie but a goodie. It's youtube sensation's Miranda Sings giving a Fancy Thing Friday's recommendation, Pentatonix, some much needed singing advice. If you don't know who Miranda Sings is, go check her out on youtube after you watch this. I love her.

Peace out my lovelies.

Super Exciting Secret Thing.

What is up, my homeboys? Are you getting down with your bad self? You are? That's wonderful news.

It's Tuesday... That's all I've got for you today. No word of a lie. I just sat here and let my fingers hover over the keyboard for about 2 minutes, trying to come up with something else to add to it, and this sentence is the only thing that I could think of. Yup, my go-to topic to talk about when there is nothing to talk about, is how there is nothing to talk about. I do have a Next-On-Netflix review to lay down on your sweet, sweet faces, but I'm saving it for tomorrow because it may take a while and I don't have that much time today... so instead I'm treating you with a topic about itself... get your brains around that bad boy.

There's stuff that I want to say, also, but can't due to it being the super exciting secret thing that I have alluded to in the past. I suck at secrets though, as the purpose of this particular super exciting secret thing being a secret is to not draw attention to it, should it fall through... All I've done is cause more intrigue than is necessary as I've made it sound like it's super exciting and secret, which means even more people are waiting to hear whether I succeed or not, which defeats the object of the whole reason for keeping it secret in the first place.

Also, I'm pretty certain that I've made the super exciting secret thing sound a lot bigger than it actually is, thus setting you all up for disappointment should I succeed in the super exciting secret thing, announce what it is and then see you all collectively sigh and walk away, heads down, because you were certain I was going to announce that I had found the cure for cancer, or world peace, or how to get Nicholas Cage to stop making movies (I am working on that one, people, it's just proving more difficult than I had expected). This particular fear was confirmed as I told a friend earlier in the week about this super exciting secret thing, and she promptly followed this up with "Never mind that, I'm desperate to find out what this secret thing is that you keep on talking about!"

...

Yeah... there's a chance that this super exciting secret thing is only really super and exciting to me... So, you know, be prepared for that.

I'm off, because I'm short on time and devoid of words in my mind palace... okay, so it's less of a palace, and more like an abandoned shed you might find at the bottom of your garden, but the point is that it has no words in it, so I'm going to stop writing words down because I don't want to go into a brain overdraft. I hate debt.

Peace out my lovelies.

A weekend of clucking and growing feathers...

So this Saturday just gone was my soon to be Sister-In-Law's hen do. It's all very exciting. We're about 11 weeks away from the wedding now and it's safe to say that both family's are getting suitably excited about the whole thing.

Now, I don't have that much experience of hen dos. I've only been to one before this one, and that was about 8 years ago so I was fairly clueless as to what to expect. I knew that it wasn't going to be a messy one, but rather an intricate day of travelling around London. We started at 10:30am and finished around 10:30pm, and all I knew going into it was that it involved a treasure hunt based on the Monopoly board, and a barn dance.

New-To-The-Family-Amy didn't know anything at all about her day. She was simply told to turn up at Liverpool Street Station at 10:30am and her hens would do the rest.

So she turned up, we went for brunch at Giraffe and ate a large amount of food. There were about 13 of us for the majority of the day. We started off with a pass the parcel game in the restaurant, where at each layer, whoever had the parcel had to read out a fact about one of the hens and the rest of us had to guess who it was about. I sucked at this game, given that I knew about 3 people in the group, but never fear, my competitive nature got a bit of a win later in the day when other games came up.

After brunch, we all filed outside the restaurant and gave New-To-The-Family-Amy her first clue. This led her back to Liverpool Street Station, where she had to do her first task, involving masks of famous singer's faces, four hens picked by New-To-The-Family-Amy, and a very heartwarming (and loud) rendition of I Dreamed a Dream which managed to carry pretty much across the entire station. Seriously, the acoustics in that place were immense. I do have a video of this and will be attempting to formulate it into some form of montage video, so stay tuned on that one.

We next went to King's Cross Station (yes, the famous one) and the Hens all left New-To-The-Family-Amy on her own, to go and hide in particular locations, whilst we waited for her to find us (this station is massive and contains various shops and restaurants, as well as trains). New-To-The-Family-Amy then was given a clue and had to work out where we all were. My little team (waiting at starbucks) was first to be found. She reached us and we gave her Clue No.2 as well as a particularly well known scarf that, let's just say, isn't meant to be worn by muggles such as us. New-To-The-Family-Amy, being the rebel that she is, put the scarf on anyway and tried to decipher the next clue. Now, it's worth mentioning at this point that there were two of us waiting for New-To-The-Family-Amy at Starbucks, one of us (not me, but a lovely lady called Anna) knew the answer to the clue, the other one (me) didn't. Therefore, the hints and general help involved in her answering the next clue was varied between the two of us. Anna did an excellent job of steering her in the right direction. I, on the other hand, tried to help with coming up with the answer, but always seemed to be met by the similar comments in all of my suggestions, these comments were "stop helping Lisa" or "you're making it worse" or "nope, that's just going to confuse her" etc and so forth. I've never been very good at clues and general knowledge stuff, not my strong suit.

New-To-The-Family-Amy did eventually get it and we trotted off the the second location, where she was met with the next clue and another item that definitely shouldn't be carried around by anyone slightly muggle like; a wand. Thankfully New-To-The-Family-Amy managed to steer clear of blowing anything up with it, although did use it to channel her knowledge for the last two locations. Location No 3 revealed further Hens with some very fetching round glasses... if you guys haven't worked out the theme of this particular game, then I can't decide whether I'm disappointed that you have missed out on some amazing books, or incredibly impressed that you have managed to live such a sheltered life that these items mean nothing to you. I mean, I know I usually live in a hole, but your hole must be massive and I simply must come and sit in it for a while, so that I can gaze around me in wonder and awe.

The last clue took her to a very special place indeed. The entrance to Platform 9 3/4, AKA the most magical place in the world... Well, not really, because the place where they've labelled it as being 9 3/4 is actually nowhere near platforms 9 or 10, but apparently this is the safer option as it's also nowhere near a place where people are actually trying to board trains to get places. It clearly is the area that muggles go to, to get their fix. All proper witches and wizards however, use the real entrance by the actual platforms.

Anywho, there was a massive queuing area and a submerged trolley in the wall with an opportunity to have your picture taken, disappearing into the wall. Naturally, New-To-The-Family-Amy had her picture taken...

And then she disappeared into the wall... never to be seen again...

The end.

...

Nah, just kidding. As I said, she was in the wrong place to actually disappear. But you never know, maybe she and Older-Brother-Glyn will go to Hogwarts for their honeymoon... someone should totally create a place so that people can actually do that... immense.

So, after this we went to a few other places on the monopoly board, we did further things such as performing interpretive dance for New-To-The-Family-Amy and a Crystal Maze style competition which involved climbing and blindfolds and spelling of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. (I got one letter out... my competitive side was not happy with me at all).

We then had a brief break at a place in Leicester Square called Muriel's Kitchen. We had cake/scones and tea (because we're British and that's how we do) and I officially deemed the place as my new writing spot. My reasons for this? The food? Twas nice... The atmosphere? Quaint and fun... The layout of the restaurant? Quirky and enjoyable... although what had to tip the scales for me, however, was a particular rule the owners of this place seemed to have in their staff. Everywhere I looked, there was a new and jaw droppingly beautiful man. Seriously... the whole thing became very distracting after a while. With their ice blue eyes and breathtaking smiles... I mean, for me to notice? I'm not really that great at observing that kind of thing, but it was actually everywhere. There was not a bad looking waiter in that place. It got to a point where I really didn't know where to look anymore. Plus, I cannot count the amount of times I suddenly realised that I had been staring at a particular guy for about 5 minutes...

Now, you may think that if this was the case, then it might not be the best place to come to, to actually work. But let's just say this, up until this point, I had every intention of not starting in on my third book for another couple of months... I've now, however, found myself with the overwhelming need to take my lap top down there in a couple of weeks and start work then. And anyway, if I don't get anything done, I'll be ahead of schedule so that's fine... If you're ever in the area... seriously, check it out. I think the fact that the majority of the customers in there were female, speaks volumes about the point I am trying to make...

After that little treat, New-To-The-Family-Amy had just one more task to do before we finished our night with a barn dance. On the train to the evening venue, she was given a white t shirt, told to put it on, and then ask strangers to write marriage advice on there for her. It was awesome, and loads of people agreed to do it! The advice... varied. Some were gems of amazingness, such as "Never go to bed on an argument", other's were not quite as poetic but still equally important, such as "plenty of sex" and then there was my favourite of all. A piece of advice so awesome that I am making plans to cross stitch it and frame it for them to put above their bed as we speak. It was written by a man who we never got to speak to afterwards as we had to run off the train at our stop, so we never received an explanation for it... but in some ways, I think it makes it even more special for that... it was simply "Don't be late, always be the late."

... ahem. That was a talking topic for quite a while, let me tell you that. But I have a feeling that it's important somehow... I just need to figure out why.

We ended the night with a barn dance, lots of food, a couple of games and a lot of yawns. I can't remember the last time I felt that knackered. It was good though. It's also really exciting because as we all said goodbye, we got to utter the words "See you next time at the wedding!" and then there were squeals (mostly from me) and a general influx of dancing (again, mostly me).

And that was my weekend. Guys, Older-Brother-Glyn is actually getting married. It's ridiculously amazing and out of this world and it's happening so soon! July, here we come!!

Peace out my lovelies.

Fancy Things Friday: A Fancy Book and a Fancy Lady

Welcome to Fancy Things Friday, where I talk about things on a Friday that I think are fancy!!

It's happened. I have talked about it to the point where people have threatened to throw things at me if I continued, and now it's finally here. This does mean that, after this particular post, I'm going to shut the crap up about it because I appreciate it can be annoying, but I ask that you bear with me for one last day as this is the day I've been yabbering on about for the past month. 

Yes, ladies and gents, my Fancy Thing this week is, once again, something that I have done, because every so often it's nice to be egocentric and shizzle. Not all the time, of course... just once in a while. My Fancy Thing actually is split between two things today, because it's a special day for two reasons. 

Fancy Thing and Reason No 1. 

A World Reborn: Book 2 in the Utopia Series, is now available on Amazon!!

*Screams manically whilst deciding the most hygienic place to throw up*

I've done it. I've actually committed to something for long enough that I've managed to create not one but two books on a particular storyline. This has officially become the most devoted I've ever been to one thing. Yes, my second book is now available to buy on Amazon. Please be aware that, should you stumble on this blog for the first time today and feel inclined to buy this book, it is book 2 in a series, and you do kinda need to read the first one for it to make any sense. However, I have tried to make this as easy as possible for you as, from tomorrow, Book 1 (Utopia) will be available, once again, for free on Amazon!! Huzzah!! You literally have nothing to lose, not even money. All you need is a kindle and an Amazon account. And if you don't have either, you can download the kindle app onto your smartphone/tablet for free and also sign up to Amazon for free. Yes, that's still zero pennies that you will spend. The freeness of Book 1 is only for 5 days, but after that it's only 77p to purchase, so even if you miss the promotion, you are only losing a tiny amount of money but gaining a whole novel about people dying and getting drunk and being sarcastic towards each other... what more can you ask for? 

You might ask for another book on top of that, well why not? I've got one more now! This was released today, it continues on with the story of the survivors in a post-apocalyptic world and has even more sarcasm and excitement and a years worth of my blood, sweat and tears... I know... sounds intriguing, doesn't it? If you enjoyed the characters from the first book, you'll be pleased to know that they are all back for book 2. 

There's: 

Christiana: A slightly awkward, fairly cynical mental health nurse who has a weakness for large amounts of alcohol and cares deeply for those around her. 

Daniela: A young, pretty spoilt, genius who is fiercely loyal, stubborn and knows her mind and what she wants. 

Jason: A sensitive and, frankly, bewildered guy who spends most of his life trying to figure out what the hell is going on with it. 

Adam: The gorgeous and talented movie star who makes mistakes like only a movie star could. 

Duncan: Aaaaah, Duncan. There are no words for Duncan. He's just... Duncan. The most laid back person in the universe...

And guys, there are many more... a whole group of survivors who are thrown together and forced to live in a new version of the world they are used to. Book 1 explores the initial reaction to the end of the world as they know it and how they adapt to it, Book 2 looks at the new world they have created. Book 2 also offers new characters to the storyline, such as Edinburgh, Belfast, Alice and Parker, and how they effect the lives of the original characters. It is a world that has taken over my life and I would love it if you knew about it as well. 

If you have read the books, or choose to read them in future, it would be really amazing if I could hear about what you think of it. I welcome all comments, even if you hated it. Feedback is important to me and I always like to hear what people outside of my brain think of it. If you want to give your opinions, then there's the Amazon page for comments (please do write something on there if you've read it, it helps with other people deciding whether or not to read it), there's the comments section on this blog and also you can email me via the white box in the right hand bar. Alternatively there's twitter and instagram, or you can just try shouting really loudly from the top of a rooftop... you never know, I might hear it. 

So the links bit. Once again, the links to buying the book vary, dependant on the country that you are currently living in. If you are in the UK then you can get your copy by clicking here and it is £6.10. If you are in the USA then you can get your copy by clicking here  and it is $10.30. For all other countries, you can find it by going to your own local Amazon site and typing in Lisa J Harries, which will take you to both books. 

Okay, that's enough about that. Thank you for supporting me in my dream, you make me feel all sorts of slightly inappropriate feelings. 

Fancy Thing and Reason No 2

A very Fancy lady who is missed a hell of a lot.

There was a reason that I wanted to publish my book on this day. You see, it's the anniversary of the day a very good friend of mine died. It happened 4 years ago today, and you may have heard me talk about her at this time of year in previous years. Her name was Tammy. She was awesome. I worked with her about three jobs back, when I lived in Essex and before I started writing on this thing. She was massively inappropriate in everything she had to say and had absolutely no filter between her brain and mouth. She also was the best person to dare to do something, as I never once saw her back down from it. She was this amazing 'larger than life' character that was taken far too young (still in her 20s) by cancer. 

Over the years since her death, I've drawn on her for inspiration. If she wanted something, she wasn't afraid to fight for it. She never apologised for who she was and was never afraid to ask for help when she needed it. Her fight against cancer towards the end was amazing. She was strong, even in her weakest moments, and it sucked that somehow the sodding thing beat her anyway. Whenever I do something big that means something to me, like publishing this book, I'm reminded of her. I wrote a post a year after she had died for this blog, and you are more than welcome to read it here. 

The really sucky thing about it all now however, is that the memories that were once so fresh in my mind have become out of focus and I'm not able to trust the accuracy of them anymore. Although, I will say that her laugh is still as clear in my mind as it was when she was alive... she had the dirtiest laugh of anyone I knew.

Most of my posts on her in the past have been reflective and, quite frankly, sad. However, I wanted this one to be a celebration of who she was. I wanted to take a moment to say on Fancy Things Friday, that she was very Fancy and awesome and everything else in between. She made us all laugh, all the time. She would pull practical jokes and talk about the status of her lady parts to anyone who would want to hear. 

She was this amazing gal, and I wanted to let you all know that she existed. If she had lived up to when I started writing on this thing, no doubt her antics would all be in here. But life sucks sometimes and people are taken away from us for no rhyme or reason. We adapt and move on, but it's so important that we never forget. Luckily for Tams, she had a personality that is forever engraved into the brains of all who knew her, so the likelihood of anyone forgetting her is very small indeed. 

So tonight, when you're out on the town, or sharing a meal with a few people, raise a glass to the beautiful Tammy and everything she represented; strength, humour, confidence and drive. Then go ahead and have a freakin' awesome night, because trust me, that's what she would be doing. 

Have an awesome weekend. 

Peace out my lovelies. 

The week of nerves and a formal apology

If last week was my week of happiness, then this week has been my week of "being so full of nerves, I could throw up at any moment."

These are all good nerves... I think. All nerves that have only come into play because I'm trying new things and putting myself out there. My main reasons for these nerves are the super secret thing I'm doing that I'm not telling anyone until I find out if I'm successful (note: if you don't hear me talk about this after a while, you can just take it I was unsuccessful in my attempts, otherwise I will announce my success for everyone to hear), and the not so secret fact that I am publishing my second book on Amazon tomorrow. Ladies and gents, I'm pretty much at the point of cacking myself right now.

Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of the book and I'm happy with how it came out, however, I'm now hitting the point that I've finished editing it, but don't trust myself in my editing, so keep on going back to re-read it and make further adjustments. This is why I need to publish this thing tomorrow, otherwise I'm in danger of reaching that moment where I've read it so much that I begin to hate everything about it and resort to deleting it permanently from my computer in a fit of rage. I can't really afford for that to happen, due to the sheer amount of sweat and tears that went into creating it.

My first book, Utopia, was written in the space of just a couple of months. The editing then took the majority of the time. This book however, was written in just under a year. My reasons for this are:

A: The storyline is a little more complex and I've had to constantly check that my timings are right and it doesn't contradict the first book in any way.
B: I have been editing the shizzle out of it as I have been writing it. As opposed to the first one where I just wrote non stop before I attempted to adjust anything.
C: I made a decision for a certain storyline at the beginning of the book that I have kept to, but that has taken some emotional toll in writing... I won't say anything else, no spoilers here. But let's just say that there have been certain moments in the book that I have been fearful of writing. It makes sense for the overall storyline etc and definitely couldn't be any other way, but all the same, there has been some severe avoidance techniques that have been used in this particular writing process.

I've been fairly zen about the whole 'publishing another book' process, until Tuesday night, when I lay in bed for the majority of the night, wide eyed and terrified. You see, it's another one of my babies that I am giving you. It's taken a lot of my insides to create (figuratively of course, I have not been forming my intestines into some kind of pen contraption and writing the words in blood or anything) and now I'm about to present it to anyone in the world who wants to read it. I.am.cacking.myself.

I've also been working on my zero money budget for advertising and realised I had made a huge mistake in this, this morning. You see, I thought it would be an awesome idea to just go ahead and count down the days until the book is published. However, it would appear that I included the actual day of publication as one of my days, thus meaning that tomorrow would be 'one day to go' rather than 'no days to go.' (You may have noticed that yesterday, I said we had 3 days to go, when it should have been 2.)

As soon as I realised my mistake, I released a video of apology (in true politician form), admitting my mistake, and uploaded it onto all the necessary social networking places. I wanted to mention it here as well, guys I am sorry that I am so 'special', the concept of counting down from 10 is lost on me. Maths has always been my weakest ability... in that I don't have it as an ability at all. As such, my countdown has lost a little bit of credibility now, but please don't hold it against me... or the book... I steer clear of the topic of maths in the book so it shouldn't cause any controversy.

As a plus, I've made Book 1 even more easier to buy! To promote A World Reborn, Book 1 (Utopia) is now available for the bargain price of 77p in the UK and (I think) 99 cents in the USA, and then whatever the equivalent is for all the other currencies, check out your country's Amazon site to see what you have. Basically it's mega cheap now. Like, the same amount you might pay for a chocolate bar or a packet of crisps. Once again, the link to this book is in the right hand bar.

I'm going to go now and throw up a little... or just rock backwards and forwards in an attempt to calm the nerves, but thanks for all your support so far in these books. You are beautiful and lovely and make my world that little bit more perfect for being in it.

Until tomorrow...

Peace out my lovelies

Next on Netflix: American Horror Story. AKA, my new obsession

Next On Netflix: Where I take my guilt from all my Netflix procrastination and turn it into something I can justify.

I know I said I'd do this weekly, so far I have failed in this. Mainly due to last week being a very productive week in other things and, for the first time since signing up to Netflix, I barely had a chance to watch anything on it. 

However, all of that changed this weekend, due to Friday night's debacle or as I'm now calling it, my body's latest shameless cry for attention. As such, I was holed up in my room for the entire weekend with nothing to keep me company but Netflix. It was then that I decided I would try out the weird series on my home screen that kept popping up. This was American Horror Story. 

Now, apparently this show is pretty popular, so I'm still trying to work out how I had never heard of it prior to seeing it advertised on Netflix, but boy am I glad I found it. Guys, I binge watched the shizzle out of that show. I watched all three available series in three days and in the brief moments where I was unable to watch it, I sat there and thought about it, longing to be back to watching it again. I haven't got this obsessive over a series that wasn't written by Stephen Moffat for years... like every addictive fix, I have been crashing hard since I finished the marathon on Monday afternoon. 

Okay, so what I'm about to do now is going to be very hypocritical of me, so I'm going to put a warning on the following content. On Saturday, I announced that I had begun to watch American Horror Story, and friends of mine proceeded to talk about all three seasons in my comments feed. Now, what they had to say, reading back on it now, was not really very spoiler filled. They gave away the basic premise of the show, but not any of the content, and also discussed their opinions on it... I may have got the teensiest bit irate with them, as I didn't want to know anything, prior to watching it. I also full on stopped reading the comments for fear of them revealing anything that would spoil it for me. What I'm about to discuss now, having watched all three seasons, is pretty much everything they revealed in their comments. Having watched it fully, I've come to accept that they're not spoilers but rather a general premise of the show. My thoughts also are that this particular feature is meant to be set up as a review on recommendations to watch on the show, so therefore I would hope that you would be on here to find out some more about it. However, if you want to go in completely blind and just take my word for it that it will be the best thing you've watched in a while, then stop reading now, go forth and get obsessed. Just know that the title is the title for a reason. Some of that shizzle gets pretty creepy... if you hate that kind of thing, you won't like it. 

Okay, so here's the review. 

The basic concept of the show is that each season it tells a new horror story. This is done to such an extent, that there is no need to watch these series in any form of order. If you want to watch season 3 first, go ahead, no back story is needed, and there is absolutely zero links between the seasons. The only thing that happens to be the same is that they use the same actors. Although these actors play different characters at the start of each season. 

There are weaker seasons than others. For example, their season 1 would probably be their strongest, season 3 close behind, and season 2 not so much. I was suitably warned about season 2 in my announcement of watching it, however I wasn't as disappointed in it as the rest of my friends had appeared to be. 

Season 1 focuses on the storyline of a haunted house. A new family move into a house that has a silly amount of ghosts in it and a storyline is born. Season 2 is based in an asylum in the 60s. The overall concept of this particular season I can get on board with. However, they have a couple of subplots involved that don't really seem to mesh with the rest of the storyline. I think this is where they end up falling short of the standard that they have otherwise held in the other seasons. Season 3 is based around a witches coven. It opens up as a kind of Twilightesque teen melodrama with diary entries written by teenagers, but soon adds its spin on it that takes it away from being anything suitable for the younger generation. 

Certain actors have shown up in only one of the seasons or appear in cameos for multiple seasons, but there are a core set of actors who stay in the forefront and are simply amazing. Also, there have been some pretty big names who have turned up for a one off season; people like Kathy Bates (Season 3), Joseph Fiennes (Season 2),  and Zachary Quinto (Seasons 1 and 2) to name a few. 

My favourite people, and the ones who appear to carry the show, in my humble opinion, are three of the main forefront actors. They are in all three seasons and their performances make me squeal with excitement. These three are Lily Rabe, Jessica Lange and (just wow) Evan Peters. 

People, before you roll your eyes at my mention of Evan Peters, yes I am aware that he is beautiful and does only get more beautiful with every episode, but this isn't the reason for my choosing him in my top three (although it certainly doesn't hurt his case). My reason for adoring him so much is because he knows how to portray perfectly a mix of creepy and loveable, all in one go. It was like he was made for this show. He has played three very different characters in the series and each time he nails it. His performance is simply stunning and I cannot wait to see what he does in Season 4. Lily Rabe and Jessica Lange are pretty much up there for the exact same reason. They just throw themselves into their characters and are the three actors that, at the beginning of each new season, I was waiting impatiently to see who they would be this time. 

I need to be very clear before I leave you with this highly recommended watch on Netflix... if you are easily creeped out and don't like things of a scary nature, please don't watch this show. It is scary. If you, like me, are able to tolerate it, then I would recommend it. The scariness does tend to wear off after a while as you get to know the characters and, actually, by the time I was halfway through Season 2, I realised that the most scary part of the show was the opening credits... I always conveniently found I had something I needed to do on my phone whilst those were on... not nice. If you have zero problems with scary movies then you will probably adore this show, but you probably are also already aware of it...

It is one of the best things that I have watched on Netflix in a while, and I am seriously withdrawing from it at the moment. I'm even tempted just to go back and watch Season 1 again, although I fear that might be a little excessive. I hear rumours that Season 4 is based in a Carnival, which already blows my mind, without having to know anything else... 

Watch it. It's awesome. 

Peace out my lovelies. 

PS: 3 days to go until A World Reborn! I am officially beginning to freak out over this now... nerves are setting in... but do not fear, for I will ensure that no amount of nervous breakdown will stop me from releasing it... no matter how severe. I shall prevail!!

A night in A&E that showed my true colours...

Okay, so in England this weekend, we've had a 3 day weekend. In the May month, we get the first and last Monday off as a bank holiday, which is awesome and I still have no idea why it's there... but who's complaining?

I had plans this weekend. It mainly involved One-And-Only-Daniela, singing round a piano, followed by a cinema and then a happy hour that we were going to abuse. It was going to be awesome. None of this happened, however, as Friday night my body did that thing it does every so often, which was become an attention seeking idiot.

So, being the hardcore party person that I am, I decided that I was going to go to bed early on Friday night so that I could wake up nice and early, work on the final touches of the editing process of my book, and then head off to One-And-Only-Daniela's house. So, at 8:30pm, I snuggled down deep into my duvet and waited for the sweet, sweet sleep I was dying for to take over. However, as I lay down, something in my lower back started to ache. It wasn't a really bad pain, it felt more uncomfortable than anything else, so I changed position and hoped that would appease it. It didn't. Instead, the uncomfortable feeling just seemed to grow until it started to qualify as an actual pain. By this point, I had discovered that adding a little pressure onto the spot, namely a pillow wedged in between my back and the bed, seemed to help with the weird pain. Not sure what it was that I was experiencing, I tried once again to fall asleep, with this new found alleviation. It worked for about 20 minutes.

After roughly an hour of this pain, I gave up the idea of sleep and tried to distract my mind by opening up my computer and doing some editing instead. I tried, but the pain had begun to grow to a point where my brain didn't want to focus on anything else. Realising that this wasn't the right frame of mind to be in for an editing session, I decided to watch me some TV instead. I got about one episode into The Office USA before all hell broke loose in my back and I shot up and out of my bed, choosing to pace the room instead.

By 10:30, I realised that this pain was not going to get any better, but just get worse. I called The-Father, who is a frequent enjoyer of the kidney stone at least once a year, and listed my symptoms. He confirmed that it sounded like it could be kidney stones and thought it best I headed off to A&E, just to be safe.

So, off I trotted in the middle of the night, to A&E. I arrived via bus, and the apparent kidney/lower back pain had decided to choose this wonderful moment, once in the company of a bunch of strangers, to up the anti and the pain became something that was getting to unbearable. This was the point that I found out who my true self was, and just how far the influences of the British nature around me had warped my personality.

Words cannot describe to you all the pain I began to feel from that point onwards. I had never felt anything like it myself, I wanted to simultaneously cry, scream, punch something and collapse into the nearest strangers' arms. However, due to my intensely suppressed British upbringing, I did none of these things. I arrived at A&E, waited whilst the receptionists all seemed to be deliberately ignoring my presence for about 5 minutes and spoke to them, only when called, as per the sign's instructions next to me. I was at a point where I couldn't stand still, I had to constantly move just to try and find some kind of alleviation, although it barely did any good. But, I realised that there were a large amount of people in A&E, waiting to be seen, and it would do no good to make a fuss. As such, I filled in the form they gave me, giving details about my marital status and religious beliefs, then waited a while longer for the receptionist to deem to acknowledge me again, as she had gone back to refusing to make eye contact, whilst she worked on her computer.

I considered clearing my throat, or saying 'Excuse me' at one point during this moment of being ignored, but figured that she was probably very busy and so there was no reason to rock the boat. So I waited, and she eventually turned her attention back to me, took the form, and told me to take a seat.

I did as I was told... for about 10 minutes, until the act of sitting became far too uncomfortable... well actually it became uncomfortable about 2 minutes in, but I figured all I'd do was draw attention to myself if I got up and started pacing the room, so decided to just wait out the pain. After 10 minutes, I had no choice and my body seemed to force me to stand and walk. People did look, and I could feel myself giving them an apologetic look... again, I don't know why. But apparently I was sorry for having a pain that meant I couldn't sit still like the rest of them...

I waited for another couple of hours and, at about 1am, I was called in to see the nurse. She didn't seem all that convinced that I was in pain and told me to wait to see the Doctor. There was one very real reason why she didn't seemed that concerned, this reason was, I could feel myself actually downplaying the pain. I had no control over my reactions anymore. No matter how much I wanted to just tell her that I had never felt a pain like it, or that I really needed to see a doctor straight away, otherwise I was afraid of passing out if it got any more intense, I just simply smiled at her, told her it was pretty uncomfortable and that I think it would be beneficial for me to see a doctor. She sent me back out to the waiting room to wait for him to see her.

What happened in the waiting period between 1am and 3am, when the doctor eventually saw me, is a bit of blur. The pain continued to grow steadily, I could no longer sit for longer than a minute and I paced that room at least 100 times. I found my head popping up like a meerkat any time a doctor came out and called out a name, and then drop down in despair when that name wasn't mine. However, in amongst all of this, I had only two thoughts...

A: I will not make a fuss and bring any more attention to myself than is necessary.
B: The-Father and Marmie have had one ongoing debate for as long as I have been alive. This debate is, which is more painful? Kidney Stones or Childbirth? Neither could answer this question as The-Father is incapable of having children and Marmie has never experienced kidney stones. Should this turn out to be kidney stones; one day, when I eventually get round to having kids of my own, I will be able to finally answer this question once and for all. I know it sounds strange, but it was the only thing I could think of.

By the end of my wait, my natural impulse to downplay all pain was becoming next to impossible. I was no longer able to stop the tears from running down my face, and so resorted to wiping them away as soon as they emerged. I found myself close to going up to the reception and asking the woman when I would be able to be seen... although, still my desire not to cause any unnecessary fuss won over and I continued to fight the urge. I didn't want to be seen as difficult, after all.

When the doctor came out and actually called my name, I have never sprinted towards him so quickly in my life... seriously Usain Bolt had nothing on me. He guided me to the examination room and the moment I got in there, I turned to him and every part of my suppressed self control exploded... I sobbed like a freakin' baby in front of this man. He looked at me, completely shocked, slowly edged over to the door and called for a nurse to come in and inject me with some pain medication. They came in, did their thing, and within 20 minutes the pain had gone, leaving nothing but a floaty, buzzed feeling in it's wake. I have never been more appreciative for drugs than in that moment. I sat on the bed and let them prod at me with needles, with nothing but a smile on my face.

By 4am, it was all done. He sent me home with painkillers and a shrug as he didn't know what was wrong with me, but asked that I come back for more tests later in the week. I was so spaced out by this point that I didn't argue with him. I was sleep deprived and high on medication. I grabbed a cab and went home, collapsing onto my bed.

It's now four days later and I have spent it predominantly in bed. The pain hasn't come back to the extent that it was before. I still don't really know what it was, but am beginning to suspect that it was the pain in my arm thing that my body put me through, all over again. I'm getting really tired of it's shenanigans, let me tell you that. However, I am grateful that the pain seems to have shifted and now only comes in small twinges. I'm just hoping it stays that way! And if it isn't kidney stones, I'm okay with not being able to settle The-Parents' debate once and for all. I mean, the answer to that debate has been gnawing at our family for decades, but I am not desperate enough to answer it by wishing for my issue to have been stones... that shizzle can stay unanswered for all time if needs be.

Peace out my lovelies.

PS: 4 days to go until A World Reborn is available on Amazon! Book 2 in the Utopia Series. If you haven't read the first book yet, check out the link in the right hand bar! It's exciting! Although, I appreciate that my view might be slightly biased, as I am the one who wrote it... 

Fancy Things Friday: Justin Timberlake and his 20:20 vision of yumminess

Welcome to Fancy Things Friday, where I talk about things on a Friday that I think are fancy!!

A few months ago (whenever it came out) I purchased part one of the Justin Timberlake 20:20 Experience album. I, as I always do whenever that man does anything slightly musical, LOVED it. This week, I finally got round to purchasing part two of this album. This is mainly because I was paid a little extra money this month and figured I'd celebrate this with getting me some more of the Timberlake. It has become the only thing that I have been listening to all week... with the exception of yesterday when I was doing some nerve racking stuff and so had my "psych myself up to achieve greatness with a smile on my face" song on repeat all day, which at the moment is Pharrell Williams' Happy (another very fancy thing).

As is normally the way I choose the Fancy Thing for my Fridays, I naturally decided that this would be my topic, due to it being the thing that I have overused obsessively this week. I am going to extend my Fancy Thing to include Justin Timberlake as a whole, however, as seriously... that man... it's just not healthy to be that beautiful and sing and dance and create music the way he does. He does very strange things to me. Beautiful, beautiful man...

I kinda accidentally fell in love with the Timberlake. I wasn't really a massive N-Sync fan, preferring the Irish tones of Boyzone as a teenager, and when he went solo I didn't really have an opinion on any of his songs. However, I was working in McDonalds at the time, (as everyone does as some point in their lives... it's like a rite of passage) and he began his "I'm lovin it" promotion. Due to this, we managed to score free tickets to his first concert tour for his Justified album, and I wasn't going to turn those bad boys down.

So, my 18 year old self got all dressed up in a pink ensemble (I was a little obsessed with the colour at the time... my dress sense has a very interesting past, let's just leave it at that) and I headed off with a bunch of work colleagues to Earl's Court for the concert. The seats we had were amazing and we were quite near the front, so naturally I was already impressed before the concert even began. However, when it began, oh my days, I turned into complete and utter mush. I screamed until I lost my voice, I gaped at his general sexiness all the way through, and when he began his beat boxing segment, as an introduction to Rock your Body, I realised that my opinion of him would never be the same again. There was now only one opinion to have, and that was he was simply the most awesome artist I've ever known.

I will say that my enthusiasm for the man has calmed down as I've gotten older. Don't get me wrong, I still love everything he produces and performs, but I no longer fantasise about the kids we were inevitably going to have and how much he was going to fall in love with me, the moment he set eyes on me etc and so forth... yes, I was a teenage girl with questionable fashion taste and an unbelievably cliche mind.

Naturally, I went to the second concert tour for his Futuresex/Lovesounds album and, due to paying for these tickets myself this time, only managed to get seats up in the really dangerous section, where one wrong misstep would result in a plummet to my death, taking a multitude of Timberlake obsessed fans with me. Thankfully, I managed to stay alive and on my feet, although just a tiny bit terrified for the entire concert. Once again, this man performed in a way that did very hot and flustering things to me and my love for him grew.

I am sad to say that I have not been able to get tickets for this recent tour, which has been gutting for me, however, I've been making up for it with overplaying the new albums until I know every inch of them as much as his first two albums. I'm not quite there yet, but almost.

If you haven't bought the latest albums, or indeed any of them, yet, then do it. Do it now! Each album tends to take on a new theme and style from the last one, making them all very different to each other. 20:20 Experience is no exception. He has explored a variety of different styles throughout the songs, and is strongly influenced by a 1920's style. I will say that, as it stands, I prefer his previous 2 albums over this one, but that does not at all mean that it isn't good. It's still freakin' awesome, because the Timberlake doesn't know how to create bad music. Full stop. No arguments...

Now for him to just learn that trick for his movies... I'm getting really tired of having to use the statement "I do like it, but only because I love him... otherwise, yes I understand how you might think it's a crap film"... With the exception of Blacksnake Moan, I cannot for the life of me work out why I love that film so much, but I do.

Peace out my lovelies

(PS: 8 days to go until A World Reborn: Book 2 in the Utopia Series is available on Amazon! Exciting, no? Buy your copy on Friday 9th May 2014... if you want, no pressure... I'm not demanding you do it or anything... unless that works for you? In that case, BUY IT!!)

Just a little bit of advertising hype.

9 days to go until A World Reborn is available on Amazon!! Book 2 in the Utopia Series. First book is in the right hand column, if you fancy buying something to read this weekend... Go on, you know you want to...

After yesterday's post, I found out that the tube strike wasn't being extended to today, like I thought. Therefore, the trains were all normal and shizzle this morning, which is yet another reason for me to be happy this week. To celebrate this, I have been playing Pharell Williams' Happy on repeat all day... it is actually impossible to listen to that song and not at least click your fingers and nod your head whilst doing so.

So, I've decided, regardless of having no existing budget for an advertising campaign in the lead up to the release of my new book, I would just go ahead and do one anyway. The only limit I have had is that I have no money... so far, I've been coping pretty well.

I began my countdown to the release (*cough* 9th May 2014 *cough*) yesterday in form of photos. The best forum to advertise these photos? Why Instagram of course. As such, I have created a new Utopia instagram page!! So far, I have 4 followers so it's going well!! However, if you would like to join this page, then please do and the link is ***HERE***. The profile name is Welcome_to_utopia and it has a total of 2 pictures on it!! Huzzah!! Success!! I will be uploading others... basically it's a way for me to document the process of writing and publishing the books, as I do them, in image form, so as to keep you all updated. I will continue to use it as I write books 3 to... I want to say, 10??? Not too sure yet, but definitely 7. It would mean the world to me if you joined and followed me. I promise to try and be as entertaining as I can on it...

One-And-Only-Daniela has officially taken over as PR of the books and is suitably ordering me around in the world of social networking, in order to create more hype about them. It's awesome, but also feels a little like I'm at school again... she sets me homework and gets really annoyed when I don't do what she asks in time...

All of this means that there will be cool and interesting things heading your way in terms of this and will also mean that I can stop bugging the people who don't really care about the book, and only bug those who do. Basically, at the moment, my only forums are twitter, facebook, and this blog, which are all places where the people who are following or are friends with me, are there because of me, rather than my books, so I kinda feel all guilty and weird to paste all my advertising over it... I'm pretty certain that, once all the necessary "Official Utopia Series" pages are up and running, the viewing of these pages will be pretty minimal, but I'm prepared. (Thank you again to the 10-20 people who have read my book, you are my rock).

Okay, enough of that. I'm off now to listen to some more Pharell Williams and I will see you all tomorrow. You are beautiful people and I love you all in a very inappropriate way.

Peace out my lovelies.