Time to go…

Decided to move back to Blogger. Loved the pages option in WordPress, but just found out about the ads that appear to other visitors. A bit sneaky that; I never realised they were there. How come WordPress can advertise, but I can’t?

So I’m off.

Care to follow? – www.colinmulhern.com

 

3 Rope Trick part 2

That first version looks a bit sloppy, so I came up with a method where I can show the inside of my hand.

3 Rope Trick

Okay, nothing to do with writing, but everything to do with reliving my youth. The video says it all really. This is a trick I saw as a kid, but for some reason, while I’ve learned others, I never found a solution to this. So yesterday, I went out, got some cheap rope (I removed the central core to make it more floppy) and decided to give it a go.

Chop Chop Chop

Oh, the pain, the agony. I did this playing with Jack’s toy helicopter, trying to catch it while he increased the rotor speed.

Ah, okay, it’s nothing but a big fib. Jack also got some horror make-up and I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been interested in horror make-up and special effects since I was a kid.

When I was about eleven years old, I got this for Christmas… It looked amazing, with latex moulds and actual latex stuff to pour into them, grease pain, false hair and blood capsules. Unfortunately, the results didn’t really come up to the standard on the box cover. I just looked like a kid with bits of plastic glued to my face.

A few years later, I wrote to BBC’s Take Hart because there had been a bloke on called Christopher Tucker, who had done the make-up for The Company of Wolves. I wanted to learn how to do horror make-up for real. The Beeb passed on my letter, and I got one back, but ended up doing electronics instead. Never mind, the dream still lives on, so when our Jack got some Snazeroo Speceial FX Moulding Wax, I was more excited than he was.

Childhood dreams never die, they just lurk until you get a chance to be a kid once more – even if it’s just for a few hours.

Arabesque Teaser

This is the reason for the painting of Becky. It’s not brilliant, but ticks most of the boxes I had in mind.

Painting #005 Becky

My 100 paintings idea is going a bit slower than I first thought. I’ve only done this because I fancied doing a short promo movie for my second novel.

The painting didn’t turn out as well as I hoped, but I’m pretty rusty these days. It did the job though. Thanks to Becky for posing for the photos!

 

Kids Cage Fighting

I was interviewed by The Times over this. (THE TIMES!!!), and I’ve had several people ask my opinion, probably because I wrote CLASH. But you don’t need to be an author to have an opinion on this. For what it’s worth, here’s my piece.

image copyright: The Sun

Is competitive sport good for kids? Well, yes, for some it is. It is the competitive element, to go up against other kids of the same age, at the same level, that drives many to be the best they can be.

Mixed Martial Arts – or cage fighting – is a sport. And like other contact sports, such as judo or boxing, it requires discipline to learn and pays off with many benefits: it builds confidence and self esteem; it develops spatial awareness, balance and strategy.

It’s the arena in which MMA competitions take place that gives me grounds for concern.

In CLASH, I put Alex Crow in a situation that exploited his cage fighting skills for adult entertainment. It was based on something I’d already witnessed in amateur boxing, something that left me cold and having to question whether adult venues are a suitable choice for children’s competitive sport.

The scenes in CLASH were fictional, and set at a time when cage fighting was relatively unknown, taking place in a warehouse with the cage built from bits of mesh fencing. Everything about the place was meant to be scary and intimidating to justify the actions of Alex in his school life. So although the cage fighting we saw on the news had experts and medics present to ensure the competitors were safe, the atmosphere outside the cage was just as terrifying as the fictional version. And that’s worrying.

If junior level cage fighting is to get the respect it deserves it needs to follow the guidelines of other sports, giving the same attention to making the environment outside the cage is as controlled as it is within. Judo matches, for example, take place in a gymnasium, with an audience of club members – not drunken, screaming adults.

There is definitely a place for junior MMA in the sporting world, but that position is open to abuse if it’s main shifts from developing sporting skills to adult entertainment.

Kids Cage Fighting On News

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing last night. Scenes I wrote from imagination in CLASH, right there on TV. I think this image from The Sun really hit home as it shows the adults cheering and baying.

image copyright: The Sun

In the novel, Alex Crow is forced into illegal cage fighting at a young age and it totally screws him up. There’s a little more to it than that, but it doesn’t take a genius to think that putting kids in cages in an adult environment is going to have negative psychological repercussions.

In short, it made me feel sick.

The Biscuit Publishing Party

I’ve been invited to talk at the Biscuit Publishing Party, this Thursday evening, at the Lit and Phil in Newcastle.

The  Lit & Phil (Literary & Philosophical Society) is the largest independent library outside London, housing over 150,000 books. The 1885 listed building holds a wide selection of current fiction and non-fiction alongside historical collections covering every field of interest.

The Biscuit Publishing Party celebrates the winners of their annual writing competitions in poetry, short stories and flash fiction.

There’s an open mic slot from 4:30 – 7:00. This will include Tom Kelly, Celia Bryce and me.

At 7, Brian Lister (MD of Biscuit) will introduce the winners for a dual book launch:

• Sky Light:  a collection of short stories by Peter Bromley
• Under the Street Lamp: poetry by Asit Maitra

After that, there’ll be a questions and answers section with all of us.

It should be a great night. I’ll post an update with pics at the end of the week.

Waterstones Signing

I spent today in Waterstones, Sunderland. A big thanks to Linda and the rest of the team for putting up with me and especially for the amazing blackboard drawing (right). I didn’t realise this was there until it was nearly time to go. I managed to snap a pic on my mobile.

A big thanks to everyone who bought a copy. It was great to chat to so many people. There was no typical buyer; sales ranged from a ten year old, a good few teens, but mainly adults!

If you were one of them, let me know what you think.

More importantly, recommend it to others !