So, I received a weird e-mail today...

I woke up this this in my inbox... what do you think it means?!

Dear Russia,

We need to talk.

I’m sorry that I have to do this in a blog post, but you forced my hand on this one. Anyone who has read my stuff knows that I write vividly gay characters, characters so gay that you’d be shitting rainbows for a month and craving Skittles at every meal. I’m also an historian, you know this, and you know I love reading about your Tsars and the whackjobs you allowed to rule you between 1917 and 1991.

No, Russia! Don’t cry – you still have a beautiful history…. No, wait, it’s full of anti-Semitism and dictatorship. Plus you’ve had your people under surveillance by varying forms of Secret Police since the early… was it the 500s or the 1500s? I can never remember, either way you hold the record for lack of trust in your own people!

Okay, so your language is pretty awesome – no, wait, when translated into English it becomes a Grammar Nazi’s worst nightmare. Well, it sounds beautiful. Some of your best music came from the period of the Great Patriot War! Remember Rasvitaly yabliny ee grushy from Katyusha? What about Malinka Kalinka? Oh, that’s right, both of those songs served as propaganda to promote Stalin’s ridiculous arms race against the United States.

I’ll be blunt with you: your anti-gay laws are throwing off historians and writers from other countries. How do you expect to go down in history as a democracy when you – a member state of the United Nations – are so casually revoking the basic rights of freedom from your own population? The militant skinheads of Occupy Paedophilia are by no means doing you any favours by publicising their attacks through the internet – it’s as though the Soviet Era has completely erased your sense of dignity!

Then again, I suppose this generation of Russians – as well as their forebears – have grown up under such strict surveillance as to make CCTV look like child’s play.

I’m sorry to have done this in writing, Russia, when I would so gladly have flown to Moscow and danced to YMCA while wearing rainbow spandex to break it off in person. You knew this was coming, Russia, when you passed those laws. History will not look upon you kindly.

Through dusk and dawn,
Through liberty and wit,
You have been dumped,
Sincerely,
The Rainbow Tit.

The "Gone" Series and Modern History

From concentration camps in Gone to the nuclear option in Fear, the Gone series makes remarkable parallels to the key events of eighteenth- to twentieth-century history including but not limited to: pre-and-post-Revolutionary France, the Cold War and the World Wars. The early days of the Fallout Alley Youth Zone (FAYZ) show strong similarities to the French Revolution, coming to a close circle by the events of Fear. The nuclear option is an ever-present motif right from the beginning and will be used in reference to the Cuban Missiles Crisis.  To paraphrase Lang, “every story written now is the product of its time – everything that happened one hundred years ago is evident in a story written today.”

The Darkness can be taken as a substitute for a dictator such as Hitler or Stalin. The FAYZ can be seen as a form of concentration camp as it isolates children below the age of 15, comparable to Hitler’s treatment of various groups during the Second World War. When Sam is looked upon as a leader, it is a mirror of when the Allies were looked upon to bring the Axis Powers to justice. However, Calder claims that the British war effort of ‘equality of sacrifice’ was strong enough to unite and mobilise the nation in a British Levee en Masse. Sam is put upon to be the leader, the one to sort out everything, much like the Allies. By the end of Gone, it is evident that some characters will be prejudiced towards others and this will lead into situations comparable to some of the worst events in history.

With the exception of the Berlin Airlift, the events of Hunger can be used to demonstrate the modern implications of rationing and capitalism as experienced in the 20^th Century on the modern generation or ‘the Golden Generation.’ Although Harold MacMillan claimed that the Fifties “never had it so good” it might be argued that the current, 21^st-century world might be better than that of the 1950s. Although unemployment was at a record low in 1950 when compared to 2010, by the latter decade the populations of Britain and America experienced more civil liberties. The addition of currency by Albert Hillsborough also rules out the possibility of the FAYZ becoming a Communist regime – this may be due to the fact that the author is American, and some historians suggest that Americans are raised with an innate sense of caution toward the possibility of Communism, particularly those who grew up during the Cold War – which plays on “carrot and stick” psychology in Sam and Co.’s attempts to get kids to work.

By the end of Lies Astrid has taken on the role of social pariah, her only saving grace being her decision to finally create a code of conduct within the FAYZ; the preceding debate leading up to this is similar to that of the Norway Debate, which Paananen argues was an integral moment in the early days of the Second World War because it triggered Hitler’s invasion of Scandinavia.  In a similar vein, Sir William Beveridge delivered the Beveridge Report in 1942, although this was generally well-received and he was much admired for his recommendations in stark contrast to Astrid who did not experience such a reception. The historian Addison criticised Beveridge for his lack of economic pragmatism in excluding the elderly, of whom there were more and more in Britain with each succeeding year; this is a parallel one could draw with the Gone series due to the absence of adults. One could even go as far as to argue that Lies foreshadows the discovery of King Richard III’s skeleton insofar that Brittney’s power of regeneration kept the debate alive.

The events of Plague bear an obvious reminiscence to the Black Death experienced by Europe during from Middle Ages through to the eighteenth century, although the nature of waste disposal is starkly akin to the slum conditions of early C-20 Britain and America. It is also in Plague where we see the use of biological warfare by the Darkness; this is in the form of ‘greenies.’ It could be said that this is a physical realisation of the use of smallpox and anthrax by the Soviet government during the Cold War, but given that ‘greenies’ dismember their prey and behave in a similar manner to parasites, this is unlikely.

Finally, Fear is the ultimate in the democracy versus dictatorship debate which is reminiscent of pre-Revolutionary France. Caine Soren’s monarchical reign is similar to that of Louis XVI before the French Revolution of 1789, so it is not surprising when Penny exacts her revenge toward the end of the story with no one intervening to save him in a surprisingly similar manner to the Terror. Sam Temple, however, runs the closest possible regime to a democracy. One might even call it ‘Communism’ but for the fact that currency and democratic external trade (i.e. between Lake Tramonto and Perdido Beach) exists on this basis. The Levee en Masse is realised through the birth of the Gaiaphage as the kids unite to overthrow her, but fast forward 173 years into the future to 1962, and by the end of Fear the Cuban Missiles Crisis is evident as the FAYZ Wall is nuked to oblivion and the kids look out hopefully into the world they thought they would never know again.

MeetingLife Journal Project

The Girl.


The human personality is a complex, fragile one. It is beautiful and ugly, endless and finite. A person can inspire and defeat, encourage and discourage, make friends and enemies. I have been downgraded to the lower depths of humanity, grown up in unlikely places with unlikely fellows. I am many things. In 19 years I have seen more defeat, been discouraged and made more enemies than I would like to count.

I am an abuse survivor.

I am a bullying victim.

I am an artist.

I am a student.

I am a friend.

I am an athlete of many sports.

I am a Nightwish, Blind Guardian and Rammstein fan.

I am a Potterhead.

I am a reader.

I am imaginative.

I am indifferent.

I am an insignificant blip of time in the universe, and I intend to make it count.

In the years to come, I will make up for lost time and become what no one believed I would ever be, but what I know I can achieve.

War is a state of mind, and I will win it.

Dexterity is mathematical, and I will harness it.

Creativity is empowering, and I will inspire it.

Peace is music, and I will learn it.

Intelligence is diverse, and I will earn it.

An open letter to customers,

People suck... Some are cool and worth tolerating, everyone else can fucking suck it. If people didn’t exist, the world would be a happier place because it would not have been destroyed by the territorial nature of humanity. And yes, I am aware that this would mean I wouldn’t exist, but maybe that would be for the best.

Working in customer service, I have seen the blatant lack of respect individuals hold for each other. I have had people call me worthless, incompetent, clueless, even been told that I should kill myself. I CANNOT HELP IT IF I HAVE TO USE THE SECURITY PEN! It’s a blatant security measure which affects you because if we get fake notes, it increases the chances of the store being closed down! We cannot accept swipe cards because they have to be phoned through for authorisation. When I show up for work, I always hope for stockroom duty or closedown because I don’t want to interact with people for the reasons listed above. Here’s a fucking tip for you guys: if you see four people doing nothing in the shoe section and you want a specific shoe, DO NOT SEEK OUT THE PERSON ON CLOTHING WHO IS OBVIOUSLY BUSY; DO NOT CALL HER INCOMPETENT WHEN SHE TRIES TO EXPLAIN THAT SHE IS BETTER AT CLOSEDOWN THAN SHE IS AT SHOES. I do not want to be called ‘lazy’ or ‘clueless’ when I have five kinds of shoes to get from the sodding stockroom already! Have you never heard of patience? Or, shock horror, asking SOMEONE ELSE? You are obviously too stupid and selfish to live if you think that burdening the already-stressed person with “just one more thing” won’t matter because “hey, she’s going to the stockroom anyway!” People like my customers drive me fucking insane. My ideal job is one where I can stay inside and only venture out when I need to. I am an asocial creature unlike other humans – I do not thrive on going out, alcohol, interaction, anything like that. All I need is my computer.

You people make me physically sick! I have seen parents slap their children in my store, heard horrible arguments and witnessed outbursts of incredible rage.

Fuck off.

Sincerely,

AG Bellamy.

Runes Shalt Thou Dream

My dream became a reality because, sometimes, dreams ARE reality. Writing has been my dream, my air and my life since I was fve. In writing, I can go to places I've never been before while remaining seated at my computer... and the best part is that I don't have to go out and pretend to give a crap about people like the customers I serve at weekends, I genuinely care about my characters because they are my babies, and my story is my baby.

Ladies and gentlemen, my baby:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Runes-Shalt-Thou-Dream-ebook/dp/B007U5LIOA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1339708304&sr=1-1

Blog Tour with Jami Montgomery, author of Knight's End

Jami Montgomery is a twenty-two year old self published author from South Texas. She has always loved books and the written word, and has been writing stories since she first learned to use a pencil. Knight's End is her first published work, and she has several other novels in the works.

“Guards! Guards! Come now and arrest this traitor!” At King Donn’s beckoning, four soldiers rushed into the room, swords drawn.
Aston slowly backed away, nearing his window. He didn’t have time to think. In one swift movement, he grabbed his still-packed bag from the floor, pulled his grappling hook from his belt, and leapt from the window, praying the hook would catch.
He almost took a relieved breath when the metal claw caught on the window and he was safely on the ground, his knees taking the blunt of the blow. But he was still in danger; he couldn’t stop yet. He dropped his rope and ran, cringing as the palace bells sounded behind him. He ran as fast as he could toward the stable, reaching them just as Vernon was about to remove Sterling’s bridle. The old man looked up in surprise when Aston came charging in, but didn’t stop him from jumping on Sterling’s back, grabbing a halter from the wall, and riding out of the stable at top speed.
Aston raced into the night, reaching the drawbridge just as it was being closed and jumping his horse across the river. The sound of hooves pounding the hard earth behind him had Aston driving Sterling faster, digging his heels into the animal’s side as his own heart raced with adrenaline. An arrow embedded itself in a tree to his right and he ducked out of instinct. Looking behind him, he saw a man with a bow guiding his horse with his knees, notching another arrow.
Aston cursed, leaning low in Sterling’s saddle and running the horse in a zigzag along the forest’s edge. With a curse, he made Sterling take a fast right, plunging the horse into the thick brush and crashing through low hanging tree branches. He heard men hollering from behind him, upset that they’d lost him in the forest. A couple of brave soldiers followed, but Aston wasn’t too worried about them. These woods took up almost half of Fridel, and he’d grown up in them. They wouldn’t be able to find him now.

AG Bellamy "dominates" YouTube!

... with a massive 22 views on my very first video:

It was a special surprise everyone oon facebook who helped me reach the first milestone of 100 'likes' on my fan-page: www.facebook.com/pages/AGBellamy

Enjoy, my friends :D