Thanks to everyone who made me so welcome yesterday at Church Stretton School. I was looked after by a group of year 10 guides who did an excellent job. I really enjoyed sharing my books with pupils in year 7 and year 8 – the classes were great to work with and pupils had some really imaginative ideas in the creative writing workshop sessions. Well done and thanks to everyone, staff and pupils, at Church Stretton School.
Hello welcome, new readers and old. My first for 2016 and I thought I would start off the year with a look at the entertainment media. Yesterday I went to watch the new Star Wars, viewing it rather late compared to most people, that was because I wasn’t in the slightest way bothered about seeing it. To be honest, I didn’t want them to make a new one as I didn’t see the point, with how the last of the original left the story, but I went and it was good, I did enjoy it. It was the same story as Jedi returns but it was pretty good. John Boyega as Fin being the only character I enjoyed and he was one of the main reasons I thought it was good, without his character I think it would have been a bit dull, although the special effects were excellent, as you would expect, so overall Star Wars was ok, not terrible – OK but yet it is the biggest film ever and has grossed 3billion already. I can understand why Star Wars is huge, the hype, the merchandise, the amount of Star Wars games and ships that I have played on or with throughout my child hood, like most other people, stands as testimony to it being part of our lives. But who is this new Star Wars aimed at and is this the final death-knell for the drive to get any new epic adventure ever being produced – or are we locked in the world of remakes?
My thinking on this is simple. Film-making, in particular, only bets on a sure thing, due to the huge cost in making a film. J. J. Abrams has made a career out of ‘sure’ things. I think the next epic may be over looked because publishers on all fronts have retreated behind this – banking only on a sure thing so few take risks as they used to. So what does that mean for the creative arts? Well, if you are like me and crave new and exciting things you might be a bit screwed, to put a finer point on it. As it looks like we are just going to have re-boot after re-boot thrown in our faces for some time ahead. This is a problem going forward, especially for my generation, as we will not be able to shape the next set era with our ideas and dreams because we are just re-using the same stuff that our parents and grandparents watched, thirty-odd years ago. I just wish the industry, on all levels, would be a bit more creative, and be willing to take risks. Luckily I wasn’t that fussed about Star Wars in the first place, so it wasn’t too upsetting driving home – it was OK, and I expected it to be just that. We have two more to swallow down. I do hope John Boyega’s Fin gets a hell of a lot more lines in the next one as it is good to see a new character emerging. Anyway, this is just a pre amble to my weekly thoughts. I am back in the swing of things now, took a little break as I have been working hard on a few projects after Christmas so that is why I have not been able to do this for a while. But back on track now so see you next week and, as always have a good week!
What a great week. Thanks to everyone for your kind words on my winning the Pride of Shropshire award – and listening to me on BBC Radio – quite a day. Great fun. Everyone I met were really friendly. Looking forward to seeing folks at the forthcoming library and schools event.
youtube the week click the link to a new way I formatting the week we see how it go, i will admit my predictions about the rugby were a little off but oh well, listen to me tomorrow on BBC Shropshire radio at 8;45 talking about the books, if you’re in the uk. That’s it tonight – have a good week. The new book covers are out and i think thay look damn good. Pick them up here rose story uk and horse lord if your not in the uk just put my name in to amazon and you find it Tomos Roberts<< copy paste that.
Thanks bye
To continue from yesterday. It is good to see someone like Corbyn call out businesses, including farmers, to stand on their own two feet. I admire the points he makes about investing in building new council houses for rent and increase spending try to turn the country into a high skill/high tech power. I do have an issue with the UK having no home grown world level tech companies. I feel this isn’t right for us as an inventive nation but I am sceptical of printing more money as there could be inflationary consequences. I do think we need to put some controls on the building industry and direct what they are building as the amount of money they are screwing out of people has almost put a stop to the country’s growth but the big issue we need to tackle in this country is the stigma attached to manual skills and apprenticeships – as that’s what we need more of, skilled workers: engineers, trades, etc. – as we have plenty of thinkers but we need practical people to take thoughts and make them into reality if we are to compete with Continue reading Part Two Labour and Corbyn 19th September, 2015
You can dream and wish for the viral success but in reality it’s not something you can rely on. Trust me, I hope every morning and every night that my books will explode in popularity, don’t we all, but the reality is you probably won’t get even close to that. However, you could try to implement the ‘pillar’ system. This is identifying Continue reading The Week # Friday 14th August
Back to e-publishing – well it is fairly simple to publish with Amazon kindle, Kobo and all the others you just need to write something, give it a title, get a cover then put it out for a few pounds whenever you want and there you go you have a book but you’re not a writer, not yet. People need to buy your product and that’s when you become a fully fledged writer, albeit on a small scale. My advice is to use a site called Lulu, which was set up by a guy who wanted to be a writer but couldn’t really make it with a big publisher, he saw what was going on with Amazon and the rest who operate a policy of ‘screw you’ as you do all the work and they take a bit chunk just because the can. Lulu gives you a fair deal so I recommend using Lulu.com as you keep a bit more money for yourself like any publishing outfit they take a percentage but they leave you a bigger percentage than the others do and they not only publish it on their site but they push it out so it will still be on amazon, kobo, nook, etc.
rose’s page to read more>>Rose’s page
and remember you can get the horse lord now just click it>> here
Rose’s story- coming very soon follow me for updates this week and to read all this free stuff already out
Hello to ’The Week’ – this week I’m going to delve in to the world of books and, to put a finer point on it, being a writer. From my small grasp of it, writing is a delight! The ability to conjure up anything you want and pen it down is hugely liberating. Creating worlds we would love to go to and people we would like to meet, or even we wish we were. I think everyone should do it more often for themselves. The teaching of English in schools can be improved to have more creative writing in it. I appreciate that it is a difficult subject to teach but if we changed our approach to language and make it more individual, more exciting Continue reading The Week #16 15th March, 2015
Books and Social Commentary by Tomos. A. Roberts 