No more.

As you can see, I haven’t made a post to this website, or the PR Witch since July 2011.

Things have changed. Or at least, they’re changing for now anyhow. What I have decided to do is no longer run this website, or the PR Witch. Though I love writing, and being creative, I don’t think this is my avenue of choice any longer. I have been on the internet for years, probably longer than most of you. I have had countless websites, and written a lot of stuff. It’s just not what I want to be doing.

This is all happening as I get ready to get on yet another plane and move around the world again, where I await the next adventure in my life. I know a lot of you come here and enjoy what I have got to say, so I do really apologise to those people. Perhaps one day, I might return. Who knows? I very much doubt it. It is a good thing, because it means I have discovered what I do really love and plan to chase it. I plan to be successful at it too.

I can’t say for sure that this is the end of my writing career. But it definitely is the end of this website and others, and I thank everyone for the support, comments and love. See you in the future, and Goddess bless.

Liam

Latest Animorph’s news: I’m so excited!

Dorothea Brande once said,

The importance of novels and short stories in our society is great. Fiction supplies the only philosophy that many readers know; it establishes their ethical, social, and material standards; it confirms them in their prejudices or opens their minds to a wider world … if it is a thoroughly good book, honestly conceived and honestly executed, we are all indebted to it. (Dorothea Brande, Becoming a Writer – The Classic Inspirational Guide; Forward by Malcolm Bradbury; 1934)

This quote rings true when I say the Animorphs series were the books that taught me most about war, dehumanization, sacrifice, love, leadership and emotion than anything else in life. I grew up with these books, and were my best friends when I didn’t have any. I was at junior high school and I came across a reading room where I was introduced to the series by the lovely women that ran it back then. I immersed myself in them. Don’t be fooled though, these are not just any old kids books. They are one of the few series of books, or books in general that realistically depict war and its consequences. It’s a Sci Fi series written by Katherine Alice Applegate about a group of friends who stumble upon a secret war here on Earth, a war that goes on in secret, and these kids are given the power (or technology) to turn into any animal they want. Seem’s simple enough right? They experience it all, dehumanization, love, torture, sanity, leadership, innocence and growing up. These people were my friends, Jake, Marco, Rachel, Cassie and Tobias. It’s incredibly devastating at the end of the 60 odd book series, something I didn’t expect but I guess you realise even though they’re kids books, the author wasn’t going make unrealistic. Someone dies and the end of the war isn’t perfect, they don’t go back to their normal lives. In fact, they’re all inherently destroyed by it, even Cassie who takes it in her stride.  I won’t spoil it if you want to read them, but they are worth it if you want a realistic portrayal of war and the human condition. Adults read them too, like the HP series. If you like John Marsden’s series, Tomorrow When the war Began, you’ll like Animorphs. For those who are interested, my favourite character would have to be Rachel and Jake. The two cousins, the ‘Fearless’ Leader and ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ as Marco would often joke.

So anyway, the whole point of this post is to announce that Scholastic Inc are re-launching the International Best Selling series for Summer 2011. They have released an initial cover design which may or may not be the final cut. It will be released in a six-book arc. I think I heard initially it was going to be two books within one, but I’m not sure if that will happen. There is still no movie plans according to Applegate and her husband, the publishers have kept it to themselves. I am very excited about this. I have the whole series back home, all packed away and re-read it when I can. I would like to purchase the new re-release’s to support them, I just need to find a home for them. Here’s the article:

“Scholastic will re-launch the internationally bestselling Animorphs series in Summer 2011, starting with a six-book arc. In its heyday, the Animorphs series sold over 20 million copies worldwide and was translated in 26 languages and was turned into a popular Nickelodeon TV show.

For the re-launch, Scholastic has updated the covers to give them a fresh, modern look: in keeping with the eye-catching nature of the original covers, the new books will make use of morphing lenticulars: the characters transform right on the covers.

An updated look gives the series new vitality for a new generation of readers.

Animorphs is sci-fi at its best: fast-paced, thought-provoking, and a lot of fun.”

Thanks to the Hirac Delest Blog for giving the best news in the world, and the above article excerpt from Ute Körner Literary Agent.

Exciting changes ahead

Ok, so I thought I better let some of you know that over the coming months you are going to see some changes here.

First and foremost, I’m currently in the business of organising a new domain name for this website. hawksquill.com is the planned domain name and I’m just looking around at different hosts and seeing if I should just stay at WordPress. I’m thinking of doing the latter. The next planned changes are a total reconstruction of the design and new pages to be added. I’m not totally sure what will go where at this stage, but I’m hoping it will all come out in the wash. I’ve decided to take this website in a completely new direction because as I become serious about shaping my career as a writer, I realise there’s quite a bit I need to do. One of those things is a website. I’m a little reluctant to have my private thoughts here, but The Goddess has willed me to write as openly and honestly as I can. I guess it’s a big step because I havent really told anyone about this website, not for a while anyway. And once I make it official, it will probably end up on my Facebook, amongst other places. Potential employers will search for me and see this website.

That’s not to say I am afraid of what they find. I’m proud of what I write and what I do. I’ll quite happily show it to them if need be. But, let’s be honest here. When your friends and family become readers, they start to see another side of you. A good side mind you. But if you’re the private person that I am normally, it’s a little intimidating. Sure, I could just not tell anyone. But I have to get my name out there somehow, right?

Eventually it will be a place where I can blog, and a place to showcase my writing skills and abilities, and views on a range of topics. That’s the plan, and I hope you fans, past and present, can look forward to them. x

Earthquake!

I know it seems kind of silly to write about the earthquake since so many people have probably written about it. I actually had come to Christchurch on holiday on thursday last week, and the only thing I was worrying about was a potential snowfall. Boy had I it in for myself.

I was violently awoken, and thrown out of my bed. Since I was waking up I was half asleep at that point and it felt so sinister and I thought it was a bad dream. It threw me out of bed into a kind of running stance, and I instantly ran into the cupboard. I managed to get to the doorway but it was hard to stay upright. I could see the grass and garden through the balcony windows (I was upstairs). When it stopped there was no power and so I had a hell of a time finding clothes throughout the dark, my iPhone, and shoes. I managed to get downstairs and I opened up all the doors for the cat to escape while I went outside to check on the neighbours.

When I realised not many had torches, I went back inside because the house I was sitting belonged to Mike and Evelien, and Mike has loads of torches! I went in, scrambled around for batteries and stuff, and eventually found a couple and made sure the neighbours were ok. About half an hour later I was on the road heading to my friend who was alone and scared. From that Saturday morning from 4:35 up until now, (its Wednesday) we havent stopped having major aftershocks and its fucking scary! It’s not too bad now though. Saturday and sunday I was bolting out the door at any sign of movement. Last couple of nights have been ok, but this morning (Wednesday) we were rudely awoken again and had to get under the doorways.

Christchurch is devastated. The city centre is broken and its very saddening. Thank God no one died. The earthquake had one fatality, a Lemur at the zoo. Such a sad day there. The earthquake had the same intensity and was very close to the same earthquake in Haiti. 12 hours apart too. Except 230,000 people died. Yes, we have a lack of poverty, our earthquake building standards are stringent, so that accounts for a lot of that. We are very very lucky no one died. Lots of injuries, yes. But no deaths.

It’s always good to keep perspective in times like these. (Jodi said that) and I hope these aftershocks finish. We’ve had over a hundred, most of them you can feel; the ones this morning we’re probably some of the strongest since. The airports are still open however, and airlines are still running and ticket prices havent bumped up that much. I’m probably going to return to where I have been since start of the year. They don’t have earthquakes there, and the sun is always shinning. Beach, Sun, Palm Trees.

My heart does go out to all the people who may not have homes anymore, the people who still don’t have water and power, and those who have lost much. Its been the weekend from hell, but it also had made us realise what we are capable of, that we’re good people, and in times of disaster, people’s ideas about the world, values, racism, all the “bad things” go out the door and people come together. Which is a shame, considering we should be able to come together and put our differences aside when natural disasters don’t happen.

It also puts further questions in my mind about government and how crazy shit would be if we had no contact with government and had no order. People think we would live better in a world without government but I do think that our idea of democracy that we have now is far more comforting. Think of all the shit that would go down when the authorities weren’t there. We only had a few looters in the city. But its scary to think what people would do when they are aware there is no order.

In contrast, is that what the Government and the hierarchy of life wants us to feel? That we would be powerless without government and our comfortable lives of consumerism and security, so therefore we need the Government? Would we, as a society, run around ruling ourselves, well?

Questions that an earthquake produces! Gosh!

One hopes U2 will do a relief concert in Christchurch! How they love relief concerts! (Thanks to Jodi for insight in today’s post!)

Liam x