Through the Looking Glass

We’re halfway through the year already, can you believe it? June is just two days away. It has been a trying journey with plenty of developments both good and bad.

Reading

At the beginning of January I took on the Goodreads challenge and set a goal of 52 books for the year; essentially a book a week. There was a point in the last couple of months where I felt I would never accomplish this goal and was about to quit. I think it was around this time that I found Jen from Combustible Reviews and Vicky from Books & Strips. These lovely ladies run book blogs with a myriad of book reviews. They encouraged me to continue reading not so much in their words but in their actions; they were sitting down and getting that reading done. It’s easy to come up with an excuse not to read and sometimes it was another one of those “One more game of Hearthstone/FIFA16/Titanfall/Monster Hunter”… you get my drift. Since then I have read:

1. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
2. The Reflections of Queen Snow White by David Meredith
3. Dolores Clairborne by Stephen King
4. The Dream Engine by Leah Karloff
5. Blacklands by Belinda Bauer
6. Revival by Stephen King
7. Vasa and Ypres by J.B Chrisholm
8. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
9. Endgame: The Calling by James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton
10. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Writing

My writing hasn’t necessarily taken a knock, but it hasn’t been consistent (then again, when has it?). Writing prompts from Rachel Poli have been a huge help and in fact inspired my six-part short story, 2055 (which can be read on Wattpad here: 2055).

I was also inspired by Kelly Griffiths when she said “It’s (writing) like being in the confessional booth with a stuffed bear.” It inspired my emotive writing behind a facade of fiction, a little slow at first, and picking up these last few weeks. I’ll be posting my emotive writing on Tuesdays and you can read my previous works here:

1. Death of Man
2. Fool Me
3. Demons
4. Unraveled

Read Them First

Reading has once again drawn out my love for books. This past weekend I stopped by my favourite book store, Exclusive Books – Greenstone, and found Stephen King’s “latest” book 11/22/63 as well s Doctor Sleep for quite a bargain. Also, because I’m such a good patron, I received vouchers that cut half the price of one of the books which was even more of a bargain! Ahem I digress. So reading has drawn out my love for books, and now the two ladies I mentioned before, Vicky and Jen, and I, have started a book blog. ReadThemFirst. The purpose of this blog is to let you, the reader, know about any upcoming books in India, South Africa, UK and the world. We have already posted the books coming out in the first week of June for your perusal. Even I’m excited about these books!

If you are an author (or know of one), we are reaching out to you. If you have any book coming up from June onward, let us know and we can put it on our blog. There’a an author bio, link to the author’s social media and a blurb on the upcoming book. If you are a reader looking to see what’s coming out soon, check it out. Read Them First, your one stop book blog. (Not the official slogan :P)

Nthato Morakabi.com

I have my own website now. I don’t think I officially announced it but better late than never. As an aspiring author, one must have a place where others can reach them and see what they are about. So that is what my page is for. It has all my social media profiles, as well as most of the books I’ve reviewed. It was supposed to take over from this blog but have decided to keep it as a separate entity.

As part of this, I would like to ask you to sign up to my Nthato Morakabi newsletter. Don’t worry I won’t SPAM you or sell your email address to the underground email black market or whatever, I promise to keep it safe and send you very occasional mails. You can sign up here: Nthato Morakabi Newsletter

Jozi Flash

Lastly, don’t forget to get your free copy of Jozi Flash below, featuring five of my short stories as well as a collection from other talented writers such as Carin Marais, Sharon Parkinson, Candice Burger and Chasing Dreams Publishing owner and contributing author, Nicolette Stephens.

There are no zombie-dalek-rainbow-unicorns in this anthology. Not for lack of trying – they just wouldn’t play nicely with the other characters.

Instead you’ll find a genie with a unique wish, a border post between worlds, a light romance, an alien recorder and a very special chair, amongst others.

This is what you get when you challenge five talented South African writers with a series of prompts and strict word limits: Jozi Flash – an anthology of 29 bite-sized stories with a huge amount of heart.

As unique as the narrators, these tales range from the macabre to heart warming in fewer words than it took to write this blurb.

The zombie-dalek-rainbow-unicorns ate the rest.

 

 

Free to download in the following formats:

 Jozi Flash – ePub Format

 Jozi Flash – Mobi Format

 Jozi Flash – PDF Format

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How was has the first half of your year treated you so far?

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Slanted! A chat with Kevin Beimers of Italic Pig

http://www.gameccamag.com/ – Interview with Kevin Beimers

 

Three months into my Indie Game Developer interviews and I am already incredibly inspired to start my own indie game studio. No really I am haha. Not to say that the industry is so easy you can merely walk into it with an idea and with a couple of clicks create a game. Then again, the tools available at our disposal do allow that to happen too.

Only there is much more to the Indie Game Developer scene than just ideas, software and perseverance and in my chat with Kevin Beimers of Italic Pig, I get a different perspective on the industry and it’s people.

Pixelated Revelation with Marcos Torrecillas of Unfinished Pixel

http://www.gameccamag.com/ – Interview with Marcos Torrecillas

 

The journey continues to move along swiftly in my mission with Gamecca Magazine to reach out  to Indie Game Developers. Last month I had the privilege of speaking to fellow South African Quintin Pan of Red Thread Games. This month I speak to Marcos Torrecillas from Unfinished Pixel, an ex-Ubisoft developer.

Living the Dreamfall: My Interview with Red Thread Games’ Quintin Pan

http://www.gameccamag.com/ – Interview with Quintin Pan

 

This is my exciting announcement and also a Gamecca Magazine announcement, regarding our latest endeavour hitting up the Independent Game Developer scene and the amazing people within that Industry.

Quiet Season

Surprisingly I find myself staring at the blank page of a word processor on whatever machine I’m using at that particular moment – Hashtag FirstWorldProblems, I know – and I can’t help feeling as though whatever I am about to write is inadequate. It’s a feeling I’ve carried with me for years, something I attempt to get over by writing anyway. I even feel it when I’m writing my previews and reviews for Gameccamag, that the piece of writing I have put forth will be scrapped and replaced with better writing from my Gamecca colleagues – who in my opinion are fantastic writers.

Occasionally I sift through old writing and cringe at the jumble of now nonsensical words and paragraphs filling the screen. Riddled with emotion I no longer feel, obscure ideas not yet fully formed and paragraphs ending in mid-air – as though I just rode an incredibly long escalator ending at a solid wall.

If you, for some obscure reason, visit my blog to see what I have been up to, you will have noticed that my posts have been non-existent these last five months. In fact the last post I put up was hardly even a post but instead a reminder to both myself and to you my *insert superfluous adjectives* readers, that I was not dead. That I was writing in Offline Mode.

Offline Mode writing involved a couple of reviews (Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Mario VS Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars and Codename: S.T.E.A.M) as well as a couple of previews. You can find them all here: GameccaMag

There was also some short story submissions I sent through for a new book compiled by the famous and still rising Vincent V. Cava. One of my short stories was published before hand in our previous anthology which you can find here: Dark Tales

 

Vincent Vena Cava presents Dead Connections

 

In terms of my own writing, I have been slacking severely but have no fear, I’m back. With a vengeance. My quiet season is now behind me, it’s time to write.

Fan Boy vs Journalist

I sat with my back against the cool leather seats of my usual bus to work, looking out the slightly dusty window towards the passing stream of people and the familiar grey buildings of the city. I have travelled this way for years now both as a scholar and now as a contributing member of society. It has been a great joy for me, as I spend at least an hour a day sitting within this somewhat empty bus, to be able to spend my time with my trusty handheld console. Over the years I’ve moved on with the times, no longer playing Pokemon Yellow on my Gameboy but now experiencing the modernized Pokemon Black 2 on my Nintendo 3DS.

It is as we approach one of the stops that I tense slightly, looking down towards the blue structure that is the bus stop, where my blonde haired rival stands with his hands in his jacket and large earphones plastered over his ears. He knowingly looks up towards my window as the bus rolls to a stop, and the tell-tale grin on his face tells me he has something to boast about. He steps onto the bus, casually sauntering his way towards me and shaking his earphones off his head so that they sit atop his shoulders. One hand within his jacket is already pulling out the shiny black console that is his PSP Vita. With a casual grin he parks himself next to me, without even a greeting he turns on his console and proceeds to engage me in conversation as though we’d been sitting here chatting all day.

“Yeah I downloaded this new game last night, oh man it’s amazing and it really utilizes the back touch pad of my Vita…I know the DS doesn’t have that but anyway…” I cringe slightly as I now sit here listening to this Sony fan boy belittle my beloved console, poking holes in its apparent childishness, and it’s recycled games

“…they brought this game out recently, you know, not like the same Mario and Zelda games Nintendo always brings out haha just kidding…”

It was at that point that  a single thought made itself clear to me; it was on. Trash talk Nintendo I’ll trash talk Sony. And so it was that yet again, for the umpteenth time in our longstanding friendship we engaged in Fan Boy Wars. The question that one must ask themselves as they put on their ” gaming journalist” attire is: should I take off my fan boy suit or do I don it underneath like Superman? To be honest I wouldn’t know as technically I’m not a gaming journalist. I am a writer and a gamer and I’m privileged  in being able to do both as a Game Reviewer and News Editor for a gaming site and an online gaming magazine. However, I am required to do research, compile it and present it to readers, giving them a well written, well researched article, a review that is fair, concise and not riddled with personal opinion. And yet that is exactly the issue that I must address every time my editor hands me a game I’m either keen to play or dread playing: can I play a game and review it without letting some sort of biased opinion infiltrate my writing?

The answer should be yes, but I find my fan-boyism creeping into my writing when I’m reviewing my favourite titles and being a little bit more critical against the games I’m not so inclined to play. Shouldn’t honesty and integrity outweigh personal opinion and favouritism. Shouldn’t I review Pikmin with as much enthusiam as Pokemon (and no they are not the same game – I will go Crazy-Fan-Boy on you if you think they are hee hee ) and shouldn’t I fairly critique my least favourite game with the same mindset that I would my favourite game. Objective over Subjective.

Do I offer reviews that are fair? Well only through feedback will that answer really be given. You can check out my articles at:

http://Myxboxlive.com/gaming – where I write as a News Editor and Game Reviewer

or at

http://www.gameccamag.com – where I write Game Reviews and Previews (this online gaming magazine is for FREE! Yes FREE! )

#PS: I do not travel by bus nor do I engage in Fan-Boy wars with a PS Vita rival-slash-bestfriend…but I did play Pokemon Yellow back in the day and have recently played Pokemon Black 2 but the story was more for illustrative purposes than actual history.

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Image sources: http://coltongraphicspeak.blogspot.com/2010/12/gamer-health.html http://kevin.lexblog.com/2012/02/11/law-grads-opportunities-await-in-journalism-and-social-media/