Archive for Jim Franklin

Free Trial at Audiobooks.com

June 12, 2013 Gibberings 2 comments

audiobooks.com logo books Yesterday, as I was trawling the vast expanses of that there world wide web, I came across audiobooks.com a website that, as its name suggests offers shed loads of audiobooks. Audiobooks are not something I usual consider myself as being somewhere between a techhead and a traditionalist. I either opt for books I can touch and hold or for e-books for their convenience.  I didn’t know how I would react to having someone read a book to me.

Audiobooks.com offered a free seven-day trial where you get your first book free, so I thought why not? There’s nothing to lose and I do so like the whole free thing.

Signing up was as easy as you would expect it to be, click here, enter details there etc. it wasn’t long before I could download my first free book. There are a lot of books to choose from, so it took me a while to decide. Eventually, I figured I should choose a classic, a book that I am familiar with just to see if my brain could accept someone reading it to me. I chose The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, a damn good book certainly one of my favourites and I knew I would be critical towards the audiobook version.

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised. The narrator was doing a darn good attempt at a Victorian English accent, and I found myself getting sucked into the story as I always do. An hour or so passed and I was still firmly into the story, and with no hint of boredom.

On the whole, I found audiobooks.com a good site to deal with. They have a huge amount of books and depending on how many audiobooks you can get through per month, there are different monthly plans you can sign up for. If you can’t go anywhere without a book, but don’t always have your hands and eyes free for paper books or e-books, it might be worth giving audiobooks.com a try.

Click here for the audiobooks.com offer.

 

Flash Fiction: The Blackbird

June 10, 2013 Contest Entries, Fiction, Writing No comments

flash fiction black bird blackbirdI didn’t write for the last Terribleminds.com flash fiction challenge because… fill in your own excuse here. I couldn’t miss this week’s flash fiction challenge, though. We were given a list of 20 books, films, comics, and TV shows. We were to randomly choose two of these and then write a piece of flash fiction which would be described as a mixture of the two.

Chuck Wendig described the challenge like so…

“…the result should be thematic and stylistic, not actual mash-up fanfiction. (Again, envision you take your story into a pitch meeting and to pitch it, you combine two seemingly unlike pop culture properties. It’s like that.)”

I rolled my virtual D20, and I got Batman and Pride & Prejudice, which is an interesting combination.

So here we go, this is The Blackbird which should hopefully be described as Batman meets Pride & Prejudice. You see?

Anyway, hope you enjoy it, and feel free to comment.

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National Flash Fiction Anthology (Part 2 – Captive Audience)

June 6, 2013 Contest Entries, Fiction, Writing No comments

This is the second piece of flash fiction I entered into the National Flash Fiction Day contest. If you want to read the first one you can get to it from here.

Flash Fiction – Captive Audience

Private Mason picked his way through the rubble of what was left of the town’s museum. The attack had started so quickly that there was no time to rescue many of the works of art that had been housed there. Ripped and scorched paintings lay on the floor, while pieces of broken display cases and their contents were scattered across the cracked marble floor.

The soldier picked his way across the floor, trying not to step on anything that only a week ago would have been priceless. The gunfire and shells exploding outside shook the building, and clouds of dust dropped from the cracked ceiling that blinded Mason, made him stagger and trip over.

Flash fiction annunciation henry tanner paintingHe rubbed his eyes and looked up, that was when he saw her. A miracle, a painting had survived. Mason’s parents were devout Catholics, so he could recognise images of Mary and the angel Gabriel. He stood up and rubbed the dirt from the brass name badge that hung at an angle underneath the painting.

‘Annunciation by Henry Tanner. 1898’ Masons took the crucifix on the gold chain that hung around his neck and held it tightly. ‘You’re still looking out for me aren’t you?’

Masons looked at the painting, the background noise of gunfire faded into white noise and he lost himself in the image. Mary looked so beautiful and innocent as she looked in wonder at Gabriel. There was something so loving and warm in her smile, a smile that was reaching out to him. The more he looked at her, the more he felt the warmth of her love growing within his chest.

The image flickered, and Mason saw that Mary was smiling at him, it felt as if time had slowed down, every shot and explosion that shook the building had been slowed down to a low pitched growl, as broken rubble and plaster fell to the ground as slow as snowflakes.

The warmth in Mason’s chest grew hotter. Finally the heat became so intense that the private was shaken from the loving embrace of the painting. Instinctively he looked down at his chest, and that was when he saw the dark red patch growing around the end of the bayonet protruding from his chest.

The bayonet quickly disappeared, and he fell on to the floor feeling the agony of the attack for the first time. Left only with the image of the painting and the sound of his killer’s slow and heavy footsteps running away, he gripped the crucifix around his neck tightly again and smiled.

‘Guess you couldn’t wait’

National Flash Fiction Anthology (Part 1 – The Scream)

June 6, 2013 Contest Entries, Fiction, Writing No comments

The Scream Painting flash fictionA few weeks back, I came across the website for the National Flash Fiction Day that takes place on the 22nd June. Every year they run a competition for any flash fiction writers willing to give it a try. They decide on a theme and then it’s up to you to write one or two pieces of flash fiction that fit into that theme. The lucky few people chosen as winners would feature in this years anthology as well as get armfuls of books and e-books and things.

Well this year the theme was art, and it didn’t matter if the link was tenuous or obvious as long as it was there.

I wasn’t lucky enough to be chosen this year, but that’s no reason no not to share the entries with the world. Or at least the 13 or 14 people who may accidentally come across this blog over the course of several years.

The below is the first of two pieces of flash fiction, and if you do come across it I’d be interested to know what you think.

Flash Fiction – The Scream

“Ray! I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…. I’m so…. sorry…! Ray?’

Lily knelt over the body of her husband, apologising to him as she had always done, still holding the knife that had painted her hands red. She knew she shouldn’t have made him angry, she shouldn’t have pushed him; she shouldn’t have been so selfish.

She could still hear the argument they’d had ringing in her ears. She was used to Ray’s temper, especially after a drink but it was different this time, she had gone too far. Lily had always wanted to make more of her life; she had been the perfect housewife and mother for eighteen years but now after a chance meeting with an old school friend she thought that maybe it was time she went back to College, so that night she had asked Ray for permission.

‘Did you get that stupid idea from that bitch, Charlotte?’ Ray had shouted back at her. ‘Your place is here looking after this house and being my wife, or is that not good enough for you anymore?’

Lily tore herself away from her dead husband’s eyes and looked up at the old and tattered poster of The Scream by Edvard Munch stuck to her faded and peeling living room wall. The screaming figure clutched its head in terror and screamed down at the still, bloodied corpse in front of her. It screamed for her and what she had done.

Lily rubbed her eyes instinctively but they weren’t wet, she wasn’t shedding any tears for her husband, in fact the longer she stared at his body the less she started to feel, until there was nothing just a dull numbness. She stood up, dropped the knife on the floor and walked over to the phone and rang the police.

‘I killed him. I’m at 245 Poldonis Street.’ was all she said to the operator before she put the phone down.

Minutes passed, just how many minutes she wasn’t sure but as she stared at the poster again, she saw it differently. She no longer saw the terrifying image of the screaming figure. She focused on the couple in the background; the couple who were walking away; the couple who were turning their backs on the fear and horror and walking into a different picture; a different life.

Now she knew why she wasn’t crying.

Spacetime Studios Legends series hits another milestone

May 30, 2013 Gaming No comments

Spacetime Studios logo legends seriesI’m a stat-head, I love statistics and numbers throw in some graphs, and charts and I’m there pawing and drooling insatiably. So, you can imagine what I felt as I read over the below email. Arcane Legends has passed another milestone and there a whole host of number and stats to go with it.

You can of course read the whole press release, but I’ve extracted all the stats here for your pleasure.

  • Arcane Legends, Pocket Legends, Star Legends and Dark Legends have collectively exceeded 250 million play sessions.
  • That equates to 64 million hours of gameplay, which works out to be 7305 years, or 100 lifetimes.

It’s all pretty incredible.

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Flash Fiction: Falling For Your Boss

May 25, 2013 Contest Entries, Fiction, Writing 6 comments

falling dropping plummet man business man flash fictionWell after leaving the last flash fiction challenge until pretty much the last day, I thought I would actually write this one a little ahead of time. Mr Wendig from Terribleminds.com, he who is lord and master of all flash fiction challenges. Well the ones on his website anyway, and quite frankly who would want any more.

Anyway, his challenge this week was to randomly choose something from his list of psychic powers and write yourself a bit of flash fiction where the protagonist has this very same power. Well I rolled my trusty D20, and I got the power of…

Duh-duh-duuuuuuh… ‘bi-location’.

I’m pretty sure I knew what bi-location was, but checked on Wikipedia anyway. In short it is the ability to be in two places at the same time.

Here is…

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Flash Fiction: True Wealth

May 22, 2013 Contest Entries, Fiction, Writing No comments

flash fiction errand wealth story penI have fallen behind with my flash fiction writing lately. Well the latest challenge by Chuck Wendig from Terribleminds.com was enough to stir me from my dilatory slumber. He provided us with a link that sent us off to a Fantasy Character concept generator. With one click of a button, five fantasy concepts were generated. All I had to do was choose one of them and then use it for the basis of a 1000 word piece of flash fiction.

Out of the five concepts I had, I chose…

“an ensorcelled errand boy is trying to rid herself of a curse.”

Hope you enjoy it, but if you think there are ways it can be improved, please let me know in the comments. I’m still learning. Read more

Dungeon of Elements Kickstarter

May 20, 2013 Gaming 2 comments

Dungeon of Elements developerI’ve just finished writing a post about one Kickstarter campaign and even while the virtual blog ink is still drying I got told of another one. This time it is for a new RPG game called Dungeon of Elements, developed by Frogdice Games. Dungeon of Elements looks to be the answer to the question “What do you get if you cross Tetris with a fantasy RPG. The blocks that fall seem to be your method of attacking the monsters within the Tetris grid. Read more

Heavy Gear Assault Kickstarter Begins

May 20, 2013 Gaming No comments

Heavy Gear Assault logo mechHeavy Gear Assault has been mentioned on this site a couple of times. A Free-to-play Mech fighting game that’s been in development for a few months. Well Stompy Bot, the developers,  have now launched a Kickstarter campaign with the view of raising $800,000 to help further it’s cause.

They first opted to raise cash on www.heavygear.com, raising nearly $120,000 Heavy Gear Assault website, their own servers buckled under the pressure of the success of the campaign. So with that in mind they have now started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds.

One of the most popular features of the game are the destructible environments, and quite honestly who doesn’t like to see the walls breaking, bridges falling and buildings succumbing to your firepower. It’s all about the realism, well I guess mindless violence plays a part somewhere. have a look at this teaser trailer of a very destructible bridge.

 

If you want to give to the Heavy Gear Assault Kickstarter campaign, follow the link here to their Kickstarter page. You can find more info on Heavy Gear Solid on these earlier posts (Heavy Gear Assault Brings Mech PvP and Heavy Gear Assault), and on the press release below. Read more

I Am MT Card Battle iOS Review

May 16, 2013 Game Reviews, Gaming No comments

Game LogoA few days ago I told you about I am MT Card Battle, an iOS app fresh from Asia in the iTunes store for the perfect price of, let’s see… nothing , yup, it’s completely free. Well, I said I would review it, and I did. So here you are, for your entertainment my review of I am MT Card Battle. Oh and I expect that MT is an abbreviation for Main Tank, a popular abbreviation in many online MMO’s, like World of Warcraft. Read more

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