The Three Ninjas

The Unholy Trinity of Bloggers

Categories: Writing

From The Bookshelf: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened ( A Mostly True Memoir)

May17

by GothNinja

Published on: May 17, 2012

Categories: Book Reviews

Tags: Books, Reviews

Comments: No Comments

Anyone who is not reading The Bloggess’s Blog really needs to start. Jenny is a wonderful writer, and her insane posts are the highlight of the week. Basically Go read her BLOG!!

No Wait. come back. Let me tell you about her book first, then go read her blog. Because once you start reading you will become a fan. Then as a fan you will want to read her book to find out what made Jenny into TheBloggess.

And believe me, If you read her book without laughing out loud then you are dead inside, or a zombie. Don’t be a dead inside zombie. Read this book.

Read about the time she defended her dead buried dog from furious vultures with a machete. Thats she had the machete because be serious vultures may be big but theres no way they could hold and use a machete???

Just read the book, I could make up all sorts of amazing and wonderful things you will read about in the book, but none would be as wonderful as the true stuff thats in there.

So Go now, read her blog while you wait for your copy of her book to arrive.. go.. run.. run like the zombies are after you, or Chupacabra..

I will give this book a 10/10

No Comments

From The Bookshelf: Whitechapel: The Final Stand Of Sherlock Holmes

May11

by GothNinja

Published on: May 11, 2012

Categories: Book Reviews

Tags: Books, Reviews

Comments: No Comments

BEST SHERLOCK BOOK EVER…

Sherlock V’s Jack the Ripper. In the grittiest, bloodiest Holmes book thats ever been written.

I must admit when I started reading this book I was not expecting the descriptive gruesomeness of the crimes, or the violence. And I will never look at Lestrade in the same way again. Yet somehow this more macabre version of these characters are more realistic than Doyle’s originals. I can see the police of Jack the Rippers day smashing open a few skulls in the investigation and not bothering with the niceties of red tape.

And you feel more for the characters, because of their flaws, and issues. And the ending??? I bet more than a few people have been reduced to tears in the last few pages of the story.

P.S. There is a “Gentleman’s Edition” of this book which I believe has more of the less savory bits edited out. But I would suggest you read the uncut copy, There is nothing that bad in there, and it adds realism to the story

I will give this book a 9/10

No Comments

100 Day Challenge – Update 3

Oct04

by GothNinja

Published on: October 4, 2011

Categories: 100 Day Challenge, Competition, Other Blogs

Tags: 100days, Blog, Challenge

Comments: No Comments

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series 100 Day Challenge

Days: 15/100

Well I’m now three weeks into this challenge, And I swear the finish line is moving further away. On a positive side I have ideas for two stories/worlds that I am going to use this challenge to flesh out a bit. There’s a Zombie story, and a Fantasy that I see being running themes over the next eleven weeks.

So a Quick summery.

Creative Count:

3 x Drawing

2 x Complete Short Story

2 x Story starts

2 x Story Scene’s/Snippets

2 x Parts of Fantasy Story

1 x Part of Zombie Story

1 x Masonic Booklet

No Comments

100 Day Challenge – Update 2

Sep26

by GothNinja

Published on: September 26, 2011

Categories: 100 Day Challenge, Competition, Other Blogs

Tags: 100days, Blog, Challenge

Comments: No Comments

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series 100 Day Challenge

Days: 15/100

Well I’m now two weeks into this challenge, and I think I’m hitting the first wind bit, I’m more settled into actually sitting down for a set amount of time every day to do creative things, But I’m starting to get mental blankness when it comes down to deciding what to do. Luckily I have to sort out a booklet for next week, so whereas I was unable to publish yesterdays activity, the set task has given my mind a chance to reboot. And new ideas are forming.

So a Quick summery.

Creative Count:

2 x Complete Short Story

2 x Story starts

2 x Drawing

1 x Start of a Masonic Booklet

No Comments

100 Day Challenge – Update 1

Sep21

by GothNinja

Published on: September 21, 2011

Categories: 100 Day Challenge, Competition, Other Blogs

Tags: 100days, Blog, Challenge

Comments: 1 Comment

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series 100 Day Challenge

Days: 9/100

Well I am a week into the challenge so far (Edit: 9 days is more than a week!) So I thought I would do a short/quick update, and to be lazy I’m just going to repost the status update from the 100days blog. )

Well I am one week into the 100 day challenge, just 14 more weeks to go. (I am now at the stage of looking at those 14 weeks and going “What have I agreed to”)

So a Quick summery.

Last Week:

1 x Complete Short Story (4 parts)

2 x Story starts

1 x Drawing

1 Comment

100 Day Challenge

Sep12

by GothNinja

Published on: September 12, 2011

Categories: 100 Day Challenge, Competition, Other Blogs

Tags: 100days, Blog, Competition

Comments: No Comments

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series 100 Day Challenge

I have along with @DemonPengu decided to take part in a 100 Day Challenge. It’s not The 100 day challenge (Because we missed that) But A 100 day challenge. Basically there has been a bit of Writers Block, Artistic Avoidance, and a general all round lack of enthusiasm in the Office of late. So after spotting the challenge online, we decided we would do our own in an attempt to restart the creative juices flowing. So a day was picked “Monday 12th September” as Day 1: and for the next 100 days we will both be doing a creative thing a day.

As with The challenge the creative thing can be, drawings, art, poetry, writing, anything as long as its creative (and one piece a day)

To save this blog getting spammed I have created a dedicated site for the challenge at http://100days.three-ninjas.co.uk. I will (probably) post weekly updates on here, but the daily progress will be on the dedicated site.

So everyone wish me luck, and words of encouragement welcome, for I can not let the DemonPenguin Win!

Note: It also helps that we are both “slightly” competitive over these things, and neither will want to be the first to fail, which will help encourage us to complete the challenge.

@DemonPengu's Day 1 awesome kickoff.

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From The Bookshelf: Heat Wave

May02

by GothNinja

Published on: May 2, 2011

Categories: Book Reviews, TV Shows

Tags: Books, Reviews, TV

Comments: 4 Comments

What a brilliant piece of MetaFiction this is:

For those of you who have been kept locked in a box for the last few years, or believe Television is the work of Satan’s minions and as such avoid the evil gogglebox for more spiritual activities, I guess I should start with a quick recap of what Castle is.

Castle is a TV show about Richard Castle, a best-selling author who decides to tag along with a NYPD team as they investigate cases, since he is using Detective Kate Beckett as his inspiration in a new series of books.

Since in the TV show Castle (Played by Nathan Fillion) is writing a book inspired by Beckett, the book gets mentioned a lot in the first season, even to the point of showing the proposed Cover, and its launch/release. You even see the characters reading the book in some episodes, as well as discussing a certain sex scene that’s a bit raunchy. There is nothing special in this, since a lot of TV shows make mention of Books, Films, Etc. that are apparently going on in the background. And there are a lot of shows that will do spin off books. What the producers of Castle have done, and done brilliantly is to release a bit of metafiction. They actually released the book that was supposedly written in the show. The covers the same, the plot,s the one mentioned in the show, the sex scene on page number 105 is there, and even better the Thanks page, bio, writers name, everything is written as if the character Richard Castle wrote the book. He thanks his daughter & mother, the guys from NYPD the works. All in all this is a brilliant bit of meta-fiction,

But what about the book itself?

It’s actually a good book, its very similar to an episode of castle, only its about a newspaper reporter who is travelling around with the NYPD gang solving a crime. The style is like the show, comedy mixed with action, mixed with chemistry. The only real difference is the book is darker, more violent, and more explicit (but not in a bad way) Hell there is no way you could get away with the female lead being totally naked and using an iron to melt half the face off an armed assailant intent on raping her, but in a book? alls fair.

This book is an enjoyable read even if you are one of the people who have never watched an episode of Castle. And I would recommend it as a read to anyone, you will enjoy it. In fact I will give it a 7/10 as a generic book.

But if you watch the TV show, and can appreciate the work gone into linking the book with the show, then I give it a 9/10.

4 Comments

From The Bookshelf: Blacklands

Mar18

by GothNinja

Published on: March 18, 2011

Categories: Book Reviews

Tags: Books, Reviews

Comments: 2 Comments

‘Dear Mr Avery,
I am looking for WP. Can you help me?
Sincerely,
SL, 111 Barnstaple Road, Shipcott, Somerset.’

He was only twelve, he reasoned; he couldn’t be expected to get stuff like writing to serial killers right first time.

Belinda Bauer

Blacklands is the début novel by Belinda Bauer, and as first books go you cant do better then having it become an International Bestseller, and winning the The Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger award for Best Crime Novel of the Year.

But what about the story itself? (more…)

2 Comments

Recap of PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH)

Jan04

by GothNinja

Published on: January 4, 2011

Categories: PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH)

Tags: Creativity, PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH), Writing

Comments: 2 Comments

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH)

Well December is now over, well the year 2010 is over, well technically the decade is over and this all means one thing. Yes the end of PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH), this is a good thing since its not as easy to say as NaNoWriMo, and does not so much roll off the tongue as give you mouth strain. Anyway, Its time I posted an update of how I did in this challenge. So here it is.

I did quiet well, At the start of the challenge I failed only one day, and that was due to a 48 hour flu like bug that really wiped me out one day. And I refuse to accept gibbering insanely to myself as “creative”. After that one glitch I was doing well until Christmas time when I was hit with “Vampire eye” again, and a bad case which temporary blinded me in one eye for several days, and caused such unbelievable pain, that my only creative thoughts were based on ways to remove my eye and put an end to the pain . So all in all I failed five days out of a total thirty one. Which I am claiming as a triumph.

No I know that some of you will be thinking “Yes, of course you stuck to it!” in a tone of thought that implies you doubt me. To you I say “How can you doubt this face?”. I will also say I had help, help in the guise of a book. My sister got me a book for my birthday one creative writing, and training your mind to write and help get past blocks. It does this with instructions and a series of five minute creative challenges, which you are supposed to do one a day.

And that’s what I did, a challenge a day. And to prove to the unbelievers, I shall post some of the results on here.

2 Comments

Midway Review PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH)

Dec15

by GothNinja

Published on: December 15, 2010

Categories: PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH)

Tags: Creativity, PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH), Writing

Comments: 3 Comments

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH)

Ha! I bet you thought I had forgotten all about PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH) didn’t you? Well sorry to disappoint you all, especially the person who keeps poking me to ask have I given up on it yet. I know I originally mentioned spamming you with 31 posts giving a day by day review of my attempts. When I though about it afterwards I realised that would be unnecessary, and probably very boring to both write & read.

The new plan is to do a run-down post at the end of the challenge, and maybe the odd relevant post along the way. I think that’s a better way to organise it, I just need this post to let those who are interested know what’s going on, and to announce that I have not forgotten or given up on PDSCEDFTROTY (YTIH).