Roald Dahl: The Orignal Charlie Bucket

Roald Dahl was born in Cardiff, Wales on the 13th September 1916. He came from a strong Norwegian heritage with both his parents being Norwegian. When he was young both his sister and his father died only weeks apart. Roald Dahl’s mother could have taken him and his two other sisters back to Norway to live with relatives, but decided to keep them in Wales. This was because his father had the belief that British schools were the best in the world.

While attending school in derbyshire, there was a Cadbury chocolate factory not far away that used to provide sweets for the children to sample. There was also another company in the area that was in direct competition with Cadbury. It seems there was some corporate espionage going on. This later on gave Roald Dahl the idea for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Roald Dahl only began writing when he met author C.S. Forrester. His first short story was published in 1942. Roald Dahl thought his career as a writer came about as a ‘fluke.’ Something that a lot of people don’t know about Roald Dahl is that he wrote macabre adult stories before he started writing children’s stories. As Roald Dahl wrote more and more stories they started to become less realistic and more fantasy.

Roald Dahl died the 23rd of November 1990 from a blood disease. He was 74 years of age. It is said that he had a sort of ‘Viking’ funeral where he was buried with some items that he cherished in life. These items were pencils, chocolates and snooker cues.

Here are some interesting facts about Roald Dahl:

Roald Dahl was named after a famous Norwegian explorer.

When Roald Dahl’s son Theo was four months old he was hit by a taxi and therefore afterwards suffered from hydrocephalus also known as ‘water on the brain.’

In 1962 his seven year old daughter Olivia died from measles. He later dedicated the ‘BFG’ to Olivia.

Roald Dahl married actor Patricia Neal in 1953. During birth of their fifth child, she suffered from cerebral aneurysms. Patricia had to re-learn how to walk and talk. Roald Dahl divorced Patricia Neal in 1983. He then became re-married to Felicity Crosland.

Roald Dahl could speak three different languages: Norwegian, English and Swahili.

Roald Dahl was an aircraftman in the Royal Air Force and was also a fighter pilot during World War II.

Roald Dahl didn’t really get into children’s books until he had his own children. In the 1960′s he got a traditional Gypsy wagon and turned it into a playhouse for his children.

He dedicated the book ‘Matilda’ to his grand-daughter Sophie Dahl.

Roald Dahl stated once that if he hadn’t become a writer he would have become a doctor.

In 1965 he was accused of plagiarism. He published a short story in Playboy called ‘The Visitor’ which was a lot like a story from writer Dod Osbourne called ‘Master of the Girl Pat.’

He loved chocolate, but not chocolate cake or chocolate ice-cream.

His favourite way of writing was with pencil on yellow paper.

He had two steel hips and six operations on his spine.

Some of his favourite authors were Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling and Frederick Marryat.

Some of Roald Dahl’s stories that you should consider reading are:

Children’s Fiction:

The Gremlins          Charlie and the Chocolate Factory                  Charlie and the Glass Elevator

The BFG                 The Witches             The Twits               Fantastic Mr Fox          Esio Trot

The Minpins            The Vicar of Nibbleswicke             Danny, the Champion of the World

The Magic Finger              The Enormous Crocodile                George’s Marvellous Medicine

The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me           James and the Giant Peach        Matilda        

Adult Fiction:

Switch Bitch                   Kiss Kiss             Twenty-Nine Kisses from Roald Dahl           Two Fables

Sometime Never: A Fable for Superman             Someone Like You          Skin and Other Stories

My Uncle Oswald             Lamb to the Slaughter             The Best of Roald Dahl        

Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories       Tales of the Unexpected     The Roald Dahl Treasury

More Tales of the Unexpected         Over To You: Ten Stories of Flyers and Flying

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More            The Roald Dahl Omnibus

The Great Automatic Gramatizator                       Roald Dahl Collected Stories

Ah: Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was a great author with an even greater imagination. Hopefully he has inspired you to read and write more.

Neil Gaiman: An author that needs no introduction.

Neil Richard Gaiman was born in England on the 10th of November 1960. He became intrigued by books as a small child. Some of the authors he liked to read were Edgar Allan Poe, Tolkien and C.S.Lewis. Libraries and his love of books fostered a deep seeded interest in writing. The starting point of Gaiman’s career began in Journalism. He wrote many articles and interviews under pseudonyms for the Sunday Times, the Observer, Knave and Time Out. In 1984 his first book was a biography on the band Duran Duran. Gaiman went on to write in many different genres across a range of mediums. Neil Gaiman is a writer who who keeps his fans constantly entertained. He was not only a writer but also a screen writer, a graphic novelist, producer and director. Some of the screen writing he has done that you may of heard of is: Beowulf, Coraline, Day of the Dead, Death and Me, Princess Mononoke, Stardust, MirrorMask and A Short Film About John Bolton.

Some interesting facts that you may not have known about Neil Gaiman:

His writing always seems to have a lot of metaphors, allusions and alliterations.

His dogs name Cabal, comes from the Hebrew word Kabbalah. The original meaning of this is an occult doctrine or secret.

Neil Gaiman is good friends with Tori Amos.

Currently he is married to Amanda Palmer who is his second wife. He has three children with his first wife Mary McGrath.

Gaiman never went to college.

Gaiman filed and won a lawsuit against Todd McFarlane. In 1991 Gaiman was asked by McFarlane to do some work for him on one issue of the Spawn series. During this time Gaiman introduced three supporting characters to the issue that he had created. McFarlane later claimed that he owned all of Gaimans creations. McFarlane also refused to pay Gaiman for work that was later republished and kept in print.

Neil Gaiman has his own blog. You can check it out here:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/

Neil Gaiman is definitely an amazing writer and it was my pleasure to add him to the author review list. I hope you gained as much pleasure reading about him as I did writing about him.

 

Andrew Mcgahan: An Author of Many Genres

Andrew McGahan was born 1965 in Dalby, Queensland, Australia. He grew up on a wheat farm with 9 other brothers and sisters. After finishing school he went to the University of Queensland to do an Arts degree, but ended up dropping out half-way through it. He then went on to write his first novel, but unfortunately this was never published. The next few years became a ‘floating’ stage in life for him, doing an array of jobs, until he published his first book in 1992. This book was Praise. When he wrote Praise in 1991 he received The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for unpublished novels. Praise is about the truth and dark humour of a young person growing up in Australia. It is also about a relationship sustained by drugs, alcohol and sex. Some say that this novel is a some-what an auto biography. Praise is considered to be in the genre of grunge literature.

In 1995 Andrew went on to write a prequel to Praise called 1988. When Andrew tried to write a third novel after 1988, he found it difficult. Instead of writing something in the genre of grunge literature he ended up writing a crime novel. This novel was called Last Drinks. Last Drinks won a Ned Kelly Award for crime writing. From this point forward nothing seemed to be able to stop Andrew from writing great novels. He went on to write The White Earth , Underground, Wonders of a Godless World, The Coming of the Whirlpool and The Voyage of the Unquiet Ice. Andrew McGahan has written in many different genres throughout his writing career and it has proven to be a great success.

Andrew Mcgahan is an Australian author that shows writing is a struggle, but if you stick with it you may just make it.

Kate Grenville – An Amazing Aussie Author

Kate Grenville was born in 1950 in Sydney, Australia. Kate Grenville established herself as a well-known author in 1984 when she published a collection of short stories called Bearded Ladies. Bearded Ladies  were short stories based on the notion of women trying to free themselves from gender stereotypes within society.  Kate then went on to publish 8 fiction novels. Kate is known to do a lot of research for her books, using historical and factual information in the creative process.

Some interesting facts about Kate Grenville:

Kate always wanted to be a writer when she was young, but didn’t know that it was an option when picking a career.

Her first job was a university holiday job at a milk bar. “I had no idea that feet could ache that much after 8 hours of standing behind a counter. And I’ve never been able to look at a milkshake from that day to this.”

Her favourite book of all time is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin.

The people that she finds most influential when writing is Jane Austen, Virgina Woolf and Patrick White.

Some of Kate Grenville’s writing that you should check out:

Lillian’s Story – Published in 1985 it follows the life story of a woman named Lillian Una Singer.

Dreamhouse – Published in 1986 – A sort of black comedy about a marriage on the rocks

Joan Makes History – Published in 1988 is about a woman who is present at all the famous moments in Australia’s European history.

Dark Places (Albion’s story in the U.S.) – Published in 1994 – Is a novel to go along with Lillian’s Story – it is from the point of view of her father.

The Idea of Perfection - Published in 1999 – About two unlikely people who fall in love.

The Secret River – Published in 2005 – Part of a trilogy about early Australia

The Lieutenant – Published 2008 – Part of a trilogy about early Australia

Sarah Thornhill – Part of a trilogy about early Australia.

If you are looking for something interesting to read: Kate Grenville is for you.

Please Vote!

www.surveymonkey.com/s/BAB2013

Best Australian Blog – People’s choice award!

Hello everyone. I have been nominated for the People’s choice award for Best Australian blog. I need votes! I would love it if every took a minute out of their time and voted for me!!!

Just click the link and scroll down the page and tick the box next to Bell Night.

This award would be amazing to win. Thanks everyone!

Some things you didn’t know about J. R. R. Tolkien

Everyone knows that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings books, but what else do you know about Tolkien? John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was his full name. He was born in South Africa on the 3rd of January 1892 and died on the 2nd of September 1973 at the age of 81-82. He began living in England at the age of 3, a decision made by his mother after his father passed away. He was best known for his fantasy novels: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Tolkien was one of the authors to bring the genre of fantasy to the forefront in literature.

Here are some interesting facts on Tolkien:

Most of Tolkien’s ancestors were craftsmen. The surname Tolkien comes from the German word Tollkuehn, which means fool-hardy.

As a young teen Tolkien started to explore languages. The first 3 languages that Tolkien worked on were Animalic, (which he didn’t invent himself) Nevbosh (means ‘new nonsense’) and Naffarin (he worked on by himself).

Tolkien’s wife Edith was 3 years older than him. He was not allowed to marry her until he turned 21. On the day he turned 21, he wrote to Edith asking her when he would see her again and declared his love. Edith wrote back telling him that she was already engaged to another man. The reason for this was that she believed Tolkien had forgotten about her. Tolkien got on a train to see her as soon as he heard. She returned the engagement ring to the other man and accepted Tolkien’s proposal.

Tolkien fought in World War I and lost many of his friends there.

Tolkien wrote an essay in 1936 Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics. ‘Beowulf’ wasn’t highly regarded at the time as great literature. After Tolkien’s essay things changed and people started to see ‘Beowulf’ in a different light. If it wasn’t for Tolkien many of us would never of even heard of ‘Beowulf.’

Tolkien was friends with C.S. Lewis.

When Tolkien’s son Michael entered the army and had to fill in paper work, he put down that his father’s profession was a ‘Wizard.’

Tolkien enjoyed forming clubs while he was at university. One was a Viking club and the other was a club called ‘the inklings.’ ( a literary discussion group)

Tolkien always saw himself as a scholar first and a writer second. He was skeptical of his fans, believing that they were incapable of really appreciating his work.

Most people think of The Lord of the Rings books as a trilogy, because that is how they were published, but in fact it is meant to be one novel.

Tolkien didn’t see ‘Frodo’ as being the main hero of The Lord of the Rings. He always claimed that ‘Sam’ was the real hero of the story. If most people knew this before they read the books, it would definitely change how it is seen.

The Lord of the Rings took Tolkien 14 years to write. It is also believed that when he needed a copy of the manuscript, he didn’t have the resources to make one, so he retyped the whole thing again himself.

Some of Tolkien’s publications that you should consider reading are: Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics.

The Hobbit

The Lord of the Rings

The Silmarillion

Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle-Earth

The Children of Hurin

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

Children’s stories:

The Father Christmas Letters

Mr Bliss

Roverandom

Tree and Leaf

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

On Fairy-Stories (an essay)

Smith of Wootton Major

Farmer Giles of Ham

J. R. R. Tolkien was an author with the ability to create worlds that were as believable as our reality.

Best Moment Award!

Awarding the people who live in the moment,
The noble who write and capture the best in life,
The bold who reminded us what really mattered -
Savoring the experience of quality time.

RULES:

Winners re-post this completely with their acceptance speech. This could be written or video recorded.

Winners have the privilege of awarding the next awardees! The re-post should include a NEW set of people/blogs worthy of the award; and winners notify them the great news.

RESOURCES:

• What makes a good acceptance speech?
  • Gratitude. Thank the people who helped you along the way
  • Humor. Keep us entertained and smiling
  • Inspiration. Make your story touch our lives
• Get an idea from the great acceptance speeches, compiled in MomentMatters.com/Speech
• Display the award’s badge on your blog/website, downloadable in MomentMatters.com/Award

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

Wow this is the first award that I think I have won for my blog. I am very flattered. I should thank MomentMatters for giving me this award! Thank you! Also thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog.
I am happy to find other bloggers out there who enjoy reading as much as I do. I also love reading all your blogs. Keep up the good work and don’t become discouraged! One day I might do an author review on you or something you have written. One day hopefully someone will be doing the same for me. Keep writing!

“It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by.  How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment?  For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone.  That is where the writer scores over his fellows:  he catches the changes of his mind on the hop”.  ~Vita Sackville-West

THE WINNERS OF THE BEST MOMENT AWARD ARE:

1.  Horror Novel Reviews

2.  Art of Stumbling

3.  Iron Clad Folly

4.  All the in between

5.  Cruising through my life

Don’t forget to celebrate with your followers! Tweet your success with hashtag #MomentMatters. Congratulations, winners!

Brian Lumley – Continuing on the Legacy of H.P. Lovecraft

Brian Lumley was born December 2nd, 1937. Brian started off in the royal military police, and later on after he retired became the author he is today. While doing long shifts he would be reading his favourite literature. These books were usually of the macabre style, some of it good and some of it bad. This is when Brian decided that maybe he could write better than some of the authors works he was reading. His biggest influence and inspiration was H.P. Lovecraft. Brian started writing short stories based ‘after’ Lovecraft. These were published with great success. He then went on to write many other novels and stories. The series of novels that he is probably most famous for is the Necroscope series.

Here are some interesting facts about Brian Lumley that you may not know:

Brian Lumley tried to write under the pseudonym of Hagna S. Grey once, but was told by his publisher no, and that there was nothing wrong with his name. So unlike many authors, he decided to keep writing under his own name.

The death of Brian’s father inspired him to write Necroscope. Brian felt that he had missed out on many conversations with his father while he was alive. …”I would have like to tell him I loved him I suppose. So I went across to his local pub and brought two pints, one for him and one for me. I helped him drink  his, too, and I imagined I was talking to him. I got to tell him some of the stuff I should have told him a long time before. That was the germ of Necroscope. And the rest of it just growed.”

More than 13 countries have now published Necroscope and other stories by Brian Lumley. In America alone Necroscope has sold more than 3 million copies.

Brian Lumley loves to travel and has been to many different countries. These countries include: America, France, Italy, Cyprus, Germany, Malta, Canada, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Plus many of the Greek Islands.

If you haven’t read anything by Brian Lumley and you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft than I strongly suggest you pick up one of his books and start reading!

Clive Barker – Not Just an Author!

Clive Barker was born the 5th of October 1952. This author is best known for his horror and fantasy stories, many of which were turned into movies. The movies that he would be best known for are ‘Hellraiser’ and ‘Candyman’. The ‘Hellraiser’ series came from the novella ‘The Hellbound Heart’ and ‘Candyman’ came from a short story called ‘The Forbidden.’

Clive Barker started off in his career by publishing a collection of short stories called ‘Books of Blood. These soon became quite popular, which is unusual because short stories don’t normally kick-start a writer’s career. Clive Barker stated this also in an interview: …”I was surprised just because they were short stories and because the conventional wisdom of publishing says that you don’t publish short stories if you are unknown. So I was pleased and delighted by the response of those books.”

When these books first came there was a quote on the front covers by Stephen King saying: “I have seen the future of horror, his name is Clive Barker.” This is interesting considering later on in Clive Barker’s career he turns more towards fantasy.

Some interesting facts that you may not of known about Clive Barker:

At the age of four, he saw a french skydiver die during an air show in Liverpool. The skydiver’s name was Leo Valentin. Leo Valentin is referred to a few times in some of Barker’s stories.

Clive Barker has been openly gay since the 1990′s.

In 2012 Clive Barker went into an 11 day coma after a dentists visit caused blood poisoning. Hopefully this will have led to some interesting new stories.

Clive Barker is not only an author but also a painter, film director, screenwriter, actor, playwright, producer, visual artist and an illustrator. – It sounds a lot like he is Superman. Oh and he also created his own superhero comic books.

The Very Inspiring Blogger Award… Thanks David Lee Summers!

To my amazement, I was just nominated for another award. Thanks David!

The Rules of the Award are as follows:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.
2. Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. State 7 things about yourself.
4. Nominate 15 bloggers for this award and link to them.
5. Notify those bloggers of the nomination and the award’s requirements.

Seven thing about me:

1. The first novel I ever read was by Virgina Andrews was when I was 9 or 10.

2. I have a cat named Angel.

3. I would love to publish my own book one day.

4. I have a tattoo on my back.

5. I have been to University twice, but dropped out both times.

6. I wear glasses occasionally.

7. I was born on the 7th of May.

My nominees for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award:

1. Just After Words

2. Luminous Dreamer

3. Sunita Osborne

4. Harsh Reality

5. Words of Birds

6. Kezia Lubanszky

7. Frost at Midnight

8. 15 Dancing Frogs

9. Talin Orfali

10. Joshsang

11. Hollis Plample

12. Lily Wight

13. Double Moon Pie

14. London is for Living

15. Interesting Literature