#declan has been a massive part of that especially with how i express myself and my feelings

[sl0wdiver]

✨Let’s do something fun! I wanna see the top 6 photos of your fave, these are mine! ✨

Tagged by @canirove - let's fucking go, Declan Rice solidarity. Original post linked below.

And six more tags to keep it doing: @jarrodsbowen @ruben-dias @bakingblues @afc-agitprop @heffer-wen @trentskis

[authormekajames]

Author Interview: Yawatta Hosby

Hello and happy Monday! For the last month I'd been good about doing my Music Monday posts. I'm still doing it this week, but with a twist. My fellow writing buddy, @yawattahosby released her latest thriller/suspense book on November 19th. To help celebrate her newest book, I invited her to my blog for a fun interview. Sit back, grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy. 

1. What books have most influenced your life? Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries have always had a place in my heart. For the longest time, I’d only buy her novels in bookstores. My favorite of hers: And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, and The A.B.C. Murders. Her writing has influenced me in every way possible, even down to the monsters in my stories are always human. The Babysitter’s Club and other books I read as a child influenced my life as well. I’d get lost in the pages and fantasize about being an author myself. Without thinking reading is cool back in elementary school, I may have never thought to be a writer. 2. How do you develop your plots and characters? I develop my plot by always thinking of what I’d like to see on the big screen. I always have the ending in my head first, then I come up with scenarios that will get me that ending. Next step is coming up with characters who will fit that plot. Plotting an outline, I write extensive notes to get a feel for my story. I end up noticing that once I actually start working on my novellas, scenes change or get deleted. I think of outlines as being flexible. Creating character sketches is the longest process for me. Since I love to draw, I always sketch my characters with many different poses and facial expressions. I do this with main characters and secondary characters. I even go as far as drawing fake social media profiles and interviewing my characters like they were auditioning for a reality tv show. I really like getting inside their heads before I even start the first sentence of my book. 3. What do you enjoy most about writing horror/suspense? I LOVE scaring readers! 4. We all need a hero! Tell us about your protagonist(s)? Was there a real-life inspiration behind him or her? For my newest release, Six Plus One, a group of college kids travel to Green Bank, West Virginia to film footage for an alien-centric web series. Alta is the main character. She’s charming and flirty. When things go crazy, she keeps her cool and tries to be a leader. Natalie is the nicest one of the bunch. She shows sympathy. Kendrick and Declan are nice guys. They wouldn’t even hurt a fly, or would they? There weren’t any real-life inspirations behind my heroes. However, I did try to mirror similar personalities from characters of One By One since my new book is its sequel. 5. A good villain is hard to write. How did you get in touch with your inner villain(s) to write this book. Was there a real-life inspiration for him/her/it?Tapping into my inner-villain(s), I was focused while I wrote the novella. I listen to certain playlists on Spotify to stay in the mood. Writing about killing characters in gruesome ways can get intense sometimes. After I’m done from my inner-dark place, I immediately change playlists to happier, upbeat music or I watch a comedy on Netflix. I promise I’m not creepy in real life haha. Grayson and Eugene were main antagonists. They were jerks and manipulators. Of course, the killer(s) were villain(s) too. No spoiler alerts in this interview. There weren’t any real-life inspirations behind my villains. 6. What was the hardest part of writing this book? The hardest part of writing Six Plus One was the revision process. Since it’s a sequel, I wanted it to match the word count of One By One. I did many massive rewrites, but the new scenes just weren’t vibing with the story. I had even tried a totally different ending than originally planned. However, listening to my critique partner, I decided to change things back and delete scenes that were slowing down the pace. I’m happy that I listened. Now, I see that it doesn’t matter if Six Plus One has a lower word count. The novella is a great read. One day maybe I’ll share the alternate ending and/or deleted scenes with my newsletter subscribers. 7. What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why? Chapter Seventeen is my favorite. Something pushes Declan over the edge, causing him to go over to the dark side. Since the beginning, he seemed like one of the good guys, so it was quite fun making him be badass. Chills went down my spine as I wrote Declan entering the cabin. I can only imagine what Alta, Kendrick, Natalie, and Eugene were feeling! 8. Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it? I learned that I am capable of writing sequels. Publishing my first book in 2013, I always thought I’d be one of those authors that would never write sequels. That once I wrote ‘the end,’ my story was complete. However, Six Plus One challenged me in a fun way. Even though it’s a sequel, the book can be read as a standalone. I also learned that around 30,000 words tend to be my sweet spot. I’m okay with writing fast reads. I’m okay with writing novellas. I’m okay with not pushing myself to get a higher word count if the pacing doesn’t fit the story. 9. Is there a message in your novel that you hope readers will grasp? The message I hope readers will grasp—trust no one. Characters can be unreliable narrators. Characters can have their own agenda for lying. I hope I shock the readers by the killer(s) reveal. 10. What are your future project(s)? I tend to jinx myself with this question. I think because I’m a slow reviser. Sometimes it can take me years to complete a novel. I feel like I’ve been saying this for ages, but my future projects are finishing my suspense story of a young, crazy ballerina terrorizing her sister, and finishing my horror story of a group of college students dying, one by one, from different urban legends. Even though I’m a suspense and horror author, I also dabble in other genres from time to time, especially with short stories. For NaNo this year, I’ve written a sequel to my women’s fiction novella, Something’s Amiss. And, my local writing buddy and I committed ourselves to writing a short story every week for 52 weeks straight. That’s a lot of stories I need to polish! I hope to submit to magazines and perhaps publish a short story collection. I hope 2018 will be the year where I can publish more than one book a year! 11. If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be? Growing up, I always had a sketchbook in my hand, surrounding myself with pencils, markers, and colored pencils. My family thought I’d be a children’s book illustrator. If I hadn’t become an author, my ideal career would be a cartoonist or comic book artist. My favorite sense of humor is sarcasm, so I would apply for shows with the same tone as Daria and Total Drama Island. This year I attended an online art school called Schoolism, learning from instructors with great credentials. One helped with the Disney show Kim Possible. Maybe one day I can follow my dream of creating a comic book or graphic novel… 12. What is your preferred method to have readers get in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page, here on Goodreads, etc.) and link(s)? I’ve noticed that I mostly hear from readers through my email (found on my blog) and Goodreads, but using any social media platform is okay with me. I’m mostly on Twitter, interacting with readers and other writers. My favorite hashtags are: #amreading and #amwriting. 

And because this is my Music Monday spot, I had to find out what song or songs Yawatta listens to while writing. Civil Twilight's "Letters From The Sky". It’s one of my favorite rock songs, putting me in that somber mood when I’m writing something dark :)

OUT NOW

[reeceba3a]

http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/interview-with-mural-artists-the-bogside-artists/

After visiting Derry earlier this year and seeing the murals in the Bogside, I really needed to find out more about the works and more about Northern Ireland. Created by the Bogside Artists (Thomas Kelly, William Kelly, and Kevin Hasson), these murals depict a living history. Powerful and emotive, the images resonate, however, their message transcends the Bogside and Northern Ireland, leaving a greater hope for universal peace.

Q&A with Tomas Kelly:

Firstly, Tom can you tell me about yourself? How did you first get into painting, etc? And what made you, William and Kevin start collaborating artistically? I had been working with Declan McGonagle in the community Outreach program for ten years, doing murals etc. Collaborating with my brother William who had a degree in painting from the NCAD, Dublin and my good friend Kevin Hasson was a natural development when I got the notion of turning the Bogside into an open-air gallery of murals commemorating the history of the Troubles.

I find the Murals powerful, emotive and striking; can you give me a history of how and why you decided to make art on such a massive scale depicting the Troubles? We paint what we think is important. Our first mural, however, was the result of a general need on the part of the people living in the Bogside to have something with which to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Battle of The Bogside. We did all of the murals without pay. Because we could not find public funding especially from the arts councils both North and South we had to go around the doors with a tin can collecting pennies from the citizens. You can find this in our BBC documentary but we have no copies of that left. Content and style are thrashed out between us in a spontaneous collaborative effort some people call “brain storming.” We begin with knowing WHAT we want to express. The HOW comes later. Also, we invariably change features and repaint as we go along. That means the work is not still-born and has consequently some life in it.

Today, Street Art has connotations associated with graffiti, but your work takes on more traditional techniques, can you give me an idea of your technique? I am glad you asked that as a great many people think we used computers and overhead projectors and such like. We didn’t. We used the same techniques used by Michelangelo by squaring up the image and tracing it out on a grid prepared with chalk and plumb-line on the wall. The wall is rendered with sealer and given a base coat of outdoor emulsion in the appropriate tone of grey for the image. The image itself is built up on stages from thin to thick in the highlights using acrylic with emulsion for the larger areas. The palette is kept simple as we are not in the decorating business but trying to convey the seriousness of the content we are depicting. It is art, first and foremost that concerns us, – to express something while keeping out egos out of it. Easier said than done. That we are able to do it at all in perfect harmony says something for us as artists whose egos are notoriously rampant and often irrational.

When it comes to starting a Mural, what does the process involve? Logistically in terms of the scale, but also mentally and emotionally? How do you decide what to paint? Brainstorming. We can take days and many coffees figuring out what is appropriate but having a defined story to tell makes it easier. The key events are the substance of the story. Inspiration comes slowly and usually at the point when all hope is gone.

Your murals are telling a story and pay homage to the difficult times, how do you feel that they are connecting communities and provided an outlet for peace? The murals have endowed the area and the people who live there with a sense of pride. It is their history after all that is painted. The murals also bring in many visitors into the area. Before the troubles there were so few visitors into the city that the local tourist board did not even bother to keep records! Now, there are thousands. And many of them come to see the murals per se. That brings revenue to the city, to both sides of the community and especially in the tourist and hospitality sector. Jobs and a decent standard of living foster peace, peace and hardship do not. Also, if the murals were not there you would find the walls festooned with graffiti and political slogans. It would resemble a typical warren of Glasgow or Liverpool. In brief, the murals ( in the words of ex-Mayor Gerry OHara) have been a “boon to the city as a whole”.

On a recent visit to Derry, I went on a tour around the city, I understand that the there were some changes to Death of Innocence from its unveiling in 1999, can you tell me more about those changes and why? Have any of the other Murals changed and why? At the time we painted the mural peace was not assured do we left the butterfly at top left unfinished for that reason. A new beginning or resurrection for the community had yet to be achieved. When it finally was, we completed the butterfly.

Petrol Bomber is a powerful image and incredibly moving on many levels; can you tell me more about this piece? It actually depicts a cousin of William’s and myself – Paddy Coyle, on our mother’s side. We had to get his permission to use his image! The following is taken from our book: “This was our first mural and thought to be our best. It was lifted, but not entirely, from the front cover of a Magazine. The photo was taken by Clive Limpkin. As soon as we painted it we knew we had captured something of the spirit of The Bogside. Young people were very much involved in that particular struggle between the RUC, the B-Specials and the campaginers for civil liberties. It was painted in warm greys and white because we wanted to allude to this image as journalism, as an event in the past. It was painted in 1994 as commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Battle of The Bogside. It was painted in emulsions and has survived quite well. The child in the gas mask is a cousin of two of the artists.”

Many of your Murals were painted in the 1990s about events from the 1960s and 1970s, as a member of the Bogside community, how did it feel to illustrate these events decades later, and on such a large scale? At first, what was the reaction of the local community? You do what you have to when you are living in our situation. What was the alternative…do nothing? People in the area knew what we were trying to do and fully supported us. They understood the work and still do. Adverse criticism came only from people who did not understand them or who lumped them in with political propaganda of the sort you find in Belfast. Other adverse criticism came from the loca arty wannabes who were jealous of our achievement and still are. Unfortunately these people have connections in high places, which is why we find it such a struggle to survive as a group. Such funding as we have received over the years we have had to fight for, tooth, nail and claw. We have not since 1994 received a single offer of help or even a phone call from our incumbent Arts Officer.

Can you tell me more about your “Encouragement Programme” and how it is developing / nurturing young artists in the area? What are the hopes and aspirations? We have had many exhibitions to date and will have many more showcasing young talent. Getting a start in the commercial art world is well nigh impossible for unknowns and our feeling is the sooner you get a start the better. So, we give them a leg up. We get no funding to do this and take nothing from whatever the exhibitor may earn. We enjoy helping. They have only to take care of their own publicity. It is a useful service to the community and a fingers up to the money-grabbing curators of galleries everywhere who can take up to 50% of an artist’s earnings. People are in jail for less, in our view.

Do you have any plans for any future Murals, if so; can you give me some details? We have some ideas for other murals but we cannot divulge. The wannabes compete with us and if they got wind of any or our project they would be burning the midnight oil to try and upstage us. Sad but true. We, on the other hand, compete with nobody but we do like peace to be able to get on with what we do best.

For visitors to Northern Ireland, Derry and the Bogside, what would you like them to take away? Hope in the innate species-goodness of the human race and the fact that suffering has meaning.

You can book a tour around People’s Gallery with the artists – visit their website for more details: www.bogsideartists.com

Images used with kind permission. Petrol Bomber © the Bogside Artists

Posted on 2 September 2010