#k for ralph it was a grip even

[rosie-tyler]

TIG and his never ending need to touch someone's shoulder JRKFLLLSLWL

[severalspoons]

“Wolfwood Mood” quotes

To be updated as I find more.

God may judge you, but His sins outnumber your own. --  @afabbaeddel

“Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.” ― Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“That's one of the remarkable things about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse.” ― Bill Watterson

“An encouraged person will eventually get his drive from encouragement; he becomes more dependent. A person that never really receives encouragement learns to move out of spite; he becomes more independent.” ― Criss Jami, Killosophy

They're going to have to glue you back together, IN HELL! -- Demoman in Team Fortress 2

Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” ― Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

“Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.”- Epictetus

“When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms 

I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me. --Fallout New Vegas NPC

“We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.” ― Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Man can get used to anything, the scoundrel. --Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“And what's strange, what would be marvelous, is not that God should really exist; the marvel is that such an idea, the idea of the necessity of God, could enter the head of such a savage, vicious beast as man.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“The soul is healed by being with children.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky

“People speak sometimes about the "bestial" cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Killing myself was a matter of such indifference to me that I felt like waiting for a moment when it would make some difference.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man

“Destroy my desires, eradicate my ideals, show me something better, and I will follow you.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky

“The whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano key.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

“One man doesn't believe in god at all, while the other believes in him so thoroughly that he prays as he murders men!” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

“Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.” ― George Carlin

“Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!” ― Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

“You only live twice: Once when you are born And once when you look death in the face” ― Ian Fleming, You Only Live Twice 

“There is no ideal world for you to wait around for. The world is always just what it is now, and it's up to you how you respond to it.” ― Isaac Marion, Warm Bodies

My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre

“Better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees.” ― Jean Paul Sartre 

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre

“There is no reality except in action.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism

“Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse.” ― Joseph Brodsky

“mankind is resilient: the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow.” ― Joseph Heller

“Do you know what it means to be a survivor? It means that not only do you have to live through things, you have to live with them as well. The second part is much harder and sometimes it takes the rest of your life to learn how to do it. But at least you have the rest of your life…” ― Josephine Angelini, Firewalker

“Someone has to be stoic, for the sake of, in spite of, and in the face of all those who are, not. Someone, has to be serious. Someone has to choose to forgo choice, so that there is an option left for others to consider. Everyone can't be, someone.” ― Justin K. McFarlane Beau

“Loving someone always requires you to not love others.” ― Koushun Takami, Battle Royale

“Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it.” ― Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

“We are not defined by the things we do in order to survive. We do not apologize for them,” she says quietly, eyes never leaving mine. “Maybe they have broken you, but you are a sharper weapon because of it. And it is time to strike.” ― Laura Sebastian, Ash Princess 

“People are petty, spiteful creatures. What they can't use, hurt, steal, or control, they'll usually destroy.” ― Lorna Reid, Darkwalkers

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” ― Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else again.” ― Malcom X

“Think of it! We could have gone on longing for one another and pretending not to notice forever. This obsession with dignity can ruin your life if you let it.” ― Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

“Does anything in nature despair except man? An animal with a foot caught in a trap does not seem to despair. It is too busy trying to survive. It is all closed in, to a kind of still, intense waiting. Is this a key? Keep busy with survival.” ― May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude 

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." ― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise.

--Maya Angelou

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.

--Maya Angelou  

“Somehow, even in the worst of times, the tiniest fragments of good survive. It was the grip in which one held those fragments that counted.” ― Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock

“Show me somebody who is always smiling, always cheerful, always optimistic, and I will show you somebody who hasn't the faintest idea what the heck is really going on.” ― Mike Royko

“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.” ― Rabindranath Tagore, Collected Poems and Plays of Rabindranath Tagore

“Survival," I said softly. "It's selfish, and it's dark, and we've always been a species willing to do anything to satisfy our needs.  ― Rachel Caine, Total Eclipse

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson  

“To have endured horrors, to have seen the worst of humanity and have your life made unrecognizable by it, to come out of all that honorable and brave— that was magical.” ― Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

“We'd stared into the face of Death, and Death blinked first. You'd think that would make us feel brave and invincible. It didn't.” ― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave  

“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.” – Seneca

I will fight you in Hell upon a mound of bones. -- @shitmygaywifesays

“As long as there’s two people left on the planet, someone is gonna want someone dead.” -- Sniper, Team Fortress 2

"If God had wanted you to live, he would not have created me!” -- Soldier, Team Fortress 2

babies cry because they are alive and that is the saddest thing to be. — spencer madsen (@spencermadsen) December 15, 2011

Do you think God stays in heaven because He, too, lives in fear of what He’s created? --Spykids 2nd movie

“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.  Or you don't.” -- Stephen King, The Stand

“The only thing that matters in the end is your own survival. It's what humans and cockroaches are best at.” ― Susan Ee, World After

If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn’t as cynical as real life. --Terry Pratchett, Guards, Guards!

“I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are good people and bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.” ― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards! 

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt 

I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees. --Unknown

if you stay alive for no other reason at all, please do it for spite. -- Unknown

Hell is empty, and all the devils are here. -- Unknown Tumblr post

“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” ― William Goldman, The Princess Bride 

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” ― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

...I WILL FACE GOD AND WALK BACKWARDS INTO HELL— wint ( @dril ) May 22, 2012

#Yes I will put Shakespeare side by side with Dril #fight me

[smutfornerds]

My Hero // Barry x Reader

A/N: k so I got three likes and an anon about posting this tonight so here it is!! Alsooooo, I kinda combined two requests, they were just right next to each other in my inbox and it sparked my creativity to mesh them. Hope that’s okay!! oh and obvi smut warning duh. 💕

—

Water and wind swirled around the robbers, you’d trapped them on the roof of the bank, much to someone’s dismay. Out of the corner of your eye you see.. hair? Oh, Ralph. You’re distracted long enough for one of the crooks to land a solid shot to the back of your leg, sending you flying forward with a gush of water and mud. The asshole laughed, unaware of the very stretchy friend that was shimmying his way around his shoes. Seconds later Ralph was wrapping around the perp like a snake. The other two were out cold from your wind knock out, but that left one unaccounted for. You watched as Cisco breached the first three to CCPD, but the final one was hiding, you could feel it. You tiptoe over to the ledge of the building, where it connects to another with a dark alley a couple hundred stories down. Around the corner you hear metal clanging, and before you can turn to hit him there’s a rush of lightening and the sound of cuffs locking. Barry successfully ambushed him, but the sudden rush of air made you lose your footing and begin slipping off the edge.

Barry wrapped his arms around you from behind, flinging himself with you as you fell from the building. Before you hit the ground Ralph caught you, inflated like a human balloon. Once you unraveled yourselves from his stretched skin, Ralph caught the angry look in Barry’s eyes and backed away very slowly. “How could you put yourself in this kind of danger?!” Barry’s voice boomed through the empty alleyway. You opened your mouth to speak but he cut you off, with more yelling and frustration. “You could’ve died! DIED, do you get that? If we hadn’t been here- I don’t even want to think about it.” He sighed, noticing your sunken face and glistening eyes. His demeanor softened for a second before you spat back at him. “Well maybe if you didn’t have be such a hero and try to rescue me every damn time, I’d learn to fight for myself!” You’d swallowed your tears and taken small steps towards him as you spoke, now a few inches from his face. “Trust me when I say I can take care of myself. I do it every night when you’re out saving Central City.” The tone of your voice was mocking now, seeing how mad Barry was getting. “And I do a lot better than you do.” Your final words made his brows raise, a humorless laugh huffing from deep in his chest. Before he could say a word you kicked dust up around you and twirled yourself off in a whirlwind of it, your powers working quicker due to your anger. While in the air you pushed your little blue button, the interdimensional extrapolator sending you right back to Star Labs.

Unfortunately for you, Barry beat you there and was standing before you seconds after you arrived. “Ugh! Barry, for once can you just fucking stop?!” You scream at him, fully aware that everyone in the Cortex is watching you in person now. His eyes falter for a second before he takes his cowl off, angry expression back to his features. “No, because if I stop, you’ll end up dead.” He retorts, crossing his arms. The eye roll you give him could start a tsunami, if you’d let it. “Or maybe I’d save my damn self and you’d be all emasculated and soft-dicked and have a pity party.” You spit words of venom at him, and you could feel the tension in the room growing. Behind you Cisco bites at his finger, Harry trying not to laugh at your low blows.

Barry is silent, jaw clenched as his eyes dart from you to the others. “I am not talking about this right now.” He grumbles through his teeth, his gaze at you so sharp it almost hurts, but you’re relentless tonight. A devious and anger driven smirk crosses your lips as you cross your arms to match his stance. “Talk about what? How every time you ‘save me’ you get all happy in the pants? Or how when you kick somebody’s ass it gets your rocks off?” Tilting your head you take a step towards him, smoke practically fuming from his ears now. You just smile wider. Lowering your voice so only he can hear you, you lean in to his ear. “Or are you still mad that I can do your job better than you can?” After you speak you barely have time to look at him before you feel your feet taken out from under you. The world whizzes past you and you cling to Barry and close your eyes tightly before it can make you feel sick. Suddenly you’re still, you open your eyes to see Barry, cowl back on, standing over you as you lay in bed.

“What the fuck are you do—“ you’re interrupted by his lips on yours. At first you give in, because his lips are so soft and so warm and so welcoming, but before long you’re reminded of the anger stirring in your stomach and you push him off. “Barry! I’m really not in the mood.” Arms crossed again you glare up at him, but he’s just grinning. “Barry? Hmm, don’t know him.” A buzz of electricity and you’re laying down again, this time stripped to nothing but your bra and panties, but Barry’s still in his suit. With his voice contorted like he speaks in public, his eyes flicker with sparks as he speaks to you. “I’m the Flash. And I’m here to take care of you.” Again he crashes his lips to yours, this time though he lets tiny crackles of electricity hit your tongue from his, feeling the tingles against your lips, the ends of his fingertips buzz on your bare skin. It’s legitimately electrifying. You want to fight it, fight him, yell and scream and get everything out of your system; but this just seems so much better.

Once you give in, Barry - The Flash - gives you a devious grin. After another split second he’s dropped you onto the bed with a bit of a bounce, completely naked. You look around but can’t see him, only blurred streaks of lightening. Next thing you know your hands are bound to the bedside table, and you’re blindfolded. Gasping at the sudden darkness and lack of movement you struggle against the ropes on your wrists. From the other side of the room you hear a low chuckle, knowing the voice even if it’s through vibrated vocal chords. “There’s no getting out of this one..” he’s made his voice lower, sexier, just to tease you. With a gust of wind you feel him next to you, his breath hot against your neck. “But don’t worry pretty girl.” Again he wisks himself to the other side of you, letting the cold material of his suit brush your thigh. “I’m gonna save you.. in a while.” You can hear the smirk dripping from his tone and you sigh, letting your head fall back in frustration. “If this is your way of getting back at me, I’m no-ahh-ahh..” you’re interrupted when vibrating fingers find your clit, and your words are stolen from your throat and replaced with sweet moans. Barry chuckles darkly next to you, bringing his lips to your neck to leave electrifying kisses to your skin.

In an instant he’s behind you, hand still buzzing between your legs. He’s positioned you on your knees, hands tied behind you now but free from the table. Blindfolded still, all your other senses felt heightened. He pushes himself against your back, the chilled feeling of his suit sending shivers up your spine. Without a word from him you hear a zipper, before feeling a familiar appendage brush your hands. “I think you know what to do with that..” he murmurs lowly, rolling his hips so his length lines up into your hand. Immediately you begin stroking his length the best you can with your wrists restrained, and gain a small groan from the speedster. Almost on cue he increases his vibrations to your wetness, making you gasp and lose your grip on him as your back arches. He sighs, realizing this position won’t work in his favor. Without missing a beat he rolls you to your back, hands now tied above your head and eyes still covered. Barry lifts your legs and wraps them around his torso, and you feel the cold material of his suit against your skin. “Why are you—“ he cuts you off again, this time with his lips fervently on yours. Sparks tingle every nerve ending he touches, and it finally hits you just why he’s still clothed; he’s not taking the suit off at all. A whole new wave of lust washes over you like a rain storm. Part of you wants to actually make it rain, but now is not the time. Maybe after he’s done with you.

A shaky sigh leaves you as he settles between your legs, you can feel him hovering over you but unsure of how far he is from your face. Suddenly you hear a familiar buzzing sound.... but it’s not Barry. “Now, let’s see who’s really better..” He mumbles, and you’re frozen - not like you had a choice - with anticipation. First he trails the toy down your left side, and his buzzing fingertips down the right. A whimper leaves your lips at the stimulation, and you can’t help but want just his fingers, but you can’t admit that to him yet, if ever. He hums lowly as he trails the toy to your clit, letting it send simple vibrations through you enough to elicit a small string of moans. After a minute he removes it and you hear it clatter to the wall and break into pieces, and the noise causes you to jump a bit. Barry chuckles dryly, using his normal voice now. Without a word he brings his rapidly pulsating fingertips to your mound. Immediately your back arches at the heightened speed, your breath hitching in your throat. The pleasure is immeasurable. Barry changes the speed and intensity of the vibrations every few seconds, leaving you writhing and shaking beneath him after only a minute. Almost as if he’s timing it - he is - he stops at a minute. Your breath is shaky, and labored. Your legs rest weightlessly against Barry’s, and you don’t even bother trying to calm yourself, you just wait and ride it out.

After a few silent and still moments of him taking in how you look, memorizing this memory, he finally grins and lifts your blindfold. It takes a moment for your eyes to adjust but when they do you see a smug and very proud speedster before you, still fully costumed. Barry leans down and captures your swollen lips in another kiss, this one a bit softer and more purposeful than the last. While he has you distracted he unties your wrists and you happily wrap your arms around his leathered shoulders. If this was the fantasy he wanted to play into, you would go all in. Your kisses become faster and more excited, hands coming to brace his face and kiss him repeatedly. After a bit Barry pulls away a bit confused, but it doesn’t last long.

Looking up at him through clouded eyes, you trail your fingertips over the emblem on his chest as you speak. “Mm.. saved by The Flash, I must be the luckiest girl alive.. however can I thank you?” You pause, wrapping a hand around his exposed hard on, slowly starting to stroke as he lets out a low moan. “My hero..” your voice lowered to a seductive tone, you nibble at your bottom lip as your hand works him slowly, rolling your thumb against his tip to drive him all the more crazy. Barry sucks in a sharp breath at the feeling, his head tilting back as he revels in the pleasure and the lust. Using your free hand you reach up behind his neck, attempting to remove the cowl. Once he realizes your intentions, it’s over and he instantly has you pinned to the bed, legs wrapped around him and his length pressed firmly against your wetness. “Naughty girl..” His voice just above a whisper, raspy in your ear. “Just gonna expose my identity like that?” Barry clicks his tongue as he shakes his head a bit, grinding his hips against you slowly to tease you. You whine, trying to move your hips to get even an inch of him inside you.

Again Barry lets out a dark laugh, eyeing your body as you squirm for him. “I guess I’ll just have to punish you..” The lightening cracks in eyes again, but this time it’s almost intimidating. One hand keeps a tight grip on your wrists, the other planted firmly on your hip to guide him. He enters you with no warning, hard and forceful thrusts. A cry rings out of you and sounds like music to Barry’s ears. He watches your face change with every wave of pleasure he gives you. Soon his thrusts are faster, erratic. You can tell he’s coming close. “B-Babe.. p-please..” you twist your wrists desperately as you plead for him to let you touch him. He shakes his masked head in response, hips rolling with every thrust to hit your sweet spot. Gasping for the air that’s left your body you close your eyes to let the pleasure fill you. Barry grunts softly, his tell that he’s close. Opening your eyes once more you whine to him, getting him to look at you, and it hits you; give him exactly what he wants. As you lock eyes and he thrusts into you, you moan out with everything you have. “Flash!” Your body shakes under him as he begins to vibrate, groaning loudly as he finishes, losing his grip on your hands. Immediately you snatch his cowl off and the sudden shock sends his orgasm into overdrive. A loud a guttural moan bubbles up from his throat and with one last shaking thrust, you come unraveled beneath him, legs shaking and tensing as you ride out your second orgasm of the night.

Moments later you feel Barry flop down next to you, and hear his suit hit the floor. Once he’s caught his breath he sighs dramatically, resting his hands behind his head. “Damn, that was hot. But like.. that was HOT HOT.” He fans himself and wipes a bead of sweat from his face, and you can’t help but smile. “Only Barry Allen could go from relentless dom to adorable puppy in .2 seconds.” You coo, rolling over to snuggle into his chest. “And before you even ask,” you peak up at him catching him closing his mouth that was already open to speak. “You’re way better.” You grin, matching his now smug smirk, before bringing your lips to his for a final kiss. Pulling back he just stares at you. “What?” Barry smiles at the question, letting his eyes close. “You’re the one that saves me, every single day.” With each final word he squeezes you tighter to his chest. Silently you’re hoping and praying he never lets go.

[ilikeyourharrystyles]

Summary

Twelve-year-old Charlie Watkins could have inherited his dad’s massive intellect. He got his massive feet instead.

Perhaps if Charlie had that intellect he might have been able to figure out why so many men in suits were suddenly following him or where his dad hid the Cubit – a mythical object that men have sworn to protect and even more have died trying to possess – before his so-called accident.

If starting yet another new school wasn’t bad enough, Charlie meets Mr Leopold, a disfigured, mind-reading lunatic and discovers that he alone must find the Cubit if he is to save his dad. The Brotherhood, however, have other ideas. Led by the ruthless Draganovic, they will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. With the help of Mr Leopold and fellow new boy Elvis, Charlie sets out on The Cubit Quest.

Hunting for the Cubit, playing football, lessons with the dreaded Funeral Face and unsuccessfully avoiding school bully Grimshaw by day, Charlie finds his nights no less complicated. Stalked in his dreams, he’s soon immersed in a world of power struggles, battling dragons and duels to the death. With the Brotherhood hot on his heels and as the bullets begin to fly, there are no guarantees that Charlie, or anyone else, will make it to the end in one piece.

Author Spotlight

Well, they say that everyone needs a hobby, but whilst sat in a tent listening to fighter jets scream overhead in a foreign land, I realised that I needed something else: a distraction.  Writing was the perfect solution; even if writing about military life wasn’t.  I was much more interested in writing about action-packed adventures that was bristling with the likes of bullying, crunching tackles and great goals on the football pitch, the afterlife, mythical creatures, fate, destiny and the obligatory arch-villain hellbent on world domination.  Hence my foray into the world of young adult writing began. You could say that I was always going to be less Andy McNab and more J.K. Rowling.

They also say that you should write about the things you know, and even if I was writing about twelve-year-old boy Charlie Watkins, who suddenly found that he had more enemies than hot dinners, or super-powerful and deadly adversaries, or hobgoblins, I wanted people to believe it.  Therefore, I needed a real place to set my semi-fantasy world. The town of North Shields, in the northern corner of England with a view of the River Tyne, the place where I grew up, provided the perfect backdrop for my first novel The Cubit Quest.  After all, the place really does have it all – great buildings, great parks, great coastline, and even greater people.  I hoped to do the place justice – I didn’t.

The reason for this was relatively simple: I wasn’t very good at it.  Four years down the line and The Cubit Quest was still more a figment of my imagination than a reality.  The ‘Ian Rankin style’ of writing, namely you have a rough idea of where you’re going and let’s see how it pans out, was hugely successful – for Ian Rankin that is!  For me, the process was an unmitigated disaster – four years and no end product proving testament to that fact.  But that didn’t matter.  Other than my lovely wife, nobody knew I was writing and nobody was going to read it anyway – right?

The process also highlighted something that I, and anyone who meets me will figure out soon enough: I have the world’s worst memory.  The places in The Cubit Quest were all real, Ralph Gardner High, Charlie’s house, Elvis’s house, Sonia’s house, all of it – ‘were’ being the operative word.  The story is therefore a mismatch of eras, some present day, some straight from my very poor memory.  The result is less Dan Brown, whereby every detail is correct at the time of writing and more John Grisham – never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Having a second crack at it – it was my secret hobby after all – I knuckled down to some serious planning and eleven months later I had a first draft, a completed novel at last!  Of course, perhaps I should have mentioned that it wasn’t The Cubit Quest, it was the follow up, which takes up immediately where The Cubit Quest leaves off.  It was an odd situation, even I’ll admit that, to have the second part of what I envisaged to be a four-part series and no first part in existence.

All that remained, was to complete that first novel – and complete it I did!  It was a behemoth by the time I’d finished, large enough to give a sci-fi epic a run for its money.  Having visited the fabulous Warner Bros Studios to spend a very enjoyable day living and breathing the equally fabulous world of Harry Potter there is an opening address by J.K. Rowling in which she says that the Philosopher’s Stone was a product of good editing.  I didn’t appreciate this fully – but I did by the time I’d whittled the book down to a more palatable word length – eight edits, ouch!

I was recently asked what short response I’d say to someone who had a passing interest in The Cubit Quest. My response: buy a ticket, strap in and enjoy the rollercoaster ride of an adventure!

Review

This book was a weird read, but something a bit different. It was advertised to me as YA but I’d say it’s that middle ground between Middle Grade and YA.

There was a lot of little references in this book, which I absolutely adored, like Charlie went to the Library to pick up a copy of a Garth Nix book, there was characters with names that were references to things. It made my read more fun when I picked up on them.

At times it did border on a bit silly, but I think that’s mainly because Leck seemed to want to keep the reader in the dark about what was going on in the same way that Charlie was. It was generally a bit awkward at times because it would go from the fantastical elements to kids playing football in the space of a few sentences.

The formatting wasn’t really great either, there wasn’t enough line breaks to tell you when you’d moved into a different POV or a different time. Like it felt like it needed more paragraphs or general transitions.

This was set in South Shields (I think) which was quite nice to read for me as my Gran lives in the Tyneside area and the place she lives was actually mentioned at one point.

I occasionally found some of the fantastical elements of the plot a bit confusing, I eventually got my head around it but I felt there maybe could have been a bit more of an explanation to what was going on.

I liked that this was still set in a school. What I mean by that is that too often in books of this nature kids find out that they have powers and have to go on an adventure leaving their school and family life behind. Whereas this book was still set at home and the MC still had all his childhood problems.

Royal Air Force Odiham – WO Leck C4i Studio Portrait. Taken on 14th December 2016 by SAC James Goff Image: SAC James Goff RAF. For further information contact: Flt Lt Nyssa Cole, RAF Odiham Media Communications Officer (MCO), Royal Air Force Odiham, Hook. Hampshire. RG29 1QT. Mil Tel: 95235 7606. Civ Tel: 01256 367494. Email:

Living in Telford, Shropshire, Trevor Leck has been dabbling in writing for over fifteen years. Always a fan of gripping adventure stories he has taken inspiration from his favourite authors, including John Grisham and J K Rowling, and the towns and cities he grew up, especially North Shields, to create his Young Adult series.

Amazon | Goodreads

The Cubit Quest by Trevor Leck Blog Tour | Author Spotlight and Review Summary Twelve-year-old Charlie Watkins could have inherited his dad’s massive intellect. He got his massive feet instead.