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INTO THE BLACK

There's nought wrong with 'Dick hearts Fanny'

3/13/2013

 
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Banksy
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Banksy
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Banksy
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Bloody Mucha
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One word, one image - says it all.
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Banksy
Everyone else seems to pop blog posts like battery hens laying to order.  Me, I struggle.  If I’m not feeling it, my blog languishes waiting for a Banksy to come to the rescue. 

Which gave me an idea…

Banksy – I’m not going to pretend I know a lot about him/her (wouldn’t surprise me), aside from the fact his/her subversive epigrams make me laugh– anarchy, protest and the inappropriate usually do—but his mode of communication got me thinking. 
 
Maybe books are obsolete.   (Yup, just been deafened by your wails and howls of protest—I recommend valium.)

But think about it. In a society where time is a fast depleting resource (I certainly don’t have enough of it), and where young people think in short sound bites (if my kids are anything to go by), I think graffiti might be the way forward. 
 
Graffiti isn’t new; it’s been around since man could scratch.  Those cave paintings are as much an act of vandalism as a decorative art form, and I should know because I once lost a week of break-times for scratching an ‘almost’ anatomically correct stick-man onto my school desk.

Graffiti has also given me enormous pleasure over the years. I’m sure I’m not the only person to have sneaked into a public loo, not through any biological need, but just to read and share the musings others have scrawled on the wall. (No holier than thou protests about quality please, I’ve read a good few novels which were little better in quality than the phrase ‘Dick hearts Fanny’.)

The point I guess I’m trying to make, even if it means wielding the knife to a sacred cow, is that maybe, just maybe, the short, sharp, succinct and visual can provoke an emotional response just as deep as any 120,000 word book. And dare I say, probably more effectively, given current literacy levels.

Certainly, the god-awful Mucha posters my parents insisted adorn my bedroom walls rather than pictures of rock icons who might sully my mind, did bugger all for me in terms of emotional growth. But the war protest poster (over which said parents had an apoplectic fit) touched my adolescent mind in a way Catcher in the Rye and my dark foray into Herman Hess, failed.

So to Banksy and his like, I raise a glass.  You are the commentators of the future.  Your art form will never diminish my love of reading but I thank you for the provocation, the smiles, the bursts of laughter.  I hand to you the future of my children, their children and their children’s children. Stimulate their hearts and minds well.  

PS    I, and others like me, in the meantime will be scribbling our tomes, just in case you fuck up!
Now if I have done this right, you should be able to click on the Banksy's below (and those pics at the side) to enlarge.  Also should you be looking for a like, share button, it may or may not have appeared beneath this little gallery of humour.
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Banksy
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Michelle Smart (sharp, sassy, indomitable)

3/9/2013

 
My guest, Michelle Smart, and I share the same publishing house - Entangled Publishing - but her book Tempted by Trouble is coming out way ahead of mine (not that I'm jealous), in fact, you can get it now if you follow the links. But first you ought to know what you are getting into.  I'll start with the cover (cos it's hot) and provide a few links (cos it's polite and professional) then I'll hand you over to Ms Smart who reviews her own book (cos she's not shy) then you get a sneaky peek at an excerpt (that is one butt ugly word).
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Buy Tempted by Trouble
Amazon UK 
 http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BQMQGMW
Amazon.com 
 http://amzn.com/B00BQMQGMW
iBookstore 
 https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/tempted-by-trouble/id616370198?mt=11&uo=4

Follow Michelle
Website: http://www.michelle-smart.com  
Facebook: www.facebook.com/michellesmartauthor
Twitter Handle: @chellebellwrite

10/10 Review (because insight is a gift) by Michelle Smart

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Pippa
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Marco
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Where the sun, sea and...well, where it all happens
As the lovely and talented Incy has given me carte blanch to do whatever I like on her blog today, I thought I would do what no one else has yet had the chance to do – review my book.

In the interests of impartiality, I will, of course, review this book in the objective fashion all good readers would expect.

Tempted by Trouble has future Pulitzer Prize winner written all over it. Alice Walker, John Updike, Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy can all move over – there’s a new literary genius on the scene. And, unlike those often bleak books with endings full of despair (yes, McCarthy, I’m looking at you), this book has a GUARANTEED happy ending (sorry, spoiler).

Where 2012 was the year of Hilary Mantel and the marvellous Bring Up the Bodies, 2013 will be the year of Michelle Smart and Tempted by Trouble. Where Mantel’s book charted the role of Thomas Cromwell in the downfall of Anne Boleyn, Tempted by Trouble charts the havoc that troubled socialite Pippa Rowantree causes for the reclusive billionaire, Marco Capello. Even better, where Bring Up the Bodies is set in the dreary Middle-Ages, Tempted by Trouble is set in the Caribbean! Yes, this book is full of sun, sea and emotional conflict aplenty. What more could you ask for?

Yes, Tempted by Trouble is that good. Honest. So good in fact, I’m going to give it a maximum 10/10, five gold stars and an A+.

See. I told you I would be impartial.
And now for the except:

“Excuse me, buster, but I think you’ll find we both lost control. The only difference is I’m not the one making excuses for it. We’re both adults. What happened between us was inevitable—it has been since the day I arrived here.”

Buster?

He raked a hand through his hair, trying to think of the right words to explain everything that was simmering within him.

She was right. It had been inevitable since the moment he had stood before her at the airport parking lot and been consumed with a hunger that refused to be sated. “All I’m saying is that nothing can come of this. My position hasn’t changed. There is no future for you and me.”

“Of course there isn’t,” she said. “How could there ever be a future for us when you refuse to let go of the past?”

His hands balled into fists, the acid in his guts bubbling. “It’s not a simple case of letting go. I can’t forget what you are.”

“Will you get over yourself!”

The loud shrillness of her tone jolted them both but did nothing to stop her from slipping off the Steinway and rising in front of him.

“For a start, Mr. Ego,” she said, prodding a slim finger into his chest, “I do not recall asking for a future with you. For another, I am not the screwed-up teenager you remember or the tarty ‘It Girl’ who caused so much destruction. Not anymore. I have spent the past five years trying to make something of my life…”

“Make something of your life? You call working stupid hours serving food making something of your life? When you’ve got a God-given talent you’re hiding away from the world?”

“Don’t you dare put down my job. It might not be glamorous, but it’s honest work.”

“At least there is something honest about you.” It was a low blow and he regretted it the second the words left his mouth.

“How dare you?” she seethed, jabbing harder at his chest, her blue eyes ablaze. “I know I was a rude, drunken, spoiled brat and believe me, I am sorry for the harm I caused. But I am not that person anymore. If I could make amends with you then I would, gladly. Just tell me what I can do to put things right. In the meantime, I would thank you not to keep throwing my past in my face like you promised you would. I can’t change it and no amount of sniping from you is going to change it either. Get over it.”

...And that is it, a wonderful introduction to Michelle Smart, whom I would like to thank for being gracious enough to grace my blog with her modesty and talent.  I'm just going to repeat the title of her book one more time 'Tempted by Trouble'.  Cheers Michelle!


Very Inspiring Blogger Award (pour moi?)

3/5/2013

 
I am flattered (alarmed) to have been nominated by terrific paranormal romance author/creator of the Blackthorn universe,  Lindsay J Prior (Blood Shadows, Blood Roses), for A Very Inspiring Blogger Award.  But it came with rules, rules with which, for once, I decided to comply:
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  The Rules
  •  Display the award logo on your blog.
  • Link back to the person who nominated you.
  •  State 7 things about yourself.
  • Nominate other bloggers (the number seems to vary) for this award and link to them.


7 Things You Did Not Need to Know about Me

  1. Despite all suggestions to the contrary, I rarely know what the hell I am doing. Work: I wing it. Family: I wing it. Life: I wing it big time. (This used to cause me great anxiety until I realised I’m in great company. Most people are winging it too, in fact it’s pretty damn crowded up here in the skies.) 

  1. Despite all appearance to the contrary, I was pretty quick over the 100m (representing East Dorset as a junior), captained the netball team (hated it) and played hockey in the 1sts (hated it too).  Rebelled against cross-country and when made to do it, hiked a lift to the finish on the back of a coal truck - going in the wrong direction.  Older and wiser now, exercise and I have a love/hate relationship. Exercise loves itself and I believe it’s a form of self-harming.

  1. I once ‘fainted’ on the hockey pitch just so I could be carried off by the Captain of the Boys’ Team on whom I had a crush. (Now that is just plain embarrassing to admit and merits a 3 mile run for punishment – yeah, like that’s gonna happen.)

  1. Until very recently I believed that if I climbed a chair or a skyscraper I’d be closer to the sun…then my nine year old asked me - so how come snow is more likely the higher you climb a mountain? Hmmm…still winging that one.  (Science is so illogical)

  1. To combine science and embarrassment cos I like synergy, I was pregnant with my third child (of 5) before I found out the term ‘boner’ was not a reference to an articulated bone in the penis, in fact there is no bloody bone at all. (I skipped a lot of biology to hide and read instead – but never reference books). I was happy in my ignorance and boy, did the very good looking Russian consultant who put me right, blush.

  1. I home educated my children for 18 months (a bit worrying when you consider I don’t exactly have a handle on science (physics, biology, chemistry, why the hell the universe works the way it does).

  1. I was once damn near arrested for climbing a crane naked in Central London.  No, I wasn’t protesting, it was a dare (it was also dark).  Word of caution: if you are going to climb a crane (naked or otherwise), don’t pick one within scratching distance of a police station.

(Yes, I realise the numbering thingy isn't working but it doesn't want to be fixed so I'm leaving it be)

And to pass on the baton handed to me by Lindsay J Pryor (thank you!), I nominate: 

Shehanne Moore   

Jessica Baker   

Meg McNulty   

JM Stewart   

Aurelia B Rowl    

Alison Lodge     

Louise Rose-Innes    

Fiona Chapman

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