Quotes for 2020#32

Posted on February 5, 2020 by Mark Hayes

An on going series of a quote a day from those most worthy of individuals, writers… Disclaimer not all quotes are meant to inspire… Not all comments I make upon them are entirely honest either, occasionally Hannibal writes them…

Today its a quote from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, specifically a quote from the prince of darkness, the light bringer, he who was Samuel, and whom the Rolling Stones would beg of you some sympathy… Lucifer…

I’ve always felt a little affinity for this opinion voiced by Gaiman’s and later Mike Carey’s Lucifer. The devil I think seldom makes humanity do anything. Indeed, even if he was inclined to do so, why would he bother, humanity is perfectly capable of committing heinous acts all on its own. It seldom seems to require much encouragement to do so, sadly.

This quote oddly enough was partly the original inspiration for a shorts story I wrote entitled, oddly enough, ‘The devil made me do it’. I am rather fond of how that story turned out so it was one of the bonus stories I included in my novella‘A Scar of Avarice’ though the protagonist of that particular story take a somewhat different view to the devils guilt in such things…

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quotes for 2020 # 31

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Mark Hayes

Grand Papa Tolkien, daddy of us all, the bringer of elves, dwarfs and short-arse food obsessed heroes. Without him much of modern fantasy might never have been written. At least not quite as it was. He was a man who saw a lot in his life, from world wars he envisioned what evil was, what comradeship should be and for all his prose has it flaws he has fired the imagination of generation after generation with dreams of worlds other than our own, of wizards and wonders.

And in most of us an utter loathing of Tom Bomberdil…

He was also fond of the on uplifting quote, of which this is one of my favourites, because there is always something around the next corner, and all roads eventually lead home but you have to journey there, before you can come back again …

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Quotes for 2020 #30

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Mark Hayes

Today an Orwellian quote, because though 1984 was published in 1949, and is set in a date now 36 years in our past, it remains one of the more dire and persistent warnings of our future…

For we live in the era of ‘Fake News’ and the truth is whatever the powers that be claim it to be. Or so they would claim…

Social media has become the forum of the daily hate, and we can’t say we were not warned…

But hey its Monday, and the Chiefs won the Superbowl,

‘Go Chiefs’

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Quotes for 2020 #29

Posted on February 1, 2020 by Mark Hayes

Of all the writers who have influenced me over the year, Pratchett, Adams, Gemmell, Gaiman, and so many many more… One that stands out despite only ever having written one novel is Alan Moore, the wizard of Northampton. His one traditional Prose novel ‘Voice of the Fire’ is probably one of his least known works. It’s also one of the most unique works of fiction it has ever been my pleasure to read, Spanning as it does the whole breathed of human history from the stone-age to modernity and still managing to contain a narrative thread…

Of course Moore is better known for his body of works in comics form his early 2000AD Thrill Shocks , through his work with DC and Vertigo, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From hell, Halo Jones, the league of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the utterly sublime Killing Joke. But there are also lesser know works like Lost Girls, and academic works like ‘25000 years of erotic freedom’ which has allowed students to quote things about Nazi Cock-rings in essays for a couple of decades now, and ‘Mirror of Love’ a beautiful illustrated poem about Homosexuality… I’ve been a bit of a Moore fan boy for forty years or more…

Frankly my advise is to read almost everything he has every written, it is a body of work that is beautiful, strange at times, deep, wise, funny and often challenging but never ever dull…

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Quotes for 2020 #28

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Mark Hayes

Today’s quote is from the writer that supplied Sean Bean the the role that started his career, Richard Sharpe, erstwhile of the 1st Essex rifles, a man of honor and principal unlike the majority of his fellow officers, fighting his way through Spain and France in the Napoleonic wars. (Hannibal would fit right in to a Sharp novel, but not as the hero it must be said…)

But the Napoleonic period is just one of the periods of history rewritten and redefined by Bernard Cornwall, his retelling of the Arthurian Legends circa 500AD paint a stark contrast to the normal vision of Camelot and the Knight’s of the round table. A some what bloodier more earthy vision it is true. But then Cornwall can make you smell the shield wall, smell the gun-smoke and feel the quake in your boots when cannons roar and the cavalry charges.

But none of that is why I like this quote, I like it purely for its simplicity and the suggestion that lays behind it, that even on the most mundane of days anything could happen at any moment… Best be prepared, anything could happen…

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Quotes for 2020 #27

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Mark Hayes

Today its a quote is from the ever glorious Mr Adams,

As such I am not going to attempt to make vaguely amusing comments, but its okay, I know where my towel is, and there is currently no vogon constructor fleet hanging in the air in exactly the same way bricks don’t. So we should be alright.

Just remember, ‘Don’t Panic‘

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Hannibalisums #3

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Mark Hayes

Old Hannibal says some strange things at times. As such this is an irregular series of quotes form the Hannibal Smyth novels, because occasionally one should probably remember to do some promotion work for ones own novels for a change…

This particular one is from the second Hannibal Smyth novel ‘From Russia With Tassels‘ which sees our ‘hero’, for want of another word, picking up his story form where the conclusion of ‘A Spider In The Eye’ left off, on a mountainside in Nepal, as he gets ‘volunteered’ for a sensitive mission to war torn Japan, in order to find Professor Stephen Jobs, the one man who might be able to to take out The Ministry’s insidious spider, and free Hannibal from their grip.

So a nice little jaunt to the middle of a war zone to find a mad scientist obsessed with ‘Eyes’, and a ride to Hiroshima on the most literal of bullet trains beckons. In the company of Hannibal’s own personal Bad Penny, an a Russian airship captain call Putin… What could possibly go wrong…

But Hannibal will of course keep a stiff upper, play a straight bat, and if all else fails run and hide somewhere with plenty to drink…

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quotes for 2020 #26

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Mark Hayes

Today its the turn of Nietzsche, because when it comes down to it German philosophy has a harder edge to it than french. And while staring into the void is always an option at Esqwith’s Piano Bar and Grill, its not to be recommended, ‘something red’ is always waiting out there beyond, well everything. Waiting…

Technically of course that’s a comment about an entirely different Nietzsche quote, and I am using old Fuedvich as an excuse to make a reference to Passing Place my 2018 novel… but hey, sue me for occasionally mentioning my own work…

Slightly off to one side of that I once reviewed an excellent book about Nietzsche’s sister ‘God is a Bedlamite’by Katie Salvo, who by sheer coincidence happened to do the editing for Passing Place. So as we are on Nietzsche, if your interested a fascinating insight into Nietzsche and his sisters incestuous relationship, German history, Wagner, and frankly a great period read set somewhere other than Britain or the US, give it a go.

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Quotes for 2020 #25

Posted on January 28, 2020 by Mark Hayes

I know absolutely nothing about Ben Arment… All I know is this one quote which as quotes go is fairly good. It’s one of those quotes that I need to remember sometimes when I am ranging against the words that are refusing to be good…

So as I know absolutely nothing about Mr Arment here are some facts about him I have just made up…

After his early life as an Olympic swimmer Ben took up lama racing and became world champion in 2008, only to be disqualified for gingering his lama ‘Sir Reginald Pottersbar’ having retired from the sport in disgrace he took up writing, where he practices the extreme writing discipline of only writing first drafts in his underpants at 5’000 feet in the Swiss alps. He is also notable as a crocodile wrestler, and once spooned a member of the spice girls. As a gentlemen he refuses to name the spice girl in question (it was ginger)

I’d highly recommend his books , if I had read any of them (if anyone has please leave a comment)

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Hannibalisums #2

Posted on January 27, 2020 by Mark Hayes

This particular one is actually not a quote from old Hannibal himself but from Lady Henrietta Carthurst, a lady of fine refinement and a positive boon at all society functions, which is to say she can neck whiskey, smoke cigars and talk engines with the best of men. Better than most of them as a rule. She also is not one to put up with fools, and has threatened to give many a man a good ‘Spannering’ when they have got on the wrong side of her. Some have been known to enjoy the experience, others have complained of bludgeoning…

Hettie, or ‘Spanners’ as she is known down at the ‘Ins and Outs’ appears in the short story ‘The Cheesecake Dichotomy’ set earlier in Hannibal’s life, before the novels, while he was still a serving in the Royal Air Navy and had was yet to be sentences to perform the Tyburn jig… ‘The Cheesecake Dichotomy’ is published in Harvey Duckman presents Volume 1, an ecliptic collection of short stories from a host of very talented indie writers (and me), the next volume of the Harvey Duckman Presents anthologies (volume 4) will feature another of these glimpsing into Hannibal’s early life.

There are rumors, started by some itinerant author (me) that Hettie will also be appearing in the third Hannibal novel ‘A Squid on the Shoulder’. While I could not possibly confirm if these rumors are true (they are), I can also neither confirm or deny the possibility of Hannibal getting a good ‘Spannering’ at some point in the novel…

The third novel of Hannibal’s misadventures is due out later this year.

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