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The Handmaid's Tale: Episodes vs. Novel – Friday's with Fay #2

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a thrilling and dark literary classic. As a novel, it has depth, vivid imagery and it covers issues that are very relevant to this day. But, as most of you may know by now, Hulu has recently released web series based on Atwood’s classic. I recently read both the book and watched the full series – the effects of which I posted on my own blog – and I can safely say that the series are an accurate representation of the original novel, even though there were some chronological changes to the story. After a short review, I’ll be assessing and comparing both the series and the novel – so as so decide which is better for different audiences. The Handmaid’s Tale , I found, is a very heavy novel to read – especially if you struggle with similar issues as stated in the story. It describes a dystopian world where the human population has become mostly infertile so that many women – usually those have “sinned” – are gathered up like cattle and used
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A Witcher Review – Fridays with Fay #1

Hello, everybody! I’m going to be posting a new article. They won’t always be reviews, but today’s post is going to be a bit of a review. Enjoy! To start off, I just wanted to say that I’ve been doing a lot of reading. For a few years, I lost my reading groove – but I believe its back and I have dived into a whole new world of reading. I’ve regained the ability to empathise with characters and be immersed in story-lines. And I have to say, Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher series has had me immersed to the point of distraction. It’s inspired a bit of writing in me, it’s brought out the political and social analyst in me and it’s created a whole new level of imagination for me. Needless to say, it’s amazing. Now, The Witcher is better known as a video game series, the latest of the instalments being The WItcher 3: Wild Hunt , but it is one of the few games that was originally inspired by a book series. Usually video game companies come out with books a few years after releasing game
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Fun With Pens

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So, we all know that writers are a bit unlevel. You know, off-kilter. OK, we're batshit crazy! But, there are more of us than you think. Lots of people have a need to tell their story, no matter if it's in a voluminous multi-edition series of works, or just standing by the water cooler. It's been this way since the first man stood up and did something. Even if all he did was to throw a rock, he needed to tell others about it. This carries over, through thousands of years of negative thoughts on writing. People don't want to write for fear it isn't going to be "good enough". Ummm, good enough for who...or is it whom? Doesn't matter, the answer is... I don't know. I write because I have stories that demand to be told. Writers have what they call muses. It's just another fancy name for the voices in their heads, but if they admitted to hearing voices in their heads, they would be labeled as crazy and not just eccentric. Maybe, you migh
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Analyzing ‘Alice’ – the Manifestation of Domestic Abuse

There’s no doubting that   Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland   by Lewis Carroll is a masterfully-written piece of literature. And while much of it describes an erratic world filled with imbalances and nonsensicalities, Carroll brings a number of universal issues to light through the use of extended and prosaic metaphor. Such issues include the struggle to find identity, internal growth, integration and equality, the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in terms of society, change in circumstance, several mental health issues – and so many, many others. Some of these issues are depicted through narrative, others are embodied by certain characters. The issue of domestic abuse in  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  is brought up in a short passage in a chapter called  Pig and Pepper , and is embodied in the character known as the Duchess. At the beginning of the chapter, Alice is greeted by a footman and a Fish-Footman, who declares outside the abode of the Duchess that she is invited by the Queen “ to
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To Wear or Not to Wear (A Hijab Confession)

Female Intuition is a series I’ve started to tackle issues that women ought to have very pronounced opinions on. I feel that men express opinions and create ‘rules’ in regards women’s issues without fully understanding what women actually think and feel. I don’t identify as a feminist, but I do feel strongly about women’s issues and I strongly believe in the right of every woman to make decisions for herself. If you have any suggestions for topics, feel free to leave and comment and check out the category here . ~ Different parts of the world and different cultures/religions view feminine modesty in very different ways. As someone who grew up in a Muslim family, practiced the strict doctrines until I was about 19 and then subsequently left this belief system by way of a very painful epiphany – I feel I have the full experience of being a young woman who used to cover fully, to someone who dresses substantially more casually now. I would like to say that I was happy with my
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Location: London, UK
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The "Godless" Stigma

A few days ago, I came at the forefront of a very harsh line of questioning by a student. It was hardly relevant and I don't really know how the subject even arose, as we were in a maths class. Nonetheless, we started discussing religious beliefs - or lack thereof - and I was surprised by her scrutiny. I feel like I didn't answer to the best of my ability, so I intend to do so here. I feel like not enough people openly discuss what they think or believe because it might be unfavourable or uncommon - and, in a free-thinking environment, I find that absurd. No-one should should be ashamed, let alone afraid, of what they hold as their beliefs. So, firstly: "Are you Muslim?" Again, I don't know where this question came from, but the asker was, herself, a Muslim and I guess she took a stab in the dark and assumed I was as well. I simply replied that my family were Muslims - of a Sunni school of thought, to be exact - and tried to focus her on the lesson at han
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Location: London, UK
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So here's what's happening...

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Believe it or not, I'm actually still sick. Nowhere near as bad as it was, but still sick. Amazing! This is the veracity of the man-flu. But, since I'm no longer on life support (since my wife has strict orders to NEVER pull the plug), I've had to get up and do something. So, I've been busy editing. That disgusting, vile occupation that comes after the book was written perfectly in the first place. OK, so there were a lot of misspelled words and bad punctuation, but the story was perfect. OK, so I found scenes that didn't make sense and maybe a few needed beefing up, but the entire premise was perfect. And just because a couple chapters were at least a thousand words short of average, I mean really, what harm does that do? So what that I was able to put an entire sub-story in. It's not like I had to rewrite the entire book. It was perfect. Yeah, that says it all. When I write, I have Word open, I have a thesaurus open and I have Bing open for doi
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