VIEWS FROM WESTLEY PIDDLE

What fires up our imaginations to write and draw stories for this ‘Muttwits’ dog blog? Everything and anything, really. Read on…

Continuing the theme of inspirational people (for me, anyways), and who I’d happily share my last piece of squashed pizza under the five bins ‘round back of Tesco Extra:  Taylor Sheridan. 

Taylor Sheridan (bit-part actor turned fine writer and auteur director…and, um, cowboy)

Taylor Sheridan is often referred to as the father of modern Westerns for his frontier trilogy of films: ‘Sicario’, ‘Hell or High Water’, and ‘Wind River’. Currently, he continues to push the Western genre with the hit TV series ‘Yellowstone’, whilst also bringing to public attention the furious and extraordinary equine niche sport of horse reigning (see ‘The Last Cowboy’ reality show) which most people, I am sure, may not know anything about.  (Think dressage but faster, more exciting, diamond-checked shirts and cold beer.)

Yes, I am a lover of the Western genre (as may be easily surmised by some of my previous book and film reviews), but this is not the reason I admire Sheridan.  It is for his immaculate screenplay writing, corss! Dog-dammit, I am only dreaming of thinking I can write a straight line anywhere remotely in comparison to this fella,.

A picture paints a thousand words as they say.  But Sheridan turns this on its head by painting a thousand pictures with a sparse, and finely chiseled syntax of few words, only.  Think Miles Davis as his musical equivalent.  One note of the horn conjures an emotion, offset by Miles’ extraordinary pause (sound space) between that note and the next.  The same magic is applied by Sheridan to his writing. Brevity is too long a word to describe it! Goose-bump dialogue is the result.

Sheridan has acquired the reputation of a screenwriter who “never follows the rules”. His signature style of simple plots driven by complex characters set in areas of the US people have either forgotten or don’t know anything about; inviting his audience to rediscover the American dream through a retelling of the original wild west in compelling, hard-hitting stories set in the vast landscapes of Wyoming, Nebraska and Utah.

His writing is simple, elegant and impactful in all the right ways.  Do try to watch some of his work.  It is filmic poetry and, to my mind, the best screenplay writing out there today.  Looking forward to whatever he creates next…

So, Taylor yuz are a total legend mayt, and we luvs yuz yer muttwit.  Hope we can bump snoutz one day at the Pig&Ferret in Westley Piddle, or while riding in thems hills, up the other side of the Thameslick.  Snifz Yu!

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This summer I read a lot to take my mind off of things (you know, the world is burning and a virus is having the time of its life). I probably should have been reading this frequently anyways but better late than never! So, here is my first review;

I bought this book with high hopes because I love steampunk themes and fantasy novels. However this book lacked the background stories of the universe it offers and the characters stay a bit flat. The book tells the story of a dimension-travelling spy named Irene, working for a mysterious library. The library collects fiction from different realities/dimensions. As she is on a mission in an alternative London to find a dangerous book, an assistant named Kai goes with her. Then they find out that the book is stolen thus, the adventure begins.

I expected a Doctor Who meets steampunk sort of atmosphere, and yes it did have that. Books with titles that have “library” or “book” are more intriguing to book lovers, but it let me down a little. The characters are not extremely original but quite alright, although there was a dragon:). I felt like the execution fell behind because there were many information gaps left out.

Maybe I keep misinterpreting literature and couldn’t see the value, let’s chat in the comments and tell me your opinions if you have read this book!