Lucy A. Snyder's News

New reviews

2010-01-05T14:36:00.001-08:00

A couple of new reviews have gone up for my books at The Green Man Review and Greatest Uncommon Denominator:

"In Lucy A. Snyder's new urban fantasy, Spellbent, apprentice witch Jessie Shimmer is compelled to undergo trial by fire -- both figuratively and literally -- as she attempts to save her lover and the city in which she lives. ... Snyder's brand of urban fantasy is a bit darker and grittier than most, with many of the characters battling their own very believable personal demons as well as the supernatural variety. The character of Jessie also makes a nice change from the many heroines of urban fantasy stories in that Jessie actually spends more time worrying about other people than she does her clothes, and she relies on her brains and courage rather than sex to solve problems." (read more)

"In (Installing Linux On A Dead Badger), Snyder succeeds in making zombies (both human and animal) wickedly funny -- no matter how jaded you are by cries of 'Braaaaaaaaaaaains!!!' Either this book will make you laugh out loud at least once, or you should consider having yourself checked for signs of death." (read more)

GUD news! Win a free copy of SPARKS AND SHADOWS!

2009-01-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

Greatest Uncommon Denominator magazine just posted their review of my collection Sparks and Shadows. Overall, they seem to really like it, and I'm entirely pleased, because all this time I was pretty sure they were going to hammer me into oblivion ;-) No, really; they're a tough crowd over there, but reviewer Debbie Moorhouse sums up her review with "Dark, funny, and romantic by turns, Sparks and Shadows is a must read. Go! Buy! Read!"

You can find the whole review here:

http://www.gudmagazine.com/review/archive/2009/1/5/sparks-and-shadows-by-lucy-snyder/

... and if you scroll down to the very bottom, you'll see they're running a contest in which you can win your very own PDF copy of the book.

One of the stories in Sparks and Shadows that the reviewer remarked upon ("this macabre tale is gripping") is "Through Thy Bounty"; the story was also recently reviewed here:

http://bestsciencefictionstories.com/2008/12/04/through-thy-bounty-by-lucy-a-snyder/

If you're curious to read "Through Thy Bounty", you can find it online at the Apex site:

http://www.apexbookcompany.com/apex-online/2008/08/short-fiction-through-thy-bounty/

And in more GUD news, Kaolin Fire told me on Friday that the magazine staff nominated my poem "Subtlety" over at the Preditors & Editors Readers' Poll:

http://www.critters.org/predpoll/poem.shtml

If you care to cast a vote for my poem or any other poem you read in 2008 and deemed worthwhile, your vote will be most appreciated.

You can also take a look at their full list of nominations.

Legends of the Mountain State 2

2008-09-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, Woodland Press released Legends of the Mountain State 2. It's an anthology of stories based on ghost legends from West Virginia folklore and is edited by Michael Knost.

Table of Contents:
"Dancing in Time to the Beating Heart of the World" by Mark Justice
"The Adventure of the Greenbrier Ghost" by Jonathan Maberry
"The Grim Beast of Iaeger" by Bob Freeman
"The Cold Gallery" by Lucy A. Snyder
"The Anniversary" by Nate Kenyon
"Cain Twists" by Steven L. Shrewsbury
"Occurrence at Flatwoods" by Michael Laimo
"A House is Not a Home" by Maurice Broaddus
"Dark Wisdom" by Gary A. Braunbeck
"An Angel in the Balcony" by Brian J. Hatcher
"Andi" by Mary SanGiovanni
"The Man in Ragged Blue" by Rob Darnell
"For Just One Night" by Nate Southard

My story "The Cold Gallery" and Gary Braunbeck's story "Dark Wisdom" both got nods in Dark Scribe Magazine's review of the anthology. Of his story, they write: "Braunbeck shows admirable restraint in what could have otherwise been a heavy-handed morality tale in the hands of a lesser writer." Of my tale, they write: "Ghostly twists abound in this satisfying revenge tale ... the real props (for this book) go to Broaddus and SanGiovanni - Snyder, too, albeit to a lesser degree - who expertly recount their chosen legends by fully weaving them into the narrative fabric of their tales, without someone telling an actual story within their stories."

New podcast interviews

2008-08-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Gary and I were both interviewed by Doug Dangler (from the OSU Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing) at the Ohioana Book Festival in May. They recently posted the interviews on the CSTW website.

Listen to Gary A. Braunbeck talk about his Cedar Hill novel cycle (8:11):

http://cstw.osu.edu/podcasts/mp3/Braunbeck.mp3

Listen to me talk about Installing Linux on a Dead Badger and teh Internets (7:40):

http://cstw.osu.edu/podcasts/mp3/snyder.mp3

A Field Guide to Surreal Botany now available!

2008-08-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

The new collection A Field Guide to Surreal Botany is now available for order ... it contains my entry on the Atlantis mandrake, Podophyllum sidhe.

Here's the official blurbage from the publisher:

Two Cranes Press is delighted to present A Field Guide to Surreal Botany, an anthology of fictional plant species that exist beyond the realm of the real, fully illustrated in gorgeous full-color by Janet Chui.

The specimens contained herein -- dutifully and, in some cases, painfully recorded by our keen-eyed assortment of contributing cryptobotanists, field researchers, and graduate assistants (laden with glass jars, magnifying glasses, and appropriate body armor) -- are organized according to geographical region, and described in erudite detail by our contributors.

Inside the book you'll find specimens such as the Couch Kelp (Siturfatarscea velvetorleva monthlypaymetis), a floating seaweed with an inflatable bladder resembling a sofa; the Big Yellow Flower of Unnecessarily Obvious Information (Explanatum obviosis), a plant with a flower that is big and yellow; Twilight Luon-Sibir (Russica spectrata), which has an extremely short life cycle and exists in a state of probability; and forty-five other plant species from all over the world and beyond.

Information on the contents, contributors, and ordering can be found at:

http://www.surrealbotany.net

If you are a blogger or reviewer interested in a free PDF review copy, please email the editors at info@twocranespress.com for downloading instructions.

British Fantasy Society Awards

2008-06-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

Installing Linux on a Dead Badger has made the long list of of nominees for the British Fantasy Society Awards 2008. Cool!

If anyone reading this is a member of the British Fantasy Society and you haven't had a chance to read the collection, please let me know and I can get an electronic or real copy to you, as you prefer.

I also wanted to point everyone to a couple of articles I've posted recently:

Manuscript Tracking Tools - find out how many pro writers like to track their submissions.
On sales versus publications - a fairly brief essay on why I talk so much about sales and not much about Art.
Book Promotion: Part 2 - the next post in my continuing series for Storytellers Unplugged.

Strange Horizons Fund Drive and New Columns

2008-06-03T06:51:00.000-07:00

Strange Horizons is holding their annual fund drive this month; they hope to raise $6000. I've given them three signed copies of Installing Linux on a Dead Badger to hand out as donor prizes. They've got a lot of other neat stuff listed as prizes, including The Mount by Carol Emshwiller, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl by Tim Pratt, a Juno Books package, and a handmade Brainmonster hat. I would totally want that hat.

In other news, I have a new column up at Horror World wherein I talk about my recent book deal with Del Rey (and all the stuff that led up to it). Also, I recently joined the authors at Storytellers Unplugged and posted my debut column last week ... it's the first of a series of posts about book promotions.

In other news, Gary Braunbeck talks about Coffin County and his upcoming projects on Pod of Horror #44.

Gary A. Braunbeck's Coffin County

2008-06-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Gary A. Braunbeck is the June Spotlight Author over at the Dorchester Publishing site:

http://www.dorchesterpub.com/Dorch/SpecialFeatures.cfm?ID=2491

The section includes an interview, some nice comments from editor Don D'Auria, and Gary's essay "Unearthing the Mysteries Buried in Coffin County". The essay discusses his latest novel Coffin County and introduces Cedar Hill to those who may not be familiar with the fictional town that serves as the setting for most of his novels and stories.

The book is already getting some pretty darn good reviews at places like Horror World. I'm particularly excited about the release of this book, since it's based on his novella Haceldama.

That novella blew me away when I first read it years ago, and I'd been pestering Gary ever since then to expand it into a novel. And he was all, "No, no, it can't be a novel," and I was all "Yes, yes, it would make a kick-ass novel" and lo, time passed and I wore him down and he wrote it. :)

In other news, Gary Braunbeck will be teaching at the next Borderlands Press Boot Camp, which will be held January 23-25, 2009 in Towson, MD. The other instructors include Ginjer Buchanan, Mort Castle, Douglas Clegg, Thomas F. Monteleone, Thomas Tessier, F. Paul Wilson, and Douglas E. Winter.

I've sold a 3-novel series to Del Rey

2008-05-11T07:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this was announced last Friday on Publisher's Marketplace today, so I can finally give you all the big news.

Del Rey (an imprint of Random House) has purchased my novel Spellbent and two of its sequels. I believe their tentative plan is to release Spellbent in early-to-mid 2009 and the other books in the trilogy will of course come later (first I have to write them!)

I'm entirely geeked about this. I got into science fiction and fantasy as a result of reading Del Rey authors such as Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley, so I'm pretty darn happy to have become a Del Rey author myself.

Y'all probably want to know what the book's about, right? Okay. Here's the semi-official book blurb:

Spellbent is an urban fantasy adventure set in Columbus, Ohio. Jessie Shimmer is a young, Talented woman who studies wizardry under her lover, Cooper Marron. He's a roguish practitioner of ubiquemancy, the art of finding the magic in everyday things. When the pair go downtown to call a rainstorm for local farmers, things go terribly wrong. A hellish portal opens, and Cooper is sucked through.

With only her ferret familiar to help her, Jessie must find the dimension Cooper's trapped in and bring him back alive before dark machinations make both of them vanish for good.

This, really, tells you practically nothing about the book. Blurbs are like that. The novel has a lot of humor to balance out the gritty bits, and I'd like to think it has the sense of wonder that's missing from a lot of current urban fantasy. I tried to write the kind of book that excites me as a reader who enjoys a wide variety of genres.

rootbeer277 says: Out of curiosity, since I've never had a book published but would like to some day, what's the delay? Why would this be printed in 2009?

I reply: There's a lot that goes into making a book. A big publisher like Random House buys titles well in advance ... the book has to go through line editing, final editing approvals, I have to approve the galleys, the cover art has to be commissioned and created, they have to decide how it fits in their marketing schedule, the book and its cover have to be designed and laid out -- and the people doing these things are also doing them for many other titles at the same time. All things considered if they have it out before May 2009 (and that would surely fit with the early-to-mid part), that will have been less than 12 months, a relatively speedy acceptance-to-press cycle. Gary's sold books that took several years to get to bookshelves. My collection Sparks and Shadows took almost exactly one year between acceptance and coming back from the printer, and that was the only book the small-press publisher was working on. These things take time.

There are "instant books", but these are generally nonfiction titles produced to try to take advantage of some popular trend, and they're deemed lucrative enough that they can have the staff drop everything to get them into production.

Penguicon 6.0 report (Part II)

2008-04-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

In my earlier report I forgot to mention the coolest thing that happened at the convention!

Angie Fox arranged for me to have a complimentary table to display books and do signing etc. (thanks again, Angie!) I spent a lot of the convention at the table because people kept coming up to chat.

On Saturday, a man in an Ox costume came up to the table with a box in one hoof and a clipboard in the other. He silently handed me the clipboard; on it were names of various nifty guests and places for them to sign. Not having the faintest idea what was going, I put my initials by my name. The Ox Man then handed me the box, which had my name on the top.

"What's in the box?" Gary asked.

At this point I was flashing on the movie Se7en. The silent Ox Man made a "continue" motion with his hooves.

"I think you're supposed to open it," Gary prompted.

So, with terror in my heart, I opened the mystery box.

Inside was a stuffed toy badger with little Xs for eyes and a handmade toe tag.

(image above courtesy Orvan)

Best. Guest gift. Evar! I laughed long and hard.

Another cool gift we got was a souvenir wooden blank bullet from Romania, courtesy of Michael Z. Williamson. He told us that his supplier says these wooden bullets are used to minimize target shooters' lead exposure, but of course that's a fabrication: clearly wooden Romanian bullets are ammunition against vampires!

The next day the Ox Man came by out of costume and I gave him a copy of Installing Linux on a Dead Badger.

I must have signed at least 30 copies of the book during the course of the convention. While I was in a panel, some guy came by the table and lectured Gary that we'd made "a terrible mistake" having ILDB "traditionally published" and that if I'd had any sense I should have self-published the book.

Riiiiight.

Pete at CGP gave me all the control I wanted over the project, and since project control is cited as the main advantage of self-publishing, we can scratch that off the list.

What other advantage would I have had if I'd self-published? Oh, right. I'd have had to pay for printing and artwork and copy-editing and everything else that Pete and co. have taken care of. And I would have had to beg and plead reviewers to accept the book, and have most of them shut the door in my face. That'd be all kinds of advantageous, wouldn't it?

The guy who lectured Gary on the evils of traditional publishing clearly thought we'd wasted time on a lengthy editorial process. Yep, guilty as charged: the book took me a couple of years to put together because I wanted most of the stories to go through the magazine editing process and to get some reader feedback before I wrote follow-up stories. Me and my silly desire for quality control!

The parties Saturday night were a lot of fun, although Gary and I were too tired to stay up terribly late (and also the architecture of the 3rd floor of the hotel was strange and gave us vertigo). We ran into author Anne Harris on her way to the roving Pirate Party, had a pleasant-but-brief chat with her, and we saw Tobias Buckell at a distance.

On a final note, here's a video montage that Jeff deLuzio made of the convention; you can see me and Gary for about 1.5 seconds ;-)

Penguicon 6.0 report (Part I)

2008-04-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

Overall, Penguicon was a lot of fun. It was a much bigger convention than I was expecting; the online FAQ had implied about 800 people, and I think when all was said and done they had 1500 people or more.

The green room and the consuite both were very well stocked with snacks and good-quality sandwich makings and a variety of drinks, and I give the convention high marks for that. The green room also had a couple of sports medicine volunteers who were giving free chair massages.Those were awesome, and erased all my crabbiness from the drive and registration.

The other really nice touch was that Penguicon had a volunteer named Jake who regularly took a huge cart of drinks and food through the dealers' area so that the people who were chained to tables could get something to eat. Other cons have done lunch runs for dealers, but Penguicon did this more often and had better stuff than I'd seen before.

Anyhow, Jake, if you're reading this: you rock.

Also on the food front: the Brazilian barbecue Saturday was delicious. I hadn't had the chance to get a ticket for it online, and it seemed like too much trouble at registration, but luckily they opened the 'cue to everyone interested after a while, and for $6 Gary came back to our table with a huge mounded plate of perfectly-cooked steak cubes. So yummy I didn't even feel that little twinge of guilt I usually get when consuming mammal.

I didn't get the chance to try the liquid nitrogen ice cream but I heard it was pretty darn tasty.

I got to (briefly) meet a bunch of people from my friendslist. We didn't get to the con in time to hit the LJ party on Friday, else I expect I would have met many others.

The one recurring downside to the convention was that, because of the open-source nature of many of the offerings, some fans evidently assumed that anything not tied down was free for the taking. And so some people took books from the dealer's room without paying, and someone took several of Catherynne M. Valente's books that had been left boxed on a table near Gary before Gary had time to say, "I don't think those are for you." We rescued the remaining book; Gary later found Cat and she said she'd wondered what had happened to the box and told him to keep it.

Programming

I was on a bunch of panels Saturday; here's my report for each.

A Surplus of Talent: This was my reading slot with Jeff deLuzio and John Scalzi. I hadn't had a chance to talk IRL much with Jeff before (we've known each other for a while on E2) and was chatting with him when Scalzi came up and introduced himself. I honestly wouldn't have recognized him otherwise -- he's one of those men who looks utterly different once he grows a goatee and grows his hair out. Scalzi was very pleasant and read a fun story; I met his wife later and she seems like a lovely person. Jeff read an excerpt from a new novel he's working on and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest someday. I read "Your Corporate Network and the Forces of Darkness"; I was a bit nervous and read too quickly, but people laughed and evidently several of them bought Installing Linux on a Dead Badger right after the session was over.
Excellence in an Economy of Words--Why Write Short Fiction? This was a lively panel that also featured Elizabeth Bear, Jim Hines, M. Keaton and Sarah Monette. The consensus of course was that short fiction is good because you can experiment with different kinds of writing and storytelling and also because it helps build your writing chops. We also answered questions from the audience about plotting short vs. long and also about co-writing techniques.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) I shared this panel with Jim Hines, M. Keaton, and Daniel J. Hogan. Another good panel. I was the only person there who hadn't formally participated in NaNoWriMo, but like the others I feel it's a worthwhile endeavor. I shared Gary's situation of having had to write 40,000 words of one of his recently-published novels in 8 days. Yep, he had to write and edit half a novel in just over a week, and, as I told the audience, if you rise to the level of working pro novelist, this could easily happen to you, too. And if you haven't had to crank out that kind of word count before, you could easily waste precious time freaking out about the crushing deadline instead of getting the work done. We all agreed that NaNoWriMo is excellent for learning how to get writing done and work through blocks -- both extremely valuable skills -- but we cautioned that new writers shouldn't assume that the resulting novel will be publishable and also warned against the vanity presses that prey on the hopes of NaNoWriMo participants.
Johnny Can't Read and Nobody Thinks it's a Problem This panel was scheduled for 7pm Saturday, and I made the mistake of lying down in my room for a short nap that became a much longer nap due to a mis-set alarm. So I didn't make this one. When I awoke, bleary, I thought, "Heck, probably everyone was at dinner anyhow. No biggie"

How wrong I was. This turned out to be the One True Panel. Jeff D. was on it, and he told me that it was standing-room only, and that they had to open the doors so that people in the hall could listen in. Some members of the audience started a loud fight over homeschooling. Evidently "lively" didn't begin to cover this panel.

And the next day, I was approached by two utter strangers -- not panelists, mind you, nor con organizers, but people from the audience -- who scolded me for not making the panel. In over 10 years of congoing I'd never, ever been scolded for missing a panel before. How odd.
Basic Survival Skills for Authors This was at 10pm Saturday, and I did make it. Jim Hines and Elizabeth Bear were on this one as well. Everyone was a bit tired, and the panel meandered a bit, but I think ultimately the audience got some helpful advice. However, we ended up giving them a bit of a Catch-22: "For God's sake don't quit your day job when you sell your first novel, but on the other hand if you do well as a fiction writer you're probably going to be so tired/distracted at work that they're going to fire you eventually."

Gary A. Braunbeck's Stoker acceptance speech

2008-04-05T21:05:00.001-07:00

Here's Gary A. Braunbeck accepting his Bram Stoker Award for his novella Afterward, There Will Be A Hallway, which can be found in Five Strokes To Midnight (which also won for best anthology).

Hellboy!

2008-04-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

Gary A. Braunbeck's story "In Cupboards and Bookshelves" will be in the new HELLBOY anthology, Oddest Jobs (edited by Christopher Golden). The book will be released in July so it coincides with the release of the new HELLBOY movie. Mike Mignola will be doing an original illustration for each story in the book.

For those of you who've read Gary's novels, the HELLBOY story takes place behind the scenes of some of the events of In Silent Graves.

A new collection

2008-02-29T16:07:00.000-08:00

CGP is going publish a collection of my poetry later this year. The working title is Chimeric Machines, and the target publication date is September or October 2008. More details will be forthcoming.

In other news, Gary A. Braunbeck is one of the few genre authors listed on the new Ohio Literary Map that the Ohioana Library will be sending out to all Ohio public libraries, schools, bookstores and colleges. So we're both pretty happy about that.

GUD, Mo*Con, and Cemetery Dance

2008-02-14T17:05:00.000-08:00

I got my contributor's copy of Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine #2 in the mail earlier this week, and it's one heck of a sharp magazine.

In fact, it seems less like a magazine than a trade paperback anthology -- it's solid and booky in your hand. Just judging by the art, the amount of content, and the production values, it's completely worth the $10 cover price. Even if I weren't a contributor (the editors bought my poem "Subtlety" for the issue), it's something I'd want to save on my bookshelf rather than reading and then chucking in the recycling bin like most magazines.

I haven't read it yet, mostly because Gary went "Oh, cool!" and carried it off to his office and I haven't seen it since. I'll take that as a sign it's pretty darned good.

In other news, Maurice Broaddus interviewed me as part of his "Road to Mo*Con" series. I'll be a GoH at the convention this summer.

And finally, Cemetery Dance is now selling Sparks and Shadows.

Black Quill Awards

2008-02-05T12:02:00.001-08:00

My collection Sparks and Shadows won the Editor's Choice Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Collection.

Cool!

A 5-star review of INSTALLING LINUX ON A DEAD BADGER at SFReader

2008-01-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

Reviewer Adrienne Jones writes:

"The humor in this collection is understated and the theme progression is perfectly paced. It's rare to find a writer who can combine social commentary, popular culture, and science fiction without cheapening the laughs, but this author's balanced the act to perfection.

With smart, well-crafted writing, and humor to tickle readers of varying tastes and genre preference, Lucy A. Snyder could be one of the funniest new writers on the planet."

You can read the rest of her review of Installing Linux on a Dead Badger here:

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.asp?book=1134

A new review of SPARKS AND SHADOWS at Hellnotes

2008-01-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

Hellnotes just posted their review of my collection Sparks and Shadows. Nickolas Cook writes:

(T)his has to be, hands down, the best collection I’ve read since Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts. ... It's the same way I felt after reading Poppy Z. Brite, Skipp and Spector, Dan Simmons, and Caitlin Keirnan for the first time. There's a passionate urgency to her words, a sly sexuality, a downright filthy come hither-ness (I mean that in a good way, by the way) to her stories. ... Her stories are, at times, unrelenting, fiery, and angry. At other times, she sways you into a state of serenity. But at all times, she tells a damned good story.

You can read the rest here:
http://hellnotes.com/book-review-sparks-and-shadows/

Sparks and Shadows on preliminary Bram Stoker Award ballot

2008-01-24T15:14:00.000-08:00

The HWA announced the preliminary Bram Stoker Award ballot yesterday, and my collection Sparks and Shadows is on it :)

Gary A. Braunbeck also made the preliminary ballot for his novel Mr. Hands and his novella "Afterward, There Will Be A Hallway" (which is in Five Strokes to Midnight, which is also on the ballot in the anthology category).

Regarding the Stokers, I should note that being on the preliminary ballot is not the same as being nominated for the award ... only works that make it onto the final ballot are nominees.

If you are a voting member of the HWA and you haven't had access to my book, let me know and I can fix that :) I have a few coverless review copies of Sparks and Shadows, or I can email you a PDF. Whichever you prefer, please comment on my Livejournal with your postal address or email address ... I will screen comments so your info isn't revealed.

I believe Gary can also provide PDFs of all his aforementioned works, so please likewise comment here if you'd like copies for consideration.

Creating the Comic Book Series / Interactive Narrative and Game Design

2008-01-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

For more info on the following workshops, please visit:

http://www.contextsf.org/workshop.htm

Diana Botsford and Chun Lee: Creating the Comic Book Series
(Saturday, Sept. 27th, 2:00-4:00pm)
Join Chun Lee and Diana Botsford, authors of the new FE comic book series, The Fracture, in this 2-hour workshop on creating and writing a comic book series for publication. Learn how to write a proposal for a series, how to write a 'pilot' issue, what it takes to collaborate with others (illustrators, inkers, colorists, etc) and most importantly, how to tell a story visually. Attendees will create opening scenes and sequences, and participate in writing exercises to get the collaborative juices going. Bring your laptop (if you have one) or pen and paper.

Erin Hoffman: Interactive Narrative and Game Design
(Sunday, September 28th, 11am-2pm)
This workshop explores the fundamentals of video game design through the use of interactive fiction, exploring the places where interactivity and storytelling overlap. No technology or game training is necessary, though a laptop computer is highly recommended. Attendees will be provided with advance reading and will create a small interactive fiction game using the Inform7 Engine. Erin Hoffman has been working in video games since 1999 on an assortment of genres from massively multiplayer online games to Nintendo DS titles for young audiences to action-RPGs for PC, XBox, and PlayStation2.

Movie Review: The Golden Compass

2008-01-15T18:47:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I and some friends went to see The Golden Compass ... I enjoyed it very much. When I saw the movie, I had not read any of the books.

So, to my not-having-read-the-source-material self, it did feel (as many of the Harry Potter films have felt) as though lots had been compressed and several characters had been give a bit of short shrift in terms of developing said character. The witches were sort of thrown in without much explanation. Also, despite the main plot arc having been completed, the ending felt unfinished, but that mainly made me want the sequel to be out so I could see it.

Anyhow, I think many Sf/fantasy fans who haven't read the books would enjoy this one for the really excellent CGI, steampunky art/set design, action sequences and all that. It's definitely something to see on the big screen if you can.

Also, I didn't detect any anti-religious content in the movie*. Neither did Gary. People who objected to Harry Potter will nonetheless surely object to this because, oh noes, there are witches who help the good guys.

So. I really enjoyed the movie, and thought to myself, "Self, you should really read the books." Fortunately, I had a Barnes and Noble gift card burning a hole in my pocket, so I ran out and bought the boxed set.

I'm about 100 pages into the first book. The movie compresses a whole lot, and also sanitizes a great deal. For instance, neither the origins of the Magisterium nor its inherently religious nature are ever mentioned in the film -- you only really get the impression it's another oppressive, fascist government that the good guys are fighting against. And the scene in the Retiring Room is missing Lord Asriel's gruesome discovery.

* Some might feel that the focus on free thought is an inherently anti-religious theme, but I've encountered plenty of folks from temples and churches that encourage people to think for themselves.

A new review for INSTALLING LINUX ON A DEAD BADGER

2008-01-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

Dread Central reviewer Scott A. Johnson gives ILDB five stars* in the review they posted last night.

* Okay, not 5 stars. 5 butcher knives. Same idea, I think.

Hey Gary Braunbeck fans ....

2008-01-15T18:43:00.001-08:00

... Gary's new novel Coffin County is available for pre-order.

You're gonna love this one. It's the expansion of his novella "Haceldama", and if you've read it you already know it's very, very cool.

Beyond Centauri

2008-01-15T18:41:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I got my contributor's copy of the Jan. 2008 Beyond Centauri, which contains my poem "The Evil Overlord's Lament".

In other news, I've been sick for almost a week with a head cold that just won't f%^&ing go away. Bleh. Aside from not feeling well enough to get much work done, I don't feel right going out in public when I know I'm contagious, and I'd really like to go to the library to find the latest issue of Ohioana Quarterly, which evidently contains a review of my collection Sparks and Shadows.

Nutshell Movie Review: The Mist

2008-01-15T18:37:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed about 2/3 of The Mist and disliked 1/3 of it. The really good parts were all the performances, especially Thomas Jane's, and the monsters. The monsters were really cool.

One part that I didn't enjoy was Marcia Gay Harden's character. Some reviewers have claimed the character is an unrealistic cartoon; sadly, she is not. I have encountered many people just like that in my life, and I have worked hard to deal with them as little as possible. So on the one hand, kudos to Harden for creating a memorable character that got under my skin, but on the other hand I did not enjoy watching her at all.

The other part of The Mist I really did not enjoy was the ending. Gary and Tim liked the ending quite a lot; I found it deeply unsatisfying as a moviegoer. It's also seemed to me and others to be needlessly mean. Gary and I will agree to disagree on this one; no divorce is imminent. But as I said the monsters are really cool.

Recently-posted reviews and essays

2006-02-16T14:56:00.000-08:00

I've been putting in a few things over at the main site. Recently I've added big-boned, a guest review of Peter Straub's Lost Boy, Lost Girl, and a guest review of Russell Banks' The Sweet Hereafter.

Nutshell Movie Review: Unleashed

2006-02-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

Gary and I rented the Bob Hoskins/Jet Li/Morgan Freeman movie "Unleashed" and enjoyed it very much. It's a quirky movie, not your standard action film -- in fact, big parts of it are not at all action-oriented and are very much character-driven. It's probably the best acting Jet Li has ever done, and he gets to show off all his moves in some very violent action sequences (if blood/violence turns you off, you won't enjoy this one). Hoskins is as always a joy to watch, and Freeman does what he does so well.

I found it to be well worth rental price, and it had me wishing I'd seen it on the big screen.

Nutshell Movie Review: The Interpreter

2006-02-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

Gary and I watched the Nicole Kidman/Sean Penn movie "The Interpreter" the other night. I liked it, but never felt the movie completely grabbed me.

It's very low-key for a thriller, and towards the middle it is complex enough to kick some people out of the story because they've lost track of what's going on and why. The acting is good, and there's a truly brilliant scene involving a bus that makes this worth watching. Overall, though, "Unleashed" was a more enjoyable and memorable movie for me.

Sabbatum

2006-02-13T12:58:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm listening to Sabbatum by Rondellus. It's a tribute album of Black Sabbath songs rescored for medieval instruments and translated into Latin.

No, this is not a joke. This album is gorgeous, and kicks much puga. Anyone who likes early music or groups like Dead Can Dance should give this a listen on iTunes at least.

My only regret is that they didn't cover "Supernaut", "Iron Man", or "Sweet Leaf". Of course listening to medieval versions of those songs would run the risk of me squeeing into a puddle of goo. And besides, the album producer indicates that they intentionally focused mainly on less-frequently-covered Sabbath songs.

How to bless beer

2006-01-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

(I suggest you try the following blessing on your next six-pack of Blackened Voodoo Beer or Pete's Wicked Ale.)

Playing Poker With Tarot Cards: Assumption

2005-12-19T14:37:00.000-08:00

Assumption is the name of the Tarot poker game that serves as the plot axis for Tim Powers's amazing dark fantasy novel Last Call.

(Wanna know how to play?)

Runnin' With A Pencil

2005-12-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

(Today's shameless silliness is brought to you by the letters Van and Halen.)

A Tribute to J.N. Williamson

2005-12-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

This tribute to Jerry Williamson was written by Gary A. Braunbeck; it includes a short video.

(Read on ....)

Why don't you just find a nice person and settle down?

2005-12-12T13:22:00.000-08:00

(Well, why don't you? Ya slackers!)

J.N. Williamson Appreciation

2005-12-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

Author/editor J.N. "Jerry" Williamson died this past Thursday. He was a friend of mine, a kind man and an excellent writer whose work has largely fallen out of print. If you find the following books, I encourage you to look past the garish 80s horror covers and titles that he so often got stuck with and read them:

Ghost
Don't Take Away The Light
The Black School
Frights of Fancy

(The following biography and appreciation were written by John Maclay; they may be freely reprinted/reposted)

The Internal Revenue Service in the early 80s

2005-12-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

(Wonder what it was like to work for the IRS in 1980?)

The Ring vs. Ringu

2005-12-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

The Ring, a 2002 American re-make of a Japanese film called Ringu, is a wonderfully disquieting film. I've seen literally hundreds of horror movies, and I was genuinely creeped out at the end of this one. I encourage all of you who enjoy intelligent horror/suspense films to check this one out if you haven't already.

(Read more?)

Literary journalism

2005-11-22T17:37:00.000-08:00

Literary journalism refers to the use of fictional techniques in writing a work of nonfiction. In other words, it's a true, well-researched, journalistically-sound story that might normally be written in a dry newpaperly manner that has been instead written with style, vivid description, and narrative flow that immerses the reader in the story. The quality of the writing used to tell the story is just as important as telling the truth of the story.

(Read more?)

Christmas trees

2005-11-21T16:58:00.000-08:00

For many of us, Christmas without a tree just doesn't seem like the real thing. The tree is the centerpiece of our Yuletide celebration. Without the tree, you lose out on a lot of decorating fun. No laughing and talking with your friends or family while you string popcorn and cranberries. No throwing gobs of tinsel on each other. No reminiscing about the cheesy ornaments you made when you were a little kid.

(Read more?)

Book Review: Storyteller by Kate Wilhelm

2005-11-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop
by Kate Wilhelm
Small Beer Press
ISBN: 1-931520-16-X
190 pages

I attended Clarion the year after Kate Wilhelm stopped teaching there. She (along with Robin Scott Wilson and her husband Damon Knight) was one of the original founders of the workshop. Wilhelm taught at Clarion for 27 years; this slim book is partly her workshop memoir and partly a writing guide that details advice and exercises she and other instructors gave to workshop students.

(Read more?)

Eggnog

2005-11-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

The local grocery stores had eggnog on their shelves the weekend before Halloween. I normally object to Christmas encroachment on earlier holidays, but since eggnog is one of my favorite holiday drinks, I really didn't mind.

(Read more?)

Octopus

2005-10-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

Being such highly intelligent creatures, octopuses are master escape artists, and can be hard to keep in an aquarium if they want out.

(Read more?)

Book Review: Lord of the Flies

2005-10-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

Lord of the Flies is one of my favorite novels, not necessarily from a "I'm going to read this every year!" standpoint but more from a "Damn, I wish I could write like that!" perspective.

(Read more?)

Aardvark

2005-10-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

The song's supposed to be to the tune of the Blue Danube Waltz, but most of us were giggling so hard we couldn't carry a tune.

(Read more?)

logger's pox

2005-10-25T16:48:00.000-07:00

(That Olde Tyme Slang. Also, Reason #342 why The Good Old Days really weren't.)

Movie Review: Manhunter vs. Red Dragon

2005-10-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

When I and my housemates (who are even bigger Manhunter fans than I am) learned of the 2002 Red Dragon adaptation, we bitched. God, did we bitch and moan and gnash our teeth. Manhunter had gone without the audience and box office money it deserved, and now they were using Anthony Hopkins and an all-star cast to remake a movie that didn't need remaking?

(Read more?)

Radio news editing

2005-10-19T16:13:00.000-07:00

People who hold the title "news editor" at a radio station may do any of a variety of editorial tasks, and they may be at any of several levels of power and responsibility. At the top level, radio news editors manage the news department.

(Read more?)

CD Review: Serenade for the Dead

2005-10-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

This 1994 instrumental work by industrial/darkwave one-man-band Leaetherstrip represents the fruition of Danish artist Claus Larsen's desire to create a horror movie soundtrack.

(Read more?)

Travel review: the Sistine Chapel

2005-10-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

The Sistine Chapel is breathtakingly beautiful. Pictures of the place don't really do it justice (though artbook photos will let you see details you can't possibly glimpse when you go through).

(Read more?)

Fragel

2005-10-13T15:32:00.000-07:00

A fragel ("FRAY-gul") is a a bagel that, instead of being baked, is deep-fried in light oil and then rolled in sugar and cinnamon.

(Read more?)

On Horror

2005-10-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

The basic qualities of a good horror tale are ideally the same as for any other story: a compelling plot and sympathetic and interesting characters. There should be plenty of atmosphere and suspense; if a good horror story can't make jaded ol' you want to sleep with the lights on, it should at least give you a delicious shiver now and then.

(Read more?)

Dead Armadillo Wrasslin'

2005-10-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

Hunting -- and wrasslin' -- the wily armadillo.

The Skunk Incident

2005-09-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

During my senior year of college, a friend of mine took a mammalogy class. His professor offered the students extra credit if they would help out on a weekend project: skinning, stuffing, and mounting various roadkill animals to send out to natural history museums in the state.

(Hilarity ensued. Kinda.)

Travel Review: Hotel Corot

2005-09-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hotel Corot is located in Rome, Italy at Via Marghera 15/17. It is conveniently located near the center of the city and is just a short walk from the "Termini" rail station. I was pleased by my stay there, because it was very easy to go out walking and see many of the city's sights from there, and several commerical tours will also pick you up there. In particular, the hotel is just to the east of Piazza della Repubblica and Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore.

(Read more?)

Context 18

2005-09-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

Context 18 will be going on Oct. 7-9, 2005. The convention will be hosted here in Columbus, Ohio at the Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue, right across from the Ohio State University campus. The convention will offer movies and anime, author readings, book signings, and a variety of panels focused on written science fiction, fantasy, and horror. The Friday night programming will feature special panels on horror and on science and the future.

Writer/editor guests include:

For more information, please visit http://www.contextsf.org

Lyle Lovett

2005-09-16T15:19:00.000-07:00

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band put on an amazing show. All the members of the band are absolutely top-notch musicians. They'd be as at home playing for a symphony orchestra in any major city as they'd be in a honky-tonk band in a smoky Texas bar.

(Read more?)

The three kinds of nice guys

2005-09-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

(Yes! There are three!)

Does your cat naturally crave tuna?

2005-09-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

Suggesting that a predator naturally craves the flesh of creatures that it couldn't possibly hunt in the wild doesn't sound very reasonable, does it? Housecats can take down big rats and possums and such, but that's about as large as their usual prey gets. Setting aside her potential (and natural) willingness to scavenge carrion like any other feline, Fluffy would have to learn to work a shotgun to get some beef. She'd have to get a diving suit and a harpoon to take down a tuna.

But we're not talking about natural prey. We're talking about the flavor of it.

(Read more?)

Ambulance chasers in Columbus, OH

2005-09-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

"Columbus averages 77 car accidents a day," the cop told us. "Just wait; while I'm out here, we're gonna have another one right near here because of the rubbernecking."

This Crappy Apartment

2005-09-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

You know the PBS series "This Old House"?

I propose:

This Crappy Apartment

On movie reviewers

2005-09-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

I'm sick and tired of critics who persist in reviewing movies in genres that they fundamentally don't like or don't appreciate.

(Read more?)

Book Review: Wigger

2005-09-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

Wigger is the title of a wonderful 1974 children's book written by William Goldman, who also penned The Princess Bride and The Silent Gondoliers. It was illustrated by Errol Le Cain. The book's target age range is kids 7 to 10 years old. It's rather amazing that Disney or some other film company hasn't made a movie of this, though of course if anyone filmed it today, they'd have to change the now-unfortunate title.

(Read more?)

United Collections Bureau

2005-09-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

Say that, like many young adults, you lost health insurance coverage on your parents' plan once you turned 23. The entry-level job you have doesn't pay you enough to afford the health insurance plan they offer. But you're not worried -- you're young and healthy. What can go wrong?

One day, you're crossing the street when a guy driving a Ford Gargantua with a cell phone welded to his ear runs the red light. You try to get out of the way, but he clips your leg and peels off, leaving you bleeding on the pavement. You didn't get his plate number, and nobody else did, either.

The ambulance comes and takes you and your smashed leg to the nearest hospital, St. John's. They're supposed to be a charitable sort of place, you've heard, so you don't worry about the money yet. While you wait on your back for a surgeon to take a look-see, a pretty young woman comes by with paperwork. You tell her that you don't have coverage and don't make much money. She tells you not to worry, and hands you some forms to fill out so the hospital will forgive some or all of what it's going to charge you for hurriedly fixing your leg and discharging you the moment you can get up on crutches.

Two days later, your roommate picks you up outside the hospital; your leg hurts like hell in its cast, you're hungry, and you just want to sleep. You diligently filled out the paperwork, so you're not worried yet.

Unbeknownst to you, the hospital's accounting department, like most, has decided to charge you four times what they would charge the insurance company of someone with coverage. It doesn't matter that you have no way to pay the thousands of dollars they've decided you owe them ... because they don't have to deal with you.

Early the next Saturday morning, you're sleeping in a Vicodin-induced near-coma when the phone rings ....

How to write fantasy that will absolutely slay the editors

2005-09-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

Magazine and book editors are cruel oppressors who delight in rejecting and demeaning True Art. In short, they are evil. So your mission is to join the Fellowship of those who seek to inspire editors to fling themselves or coworkers from high windows or commit hara-kiri with their letter openers.

The best way to cause an editor's mind to wander to despairing thoughts of self-destruction or to throw her into a mindless murdering rage is to present her with a manuscript of such astonishing quality that her mind is broken. But like Sauron's mighty Uruk-hai, editors are a tough bunch; don't expect your first effort to do much more than cause her to drink a bit more than usual at Happy Hour.

(Evil follows ....)

Travel review: The Bronx Zoo

2005-08-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

The Bronx Zoo is located in the heart of the 'hood in New York City. It is one of the largest metropolitan zoos in the United States and contains over 6,000 animals representing hundreds of species. The zoo first opened on November 8, 1899 with 22 exhibits featuring 843 animals.

Read more?

Good reasons to avoid wearing make-up

2005-08-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

Wearing makeup is a very personal act that helps some people feel more attractive and confident. "Putting your face on" is a cherished daily ritual for some people. But it is also a highly social act. If you are an American woman in mainstream society, many people will expect you to wear makeup, and failing to apply it as the other women in your social group do can have negative consequences.

So why wouldn't a person want to wear makeup?

Working as a copy editor

2005-08-25T16:08:00.000-07:00

To get a job as a copy editor, you must have a rock-solid sense of grammar, spelling and punctuation and a keen eye for errors and typos. You must be able to read quickly and accurately. You must be able to write well and speak well. You must be able to work alone with very little direction, but you must also be able to work as a team member under a micromanaging senior editor; either work scenario is possible, as is anything in between.

Read more?

Valerian

2005-08-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

Valerian root (Valeriana officinalis and V. dioica, both native to the temperate parts of Europe and Asia) is widely available as an herbal supplement; while it has no FDA-approved medicinal use, it is touted as a sleep aid and anticramping agent.

Medical studies have shown that it acts as a mild sedative/hypnotic and has anti-anxiety properties. Thus, it's often recommended to people suffering from mild insomnia or restless legs syndrome, because when it's used in a sensible, dose-aware manner, it's not nearly as "druggy" or expensive as over-the-counter or prescription sleeping pills.

Drunkards, deadbeats and bummers

2005-08-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

"Drunkards, deadbeats and bummers"

This was how Harvard president Charles W. Eliot described reporters as he rejected Joseph Pulitzer's offer to endow a journalism school at that university. Eliot's disdainful comment reflects a common stereotype that writers are alcoholics, but unfortunately there's a lot of truth to that image.

Read on ....

Roadkill Bingo

2005-08-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Tired of playing Slug Bug on those long car trips? Roadkill Bingo is an irreverent, gruesome little game in which the car's riders compete to spot roadkill lying by or in the road. This game isn't for everyone, but those with a certain morbid bent (particularly goths or biology majors) can be entertained for hours.

Read on ....

Shampoo ingredients

2005-08-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

You step into the shower, only to discover that your shampoo bottle is practically empty. Argh! You fill the bottle partway with water, shake it up, and douse your wet hair with the diluted, sudsy shampoo. In seconds, you're lathered up, rinsing off, and ready to face your day.

As you turn off the water, you realize you've still got some shampoo solution left in your bottle. You're tempted to put the bottle back in your shower caddy and save the remainder for your next shampoo. After all, it seems a waste to just dump it, and you haven't got much time to go to the store to get a new bottle.

Resist temptation, brave shampooer. If you dilute your shampoo to eke another day's hairwashing out of a bottle, throw the rest away immediately afterward.

Why? According to a chemist friend of mine, once you've diluted shampoo, you've rendered the preservatives in it too weak to do their job. Your watered-down shampoo is chock full of nitrogenous compounds and carbohydrates that bacteria and fungi will find oh so tasty. So if you let this solution sit for a day (or more) and then dump it on your hair, you'll also be dumping on a nice homemade culture of various nasties that may find your scalp to be equally delicious. You could find yourself getting a case of dermatitis or an infection.

Common Shampoo Chemicals (And What They Do)

Adelphophagy

2005-08-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

Adelphophagy, which literally means "eating one's brother", refers to the act of pre-birth cannibalism. In other words, it's the killing and devouring of broodmates while the cannibal and victim(s) are still in their mother's womb.

Talk about your sibling rivalry.

Generic books

2005-08-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

Many of us remember the ultra-plainly-labeled, über-cheap generic foods sold in bulk at grocery stores a few decades back. Stuff like bulk beer, which came in plain white cans with just the word "BEER" in stark black letters, plus minimal nutrition information and a bar code.

Fewer people remember that, for a very brief period of time in the white-label heyday of the early 1980s, someone attempted to market generic genre books.

Yes, completely generic paperback books. They had a plain white cover with just the title in black block lettering: ROMANCE or SCIENCE FICTION or HORROR or WESTERN.

They released one book in each genre; an older friend of mine collected the whole set. The books had no back-panel blurb, no author information, no publisher information, not even a copyright page.

My friend said the novels were uniformly awful, but entertainingly so. Apparently the writer or writers went out of their way to incorporate every possible genre cliché into the paper-thin storylines.

I'm guessing the white-label SCIENCE FICTION novel had a bad case of white room syndrome.

The books, of course, failed miserably except as a collector's oddity for bibliophiles. It's hard to get authors to do good work when they're not even given a pseudonym, and it's even harder to get readers to pick up a book without the benefit of snazzy cover art, a catchy title, or author name recognition. And, of course, without publisher information attached to the product, there's not much possible motive or method to marketing.

How to comfort someone whose mother or father has died

2005-08-04T14:58:00.000-07:00

Many of us geeks, when presented with a friend in trouble or in pain, want to try to do something to "fix" their troubles. There is no "fix" for the death of a loved one. There can only be offers of support or words of comfort -- which may feel awkward, trite, or just plain hard to give if you don't fully understand what the person in grief is going through.

Read more?

Tomcats

2005-08-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

Male cats tend to be friendlier and more playful than female cats; however, if you want to preserve your male kitten's sweet personality, you should get him neutered when he's about 6 months old.

Read more?

Movie Review: Altered States

2005-08-02T15:41:00.000-07:00

Altered States is a 1980 movie directed by British filmmaker Ken Russell. It deals with an American scientist, Eddie Jessup (played by William Hurt and based on John C. Lilly), who does experiments on human consciousness using hallucinogenic drugs, an isolation chamber, and himself as a guinea pig.

The movie would have been much better if not for Russell's bias against Chayefsky's script.

Feliway

2005-08-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

Got stressed-out, pissing, fighting, scratching, territorial cats you wish would calm the heck down? Try Feliway.

The One Ring

2005-08-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

A song parody to the tune of Ministry's "Just One Fix ..."

Book Review: Luz, the Art of Ciruelo

2005-07-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

If you enjoy lavish illustrations of square-jawed heroes battling monsters and wooing buxom lasses in various states of distress (and undress), then you're going to love Luz, the third compilation of Ciruelo Cabral's artwork.

Read more?

Movie Review: Star Trek: Nemesis

2005-07-26T12:15:00.000-07:00

In short: if you are a fan of Star Trek and didn't catch Nemesis when it was in theaters, it's a worthwhile rental (and you might like it enough to buy it).

Want to read the rest?

Harry Potter British editions

2005-07-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

My coworker Alex brought his new copy of the British edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince into my office yesterday. I must say, it's a much more attractive book than the American version. The hardcover has no jacket, is considerably smaller, and has a very attractive, classy-looking cover. The interiors of the British editions have no illustrations, and the typeface (at least on this book) was crisp and easy to read.

Alex says that the American versions have been considerably edited to bleach out Briticisms that were deemed confusing for American readers. He also says that collecting the British editions is relatively inexpensive if you buy them from Canadian outlets such as Amazon.ca.

I've been putting off collecting the series, waiting for it to be complete, and now I'm definitely going to seek out these editions rather than the American versions.

Review: The Powerpuff Girls Movie

2005-07-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

I enjoy the Powerpuff Girls animated TV show, but I'm by no means a hardcore fan. I had no real desire to see this film, which I fully expected to be nothing more than a padded-out, gussied-up-with-better-animation TV episode. But, when my friends wanted to watch it, I figured I'd be a sport.

And I'm glad I got talked into going. This movie was an altogether pleasant surprise, and I had a great time.

Read more?

TV Review: Dead Like Me

2005-07-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

My husband bought me the 2nd-season box set for "Dead Like Me" this past week. I'm still hugely irked that Showtime cancelled this wonderful show after just two seasons.

Never heard of it? Here's my review, which I may add to after I've finished the second season. If you're a horror or fantasy fan, I bet you'll enjoy this series as much as we did.

Movie Review: The Return of the King

2005-07-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

A review of the theater release as well as the extended DVD version of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2005-07-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, I was one of the 10 million people who read the book over the weekend. I liked it; some fans will be horrified by what happens in it. Still, it's not nearly as dark overall as some people are saying. Want to read more?

"I guess I'll have to see JU-ON now," she said grudgingly.

2005-07-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

A short review of The Grudge:

It's not a bad movie, but it creates just a mere shadow of the excellent spookiness cast by The Ring. It's reasonably well-acted and contains some good creepy scenes which were unfortunately often undermined by the intrusive musical score. The music was bent on telling us that each scene was REALLY REALLY SCARY when in fact it'd have been scarier to have silence instead of squeaky violins telling me what to feel.

The real problem, though, was that the ending was not satisfying. It didn't come to any real conclusion, and nothing was revealed that hadn't been made pretty clear 1/3 into the film. None of the characters experience any real growth or change (okay, characters get killed by vengeful spirits, but they largely don't get any insight before they die, and their deaths aren't justified to make this any kind of morality tale).

I guess I have to see the original film, Ju-On, to see if it's any stronger.

Movie Review: The Salton Sea

2005-07-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

I wanted to see The Salton Sea the moment I saw its intriguing trailer on Apple's Quicktime site, but it seemingly spent about five minutes in theaters here in Columbus, Ohio before it disappeared. Which is a real shame, because this is a good movie with a great cast, keen writing, an excellent score, and stylish, smart direction.

Read more?

Movie Review: The Company of Wolves

2005-07-13T15:39:00.000-07:00

The Company of Wolves is one of only two Angela Carter stories to make it to the big screen so far (which is a shame, since so much of her work is wonderful). Wolves is a horror movie in the same sense that Legend and Labyrinth are -- which is to say, not at all.

Read on?

Movie Review: Murder by Decree

2005-07-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

Murder By Decree is a 1979 film directed by Bob Clark that was released on DVD in 2003. It's about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigating (and solving) the Jack the Ripper murders. The Hughes Brothers owe a huge debt to this film for their 2001 movie From Hell.

Read on?

Why it's a bad idea to pay a vanity press to publish your writing

2005-07-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

The lack of editorial process is the first reason that writers, reviewers and editors scorn books put out by vanity presses. The second reason is that many vanity publishers are crooks, plain and simple.

Want to read more about vanity publishers?

Things to consider when choosing a martial art

2005-07-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

Many people become interested in studying martial arts, particularly after they see various fighting styles featured in action movies like The Matrix or Enter The Dragon. How do you choose a style and the dojo where you'll learn the style? Read on ....

The Lord of the Rings IV: Stop or my Gollum will Shoot!

2005-07-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

A leaked memo written by an Adjunct Vice President for Development for New Line Cinema reveals astonishing plans for a sequel to Peter Jackson's epic Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Most fans are eagerly awaiting Jackson's eventual filming of The Hobbit. But in the meantime, New Line has a movie in the works that is neither directly based on any of Tolkien's work, nor directed by Jackson.

"We can't wait four or five years for Jackson to get around to filming that other book," the studio VP writes. "The LoTR property is still hot right now, and if we want to ensure a good revenue stream in 2006, we've got to keep those seats filled. Blade sequels just aren't going to cut it."

This new movie's working title is The Lord of the Rings IV: Stop or my Gollum will Shoot!

Extra, Extra! Read all about it!

Jet-Turbine All-Aspect Marmoset

2005-07-06T12:12:00.000-07:00

If you're concerned about home defense, you're concerned about family. And if you care for your family, you know that nothing says "I love you and want to save you from a horrible death at the hands of those damned, dirty apes" like Pineapple Defense's Marmalade 2100.

Touch the marmoset! Love the marmoset!

Declawing your cat

2005-07-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

After declawing, some cats exhibit radical, negative personality changes. A friend of mine had his kitten declawed despite my suggestion he not do it, and his formerly playful, friendly kitten came back hostile, skittish, and reclusive; his behavior persisted after his toes healed. (Well, if people I trusted sent me off to get part of my toes cut off, I'd probably be scared of them afterward, too.)

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The Earth's Moons

2005-07-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

Everybody knows that the Earth has a moon; it's roughly a quarter of the size of our planet and is second only to the Sun in celestial brightness. In fact, it is so big relative to our planet's size that it almost qualifies in some scientists' books as a double planet.

However, fewer people know that an asteroid discovered in 1986 is locked in a complex but stable orbit around Earth, making it technically a second moon. Many people had theorized, seriously or fancifully, the existence of a second moon long before before it was discovered.

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"Cat" as a Verb

2005-06-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

Most people are familiar with the word "cat" as a noun or profane exclamation. However, it is also a verb that has nothing to do with boats or UNIX ....

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Meeting Chuck Palahniuk

2005-06-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

I met Chuck Palahniuk at this past weekend's Bram Stoker Awards convention in sunny Burbank, CA. Before he read his phenomenal short story "Guts", Palahniuk talked to us a bit about a workshop he'd belonged to as a beginning writer.

The workshop's leader had a background in acting, and thought it very important that his students learn how to be good readers of their own work. So, to toughen his students up, the workshop leader would arrange for them to do readings of their work in wildly inappropriate places. Instead of quiet libraries and bookstores, he'd sign them up (often with no advance notice) at loud, busy coffeeshops and sports bars.

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Herding Cats

2005-06-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine has a big black dog named Nan. Nan is part Australian shepherd, and the herding instinct is so strong in her that it's almost as if she has a doggie form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Nan desperately needs a couple of sheep to keep her busy during the day, but sadly she's not likely to get any in her suburban home.

She will try to herd anything; a favorite pasttime of the kids in the house on a hot summer day is to throw a handful of ice cubes across the slick kitchen floor and watch Nan round them all up by her water bowl. If you are a new visitor to the house, you can expect her to circle you, barking and prodding you with her sharp nose if she thinks you need to be elsewhere.

Yes, Nan is a bossy, bossy bitch.

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Why I love grapefruit juice

2005-06-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

Anyone who was alive during the 1970s remembers the fad grapefruit diet; as it turns out, it was not as goofy an idea as we might have thought.

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Radium poisoning

2005-06-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

The women didn't live nearly long enough to get cancer. Autopsies showed that their spleens and livers were giving off alpha radiation and that their bones were so radioactive that they would make an image if they were laid on photographic paper in a darkroom.

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