Over the past few months, I’ve sneaked in some time to watch a few TV shows of the unusual sort, beginning way back in November. Here are the ones I liked the best, plus some shows I’ve already watched and some I’m looking forward to watching. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a Netflix original, was based on the old Archie comic book series. Netflix excels at transforming comic books into really awesome shows, and Sabrina is no exception. It’s a…
The year in books is off to a slow if interesting start, beginning with some short stories. “The Endless Lives of Kama” by William Delman at Daily Science Fiction explores the consequences of prescience. It can be enjoyed with or without pondering the deeper layers within the story, but those who enjoy oracle type stories will surely delve more deeply. “ILU-486” by Amanda Ching is predicated on the notion that there is a war on women coming from the right. Don’t…
As mentioned in last month’s post, I began reading Juvenile Fantasy in late October. I have always loved this particular genre and was thrilled to introduce it to my son when he grew old enough to read it. To be honest, some of my favorite books are categorized as Juvenile, including Susan Cooper’s Dark Is Rising Series, on which the movie of the same name was based. Between me and you, the movie falls far short of the books and…
This month, my favorite short story was “Dear Ms. Moon” by Liz Argall. It’s a cute story about a young woman who’s just trying to look out for her brother. The ending made me laugh so hard, but other parts did, too. I only finished one non-fiction book this month, Become a Successful Indie Author: Work Toward Your Writing Dream by Craig Martelle. Craig is one of the powerhouse indie authors behind the 20Booksto50K paradigm, originally coined by Michael Anderle….
September was an interesting month, book wise. The coming of autumn, coupled with the writing projects I’m working on, inspired a not-so-brief spurt of interest in Urban and Contemporary Fantasy, plus I continued chipping away at my humongously large pile of non-fiction. I didn’t read any short fiction in September, which is a first, though I do keep up with several blogs. One of those blogs lead me to “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt,…
I know, I know. Another monster movie marathon. What can I say? I love me some creature features, and since it’s getting close to Halloween (humor me), I’m revving up my viewing a little. These monster movies feature everything from a hairy but lovable Big Foot in Harry and the Hendersons to kaiju and mechs to the incredibly corny and over the top Sharknado movies, with a few traditional monsters thrown in to spice things up a bit. Notice there’s…
For some reason, I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about which books influenced me the most. I’ve read a lot of books over the past forty-odd years, so many I’ve forgotten quite a few, but the same three books keep popping into my head. Each has had a lasting impact on me in some way, and this is, I believe, why I point to them now. Let’s start with the one my mother caught me reading and promptly took…
August was a fairly slow month, reading wise, primarily because I got bogged down in David Weber’s Off Armageddon Reef, which I eventually abandoned. It’s presumably a good story, given its high rating on GoodReads, and I liked the premise: Humanity hides away on an alien planet in an effort to save itself from a ruthless alien race. Sounds interesting, right? I sincerely wish I had found it as interesting as other readers, but I simply could not finish this…
I’ve been on a bit of a monster movie kick over the past couple of months. Now, y’all may or may not be aware, but I am a lover of cinematic SciFi Horror (Alien, Predator, Godzilla) and campy zombie movies, like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, The Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, and Warm Bodies, to name a few. I also want to write monster fiction (Remember that fun-surprise story I told you about a while back?), so this…
I just finished watching Letters to Juliet, the charming Romantic Comedy starring Amanda Seyfried and Vanessa Redgrave. Set in Verona, Italy, the home of Juliet Capulet of Romeo and Juliet fame, the movie begins shortly before Sophie, an aspiring journalist, discovers a fifty-year-old letter to Juliet hidden in an outside wall of Juliet’s home. The letter was written by then fifteen-year-old Claire Smith, who has decided to run away from a passionate love of Lorenzo Bartolini. After reading the letter,…