A Far Out Fantastic Site

I apologize everybody, but there is going to be another delay in the posting of my short story. My computer somehow contracted a virus and so it's at the mad computer doctor being worked on. I hope to have her back by the end of this week or early next week (realistically speaking). I hope you all have been having a great time during these holidays, and if I don't get my computer back until next year (don't be alarmed because, remember, next year is only in a few days!) then I wish you a Happy New Year now! Using the public library's computer doesn't give me much time to do my normal work on my blog, so it may be a few days before you hear back from me. Take care!

I want to apologize once again for this late posting of the second part to my story. It was supposed to have posted yesterday on top of already posting late. I actually did set it to post and the program indicated that it was up on the blog displaying to the public. However, as I said, I've been having problems with my laptop. But I think the real problem may be with extra online traffic due to holiday online shoppers. And I don't blame anybody who shops online when you can buy things at much lower prices than in the actual stores; the recession may be declining but, unfortunately, many of us are still feeling the after effects of it. Hopefully that will all change soon. Hope is an essential theme this time of year and so that's what we have to remember to do, is hope for the best. But here is part two of my short story, "The Puppet Show". The final part will come next week, and unless there will be a problem with New Year's Eve online traffic or such, ...

Hello, everybody. This will be a very short blog entry and, no, I haven't forgotten about the second part to "The Puppet" show. (If you missed part one you can see it at this link here .) I'm sorry, but I've been delayed all day today by technical errors on both my computers (desktop and laptop). It's really taken me out; you don't want to have seen what kind of mood I've been in today. I will have part two of "The Puppet Show" posted tomorrow afternoon (which, theoretically, is later on today since it's long past the witching hour, and so it's 2:44 Thursday morning as I write this). Once again, my apologies greatly.

For the next two to three weeks I will be posting one of my short stories. Although it is a short story, it may be considered long for some of you readers especially if you won't think I'm the greatest fiction writer, let alone science fiction/fantasy writer, you've ever read. This is a blog post and so typically blog posts are short, or if not short, not long. So I'm posting segments of the following story, one segment a week for the next two to three weeks. Although this is not a Christmas/Holiday story, I chose to post it in particular because it has some themes that may be said to go with Christmas, particular toys which the title implies. Plus there's a little bit of a fairy tale theme to it which holiday stories such as the Nut Cracker fall under. There's even a little bit of a package scene; see if you can find it and consider it my Christmas/Holiday gift to you guys and gals. In fact, consider the whole story my Holiday gift to you; you get it fo...

Last week’s Sacramento News and Review contains an article about a war protest that occurred a couple weekends ago at the Sacramento Central Library. But it wasn’t so much a protest against a real war than it was a war game. The article states that the activist groups Veterans for Peace and Grandmothers for Peace protested the video gaming event Nerd Fest’s Call of Duty tournament. According to the article, the protesters felt that Call of Duty was encouraging war and violence. But the game has an M (“Mature”) rating and so is limited to the 17 and older crowd in its sales and at its tournaments such as Nerd Fest’s, as the article indicates. That, at least to an extent, solves the problem of influence on minors. However, according to SN&R , what the protesters were really speaking against was the library, a place of educational and intellectual activity, promoting the game and in so doing promoting war and violence. Therefore they were saying that the tournament ...

I'm not sure how successful this would work in the U.S. It would probably be more successful than in Russia because of the more Internet access we have here. It didn't surprise me when the blogger of this article said that there was a very small percentage of Internet accessibility in Russia, since I dated a Russian girl who was very limited in her emails to me. Yes, we cyber dated! It didn't last too long though, but that's another story that I don't need to get into. Let me know what you think of this e-book experiment discussed in this article . http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/lukyanenko-launches-e-publishing-experiment/#comment-2556

About a week ago, I was reading a blog article about the thriller and horror genres mixing together in novels. The article is by a David (he doesn’t give his last name) on his blog, “ David’s Library ”, and you can read it here for yourself if you’d like. Even though some of the books he reviews seem to be more escapist in their style, they have some good storylines and look like they contain elements of the dark fantasy genre as well. I left him a comment saying that it was funny how the meaning of the word “thriller” has changed ever since the late 1980s/early ‘90s. You can see my comment in the comments section of the article . It will be under the name Steven R. The word “thriller” used to refer to horror films and TV shows. Back in the ‘80s if you opened an issue of TV Guide you would find listings of movies and TV shows along with their genre category. For example, in one entry you would see the title of a movie and then right next to it would be it’s genre such...

When I read horror author Chris Ringler's article on Horror Addicts.com's blog site I was reminded just how out'a site it is to live in the Information Age! When I read one of the users' comments to Ringler's article, I was reminded about how important of a role Internet helped launch my writing career. It's all at the link below. http://horroraddicts.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/guest-blog-rattling-bones-and-writing-horror-chris-ringler/#comment-137

The title of this article seemed intriguing to me. I thought I would just pose a question based on it: would you say any of these monsters gave you nightmares whatever medium you're familiar with them in (e.g. book, film, TV). Mine was Frankenstein 's Monster. Although I hadn't read the book yet, when I was nine I had a nightmare where Victor Frankenstein's monster was getting ready to shoot me with two pistols! I have always been fascinated with the Monster, and so at that time I was familiar with the character in popular media such as movies and TV. What actually inspired that dream was a television sitcom of that time based on the Frankenstein's Monster character. The series didn't run long. Honestly, I don't remember the name of it. But the monster didn't look so much monstrous looking as he did simply a huge ugly old man. But at nine when you have such an ugly old man chasing you down with two pistolas in your dreams that can be pretty da...

With all this talk about publishing through Amazon, especially through Kindle readers , I thought Sylvanopolis Society would like this article. Hopefully they'll come out with an article on Print-On-Demand, since that's what I plan to emphasize in the publishing of my work; although I feel that Kindle is a really great way to promote one's work before it goes into print. I hope you fellow writers find this article helpful. http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/publishing-to-amazon-getting-started/

Here's a " Haunting " contest going on at this site celebrating the fall festive spirit! http://theresamilstein.blogspot.com/2010/10/halloween-haunting.html

Yours Truly has just returned from a Steampunk Halloween party in Old Town Sacramento and has just washed the ghoul face right off of his own face. Wait a minute, I already have a ghoul's face. Well, no, not quite; more of a freek's face. I didn't misspell "freek". "Freek" is what I call a geek and freak in one; and so People like me can have the best of both worlds (as well as many others too)! Well if you really want to freak out this Halloween, then read on to the following movie review! There’s been many horror films about houses haunted by the ghosts of murder victims that lead the living to their murderer, but Deadline has a little bit of a different take on this subgenre. In director Sean McConville’s movie, the murderer is revealed slowly but surely through video tapes that a screenwriter (Brittany Murphy) finds stashed away in the attic of an old Victorian house that she is staying in. This is done with some help of the murder ...

Here's some Hallowday artwork of mine, as well as one year round one (the Jolly Roger Flag in Space!). I'll try to post some more soon.

I watched director Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 on DVD last month and was not disappointed. It was very upsetting in many parts, yet because of that these parts contributed to the movie’s realistic view of social injustice. The characterization was well rounded and supported by good acting. The plot held up and moved along well. The movie was filmed in a style similar to that of Cloverfield —news footage realism. The difference between these two films is that while Cloverfield is in the style of a homemade movie, District 9 is in the style of a professional news report/documentary. It’s a style comparable to that of Orson Well’s radio production of War of the Worlds which was done so realistically the masses tuning into it late thought it real live news coverage. The movie begins with interviews that ask both experts and common people their opinions about an alien race referred to by the derogatory name, “Pawns”. Nearly all the opinions are bad, many of them racially stereot...

I confess that I never had seen Avatar when it first released almost a year ago in theaters. I also confess that I never saw it when it released on DVD about two or three months ago. The reason I hadn’t seen it on DVD: I was waiting for it to make a comeback to the big screen so I could see it in that form first. In which it did, and better yet, one of its theaters that it has been showing in has been the IMAX theaters. However, it came back as a special edition, and so a director’s cut, which I didn’t mind so much (although I go more for original release editions). The movie has been the best in science fiction since the first Star Wars movie back in 1977. Speaking about that, the movie is Star Wars , Star Trek, The Matrix , and even the 1980s’ Enemy Mine in one. The defense for the Na’vi people of the moon Pandora allied with the environmentally concerned Earthlings is reminiscent to the battle on Endor in 1984’s Return of the Jedi . Yet, the movie's plo...

Here's a link to an article that is both hopeful on the one hand, and a little negative on the other. It's hopeful because, as the author says, the closing out of the talked about chain store may pave the way for indie bookstores to make a comeback. It's a little negative in that this store's closing out sort of implies how lightly society in our country is taking the reading culture which includes the live actual space books are discussed and read in. It's also a little sad because it reflects that big chain bookstores are there far more for the commercial competition than they are for the love of books. Personally I'd like to see the comeback of independent bookstores since they are much more community oriented in the love for books. While at the same time, I can embrace Amazon because you have a much better choice of book prices to fit your budget, everything from 2 dollar used to 29 dollar brand new copies. I'm sort of in the situation right now whe...

I was reading the back of the DVD case of the copy of the 1988 (I believe it was) vampire movie The Lost Boys that I had bought. It said that the movie had a novel adaptation (unless the movie was adapted from the novel, like the case was with I am Legend, AKA Omega Man in the 70s, AKA The Last Man on Earth in the 60s). I never knew about that. Although whether it beats even Twilight, that I don't know. All I know is that this movie beats the Twilight movies anytime! If you don't believe me, then go rent a copy at your local video rental store or check out a copy at your local public library. Or you can purchase a copy for only five bucks if you look for it at Walmart or Target (where I got mine). And today at a comic book store in Davis I bought the first issue of a 4 issue series of Marvel Comics' adaptation of Dracula. I haven't actually read the comic book yet, but I've read the novel at least twice and according to the illustrations it looks like it...

I thought this article was interesting (see the link below). One of my favourite dark fantasy authors of this 21st century let alone 2010s wins two awards for the same book! Smashing! as his fellow British would say! Neil Gaiman Wins 2010 Carnegie Medal

Welcome to A Far Out Fantastic Site! This will predominantly be a blog where the imaginative arts are discussed. More to come soon! --Steven Sylva-aRT