Friday the Thirteenth and 'War of the Worlds'

Photo Credit: Thayne Multimedia Productions/Wikimedia Commons

It looks like a lot of you liked my final concept sketch for my book cover. Thanks, all of you who left me those great compliments/Facebook Likes. Now that I've finished the final concept sketch, my next step is to make the final drawing, complete in full colour and detail. I really want to get this book out and available to you. There may even be a contest where you can win a free book cover promotion poster for The Fool's Illusion! So stay tuned!

If you're in the Sacramento area, then I suggest you take a look at my "This Weekend" schedule of sci fi/fantasy events going on in the area this weekend of the 13th to the 15th. Speaking about the 13th, "Are you superstitious" as Stevie Wonder sings in his famous song? I'm not superstitious, but this past Friday the 13th wasn't a very good day for me. And 13 is my lucky number! (Yeah, right. I just said I'm not superstitious, didn't I? Duh!) Okay, it's just a very nice number to me. Nice because it's so infused with so many mythic elements, which are used in horror and other types of fantasy a lot, and being a writer of horror I have to like it and so do. How did the so called curse of Friday the 13th get me? I had to screw around with a lot of technical issues with my computer at home (but they're taken care of now).

About a week ago, I saw a really great "War of the Worlds" film. No, it was not Steven Speilberg's; it was not even the 1950s original (though I always go for the original with almost any movie first and foremost). It was one that was made by two great indie filmmakers who I had a great time talking with after the screening (which they presented live) at the Crest Theatre last Saturday. You can read about this out-of-this-world flick in my new Examiner.com movie review!

Well, that's it for this week! Until next time . . .

Comments

Book-To-Movie: Stephen King’s 'The Raft'

Credit: Pixabay.com It's the third Saturday of the month and so that means it's time for another Book-To-Movie ! In a Book-To-Movie we review a book and its movie adaptation. One of the reasons I as a horror fan don’t read a lot of Stephen King’s work is because most of it consists of novels that go more than 400 pages. I have a short attention span when it comes to reading, ironically since I consider myself an avid reader, and so I normally won’t read a work that is much more than the equivalent to a 350-page mass market paperback. The other reason why I don’t read a lot of King’s work is that, as literary scholars will tell you, a lot of his writing is poor. However, he does have some good writing in his works, especially his earlier stuff, including his short horror tales. So if I read anything by Stephen King it’s usually his short stories or novellas. One of his collections I’ve read is Skeleton Crew which includes some of his good, or at least...

Book-To-Movie: ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’

Credit: Wikimedia Commons I apologise for posting outside our regular post-day which is late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. However, I got behind on several things last week and so had to postpone the post to today. I’ve been a reader of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books ever since I was 11. What I’ve always liked so much about the series is that, like a good horror story, the stories often take place in dark settings and involve bizarre cases. Conan Doyle’s novel, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, definitely contains these elements. It’s a detective story that crosses over into the gothic horror genre. Several movie adaptations of the novel have been made that go as far back as a 1915 German silent film. In 1959 Hammer Studios released a version starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. As much as I’m a fan of the Hammer horror films, I have not seen that one yet. The only one that I’ve seen so far is the 1939 adaptation starring that other big name in classic...

Return to Fiction Writing; Graphic Novel Based on Lost Horror Film

Credit: Wikimedia Commons Some of you may had noticed that I skipped posting back on the 4th of the month, as far as Monday posting goes. I posted for the IWSG blog hop that Wednesday and it didn't make up for that Monday's missed post since I said I had to keep it short. I had to reduce the writing during that week because, as I also said in that IWSG post, my mom passed away back in October and so that was the week of her funeral. I just got back on track earlier last week (Wednesday I think it was) and so that included returning to working on my fiction projects, namely my upcoming short story collection, "Bad Apps". Needless to say, I'm back on track with my weekly blog posts. So, I have some about my latest progress on "Bad Apps" and, in sci fi/fantasy news, about an upcoming graphic novel adaptation of a lost silent horror film that starred Lon Chaney Sr. Back On Track with ‘Bad Apps’ My short hiatus from my fiction writing wasn't really a ful...

A Far Out Fantastic Site

Search This Blog