A Far Out Fantastic Site

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons/Doalex I apologize for Amazon not yet putting The Fool’s Illusion at its reduced price that I talked about in the special FI anniversary post earlier this week. If you missed that one, go check it out to read more about that fantastic deal in celebration of FI ’s 2nd year anniversary .   Amazon seems to take long with its price changes, something that we indie authors have no control over since we only price our books through them (besides publishing through their self-publishing services) and don’t display the price in the online store itself. Again, I will update you here (at the Fantastic Site ) once I find out the reduced price is displayed and therefore when the book is actually selling at that price. Because it’s hard to say when that will be, I can’t tell you at this point when I will post notice of that. So you don’t miss out on this limited offer, subscribe to the blog in the form below on the right-hand side or follow it by e...

Photo Credit: Steven Rose, Jr. Well, today did not only mark the last official day of summer but it also marked the 2 nd Anniversary of The Fool’s Illusion ! As I said in my last post, I would have a special offer for you to celebrate the occasion. Well, there’s both good news and bad. The good news is that the special offer is a $4 price reduction of the print copy at Amazon! Therefore the regular price is $12.99 but, for a limited time, I’m making the book available for only $8.99! The bad news is that I set the reduced price only yesterday and didn’t realise until after that Amazon takes three to five business days to put the reduced price into effect. The price reduction should be in effect by this Saturday. I’ll notify you here as soon as I find out. The best way to keep updated on it is to subscribe to my blog which you can do on the form towards the bottom of the right-hand side sidebar. Or you can keep checking T he Fool’s Illusion ’s page at Amazon throughout ...

The other day I was doing some research for a client’s project when I came across this article at TheVerge .com. The article talks about a small Congolese film production group that made a zombie movie. According to the article, this short film was a way to confront the true horrors and trauma of the violence the group and much of society in the Congo face. When a bad experience strikes, it stays with you for a long time. Unfortunately for some, like many of the people in the Congo, it stays with them for life. That’s why the ghost, zombie and other archetypes of the undead are so popular in the horror genre because they embody our deepest fears, our worst experiences and the emotional wounds that result from them. The horror story exorcises our personal demons. By the way, the movie, entitled The Mysterious Dream , isn’t a bad one. While it may not be anywhere near blockbuster status, it has some good cinematography and is reminiscent of the zombie films of the 1960s an...

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Radio-Science Publications I just started reading Larry Niven’s novel from the ‘70s, Protector , and so far it’s been really grabbing and thought-provoking. I’ve been reading a lot more novels for about the past two years even though I’m more a short story person both as reader and writer. Over all, short fiction isn’t as well-received as it was in the earlier half of the 20 th century. It may be better received in the sci fi and fantasy genres than it is in other genres such as mainstream. But even among speculative fiction for the last decade or so, the short story has been dwarfed in popularity by larger works. Until now. The literary market is beginning to lean towards shorter works again. The Short Story Returned For the past year, media and literary organizations have been reporting on the return of the short story. Sources everywhere from the New York Public Library to Writers Digest have been indicating this. What has made th...

Photo Credit: Openclipart.org Labor Day isn’t the only holiday we have this weekend. Although it may not be official, tomorrow, Sunday the 6 th of September, is National Read A Book Day .  people are encouraged to read a book. So don’t just take a break from work, but take a break from burning your eye-balls out from the TV, computer, and cinema screens and read a book. Although some like to read books on a computer screen of some sort, I prefer my book in print and so like to feel with my hands what I’m reading; I like to hold the art of the book binding. But what medium you read on is up to you. As long as you forget the video for the day and read a book--or even better, read several books--you will be truly celebrating Read A Book Day which is what I plan to do. For those of you who are not sure which books to read, I conjured up this list of past blog posts featuring book titles to help you. Most of these are sci fi and fantasy books since this is primarily a spe...