A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Pixabay I’m doing the Book-To-Movie a week earlier than I normally do each month because next weekend is Christmas and many of us will be busy celebrating with our families and friends. Since this is a Holiday post, we are reviewing a Christmas poem and its movie adaptation. We’re reviewing Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and the 1963 Roger Corman movie adaptation. Normally we review a book or short story in a Book-To Movie and then compare it with its film adaptation. However, this poem can be considered a short story of a sort since it's a narrative poem. Now, you’re probably saying that "The Raven” isn't a Christmas poem. Okay, it isn’t, strictly speaking, but it does take place during the month of December and because it's a gothic story it can be considered having a tinge of a black Christmas theme. It even has angels in it! There’ve been several film versions of "The Raven", including the 1935 Bela Lugosi version and the more recent 2012 version ...

Credit: Pixabay With production companies such as Paramount and Disney hoarding their properties under their own paid streaming services, it can be tough to watch our favourite sci fi, fantasy and horror films. You may not want to pay several bucks a month for a streaming service just to see one or two movies that you like while you might care less about the others. But still, there are a lot of good flicks online that you can watch for free! And you don’t have to go to a pirate site to see them. The only payment required is the endurance of the commercials like with broadcast television. However, unlike broadcast commercial television, many of these films are uncensored and so play like they did when they were in theatres.  Tubi is the video streaming service that has one of the best variety of movies of this sort, including science fiction and fantasy ones based on books. But also like broadcast television, they don’t stay available forever to watch. With the exception of a “Lea...

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG)  post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. My post for this month’s IWSG mostly consists of the question for the month and my answer to it. The question: In your writing, what stresses you the most? What delights you? My answer to the first part of the question is that what stresses me most in my writing isn't so much the writing itself. It’s more so the promoting and marketing of it. There are many times when I feel like no matter what I do to promote or market my writing, book or blog, no one sees or responds to it. Yet it’s no one person’s fault. It’s the fault of the social media and search engine systems for playing favourites with paying customers who buy their advertisements.  Now I can't say for sure because I'm not a technology expert (only a technology ...

Credit: Pixabay It's the fourth weekend of the month and so time for another Book-To-Movie review! In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation.  When he was a kid, Ray Bradbury was greatly inspired by the giant monsters of mythology and science fiction. His stories reflect this inspiration. One of these is his short work, "The Fog Horn". This story was adapted to film in the 1950s which was titled "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". This was actually the original name of Bradbury’s short story. So why the name changes? I’ll explain that in a bit. First, I want to go over the differences in plot between the short story and the movie, one of the biggest being the degree of sympathy for the monster.  'The Fog Horn' In “The Fog Horn”, an assistant to a lighthouse keeper who is also the story's narrator discovers that a prehistoric sea monster annually comes to the lighthouse mistaking it for one of its own kind. Even thoug...

Credit: Pixabay We're already more than midway through November and so Thanksgiving is almost here. Before we know it, it will be Christmas! November is a short month (it has only 30 days unlike October, which as 31). Unfortunately, a short month can bring a short newsletter and so that may have to be the case with this month’s edition of “Night Creatures’ Call”. As with last month, the newsletter will probably not be out until the end of this month. I got a late start on it but I’m going to try to get back on schedule with the December edition and so release that at the beginning of the month. But even though November’s newsletter may be a short one, it will have the latest details on the progress of my upcoming short story collection, "Bad Apps". So, if you haven't subscribed to “Night Creatures’ Call” yet then you can do so here .  November also means the year's coming closer to its end. One thing I want to do for sure before the year closes is release “Bad App...

Credit: Pixabay I saw "Dune" this past Veterans’ Day. I hadn't been intending to see it when it released late last month. I had been skeptical of it being just another remake for Hollywood to cash in on during this wave of remakes. But I had the day off, and I didn't want to just make it another day of routine even outside of my day job which would've meant that I would've been writing all day, not that I didn't have any to catch up on. (You know me with my latest book project !) I thought Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel of the same name was made good and personally liked it to a degree. But I wasn't a "Dune' fan from the beginning. I saw only once the 1984 original when I was a kid and just thought it was okay. That was over 30 years ago so I’m not even going to try to compare the two. I've never read the novel and probably never will. It’s a giant thing and I don’t have an attention span for books that go much mo...

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG)  post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions.  It had a very busy week last week trying to get out the newsletter for the month before Halloween weekend. I didn’t get it out until that Saturday afternoon! That was way too late for me to release an issue of the newsletter. Not only was it too late because I normally release the newsletter around the beginning of the month, but also because it was a special Halloween issue in which I was offering a free Halloween themed book and I normally like to get those things out at least a week before the actual holiday. But I’m still offering the free book in the October newsletter in which the offer is good until the 12th of this month. So, if you haven’t already done so and want a free book, subscribe now . Like the book, the subscr...

  Credit: The author I know, I said last weekend that I would not be doing a blog post because I was taking the time off for Halloween. However, I had to let all you ghoul guys and ghoul gals know that my YA dual short story book of terror, "The Boo Brothers', is now available for purchase at Smashwords ! I also wanted to let you know that you can get it for free if you sign up for my newsletter, "Night Creatures' Call" ! I'm offering a coupon for a free copy of "Boo Brothers" in the October edition of the newsletter which is now out. If you want the free copy, I strongly suggest you sign up now because the offer ends  November 12, 2021! Synopsis:  The Boo Brothers consists of two teen tales of terror. These tales come from the deepest fears of that isolated realm that lies between childhood and adulthood. They are sure to entertain with fright. Now available at Smashwords ! Have a scary and safe Halloween! Until next time . . .  Credit: The blogge...

Credit: Pixabay Warning: This review may contain spoilers. It's the fourth weekend of the month and so time for another Book-To-Movie review! In a Book-To- Movie , we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. Tonight, we are reviewing H.P. Lovecraft's short story, "Dagon", and its movie adaptation. (That's right, Dagon-it!)  Like Poe, Lovecraft has become a pop literary icon for Halloween. When Halloween comes around as it is now, avid horror readers start recommending reads fitting for the season and many of Lovecraft's books and stories end up on the recommendation lists. Even Lovecraft himself published a Halloween poem that he wrote called "Hallowe'en in a Suburb" . Like Poe, his stories contained gothic settings such as secluded mansions and towns. Unlike a lot of Poe’s horror stories, the horror in Lovecraft’s was often from natural causes yet monstrously alien and so he combined science fiction elements with gothic horror o...

Credit: Pixabay I'm running late with the October issue of my author’s newsletter, “Night Creatures’ Call”. I've been loaded with getting the short story collection, "Bad Apps", together. I meant to release the collection this month but am going to have to push it to next month or maybe even December. There are still several more stories for it to put through critique and revise and I want to do a beta release of it as well. But it hasn't been so much the book that has put me behind in this month’s newsletter than myself.  October’s Issue of ‘Night Creatures’ Call’ I purposefully put off this month’s newsletter because I want to include in it an offer for a free book that I’ve already had out. But to do that, I have to publish the book to Smashwords because Amazon won’t let you offer discounts or free books if you don’t participate in their Kindle Select program in which I no longer participate. In order to participate in it you can’t have your books at Smashwords...

  It's the first Wednesday of the month and so that means it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG)  post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. My challenge this month has been the book of short fiction I've been currently working on. One of the stories I’ve been revising for it has been my most difficult yet since it involves parallel universes and quantum mechanics, an area of science that I’m not good at explaining. So having to revise and re-edit it several times has kept me at behind. I keep telling myself and everyone that it's going to be out in the next month. But when that next month comes I still have several of the book’s stories to revise. I will get it done though. Once I start something I really care about and I tell other people that I’m doing it for them I finish it.  The October 6 question is: In your writing, where do you draw the li...

Credit: Pixabay I've been behind on putting together my book of short fiction, "Bad Apps", but am seriously trying to make progress with it so I can release a collection of tales that everyone will enjoy. I've been trying to get it all done by this month and so in time for Halloween, but it’s requiring more work than I anticipated. I'm still revising one of the short stories that’s been my toughest ever and so I’ve been working on it for the last couple months. This story is in the latest stages of the revision process and so I’m almost done editing it. However, just yesterday, I changed the surname to one of my characters in honor of the late editor, Forrest J. Ackerman. Forrest “Forry” J. Ackerman So, who was Forrest J. Ackerman? Also known as “Forry” Ackerman, he was the editor of "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine, a publication that ran from the 1950s, when he started it, to the 1980s (and it would be revived by other editors after that a few ti...

Credit: Wikimedia Commons It's the fourth weekend of the month and so it's time for another Book-To-Movie review! In a Book-To- Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. Tonight, we are reviewing Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel, "The Land that Time Forgot", and its 1974 movie adaptation. I’ll tell you now that the movie was good but the novel is more developed and believable in its characterization and conflict.  The Book Burrough's novel is actually Book One of a trilogy. Published in 1918, it’s about shipwrecked survivors and a German crew whose U-boat they take over that get stranded on a lost continent in Antarctica. The British and one American, Bowen Tyler who is both the novel’s narrator and protagonist, and their German captives must ally in order to survive the dangers of the prehistoric continent of Caspak such as carnivorous dinosaurs and hostile ape men.  The characters in this novel are well-developed for it being pulp fiction and...

Credit: Pixabay I apologise for missing last week. I was busy editing much of the newsletter for this month on the day of its release. This month’s issue features a free short story, so if you haven't yet subscribed to my newsletter, “Night Creatures' Call”, you can do so here . In this and future issues of the newsletter you’ll find things such as news about my upcoming book and future Book-To-Movie reviews.  A couple of productions by Guillermo del Toro, producer of dark fantastic films such as “Pan's Labyrinth” and “The Orphanage”, are coming up. One is a movie and the other a TV anthology series. Both will feature adaptations of stories by authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and others.  Del Toro’s movie, entitled, “Nightmare Alley”, is based on a 40s noir novel by William Lindsay Gresham. A remake of an earlier adaptation from 1947, the movie is about a traveling carnival in which one of its employees who is ambitious and manipulative becomes involved in a relationship wit...

It’s the first day of September and so the summer is almost over and the fall almost here! But it's also the first Wednesday of the month and so that means it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG)   post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. And I do have a few challenges, namely getting all my stories together for my next book, “Bad Apps”.  Upcoming Short Fiction Collection I've been aiming to release “Bad Apps”, a collection of short fiction about weird and deadly mobile apps, by, ha! this month. I had moved the release date from August to September, but now the latter is here and I still have several stories to revise. I also want to do a beta release before I do an official release. If anyone is interested in reading a beta copy of the book just let me know and I'll be happy to send you one. All I ask in exchange is, of course, your honest feedback...

  Credit: Pixabay Warning: This review may contain spoilers. I apologise for missing last week. It was a rough one; I got very little sleep throughout it and so had gotten behind on other things. I was almost totally worn out which took out my creativity for blogging. But now things are back to normal, somewhat. Well, at least they’re back to normal in time for this fourth weekend, the weekend of our monthly Book-To-Movie. In a Book-To- Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. This post we are reviewing Stephen King's short story, "Children of the Corn" and its 1984 movie adaptation. When compared to the short story, the movie adaptation is much more comical.  The Short Story Published in 1976, “Children of the Corn” concerns Burt and Vicky, a married couple whose relationship is on the brink of divorce and who get stranded in a small Nebraska town. They discover that all the adults of the town have disappeared and only the children are there wh...