A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Wikimedia Commons Warning: 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. Last Wednesday, January 19th, was the 213th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, and so I have another review of one of his stories and its cinematic adaptation. And yes, the movie is another one from American International Pictures' (AIP) series of Vincent Price-Edgar Allan Poe movies. Am I too addicted to films based on Poe’s work and starring Vincent Price? Maybe, but that’s not the reason why I chose this version. The reason I chose it was because it’s the only one I know of that exists. As we've seen in past Book-To-Movies, AIP's Poe film adaptations mostly stay faithful to the original work even though, naturally, the story is expanded in order to fit an hour-and-a-half-long film. Well, that’s hardly the case with 1969’s "The Oblong Box". Yet, a...

Credit: Pixabay Well, we're in a new year and that means for many of us new books to read, new books to publish, and new writing plans. And at this time of year new plans often come through new year’s resolutions. I have my new year's writing resolutions made out, ones that I also recommend to fellow science fiction and fantasy authors for themselves. They’re in no particular order and some are ones any writer, regardless of genre, can use while others are focused more for writers of speculative fiction. However, as they often say, new year’s resolutions often get broken. So, don’t expect me to follow through with all of these (except for number nine) and neither do I expect you to follow through with them all. But the important thing is that they are goals and when we set up goals for our selves we can focus so much better and easier. So, here’s a list of nine writing resolutions I've come up with which I think will help many of you too.  My 9 New Year's Writing Resolu...

It's the first Wednesday of the year but also the first Wednesday of the month. And so the latter means that 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. So, Happy New Year everyone! Although I try not to dwell on my failures or shortcomings, especially at the start of a new year, and try concentrating on the now and to look forward, I thought I should answer the IWSG question of the month which is What's the one thing about your writing career you regret the most? Were you able to overcome it?  Before I answer the question, I want to say that when we look back on our regrets it should only be to remember not to make again the mistakes that lead to them. It should help us see how we can do things differently, to make things go by more successfully, including writing. So, when I answer this question I do so attemptin...