A Far Out Fantastic Site

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) blog hop! 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. May raced by and so we're already in June! I always look forward to summer as it approaches. I really don't know why since I hate the excessive heat it brings. (It’s gotten to the one-hundred tens in Northern California where I live!) Maybe it's just the thrill of upcoming summer movie releases or making a reading list. I do read slightly different types of books in my genre, speculative fiction, in the summer than I do at other times of the year. But my summer reading list I’ll save for another post. For this post I answer the optional monthly IWSG question which emphasises books and reading. I also have some latest progress on my current writing projects. So, keep on readin'! IWSG  Question for June The IWSG qu...

Credit: Wikimedia Commons Sorry for posting so late in the week. But I thought I would time the release of this post perfectly by releasing it on the birthday of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most famously known for his Sherlock Holmes stories and books. And I timed it perfectly just in time: it was only this morning that I found out today was his birthday, a day popularly known as "Sherlock Holmes Day"!  Sir Doyle was born May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Although he was best known for his Holmes detective stories, he also wrote several works of science fiction and even some horror. His most famous work of science fiction is the novel, "The Lost World" (1912), the first book of the Professor Challenger trilogy. The other two are "The Poison Belt" (1913) and "The Land of Mist" (1926). His horror includes short story "Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" (1924) and novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1901).  Here at the Fan...

  It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) blog hop! 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. I apologise for posting so late again and having to double-up again between the IWSG entry and the weekly entry for A Far Out Fantastic Site. My excuse this time is that I had family from out of town visiting all week last week and so I got very little writing done. I was fortunate to fit in the little time that I had to at least plan this post and get some typing of revisions done for “Virtual Voodoo”, one of the many short stories to be included in my upcoming book, " Bad Apps "! I’ll talk about that story and the problem with long endings in a little bit. First let me start with the IWSG part of the post, which mostly consists of my response to the optional monthly question, in case anyone out there is not a scien...

Credit: Pixabay I've lately been working on the last of my revisions for "Virtual Voodoo", one of the short stories to be included in my upcoming collection, " Bad Apps ". I had rewritten the ending a while back which I presented to my writer’s critique group last Tuesday evening. Some people told me to make changes apparently forgetting what genre the story falls within. "Virtual Voodoo" is a science fiction horror story about a teenager who, with help from an app, abuses the Voodoo religion.  What ‘Virtual Voodoo’ Isn’t  Some of the critique group’s comments were basically calling for the story to be written in other genres. One such comment was that the Voodoo was misrepresented. I had researched the religion and went through extra means to clarify in the story that the religion was being misused by a disturbed youth who is motivated by Hollywood horror myths and stereotypes. Still, I was basically told that I the author was portraying the religion ...

I have a double-post for you today, since I missed posting Monday for the I don't know what n th time! So, I have the make-up post for this past Monday and Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) post for this first Wednesday of the month—a two-in-one post. Every first Wednesday, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems to this monthly blog hop to share with each other and try to offer solutions. I also have an update on the upcoming newsletter and a little about an upcoming Stephen King movie.  IWSG: Being With the Characters in Books, TV and Movies Let's start with the IWSG post which mostly consists of my answer to the optional monthly question. So, the question for April is What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with? I really can't think of a character who I would like to do any of these things with. Although I imagine myself in the stories that I read, I don't really fantasise about interac...

Credit: Pixabay.com Updated at 6:53 PM on 3/21/2025 I won't be wishing anyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day here since it was originally a Catholic festival and so I try not to mix my religious beliefs with my blog posts, and I don't celebrate the commercialized, secular version of it. (I barely celebrate the religious version, unorthodox Catholic that I am.) Moving on ... The Author's Guild has come up with a service that helps consumers distinguish human authored books from AI authored ones. Paula Cappa discusses this in detail at her blog , which my comment on is below. I also have a mini movie review of "Mickey 17", which I saw over the weekend. So, read on!  Certification of Human-Authored Books The problem with books that are written by artificial intelligence (AI) is that they can hide the human-authored ones on the market and, in doing so, demean the human characteristic called creativity. A market bombarded with AI-written books would basically say that h...

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) blog hop! 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. I'm having to double up between the weekly Monday post and the IWSG post again. I had to take off the weekend and recuperate from a busy last few weeks of trying to make changes in my life for both health and financial reasons. So, for this post, I'm answering the IWSG optional question of the month, and I have updates on the stories I'm currently working on for my upcoming short fiction collection, "Bad Apps". I’ll also show you why it can be helpful to format your story before doing a proofreading of it.  IWSG Question for March The IWSG monthly question for March is: If for one day you could be anyone or *thing* in the world, what would it be? Describe, tell why, and any themes, goals, or values they/it ...

Credit: Wikimedia Commons One reason I'm calling today's post an "Unofficial" Book-To-Movie (BTM) is because this review of a movie adaptation of a book is not resuming the BTM series of posts [link]. That monthly series is still on hiatus until I release " Bad Apps " which I still don’t have a specific date for but am getting towards the end of the revision process for the whole book. Another reason for titling this post the way I did is because it can’t really be called a review. That’s because I did not view the movie in question since it cannot be viewed. (You’ll find out why in a bit.) I recently found out that in my BTM of the 1922 silent film, "Nosferatu", I had gotten two things wrong: 1) I said that the movie was the first film adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula"; and 2) that Universal's 1930s "Dracula" starring Bela Lugosi was only the first legally made adaptation of the novel. (I’ll be revising that...

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) blog hop! 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. I missed posting on Monday, which is the day for my weekly blog post. I apologize for that; it was a busy and tiring weekend so I just wasn't up to blog writing. So, I'm doubling up on today's post with the IWSG topics and make-up for Monday’s missed post. For the IWSG, I have the optional question of the month, and a little bit of an accomplishment with my fiction writing I'd like to share. For the Monday make-up portion of the post, I have progress on my upcoming book of short fiction to share and some news about an upcoming change to my blog. So, keep reading! IWSG  Question of the Month So, starting with IWSG stuff, here's the question of the month: Is there a story or book you've written you want to/...

Credit: Pixabay I know, I’m posting this first weekly post of the year very late and I apologise. I did post earlier in the month, but that was for the monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop . If you haven't had a chance to look at it, please do so. I talk a little about working on my writing over the holidays and how you can be a beta reader for “Bad Apps” , my upcoming book of short fiction! [link]  After that posting, I had a sinus infection that was keeping me awake too many nights and so was not up to writing as frequently as I normally do. My doctor subscribed me some meds, and so I’m doing much better.  For today’s post, I have my new year’s writing resolutions and a list of 13 science fiction and fantasy movie adaptations of books releasing in theatres in 2025! 2 New Year’s Writer’s Resolutions of 2025 In this new year of 2025, one resolution I’m trying to make is coming up with a clear schedule of all my writing projects, and that includes “Bad Apps”. I’ve b...

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) blog hop! 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. 2024 was an upside down year for me with my mom having passed away back in October (God, rest her soul) and so I had to ease off of most of my writing projects due to that. So, things got backed up a little at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Plus, I had to ease off the regular writing routine for the holiday season. So, below is the current status of my overall writing activity. I normally answer the Question of the month which this month's is Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?  However, I'm going to skip this one because, even though I admired a lot of people when I was a child--from my own dad and grandfathers to uncles and e...