'Bad Apps' Status; Sneak-Peek of Book-To-Movies Coming in 2026

A digital illustration depicting two hands over a crystal ball with an eye in its center.

Credit: Pixabay

Not counting the monthly IWSG blog hop post (in which the next one will be coming up this Wednesday), this is the first post of the new year here at A Far Out Fantastic Site! I hope everybody's having a good start to 2026. I have. Most of my beta readers have sent me their comments for "Bad Apps", in which I'm currently revising based on that feedback. I've also already started sketching concepts for the book's cover illustration. Below you’ll find out who will get a sneak peek at the book’s cover, and who will get a sneak peek of something else here at A Far Out Fantastic Site. So, keep on readin’!

Who Gets a Sneak Peek at the ‘Bad Apps’ Book Cover?

When the cover to “Bad Apps” is finalised, the beta readers who sent me their comments will be the few to get a sneak peek at it before the official reveal! That's because they will be receiving a free downloadable copy of it for their hard work! For those of you who did not volunteer to beta read "Bad Apps", don't feel too bad. You still have a chance to at least see the cover before the official reveal. That's because I'm also going to show it to my newsletter subscribers before it's officially released. If you’re not subscribed to my free author's newsletter, you can do so here.

Book-To-Movie Reviews Coming in 2026

I also have another sneak peek for you, this one right here, right now in the post! I had said a while back that I will be resuming the monthly Book-To-Movie (BTM) reviews early this year. Well, below you'll find a sample listing of 2026’s upcoming BTMs! Because this is a sample list only, it’s not exhaustive. There will be other books and their movie adaptations reviewed throughout the year, I just don’t know which ones at this time. The books (or short stories) and their film versions listed below will for sure be reviewed in the monthly BTM, I'm just not sure in what order yet.

The Night Flier: I’m currently reading the Stephen King short story. I saw the movie about a year or two ago. The story is that a reporter is tracking down a murderous airplane pilot believed to be a vampire.

Damnation Alley: I've read the novella by Roger Zelazny, but I'd also like to read the full novel by the same author. If I can't read the full novel in time, then I'll probably make two reviews: the first one covering the novella and the second covering the novel (both reviews would cover the movie adaptation, of course). The plot is that in the post-apocalyptic future, a group of people travel across the post-American wasteland in vehicles called Landmasters to help restore civilization.

Empire of the Ants: I've seen the 1977 movie adaptation and will soon be reading the short story by H.G. Wells from a book of his works that I have. The story is about a colony of giant ants threatening to take over the earth.

Maximum Overdrive: This movie is based on Stephen King's short story, "Trucks". I've both seen the 1986 movie and read the short story. Even though I haven't seen the movie since high school, which was over 20 years ago, it had enough disturbing scenes in it where I probably won’t have to watch it a second time. The story: a group of people are trapped in a diner surrounded by murderous trucks and other large vehicles that have minds of their own.

Cat's Eye: This film is from 1985 and consists of three stories by Stephen King, two that were published as short stories in his collection, "Night Shift". The first story, "Quitter's, Inc." involves a chain smoker who goes to a clinic that claims to successfully help people quit smoking. However, it turns out that the methods are torturous. The second story, "The Ledge", is about a gangster who, out of vengeance, terrorises the protagonist into walking the top ledge of a high-rise building.

2001: A Space Odyssey: This is the movie based on Arthur C. Clarke's short story, "The Sentinel". I've both seen the movie and read the story. The plot is that a group of astronauts go to a planetoid to study an alien monolith with mysterious powers. They think it may have played a major part in the earth's evolution.

One of the above books or short stories and its movie adaptation will be reviewed here when the Book-To-Movie series resumes next month! Which book and its movie adaptation will it be? Take another look at the list and you just might see a hint! If you can guess it, let me know in the comments box below. Be here Wednesday for another IWSG blog hop!

Until next time . . .

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...

The Top 5 Book-To-Movie Reviews of 2022

Credit: Pixabay.com Happy New Fear everybody! (Of course, I really mean New Year. I’m a horror writer, so what do you expect?) If you read my Facebook post the other night, you can see that 2022 kind of ended badly for A Far Out Fantastic Site. As I said in the post, our monthly Book-To-Movie reviews have run late into the following month. Well, this is the first time in the series' history, that a Book-To-Movie (BTM) has actually run late into the following year. So, this blog post was originally supposed to be an end-of-year one but the internet in my area went down due to a big New Year's Eve storm. It didn’t go back up until last night. So, consider this post a New Year one even thought we’re going to look back on some BTMs of 2022. In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. However, because this year is just starting, and our BTM was supposed to occur on the last Saturday of December at the latest, and I don’t have a movie ada...

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