A Far Out Fantastic Site

  Credit: Pixabay I said last week that I may have to have a special blog post and so a post outside of the usual Monday posting schedule because I was running late with the cover reveal for my short-read book, “The Trespassers”. I had told the artist doing the illustration for the cover to make some changes. Then she began to run late on the changes and even seemed to, at one point, have forgotten about them altogether. So, I was hoping I could just go ahead and do the book cover reveal here today. Unfortunately, the illustrator has not sent me back anything and so it looks like I’m going to have to do a special blog post after all.  So, the best thing for you to do is to keep checking throughout the week here, at my Facebook page or my Instagram page .  In the meantime, I've been working with the tools at Draft 2 Digital which are new to me and in doing so I've uploaded the manuscript this past Friday. That's for the ebook version; I'll be working on uploading the ma...

Credit: Pixabay.com To find out how you can read this post without ads, visit my Patreon page !   We’re already coming to the end of the month and, I’ll admit, I’m behind on distributing Patreon page benefits . And for that reason I may have to reduce the membership prices for November (members are billed on the first of the month). But, because it has not been at the market value for at least a year, I’m also going to have to raise the price on my short fiction collection, “The Fool’s Illusion”, soon. But there’s a way you can get a free copy now and discounted copies after that and I’ll tell you how in a bit. First, I’d like to talk about one of the biggest sci fi news events going right now which is author Alan Dean Foster’s problem with the Disney Co. Alan Dean Foster’s Demand to the Disney Co Alan Dean Foster, the author of numerous books based on the “Star Wars” and “Alien” film franchises, reported to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) that the Disney...

It has no skin! Or does it? This sculpture of an alien is said to be from the H.R. Giger Museum. Photo Credit: Pixabay.com I finally saw A Quiet Place yesterday evening. It was really good in almost all aspects. T he story to this film was not made to be merely an audience pleaser. This was an intelligently made movie with well-developed characters and a well-written storyline. But the monsters were designed terribly. So as not to create any spoilers I won’t go into too many details, but at many points in the film the monsters looked like they were cut open in parts of their bodies. I know that’s been a major characteristic in the creatures of horror films ever since Alien in the late ‘70s, but it’s been over done too many times. I’m not against the design of the Alien movies’ exoskeleton creatures that’s muscle tissues seem to be exposed. In fact, the first movie has been one of my favourites among sci fi horror. But those monsters were Ridley Scott and H.R. Gige...

Credit: Pixabay.com One of the funniest Easter moments was when I was six and painted an egg to look like the title character of the movie, Phantom of the Paradise (the ‘70s rock version of Phantom of the Opera ). When my family had the Easter egg hunt for us, a cousin of mine, who seemed to always find the most eggs out of all us kids, found the egg I painted. I got mad at her because I wanted to find it first, so I yanked at her basket and shouted, “Give me that! That’s mine! That’s my ‘Phantom’ egg!” My parents stopped me from snagging it, though, thank God! That egg must’ve been my first geeky Easter egg before I even new what a nerd or geek. Unfortunately, no one took a picture of it so I can’t show it to you. But one of the sci fi “Easter Egg” articles in the list I’ve provided below has a photo gallery of some very groovy and geeky eggs! The egg in both Christian and Pagan cultures has traditionally represented new life. But, in a way, it’s beginning to re...

I've been trying to dedicate the weekend to finishing revising my current short story because I plan to include it in my upcoming book of fiction, The Hidden . And can you believe I haven’t even touched the story in all day and it’s already past 10 in the evening? That’s because life in this country is run by an institution that has little concern for the artist as much as he/she is trying to make money off of their work. The institution: the economy. So I’ve been trying to meet that institution’s inevitable demands. And because I’m trying to squeese dedication to my short story into this weekend, I decided to take it a little easy with this week's post and give you some . . . Far Out Fantastic Finds 1)       “ io9 Newsstand: Speculative Fiction Is All AboutKeeping It Real (and Sometimes Surreal) "   2)          Boise Public Library's Comic Con A public library in Boise, Idaho had their annual comic book ...