A Far Out Fantastic Site

No, the headline to this post is not a tabloid. This is not rag or sensationalist journalism. Even though mulit-award-winning author Harlan Ellison passed away six years ago, an anthology edited by him is posthumously coming out very soon. I’ve read all of Ellison’s anthology of dark and disturbing science fiction, "Dangerous Visions", and almost ever since his final and third book in the “Dangerous Visions” trilogy was announced as a Patreon-backed project in 2020 , I had been looking for my used paperback copy of the second volume, "Again, Dangerous Visions". I knew it sat buried, untouched and unread by yours truly among many other books of science fiction, horror and other genres, somewhere in my bedroom closet.  It was only a little over a week ago that I finally found it, and it wasn’t as buried away in my closet as much as I had thought. After opening coffins and treasure chests of books and not finding it, I found it stashed away behind a row of several oth...

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...

Credit: Pixabay To find out how you can read this post without ads, visit my Patreon page !   There’s been a lot of big things going on in sci fi and fantasy news this past week! One of the biggest is the announcement of memorialising the late Harlan and Susan Ellison’s  home into a library. But in connection with that is an upcoming volume of an anthology series that features dark and terrifying futuristic fiction that Mr. Ellison had edited, “Dangerous Visions”.  Third and Final Volume In An Anthology Series The new “Dangerous Visions” anthology will be the third and final volume in the series, according to science fiction/fantasy TV writer/producer, J. Michael Straczynski . The first book in the series, “Dangerous Visions”, was published in 1967 and the second, titled “Again, Dangerous Visions”, in 1972, both of which were edited by Harlan Ellison. According to Straczynski, in 1973 a third and final volume, “The Last Dangerous Visions” (LDV), was announced and had a pl...

Credit: Pixabay I can’t believe this is already the third Saturday of the month! I only realised it earlier this week. Because it came up so quickly, I’m going to again postpone the Book-To-Movie  review for the month until next weekend. I know, it seems like I’ve been doing this regularly since the pandemic started in March (at least that’s when it started for my area). Well, as the news media outlets have been recently hollering about society as a whole, this is the new norm. I tried getting a Book-To-Movie together for this weekend but didn’t come up with anything until Thursday in which I viewed the movie adaptation that evening and then read the short story original only yesterday. I’m not going to tell you what the story or its movie adaptation is, though. To find out you will have to tune in here next week. For this week . . .  Harlan Ellison’s Wife Susan Dies at 60 Shockingly, the late Harlan Ellison’s wife, Susan Ellison, died the first of this month. She passed away ...

Credit: Wikipedia I apologise for not posting in the last two weeks. I’ve been very busy, including attending a wedding last weekend. The weekend before that I attended Sinister Creature Con. I believe I said on my Facebook page that there would be a post about it here this weekend, but there’s been a change of plans. That change came when I found out that another one of my favourite science fiction and fantasy writers, Harlan Ellison, passed away in his sleep this Thursday. In the Presence of One of the Greatest Science Fiction Writers I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Ellison at the Los Angeles World Con back in 2006. I was hoping he would be at World Con in San Jose this year but it looks like that’s not going to happen. I was going through my Facebook feed inside the Taco Bell near my house when I learned the shocking news from a post announcing that he died. One of those days I fear most for great authors of speculative fiction, especially ones who ar...

Warning: This post may contain content considered obscene by some viewers. Sorry for ditching the blog for the last three weeks. The holidays really keep a person busy as I'm sure most of you know. Hopefully that won't be the case anymore until Christmas, but even then I'll try to post each weekend through the end of the year. A beautiful rainy Saturday, and I don't say it with sarcasm because I love the rain at this time of the year. For those of you used to white Christmases, I can't say I love the snow at this time of year since we don't get any here in Sacramento (except for Grass Valley maybe or somewhere around there, but I'm not even sure if they get that much snow).  So what do we Sacramentans do during this time of year when people elsewhere are making snow men? Simple. We make rain men. Don't ask me how, we just do it. Okay, so we don't make rain men (or rain women); at least nobody I know does.  Nevertheless, it's more the hol...