A Far Out Fantastic Site

Warning: There is a spoiler in this review. As I mentioned last post , today’s Book-To-Movie (BTM) review is actually for September because I was going to postpone it from its usual fourth Monday time slot. So, there will be an October BTM at the end of this month. For those of you who are new to my blog, in a Book-To-Movie we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. During the past summer, we reviewed in two BTMs H.G. Wells' novel, "The Island of Dr. Moreau", and its movie adaptations starting with the original 1932 film , then continuing with the 1977 one . Today, we're reviewing the 1996 version. This last one released during the 100th anniversary year of the novel’s publication and was intended to be a blockbuster but was, in the eyes of both audiences and critics, a flop. I don’t consider it a flop, but the problem I had with it is that it doesn't convey the horror or dark prophetic story-telling that both the novel and the two previous movie ...

Credit: The blogger Updated on 9/18/2023 at 9:50 PM, PST Ten years ago from last Thursday September 14th, I published my first full book of short fiction, "The Fool's Illusion" ! To celebrate the occasion, I'm running a giveaway, which you'll find the details for below! But first, here's a timeline of notable blogposts leading up to the release of "The Fool's Illusion": 'The Fool's Illusion' Timeline: From Book Cover Art Concepts to Book Release March 18, 2012: The Art of Lettering, Illustration and 'Illusion' June 3, 2012: This is Not a Chainsaw July 1, 2012: Concept Sketch for 'Fool's Illusion' Book Cover July 7, 2012: Completed Concept Sketch for 'Fool's Illusion' Book Cover March 24, 2013: A Change in Font Types June 16, 2013: Finalised Version of 'Fool's Illusion Book Cover' August 25, 2013: 'The Fool's Illusion' Book Cover is Completed! September 21, 2013: 'The Fool...

Credit: Pixabay.com The Technology That Keeps Us Together I hope everyone’s been having a groovy holiday season! While mine was uneventful compared to most years it was actually great considering. Because so many in my family have been ill there were no gatherings Christmas Eve or Day, so most of the gathering was limited to Facebook and our phones. But it was expected. Covid-19 has caused many of us to have to alter our festivities. It’s a lot easier to do that now with the miraculous technology of internet and social media, and the recent trend with facetime apps such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, than it was during the so-called Spanish Flu pandemic of the early 20th century. (I say “so-called” because the flu did not actually start in Spain or any Spanish-speaking country.) Such facetime technology shows you that what science fiction prophesied, if you will, decades ago has come to be!  After virtually gathering with family yesterday, I finished reading “The Christmas Tree” ...

  Credit: Pixabay.com The week has been extremely busy for me with creating more benefits for the membership Portals (Tiers) at my Patreon page and getting ready my ebook of “The Fool’s Illusion” for distribution through Smashwords . The week’s also been a trying one for these two things.  Patreon Discount and “Fool’s Illusion”’s New Book Cover One of the benefits I’m trying to create for the Patreon Portals are book discounts. But, as I said a couple of posts back , in order to do that I need to publish my books on Smashwords since I’m not qualified for Kindle Direct Publishing’s (KDP) discount program anymore. [link] Yesterday, I hired a book designer to format my “Fool’s Illusion” manuscript for Smashwords’ ebook program. In order to convert my manuscript to ebook format he needed the book cover too. I thought I gave both the manuscript and book cover files to him until I found out this morning that I had only given him the cover’s illustration and not the full cover with t...

Credit: Pixabay.com I have to make an apology: there will not be a Book-To-Movie   this month. I had intended to have one here this evening but this past week was a difficult one. Among other things, the internet in my area went out on Thursday when I was going to view the film on Amazon Prime. It was out the entire day. At first, I thought it was my own connection that got cut off but then I saw in the news that it was the service to my whole area. A major cable broke due to road construction going on at the time. By the time the internet came back on it was late and I did not have time to watch the movie and write a review the next day. That next day was also bad for me because I woke up with a bad headache that lasted into the evening. However, I’ll have a Book-To-Movie for you hear in October for sure. Since there’s going to be a lapse, I’ll try to get the review back on its original third Saturday schedule instead of the fourth Saturday like we’ve been doing since the spring. ...

Credit: Pixabay.com As I said last post, I’m postponing the Book-To-Movie review to next week like I did last month because of the inevitable delays in the library’s services where I check out movies from. So today I have some views about some upcoming sci fi TV shows, especially the “Star Trek” series, and updates about the self-publishing of my work Upcoming ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Series The problem with a lot of science fiction TV series right now is that they don’t do much more to take a person’s mind off of the gloom and depression of the present world-wide plague that continues killing thousands of people. We go outside of our homes for the essentials and see that everyone is wearing masks and remembering that we too are, if we’re wise, wearing one. It’s so surreal since nothing like this has happened before in most of our life spans. (Most of us weren’t around yet to experience the early 20th century flu pandemic.) It’s as if we’ve been living in a post-apoc...

Photo Credit: Steven Rose, Jr. Well, today did not only mark the last official day of summer but it also marked the 2 nd Anniversary of The Fool’s Illusion ! As I said in my last post, I would have a special offer for you to celebrate the occasion. Well, there’s both good news and bad. The good news is that the special offer is a $4 price reduction of the print copy at Amazon! Therefore the regular price is $12.99 but, for a limited time, I’m making the book available for only $8.99! The bad news is that I set the reduced price only yesterday and didn’t realise until after that Amazon takes three to five business days to put the reduced price into effect. The price reduction should be in effect by this Saturday. I’ll notify you here as soon as I find out. The best way to keep updated on it is to subscribe to my blog which you can do on the form towards the bottom of the right-hand side sidebar. Or you can keep checking T he Fool’s Illusion ’s page at Amazon throughout ...

Warning: This post may contain content or links to content considered to be obscene/objectionable by some viewers. A completed drawing of the cover to The Fool's Illusion . The final version will be digitally enhanced. Photo Credit: Steven Rose, Jr.  Another Sac-Con comic book and collectors' show is coming tomorrow (Sunday) here in Sacramento. I will be there and have book marks of The Fool's Illusion at the information table, so if you're in the area, please swing by and pick up a free book mark! It's at the Scottish Rite Center . Admission is only $6 a person (children 8 and under are free) and if you decide to go with the early bird special you can get in at 9 a.m. (regular start time is 10 a.m.) for $10 and receive a free Sac-Con bag !  Here's the link for more details: http://www.sac-con.com/ . I was going to make an addition to the book marks. The original copies I made for December's Movies On A Big Screen have the Far Out Fantast...