A Far Out Fantastic Site

I didn’t finish the science fiction art for “ The Assassin ”   in time for when I posted the story early last month. If you haven’t read it yet, you should check it out. It’s still up and, of course, it’s free! I’m just now posting the illustration here this evening. I’m not replacing it for the clip art (which is not mine) I provided the story with because it isn’t really complete to serve as an illustration. In other words, I screwed up on it. And here's how: This pen and ink drawing for “The Assassin” is supposed to be of a laser gun in semi atom age/space age, 1950s style. This style is what we now call atom punk for newer work based on the sci fi of that period (roughly the 1950s through mid ‘60s, but it’s often debatable). Most of this subgenre of science fiction is based on the idea of an alternative history (also referred to as "alternative timeline") which my story involves. To learn more about this far out subgenre, check out author Philip Ree...

Okay. One giant step for monster-kind. Here's the final version of the cover to the more closely approaching Fool's Illusion . Feel free to let me know what you think of it in the box below and keep checking back here for updates on the release of my book. You can also visit the book's Facebook page . Until next time . . .   Photo Credit: Steven Rose, Jr.   

I know I said in my last post that I would have information on how to purchase The Fool's Illusion. But I also said that life gets in the way of us writers and artists.  Well it got in the way all right, on that Saturday night when we had that Hell's heat wave here in Sacramento. So I don't bore anybody by repeating myself here, I thought it best to redirect you to my latest post on the book's Facebook page where I discuss that long dark, hot night in detail. Yet, I promise you it won't be a long dark story. (Just a short dark story.) Until next time . . .

(Photo removed for reasons of copyright.) A Mexican Tree of Life Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Alejandro Linares Garcia   June has been a month of deaths not just among great authors such as Ray Bradbury, but even in my own family. My grandmother on my mom's side passed away later during the week I posted my last article here. She was 89. It was sad but it was expected since she had been slowing down a lot for the last year and was bed ridden since the beginning of the year. So it has been a very busy last couple of weeks for me with the planning and contributing to the funerary events. That's why I have been off the blog for the last couple weeks. (By the way, that's why I decided to write this entry this evening, Monday, instead of my usual scheduled day of late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. I didn't want to go much longer than two weeks without posting. I don't like leaving my readers hanging in mid air.) What did Ray Bradbury and my ...

This is not a chainsaw. Can you turn it on? Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Pearson Scott Foresman I was going to post a concept sketch of the cover illustration for my upcoming fiction collection, The Fool's Illusion , but had to look for a chainsaw online. No, I haven't taken up woodwork. Actually, I was only looking for an image of a chainsaw to sketch from because one of the characters on the cover is supposed to use one.  He hasn't taken up woodwork either.  I write horror, as many of you probably already know and so that should tell you enough what the character on the cover is using the chainsaw for. For now, anyway. You'll see the rest when I post the concept sketch next week and after I've mastered the art of drawing chainsaws within the art of drawing period. Researching the details of a chainsaw for a story illustration reminded me of Stephen King's advice that he gives in his book, On Writing : research for a story is back story in which ...

I said several weeks ago that I would post the cover illustration for my book of short fiction that I plan to release in April. Well, I haven't got the cover illustration done yet because I haven't got the lettering for the book's title,  The Fool's Illusion , on the illustration yet. But I do have two sketches of the letter design for the the title which are posted below. Take a look at them and then vote for your favorite at the poll provided in the top right margin. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to finish the lettering for the full title in the second sketch, but hopefully you'll have an idea for the style that I'm using on that one which is '70s psychedelic ("illusion" and "hallucination" come pretty close to being synonymous although they are not). Just so you can fit the letter styles into context a little better, you can read about my upcoming book and an excerpt from the title story at HorrorAddicts .com. Vote soon...

Hey, everybody! I hope you’ve been having a great week. I also hope you enjoyed my story that I posted in two parts between the last couple of entries. If you didn’t, drop me a comment why so I can crank out some stories you will enjoy. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, you can do so by going to these two links:  http://faroutfantastic.blogspot.com/2011/07/mermaids-pirates-sea-monsters-and.html ; http://faroutfantastic.blogspot.com/2011/08/upcoming-online-horror-con-and-part-ii.html . A lot of events are coming up in the speculative culture, at least here on this side of California, good old NorCal. The World Science Fiction Con, a. k. a. Renovation , in Reno, Nevada, is next week, Wednesday the 17th through Sunday the 21st of August. I’m not sure if I myself will be able to attend, but if I do it will only be for a day or two and if that’s the case I’ll try to have a brief recap in my column at Examiner.com . I’ll keep you updated. I attended a talk sponsored by the Jos...

They say the Recession is dying out, and that may be true in a sense, but most of us would agree that we're still seeing the impact. Many of us would agree that we're still feeling the impact! The sad thing is that what has really been getting cut or at least threatened to be cut are many art and literary programs. Many public libraries have had to reduce their hours which has been definitely the case with the one in my town of the Woodland. In addition to libraries, museums have been closing up and that includes the closing of one of Davis, California's Explorit Science Center locations. Further out from my home area of Sacramento--like way, way out--a museum is in danger of having its doors closed and that is the Edgar Allen Poe museum in Baltimore, Maryland. This includes the Father of American horror's house that he resided in when he was alive and living in Baltimore. This would be really sad to see these literary historical sights shut down for eternity and God ...