A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Pixabay.com I apologise for posting so late. I was busy all weekend putting together the Halloween edition of "Night Creatures' Call", my free author's newsletter. If you're not subscribed to it, then you can do so here . In the newsletter, I talk about writing project details that normally are not discussed here. I also offer discounts on books that you'll often be the first to know about like the case has been with the latest edition of the newsletter with my current subscribers. Speaking about discounts, I was busy putting together those as well. Afterall, it's my Halloween treat to you! So, be sure to check that out below. But first, some highlights of a zombie fest that I attended over the weekend. Davis Zombie Bike Parade This past Sunday, I attended the Zombie Bike Parade in Davis California, home to UC Davis. In its sixth year, one of the event's hosts was the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Davis, a lodge chapter. Although I didn...

Credit: Pixabay.com It’s that time of year again for Intergalactic Expo , one of Sacramento’s biggest local sci fi cons. I was trying to rent table space there to sell my books but unfortunately it didn’t work out, mostly due to pricing and lack of space. Let alone lack of tables. I told the facilitators of the con that I would be willing to bring my own blanket and lay it out on the floor or lawn somewhere along with my merchandise like they do at middle eastern and North African bazaars but they said it would demean the con’s reputation. Good grief! It’s a sci fi con, anything should go! Well okay, almost anything. They can’t have real light saber duels or somebody could get hurt, not to mention that there probably isn’t a way to make real light sabers yet. So, Star Wars fans, you’ll have to settle for glass and plastic ones. I just thought my suggestion of the blanket would add to the exoticism of the con’s theme. So you won’t see me there. Or at least not as pr...

Credit: Pixabay.com The most current horror story I’m writing is a haunted house one but the challenge is in coming up with unique monsters. So far I’ve steered clear of the vampires and zombies (unless you count attacking skeletons, which I don’t because they don’t have enough flesh to be considered a corpse). I don’t want to create any spoilers, but the monsters that are cliché in this story are more so in high fantasy than in straight horror. For the past decade, vampires and zombies have dominated the horror/sci fi scene. As with many types of monsters, their popularity is a phase. Vampires have been fading out in the last year or so. Although the two will be in the popular imagination for years to come, like everything else they are fads and fads eventually fade out. Aliens were a fad in the ‘90s and early 2001s; pirates were a fad in the late 2001s through the early half of the present decade. As much as I love zombies, their popularity will probably be used ...

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com The problem with writing science fiction today is keeping up with the increasing speed that technology advances at. Unlike those eras before internet, technology was not as quickly advancing and so it was easier to keep up with it to reflect future technology in writing speculative fiction. But now that much of computer technology is becoming more complex it is able to develop at faster rates and it will develop at even faster ones yet. Because of that, many authors are concerned that it’s harder to write new sci fi without getting stuck with old tropes and so I’m going to talk about that but first I want to bring to light some slight changes in my own current work. Changes in Publishing Plans and a New Blog I’m slightly postponing the publishing of The Hidden  so I can first publish some of its stories individually. Therefore I’m taking a few of the stories that I planned to include in my second short fiction collection and will self-publish ...

I attended the Trash Film Orgy's first Carnival of the Dead this Saturday and it was a blast! For those of you who don't know what Trash Film Orgy is, TFO is a production studio that makes both their own B-rated sci fi and horror movies as well as holds screenings of classic B-rated flicks by other production companies. That night was TFO's scream screening of George A. Romero's  Dawn of the Dead  held at the Crest Theatre in downtown Sacramento. The movie was preceded by a zombie walk through the vicinity and their Carnival of the Dead at Roosevelt Park before that. I got to meet several great people there, dead and alive (okay, they were  dressed as dead, as in the living dead) and I took pictures of some people who were in some really groovy ghoulie costumes, including the Sac City Roller girls who are a women's roller derby team and who I had the pleasure to met for the first time.Check out the photos below! Kind of resembles a cross between Uncle Fes...

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons  There's a lot of hype right now about AMC's "The Walking Dead". As much as I like zombies, I saw my very first episode only today, believe it or not, which was the first episode of the new season. You can watch it right now here but I suggest you do it now since it's only streaming on AMC's website for a limited time and that could be until midnight tonight for all we know. So if you do, come back here after it's done and let me know what you think in the comments box. As for myself, it really didn't impress me. Now I won't get cocky about it thinking I know the whole series because I've only seen one episode. When I saw it I didn't see much difference in "Night of the Living Dead", the mother of all zombie movies as we know them today. Nor did it seem much different than any of the "Living Dead" knock offs. Okay, it's post-apocalyptic, which almost all of today's zombie...

Last time I talked a little about zombies. Well, this time I'm going to talk a little about zombies again, and I do mean only a little. Just a while ago I finally opened up my S.L.U.G. Zombie that I bought at Wal-greens a few weeks back. S.L.U.G. Zombies is a series of plastic zombie figures by Jakks Pacific in which each has a name and comes in a "Mystery Pack". So far there are eight different figures. The one I got was Brain Eatin' Brandon. I have a couple photos of it on my voodoo doll Pin terest board: one I call a "Teenage Zombie from Outer Space" and so depicted with a "flying saucer" and the other depicted standing next to its coffin. I'm starting a small zombie figure collection, kind of inevitably. I'll try to provide photos or links to them of the other figures like I have this evening next time. I'll also try to have at least a concept sketch of the book cover illustration to my short fiction collection that will be rele...

I hope you all got a chance to read my interview with Jeani Rector at Examiner .com.  It's a two part article where she talks about her career as both horror writer and editor of the online literary publication, The Horror Zine.  If you haven't had a chance to read it, please do so.  She's a really interesting woman with a lot of great insight and tips on writing horror and other areas of the dark fiction genre. In that interview, Jeani advises aspiring writers to stay away from the zombie and vampire trends Perhaps they are just a little over used in horror. However, they've always played a big role in dark fiction especially in film but vampires have played more of a role in literature than zombies.  But zombies are appearing more in today's literature.  As far as vampires go, the peak in their popularity is due to the Twilight books and films (the books being much too over rated since they are said to be poorly written) having been so successful in sal...