A Far Out Fantastic Site

Vintage Halloween tambourine Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons Test your knowledge of Halloween horror by taking the following quiz to win a big treat! Please lay (post) your answers in the box (comments space) below, accordingly (questions are multiple choice and write-in). Please answer using this format: number to question (example, question number one would be written something like “1)” or “1.”) and your answer following; for multiple choice questions please list the corresponding letter to your answer (example, multiple choice answer B is written as “B”; you do not need to write out the full answer); for write-ins, your answer does not have to be in full sentence(s) but it must be written reasonably clear. You do not need to provide your full or real name, but please do not post as "Anonymous" since it may cause problems in identifying the winner. Deadline to post is midnight, 31 October 2013, Pacific Standard Time. “Midnight” means that once the clo...

Okay, it's a little later than I said it would be. But I would never fail you faithful readers. Here's my review of Fox's Sleepy Hollow: Die-hard literary fans of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman may be very upset with how true Fox’s Sleepy Hollow series stays to Washington Irving’s original short novel. Perhaps it’s no wonder since Roberto Orci is the series’ executive producer ; many die-hard Star Trek fans had the same problem with J.J. Abrams’ take on Gene Roddenberry’s space epic, a take that Orci also served as a creator on. Therefore, much like Tim Burton’s 1999 film adaptation of Irving’s novel, it doesn’t stay very true to the original. All this aside from the fact that the series is set in our own 21 st century. Not really a sequel to the film or novel, it exists in its own semi alternative universe. If viewed in this way, then the series may be worth watching.   Unlike in the novel, Ichabod is not a cowardly school teacher in Sleepy Hollow , al...

Warning:  This post may contain content or links to content considered to be obscene/objectionable by some viewers. Photo Credit: Sacramento Public Library/Saclibrary.org I told you I would have a review of the new Sleepy Hollow TV series but I only have a rough draft at this time. I wasn’t able to write it until late this evening and I’ve been going to bed too late on Saturday nights/early Sunday mornings which often interferes with my waking hours during the week when I have to be up much earlier. I’ll have the review for you (revised and edited) either Monday or Tuesday of the coming week. However, I’ll leave you with a few updates and reminders for now. To start, if you’re in the Sacramento area, celebrate the boo-l-tide carol this Halloween season with several Poe-related events going on all month. This series of events, all at the Sacramento Central Library, started Wednesday with the Sacramento Public Library’s kick-off of their book, The Slender Poe , a...

 Warning:  This post may contain content or links to content considered to be obscene/objectionable by some viewers. I know I said I would try to have a review of Sleepy Hollow for you last time, but I haven't gotten a chance to write it. I wanted to watch the second episode first and, like the first one, I taped it but haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet. I'd like to talk about where the series seems to be going and in order to do that I feel that it's best to watch at least one episode beyond that of the debut. So I'll have a review of it here next week. The good news is that for those of you who are like me and prefer the full reading experience by turning real pages in a bound book, the print version of Fool's Illusion is now available at Amazon . In fact, I updated my promotional bookmarks for its print release today and will have several of them at tomorrow's Super Sac-Con . So if you're in the area you might want to consider drop...

  Warning:  This post may contain content or links to content considered to be obscene/objectionable by some viewers. The Fool's Illusion is finally here! It is in digital format, and so you can get it on Kindle for free until 11:59 tonight (Pacific Standard Time) only! That is that it will be available for free until one minute before the witching hour (midnight) tonight, after that it turns back into a rott'in money-costing jack-o-lantern. (Okay, so money's not all that rotten, but we can all use free stuff, right?) So get your free e-copy of The Fool's Illusion now! Speaking about rott'in jack-o-lanterns, I just saw the debut episode of Fox's  Sleepy Hollow last night. (I taped it on good ol' fashioned video tape because your busy author doesn't have time to watch it in real time.) I was paradoxically impressed. Kind of like I was with Abrams' Star Trek , which in fact one of the writers for his Star Trek , Roberto Orci, is...

Sorry about being so bad about posting for the last couple of months. It's been a really busy time doing the one man show with The Fool's Illusion and therefore with the designing and formatting of the book. But the bulk of the these two aspects is done. I just finished the entire book cover--front, back and spine--this evening. You can see it below. (I wasn't able to make it much bigger without it taking up the entire screen, but you can at least see the overall design, title and byline if not the back cover and spine text). I just need to transfer it to PDF format and upload it to Create Space for it to be reviewed and as long as it and the interior (the inside material of the book) get good results and approval and therefore nothing has to be corrected, it will be ready to launch for publication. So keep your eyes open both here and at the book's Facebook page for the release. More than likely any news of its release will reach the FB page first since I frequent th...

Warning:  This post may contain content or links to content considered to be obscene/objectionable by some viewers. I attended WesterCon 66 the entire weekend (save for July 4th). I read an excerpt from Fool's Illusion ( FI ) there and everybody seemed to enjoy it. I've been very busy both with the con and the formatting of the book which is coming along with progress each day and so will be ready for release any day now. It just so happened that one of my back tires to my Chevy Classic got a flat over night (the night before the 4th). So it's put me in a time crunch with the book since I've been out of a car since the 4th of July. I had to take an extra bus and walk extra in order to get around. You can read more details about FI and my reading at the book's Facebook page . I'll have more on WesterCon next time. Until next time . . .