A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Pixabay.com I apologise for having skipped one more week than I had said in my last post . Last weekend a situation came up that held me back. That said, I also apologise for posting this Book-To-Movie so late in the month. For any of you who are new to my blog, the Book-To-Movie  normally occurs every third weekend, this month of February excepted. A Book-To-Movie is a review of a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. This month we are reviewing Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Premature Burial” and the Roger Corman movie adaptation of it, both of which intentionally plays with the borderline between reality and fantasy. Roger Corman was one of the most dedicated directors of Edgar Allan Poe movies in the 1960s as well as all time. Within a 10-year span, he produced nine movie adaptions of some of Edgar Allen Poe’s most famous works. Even though many of these movies went far from the original stories, Corman often did at least one thing that Poe did: ...

Credit: Pixabay.com Not only are sci fi and fantasy taking over television and movie theatres but, thanks to internet, there are more magazines in these two genres than ever. And their readership continues to grow. Science fiction author Jason Sanford reflects this rise in speculative fiction magazines and readership in his report, “The State of Genre Magazines” , published just before the new year. He says, “There are more SF/F magazines today than at any single time in the genre’s history.” However, he also points out that although the number of magazines and their readers have gone up the payment for most publishers’ staffs who put out the magazines hasn’t. They get little to no pay. He quotes Scott Andrews, editor-in-chief of speculative fiction magazine “Beneath Ceaseless Skies”, saying that the majority of the few that do get paid do so because the chief editors go without pay! Why Sci Fi and Fantasy Magazine Circulation Is So High But Revenue So Low So then why so ha...

It’s time for another Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG)  post! Every first Wednesday of the month we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to come up with solutions. Plus, I have some Lightning News Flashes  for you, including news on a new Edgar Allen Poe Funko Pop figure! IWSG For this month’s IWSG, I’m going to start out by responding to the question of the month with a straight answer then respond with an inverted answer. You’ll see what I mean by the latter when we get to it. So, the question of the month: Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it? My first answer: I often don’t write stories based on photo graphs or works of art. Normally when I write my fiction it's based on ideas that randomly come to my mind inspired by specific experiences I’ll encounter or that others have encountered. I’ll record these inspirations as notes in my journal fir...

Credit: Pixabay.com As you may know from an earlier post , I have been ready for Richard Stanley’s movie “Color Out of Space” for over two months. I was checking Fandango since Wednesday to see the showtimes for this movie adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, which goes by the slightly longer title of “The Colour Out of Space”, for my area. Well, it was only showing at two theaters here in Sacramento in which both only had evening showings and were too far for me to drive especially that late on a Wednesday (two days before the official release date). After Wednesday, it played nowhere in the Sacramento area. By then, the theatre that it was playing at closest to my area was in Berkeley which is about an hour away by car and an hour and a half by train. I don’t drive long distance and I wasn’t about to head out on a train for a movie that doesn’t even run two hours long. So “Color Out of Space” is one of those movies that play only in select areas and so may not be coming...

Credit: Pixabay.com It’s the third weekend of the month and so it’s time for another Book-To-Movie review! In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. In the 1960s, American International Pictures (AIP) was the company responsible for producing and distributing many B, or low budget, sci fi and horror book-to-movie adaptations. Most of the literary works that were adapted were by Edgar Allen Poe but a few were by other authors such as H.P. Lovecraft and Jules Verne. While many of these movies didn’t stay as faithful to the books as many avid readers would probably have liked, they usually kept the basic plots. This is the case with 1961’s “Master of the World” based on Jules Verne’s 1904 novel of the same name and starring Vincent Price. This movie glosses over the novel’s story yet keeps the filming style that is distinctive of AIP’s many other films, especially those that star Price. ( Warning: Potential spoilers ahead.) The Book ...

It’s time for another Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG)  post! Every first Wednesday of the month we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to come up with solutions. This month has been an exception to the schedule because the first Wednesday was New Year’s Day and so many of us were still trying to get through the busy-ness of the holiday season. Speaking of that, I hope all of you had a good one. Mine was fantastic! The IWSG question of the month:  What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write? I would have to say my writing journey started in the 5th grade. I really got into the creative writing assignments our teacher would give us. I particularly loved writing comical stories which the class laughed over and applauded after each one was read. By the 6th grad...

Credit: Pixabay.com I hope everybody had a great holiday season and is getting a good start to this new year of 2020! While the 21st century has shown a rise in the acceptance of fantasy and science fiction into mainstream culture, the past decade has particularly shown a rise in TV and movie adaptations of books in these genres. I’m not really big on TV adaptations of books and so can’t say a lot at this time about any that may be coming during this year of 2020. However, since I’m much more into watching big screen movies and reading, I can say that the new year has lined up five sci fi and fantasy book-to-film adaptations which all look really awesome! Okay, I’m speaking a bit hypocritically. I haven’t actually read any of the books these five films are based on. Still, the plots look super and worthy of the big screen. So, that gives me at least three new year’s resolutions to put on my list: 1) read the book to each of these movies; 2) see the movies; 3) do a Book-To-Movie ...