A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Wikimedia Commons /Harry Clarke   Warning: There are unavoidable spoilers in this review. The only way to avoid them is not to read the review (until you’ve read the book and seen the movie, of course). Edgar Allen Poe is not only known as an early author of American horror but also America’s first detective writer. His short story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, combine elements of horror and detective fiction. The story contains gothic elements, a killer ape and methodical crime investigation. The earliest full-length movie adaptation of the story is Universal’s 1932 version directed by Robert Florey. In this movie adaptation a mad scientist is added to the story who does more of the killing than the ape, yet the original basic plot is maintained. The Short Story Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue” involves a couple of gothic amateur detectives, one by the name of Auguste Dupin and the other the narrator who, as with many of Poe’s stories, is mostly left unnamed. The two...

Credit: Pixabay.com Cloning has been a theme in a lot of science fiction and horror. However, it became a reality more than ever during the past week with a ferret clone. Also new this week is the announcement of a remake of the ‘80s movie, “The Running Man”. (Yes, another remake. Or is it?) Dead Ferret Cloned Into a Live One This week the ideas of “Frankenstein” and “Jurassic Park” became more science fact than science fiction. Thursday, the US Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) disclosed to the world that they successfully cloned a black-footed ferret that had been dead for more than 30 years. The ferret’s cells had been frozen through the decades. Then, recently, scientists developed an embryo from them and placed it in a living ferret that, in turn, gave birth to the clone Elizabeth Ann. She is the first clone of an endangered North American species. CNN   says that scientists cloned the dead ferret for reasons of rescuing the black-footed species from going extinct. FWS plans to...

Credit: Pixabay/Alexas_Fotos   During the week, people the world over have been partying like mad for Mardi Gras/Carnival. At least as much as the plague (Covid-19) will allow. And, depending on where they can gather, this year everybody celebrating is probably required to wear masks (if you know what I mean). Myself, instead of partying like mad, has been working like mad to catch up on some projects such as my newsletter and one of the short stories that I plan to include in my upcoming book of short fiction. More on that in a bit. But I wanted to talk about an author who died in late December who I just discovered and found really fascinating--James E. Gunn. James E. Gunn Although many media outlets announced it only earlier this week, James E. Gunn died back on 23 December 2020 in Lawrence, Kansas. He is not to be confused with the director of “Guardians of the Galaxy” who also holds the same name only without the middle initial “E.”. James E. Gunn, the author, was best known...

 It’s the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG)  post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. IWSG Question of the Month A lot of times blogging is referred to as a kind of social media. And it often is that. We don’t only post our content to show to other people and gain exposure but we also inspire and contribute to discussions. We reach out to each other to share our thoughts and exchange knowledge. We also form friendships even if they mostly remain online. As this month’s IWSG question puts it, “Blogging is often more than just sharing stories. It’s often the start of special friendships and relationships. Have you made any friends through the blogosphere?” And my answer is yes.  I’ve met plenty of people in my blog’s comments box. However, not all of them are frequent visitors. I think what has helped me make...

  Credit: Wikimedia Commons   /Arthur Rackham Warning: This review may contain spoilers.   It’s time for our monthly Book-To-Movie! For those of you who are just tuning into this blog, a Book-To-Movie  is when we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. Normally, we do a Book-To-Movie every fourth weekend of the month. However, because it was necessary for me to make a sudden change of story and movie for review, I had to postpone this month’s post in the series to this fifth weekend. My apologies. This month’s book and movie review is Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and the 1961 movie adaptation directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price. I truly believe that no one can adapt any of Poe’s gothic horror stories to film in a way that does those stories justice. However, many of Corman’s films come close to doing so. One of his best adaptations of Poe’s short stories is “The Pit and the Pendulum”. Why this movie adapt...

Credit: Pixabay.com I apologise, but I have to push down the Book-To-Movie  to next weekend. The movie that I thought was on YouTube wasn’t. So, I had to look for another that’s based on a book I’ve read. I found two, one of which I will watch tonight and have the review of it for you next weekend. This weekend, I thought I’d show you what’s coming up in my writing projects for the new year. Often it takes me a couple of weeks to come up with a list of new year resolutions. So below are two lists: one of resolutions to improve my writing and another of plans for upcoming writing projects.  New Year Writing Resolutions Ease Off of My Demands for Success: Throughout the previous year I was getting frustrated with myself for not completing projects in the time frames I had set for myself or for not selling the number of books that I felt should have sold. But I realised that when I get too demanding of these successes I wear myself out, become moody, and sometimes don’t even enj...

  Credit: Pixabay A new year brings new hope and Martin Luther King Jr. was definitely a man of hope and a new vision, especially with his “I Have a Dream” speech. I did a post on King several years back and on how his vision of a better future for all races served a function similar to that of science fiction. I said that this was one of the few things about him that connected with the genre. I underestimated. He had another big connection with science fiction. I’ll show you what that was in a little bit. Also coming up in this post: news about my newsletter in progress and an upcoming “Frankenstein” movie.  Martin Luther King Was a Fan of a Very Famous Science Fiction TV Series  In the post on Martin Luther King that I mentioned above, I said that he did not have many connections to science fiction except for his vision of a progressive future. However, I only found out yesterday while reading over an article at MentalFloss.com that he was a regular watcher of the ori...