A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Tor Books The fourth weekend of the month, when we normally have our Book-To-Movie review has passed us again. However, the review is still on! This month I have a guest blogger for our Book-To-Movie review. The two of us agreed to trade our book-to-movie reviews and present them to you today, this last Monday of the month. In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation.  And my guest blogger and reviewer is Alex Cavanaugh. Alex is the author of the Cassa series  of novels and founder of the Insecure Writers' Support Group ! Here at the Fantastic Site, he’s reviewing a best-selling novel of detective horror, "Relic", and its movie adaptation. In turn, at his site, I have the pleasure of reviewing "The Black Phone" short story by Joe Hill and its movie adaptation. So, after you're finished reading Alex’s awesome review, please leave a comment for him in the box below and then head on over to his website to check out my...

Credit: Pixabay Updated on 8/26/2022, 7:25 PM, PT I apologise for another late post, but I got a late start over the weekend.  As much as I am a vampire fan, especially of Dracula, I realised only a few days ago that this year marks the 100th anniversary of “Nosferatu”. Its actual anniversary day was back in February but the media’s celebration of it seems to continue. “Nosferatu” is the German Expression film interpretation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, predating nearly 10 years before Bela Lugosi’s interpretation of the all-time famous vampire. That said, it’s one of the oldest vampire films. Even so, it’s been seen by many, especially during its time, as a rip-off of the plot to Stoker’s historically famous vampire novel.  Although the bald vampire in this film is not as popularly iconic as Bela Lugosi’s slicked back hair-do version, it’s still been an icon among goths and hardcore horror fans. So, in honour of this film, I decided to dedicate tonight’s post to it. I didn’t m...

 It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s 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. This month we have the question of the month here at the Fantastic Site and I have a few details about my story in progress (SIP) which will be included in my upcoming book of short fiction.  Question of the Month The question for August 3 is: When you set out to write a story, do you try to be more original or do you try to give readers what they want? My answer to that, is that when I write a story, I don't so much try to be more original as I try to write sincerely. That means when I write I often develop the story from an idea that I had jottted down in my journal way before hand as it came to me. To me it appears to be an original idea because if it didn't I wouldn't have bothered jotting it down (at least not for ...

  Credit: Pixabay.com Our Book-To-Movie review  is usually on the fourth weekend of the month but, as I said in the last post , we had to postpone it to the fifth weekend. On top of that, an emergency came up over the weekend and so I had to postpone the review to today (Monday) which I apologise for. Yes, we are going into August with July’s Book-To-Movie but don’t worry. It will not substitute for August’s. There will be a Book-To-Movie for this month for sure because I have agreed to do one as a guest blogger which the other blogger wants it posted later than the fourth weekend of the month, so, again, it will be moved to a little after the fourth weekend. I’ll give you more details about it when we get closer to that time.  In a Book-To-Movie, we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. And this post we have another Stephen King horror book and movie! H.P. Lovecraft was one of Stephen King’s greatest influences as he’s been with many other horror autho...

Credit: Pixabay This is the weekend that we usually have our Book-To-Movie review, but I'm postponing it until next weekend. I was spending all day yesterday racking by brain dead while doing my state sales and use tax return, which in California is due at the beginning of each fiscal year. So, I was worn out totally by the evening. I couldn't keep focused or even awake to work on the current story in progress for my upcoming short fiction collection, "Bad Apps". So, I've been working on it this evening to make up for the lost time. However, I didn't want to leave you without a blog post this weekend since last weekend’s already got delayed to the middle of the week (too long of a delay for a weekly blog). So, I wanted to do at least a short post for this week, one that will tell you how you can get a free, pre-release edition of "Bad Apps"! And you can do that by being a volunteer beta reader! How You Can Volunteer as a Beta Reader for ‘Bad Apps’ ...

Credit: Pixabay I apologise for posting so late and not on the weekend as usual. I’ve been overdue for a new prescription of lenses and so have been working slower due to eye strain. That should all change after I go to my optometrist appointment and purchase my new glasses in August.  Last week I was at Big Brother Comics in Sacramento looking for a current issue of "The Rocketeer", a comic series that debuted in the 1980s and paid homage to super hero comics of the 1930s. I would soon find out from the employees that they sold out of the most recent series back in the spring and there would be no plans to print anymore. Which is damned sad because you get very few super hero comics like that anymore. However, I was looking through several other comics hoping to find something likened to "The Rocketeer" and when I say “likened”, I'm talking about any comic book that takes after any time period between the late 1930s and early '80s. After those years, comics...

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s 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. I’ll admit, I just started writing this post today even though I knew that IWSG Day was coming. I meant to get started on it yesterday but I had stayed up late the night before for my family’s Fourth of July celebration (for those who don’t live in the US, that’s our national Independence Day). So, I didn’t get the sleep I should have and so was tired when I got home from my day job the next day. I sacked out for at least two hours on the couch! But besides the holiday, I’ve been really busy with my writing projects, including my current book of short fiction I’m working on, my newsletter and preparing my books for Smashwords’ big book sale .  Question for July: Living in a Book World Before I go on with these other things, let’s fi...