A Far Out Fantastic Site

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. The challenge I bring to today’s post is the answer to the optional question of the month which is: Have you ever written something that afterwards you felt conflicted about? If so, did you let it stay how it was, take it out, or rewrite it? My answer to the first part of that question is: yes, I have. The answer to the second part: I rewrote it. The conflicting part in my writing that I had to rewrite was in one of my recent stories that I’m working on for my upcoming book of short fiction, “Bad Apps”. This book will consist of stories about strange and deadly mobile apps. The story I had the challenge with involves a demonic creature from another universe that gets summoned through a music video. The creature is so chaotic and ev...

Credit: Pixabay As I said last post , I had to postpone our fourth Monday Book-To-Movie to this fifth Monday. In a Book-To-Movie (BTM), we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. In the previous BTM we reviewed H.G. Wells' science fiction horror classic, "The Island of Dr. Moreau" and its 1932 movie adaptation, "The Island of Lost Souls" . Today we're going to look at American International Pictures’ (AIP) 1977 film that has the same title as the book. This version has the realism of the novel and the countercultural revolution of the early 1970s.  Synopsis of the Book A short synopsis of Wells’ novel: A shipwrecked passenger takes refuge on a remote island and discovers that it is the place of exile of Dr. Moreau, a mad scientist who cruelly forces the evolutionary process in animals to make them human.  The 1977 Movie Adaptation A Twist in Plot AIP’s “Dr. Moreau” is basically faithful to the book but, as with “Lost Souls”, leaves out a lo...

Credit: Pixabay I apologise, but I have to post pone this month's Book-To-Movie review to next Monday. I had a dentist appointment last Friday that took longer than expected so didn't have enough time to plan and write the review for today. Because of this, I thought I'd talk about one of the books from last blog post's Summer Sci Fi Reading List . I had said last week that I didn't plan on stopping the reading of any of the books on the list to switch to another book because so far, the ones that I were reading were good. Well, when I said "so far", I really did mean it. It was only the next day when Jeff VanderMeer's novel, "Borne", proved not to be so good once I came to a scene where the protagonist does something that’s there much more for shock value than for anything else.  The Shock Factor in 'Borne' Instead of writing a synopsis of "Borne" for this post, I'll just quote the synopsis I gave last week . So, in “B...

Credit: Pixabay Here in my home area of Sacramento California, we've been getting some sizzling, hot weather! Saturday was a high of about 109! I mostly stayed in my air-conditioned pad all weekend working on writing and doing some reading. Speaking of which, I finally got my summer reading list together. I had been in a desperate run both to the brick-and-mortar book stores and Amazon looking for books that would appeal to me for summer, mainly in the science fiction genre, but also a few in adventure. If you need more ideas for reading in the AC’d house, out by the pool or on the beach, maybe you’ll find this list helpful. If you’re in the southern hemisphere where it’s winter, you may still find it useful. If you don’t, then look even further below because I talk about the annual Smashwords summer/winter book sale where you'll find thousands of books at super discounted prices! And that includes my books! I also have some on the latest progress of my upcoming collection of s...

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. Because this first Wednesday fell right after a holiday here in the US, Independence Day (AKA the Fourth of July), I've started this post late and so I'm just going to limit it to the optional question of the month. For those of you who celebrate it, I hope you all had a happy Fourth of July!  The question of the month is 99% of my [somebody’s, Alex’s?] story ideas come from dreams. Where do yours predominantly come from? Whenever I get asked a question like this my answer is always "life". Almost all authors’ work is influenced by their own life experiences and so that's what mine is based on.  However, within that life experience which consists of nearly a universe of experiences as all of our lives do, I hav...

Credit: Wikipedia Warning: This review contains details that may be considered spoilers by some.  Even though the fourth Monday of June has passed us, I'm still dedicated to giving you the Book-To-Movie review of the month and so I have it here today. My apologies for missing last week; I had family come from out of town. In a Book-To-Movie (BTM), we review a work of prose fiction and its movie adaptation. As far as I’m aware, there have been three movie adaptations of H.G. Wells's novel of science fiction horror, "The Island of Dr. Moreau". I'd like to do a BTM on each, but I thought it would make sense to start with the original first. The others will follow in future BTMs, I just don't have set dates for them yet. The original movie adaptation is the black-and-white 1932 one titled "Island of Lost Souls". The novel "The Island of Dr. Moreau" and movie "Island of Lost Souls" are both sci fi horror, but the former is more abou...

Credit: Pixabay I haven't gotten together a list of the summer's sci-fi and fantasy movies coming out in theatres yet, but so far it looks like there’s going to be some good ones. The ones that I want to see for sure are “Asteroid City” (which releases next week), “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and "Last Voyage of the Demeter". This last one is actually based on a single chapter from Bram Stoker's novel, “Dracula”. It's a Universal film releasing in theatres August 11, less than four months later than Universal's other Dracula film, "Renfield" (which came out April 14). However, it's not a sequel. If anything, it’s the opposite--a prequel. However, that may only be a matter of opinion. Judging by the trailer I watched, this movie seems like it will be a lot different than “Renfield” in many ways.  The trailer to "Last Voyage of the Demeter" makes the movie look much more promising than "Renfield" . Whereas "R...