Z is for… Wait, is this thing over?

Z is for… wait, is this thing over?

I never did a Z post for the A-Z Blogging challenge. I came limping over that finish line on fumes. Apparently just enough fumes to only see the finish line, not actually cross it. But, honestly, sometimes it feels really good to quit things. So, yay.

There were several things I wanted to bring up today, but upon attempting to write them, I realized I had way too many things to talk about. So, after some self-editing, I thought I’d narrow it down to three.*

·         I'M A MEMBER of the IWM group blog, and contributor to the monthly mag. I continue to be, not only impressed with the contributions of others, but so much so, that I can’t figure out why they haven’t kicked me out yet.

For the very first ANNUAL of the magazine, the editors are asking for your best time-travel stories to be submitted to the mag. From the submissions, real money will be given to those stories selected as winning entries. Actual money they can be spent, I’m told. Not soda money either, but $15 for the winner, and $10 for the runner up. So dust off that old time-travel epic and send it on over <Click here for the details>

Although I'm not eligible for prizes, I'll be submitting.

·         THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 has been out for more than a week. One of the kids in the house (have I mentioned we have a family of 4 living with us now? They’re pretty cool, with our boys being older and never around, it’s nice to have people in the house) watched the last Spider-Man last week with me.

And I suck at reviewing stuff, this is no exception. But like most americans, I don't let my inability to do something interfere with me doing it anyway, and expecting an audience. I feel like that the 2012 flick was a much better movie than the second installment, but am amazed at how, in the second movie, the director so perfectly nailed Spider-Man’s comic book look, character, and gave us the best Comic Book love story I’ve ever seen on film. Marc Webb gets the emotions perfect. The actual action-y plot part though… it’s a bit of a mess, and the more I think of it, the more I feel like all that is frustratingly poorly done. Still, the characters and the small moments make this film worth watching.

·         AND DID ANYONE ELSE see this adorable little film that popped up over the internet recently. Best 5 minutes I’ve seen in a while. Great stuff!

JohnnyExpress from AlfredImageworks on Vimeo.

And that’s pretty much it. The new Rusty has almost no control over his schedule anymore. I’m a tornado of entropy, everything I touch turning immediately into chaos. Anyone who stops by has my sincere thanks.

*ish

Insert Title Here

First, my obligatory announcement that I’ve put a post up over at the Indie Writer’s Monthly blog. This time, since JJ Abrams is so secretive, I’m speculating on how I see Star Wars Episode VII ending up.

Hint… there will be time travel, and possibly a wind up that involves taking the corpse of the Emperor and using it, Weekend at Bernie’s style, in order to fool Vader into… well, you’d just have to read it for more.

IN OTHER NEWS. I mentioned Clay’s Ark in my last post. Octavia Butler’s novel. I typically don’t do reviews here (that’s what Goodreads is for) but since I mentioned it, I figured I’d fill you in on my verdict.

Bad ending! Bad!

What started out as a very good story about an incurable infection and people trying to make a life for themselves in the post-apocalyptic world she created in the book, it eventually descended into something much darker, and in my opinion, almost indistinguishable from torture porn. I was not pleased.

I read the book outloud to my wife as a compromise so we can both read the story together, but after she fell asleep with about 50 pages left, I finished it off by myself and was stunned at the turn there at the end.

I told her that I did not recommend she finish the book, but just leave the happy memories she has of it untainted. 

My Friday Night Party-Time House Party... Part II

I'm sorry.

I know, the last few posts have just been these things where I just link to what I put up over at the Indie Writer's Blog. Um, this is another one of those posts.

It's Valentine's Day. I have a flash fiction piece up about a girl and her abusive mad scientist boyfriend. With Pictures!

It was a retelling of the story Briane Pagel put up early in the week. I tried to be clever with it. But I didn't have the time I needed to make it as good as I wanted to. I could have, but I'd have posted it the second week of March if I'd done that, no longer appropriate for the holiday.

So, please, go check it out. And have a great weekend. I'll have normal posts up next week.

Promise.

I'm a Cheater!

Yes, it's true, I've been cheating on my blog with another, sexier blog. I've recently joined a co-op of Indie authors on a shared blog for the purposes of... dammit... I'm not good at this. I guess we just saw that there weren't enough blogs? No, that isn't right. Anyway, I'm not sure what it's about, but I like to think of myself as the kid that stands in the corner in gym class and then hears his name called when they're picking teams.

I'm just stunned I was invited. I don't even know what game we're playing.

Look, whatever. I wrote a post there where I briefly discuss the things I'm most looking forward to in SF&F in 2014.

Please, CHECK IT OUT.