Taking a quick peek at the rest of the world

Funny thing about DVRs. Although it's great to have shows to watch whenever you want with the ability to skip commercials, I find myself both in sync and behind everyone else. I hear about a new show like Bob's Burgers and can find it, tape it and watch it right away. Wow! Then there are shows that slip through the cracks for a while and I watch months later to be thrown off by stale ads. Wait a second! New Hell's Kitchen ALREADY?? SWEET!!! Oh, that's an ad from last season. Doh.



I swore I wouldn't watch American Idol after...I don't know...sometime a few years ago. To be honest, I can't even tell you who won the last few seasons I did watch. That useless knowledge gets instantly purged after it passes my eyes. You know...like the emergency number to the police or what my allergies are. Idol has a new season and new judges. Mainly I wanted to see how Steven Tyler would do. Personally, I was a big fan of Simon and loved watching him rip apart people who couldn't sing and have "always been dreaming about this moment". Seriously? ALWAYS? When you were a child, you stayed awake at night daring to dream about standing in line at a hotel and screeching in front of celebrities? Diff'rent strokes. My fear with the new judge lineup was that (since they are performers) they would be extra lenient in letting people get through. From what little I saw (meaning the first episode) I may be right. They really do fall for the sob stories. I'll tell ya, those don't usually work. I've been rejected plenty of times by editors who didn't give a rat's ass about my history. I'm just waiting for the intro to Hollywood Week when Ryan Seacrest says, "Of the 13,000 people who tried out, only 11,437 remain. WHO will be the NEXT American Idol?"





Eh, whatever. I recommend Bob's Burgers and Archer for you animation fans. I still love Fringe with all of my heart. Hawaii Five-O is cool. And then there's The Cape....sigh. Don't get me started on The Cape.

Give Scrooge a break

I know Christmas is over and it'll be at least three or four weeks before we start seeing decorations on store shelves again, but I was recently having a conversation with a friend of mine about ghosts. Specifically, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and (my personal favorite) Future from A Christmas Carol. Basically, I asked the question as to whether these supernatural entities are ghosts or something closer to demons.

Now I guess you could define "demon" as intrinsically evil, but I think a ghost is the essence of a human who is either stuck in our world / plane of existence or lingering there for their own reasons. If those reasons happen to be mean-spirited or "evil", does that make them a demon? No. When I think of a demon, I think more along the lines of an entity that has unearthly power (something cooler than floating or glowing) and is not of our world. There's more to it than that, but that's the Cliff Notes version. You see a shadow figure or hear disembodied voices? Could be a ghost. Is your dog possessed or are you being thrown onto the ceiling when you're trying to sleep? Sounds like a demon. Is that stuff evil? Depends on if you or the dog had it comin'.

Which brings me around to Scrooge. Sure, this old man was a crotchety jerk. Maybe he worked too hard and expected his employees to also give 110% when they're behind their desk. Hey, back then coal really WAS kind of expensive! But these things that visit him aren't just ghosts! They're time travellers. They create hallucinogenic food. (Ok you tell me how GoCPresent pulled that off!). But they weren't evil. Or...were they? Take GoCFuture. Ok, you teleport Scrooge into the days to come and show him (spoiler alert!!) he dies sad and alone. Point made. You reduced an old man to tears. Happy? He gets it. How about shoving his nose against his own tombstone. He'll buy the damn goose, all right!! Jeez!! Well, he was being difficult and needed some tough love. How about shoving the old guy into his OWN OPEN GRAVE!!! Yowza!! Even I think that's kind of harsh and I'm a horror writer!!

So, you decide. Possessed dog and getting knocked around into some walls or taken into the future to see your own horrific demise and then booted into hell via the ground where your own worm-infested corpse is laying. Makes that thing in Paranormal Activity seem kind of tame, doesn't it?

And there was much rejoicing

First of all, I'll lead with the cool news. I got some copies of the new cover in the mail today. Woo HOOOO!! Check it out...

In the original version I was given, the gargoyle's eyes were glowing red. That was cool, but I'm definitely not complaining. I love it. Also, I do kind of miss the hot, butt-shot of Paige from the last one. That's just me. Heh. Let me know what you think. This one hits shelves on May 31.

Recently, I've finished with my largest round of editing for Book 6. Now is the time where I can sit back and relax because the book feels like a book and it feels truly finished. Of course, there are some more edits to do, but no more stress by feeling like my newest baby is laying on the floor in pieces. Whew. Time to sit back and play some video games for a day or two. Then it's back to work.

Blog neglect

Wow. It's been a while since my last post. Sorry about that or, depending on what you think of my rambling, you're welcome.

Part of my excuse was visiting my dad for Christmas. Sure, I could have updated in that time, but I just didn't. Oh well. We went to see Tron Legacy in a theater in 3D!! First of all, let me point out that I don't get to theaters very often at all anymore. I bring this up because I noticed some innovations other than the 3D. For example...flavored popcorn dust. For a buck fifty, you can buy cheese flavored stuff to dash onto your popcorn. It was awesome!! There was even vanilla stuff to put into your coke. Apart from the fact that they somehow came up with a way to make snacks MORE expensive than purchasing the DVD of the movie you're watching, it was very cool.

Speaking of the movie, I liked the new Tron. I liked the first Tron too, so this isn't a big surprise. I haven't heard a lot of nice things about this movie from just about anyone, but I think this is a case of Nostalgic Build-Up Syndrome. 27 years ago (THAT long???) I was a kid who loved video games, explosions and shiny stuff. Therefore, no matter how much the critics and adult movie goers panned Tron (which they did...EXTENSIVELY), I loved it. The first Tron isn't really a great movie if we take out the wide-eyed, geeky joy that we feel when we mention it. When I went to Tron Legacy, all I wanted was more lightcycles and video game stuff. Well, this time it was in 3D! Was it the best movie ever? No. Was it horrible because I was expecting a finely tuned plot? No. It had lightcycles, explosions, and shiny stuff. Me= happy. Add in the 3D, nacho cheese flavored popcorn and vanilla coke and it was freaking awesome!!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to Walmart to buy a toy lightcycle for my desk.

Come on, now!

Yesterday was nearly pain-free as far as my constant headaches go. What was the stress-relieving combo (other than Ibuprophren), you might ask? I played a game called Da Blob on Wii and watched the Friday the 13th reboot from last year. Da Blob is a game where the world is colorless and you play a blob of paint that turns everything red, blue, or whatever by rolling around on everything. Sounds stupid? Well, it's actually very relaxing. The music is nice and it does my right brain some good to slap different hues on an otherwise drab world. Heh. Then there was Friday the 13th. I hadn't seen this when it came out and finally got around to watching the DVD. It was an awesome combo of hot girls being naked in a summer camp and a huge psycho chopping up said girls. We all know the story. Jason hacks up the guys too. Oddly enough, this was therapeutic as well. Laughter truly is the best medicine.

And then I went to bed. Apparently, my brain wants to escape from my skull because it's doing its best to crack it open. Ever have one of those dreams where you're back in school and you miss a class or test or something? I've had them where I go through an entire school year and remember I've spaced off going to a class all semester. Pretty common stuff dream-wise. Well, the relief comes when I wake up and realize I'm not in school anymore. Whew. Well, my brain got one ahead of me last night and gave me a dream where I had a bill for a little line of credit I don't normally think about too much, but haven't paid for the better part of a year. I've still got bills! I've got lines of credit!! Shit!!!! Is this real? Did I really forget about a bill for that long? It's possible. Things have been crazy around here lately. And because it's my brain doing the meddling, there are little doubts inserted into my thoughts regarding this fictional(??) line of credit. Come to think of it, I don't exactly remember paying ANY bills this month! Now, along with my splitting headache, I've got a nervous stomach going.

Thanks, brain. Love you too.

Oy

Finally done with the first draft of Skinners #6! Whew!!!! Now I can take a few days off and collect myself before editing. There's a lot going on in this one, which I can't really talk about since Book 5 isn't even out yet. Oh well. Take my word for it. It's cool.

Looking forward to watching some movies over the weekend. Probably just some mindless special effects festivals like Prince of Persia or The A-Team. A-Team looks perfect for me right now. Lots of stuff blowin' up and things gettin' shot. Sign me up for that.

Christmas is almost here. To be honest, I'm looking forward to when it's all over. Just fast forward me to January 10th or so, let me know if anything cool happened in those previous weeks and get on with 2011. Remember those other prospects I mentioned earlier? Still nothing about them, which isn't a huge surprise. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but no news is better than bad news, so I'll take it. Not that I wouldn't mind some good news right about now. Don't want to jinx anything.

Speaking of good news, Skinners made the Barnes & Noble list of Best Paranormal Fantasy releases for 2010!! Here's the link: http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Explorations-The-BN-SciFi-and/The-Best-Paranormal-Fantasy-Releases-of-2010/ba-p/760466. YAY!!!!! Thanks B&N!!!

I'm off to plop in front of the TV for...ohh...about two or three days. Later.

Fa la la la....aw forget it

Should be wrapping up draft 1 of Skinners 6 today. This one's been a long haul, mostly because of rescheduling conflicts, the holidays, and various other wrenches tossed into the works. As far as first drafts go, I'm pretty happy with this one. There is a TON of editing to do, lots of which is hacking and slashing. The good part of that is that I'm just holding off on those plot lines so I can insert those pages directly into another book. The bad part is that I'll be working my butt off throughout Christmas and the New Year.

New Year has never been a big deal to me. I've always got goals/resolutions in mind and have submissions or proposals in the works to see them through. I'm not a huge drinker and am firmly of the belief that if you want to party and get trashed so badly, you shouldn't need a sanctioned excuse from Hallmark or the calendar to do so. My tradition has always been to stay home, cook up a bunch of snacks/appetizers, watch movies and have a toast at midnight. To all of you party people out there, have fun!

Still pumped about Tron Legacy. I'll be seeing this one in a theater and will actually be my second mainstream 3D movie in modern days. By that I mean it wasn't at an amusement park and the glasses won't be the red & blue numbers. Remember when they showed classic 3D movies on TV and you had to go to a 7-11 to get glasses? I saw Creature from the Black Lagoon on our Creature Feature that way. Also saw a bunch of the old goodies at a theater on retro night, but Tron in 2D should blow those away.