Quote Week - Day 4

"I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature."


 
- John Steinbeck

Quote Week - Day 3

“This is what happens when you hurry through a maze: the faster you go, the worse you are entangled.”


-From House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Quote Week Day 2

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it…”




- Confucius

The Start of Quote Week...

I have decided to do a quote week while I redo the new site. So to begin:

"Write in recollection and amazement for yourself."

      -Jack Kerouac

Time Travel to the Past...

So I am currently watching Terra Nova...

So I am loving this show. For starters, the future at that is shown to be at the beginning of the 22nd Century is actually a real posibility in some cases and the way that they show it with the breathers and the dirty air is totally realizable. In some cases, some could argue the idea behind the future that we see for the first twenty minutes of the show could make for it's very own series, but that is not what this show is to be about.


The idea is simple. We messed up and now, due to a small gap in the time-space continuum, what they refer to as a tear in space, they are able to travel back in time, they are able to travel towards the past (the era unknown at first) to make a fresh start. The first part is understandable, however, once they make it though, breaking the law in order to do so, the next part is a little unbelievable. Due to having a third child, and thus breaking population laws, the Father is thrown in jail. He breaks out and they do find out in the new colony. Once it is determined that they can't do anything about it, the chaff is soon shown.

The brother is soon shown to be suffering from what I call "daddy issues". As if they couldn't make his character three dimensional. That however is not to be the best part in the first half hour. A few moments after the issues are shown to be the problem. A few moments later, the youngest child Zoey is shown to be meeting the first of the original denizens:

Dinosaurs.

They could be Brontosaurus, but I believe the original name for them is to be Brachiosaurus.

The rest could be a strange and slightly underwhelming ordeal, if not somewhat predictable. I must say, the faction reminds me a little of the Fifth column from the original "V" series. I'm a little disappointed, but even with the "Jurassic Park" sentiments, it should turn out better I hope.

The Hiatus to Continue...

Yes yes yes... I know that it sounds rediculous. I am almsot done with the new site of the blog and everything. This will be fine. No worries. In the meantime, I have a picture and an article to show you:

I had a question not but two days ago in which a person liked the way that I described how Amaretto traveled and was curious about the bending of space-time-dimensional rifts and was curious as to how it looked. Today, I by pure chance came across a photo of what I partioally imagine sometimes as she travels. Here it is:

This image is brought to us curtesy of one of my favorite blogging sites: io9.

The article that I got this picture from is here.

That's really all today.

Kittehs!

So, I just came across this and I can't help but giggle, even for just a little bit. I really do enjoy this guy taking his cats and doing this.



If you want to see the first one, it is located here.

Paradoxical History at It's Finest

I have an absolute fascination with time. Time is like that little bit of reality that we insist is real even though the perception of it is all that we have. I enjoy the posibility of playing with time and all the facets that come with being able to form a rather deceptive reality with it. So I was reading an article online that was about one of my most favorite peices of time anomolies: The Paradox.

Temporal Paradoxes are probobly one of the most strange and unpredictable things in literature. The whole reason behind them is complex enough that I could write for hours and still not be able to explain it all. Thus I shall use my character Amaretto to describe some major point in paradox. As a matter of fact, ther eare several paradoxes that are already occuring.

The first is an example of simple time twisted logic. When Amaretto first get's the hourglass, she is transported all over time, in the same place, within only a matter of a few hours. The paradoxical loop that I have set up is very often much like a Time line protection hypothesis. There is no way to stop this enevitable self from twirling this over and over again. As she moves forwards through time to hit herself and thus manages to hear the instructions that she is going to see in the future and theu in the past as well.

There was no real paradox when she went to the Second Great British Empire, but when she arrived in teh Country of Pesok, she realized that there was a bootstrap paradox involving items (for those of you who have not read it, I shall not reveal the plot line as I do not want to ruin it for you. I can however, give you an idea of what the principle is mentioning for you, that is to say, if you take an object back in time it can perpatuate itself as it's own reality and thus it's own creation, so that in fact, the item that you were taking back is the same item you were looking at before you took it back, thus perpetuating a massive causality loop (or a predestination paradox) that is never going to stop.

An nice simple example is this:

A man in the future owns the last apple tree. Another man, right before the tree dies, tries to perpetuate the future of the apples from going extinct, so he grabs the last seeds and hands them to the first child on the first farm he can find before he dies. That child winds up planting the seends and in teh future winds up owning the last apple tree all over again.

Okay, maybe that was not as simple as I would have liked it to be, but in all reality, paradoxes are a little hard to explain without a visual representation.

Now, I'm gonna go send this email to myself so that I know in about 20 minutes to read the article that percipitated this whole thing...

NEWS of a DIFFERENT sort

Yes, I was in need of a catchy title, but that is all right. I say this only because I have some good news!

I finally got everything sorted out and now have my old web address back. Seananand.com is once again mine! So I am now redesigning the website (with some major changes from what I had before) and am hopign to show the big unveil within the end of this week (more likely next week however with the way that work has been going lately).

As a side note of epic proportions, I will be transfering this blog and all of it's contents to the new website so that I can keep all of my content in a more accessable place. and it is time for me to finally move everything. Wish me luck all of you!

Magic as a Metaphor...

Today, I was patrolling the web, somethign that I oft do while I am stranded at work and feeling bored and wishing that I could be actually typing up some fiction.  I came across an article on Think Progress that bespoke of one of my all time favorite WB shows: Charmed.

You remember Charmed don't you? A snazzy early 2000's television show about three women who happen to be sisters, who manage to get a fantastical ability to cast magic and kick as as witches with the mythical "Power of Three"? It was many a person's "guilty" pleasure, or in my case an extreeme pleasure. I loved that show. It always had some sort of new problem with the sisters (one wound up leaving the show and a fourth sister to replace her was found) would have to come against and solve. the great thing about the show was that it was not jsut magic for magic's sake, it had problem solving, and often had rules in which power was used and abused and how it affected their lives.

That's the part I want you to note: How it affected their lives.

That really is the key sentance there at this moment. As I was sitting and reading this article, I came across the point of the article and I have to say that it was a valid point. the article, without ruining anything, stated that Charmed was a better show than this past season of True Blood, only for the simple fact taht when people used magic it had consiquences and real life application and didn't force a person to feel as if they had been cheated by the system. Now everyone knows that I absolutly love the show True Blood. though this previous season has been a total disaster. When the idea of witches were being introduced, I was glad. It was a little something extra for a show that had seemingly lost its way in the third season. I was however constantly dissapointed with the way that it was set up and this article articulated several of eth way that I had been disappointed and why a middling show which lasted over 8 seasons managed to do better with less.

Now don't get me wrong. I love the series True Blood, but the way they portrayed magic seems to be a growing trend in television and movies in this day and age. A lot of shows in what several people I know like to call "the before time", only because of how simple it used to be and the fact that they were original ideas, seems to have been lost in teh mix up of how they portray magic. Shining - yet partially silly in their antics - examples will include Sabrina the Teenaged Witch (based off of the popular Archie comic of the same name) and Bewitched (some of the Golden Age of Television at it's finest). These were shows that in the span of a half-hour, gave you a problem, someway that magic tried to fix it, and the consiquences of using magic when it might not have been neccessary were revealed. At the end of the show, everything was cleaned up and everyone had a good laugh and all was back to normal until next week when another zany problem revealed itself.

Not really a decent example, but in those shows, even though the timeline was not clear, the characters seemed to grow, or even partially mature as they used magic and dealt with the consiquences. Shows that took that growth style of magic having consiquences are Shows like HEX, a british television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, heck even Dark Shadows did it as well as my favorite show Charmed. All these shows showed the pluses and minuses of using magic and how power can change a person (or in some cases like the first two examples, a comedic value with a moral at the end).

True Blood made it so that I was not impressed with what was going on. I could have cared less with eth Magical subplot of the whole show (though on a side note, this particular season made me want to vomit a little...). The whole reason I bring this up is that tonight, there is another show called "Secret Circle" which is airing on the CW which made me wonder what kind of show it is going to be. Mind you, it too is based off a series of novels. In this case, it is a series of Young Adult books that are quite interesting.

Needless to say I can't wait, and tomorrow, when it comes on, it shall be TiVoed and then watched.

The New DC 52...

So I've been really excided about the new DC 52 reboot of the DC universe, and I have to say, after reading Superman, one of the Flagship titles, I was a little impressed with what I saw. A new superman (in jeans no less), who seems to have gone a little vigilante, and oh, I love how Lois Lane is with someone else for a friggin' change. it makes me secretly happy inside somewhere. I scrounged around and tried to find a few pictures of his new lovely "batman-eske" ways and foudn a wonderful artical over at Yahoo. the link is here. Go look! The images are full of fantastic!

Happy Birthday!!!

Today; if he was still alive (which in the accordance of Literature, he always will be), the author of one of my favorite short stories, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius would be turning 112 years old today.

Thank you Jorge Luis Borges.

The Moves Like...

I want you all to tell me if you have the moves... like Jagger.

A Smattering of Linkage...

Hello Everyone!

So I have been wandering the interwebs in my boredom and imagine my surprise when I find a site that hits home on my comic-book geekery with great happiness and relish. It was something called DC Fifty-Too. This is an awesome blog where artists showcase their tallents on DC comics that will never be. Until the end of the month, 52 artists will premiere 52 different books you won't be seeing on stands. It's a DC Universe where the publisher's foremost characters aren't Batman or Superman. The obscure people from teh background were suddenly made into A-listers and had their own comic books. yes, it is as if the DC Universe is no longer in their own hands but in teh hands of fans and atrists. Some of the covers are inspired might I add. One of my favorites is a Teen Titans cover done by Tim Seely.

Moving on though I found another thing that tickled my funny bone and amused me greatly. It would be the great and fantastic move also known as AURORA.

What is Aurora you ask? It is a fantatic short movie that took almost three and a half years to create, Produced over a 3 1/2 year period, the finished film belies its impressively small budget of $1800, using eight locations, over 80 costumed extras (almost 100 dedicated people to the whole film itself) and 375 VFX shots: a significant undertaking in independent film making.


Go see it, you'll love it.

Circus Magicians?

So I have to say that Circus Magicians where not what I was expecting to be the new Harry Potter...

Only in the Stars...

You can't always be right, but this is truly epic... and oh so totally right.

A Word of Advice...

"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."

- Douglas Adams

Two times Two

This was written as a short for a "Write or Shut up" post in Aspiring Novelists, a Face book group I belong to. Go ahead. It's just some flash fiction...


“Two times one is two. Two times two is four. Two times three is six…”

The voice droned on just slightly. Allison was quite sure that her own voice was the one that was speaking, but sometimes she wasn’t sure. She was currently in the twos and she had been repeating them for a while now. As she rode the bus, she was sure that she would eventually reach her destination, but she was not sure if she should have been going there in the first place. She thought really hard for a moment and the counting stopped. Was she really going to go this time? She shook her head in quiet disbelief and the quiet counting started once more.

The bus continued along, jolting every time it hit a dip or pothole in the asphalt that made up the road. Allison pulled her thin jacket around her just a little tighter. Even though the sun was trying it’s best to shine through the foggy morning cloud buildup in the sky, Allison still felt as if it was the dead center of winter rather than the chilly beginnings of spring. There was no way that this weather could be real. She refused to acknowledge it, as if hoping it was warmer would make it warmer.

Allison continued to mumble to herself, “Two times ten is twenty. Two times eleven is twenty-two. Two times twelve is twenty-four. Two times one is two.”

The mindless repetition made her appear crazy, but she paid no mind to that. She was headed towards her destination with quiet determination and counting numbers, to be more precise counting her twos, made her feel better. As to why she was on the bus, she couldn’t quite remember. There was a fog over her thoughts that seemed to quietly hover in her mind whenever she tried to remember. It was like a quiet thunderstorm that would only rage when she got too close to a certain destination.

She shook her head and continued to count in circles. The bus rolled to a stop for a moment and Allison heard the shuffle of people getting on and off. She continued to count and knew that soon she would be at the destination, whatever it was. For now, she would just have to simply be content with not knowing and counting. A woman sat next to her and set a rather large bag full of apples on the ground in between her feet. The woman eyed Allison carefully, but Allison continued to count. A few more stops rolled by before Allison stood up. As she did, the woman pulled out an apple and handed it to the strange girl. Allison smiled and took the apple with muted thanks.

As Allison stepped off the bus, the incessant need to count seemed to evaporate and she began walking forwards with a rather large sense of purpose. She walked down the cracked sidewalk towards what appeared to be an abandoned railroad track that led into the woods. As she saw the track she realized that she had somehow managed to make it all the way to the other side of town. That was to be ignored however as she finally realized where she was going. She followed the track down through the winding areas of trees and dirt and twisted metal from the tracks and soon she saw it, the gaping black maw rising in front of her like a monstrous gullet preparing to swallow her down.

The hole was brick on either side of itself; a slowly sloping arch enclosed it from the ground up. Swirling eddies of darkness seemed to pour forth from the hole that she remembered to be called a tunnel. The mortar was slowly crumbling away into a distant powder and it was here that she knew she had found what she was looking for. She looked at the bricks, taking in all the graffiti and other such tags that had been placed upon the bricks until she saw it. There in small black numbers, sprayed in the bottom corner of the massive arch was a question.

2 x 2 = ?
Allison knelt down in front of the small section of words and after a moment, used her hands to try to wipe off the grime from the bricks. There was a moment of silence and then the whole world seemed to hiss around her. Allison jerked backwards and watched as the space in between the train tunnel entrance took on a gentle blue hue as colors began to pour outwards from all manner of directions. Hundreds of thousands of colors swirled in a vortex of lights and sounds that filled only the central part of the arch way. Allison stared at it with amazement and a sort of wonder and slowly her hand raised itself into the air and she moved forwards to place a hand on it. Her whole body seemed to sing out in joy and pleasure as soon as she moved towards the shimmering wall.
She placed a hand in and saw her hand vanish into the strange cacophony of senses. She smiled to herself. This was where she had wanted, no, needed to be. She pushed her hand in further and felt nothing and then looked at the space behind her. There was no one there. She smiled and spoke to herself in a very low voice and said, “Four.” She smiled. It was only a moment, but there was a flash of incandescent light and then, the tunnel was just a tunnel again.

Allison was nowhere to be seen.

Just a bit Dreadful...

So I am sure that everyone knows about my horridly strange fascination with Steam Punk and all that it entails. I love teh idea of a "Steam Industrial Revolution" with magical ties to it. The Victorian period was a hotbed of such stories now. this involves alternate universes, and universes where the time periods are still rife with intruige, satisfaction, and chivilry (while it is still alive of course...).

Allow me to point you in teh direection of a fantastic site caled "Penny Dreadful Productions". Titled after what I orriginally wished for my Tale of Amretto to be like, this site has several very intersting things going on for it. They are involved in any number of things, though I have to say one of my favorite things is the Dirigible Dolls. I really want one.

Check them out... It will be worth it.

Penny Dreadful Productions

Stories told by Ghosts...

Everyone knows that one of my favorite thigs to do is the famous "What If" game. we liekd to play it as a child, sometimes as we day dream as teenagers, and yet still at othertimes, when we become older. One of the reasons writers are so lucky in my estimation is that they are payed to play this very same game all the time when they write. Anyone can do it; however not everyone can do it well. This is especially true when it comes to writing Urban Fantasy-fiction. One of my favorite series in this field has always been the Dresden Files. I love Jim Butcher's style of writing when he does. Things happen, choices are made and there are consequences. When I picked up Ghost Story I was still riding a high from Changes. It was so amazing to see how Harry's choices brought him to Chichen Itza, prepared him to make terrible decisions and take terrible action. The final moments of Changes hit hard.

And then I read Ghost Story and discovered the biggest problem: Nothing hits hard.

Butcher has always been able to juggle a large number of characters and do them justice, so adding Sir Stuart, Fitz (too close to "Fix") and the lost boys, yet another cultist style black wizard wasn't unusual. Treating major characters to brief cameo appearances and having Harry wallow in guilt for a few paragraphs then move on was extremely unusual for the series. Mort comes out of Ghost Story with some of the best page time. He was never my favorite character, but I felt a little closer to him for all the new stuff taht we learned about him. Butters actually seemed to become less of a real character with all teh page time that he gets. Even though it is explained how Butters has "grown" as well as teh why he was forced to grow in those ways and I have to say that I never really fell behind it all the way. Murphy, Will, other formerly major characters hover on the edges of the story. They do a little here, they do a little there, they provide reasons for Harry to agonize his situation and wallow in self pity, but at the end of it all, they felt more like ghosts to me than Harry was supossed to be.

Molly was the biggest problem with Ghost Story. The choices Harry made that affected her, everything about how they interacted in Ghost Story felt off. It felt like it was being forced into the story or as if it was like one of those really bad Twilight Zone episodes. The lynch-pins between Changes and Ghost Story don't pull the novels together, it feels contrived, and seems like a choice Harry never would have made even under duress.
Ghost Story is one big info dump -- flashbacks to crucial past events, Harry hovering like the Ghost of Christmas Presents to see where the people in his life have got to (and either I'm slow, or I missed something about Justine and Thomas. Or maybe it was just boredom and the chance to hint at a little girl on girl action that was responsible for that bit. This wasn't the only interlude that had me scratching my head.

I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, don't get me wrong. Harry Dresden and all his crew are still an entertaining bunch, and Butcher is too good a writer not to recoup from this bridge novel. however, that is all you should see this as... A bridge novel.

Are you a God if no one Believes...?

YAY! It appears tha0 tone of my favorite books "American Gods" will be turned into a TV show by none other than Tom Hanks for SIX SEASONS!

Read more HERE.

Infinity is a beautiful number....

Missing the Wheel...

So I must admit that I have indeed been missing for quite some time through no fault of my own. You see I was transported to a land far far away, where at once a wind rose. You see, it was no ordinary wind...

It was a wind that had been heard before and in this case, it was two of the last three books in the now made epic Wheel of time series. I have to say, this whle adventure is starting to pick up pace once more. What once might have been a really crappy inerlude thanks to Jordan's death is now pickingup speed and interest again where it once began to wane since Winter's Heart. ( All right, i will be honest, well before that. Personally Fires of Heaven was my favorite one, but that is neither here nor there... )

I have just finished reading The Gathering Storm and The Towers of Midnight and let me tell you, my head is abuzz and a blur. Previously, Jordan had indicated he'd wipe his hard drive to stop someone else completing his work. I have to say, that I was expecting this and that this is proboly one of the most horrifying and yet disasterously pleasing things I have ever heard. I feel that I can see myself making the very same threat were I a little bit more crotchety as a human being. However, with him being so close to the end of the story he changed his mind, trusting his wife and editor, Harriet, and his publisher Tom Doherty to find a writer capable of finishing the series well. In theory, it should have led to disaster: typically one writer finishing a series begun by another can be an atrocious idea that only leads to very bad books. I would therefore like you to note the vomit-inducing new Dune novels (which are absolute slag, and yet for some reason I contiue to punish myself by occasionally reading one) and the ill-advised Amber continuations (which should have never been published and teh second writer - who shall remain nameless - should have been flogged for huliliation. No... I am not bitter about teh Amber continuation books...)

The amount of work required to bring Wheel of Time to a conclusion required an altogether different level of commitment and effort and I truly believe that Brian Sanderson was able to pull it off. In fact, The Gathering Storm has the most cohesive through-line in story, character and theme of any book in the series since The Shadow Rising, and possibly out of all of them.


Yes, that is high praise.

The structure of the book uses two storylines as their primary focus; initially Rand's deteriorating mental state  and Egwene's efforts to unite the White Tower and end the civil war within. Might I remind you that that has raged for the past seven and a half volumes. Other characters and stories appear briefly, such as Perrin and Tuon, and Mat has a slightly bigger role, but other major characters and storylines do not appear at all. The recently-quelled civil war in Andor and the Mazrim Taim/Asha'man plotlines are notable by their absences. Instead, this part of the story focuses on two of the central protagonists, Rand and Egwene, and the experiences they go through to achieve their goals.

As for Towers of Midnight - there's a heck of a lot of action and movement, but ultimately, this book is about things *finally* falling into position for the final confrontations. Perrin especially gets a lot of development, and if you've ever thought anything like "Perrin used to be my favorite character, but. . . " you'll probably be very happy about the turn he takes in this volume.


Now down to the real part of this. Because of the nature of the coauthorship (Jordan wrote some sections of this book before he died, and the rest was completed from outlines and notes), it's hard to know precisely how much we're seeing here of Brandon Sanderson's work and how much of Jordan's, and there were one or two moments where I as a reader wondered whose voice I was reading, and one or two points where I felt Sanderson had stumbled slightly in his presentation of a character or handling of internal monologue.
Either way.. this was fantastaclly done and I can't wait for "A Memory of Light".

The Gathering Storm

I just finished, almost 20 minutes ago, the first book out of Robert Jordan's books, that he himself did not write. The Gathering Storm is a largely complex mishmash of several character trying to get places where everyone else is in as little time as possible. I have to say, when I began reading it, I could tell that the writing style was different, almost even in the way things were discribed, the way that people reacted and even responded to others was rather different as well. It was fascinating to say the least. You could tell that Jordan's style was different, missing even, that crucial element that was there was... gone.

I liked it.

I have to say that even though there was nothing there to make teh story any less fast paced, this new way of looking at things is actually pretty fascinating. I will admit, Fires of Heaven is still one of my favorite books in the series, however, even before that, it seemed like the books were stagnating inhow they moved forwards. It seemed that with every breath Rand, Perrin, and Mat took, the world was slowing down. Being ta'verren didn't seem to do anything at all. Now with this new instalment, I feel that the Pattern in the books is not only freying, but trying to tear itself appart by the seams. It really shows how far the Dark One's taint is spreading through the world.

Yes, there is still the same amount of politicking that is going through the world, and the war with teh Seanchan seems to take forever, but now, we have a new vision of teh world. The world is dirtier, and more nitty-gritty. The characters, seem a little less polished, but Jordan really pushed them for a mile and a half with all of that. Sometimes, I could swear that one was only reading about the carpets from other places in the world that were in Caemlyn. Even still, with the amount of detail that Jordan placed in his books (and one cannot fault his eye for detail), the new novels which Brian Sanderson is now writing in order to complete the series, are different.

I know I said they were faster paced, and I men it. Long gone are the chapters that are hundreds of pages long for what appears to be no more reason than to describe a bubble of Evil and perhaps one other thing happening. Now, it's hard paced facts and what is happening in teh world and what the others are doing to stop it. Gone are the "sets" of chapters as I called them, where you would hear about one or two of the main characters of the central three, but never hear or know what happened to the others while reading. I of course, speak of Rand, Perrin, and Mat, whom it sometimes seemed were missing from entire books. All of them are there. Mat, Perrin, Rand, Min, Elayne, Egwene, Nynaeve, even Lan makes his appearance after being relegated to teh back pages for a very long time. A fantastic thing though, answers about many things are also answered, Especially the questions we all had about the Black Ajah. Want to know who it was all along, even though you may only suspect. In grand theory and formation, it is all revieled.

I will say this though, the book does seem a little mashed together at first, but it ends rather spectacularly. The fight scenes are epic in a way that Jordan himself would aprove of if her were still alive, if perhaps, a little more comprehensable. I will always say that when Rand fought with Sammael, that chapter was almost as long as the proulogue in Fires of Heaven.

Still, all in all, I cannot wait to read Towers of Midnight.

Great Merlin's Trousers!

So I am always a little late. We all know that. I am never truly on time. however, I would like you all to take a moment and watch this:




I know right. Awesome. Just amazing. What was the date that you were hopping for? Oh yeah: July 15th.

Here are a few first impressions:

• I really want this to be Snape’s movie. I really, really want to learn more about Snape.

• Harry throwing his arms around Voldemort is…new…right?

• I can’t wait for the fight in the Room of Requirement! Fightfightfightfightfightfightfight!!

• Molly versus Bellatrix! The best duel that will be talked about since Yoda vs. Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones! No seriously!

All Hail Lovecraft

Most of you should know who H.P. Lovecraft is. If you do not, get thee to a Library and read some of his finest horror in what we know as the "Cuthulu Mythos". If not, there are always other things to read about... Still, those of you who know about it, know the visceral horror. Now, imagine if that horror taught a sexual education class.

That's right! You heard me! A Sex Ed Class!

Watch this amazing short film, "Late Bloomer" by Craig Macneill, and learn about the the monsters inside us all.'

Late Bloomer

Have fun all.

Earlier today, George R.R. Martin posted a strange picture up on his blog, of a dead King Kong, and many of us wondered what it might mean. To be honest, I thought I was going to be regailed with a gorgeous new photo and tale of primate hunting. I was also hoping a little for a mini short story about it too. But no — in fact, Martin has actually finished A Dance With Dragons, the eagerly awaited fifth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Here is where I do my happy dance of doom. Here is where I say that I WILL have a copy for myself.

Oldest Find Evar...

I read this article and I was so flaberghasted that I had to share it with you:

The Oldest Book find in America...

Suffer...

Sometimes, we like to watch other people suffer. Now this isn't a slam on the way people think or are, we just enjoy it that's all. One of the main ways that we like to see people suffer is that we like to read that suffering happen. Some of the greatest stories are built on strife. I know, I know, we like to say that we like the happy ending. Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, many of the fairy tales that we know, everyone says that we love. Sometimes, we like to see a person (mostly fictional) suffer to such an extent, that the story seems to be that much more. We love it. One of my favorite websites has come up with a list of the top ten suffering in fiction. Please see here:

Suffering in Books

You know you will love it.

The Written (Inked) Word

So I have this new addiction that I occasionally give into. I call it StumbleUpon. It is a small little button that you hit that randomly takes you to a website that people think is interesting. well, I've been wandering like a bad boy while I should be typing up my blog. Silly, silly me.

Now while I have been wandering, I have come across one of the coolest website ever. As we all know, I love the written word, and that I also have the occasional love for tattoos. Well StumbleUpon has found a website that has taken both of these loves and stuck them together. The website is known as Contrariwise. The fantastic imagery that people use to write their favorite literary phrase, or in some cases, their gibberish, and also below the picture in each post is where the phrase comes from. Please go check it out. It is full of amazing and I love it. I will admit though, some of the pictures there are very amazing, some of them are as follows:

This,

This,

and This.

Like I said, go look! Have fun!

A Little Bit of Random Clutter

Can you breath? Will You Stop Me from Doing It?

Yours was the only song that I ever wanted to hear: I wanted it to engulf me

in the sweet sound of it's embrace.

This pain...

I want to be all over you, the embrace of your fingers a gentle caress...

would you fucking kill me if I admitted it?

Would it kill you?

Just let it kill you and take all of the pain from you...

Would it make you want to die from it all?

I want them... I want them bad... I will try to take them for myself... but

can you sit there and allow it? The song pounding in your ears?

I wish that they said that you must...

It will all get better... after all, nothing is happening is it? Or has the

song made you blind? Has the song rendered you deaf?

No, I want your song, I want to be with you... I can do what I want because

you will let me won't you? I want the song to wash over me and consume me...

You don't mind really do you...?

Nothing you say matters anymore...

Let the song slowly murder your insides... Let it kill you... Let yourself

die...

No, trust the song... It only hurts a little bit, just a sweet little bit...

I promise that you will be better...

Remember to breathe... Breathe the words of the song as they confound you...

You'll survive all of it... Even if it hurts to let the song go... Even if

you die inside when the song abandons you...

Trust the song that its alright... I'm here with you again... I've always

been here as your song... the song will be there...

Just be silent and take in the songs regrets and let it consume you...

Just be quiet and take it all...

Silence is all we demand from you... take it...

Just be still and take it...

Fantasy Reboot

I love reading short stories. I really do. I like to quickly, just for a shot while, to be transported to another world. Everyone likes to be in another world for just a short while and it is that short while that makes short stories a little hard to master. One has to be able to mesh characters and a strange new world that is believable and then make a small story out of a small problem that could be a big problem. It also has to keep your attention. One of the best places to see this is in small magazines and webzines.

One of my favorite magazines is called simply put, "Fantasy Magazine". For a while there, the magazine seemed to be floundering. Well, lucky for us, just recently, they got a whole new Editor, a personal favorite of mine, John Joseph Adams.

Head on over to my website of choice (io9) and see a partial bit of the interview that they did with him.

Clickies here!

Also, when you are done, why no t head over to the website and see what you can see there as well?

Hurray for News!

The fantastic has happened and the flood gates have lifted and I must say that we have been blessed with an actual time and date. That date is as follows:

JULY 12TH

That is the date when George R.R. Martin's next book in the song of Fire and Ice comes out - a Dance of Dragons.

To read a bit more, please go to my favorite website for news on geekery - io9.

The link is as follows:

YAY CLICK HERE!

A Little Hectic...

Hello all. Actually. this is the first time I have been able to post since last monday! Work has been unbelievably hectic, and to make matters even more complicated, a lot has been going on in our personal life too. One of our dear friends, Grundy, is entering the Army as a 65 Whisky (that's a madic to all of you, including me, who had no idea what it was). He ships Tuesday morning. So we have been seeing as much os him as posible as we can because we will not see him till August... the end of even! So, sadly, without any notice to all of you, i was on a weeklong hiatus. I however, did continue to write durrign my Hiatus and will have a new Grain up for all of you tomorrow. It will be an extra long one too, which includes last tuesday and Thursday's grains as well as revealing who Mother Chime really is!

Look forward to it, and as a small happiness, here is a great little article on The Great Gatsby... as a video Game.

What if... The Great Gatsby as a Video Game...

Fired... from what?

All right, so I will admit, that I am not always on top of things as I should be. I will also admit that not everything is necessarily my cup of tea. As much as I would like to, I cannot read every book in the world. As much as I would like to or want to, there is simply not enough time and it is not feasible, even if I do try to read anywhere from two to twenty books in a week depending on how busy I am. There are times though, when I take the advice of someone close to me and take a chance on something that I never thought that I would originally. Let me explain:

My mother is a fan of the strange and the weird on television. She likes watching things that are secretly ou tof the norm. For a very long time, she would love to watch The Jerry Springer Show, as it was almost a guilty pleasure. That was how she referred to it, a "Guilty Pleasure". Now, she still likes shows like that. These shows are what television puts out, that no body would normally accuse her or even be greatly surprised that she watches. One such show was The Vampire Diaries.

Imagine my surprise when I recognize the titles. A set of stories written for young adults which is about (I bet you can't guess), Vampires. These stories however are what some of the customers at the bookstore I used to work at like to refer to as "The original Bella and Edward". This story had more twists and turns than a back road in the middle of the night. Many people would ask for the books, but I had never laid a hand on them. After watching simply one show with my mother, where one of my favorite words was used, I had to read the books. In case you were wondering what word it was that spurned me onwards to want to read these novels was; it was doppelganger.

So I quickly picked up the first few books in omnibus form and began to read. I read and read and read and soon I was at the end of the current writings and heart and soul were demanding more! I however, like everyone else, had to wait patiently while L.J. Smith was writing the next one. Imagine my surprise, when I open my email and find that she would no longer be writing them. It was almost as harsh on my heart as when I discovered that Melanie Rawn might not be writing the third book in her Exiles series.

I quickly was directed to this article in which I was almost in tears. How on earth can a publisher fire an author from her won work?! I quickly, after a little more reading, was told of how HarperCollins retained the rights to the books as intellectual property rather than that of L.J. Smith. I was a little surprised as I was always under the assumption that it would always be the other way around. Needless to say though, I hope that the new writer will live up to our expectations whomever they may be.

Of Mice and Men...

I remember when I was younger, that I stumbled across a book which on the cover had a small picture of an abby cloister. Above that cloister, written in oldstyle gothic blue letters were the following words:

"It was the Start of the Summer of the Late Rose, Mossflower Country Shimmered..."

On the bottom right hand corner, a fat mouse in a habbit stood holdin a sword, and sectioned off above him in the top right was what appeared to be a large rat with a helmet on. I would soon learn to call these places and characters by beloved names, Redwall Abby, Matthias, and Cluny the Scourage. This adventures, with characters that were animorphically different from me and the people I knew and yet so similar were the work of the imagination of one man known as Brian Jacques.

Mr. Jacques wrote 22 novels that took place in the Country of Mossflower, and has toched many of us at one time or another with his style of writing and storytelling that brings our imaginations to imerse ourselves and enjoy the otters, the hares, the mice, and yes, even the badgers. He taught us that no creature is too small for its own destiny and that sometimes, even a mousemaid can be theheroine of the lot.

Some of my favorite Books in the series are the ones early on, lke Mossflower, Mattimeo, and of course, Mariel of Redwall. However, there are other book sin this series that have also made an Impact on me like The Bellmaker, and of course Salamandastron. These books were a cornerstone of my own life and in thus, have made an impact on the way I think and also on the way that I write. It is with a heavy heart however that I say that Mr. Brian Jacques died this past Saturday, on 5 February 2011, of a heart attack.

We will greatly miss you.

A New set of Time Travel and the Theories of Quantum Physics

So as we all know, Amaretto's Tale, is a tale of time travel, both through dimensions and time as well. The theories of Time and space are all about things like Einstein's Theory of Relativity. As we all know, in the beginning Einstein's theory is mentioned. If you wish to understand this theory a little better as a part of time travel there is a YouTube video you could watch which was part of TLC's show about it. That movie is here.

The other thing that is needed apparently in time travel is wormholes. The Youtube video here explains how wormhole physics could possibly have something to do with time travel as well as dimensional travel.

As a bit of random, here is something else that pertains to dimensional travel. It is called a Teseract, only this one is a five dimensional cube. See this bit of porn for nerds here.

Another thing to look at is the BBC's television show called Horizons; the episode was about Parallel Universes. For the first part go here:

Horizons - Parallel Universes Part 1

The other parts are available on YouTube as well.

Another thing to look at would be how particles can be quantum entangled. See the article on it here:

Quantum Entanglement

Something that has been bothering me though. I must insist that somewhere along the way, Parallel Universes are something that is a very interesting subject. One of the things that are a little different are alternate histories. Alternate histories can be caused by paradoxes. Paradoxes are a strange occurrence.

With a paradox in a universal world, the old time line remains unchanged, with the time traveler or information sent simply having vanished, never to return. A difficulty with this explanation, however, is that conservation of mass-energy would be violated for the origin timeline and the destination timeline. A possible solution to this is to have the mechanics of time travel require that mass-energy be exchanged in precise balance between past and future at the moment of travel, or to simply expand the scope of the conservation law to encompass all timelines. [Wikipedia]

Even still, this does make an interesting concept. Perhaps we will talk on it later. For now, I should probably go to sleep. Goodnight all.

Reliquary!

So back in 2004, I came up with a fabulous idea... and then I scrapped it. In 2007 I found the idea, written on the back of some notes that I had taken in a Psychology class. I was cleaning out my filing cabinet when I found the idea. I fleshed it out a little and in January, I wrote the second part of a story called Reliquary. I will say, no one really responded to it, so I put it to the side, and instead, came up with an alternate universe of where entirely different things were occuring and gave up on the story of Reliquary as a short story disaster.

Well recently, because of Amaretto's Tale, I have found the need to at least finish this short tale of disaster because of... artistic endevors. Now this tale is not going to be listed in the other blogs, rather, but instead shall be here. So if you wish to familiarize yourself with teh other entries, by all means the links are as follows:

Reliquary - Part 1
Reliquary - Part 2

After reading those, might I suggest the following which is the Third instalment of this tragically short, left-on-the-wayside tale:

The girl brushed a stray brown hair out of her face and looked at the man. "Well at least we got somewhere," she responded quietly.

The man, who had crossed his arms reached out and gripped the girl by the shoulders. "You mean you didn't know where it would take us?" Amazement, wonderment, surprise, and anger all flitted in the man's face in a flurry of emotions. It appeared to Denis that the man was constipated.

"Well I knew it would take us somewhere, I just didn't know quite where..."

"You could have dropped us right in the middle of the ocean floor though! I thought you knew where this would take us!"

"Theoretically, yes. Virtually... no..."

Denis looked dejectedly at the now scattered mysteries and shook his head. He needed a break. He took the opportunity to but into the conversation and then say in a rather loud voice, "You two broke in through the back! I hope that you plan on paying for that door because no one ever uses it!" He turned around to head towards the cashier and spoke as he continued walking. "I'm calling the cops right now. I've never seen you here before, but you better not run, I have a very good memory as to what people look like!"

As he walked towards the phone he heard something being muttered and he suddenly stuck fast to the floor. He tried to move forward, but nothing his feet refused to propel him forward. It was as if he was a fly trapped in flypaper, only the brown carpet beneath him was not sticky at all.

“Hey! What did you do to me!” Denis swiveled as best as he could at the waist to look back at the two people who were now crowding out the romance and mystery section of the store. The girl ignored him and pulled on a long golden chain that was around her neck to look at something that looked like an hourglass. The lumberjack man looked at him and then snarled in response, “Shut yer mouth. No one asked for your opinion in this matter."

Denis was shocked and then all he threw up his hands in shock and fury. "You let me go this instant or I swear when I get the cops here, I'm gonna let them have you!"

The large man chuckled and then snorted. "I don't think that you are going to let anyone have anything there. Just be quiet and sit there." The girl was quickly smoothing out her dress, which seemed more like a slip than anything else. Denis all but shrieked as he opened his mouth and yelled. The girl put her hands over her ears.

"Please stop screaming, it's unbecoming." The girl actually sounded like she was offended.

"Then let me go!" Denis turned furious eyes on the girl who slowly walked to where he was and then shrugged her shoulders. She muttered something under her breath that sounded more like someone fast forwarding a tape than anything else. Denis snapped his mouth shut as he tried to listen to her, but it was impossible. Suddenly Denis tipped over and fell onto the floor in a rather untidy heap. The large man looked around and then poked at the bins.

"Comic books then. What kind of place is this?"

Denis pulled himself up off of the floor and growled. "It's a used book store. We also sell comic books." The man snorted in response. The girl fiddled with the hourglass necklace and frowned again. She looked up and motioned to the large man who came over to where she was.

"The hourglass was supposed to take us to the place where we were supposed to find the next bearer. The only person I see is this man though."

The tall man in the flannel looked at Denis and then rolled his eyes. "You have a point there m'lady. There is no way it could be him. I mean if it was, then we would have some serious problems."

Denis frowned as he brushed dust off of his shirt. He knew he would have to vacuum the carpeted floor before he left that night. The carpets were pretty dirty. He suddenly caught himself in what he was thinking and whirled on the two intruders. "All right then, you two had better be prepared to pay for that back door." Denis began to walk towards the phone once more, but he stopped dead in his tracks when the cowbell above the door rang once more. Denis froze in mid-step and stared at the door. The big man turned slowly around as the girl managed to peak around him.

There in the doorway, a young boy huffed and puffed for breath. Behind him, dressed in a thick coat and also gasping, was an even younger girl. The boy looked up through mussed red hair and long bangs and while gasping for breath said, "We arrived... as soon as... we possibly... could!" The boy continued to pant and the girl was too busy trying to catch her breath to say anything.

“Chris? What are you doing here?” Drew frowned at the boy as he tried to catch his breath.

“I'm... so... sorry,” Chris gasped. He pointed towards he back room and then finally having caught his breath said, “Edie left a note for people if this happened not on her watch. It's on the shelf on the back wall, on top of the books.” The girl with the lumberjack tapped her foot and Chris' sister, Sarah, was hiding behind him and had also caught her breath. Denis frowned and then shrugged his shoulders and walked back to where the “office” was.

Hole in the Wall was laid out as if someone had lived there at one time and the patio area had been converted to the front entrance and the register area as well as where they kept the anthologies. Right before that there was a sliding glass door and a small inset where a crowded desk and chair sat; the office. On the back wall, the oldest books that Edie kept in the store were stored. On top of the books, a small white envelope that Denis had never noticed was siting collecting dust. Drew stood on top of the ancient chair and grabbed the envelope.

Walking back to the magazine racks, he opened the envelope and then read what was written in Edie's elegant script:


Workers,

I am so terribly sorry that I did not inform you before hand, but the curtain in the back is really important. Besides simply preventing the basement from causing a draft in the store (not very well I might add), it is also a portal pit stop. Do not ask how, but I can explain why. My husband saw it, bought it from a strange man (I think it was the gypsies down the street, damn them) and used it. Usually people only come though on the weekends, which is why I work, but just in case someone comes on a weekday, let them do their thing; don't bother them, they won't bother you. You can also let them use the bathroom if you need to. If a man comes through asking for a book called “Alefile's Alchemy”, we do not have it in stock and probably never will.

Thank you,

Edie

P.S. Don't tell anyone, and place the letter back where you found it. If things get too complicated, ask the Puzzle Gnome.


Denis stared at the letter for a moment and then looked up at Chris. He then looked at the little girl and the lumberjack man. Sarah moved from behind Chris and the girl in the white dress looked relieved and stretched out her hands as if in a motion for a hug.

“Thank gods, I found you!” Sarah smiled shyly and then walked forward to within distance of the girl's outstretched hands and placed her own in the girl's. “My name is Amantha. It is a pleasure to finally meet you.” Amantha squeezed Sarah's hands happily.

Denis stammered. “Portal?”

Everyone ignored him.

“My name is Sarah and this is my older brother Chris.” Chris nodded his head and smiled as well.

Amantha pointed to the large lumberjack man behind her and said, “This oaf is named Gavon.”

Gavon frowned, “Would it kill you to give me a proper introduction at one time in your life?”

Amantha rolled her eyes, something that Denis thought that he would never see in a girl who was as poised as she was. “Fine then,” said Amantha, “Gavon Thorson.” Gavon smiled and his chest puffed up even more than it already was.

“Pleasure to meet you Lady.” Gavon bowed to Sarah and she blushed.

Denis tried to interject once more. “Portal? That thing is a portal?” Even though he said it louder, no one still paid any attention to him.

Chris moved around his sister and then spoke directly to Amantha. “I trust it then that we got here on time?”

Amantha nodded her head. “Yes, you made it on time, so I can assume that you got my message.” Chris nodded his head in a rather enthusiastic way. Sarah continued to smile.

“I think then we are all ready to go then?” Amantha smiled and began to move back towards the mystery section when Denis interjected.

“Wait now. First I hear there is a portal here and now I am expected to let you just take these kids to God knows where?”

Amantha shook her head and said, “Gods.” Denis looked at her with confusion.

“What?”

Amantha frowned and said, “You said 'god knows where'. That is incorrect, it is supposed to be gods, not God.”

Denis felt his eye twitch before he began to get mad. “No, I refuse. I won't let you take these children with you. I have duty and a responsibility to make sure that my customers are taken care of and you most certainly are not allowing for that to happen.” Denis stomped his foot down and he watched as Amantha rolled her eyes.

“This is hardly the case. I am simply here to collect the next Lady of the Glass. Would you kindly stay out of it?”

“Here here, let the Lady do as she wishes. It hardly has anything to do with you.” Gavon finished talking with a large nod of his head at the end.


Chris moved forward and patted Denis on the shoulder. “It's fine. Don't worry about it. We will be out of your hair momentarily.”

“This is to much,” Denis looked back at the note and then scrunched up his face as he read the post script. What the hell was a puzzle gnome?

Denis frowned and then looked at the wall where the hanging was. "I have a portal that functions in my store now, a pair of random people who are from Canada, without accents I might add," he paused to shake his head. Amantha raised her hand in order to get attention.

"I never said that we were from Canada here, we are from a different Canada." She stated her fact as if it was the real truth and nothing else mattered.

"A different Canada?" Chris looked at them as if the idea truly fascinated him.

Gavon frowned. "It's not just Canada that is different," he looked over at Amantha who frowned and then she shook her head.

Sarah looked forward and then waved her hand. "I think it's my turn?"

They all looked to the small girl and then Amantha smiled and said, "Yes, you are quite right. Let's get started then shall we?"

It's Thursday! Update Time!

So I am trying really hard to keep up with the schedule that I gave myself and am trying really hard to keep up with it. Seriously I am. I now have a new job that allows me to write a lot more than I originally did in my old job. It also allows me a lot more time to do such things. Granted, I am not always going to be at home when I write and sometimes, I will admit, I do feel a little lazy, but I will strive to show that I can make the deadlines that I give to myself.

However, I will note something rather ridiculous in my own way. A fellow reader pointed out to me that part of Amaretto's Tale is missing! In an effort to make sure that everyone can read it, I am going to put up some redux posts. These posts will be labeled in the Archive and I am also going to put up links here within this post as soon as I am done. So wish me luck!

UPDATE!! Febuary 4th, 2011

So I have the new Grain Redux posts to place here. Before you ask, there is no Grain 11... the reason why is because the original Grain 11 was actually a drawn post. Since I cannot find the original drawing, I am hunting it down, but in the meantime:

Grain Redux 1

Grain Redux 2

Grain Redux 3

Grain Redux 4

Grain Redux 5

Grain Redux 6

Grain Redux 7

Grain Redux 8

Grain Redux 9

Grain Redux 10

Grain Redux 12

Noir... Hardboiled.

I love Noir. Deep, dark, nitty-gritty storyline. The ones that make you jump and the ones that make you seem like you know what is going on, only to find out that you don't. The whole thing is twisted around and you feel like this is the last shot that you have before something bigger happens.

Originally it was called Hardboiled, and it was known as a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories. However, it was even more distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex, and do I mean a lot of violence and sex. Originally it was published in Pulp magazines. It was where the Maltese Falcon was published for the first time. Noir was a sub-genre where the protagonist is usually not a detective, but instead either a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator. They were someone tied directly to the crime, not an outsider called to solve or fix the situation. Other common characteristics were the emphasis on sexual relationships and the use of sex to advance the plot and the self-destructive qualities of the lead characters.

However, Noir is a dying breed. Now I don't mean that in a bad way, nor in a good way. After all, Noir is probably what makes the current craze of Urban fiction so popular. Noir is the basis of the new Urban Fiction line of books. All those authors out there, from Jim Butcher (Dresden Files) and Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Books) to Lilith Saintcrow (Jill Kistmit, Hunter Books) and even Sergei Lukyanenko (The Night Watch Series), all of these series involve the supernatural and the same kind of Noir type writing style. They are fantastic.

However, I must insist that someone else has also thought of this as well. I now point you to one of my favorite sites, io9, to an article that they too have on this very same matter and insist that you read it and familiarize yourself with their point of view as well as with the Manifesto that was written to this extent.

The Link is here...

Please read it and see what I also see in this and make some comments!

Concept Art!

So I stumbled upon some of the most beautiful art from one of my favorite books ever. The Phantom Tollbooth is about a boy named Milo who was always bored and could never seem to find anything to do... that is until he receives a magical tollbooth in the mail. What followed was a fantastic journey, taken through many lands like Dictionopolis, The Doldrums, The Islands of Conclusions, Digitopolis, and even the Castle in the Sky. He meets up with Tock, a magical watch dog, the Humbug, Dr. Kakofonous A. Dischord and DYNNE, and even one of my favorite characters, the Mathemagician.

Needless to say, I must insert in here that this book is full of fond memories and a wonderful love of puns comes from this when it comes specifically from the English language when taken literally. I came across some concept art by someone who has re-imagined the settings in which they took place. I hope that you will have as much fun with it as I did and be transported once again to the fabled lands within the Kingdom of Wisdom and feel compelled, like I did, to reread the novel once more.

Concept Art for The Phantom Tollbooth

A Terrifying Vision?

So I was wandering my favorite News sites when I came across this link:

Good Heavens

It gave me the giggles I must admit. No net neutrality and e-publishing dominating the world. I can see it now, a world much like Minority Report and The Fifth Element all smashed up: awesome clothes and no hiding from anything you could do. Imagine, You go to write something, much like a satire and BOOM! the police come crashing in though the roof and arresting you because your satire was going to be written on a piece of paper and you were not going to publish the satire, but try to self publish it.

...

I know it sounds ridiculous, but it made a funny picture in my head. Seriously. I totally mean it.

Of course that was only after reading what Cheryl Morgan had to say on it. I have to say though, some of the other people there also have valid points, but still, totally give it a look-see. Its amazing.

Something Random...

I'll be honest... I didn't have anything to really post today, so instead, I have this little piece here:




Have fun today.

This post is made possible by the wonderful people at mildlyhotpeppers.com.

I love their comics sometimes and they are sometimes just a little silly, but today, I feel a little silly is needed. Click on the picture to make it all good.

Children's Books

I'm posting this now on Monday, because I am not sure if I will be able to post on Tuesday this week. So I will post this cute little reworking about children's books in the name of Science Fiction. Yes there are only three of them, but I figured that you all might enjoy it.

Books for fun...

The Joys of the Rewrite...

Some authors, if you ask them, will say they wrote exactly what they meant to, word for word, page for page, leading you down into their interpritation of reality as if it was seamless and required no after thought. Some authors will admit to painstacking brain and writer's block, horrific times double checking sections of their writing to make sure that all was as they had wished it to be. Some will however, go so far as to tell you that they re-wrote the whole novel after beginning it, some will even tell you that there were multiple re-writes.

Then there are the relative few (or many, depending on how you view it), that rewrite their books after they have been published. You heard me right. Many authors, contrary to teh belief, rewrite their books after they have already been published. The following is an article about just that phenomenon. See if you have ever noticed these, though many of them are older books, they are still fantastical books. Enjoy:

Writer's who Rewrite

More on Borders...

Borders has always been one of my favorite book companies. So much so that I worked for them at one time, however I am becoming more and more concerned with the way that the company is trending into bankruptcy. Today I saw another article in yahoo news about borders, mainly this one, and I have to say, I have been seeing a lot of articles like this one all over the place. Almost every day, there is something new about how borders is failing as a company. That's not right. As a Brick and Mortar supporter, I recently spent over $300 in online orders from them because of their coupons. However, one of the things that makes it so hard for Borders appears to be their inability to keep up. Rather than creating a book reader all on their own, they have relied on Sony, Kobo, and Cruz as their dealers in teh new digital age of e-readers. Barns and Noble's Nook has done so fantastically that it is now almost on par with the Kindle, Amazon's one-two hit KO machine in the ePub world.

Now the only other thing that concerns me is the fact that because they have so much diversity, they assumed that they would be able to capture the market of people who did not want to get something so expensive as their competitor's models. B&N and Amazon dropped their prices drastically, leaving the bookseller in the dust.

To make matters worse, Barnes and Noble released an ap for the iPad which was a Nook app designed jsut for kids, thus widening the playing field for color eBooks with Apple. What has Borders done in terms of applications for various things? There is indeed a Borders App, which is power by Kobo, but that seems to be it and all that it is there for it. The application is free too, so that means that Borders does not neccisarily have anything on it's bottom line.

However, do not think that Borders is the only one in the lurch. Barnes and Noble is also in tehir own form of litigation. Currently, they are being sued for their Nook display by fellow eBook company Spring Design, who designed the fellow Alex eReader. They claimed that they shared the idea for teh dual screens with B&N, and that B&N stole the design from them and released their eReader early to compete with Amazon. The logistics of the case can be read here.

Needless to say, the state of Book stoday is in a strange and sorry mess. I am hoping that at some point in the near future, we will not have to close down our beloved Brick and Mortar stores in favor of Amazons large eStore. While eBooks are fun and easier to carry, I will shudder at teh day that real books are no longer able to be sold. This is one reader who still prefers to hold an actual bound copy in his hands.

New Writers are Schlock?

British writer Edward Docx has recently in the pages of the Guardian, blasted literature. Wait, I must be a little clearer. Literature was fine, it was the genre fiction that he was unhappy about. To be specific, it was actually a blast on the fact that there was a lot of people reading it. The fact that everyone seemed to love reading it too was apparently shocking and also a little unnerving to him as well. To put it exactly as he said it, and I quote:

"I realise we are sailing into choppy waters here. With Larsson now dead and so decent a chap, how dare I go up on deck and start explaining – amid the storms of publicity and howl of Hollywood and the relentless sluicing of the sales – that his work is not very good even by the standards of his genre?"

Not only does Docx say that Larson is not particularly good, he also states that Dan Brown is the same way. To read the rest of the article, please refer to the following link here.

To add more fuel to this fire, there are a few other people who are in the same boat and have similar views and even discuss as to why it is that these novels seem to be so popular. For example, Laura Miller wrote on why we love horribly written novels. The link for that would be here.

I would weigh in more, but I sadly must head towards my bed. Good night all.

Astrology has a new Bent...

So recently, I was just told about the fact that there might be a change in the Astrology signs that we all know and have come to enjoy having in our lives. Here is the article. It's not what I originally wanted to put up, but it is something that is amusing and I think I will write a short story about it in the near future... so think of it as a way to archive it for myself?

Zodiac Signs Power! Activate?!

Posting A New Schedual

So as everyone knows, I am absolutly horrible with time. I am good with deadlines, but sometimes, people are just not nice and do not accept said deadlines and are very dissapproving of said deadlines and even try their hardest to distract me so tha tI am not able to reach said deadlines (and I am telling you, sometimes it is so easy considering that... oh! Shiney!)

... Ahem...

As I was saying... I will now have a new update schedual. I will try to have it all ironed out by the begining of Febuary, since there are somethings that I absolutly must finish and post as soon as I can. In the meantime the schedual for the upcoming year is going to look a little like this:

Monday:
Tuesday: AuthorBlog
Wednesday: The Time in Between
Thursday:AuthorBlog
Friday: AuthorBlog/The Time in Between
Saturday:
Sunday: PernishiaBlog (pending game)

Originally, Pernishia was supposed to update on Saturday, but because we no longer play game on Friday night and have since moved it to Sunday night... I figure why not. Mondays and Saturdays I am currently off. Even I need some time away from my craft, though Ideally, I would love to write something every night, but I simply don't have the dedication yet, nor the discipline, which I am working on.

In the meantime, I should probobly go back to work. Night all!