Pistons-and-Potions

Watch Out! Oh, never mind...

2012-01-23T14:58:00.000-05:00

Being that I love Calvin and Hobbes, and am a Spiderman fan, I found this artwork by Timothy Lim and just had to share it! I found it on a site called Comicsalliance, which assembles top comic artwork every week.

Calvin vs. Venom - hmmm, I wonder who would actually win...

And Now for Something Completely Different...

2012-01-16T10:20:00.000-05:00

For you writers out there - if you’re working on a project and get stuck, or hit a brick wall, try this; jump to a different project - either something new or one you haven’t touched in a while. This may help in three areas.

One - many writers have said to continually write, almost every day if possible, to keep the gears oiled. If you find you can’t write one story, write another, and this way you’re still writing something.

Two - giving your brain a break from a story may help solve the problem. It’s believed that even while we’re not actively working on a problem, some part of our brain is still chewing away on it, and when we come back to it, the answer is sometimes just waiting to pop to the surface. This has worked for me on more than a few occasions.

Three - You may find that the “interim project” you pick up actually has much merit and may end up being your next great novel. Who knows? At the moment I have three different story ideas currently in the works. This way, if I “dry up” on one, I have two others that inspiration may strike for.

Now, all this is to lead up to one of my “interim projects”. While I’m trying to fix issues with “The Nightmare Plague”, my daughter told me that an acting troupe she has performed with wanted to bring some gothic horror to the stage. My mind immediately jumped to the scariest stuff I’ve ever read; the works of HP Lovecraft. Now, most of his stories could never be depicted on a stage (if you’ve ever read his stuff, you’ll know what I’m talking about, or just look at the picture),

so I took this as a challenge. Could I turn one of his stories into a stage play? As I perused his stories, one stood out as a possibility. I dove into it, and as a result, ended up having a great time adapting it. There were inherent problems, the result of the difference between the framework of a book and the limitations of a stage, but solving them was a fun mental exercise. And I think I succeeded. Writing it took about 6 months, and the script is right now in the hands of one of the lead actors. Hopefully the play will see the “light of day” on the stage (or more fittingly, perhaps I should say the play will see the “gloom of night” on stage!). Anyways, the play is based on Lovecraft’s “The Thing on the Doorstep”, and since other acting companies may want to perform it, I am posting a portion of Act I in a link on the right side. If a group is interested in performing it, contact me and I’ll provide the script. It’s a full-length 2-act play, a labor of love, and I humbly think it’s one of the best stage adaptations of an HP Lovecraft story. Enjoy!

My Solution to a 2,000 Year-Old Mystery

2011-08-26T15:25:00.005-04:00

I've moved this lengthy posting to its own page on the right. It's deeply religious, so if you like that kind of thing, go click on it and enjoy! If ramblings about God aren't your thing, you can stay right here and enjoy this little bit of zombie tattoo funness! (click on it to see it move and feed)

Updated page!

2011-08-12T13:13:00.001-04:00

The World of Mortar & Pestle link to the right now has new information (Thrannynn has revealed his sources so people won't think he's crazy (er)), and I've added a synopsis of what my novel is about. Let me know what you think!

Crossover Pt. II

2011-07-21T09:58:00.003-04:00

You’re sitting there in your recliner, remote in hand, and the game is blacked out. Frustrated, you could throw your can of beer at the dog, but it’s still half full. That’d be alcohol abuse. “Ma, is there anything on the tube tonight?” you ask to the delicate, house-coated flower slouched on the sofa.

“Nope,” she drawls back at you, scratching at a roller in her hair.

A wistful look crosses your face. “You know what I could be in the mood for?”

“Nope.”

“A movie. An Action, Comedy, Martial Arts, Paranormal, Fantasy Romance movie. And maybe has trucks in it. And beer. Oh, and gorgeous women, too.”

You get a dirty look from your sofa sweet-potato. Then a snort. “Ain’t no movie like that, Klem. Not in all of God’s green goodness.”

But she’d be wrong. There is such a movie, Klem. An underrated gem from the mind of John Carpenter, called…

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA

This movie clearly had to be the next choice for recognition, because it actually contains pistons and potions! I love this film, cheesy lines and all. And the opening scene sets the stage marvelously.

A Chinese tour bus driver, Egg Shen, gets hauled in for questioning regarding some bizarre events in Chinatown. With an skeptical look on his face, the lawyer asks, “Do you really expect me to believe in Sorcery?”, to which Egg replies, “of course…”

This is the audience’s cue to hold on for one of the most twisted rides of their lives, at breakneck eighteen-wheeler speed. There are more genres crammed into this movie than you can shake a pair of chopsticks at. When truck driver Jack Burton (played by Kurt Russell) rolls into Chinatown in his rig, he is unprepared for the series of events that will entangle him in a web of gang wars, kidnappings, ancient specters, demon curses, underground slave rings and alchemy.

While most of this is commonplace to the denizens of Chinatown, its great fun watching a bumbling truck driver try to make sense of it all, and not lose his brash bravado in the process. Jack Burton meets the forces of darkness, natural and supernatural alike, with heroic lines like: “It’s all in the reflexes!” and “I was born ready!” Cheesy – yes, but all delivered tongue-in-cheek and with a knowing wink. This movie is too fun not to watch.

To give you an idea of what you’re in for, one of my favorite scenes in the movie has the heroes looking, dumbfounded, at a mystical creature of legend through which the evil Lo Pan is talking. Jack quickly wearies of the menacing monologing, and proceeds to plug the monster in the head with a bullet. To everyone’s surprise, it actually has the result of driving the beast away, screaming in pain. Jack’s reply to their amazed looks? “Hey, you never know until you try!”

Good words, not only to take with you into this film, but to live life with as well. Go shake the pillars of heaven!

The Crossover Conundrum

2011-06-29T15:17:00.002-04:00

I love mixing genres. Why merely read a mystery, when you can read a paranormal/fantasy/mystery? Why watch an action movie, when you can revel in a comedy/horror/action movie? Not only do I get more bang for my buck, but the blending of genres often produces a synergy that creates more than the sum of its parts. A more complete world. After all, don’t we find humor and disgust, benevolence and violence, banality and mystery all around us, all the time? So I find myself searching it out in media as well, and I present the start of a new blog thread, where I will highlight some of those gems that are sometimes overlooked, oft scorned, but such fun to those willing to look in a different direction.

Because I am mixing genres – obviously Fantasy and Steampunk – in my novel, I first turn my eyes to other entries in that same arena. So today’s entry is…

HELLBOY

There is Steampunk and Fantasy all through this film (technically, it’s more dieselpunk than steampunk, but that’s a discussion for another time), based on the gorgeous comics by Mike Mignola. A perfect example appears in the first ten minutes of the film. Pictured here is the electric-and-vacuumtubed glove that is donned by Rasputin to open a portal to the prison-dimension of the Ogdru Jahad.

And then there's Kroenen, clockwork assassin who is forever tinkering with himself. The final battle of the movie takes place in a vast underground complex riddled with gear and pendulum traps.

But in contrast, we have Hellboy himself, a creature of fantasy, who is equally at home with charms and talismans as he is with a steroidal sidearm.

The second movie, HELLBOY II THE GOLDEN ARMY, has even more of the mix, as Big Red squares off against an ancient race from the time of fantasy who commands a mechanical army. My verdict: underrated fun! More to come...

It’s a Bi-Polar World After All…

2011-05-18T08:56:00.000-04:00

My apologies to those of you who have subjected yourselves (or been forced to be subjected by an insistent child) to the Small World ride at Disneyworld – because you probably have a certain tune now pierced into your head like a talon (and it never leaves! For days!) Force yourself to think of something else. Here, I’ll help: Why is Jarick and Janthine’s world so messed up? I thought who better to explain it than an actual denizen of that world – the master Alchemist Thrannynn! You can read his notes under the "World of Mortar & Pestle" link to the right and gain a rare, behind-the-scenes look at what awaits within the novel. Enjoy!

God may have done it in six days - mine's taking a little longer...

2011-05-17T10:40:00.000-04:00

Done what in six days? What am I blathering about? World-building, of course. It may have started on earth, but when you write Fantasy, strange things happen along the way. Sometimes I feel like I'm in control of creation, but other times the world takes on a life of its own and we just have to try and hang on for dear life...Such is the case with my current project - Mortar & Pestle and the Nightmare Plague, a middle grade novel in which a brother and sister, Jarick and Janthine Grimes, must confront deadly forces on a bi-polar world. Split-personality earth? Well, their world has a north and south pole, so I guess bi-polar is accurate...but no! I have given it a split personality (poor thing), and no fun for the people living on it! To find out what's going on there, I will have a link put up soon for you to check out, and I will post more about the book's publishing as new updates come in. Thanks!