Posts Tagged ‘celebrities’

Conversations with Angela Misri

Posted: March 31, 2014 in Author Interciew, Living and Life, Novel, Writing
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Some of you may be acquainted with Angela, or have heard me gush over her awesome feedback to my novel Snake. But did you know that Angela’s first novel, Jewel of the Thames, has just been released (I’ve already got it on my Kindle)? When I heard about it, I was so excited for her, and I got the chance to interview her before JotT came out.

Angela was born in London, England, but currently she lives in Toronto, Canada with her family. She has been writing for a number of years, most notably for CBC Radio as a journalist. She also does freelance and digital projects on the side, but currently she’s been devoting her time to the Portia Adams books she’s been writing (last I checked she’s got around eight or nine casebooks in the series).  She is a fan of mysteries, Doctor Who, and most stuff Sherlock Holmes (but not Elementary).

RU: Hello Angela, it’s a pleasure to talk to you. Give us an idea about what Jewel of the Thames is about.

AM: Sure Rami: Jewel of the Thames is the first book in a series of stories about aspiring detective Portia Adams. It is also an homage to my favourite detective novels – the Sherlock Holmes books, the Nancy Drews, the Hercule Poirots. All of the books I read from childhood till now, and all the great authors who inspired me to create this character. So far in this series, I have written ten casebooks – cases that Portia has taken on – and the first three make up Jewel of the Thames.

There is a lot that had to happen in the first book – Portia needs to find out what her link is to the property she has inherited in London, and she needs to start standing on her own. The whole book is three casebooks wrapped in a mystery driving towards a big reveal at the end. You’re gonna have to read it to find out what the heck I’m talking about.
RU: Considering my level of confusion and intrigue, I will. Now tell us a little about your protagonist, Portia Adams. Who is she exactly?

AM: Hmm, what can I tell you without spoiling it? She’s a 19 year old Canadian who at the very beginning of the books loses her mom, leaving her a poor orphan in 1930s Toronto. It is at the reading of her mother’s will that she discovers she has been left a mysterious property in London and that she has a guardian – Mrs. jones from New York.

Portia is an intelligent introvert who has always preferred books and quiet to social situations, she loves school, hates fashion, often forgets to eat and has no friends. This is partially because she’s viewed as odd and anti-social despite her mother’s best efforts. Her overwhelming curiosity leads her to what interests her rather than what others are focused on, and gives her a focus most don’t understand.
She’s tall and slim, with dark brown hair which she wears unfashionably long and usually in a bun, with startling blue eyes. Feel like you know her a little better?
RU: Maybe just a bit. What do you say your writing process is?
AM:  write long-hand in Moleskin notebooks, so for Jewel, my writing time was my commute back and forth to my full-time job in downtown Toronto. So for 30 minutes in each direction on transit twice a day I would write about Portia Adams, ignoring the smells, sounds and closeness of the Toronto Transit crowd. As a result, I have about 30 Moleskin notebooks filled with my handwriting in lots of colours detailing Portia’s adventures.

Angela and her moleskin notebooks

RU: Wow, that kind of writing schedule requires tenacity. What do you think will draw people to Jewel and to Portia?

AM: Hmm… I guess the same things that drew me to her – a young female protagonist who is learning to stand on her own – I find that premise compelling. Her relationships are part of what make her the woman she is, and as those develop I think she will become an unforgettable character, as will the recurring characters around her like Brian, Sergeant Michaels and Mrs. Jones. That’s how I feel about her at least, I find that even when I’m not writing about Portia, I’m thinking about her. I’ve got a bit of a WWPD mentality in my own life, so that when things happen, I often think What Would Portia Do?

It doesn’t hurt that the setting is London in the 1930s, a really interesting time in history between the two great wars and smack in the middle of the great depression. I hope that people come to care for Portia, because I know from my own experience as a reader that a connection with the characters is key. I guess I will be looking for that kind of feedback from book 1 as I get into the editing phase of books 2 and 3.
RU: Speaking of Books 2 and 3, are you going to continue writing and editing on the bus to and from work, or have things changed since you found out Jewel of the Thames was going to be published?

AM: Things have indeed changed, but actually before I got my contract for Jewel. Last June, after I finished writing the third book in the series, I decide it was time to concentrate my time on this part of my life. I’ve spent the past 14 years working as journalist for the CBC, I think it’s fair to try ‘something else’ for a while.

So I work from home now as a freelance journalist and so far I’m loving it. I try to write a few hours every morning (in the series on book 4, blogging, research) and then spend the afternoons working my freelance contracts. I think I’ve hit a rhythm that works for me, so we’ll see how it goes.
RU: I’m glad it’s working out for you. And you know, I feel kind of bad, because I forgot you were also a journalist for the CBC. How did you get into writing and journalism in the first place? What inspired you to go down that path?

AM: (Laughs)  Don’t feel bad about that! But to answer that question, I’m going to steal from the bio I wrote for my publishers last week:

“Everything changed for young Angela Misri one spring day in 1992 at an assembly in the gym where, as per usual, she was giggling and whispering with her friends in the audience. Suddenly her name was called by the Principal of the school and she was jostled out from the safety of the herd and to the front of the room. Having not really listened to the preceding speech, she was shocked to learn that a poem she had written as part of a school assignment had been published in an anthology of like-quality poems by Canadian children. The Principal smiled the biggest smile she had ever seen on a teacher, and handed her a copy of the coil-bound anthology, turning the young poet towards the audience of her schoolmates and starting the applause that followed her back to her safe haven between her best friends.
That was the moment when Angela discovered that despite being of Indian descent, there were in fact other options for your life’s work than medicine or engineering.”
So there you are! That was the moment for me, and I’ve been writing ever since. I wrote my first book when I was your age, Rami. It’s a historical fiction called ‘Savitri’ and it’s sitting upstairs in a binder. The only other copy is on a floppy disk (no, I’m not kidding, that’s how long ago it was since I was your age ; ) . I haven’t read it in about 15 years and I will admit, that I am scared to. I’m worried that the vision of the story (which I still think is the best I ever wrote) will not live up to reality.
RU: That’s a problem that a lot of authors face when they think of their early stories. So how did you come up with the Portia Adams stories?

AM: It was after reading the Stephen King short story called ‘The Doctor’s Case’ that the idea for Portia came to me. If you haven’t read it, I suggest you do, it’s one of my favourites. As the title suggests, its an original Holmes-Watson story with a twist – Watson solves the case before the great detective. I loved that idea, and Portia started to form in my mind as a kind of homage to King and Conan Doyle.

The first case I wrote jumped straight into the jewel thefts and was over in less than 12 thousand words. I read it over a few times and realized that if this was going to be more than a short-story, I need to write some backstory for my detective. So I went back, created a beginning for Portia, and did a whole bunch more research into the time period, the whole family tree of Holmes, Watson and many others from the original canon. Once I had expanded Portia’s world to about 20 thousand words, I had the idea for the third case in the book – the one that happens on the train. I wrote that in two days and then, rereading it, decided I needed another case between the jewel thief and the train story because she was moving around too much. I felt she needed more time to get to know London and to get comfortable with her new College, so I wrote the casebook I called “A Case of Darkness.”
RU: What’s next for you?
AM: Wonderful, an easy question! I have written books 2 and 3 of this series already, so my next steps are to edit the heck out of them for my publishers and get them into production! I have also started a new dystopic novel that I’d like to carve out some time to write.
RU: Ooh, that sounds interesting. Now just a couple more questions. First, how have your family and friends reacted to the news about Jewel?

AM: They’re very excited but not really surprised. I guess it’s normal for me to be the most nervous about putting my work out there (since it’s mine) but most of my friends and family told me it was just a matter of time before I would get published. I don’t know if they were just saying that to be supportive, but I was no where near as confident. Now that it is really happening and there is a date when a physical book will be available in stores, their excitement has doubled. Seriously, I have the most supportive network – and that includes this blog and you Rami!

RU: I’m happy to be a part of that network, and I’m glad you’re a part of mine. Now here’s a fun question: if some big Hollywood producer came up to you and said they wanted to make a movie or TV show about Portia, who would you want to play the characters?

AM: I LOVE this question as you well know, because I’ve spent too much time thinking about it.

So I would love Katie McGrath (of BBC’s Merlin) to play Portia. I think she has the right balance of beauty and bark that my detective needs. I believe Jensen Ackles (of the CW’s Supernatural) would make a kick-ass Brian. And I think Irene Jones would benefit from the beauty and wit of someone like Lynda Carter (original Wonder Woman).
RU: Since I don’t know who those people are, I’ll take your word for it that they’re perfect for the roles. Final question: If you were stuck on a desert island and could only take three books with you, what would those books be?
AM: Hmm.. I guess Stephen King’s The Stand, Tolkein’s The Two Towers, and Conan Doyle’s Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. If I had a fourth option I’d have to take an Ann Rice. Can I please take my iPad instead Rami? I’m going to need more books than the average human.
I’d say yes, but there’s the question of charging it when the battery gets low. And the lack of a Wi-Fi network. Anyway, thanks for joining us, Angela.
If you would like to find out more about Angela, you can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest, as well as on her blog a Portia Adams adventure.

Coming Out

Posted: March 25, 2014 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership, Reflections, Social Activism
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This year in Ohio, same-sex marriage is on the ballot. As someone who supports LGBT rights, I’m throwing my support in for anyone who wants to marry someone regardless of their sex. It’s only just right.

But besides that, there’s something else I want to share with you all. I’m bisexual. I’ve been bisexual for nearly 21 years (though I’ve only just recently realized it) and I’ll be bisexual for the rest of my life. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

For those of you who aren’t very well-versed in bisexuality (or in the LGBT community at all, for that matter), this only means that I am attracted to men as well as women. I don’t really have a preference or a set type. All I care about is that I’m happy with the person I’m with and if they’re happy with me. I’m not confused or unsure of which one I really like, as some–even members of the LGBT community–might think. I also am not confused, living a horrid lifestyle, or have the Devil whispering in my ear (I think he’d rather whisper in the ears of Assad or Putin than in mine). It’s a biological trait based on a combination of several genes, and there could be a good argument that it runs in my family.

Also, I’m not oversexed or always looking at guys and girls in a sexual way. If I’m oversexed it’s because I’m a healthy young man in college, and we’re all oversexed to some degree. Also, don’t flatter yourself. I don’t look at every person hoping and praying for a hook-up, including you. I’m not even sure what my type is, so don’t assume you’re it. And I’m also not looking to molest kids or brainwash kids. The monsters who molest kids are only looking for power over victims or because they can’t rise to the occasion (so to speak) with adults, so they target kids. And you can’t brainwash kids to be LGBT: like I said before, it’s genetic. If you’re kid is LGBT, it’s because they were that way at conception. And the more you try to prove me wrong or pray away the gay or whatever, the more you’ll find I’m right.

And the LGBT community is not a cabal or a bunch of bullies. If there’s a cabal, gay marriage would already be legal in every nation on earth and anti-gay rhetoric would result in prison sentences. Also, calling us bullies is saying that a small minority, maybe 10-20% of the population at the most, is more powerful than the heterosexual majority and is able to beat up straight people on the streets. I really don’t think that’s the reality. Do you?

I also don’t let my sexuality define me. I’m not that kid from Glee who everybody identifies as “the gay guy” or “the gay guy with the really high voice”. I identify more with the fact that I’m a horror writer or that I’m Jewish than I do with my sexuality. So if you start calling me “the bisexual horror writer”, I’ll counter that with “I’m a writer that just happens to be attracted to both men and women.” And most people wouldn’t realize my sexuality if they looked at me. They might realize I’m eccentric or not your ordinary college student. But my sexuality? I’d need to reveal it or be detected by an actual gaydar for people to realize it.

How did this post become a testimony for the fallacies with most anti-gay arguments and how people should treat me? I’m not sure, but I want to say that I’m happy to let people know finally about who I am and not have to keep it to myself like a disgusting burp. It’s just who I am, like my being a writer or Jewish or that I can make a conversation amusing and strange with just one sentence. Just one part of being me.

And if you don’t like what I am, if you believe differently about my sexuality, then that’s your choice. Just don’t leave hateful comments or try to tell me I can be cured or that I’m going to Hell. I don’t even believe in Hell! Judaism has no set definition of the afterlife. We’re more likely to be plagued by acid reflux than by an afterlife of fire and brimstone for our transgressions, and I’m already on antacids. But if you want to try to change me or make me feel bad for being who I am, then I don’t think we should associate too much, online or offline.

Finally, I would like to close this post with a big, hearty thank you for all of you who’ve supported me and continue to support me. The love I’ve received and the acceptance of who I am is overwhelming, and I’m happy to be surrounded by so many understanding and loving people. It’s great to be who I am and not punished for it. So I bid you adieu till next time, my Followers of Fear (which might be later today, who knows?). And let me say to all those who are suffering from bigotry, it gets better. Don’t despair, because there are so many people like you and we all love you regardless of who you’re attracted to. All you have to do is reach out, and we’ll be there for you.

In the meantime, please enjoy this awesome video: Same Love by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. It repeats a lot of what I’ve been saying here, and it is an anthem of love, truth, and hope for so many people out there. Please watch it with me. Thank you.

Conversations With Becket

Posted: March 7, 2014 in Author Interciew, Journalism, Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
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becket

Today’s interview is with indie author Becket, whose books include The Blood Vivicanti series and the Key The Steampunk Vampire Girl books, including the recently released The Tower Tomb of Time. When not writing, Becket works for author Anne Rice and is supplementing his education with a degree in psychology.

I had the chance to email Becket and learn a little bit about him, his books, and what it’s like to work for Anne Rice. It was definitely an enjoyable correspondence.

RU: So Becket, you’ve had quite the interesting life, working as an author, working for an author, and at one point you were a Benedictine monk. Makes me curious about what else you’ve done, so could you give us a brief history of yourself?

Becket: I entered the seminary when I was 21 because I wanted to deepen my relationship with God as well as be a minister of hope, faith, and love. I spent three years in the seminary, during which time I also finished my BA in music composition. Then in the summer of 2000, I entered a Benedictine monastery, St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, LA. The spiritual charisma of the monastic life appealed to my personality type. The monks lived a very silent life, guided by two principals of work and prayer. During my first year in the monastery, Anne Rice requested a harpsichord for a book signing in New Orleans. We monks had a very nice one; and the abbot asked me to deliver it because of my musical background – I had studied the instrument in college, along with several others. That was when Anne and I first met. We developed an email rapport over the next few years while I was earning my MA in theology. When I completed my degree in 2005, I decided that it was time for me to re-enter lay life and, needing a job, I emailed Anne, asking her fi she had a job on her staff for a former monk with a few degrees. She replied with a job offer. I’ve been with Anne ever since, studying the craft of writing under her guidance while also earning an MS in psychology.

RU: What is it like, working for Anne Rice? Besides the amount of jealousy you must receive from fans including myself, I mean.

Becket: What is it like, working for Anne Rice?

Working for Anne Rice is like working for a childhood hero. I first read Anne’s books when I was a teen. Being a lonely adolescent, an outsider, Anne’s words spoke to me powerfully – because her words have a wonderful way of showing empathy for the outsider/reader. Many days she and I talk about literature and the book publishing business. It is a continual learning experience. Every day I learn something helpful and significant about my writing, about the publishing of my own books, about my own capacity for problem-solving, about many things. But every day is a new experience because every day I’m presented with a new challenge. Before I started working for Anne, I had never used Photoshop. So to assist her as best as I could, I learned many new skills, such as photography, shooting video, proper lighting, sound engineering, etc. I also learned several programs in the Adobe Creative Suite, namely Photoshop, Illustrator, and even Premier Pro and After Effects. Most of those programs I use every day, whether it is creating an app for Anne, or posting an image, or editing a video for Youtube. And today all those programs have helped me greatly in my own work; they are invaluable book publishing tools. A successful indie author cannot live on Word alone.

RU: Tell me about it. iMovie and Photoshop have been great tools in the past for me. Now, you’re new book is the latest adventure for your character Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl. Tell us about her and the new book.

Becket: Key’s new adventure picks up where the last book left off: Key has just escaped from the Dungeon of Despair. Yet unlike the last book, which takes place over the course of 250 years, the course of this book happens in a single night. Key gets to do what she has not done in over two centuries: She gets to explore the City of the Dead. She rides a Hobbeetle, she meets the Worm King, she visits the Grave of the Grim Goblin, whose not as grim or dead as some people might think, and she does so much more! Ultimately she finds herself at the Tower Tomb of Time, which allows her to visit the moment when she was first made a vampire. She discovers the mystery behind her mom and dad’s disappearance, as well as the reason she was taken to the City of the Dead in the first place. In other words, The Tower Tomb of Time explores questions that were raised in The Dungeon of Despair.

RU: Some people would hesitate to write a vampire novel these days when most people associate vampires with Twilight. What made you decide to write about vampires?

Becket: Before there was Twilight, there was Anne Rice. She was ground breaking (and indeed she still is) in the sense that she made the vampire a Byronic hero – someone whom we could easily identify with. Moreover, being a vampire isn’t the story of Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl – which is fundamentally the case with Bella, the heroine of Twilight. Bella actively seeks to become a blood drinker. Key, on the other fang, like Anne’s Louis or Lestat, never wanted to be a vampire at all. Becoming what she is happened to her, and then lots more terrible things happened to her, and so she has to make the best of her situation. That kind of narrative ambience is what I strove to create when I wrote Key. I hope readers will associate with her story and say to himself or herself, “I know how she feels being in the Dungeon of Despair, or confronting the Worm King, or revisiting a past that was hitherto forsaken.” Additionally, I hope readers would also feel inspired by Key’s successes and victories over personal demons. Key’s story is a coming of age story.

RU: What is your writing process like for you?

Becket: Generally my process begins with an idea, which usually comes to me while I’m writing another book. I write down that idea, and if it stays with me for some time, I will jot down notes about potential plot development, prose style, themes, and so on. When I finish one novel, I immediately begin another; there is no waiting for me. I write every day. It is a routine. And the routine for starting new novels is grounded in two goals: (1) the long-term goal of my book, and (2) the short-term goal of my daily writing. My long-term goal is the size of the book that I want to write, and I generally determine that by comparing it with other books. For instance, I know that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is about 25,000 words. So if I am seeking to create a children’s story, such as Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl, I will make the long-term goal of my first draft comparable to 25,000 words. My short-term goal is the amount of words that I will write in a day. On average my goal is at least 1000 words a day; usually I write more, often twice as much; and some times I write fewer words. The point isn’t perfection: It’s progress. As long as I am writing, I am coming closer to the completion of a book.

RU: I admire your tenacity. Now what are some tips you might have for other self-published authors, such as myself, on writing and getting your work out there?

Becket: The beauty of indie-publishing is in the word “indie” – independent. This is a quintessential word to keep in mind because, if a writer gets embroiled in the industry of professional book publishing, that writer would lose some degree of control. The writer would usually not be able to control, for instance, interior or exterior formatting. In other words, you would probably have little to say in the creation of your book jacket. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard professionally published authors complain about their book jacket, how it does not look like the story they told. Other authors have complained about the struggle they have with their editor or copy editor, how important words will be edited out, or how sometimes sentences or pages completely rewritten. There are some authors who want to be controlled like that. And that is good! Great books have been written with the help of excellent editors. But finding such an editor is like finding love in your life: It usually happens when you least expect it. Being an indie-author means controlling every element of your work. I like this, not micro-managing, but being purposeful and meaningful with every element that I produce.

RU: I love that independence too. It’s gone well for me. So what’s next for you, Becket?

Becket: The Blood Vivicanti Parts 5 and 6 will come in March and April. And after that, I will be publishing a book titled, The Door to Heaven, which is about a boy whose life is changed forever when he encounters an old man’s face on the doorknob to the Door to Heaven.

RU: That “Door To Heaven” sounds very Stephen King-ish. Last question: If you were stranded on a desert island and could only take three books with you, which books would you take?

Becket: Well, I am a man of faith and prayer, so I would probably take the ESV Bible (because I like that translation), The Imitation of Christ, and a book of blank pages, so that my mind could fill it up with my own stories.

RU: I love it when authors say they want to bring a blank notebook with them. Shows their true writing spirit, in some ways. Well, thanks for joining us, Becket, and best of luck to you.

If you’d like to find out more about Becket or check out some of his books, you can check out his website, his Facebook page, Twitter feed, and get personally autographed copies from the Changing Hands Bookstore.

Our next scheduled interview is March 31st with author and dear friend Angela Misri, who will be talking about her debut novel Jewel of the Thames. So get excited for that!

Sales In Self-Publishing

Posted: January 20, 2014 in Reflections, Writing
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Some people think that anyone who’s published a book must be very talented  and rolling in money. I’m going to leave the question of talent to the side for another post, and focus on sales, particularly sales in the world of self-publishing.

I published my first book in July last year and my first novel in November. As a self-published author, a college student, and a guy working at Ohio State’s Student Financial Aid office part-time for nine bucks an hour, I couldn’t exactly afford an advertising team to help me spread the word about my books. I’m completely reliant on my blog, every social media platform I can get my hands on and learn to use, and the spoken word, along with any contacts I can make in the writing industry.

Truth is, most writers don’t make that much money out of their craft, especially if they’re self-published and doing a lot of the work on their own. Most writers usually have teaching jobs or something else to help pay the bills. Stephen King didn’t stop teaching until Carrie went paperback. Anne Rice and JK Rowling had small sales until their careers started taking off, and then they began writing full time. There are numerous other examples I could mention, but the point is that writing and publishing books is not guaranteed income. In fact, several authors I know, most of them self-published but a few of them having gone the traditional route, have described their book sales as getting a big boost whenever a book is published, followed by a steady decline to the usual amount of sales after a month or so. I’m still working to get to that level of popularity!

But then again, most authors don’t care about the amount of sales, at least not like an executive in a toy company might worry about how a toy is not selling as it should among kids 8-12. Most of the time, we’re more worried about how people are liking our books, if they enjoy what they’re reading and if they’re connecting with the characters. In short, every writer wants to know is if people are appreciating the stories they create. And the authors that are more concerned with sales in the other sense? Well, I don’t think that they got into writing for the right reasons.

So most authors don’t make big sales like some people tend to think. We certainly wouldn’t mind having more sales but it’s not as big a factor for us as one might think. In fact, I’m very happy with my current fanbase, though it’s pretty small at this point. The people who read my work tend to enjoy it very much, and they let me know in reviews and emails and in conversations. And for now, that’s all I can ask for. When I get the big sales and the larger fanbase, it’ll be because I’ve earned it.

All for now. I’ve got a short story to work on. Wish me luck!

Review: The Day of the Doctor (aka The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special)

Posted: November 23, 2013 in Review
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This was the best way to spend this Saturday.

What can I say about this special? No seriously, what can I say? It was awesome! Amazing! Crazy fun! Mind-blowing! Revealing! Extraordinary! Fantastic! That last one was the Ninth Doctor’s catchphrase.

Now what can I say about the special without giving away any spoilers? As River Song would remind us, we don’t want any spoilers we couldn’t handle. Well, here’s what I can tell you: the Doctor meets up with Impossible Girl Clara for a new slew of fun and adventures…only for UNIT to come by and haul the TARDIS off to the National Gallery (I think that’s what it was, because I don’t know my English landmarks). Something weird is going on at the museum involving the paintings. What happens next is an epic battle between Zygons, Daleks, Time Lords, and everything in between, all culminating in the Eleventh, Tenth, and the new War Doctor coming together for one great purpose.

Not saying another word on that.

Just be aware that the whole cast was awesome, the story was fun and exciting and had be on the edge of my seat for the whole two hours. You’ll laugh, you’ll gasp, and you’ll cry out with excitement with every twist and turn. If you haven’t seen the special, you should go out and see it now. Trust me, your whole Whovian self will be rocked, and your understanding of Doctor Who will forever be changed!

Also, make sure to stick around after the credits. You’ll see a preview of what’s to come for the Christmas special, where Matt Smith turns into Peter Capaldi…and much, much more will occur. Spoilers!

I’m giving The Day of the Doctor a 5 out of 5. Thanks so much for a very fun afternoon…even if at the viewing event I didn’t win the sonic screwdriver in the raffle. Oh well. I got two T-shirts (one from a trivia contest) and I can probably get the sonic through Amazon.

All for now. I’ll write another post later. Allons-y!

I’m Writing Again!!!

Posted: November 21, 2013 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Good evening, Followers of Fear. How are you this evening? I don’t know about you, but I’m doing great! I just finished Chapter 20 of Video Rage, after working on it on-and-off for the past six or so days. This officially puts an end to my hiatus that kept me from doing any major writing, and puts me back on track to possibly finishing this novel by the end of this year or the end of January (one or the other, most likely).

It’s been over a month since I had to stop writing because of how busy I was with school and work. I just had way too much on my plate to devote any time to actually writing, but now that my schedule’s eased up a little, thanks to the semester ending soon and Thanksgiving coming even sooner, I can actually afford to sit down for hours at a time and just churn out stories. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Actually, the truth is not being able to write might’ve actually contributed to my stress levels getting worse rather than better. But being able to write these past couple of days has been just wonderful. I feel freer than I have since I began my hiatus, and now that I’ve gotten another chapter under my belt, I’m on a little bit of a writing high. In fact, the writing high made me write a longer chapter than I normally would’ve. Not that I mind though. I think the chapter the way it is right now is pretty awesome. It was a huge fight sequence, which I’m not normally good at writing. But I managed to extend it from what might’ve been a six-page chapter to a ten-page chapter, and it looks better than what I had originally planned, so it’s kind of a win-win situation.

I’ve also decided that working on two novels at once is not the best idea for me. One moment I’m yearning to work on one project but I have to work on the other, next moment I’m working on project number two but I want to work on the first project. It’s a little bit annoying. So for now I think I’ll stick to finished Video Rage, which has only seventeen chapters left in the first draft, and then I’ll get back to working on my other work-in-progress, Laura Horn. After that’s all done…well, who knows? Maybe some short stories, a new novel, some editing work. All depends on what’s on my schedule and what I feel like doing at the moment.

But to sum it all up, I’m really happy at the moment, and I look forward to finishing the first draft of Video Rage.

And while I have your attention, I also want to extend a hearty congratulations to fellow author, colleague, and good friend Angela Misri, whose Portia Adams novel Jewel of the Thames has just been accepted for publication by Fierce Ink Press. Mazel tov Angela, I’m so excited for you and I cannot wait to read all of Portia’s amazing adventures this coming spring. Keep me posted on the news, okay? Also, if your books get made into movies, who do you want to play Portia? Because from what I know of the character, I think Natalie Portman or Eve Myles would be a great early call.

All for now, everybody. Good night!

An Update to My Article On Hypnosis

Posted: November 16, 2013 in Living and Life
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A little bit back I wrote an article about the truths and myths of hypnosis. In that article I mentioned that you can’t use hypnosis to kill someone, because you can’t force someone to do something they wouldn’t normally do, such as murder someone.

Turns out I was wrong. Apparently it is technically possible to make people commit crimes, including kill someone, through hypnosis.

I found this out through a special by Derren Brown, a British entertainer who regularly uses hypnosis in his acts. His shows are usually devoted to testing the limits of the abilities and techniques he uses in his acts, including hypnosis. This special, along with the rest in The Experiments series, aimed to look at the limitations of hypnosis and tried to see what you could or couldn’t really do with hypnosis. The special in question, which I embedded below, was devoted to seeing if it was possible to brainwash someone to become a killer, like it’s said often in the chat rooms of conspiracy theorists.

If you don’t have the time to sit down and watch a fifty-minute video, I’ll summarize the video below.

Okay, for those of you who didn’t watch it, the video detailed how basic hypnosis works, followed by searching for the perfect subject to be a hypnotized assassin, and then trained him to assassinate a certain celebrity (who agreed to be part of the production as the target), and then watched to see if the subject would assassinate the target, who had a bulletproof vest on. The subject did fire the gun.

So I was wrong. As much as I hate to admit it, hypnosis can be used to get someone to kill, even if they don’t realize what they are doing. However, it is extremely difficult to pull  off, requiring months of training with the perfect subject and with the right hypnosis techniques. And even if you can pull this off, I wouldn’t recommend doing this sort of thing if you have any morals at all. Murder is murder, no matter what.

Now if you’ll need me, I’ll be writing and possibly thinking up some way to incorporate this terrible information into my views of hypnosis. With any luck I’ll be able to put this into a story I’ll write someday, which will most likely mean that I’ve accepted this new fact, and I’m not going to try to shut it out.

Until next time, Followers of Fear.

Review: “The Wolves of Midwinter” by Anne Rice

Posted: October 28, 2013 in Novel, Review, Writing
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(The following review has more than one spoiler, so if you haven’t finished or even begun reading The Wolves of Midwinter but are planning on it, please don’t read this till you do. Sorry I have to spoil some things, but I can’t do the novel justice in this review without mentioning one or two very important plot points. I’ll try and keep the number of mentions down though.)

This’ll be last review for a while, so I wanted it to be special, and I can’t think of anything more special to review than Anne Rice’s latest novel. Some of you may remember my review last summer of Ms. Rice’s The Wolf Gift. I’m sorry to say that I won’t be using food metaphors this time around, not just because it’s been a couple hours since my last meal, but also because I found it a little ridiculous, looking back, that I was the reviewer who used food metaphors.

Now on with the review.

Anne Rice has a talent for crafting truly extraordinary stories. In another author’s hands, they might seem mundane or boring, but with her hands she’s able to craft a engrossing novel that keeps  you reading the story long after you should go to bed. The Wolves of Midwinter is no exception. In this volume of The Wolf Gift Chronicles, protagonist Reuben Golding has some unexpected developments in his life, including the visit of the ghost of a friend of his. This sets the stage for further developments in Reuben’s life as a Man Wolf, as his fellow Morphenkinder Margon and Felix introduce him, fellow pack member Stuart and Reuben’s lover Laura to some more aspects of their strange, immortal world. At the same time, Reuben deals with the changing dynamics of his family as changes in his life and in the lives of his loved ones occur and as his own immortality becomes more apparent to him, sometimes rather painfully.

What do you brood about tonight, dear Morphenkind?

What is most magnificent about The Wolves of Midwinter is that the novel is always engaging even without a central antagonist or conflict to drive the story forward. Sure, there is a dangerous pack of Morphenkinder with some very dark plans for Reuben and his pack, but they are not essential to the plot that without them there would be no story. Indeed, reading the novel you get the sense that you’re reading about several chains of events closely linked to one another like crisscrossing lines of dominoes, and that the dominoes are just falling to their inevitable conclusions in the book you are reading in your hands. I marvel and kind of envy how the novel was written that way (I wish I could write a story like that. I wonder how Ms. Rice learned how to do it?).

The only part of the novel that I didn’t care for was when Reuben gets a little surprise gift a few months before Christmas, he seems to accept the implications rather quickly and give into the demands his family puts on him without much of an argument. I would’ve rather seen a more in-depth exploration of how he reacted to this surprise gift (not to mention how Laura takes it), but the rest of the novel moved along very well, so that was the only complaint I really had. And when you compare it to the rest of the book, it seems a little bit trivial.

My favorite portion of The Wolves of Midwinter was the last hundred or so pages, starting with some terrifying and unexpected events at a Morphenkind Yuletide celebration, followed by some tribulations in the life of Reuben’s brother Jim, and ending in a joyous celebration at the end of the Christmas season that almost makes you want to cry but instead makes you marvel at how masterfully crafted the ending of the story is.

For The Wolves of Midwinter, I’m giving it a 4.4 out of 5. The storytelling and language, the plot, the characters and how they deal with events as they (sometimes literally) hit them, made this a truly enjoyable read. I hope to read more of Reuben’s story in a future volume of The Wolf Gift Chronicles. Either that or another novel in the Songs of the Seraphim series, I love those books.

Oh and speaking of which, congratulations to Ms. Rice for her Song of the Seraphim novel Angel Time getting made into a TV show like Stephen King’s Under the Dome was this past summer. No word yet on when that’ll be happening, but I can already see it in my head and I bet it’s going to be great. I’m kind of seeing Christopher Eccleston as Toby O’Dare and Mehki Phifer or Omar Epps in the role of Malchiah. Don’t know if that’ll actually happen, but I definitely wouldn’t mind if it did..

Review: Carrie (2013 film)

Posted: October 19, 2013 in Review, Scary Stuff
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Ever since I heard that this film was being made, I’ve been excited for it. Over the past few days, my behavior has been pretty close to that of a Belieber right before a Justin Beiber concert, I’ve been so excited. And this evening I went to the movies after dinner and sat in the best seat in the house. Afterwards, I struggled to find a phrase or a sentence, some way to describe the Carrie remake. I hit on it on the way home:

This is not like any version of Carrie you’ve ever seen before.

And I mean that. The storytelling, the acting, the music, and the special effects go together perfectly to create an awesome Halloween movie. Even when I knew something was going to happen, from plot points to scares, I was totally freaked out.

I’ll start with the acting, because that was just phenomenal. It’s amazing to watch Carrie White, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, go from a shy, terrified girl to someone who’s starting to come into her own power and rebel. Then at the climax of the movie, she doesn’t just become an angry telekinetic girl. She becomes Nemesis, Goddess of Revenge, and an angry witch upon her dais emerges to reap what has been sown. Afterwards, broken by all the pain and misery, she become a little girl again, wanting only love. And when she can’t get that, she looks for peace.

Julianne Moore was also great. You sensed she cared for Carrie, but the way she played Margaret White as a delusional woman with vacant eyes and a propensity for self-flagellation even in public was positively spooky. Honestly, she could win an award for playing Margaret and putting the “mental” in fundamentalist. In addition, all the other actors were great in their roles. I truly got the sense that Sue Snell, played by Gabriella Wilde, made me feel her remorse as the one girl who regretted hurting Carrie, while Portia Doubleday embodied the entitled bitch that was Chris Hargensen. And Judy Greer, you get a nod for really seeming like you cared for Carrie, comforting her while also making sure that no one would hurt her further. I can see why Carrie left your character alive. You made us believe she deserved not to die.

The next aspect was the storytelling. In this version of Carrie they actually included parts not seen in other adaptations of Carrie, including the love between Sue and Tommy Ross and what that love results in, the destruction of the town, and even the flying rocks make an appearance in the story (though not in the way we might expect). The filmmakers were also able to work the Information Age seamlessly into the plot, using a video of Carrie’s first period to the greatest effect. The only thing added in that I didn’t care for was the bath scene at the end. Honestly, there’s no bath scene in the book, and we already get Carrie covered in blood in the shower. Why do we need it again in the bathtub?

You don’t want to mess with this Carrie!

Now for the music, it was terrifying and vivid. It matched every moment and I felt it adding to my terror during certain parts of the film. And the special effects were better than everything we’ve ever seen in a Carrie adaptation. The destruction at prom had everyone in the theater on the edge of their seats and the showdown between Chris Hargensen, Billy Nolan, and Carrie is like watching Titans battling each other! I couldn’t believe any of it was done with computers or wires, because it all seemed so real and terrifying to me. The only thing I didn’t like was the blood that fell on Carrie’s head. I thought it looked more like corn syrup or Jell-O that hadn’t yet solidified than blood, but maybe that’s just me.

Am I using the word terrifying too much?

This lady deserves the Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Doesn’t matter. Honestly, I want to buy the DVD when it comes out, because this was one freaking epic horror film and I loved every minute of it. For the 2013 adaptation of Carrie, I give it a 5 out of 5. Congratulations to the cast, the crew, including director Kimberly Pierce, and a special congratulations Stephen King, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Julianne Moore. King made a wonderful story that will last long after he has left the Earth (hopefully that won’t happen anytime soon) and I think Moretz and Moore could easily win Oscars for this one. It’s just that good, so go and see it if you get the chance. You will not regret it.

Review: Miley Cyrus on Saturday Night Live

Posted: October 6, 2013 in Review
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Just to clarify, this is her turn as host (and musical guest) on the show’s thirty-ninth season.

Based on last week’s episode with Tina Fey, I was afraid that this week’s show would be absolutely terrible. Well apparently they read my review, because they really stepped it up this week! I’m not kidding, they made me forget that they started twenty-seven minutes late due to college football games and gave one of the best shows in a while!

First off, Miley was great. I think she may have actually learned her lesson from the VMAs…especially since they made fun of it throughout the cold open and the monologue. Every skit she just made me laugh so hard I could not help but enjoy myself. The other actors were great as well. Cecily Strong is really coming into her role as a new anchor on Weekend Update, with the right zingers and the perfect smile. Jay Pharaoh is great in any impersonation, making me wonder if it’s him or the actual person he’s doing an impression of. One of these days he shoud do an impression of Dr. Seuss. That would be crazy. And Vanessa Bayer is always hilarious, even when her poetry teacher sounds like her Miley impersonation (and you know she does that in the show). I wonder how she felt about Miley trying to eat her hair?

The sketches were some of the best I’ve ever seen. Each one was different and funny and original all at the same time. Even when I thought a sketch would be dumb, it actually was pretty awesome. I loved the auditions for the Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation and that parody music video on the Republican Party (that should be a single on iTunes). The cheerleading sketch was so goofy but plenty of sci-fi fun, and the poetry sketch was a laughter fest. But probably the best (and most original and quirky sketch) was with featured player Kyle Mooney and Miley trying to have sex in his office. Laugh out loud hysterical.

Great job this weekend, writers of SNL. You really pulled through with some really great sketches. However, I must tell you that Piers Morgan would be totally awesome if he was actually a village idiot from Ohio. After all, our state university’s football team is 18-0 these past two years, and the village idiots often become the breakthrough engineers and doctors of our generations. The only exception is John Boehner, who is still apparently the village idiot.

I’m not a Miley Cyrus fan, so I can’t really comment on her music, but I thought she did very well and that her clothes were tasteful. Definite good points in my book.

For all that I’ve listed above, I give Miley Cyrus’s second turn on SNL a 4.8 out of 5. You go girl! Hope to see more performances like this in the future (and I’m talking to both Miley and the writers/cast of SNL right now. The former, I want you to stop before you go full breakdown and become a real icon and legend that didn’t peak a few years after leaving Disney. To the latter, I hope you continue to write good sketches and keep the show going for at least two more years).

I won’t be doing another SNL review until Lady Gaga’s as yet unscheduled turn as host and musical guest on the show. I will however do a couple of reviews next week with American Horror Story: Coven and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. They both sound interesting, so I’ll review them.

Until then, good night everybody!

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