Interview of Cat Connor, Author, and President of New Zealand

Posted on October 11, 2013 by admin

Well, she SHOULD be the president of New Zealand. But she is definitely one cool writer who’s got an amazing crime series out that you really, really should be reading:

1.      “Cat” is not a name. Are you in the Witness Protection Program?

WITSEC isn’t a topic that should be discussed. Chances are I’ll disappear. Do you want that? Cat is a very good easy-to-remember name. It’s short for something but I can’t tell you what. See my earlier comment about WITSEC.

2.      Tell us about the ‘Byte series.

The _byte series is a collection of stories about FBI agent Ellie Conway and her team. The series is set predominately in Northern Virginia and Washington DC. They’re fast paced, action orientated, character driven, thrillers. I have so much fun writing this series. Huge fun. I never know where the story will go next and that is really exciting for me.

I do have plans to set at least one of the books here in NZ but that depends on my main character and how willing she is to take a teaching position at Victoria University. Ellie isn’t known for being terribly accommodating to my ideas. She pretty much does what she wants and I follow along and document it.

The series so far, in order and with loglines:

Killerbyte (1st byte)

An FBI agent is taunted by a killer who murders her friends and colleagues. Can she stop him before he kills everyone she ever cared for?

Terrorbyte (2nd byte)

A newly married FBI agent, SA Ellie Conway, investigates a series of horrific homicides that she believes are concealing other heinous crimes.

Exacerbyte (3rd byte)

A grieving FBI agent, SSA Ellie Conway, attempts to find the child trafficking terrorist behind her husband’s death.

Flashbyte (4th byte)

SSA Ellie Conway is the recipient of some unusual mail; meanwhile a terrorist from her past surfaces as she’s trying to find a killer in a hospital, and life gets messy.

Soundbyte (5th byte)

FBI agent, SSA Ellie Conway, investigates the murder of a jeweler and uncovers more than she ever expected, shaking the foundations of at least one federal agency. 

Snakebyte (5.1)

SSA Conway emerges from a tequila-filled haze to rejoin Delta A. While investigating a strangling case, she uncovers a terrifying situation involving fissile material within DC.

Databyte (6th byte)

An FBI agent framed for murder must protect an actor and clear her name while on the run.

(Release early 2014) 

Eraserbyte (7th byte)

As surveillance footage disappears in front of her, FBI agent Ellie Conway tries to piece together the events and people involved to prevent more terror attacks and deaths in Washington, DC.

(Release TBA)

3.      What other books/collections/whatnot do you have out?

I have a two short collections out: Torrent is a collection of _byte short stories and Archive is a collection of my previously published short stories. I’ve also got stories in various anthologies. I love being asked to write for anthologies. It’s different and fun for me.

4.      Other than as a “Lord of the Rings” backdrop, Americans don’t know crap about New Zealand. Explain it to us.

New Zealand is an island nation. It is NOT part of Australia. We are part of the Commonwealth. We have three official languages – NZ English, Maori and NZ sign language. We’re friendly but you don’t want to piss us off (people can disappear down here, never to be seen again). NZ is a melting pot of cultures and ethnicity. Generally speaking we’re open, fun, sporty, creative, and intensely proud of our country. Also we’re fucking good at rugby and we don’t cheat in match races (Dean Barker and the crew of Team NZ are the best yachtsmen in the world).

5.      What’s the difference between Zealanders and Aussies?

Class.

Kiwis are much classier than Aussies. It’s a fact.

Also, Aussies talk funny. Not a fan of any of the variations in the Aussie accent. It’s not at all a sexy accent.

What’s the difference between Canadians and Americans? [DustySkull note: Canadians are American-lite]

6.      How’s the literary scene in New Zealand?

As a writer my view on the literary scene here tends to be clouded by my experience and by the NZ literature I was forced to read at school. It was slow, stifled, and full of literary wanking. Stories about nothing, in which nothing happened.

Joyfully, that’s changing.

There are more genre books out there by kiwi authors now. Actual stories with plenty happening! It is still hard to get published in this country unless you write Sci Fi, cookbooks or books about blokes and their sheds. There is still a required minimum NZ content for most fiction – it’s not enough to be a kiwi author you have to write about NZ. I find that ridiculous because kiwi readers read international stories and authors, we always have. I think that harks back to the boring stories we were forced to digest as kids.

But for readers, things are changing. With eReaders and online shopping we can now enjoy a much wider selection of books and aren’t confined to the books the brick and mortar stores will stock or the books NZ publishers will publish. Paperbacks here retail between NZ$25-45 … that alone makes shopping somewhere like Book Depository very attractive!

7.      What’s your writing process?

This question always amuses me. It implies I give thought to writing and what I’m writing. I don’t. I just write. A question pops into my head, I sit down and write with no idea where it’s going or how it’ll get there. A little bit of blind faith is employed. I write until the story is finished. While I’m working on a story there is always a notebook near me. If I can’t get to my laptop for whatever reason I will write scenes in the notebook. Writing for me is a linear process. Beginning to end. No jumping about. The jumping about and fleshing out of scenes comes after the first draft is finished. At that point I go back and I catch (if I’m lucky) the lazy assed writing and those scenes I skimmed because I just wanted to see what happened next. At that stage I quite often use a huge whiteboard to draw the timeline for various crimes or whatever. My notebook ends up filled with scrawled names and places and notes pertaining to the story line, bits of research, and sometimes photographs of places in the story. Once I’m mostly happy with the story I send it to Action Man’s kindle and my kindle. We read it. We compare notes. I pull scenes out and send them to various experts – this is especially true for medical scenes. Once everyone agrees and the story is as good as I can get it, I send it to Jayne at Rebel. Then the real work begins.

8. What’s the best New Zealand beer, and how do you know?

The best NZ beer … that’s a hard question. We have a lot of excellent beers from the big breweries and then there are the craft beers. I don’t know where to start. As far as NZ beers go, I kinda like Steinlarger but really like Mac’s Gold. How do I know? Experimentation or a misspent youth, depends on your point of view.

Probably wrong to say my actual favorite beer isn’t even a NZ one?

(Corona – with lime or lemon and tequila. So good. So very good.)

9. Tell us about your next project.

My next project is Databyte. Well, it’s not really. It’s the next _byte series book. It’s due out Aprilish 2014. Currently I’m working through Databyte edits with my editor at Rebel. After Databyte comes Eraserbyte, I just finished writing that. I’ll show it to Rebel in a few months. What I am working on is Psychobyte. After deciding this year would be a one book year … having already written a novella and a novel and several short stories, it turns out there was another story that really wanted to be told and I don’t appear to have much of a say in it. I’m also writing 3 short stories for October. I’ll let you know what we’re going to do with them.

10. Where do I get that cool accent?

I don’t have an accent you do. J and I rather like yours.

But if you insist I have one and really want it. Come spend a few years in New Zealand and we’ll try and teach you. It might take a while. The accent you like so much isn’t typical kiwi. It’s what happens when Canterbury, Southland, and Wellington meet in Virginia. Am imagining the expression on your face as you try and figure that out. Does it have something to do with question number 1? You know the answer to that. I’d tell you but  …

 

Cat Connor’s blog: http://catconnor.blogspot.com/

Follow her on Twitter at: @catconnor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cat-Connor/76140493745

Posted in Writing itself | 3 Comments

Erase the Shame

Posted on September 27, 2013 by admin

The newest episode of Losing Cable2 is up and at’em: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMN24FjOZWA&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLxtVMvtRhSPiZmly9REctgvwxPIrSRW0E

Joffrey Charlemagne rides again.

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George Romero on why fast zombies suck.

Posted on September 27, 2013 by admin

If you’ve got another hour to kill (after listening to Malcolm McDowell’s Q&A below), then settle in for this Q&A with George Romero at the recent Monster-Mania. I’ll never respect a fast zombie again.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/102111101/Romero%20Q%26A2.avi

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Interview with J. H. Bogran, bon vivant and international master spy.

Posted on September 21, 2013 by admin

Okay, he’s not an international master spy. At least, that’s what he says. But he IS an author, his most recent novel, Firefall, can be found on Amazon.

Without further ado:
1. Congratulations on the release of your new book, Firefall! What’s it about?

Why, thanks!

I gotta say, I’ve been called many things in my lifetime, some of them are rated R, but it’s the first time somebody qualifies me as “bon vivant.” Well, at least to my face. 🙂

The release of Firefall is exciting, but hard work. Here’s a brief description of what it’s about:

New York City firefighter, Sebastian Martin, seeks sanctuary in spiraling alcoholic oblivion following the loss of his wife and child in an air crash. Consumed by rage and resentment, directed against his brother and uncle, he takes a last-ditch job in Dallas, Texas, investigating insurance fraud. In his first assignment, Sebastian ends up strapped to a chair facing torture at the hands of a former KGB trainee who enjoys playing with fire on his victims to get answers.

As you can see, the flawed hero seeking redemption got in more than he had bargained for.

 
2. Tell us about your other titles.

My first novel, Treasure Hunt, was published in 2011. Then I have a couple of $0.99 short stories out there. And more recently, I published a collection of short stories titled A Dozen Shorts. The title is kind of a play on words as I work in garment manufacturing making, well, shorts.

3. How did you get started writing?

I began telling lies—excuse me, stories—for amusement. Loved entertaining. Then of course, I developed a slight stage fright and thought it’d be better if I wrote things down. The idea of becoming a novelist took final shape during the 90’s when I took my first tentative steps.

4. What’s your writing process?

I think, therefore I type. Yeah, wish it were that easy.

Since I write both novels and short stories, I have two different processes. For novels, once I settled with an idea, I write down a brief outline, then as more ideas pour in, the outline morphs into a rough chapter list. Then I write the book. Thus begins the love/hate relationship with the chapter list as I keep changing it as a result from the actual writing of the novel.

The process for short stories is simpler, although a bit similar. I don’t sit down and write until I know most of the details and the end of the story. Of course, while writing, a few things change, but in general, I need to know where I’m going.

I tried pantsing a couple of times. Those unfinished stories are still accumulating digital dust in the hard drive.

5. What are some of your Spanish language writings?

Editorial Letra Negra from Guatemala published my novel Heredero del Mal (Heir of Evil), about a grandson from Adolf Hitler. It is set in the year 2000, with all of that Millennium Bug scare playing in the background.

After that I concentrated on writing screen plays. Movies are becoming a budding art form in Honduras these days.

6. Everyone and his brother thinks “magical realism” whenever Spanish authors are mentioned. Does this drive you crazy?

Magical Realism? Never heard of it. Wait, my laptop just levitated a few inches from my desk so now I must type while standing.

It bothers me sometimes because I think we can produce so much more than just that. One of the reasons you’ll see initials in the cover of my works is because we didn’t want potential readers to think the stories were translated from Spanish.

Oh, don’t get me started about how the same dude and his brother ask me about the Soccer War when they learn I am from Honduras.

7. Tela or Roatan, and why?

Why do I have to choose? They both have a unique charm. Considering location and easier access, I’d stay with Tela as it is only a 45-50 minute drive. Roatan means jumping on a plane, or driving about two hours—actually driving by Tela—to reach the city port of La Ceiba, and then take a boat to finally arrive at Roatan. Is it worth the trouble? Yes, it is!

8. Name the three best Centroamerican beers.

Man, that’s a tough one, particularly because there are varied tastes that could appeal to all sorts of customers.

I’ll try to keep it simple: Port Royal from Honduras. Gallo from Guatemala, Victoria from Nicaragua (although Toñita is the most popular), and Pilsener from El Salvador.

I recently learned, and complained, that they are making Heineken in Costa Rica. I found that blasphemous. Worst of all, every time it gets harder to find original Holland-made Heiniken in the local markets! What’s up with that?

 
9. How have those crazy people at Rebel E treated you?

Pretty well, actually. Jayne Southern, the editor, is wonderful. My only complaint is that I had to stand in line while she worked on your book.

10. What are you working on now?

It’s a little mystery, no pun intended.

It deals with a serial killer prowling New Orleans. I’m currently working on the second draft. The original goal was to have it ready by now so I could register in NANOWRIMO and work on the next novel. Didn’t happen. Well, there’s always December.

Author Bio and links:

J. H. Bográn, born and raised in Honduras, is the son of a journalist. He ironically prefers to write fiction rather than fact. José’s genre of choice is thrillers, but he likes to throw in a twist of romance into the mix. His works include novels and short stories in both English and Spanish. He’s a member of the Short Fiction Writers Guild and the International Thriller Writers where he also serves as the Thriller Roundtable Coordinator and contributor editor their official e-zine The Big Thrill.

Website at: www.jhbogran.com

Facebook profile: www.facebook.com/jhbogran

Facebook author page: http://on.fb.me/ZJwEq0

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4307673.J_H_Bogran

Twitter: @JHBogran

Firefall buy links:

Rebel E Publishers: http://rebelepublishers.com/about/our-books/firefall/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Firefall-ebook/dp/B00F6VYDE2

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/355941

 

Posted in Interviews, Reading itself, Writing itself | 4 Comments

Singin’ in the Rain. And Brechtian.

Posted on September 14, 2013 by admin

If’ you’ve got about an hour to kill, then watch this hilarious Q&A with Malcolm McDowell, held during Monster-Mania 2013 (scroll down to see some of the action there). The guy is a crack-up. He reprises a little bit of Alex Delarge’s singing career, and schools us on different acting methods.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/102111101/McDowell%20Q%26A.avi

(And yeah, yeah, amateur hour. Hey, I’m a word guy, not a picture guy. At least I threw in some nifty effects.)

Posted in Those lesser mediums | Comments Off on Singin’ in the Rain. And Brechtian.

September 11, 2001

Posted on September 11, 2013 by admin

I passed through the Pentagon Metro station about twenty minutes before the plane hit. When I got to work, one of the officers told me about it and I ran downstairs to watch on the little TV we had. Saw the second plane hit the Tower. Knew, then, we were under attack.

The Metro went straight through the Pentagon station on the way home that evening. You could smell the smoke. There was a real big guy, 6’4″ or so, about 275, sitting a few rows up on a bench facing me. He was staring out the window and crying. Silently. He did not stop crying and staring out the window the entire trip. Silently.

I wanted to say something to him. I wanted to go put my arms around him, but I couldn’t. I did not know what to say. Or do. So, I just watched him cry.

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Under the Dumb

Posted on August 30, 2013 by admin

I watched the latest episode of Under the Dome off my DVR last night. I erased it. I then cancelled the series.

Good Gawd A’mighty, was that dumb.

It’s been dumb all along, actually. I’ve only watched (endured) the last few episodes hoping one of them would be the last and I could get on with better uses of my time, like caulking the windows or something. But. It. Just. Wouldn’t. Die!!! And this past episode came so close to lobotomizing me that I had to take direct action.

I mean, two episodes ago, the town had a firefight against farmers who had possession of the Only Potable Well, and the heroic and sensitive hit man blew up the Only Potable Well with dynamite and the mean ole councilman killed the meaner ole farmer and Chester Mills now has water because the meaner ole farmer had diverted the town’s reservoir some three or four hundred years ago to his well and the act of blowing it up meant the water was now diverted back to the reservoir. And all this is an issue because the water tower had been knocked down in a previous episode—we’re all going to die—even though the aloof but somehow beneficent Dome provided rainfall to cover the shortage.

And then we find out this week that the town has a big friggin’ lake, deep enough to hold islands with their own resorts and allow speed boating for a couple of hours all along it’s shore, with them, right there, under the Dome. Right there.

What. The. Hell?

And please don’t try to tell me the lake is the now refilled water reservoir. No measly friggin’ farmer well is going to drain the equivalent of Lake Erie.

Let’s not forget the gladiator fights, the ridiculous and laughable mob moll, and the dragon egg that Daenerys Targaryon could probably use.

Stephen King. What. The. Hell?

So, you ask, why did I watch to for so long if it was apparently stupid so early? Well, it’s the Simpsons Movie, and I wanted to see Homer ride around the Dome.

Posted in lesser mediums | Comments Off on Under the Dumb

Drive-by interview: 3 Questions for Casey Caracciolo, author of The Shadow of the Gauntlet

Posted on August 30, 2013 by admin

1. Why did you chose to self-publish?

I didn’t approach it lightly. I did a lot of research about the publishing industry first, thinking I would do the whole agent/publisher route, but, the more I read, the more I became convinced the publishing industry’s business model was antiquated. The industry takes complete control of the author’s product and, well this is my story, this is my baby, and who are they to tell me what to write? Who are they to tell me or you what to read, for that matter? So my wife and I created our own imprint, Roundstone Publishing, LLC, and we went from there.

2. How did you vet your manuscript?

It was first vetted by my wife, Christine, who isn’t the biggest fan of this genre but loved my story. She gave me an incredible amount of excellent feedback on elements that simply made no sense to a non-geek reader. I then took that corrected draft to a bar that I was working at and gave it to 20 trusted bar regulars and staff, all of whom were very happy to give me all the criticism I could, and sometimes couldn’t, stand. They’re all named in the Acknowledgments. They gave me notes, some of it opinion on the story, some of it about the structure, and all of it valuable. I then went through and wrote the manuscript again. Joe Hansche became my copyeditor and fact-checker and went through subsequent drafts to test plausibility of, well, everything. Once it was ready, I went through CreateSpace but they just completely dropped the ball on the design phase. So, I was at a dead end when I found out one of my bar regulars and friend, Shanna, is a typesetter. A few long conversations later, we had a published book. Self-publishing is great, but you definitely need a team of people backing you, and I had an amazing group of people behind me.

3. What’s your writing method?

I’m right out of the box, hit the ground running, every cliché you can think of. I’m an animator and I’m used to seeing story arcs, so when Gauntlet came to me, I had the first four chapters written before I went, “Oh shit, maybe I better learn how to write first!” So I bought a lot of writing books and read and read and read, especially Stephen King’s On Writing. That got me focused, so I then outlined the story and wrote the parts of it that interested me the most, got rid of the boring parts, and tied it all together. Gauntlet is an epic tale across several books, and I am excited to be working on the second book, The Dragon Within. There will be a lot of connections between the first two books and the future books in the series. I love mentioning something in one book and then bringing it back books later. I love when authors do that.

For more information on the book, the author, merchandise, or just to check out some character illustrations, visit: scargen.com.

Posted in Drive-by interview, Writing itself | Comments Off on Drive-by interview: 3 Questions for Casey Caracciolo, author of The Shadow of the Gauntlet

Drive-by interview: 3 questions for R. A Conine, author of Hellpointe

Posted on August 30, 2013 by admin

1. How’d you get started writing?

I’ve always been a writer. When I was a kid, I’d write stories, draw pictures for them, staple the pages together, put them in my wagon and walk around the neighborhood giving them away. The neighbors loved the stories, but told my Mom I should stop.

2. What’s your writing method?

It’s stream-of-consciousness. I see the whole story, where it starts and how it ends, so I write the first sentence, the middle sentence, and the ending one. Then I fill in the gaps. That way, I have anchor points. Anchor points are important to us former Navy guys, ya know. I keep the characters pretty much corralled as the story’s progressing, but sometimes I get a surprise and they act out a bit.  What really helps is waiting on an idea to gel. Don’t write it immediately, particularly if you’re excited. Wait a day or two and let it mature. You’d be amazed at the details that come to you over time.

3. Do you have a series planned/in progress?

Several, actually. Finn’s World, the tale of a nine year-old boy stranded alone on an alien planet, is being hosted on Cast of Wonders as a serial audio podcast. Ten episodes of Finn will run over the next year and then they’ll be collected into a novel and an audio book for fans.

Hellpointe, the first novel of the Edge Worlds series, is for sale on Amazon. There will be two more books in the series.

The first book of Somnia Mortis, Dreamtime, is also available for sale on Amazon. Somnia Mortis is about the power of dreams and how they can be manipulated. Scary, and poetic.

R.A. Conine’s website author is located at www.raconine.com.  Hellpointe now has its own page complete with fan artwork at www.hellpointe.com.

Posted in Drive-by interview, Writing itself | Comments Off on Drive-by interview: 3 questions for R. A Conine, author of Hellpointe

Monster-Mania 2013, Day 2…and 3

Posted on August 22, 2013 by admin

Saturday, August 17, was insane. Utterly insane. At least 783,497 people showed up. Well, it seemed like that. I had to park about a mile away down Cooper River Park, which is a happening place in its own right. Some guys were having a big party down there, blaring out Smokey Robinson. Cool.

The first oddness I ran into was the Ghouligans.     

They have a YouTube series you should check out, just for the “Flesh” parody alone.

Lots of Jason’s.  

As if that last Jason wasn’t bad enough:

I have no idea:  Nor about this:

Got lasered by a Predator.

Lots of zombies:     

Got back with Malcolm McDowell.   We talked about Community, which is the funniest TV show ever and in the future, and on which McDowell plays an insane history teacher. I suggested that he and Betty White team teach a class, which should make Abed’s head explode. McDowell loves Betty White.

Pinhead.  Not sure, but I like it.

The vampire sisters. Lovely, just lovely.

Can you blame him, er, it?   

I’m going to die, but who cares?

Wait. What happened to the vampire sisters?

Zombie Bride and Punk Arial.

Zombie Bride and Punk Arial trying to kill me.  I got away.

Isn’t that cute?

Proud mother.

Outstanding.

Disturbing.

Puzzling.

Not sure what this is,  but this is Captain Sparrow,  who wanted compensation for me taking his picture. Captain Dickhead.

Even the parking lot wasn’t safe.  Thank God there was a priest.  Pray with me, in my hour of bleed…

Chandler Riggs,  Carl on The Walking Dead. He should do something about the girl in the bloody bathrobe, ’cause it looks like she’s about to turn.  I’ll rescue the nurse, Chandler.

Dave Hagan, put’er-on’er of Monster Mania.  Christopher Lloyd, put’er on’er of various roles.  He had an hour long Q&A. When he played Jim Ignatowski, he was not acting. Trust me on this.

Of course, these guys showed up. They invited me to the midnight showing but, no. No thanks.

Jeremy London and Dave Sheridan.  Jeremy London is the guy with the vampire eyes. This was supposed to be a Q&A, but, instead, was an hour long riff-and-improv, mostly by Sheridan, which had me falling off my chair laughing my butt off (screw the acronym). I did not tape it. I wish I had.

I then attended Carrie Fisher’s  Q&A. Yes, Princess Leia was there, somewhat puzzling but, hey, the lines between horror and scifi blur. She has turned into her mother, later Debbie Reynolds, with the voice inflection and the affectations, including a dog she had up on the table with her. No pictures, per request of Dave Hagan. She was very funny and charming, the most memorable of her stories involving the scene from The Empire Strikes Back where they enter Cloud City. A shot of the cast inside the Falcon shows them all smiling. The reason? The night before, they had all been at Fisher’s residence, which she rented from Eric Idle, and the Rolling Stones happened to drop by. “We are not hung over in the shot,” she said, “we are not done yet.”

I also attended Malcolm McDowell’s and George Romero’s   Q&As. I did record those, and as soon as I figure out how to upload the videos, I’ll post them. I suck at video.

Then it was time for the costume contest.  

Rusty won the kid category. He’s three. I’m sure he’ll grow up fine.

This kid sat next to me.

This is his Dad.  I’m sure he’ll be okay when he grows up, too. The kid, I mean.

Elvira Ate-Too-Much-in-the-Dark.  That’s what she called herself, so there.

A group costume. Uh-huh.

Winners of the Most Original category,  Tied with Yip-Yip.

Winner of the Sexiest category.  I had a tie vote with Nurse Jasmine  and Punk Arial even though she tried to kill me earlier.

Ash Freddy vs Jason,  who won first place in the Scariest category, and a female Cenobite,  who should have won first place in the Scariest category. And the Sexiest. Yes, there’s something wrong with me.

Throwing on a sheet ain’t gonna do it, kid.

This is the guy who taught Christian Grey everything he knows.

This is Sex.

And that was that.

Day 3 was…well, day 3. Nothing much. I met Jeff Zornow,  who signed my copy of ’68 and thanked me for my service, even though I missed Vietnam by about five days. Refreshing.

And, thus, the convention ended. I went home.

Now, I gotta say something about all the celebrities, quasi celebrities, demi-celebrities, what-have-you, who were all over the place charging for their autographs and extra to take a photo of them. Yes, I’m looking at you, Samantha Mathis, Gary Busey, and the rest. You do understand, don’t you, that the reason you get to attend conventions as a celebrity, quasi-celebrity, whatever, is that we Great Unwashed plunked down enough moolah to attend/purchase/obtain/enjoy your various movies/shows/plays/books in the first place. There’s a certain…what’s the word I’m looking for here? Hypocrisy? Contempt? Disregard?…in you then demanding we shell over the price of two or three movie tickets just to have the pleasure of your dashed-off signature on something of yours we purchased, like a DVD, and a picture (on our own camera, I might point out) of you looking bored or uncomfortable. Please, recall, that your celebrity status came about because you have a better-than-average knack for remembering and repeating lines that someone else wrote for you, and you happened to have the right genetic mix to make you (mostly) pleasing to the eye. Perhaps, and this is just something to consider, if you didn’t charge so much and drive up ticket prices, more people could attend these conventions and buy more of the products which made you celebrities, quasi or other, in the first place, and I think the residuals are worth more, aren’t they? Just sayin’.

None of the immediate above applies to George Romero, who is a god.

When I got home, I discovered that Gracie was now devil cat  and the pod had reached maturity.  I don’t know if it’s a squampkin or a pumquash,  but I swear there’s a person inside.

Posted in lesser mediums, Pros and Cons | Comments Off on Monster-Mania 2013, Day 2…and 3