DVD pick of the week: Sci~Fi Double Feature!

Simply put there are some amazing things being produced from the science fiction’s side of the fence and for one I couldn’t be any happier.

1^st up, Damir Lukacevic’s Transfer 2010

Plotline: The premise is simple: a rich old German couple have their minds transferred into gorgeous young black bodies so they can continue their life and love. The wrinkle is that the original occupants are not purged, but awaken each night for four hours to live their own lives in the midst of their German host lives. Is this a prison or an opportunity?

Scariness Factor: Despite this is being a sci~fi film and not a horror movie the tone and implications are extremely unsettling and chilling so I’ll give it a 3 ½ out of  5

Gross Out Factor: N/A

Complaints: I really can not find one thing to complain about in regards to this movie.

High Points: We truly believe the older couple are deeply in love, can understand their decisions, and their misgivings. As we get to know the couple from Africa (Sarah from Ethiopia, Apolain from Mali) we understand their motivations and frustrations. The clever aspect is having four characters play out their drama in only two bodies. It's more of an intimate social drama designed to make you think. I loved this movie, it tackles racism, capitalism, medical ethics and what a soul is, but in mostly subtle ways.

Personal Commentary: Excellent movie. I was looking for some kind of cerebral sci-fi, and I definitely found it. There was a lot more social commentary than I expected which was great. Gorgeous architecture: I loved the visuals in this movie. I recommend it to everyone

Stars: 5

Where I rented it: Watched it free online

Next up  Sebastián Cordero’s Europa Report 2013

Plotline: An international crew of astronauts undertakes a privately funded mission to search for life on Jupiter's fourth largest moon.

Scariness Factor: N/A

Gross out Factor: N/A

Complaints: NONE. Not one!

High Points: Europa Report is presented as a retrospective assessment by a mission controller on Earth, it’s a well crafted movie and you can easily imagine this is an actual space mission. It reminds me a lot of Duncan Jones' fantastic movie Moon, (which I fell in love with and rated 5 stars) and there is also a cameo appearance by Neil deGrasse Tyson =D

Personal commentary: Ok you guys need to be sitting down for this. Europa Report is a ‘Lost Footage Film’

I know right, for those of you who follow me only for the DVD picks know that I can NOT stand found footage films. There will never, ever, ever be another Blair Witch Project (which I thought was awesome) what we’ve been forced fed instead are cheap copycats of the original masterpiece. 

If I had known this was a found footage film I would have missed this gem of a movie! (Thank God the person who told me about this left out that tiny detail)

The thing I found most amazing is you (at least I didn’t) don’t realize this until the very, very end because you're too busy clinging to hope.  I can go on and on about this movie but I’m not going to all I hope is if you have the time that you check out this amazing movie!

Stars: 5 Stars!

Where I rented it: Magnolia Pictures VOD  

What Fresh Hell is This? Oh Dear God, its the 'Number One Fan'

Thanks to my online buddy Denny Upkins aka the black Clark Kent, once again I've became aware of another author, this time a game developer, who has decided to quit her job because of death threats not only to her, but to her children.

Her children.

Children.

This concept of a fan controlling the way a writer ends a book, even if by torture and death threats was unsettling enough when Stephen King created Annie Wilkes and poor Paul Sheldon but compared to what is happening in real life to real authors makes King's portrayal of Annie Wilkes seem virtuous.

This has become so common that if you ask ten different people about the last artist they heard was aggressively harassed online or threatened with death you would most likely get ten different names.

As a fan, who the fuck do you think you are? What the hell is going through your mind when, masked in secrecy and armed with a keyboard you threaten the life of someone who was brave enough to step out on to the public platform to chase a dream and share what they are most passionate with the rest of us? 

Yes I have recv'd one star reviews, I get hate mail all the time over the way The Darkness ended, and yes The Darkness was burned but people who email me upset over an ending, to debate the authenticness of a fictional world w/fictional characters & that church group have leagues more integrity than the people threatening Jennifer Helper, Charline Harris,  Hajime Isayama, Dan Slott, Kathy Sierra, and others and here's why.

The hate mail, though sometimes directed at me, is for the most part addressing the actions of a character. The following video is an example of acceptable hate mail:

The Church group was protesting the content of my book, they accused me of blaspheming, called me a heretic and worse. But what they did NOT do was attack my family or post my address with detailed accounts of my personal schedule. 

Remember that blog spot that you, as fans, were all rallying around a few months ago entitled 'Readers Don't Owe Authors Sh*t?' 

Incidentally, that happens to be a two way street, we as creators, do not owe you your prefect ending. If you loved the way a book ends, are head over heels about the new female warrior in your favorite game, or are ecstatic that a mainstream horror movie has a gay male hero with a realistic believable female lead that's great, but like the author of that post so eloquently states:

As a fan I hope you find your bliss. But we as creators don't owe it to you.

We don't owe you shit.

And for those of you pissed off at me for this post, here is some more helpful 'how to' material for your reading pleasure: 5 writing tips for people who want to send me death threats

Fridays unfortunate fortune:

You are incredibly methodical, continually checking your sources and verifying where your information is coming from. This trait will come in especially handy once you begin your career as a sorcerer. Black magic, after all, can seem harmless to someone hungry for power.

Ah, the perils of a day sleeper...

Happy Friday guys! You might be wondering why I'm up so early, lol, trust me I'm asking myself that same question. See, what had happened was...
The new owners of my bldg hired a pro landscaping team to come and clean things up. Its much needed because I've never seen it done since I've been here and its been a few yrs. Because I'm a day sleeper the noise doesn't bother me too much but what woke me up, besides Ceaire angrily barking at the workers to be quiet, was the smell. It smells like Xmas! I'm not sure which bush is doing this but my bedroom is fill full of the sent of a Xmas wreath. Its nice. It's not even noon so I'm taking the dog out and am going back to bed =D

Just a quick note to wish you all a happy Friday and a super safe weekend!
ttyl <3
Sent from the digital pen of The Wordsmith.

A lot has happened since the last time you heard from me and not all of it was good.

21 Things You’ll Never See Black People Doing in Horror Movies #7

Explore the inside of an active volcano.

 For longer than I would like to admit I’ve been lost in a long dark tunnel. I am usually a good judge of character, and I am pretty selective of those I allow in my inner circle but in Dec. I was completely. You’ve heard it all before: tall, dark & handsome  and charming of course but it didn’t take long before things took a turn for the worse. I know that hindsight is 20/20 but I saw the signs and knew what they were when I 1^st saw them and quite frankly I find it inexcusable and reprehensible that I ignored them. I knew better. I know better. I did this to myself.

It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and though it lasted longer than it should, thank God it was relatively brief .When it was finally over I felt so…fucking…stupid and ashamed. And of course I didn’t talk to anyone about it because I made my own bed. I just told myself to sleep it off and cry it out but I ended up staying in bed for almost a month. I wasn’t sleeping very well, I wasn’t eating very well, and I didn’t want to be around anybody because I was in such a bad mood all the time and would start crying for no reason. I wasn’t even writing and when I finally realized that I tried to snap myself out of it. I write for several hours every day so it’s even startling now that it took me so much time to notice I wasn’t.

My saving grace, my guiding light at the time was my Yorkie Terrier Munch. I had joint custody but she was spending a lot of time with me, more than usual, and I know for sure things wouldn’t have turned out the way that they did if it weren’t for her. I got out of bed and made it all the way to the couch, started writing again and was beginning to think that things would be ok. Munch spent time over a long holiday weekend camping…

The ‘official story’ is that on Friday eve she was snatched off the trail by a hawk. I had no idea that she was dead until late Monday night/early Tuesday morning.

When I read it on Facebook.

Back into the pitch I went.

Something went wrong inside of me. I was so livid, consumed by it completely, so much so that I was afraid of myself. I really thought that I was going to really hurt someone and at that point I didn’t care. I was existing in this state of blackness, red around the fringes. My chest was hurting all the time. My hands were trembling, the slightest thing pissed me off but the truth of the matter is that I was already mad. I was praying to God but I didn’t mean it so naturally there was no relief.

One day my sister stopped looking at me like a sister and started seeing me thru her physiatrist eyes and I knew that just one more outburst and she was going to have me held for a 48hr observation. Then just one day out of the blue I just said ‘please’ and that time I meant it.

I went to bed and actually got some restful sleep. When I got up I started digging around the want ads looking for another dog. Right away an ad popped up that grabbed my attention. An older lady had a puppy she couldn’t handle anymore due to their age differences. She was 84 and the dog (a yorkie/terrier mix ?) was a ‘puppy’ free to good home.

When I called her we talked for a while and I found out that her grandson helped her post the ad and that she took the picture of the dog down because over one hundred people had called and she felt bad that the operators at bell were so busy just because of her. We were on the phone for an hour actually and she said that out of all the people she had talked to she knew her dog would be safe and loved by me. Whatever was wrong with me I felt it break when she said that. She gave me her address and I panicked because it was a two hour round trip and my car needs to go to the shop. But with a wing and a prayer I made it there and back.

The yorkie/terrier mix puppy turned out to be a beautiful 15pound 3year old  extremely active Rat Terrier named Ceaira. I fell in love with her instantly and so did my family. She’s the perfect fit for my life. Even though I still need to deal with how I feel about allowing the wrong person in my life and the grief of losing a dog she’s  helped me get back on track.

I have no idea how I got anything done these last few months but I did. The Spectrum Trilogy is complete and In The Valley of Shadows is in the rework process as we speak. The current book I’m working on which has nothing to do with the trilogy is moving along nicely. With 42,676 words and 139 ‘book pages’ I completely changed my mind and want to explore a different direction but it’s easy enough to change so I am not stressing over it.

The one year anniversary  for my anthology is coming up here pretty soon, sales have slowed down a bit but I am gearing up to tour for the month of Oct. I’m gonna lit a fire under my but for the DVD pick of the week, I’ve seen some really good ones lately but until then, here is the cover for Shadows.

Have a super good day you guys, ttyl 

Oh! I almost forgot...I lost 11 pounds!