ahartmanadams

Writing not going so well this week. The husband is uber-stressed with all his teaching work, so I'm running around after him trying to keep him fed, watered, and off the ledge. Ah, marriage.

But, I have the house to myself tonight, so hopefully I'll be just a little bit productive. I have three stories on deck for revisions and submission, so if I'm super-duper good, I'll actually get them ready to go. Or I could just come home after work, have a glass of wine, and do the crossword. I'm hopeful for the former...

 Hey Stonecoasters,

There's a cool article about Kelly and Gavin in this week's Publisher's Weekly: "Small Beer, for Children"

Yay, Kelly!

So, I'm assigning audiobooks to a reviewer, and across my desk comes The Man in The High Castle by Philip K. Dick, narrated by Tom Weiner (who also read Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls--very well done). 

What stopped me was the publisher's blurb on the back, which reads: "This Hugo Award-winning novel is the work that first established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction, bridging the barrier between genre fiction and the serious novel of ideas."

Okay, so maybe he did write it in 1962, and maybe the bulk genre fiction was a little further away from the "serious novel of ideas," but come on people! I know that genre fiction still has a crap reputation these days, but couldn't one say that a great portion of science fiction is more in the realm of the "serious novel of ideas" than most mainstream fiction? Especially some of those earlier works that set down the foundation we now stand on.

Or am I reading this description totally incorrectly?
So nice to be reminded of the order of things, isn't it?

How do those two very important and valuable elements combine??

Like this...





This gentleman runs a Science Fiction and Fantasy bookstore in New Haven Connecticut, and, even though I have his card at home, and I spoke to him and his partner/wife/sister/girlfriend for some time, I can't remember his name to save my life.

However, as he and I progressed from Science Fiction to family (a natural path, I think), he started telling me about his little brother (who got him into all sorts of bully-related trouble) and his sister, to whom he taught self defense.

Then, he taught me those same moves, as witnessed by Sandra McDonald and her trusty, truth-telling camera.

It was fun. I learned something. And, I definitely ran through the set of moves in my head just days later when I was walking home by myself after dark. So, a big thank you to the lovely gentleman from New Haven--I am now a better prepared woman of the world, and I can sally forth armed with his useful moves and my various skull-cracking fantasy tomes.

This is why we go to Readercon.

So I just logged on and realized that my last post was 7 weeks ago. For shame. Also, awesome Hannah came looking for me.

So thank you, Hannah, for getting me off my ass and back on LJ. It's become my refuge in a world full of obsessive blogspot posting. Although, I've been hiding from that recently as well.

More to come. Probably on Readercon...

Okay, so this had me going for a good hour. Really. I didn't even notice the time passing.

http://notalwaysright.com/

This is way too much fun. A little appalling, too.

Enjoy!

Okay, so Indiana Jones rocked my world. No FrankenDarth was seen. Anywhere.

It's 2:30 am, and I'm totally wired after the midnight showing in Westbrook.

Admittedly, there was some real stretches, but most of those were scene-stretches rather than overall narrative stretches. Over-indulgent comical stuff that belonged in "George of the Jungle."

HOWEVER, appreciate it, absorb it, don't take it too seriously, and you'll love every second of it.

I can imagine the brainstorming sessions--- "What has Indiana NOT done yet?"
It's not the strongest of the four, but I'm so, so, so glad that my friend's impression differed so drastically from mine.

Oh, and for those who like to stay until the end of the credits, I'll save you the trouble. There's no extra scene at the end (sadly). But, I think they said and did everything that was needed. Well done!

So, I just heard from a friend who got a sneak preview of the new Indiana Jones movie that the secret behind the Crystal Skull is decidedly non-Indiana Jones material.

While there were some good parts, she said, some of the elements woven into the narrative are on the level of our ever-popular FrankenDarth bit from the end of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. That is, no one had the balls to tell Spielberg or Lucas to back off on such a stretch and stick to what they know (that being said, I suppose Spielberg is very, very familiar with the elements in question).

Oh, yes--and she said that some parts made her wonder whether the filmmakers were studying The Mummy as a model.

Sigh...

However (and that's a big "however"), it got a good rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and denofgeek.com called it an "absolute triumph."

So, my approach is to go into it with some suspicions and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Anyone who wants to be undeceived re: the secret behind the Crystal Skull and its...uhm..."kingdom," let me know. I don't want to post it here for fear of a) getting the movie theater where my friend saw it in huge trouble for showing it illegally, and b) spoilers, spoliers, spoliers.

This is kind of cool, somehow I ended up as Wonder Woman. I don't even like Wonder Woman...well, I don't dislike her, per se, but come on!

Maybe I just don't know myself that well...

Reply with your Super Hero designation!


You are Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman 80% The Flash 70% Spider-Man 65% Supergirl 65% Catwoman 65% Robin 62% Iron Man 60% Green Lantern 55% Superman 45% Hulk 45% Batman 40%

You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Okay, so Lord Foul's Bane is freakin' awesome. As I've never actually read the books, I can't say if it's Donaldson's writing or Scott Brick's reading (or a combination of the two), but I'm a quarter of the way through the audiobook, and I'm enjoying it on a level I haven't felt for a while. That "completely absorbed and don't want to stop reading/listening" level.

It's been a long time.

So, here's my plug for both Donaldson (Linda has already attested to the books' lovability), but also for Scott Brick's reading of it. As I mentioned in my first post re the same, Scott is producing this mostly on his own, bypassing the audiobook publishers, which, in the context of vastly overpriced audiobooks, is really cool. This 16 disk book (or what amounts to 16 disks, at least) can be purchased from Scott's website for $34.95 (digital download--easy, breezy...right to your iPod). A lot better than what you'd find in the stores--$60 and up.

Go to www.scottbrickpresents.com--there's plenty of info, blogging, etc. Even a clip.

This is very much in keeping with a lot of the story podcasts that Jim Kelly does, both on his own site and through Audible.com (another great audio resource).

Yay technology!

This just made me smile.

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Sprinting on the plains, swinging a vorpal blade, cometh Allison! And she gives a gutteral howl: "I'm going to brutalize you until you're a Dungeons & Dragons statistic!!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys

My latest distraction...

So, Scott Brick, narrator extraordinaire (over 400 books), a Golden Voices member, and recipient of many, many AudioFile Earphones awards, is recording his own volumes now, sans the heavy hand of the publishing industry.

His first, and so far, very successful venture is the recoding of Stephen R. Donaldson's first book in the trilogy, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever.

Entitled Lord Foul's Bane, this first volume follows the somewhat grim adventures of Thomas Covenant as he leaves his shambles of a life in the "real world" and enters a world in which Good and Evil are (yet again) engaged in an epic, ongoing, and ever-satisfying struggle.



So--how this relates to my growing list of distractions: Scott Brick recently completed his recording of this first volume and is distributing it from his website, scottbrickpresents.com.
And, he naturally wants it reviewed. As this is a "hot" title (and a fantasy title), and as I have some control on who gets what to review, I had this little baby downloaded to my iPod in a New York minute (yes, I have run mad with power).

After a handful of fairly entertaining L. Ron Hubbard titles (all full-cast performances), a smattering of paranormal romances, and one cracker-jack Robert A. Heinlein title, I'm psyched to be getting a good solid epic fantasy under my belt as a reviewer.

Oh, yes. The best part was emailing back and forth with Mr. Brick himself trying to get the download coordinated. Brushes with fame and all that. It almost tops my chronic telephone flirtations with Dion Graham. He's so sweet.

I just finished listening to "The Gingerbread Girl" by Stephen King on audiobook, read by Mare Winningham. Not too bad. Not absurdly good either, but an entertaining two hours. And I'm still trying to find something to rhyme with "girl" so that I can complete the song. Something good. Besides "pearl," "furl," and "squirrel."



If you're a King fan and enjoy audiobooks, I'd recommend spending the $13.57 on Amazon (or just download it from Audible.com.) Of course, I'm starting to think he needs a good editor, even if only to remind him that "alarming" should not be used three times in as many consecutive sentences. Or "hellish," for that matter.

So, I'm still getting used to the LiveJournal set up. I'm a Blogspot girl, but there are so many Stonecoasters on LJ, that I just had to do both.

Will write more, but driving to NH now. In the meantime, check out my blog at http://thoughtson1386.blogspot.com/