Friday, July 29, 2011

Dread Empire!


Those sneaky folks over at NightShade Books have been working under the radar, again. I don't recall any news items about these, but here they are;

Reap the East Wind
An Ill Fate Marshalling

These are reprints, and I've been dying to get my own copies. A friend loaned me An Ill Fate Marshalling and I read it awhile ago.

It's a pity they couldn't talk Glen Cook resurrecting the "lost" (stolen!) novel of the series, The Wrath of Kings and putting all three into another omnibus. (read old interview here)

I'll take 'em, though!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Beowulf & Grendel movie

I am really late to the party, but I finally watched my DVD of the 2005 Icelandic/Canadian co-production, Beowulf & Grendel. I enjoyed it a lot. I will be lazy and refer you to Bruce Durham's old review. I agree with all his points and assessment. It's worth a viewing if you enjoy Beowulf.



I particularly enjoyed the grim humor in some snippets of dialogue.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Bloating up the Kindle!

If you didn't see my tweet or Facebook status, Amazon are having a big sale ('The Big Deal', they call it) on Kindle eBooks for the next week. They even have a handful of PYR books, which normally run $15 trade paperback or $10 ebook for $1.99 each.

I just scored;

The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeld Jack (Burton & Swinburne) by Mark Hodder
Dawnthief (Chronicles of the Raven, 1) by James Barclay
Elfsorrow (Legends of the Raven, 1) by James Barclay
Blood of Ambrose by James Enge

Each for $1.99.

Also, another PYR book, Empire in Black & Gold has been on sale for $1.99, too, and that ends July 25, I think.

Granted, these are all series first entries to entice you to buy & read more at full price, but for these prices, I'm fine with that.

Also acquired two history books;

Voices of the Foreign Legion by Adrian D. Gilbert (also, $1.99)

Daily Life in the Middle Ages by Paul B. Newman ($3.99, but that's a huge discount over even the paperback, which is listed at $36!)

The 'Great Deal' sale goes through July 27.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Color changes

Got bored with the old look, don't mind me.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Writing motivation

I am so behind watching movies & t.v., if I get my writing goal finished this week, then I am going to treat myself to these on the weekend. (I own the DVDs, I just haven't watched them yet.)



We'll see how the "goals & rewards" system works for me for the next few weeks.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Batman on the beach



I spent the past four & a half days at the beach with my family and in-laws. Not as relaxing as it could have been - the nine month old is extremely screechy. No exaggeration - you could put your head next to the p.a. column at a Judas Priest concert and have the same effect on your hearing. I kept thinking we'd be asked to leave our inn.

Anyway, I knew with the two children (even with grandparents for babysitting) I wouldn't get much reading done, but I brought the Kindle, anyway.

I was smart in also bringing Batman: Year One with me. Graphic novels are faster, easier reads. I chose this one because I had it on recommendation, and it will be the next story adapted for the DC Universe Animated movies.



It was a very good story. I enjoyed it a lot. I could have done without the reinvention of Selina Kyle (Catwoman) as a bored prostitute, but what is a Frank Miller story without pimps and hookers? ;) The rest though, is stellar as Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne fight amidst a sea of crime and corruption. Not even a super-villain here. The mob and corrupt police force are enough. Good storytelling moments. I especially liked a crooked cop's recounting of encountering Batman as something mythical, while the illustrations show exactly what happened and how the (Bat)man was becoming a legend by exaggeration and fear.

So, I managed to read that in its entirety. Also gave in this year and grabbed a hardcover of Tim Willock's The Religion - very same book and discount bookstore I debated about last year. Couldn't pass it up this time. I'll find the shelf space for it. I hope it is as good as some say it is.

We had wireless but I mostly lurked from my iPhone. Between this week & my Facebook 'vacation' last month, I'm getting the bigger picture and remembering/realizing just how much darn noise there is on the Web. Don't get me wrong, I've gotten wonderful information and made plenty of friends, I don't damn the medium. But, I really need to cut back on my web time. I just have too many other pokers in the fires of my life right now.

I'll still follow my blog roll and post here, but I am thinking of cutting way back on Facebook and newsites. Surprisingly, perhaps not Twitter because that is designed to be a fast fix - but it's plenty noisy, too, so that might go.

Besides, with Google+ ramping up, there might be a great nomadic social network migration again. Might as well ramp down for a bit.