Category Archives: Writing

February 16, 2013 · 8:51 pm

Who Do You Write Like?

I came across this very cool site on StumbleUpon called, I Write Like:

http://iwl.me/

I Write Like

You put a chapter of a book you wrote/are writing, or a short story, or an article in the provided box.  It then tells you who the writing is similar to.  I can’t attest to its accuracy, but I found it pretty fun.

My results:

Chapter One Draft of Blood Bank – Margaret Atwood

Chapter Two Draft of Blood Bank – William Gibson

Second Chapter, The Travelers’ Club – Fire and Ash – James Joyce

Hop To It, One of my shorts in Twisted History – Chuck Palahniuk

So, I guess it is true I write in a different style whether writing horror, steampunk, or humorous history.

What results will you have?

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February 11, 2013 · 7:53 pm

Was Dracula an Irishman?

Bram Stoker’s Dracula inspired by an Irish legend?

Dracula inspired many films - the vampire count is the most filmed character in the world after Sherlock Holmes.

Dracula inspired many films – the vampire count is the most filmed character in the world after Sherlock Holmes.

Did an early Irish vampire legend influence the creation of Count Dracula? There are a group of people in the north of Ireland who are sure Bram Stoker was influenced by a old story from their area.

When the Irish writer Bram Stoker published his novel ‘Dracula’ in 1897, it quickly grew into a worldwide publishing sensation. To this day it is Bram Stoker who has done most to shape the modern conception of vampires which we see in movies and fiction – from Lost Boys to the Twilight series.

There has been a lot of speculation about where Bram Stoker got the idea for the character of Dracula, and the unique characteristics he gave this fearsome vampire. Much has been made of the connection to Eastern-European vampire myths, and the medieval prince known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Tepes.

However there is also lesser-known but fascinating local Irish myth of an evil magician who could not be killed and came back from the grave three times, This is a highly unusual myth for Ireland, where there is little tradition of ‘undead’ stories. Thus it was a legend likely to attract the attention of an Irish writer such as Bram Stoker who was very interested in folklore.

The people who live near the final resting place of this Irish undead, have told me that the legend was the original inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Not only that, but they tell me that this burial site continues to be associated with strange and disturbing events to this day.

The Story of Abhartach – the original Irish vampire

In County Derry in Northern Ireland, there is a small townland named ‘Slaghtaverty’ which in Irish means ‘ Abhartach’s Tomb’. When I was working in this rural area recently on a community history project, the locals told me the story of how the townland got it’s name, how the legend inspired Bram Stoker to create ‘Dracula’ and how strange events continue to happen in the vicinity of the large stone tomb that stands there.

Abhartach (pronounced Av-ar-chack), so the story goes, was an evil ruler in the area, a stunted man but a powerful magician. He terrorized all the people for miles around, until they wished him dead. But as none of his subjects had the courage to kill the magical man themselves they got a warrior from a neighbouring area to do it. This warrior, called Cathain, duly killed Abhartach and buried him upright as was traditional for a Celtic chief at this time.

However, the next day Abhartach appeared once more among his people, this time demanding a sacrifice of blood from the wrists of his subjects. He had become one of, what was called in Irish, the marbh beo – the living dead. Three times Cathain killed and buried Abhartach and three times he rose from his grave seeking blood from his people. Until the people, in their desperation, turned to a Christian saint who lived in the area and asked him how they could be rid of this evil undead creature forever.

Cathain was instructed by the saint to kill Abhartach once more but this time to do it with a sword made of yew wood, to bury him upside down, with a large stone on top and then to plant thorn trees around the grave. This Cathain did and Avartach has never been seen again, though his grave still stands in a field in the townland of Slaghtaverty, covered in an enormous stone slab, a lonely thorn tree growing beside it.

Other influences on Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Of course Bram Stoker would not have taken his inspiration for Count Dracula from a single source. Stoker was well aware of Eastern European folklore, as well as earlier Gothic vampire stories such as Politori’s ‘Vampyre’ and Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.

Vlad the Impaler of Romania, a cruel Medieval prince, has often been sighted as inspiration for Dracula. While he may have lent Dracula his nickname (Dracul – son of the devil) he doesn’t share many characteristics with the blood-sucking Count; Vlad the Impaler was a cruel leader but he is never recorded as having drunk blood, or as having lived beyond the grave.

You can read more on this topic at my article: Count Dracula: myth, fiction and historical reality.

Abraham 'Bram' Stoker: Author of Dracula.

Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker: Author of Dracula.

Did Abhartach influence Stoker’s Count Dracula?

The parallels between Abhartach and Bram Stoker’s Dracula are extremely interesting. The idea of an evil man who has a magical way to overcome death and rise from the grave, is familiar to anyone who has read Dracula or who has seen the film adaptations. Further similarities include the demands blood sacrifice from his subjects – the image of taking blood from weaker people ispowerfully interwoven with thevampire myth as we know it today. As is the idea that there is a special way to kill the undead – we are all very familiar today with the idea that vampires must be killed by a wooden stake, or buried upside down, just like the saint said Abhartach could be killed over a thousand years ago.

Although today few but the locals who live near the grave have heard of Abhartach, it was once a well-reported story in Ireland. The story is said to date from the 5th or 6th century BC – making it one of the world’s earliest vampire legends. It was treated as true history and published in the book A General History of Ireland by Dr Geoffrey Keating in 1631. It was later collected and printed as an interesting local legend included in the Ordnance Survery of County Londonderry in 1835 and the story of Avartach was further reprinted by Patrick Weston Joyce in A History of Ireland in 1880.

It is quite probable that Bram Stoker knew of this story and it may have influenced his decision to write a vampire novel. What is particularly interesting is that two of the earliest and most influential vampire novels were written by Irishmen – Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu and Dracula by Bram Stoker. Although they were surely influenced by European legends and Gothic literature as well, there is definitely a case for the argument that they were also inspired by the local Irish legend of Abhartach.

A textile depiction of 'Dracula's Grave'. The thorn tree still grows there today.

A textile depiction of ‘Dracula’s Grave’. The thorn tree still grows there today.

Strange events at ‘Dracula’s Grave’

Whatever the case for Stoker’s connection with Avartach’s grave, the tomb has a reputation for strange and unsettling events which continues into living memory of the local residents. In fact people in the area refer to the tomb as ‘Dracula’s Grave’. They rarely visit the site – and never after dark!

Not so many years ago the owner of the land where the tomb sits decided that it was time to get rid of the grave and the tree and to take full possession of his field. A group of men gathered together to do the work of moving the stones and a chainsaw was brought to cut down the tree. But when they tried to start the chainsaw to cut down the thorn tree the saw stalled and would not work. So a second chainsaw was brought down to the field and it too would not start which was too much of a co-incidence. The men began to feel distinctly unsettled.

But the final straw came when the tractor they had brought along to pull away the tombstone started of its own accord and drove itself to the other side of the field, crushing one of the chainsaws into the mud as it did so. The men fled. And no attempt to remove the tomb or the thorn tree has been made since.

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February 11, 2013 · 4:59 pm

Awesome Writer Needs Agent! Please Help!

My great friend, David Nicol has completed a novel that I have read through and it is AMAZING!  It centers on an American marrying into a Scottish family in the 1970’s.  What My Big Fat Greek Wedding did for Greek Families, or what Polish Wedding did for Poles, this book succeeds in accomplishing for the Scottish.  It is an amazingly funny, uplifting, and dramatic glimpse into the lives of real people living real lives.  I could just read about their adventures forever.  This is David’s first novel and he needs an agent and publisher who want to get rich off a wonderful new talent.  Please give him a chance, and read his manuscript.  Below is his picture and a query letter:

david

 

Dear,

I am seeking representation for Mac and June: Love In The Time Of Oil, my completed commercial fiction novel, set in 1970’s Aberdeen, Scotland.

When twenty-three-year-old American, Mac Wagner, falls for June Meldrum in an Aberdeen dancehall, he discovers that love in a strange land (Scotland) – and the quirky family that accompanies her, are a revelation for his feelings. Shackled by childhood issues of unloving parents, Mac finds that love comes in many guises, not least in the form of June’s grumpy Grandpa, a man with hidden talents, secrets, and a wicked tongue.

Along the way, Mac falls in love not only with June, but with the whole, raucous Meldrum family.  June’s mother, Bessie, discovers a lump in her breast, her Aunt Peggy has a torrid affair with a young Italian waiter, and Grandpa reveals a family secret to Mac that only the old man knows about. Mac is forced by the oil company he works for to choose between a promotion back in the States, and termination. Unwilling to pile more pressure on the Meldrums while June’s mother awaits her fate, and the family deals with Peggy’s infidelity, he keeps this work predicament to himself, confiding only in the old man he has come to love and respect.

Mac And June is the feel-good tale of a young man’s introduction to Scotland and her people. Through humor and good-natured banter, the story immerses us in a different time and place.

While intended for a mainstream audience, the book contains adult language, irreverent humor, as well as pervasive drinking and smoking.

I have been published in Twisted History, an anthology of short stories. My work has also appeared twice in Palo Verde Pages, an Arizona literary magazine. I am a native of Scotland, but have lived in the USA for over twenty years.

The first five pages of text are pasted below. Thank you for taking the time to consider my work. I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

James David Nicol

davidnicol@me.com

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February 4, 2013 · 1:09 am

A disturbing excerpt from my Memoirs

I had a very bad childhood, full of abuse, both physical and emotional, but luckily not sexual, though my siblings were not spared that atrocity.  My dad was the worst abuser but my mom the most frequent.  I grew up poor white trash in an uncultured, uneducated violent, crude family.  I used to pray I was adopted or picked up as the wrong baby at the hospital.  Unfortunately, I look like my father now.  You have no idea how disconcerting to look in the mirror and look like the person who beat you and yelled at you.  My family came from Arkansas and Oklahoma during the dust bowl like the Joad family but without the noble spirits and likable characters.  My father bragged of tales of him and his brothers trying to kill each other with pitchforks and shovels.  His father was eventually put in a home when he tried to kill his wife with a rifle.  His wife, my grandmother, used to torture me for hours when my parents dropped me off at her house, so I could hardly blame him.  In her later years, she tried to send me notes saying she loved me and thought about me.  My wife wondered why I tossed them out.  In any case, it has left its mark on me for good and ill and I am trying to compile stories and put them in a memoir.  Here is one such draft:

The Ladder

by Michael Bradley

The ladder loomed above me like the face of El Capitan.  I could force myself to the first step, and shaking like a leaf to the second.  After that, panic set in.  It is difficult to explain fear of heights to anyone who does not have a phobia, but the fear is overwhelming, primal, and cannot be overcome.  My Dad was screaming at me as usual.  He pulled his well worn leather belt with the metal buckle through his pant loops and began to whip me with it.

I wanted to climb the ladder and prune the tree, but try as I might, I could not pass the second step.  I was used to beatings.  I was hit every day and at least once a week my Dad would whip me with his belt until my legs were bloody.  I fell from the ladder as he whipped my legs, then on the ground, my arms and my face.

A neighbor ran over to stop it.  I was worried the neighbor would hurt my Dad.  I knew my Dad had a heart condition and could not fight the neighbor without being hurt.  Through my tears I pleaded, “Don’t hurt my Dad, please.”  The neighbor looked uncomfortable and left after speaking to my Dad.  My Dad beat me more for making so much noise.

My Mother came out to stop him.  My Mother only beat me in the house, not outdoors.  “They will call the police,” she said.  I did not want my Dad to go to jail, but I could not climb the ladder.  My Dad stopped whipping me and moved toward the house.

Then with a suddenness he ran back to me, grabbed me by my small left arm and yanked me up, spun me around wildly and let go.  I flew about fifteen feet into a prickly bush.  I laid there for quite awhile, then got up, limped to my room and hid in my closet.  It was the day after my seventh birthday.

Twenty years later I found my Dad had dislocated my shoulder that day and broke my clavicle.  The jagged repair cut my shoulder joint apart while playing racquetball and a surgeon fixed the old injury.  He fixed the physical injury, but the emotional one is still there.  Among hundreds of wounds, days in school where blood would soak into my pants as they tore at scabs on my legs, but no one seemed to notice.  Nor did they notice my ulcer that year, my scratching myself till I bled, or my constant shaking.

Freedom came to me in a strange way.  At fifteen, my Dad died, his heart gave out in surgery.  My Mother abandoned me months later, moving from California to Tennessee with a man she knew for two weeks.  I have seen her around three times in the last thirty years.  Physical freedom came immediately, but emotional freedom arrived just a few years ago.  Some wounds take longer to heal, like the ladder.

 

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February 2, 2013 · 1:51 am

Movie Reviews

Here are a few movie reviews that I have completed for various magazines.  My wife tells me I am too critical.  Judge for yourself…

Warhorse – The Movie

WarHorseMoviePoster-608x401

I had planned to go see the mindless action film Mission Impossible, 5, 10, 12 or whatever number we are now on when a friend suggested we see Warhorse instead.  I am not a big fan of horse movies such as Black Beauty, Flicka, Horse Whisperer, National Velvet, and so forth so I only reluctantly agreed.  However, not knowing much about the film heading in I was very pleasantly surprised and would definitely recommend it to others.

The warhorse is the center of a series of story vignettes that start with its birth before the first world war and bring you, through the travels of the horse, to meet with various people it impacts, all the way to the conclusion of the war.  The warhorse itself serves like the red violin, or the traveling pants, of other similar films where an object, this time a horse, are the constant, while the scenes, times and characters change about it.

The direction, cinematography and time period perfection are what we have come to rely upon in any Steven Spielberg film and he is masterful in this one as well.  The stories are intense and surprisingly non-judgmental, showing the ups and downs of humanity with few characters being entirely good or bad.  The English and Germans on both sides of the trenches are shown equally for their brutality and petty squabbles as well as their compassion for others.

The acting is done by veterans without the distraction of major cinema stars, and is for the most part, very compelling to watch.  The movie will leave you with a brief but panoramic view of the effects of world war one on those who lived in it.  The one downside is that it has that the feel good undertone and slow pacing makes the ending too predictable.  I found myself telling my friend the ending half way through the film.  Nonetheless, I would give it 4 out of 5 stars as solid family viewing for age twelve and above.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

TheHobbit_Sdtk_Cover_1425px_300dpi1

As with any canon of master fiction, any adaptation to film must be measured by two standards.  First, that of a non-fanatical reader who happens to find their way into a theater seat, and second, that of the hardened fan looking for every detail.  Such it is with The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey.  Along with Star Wars, Star Trek, and perhaps newer series such as Twilight, Harry Potter and Hunger Games, there is no greater fan base than that of JRR Tolkien who was a “must read” for two generations of English students.

The Hobbit started out according to legend while JRR Tolkien was giving a test to students and scribbling on a pad in boredom.  He drew some lovely rolling hills and in the middle wrote the iconic words, “Once there lived a Hobbit who lived in a hole in the ground.”  This idle musing led to the writing of The Hobbit, followed by the Lord of The Rings Trilogy, several short stories, and the later compilation of his notes by his son Christopher into a volume entitled The Silmarillion.

I read The Hobbit decades ago, and even as a child it took me only one sitting.  It is a short book and more aptly a junior or Children’s story.  It is a very quick, simple and enjoyable read, unlike the adult, complex story of The Lord of the Rings comprising three books.  The Hobbit uses names like “the LonelyMountain”, “Bard the Archer”, LakeTown and other simplistic references.  So imagine my surprise when I found that this one smaller volume was going to be made into not one, not two, but three full length films!  For The Lord of The Rings, each film was roughly one complex book, and even so ran a bit long in places.

The three movies coming out now are The Hobbit:  An Unexpected Journey, out now; the second will be The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in December 2013; and finally, The Hobbit:  There and Back Again scheduled for July 2014.  Even the makers knew that the slim original volume could not stretch, so they made the decision to bring in back story only hinted at in The Hobbit, but laid out in sketchy aspects in The Silmarillion.  Even so, the first movie in the series runs for 170 minutes.  The average film is six fifteen minute reels, or 90 minutes.  The first movie is in a sense, two movies shown at once.  At this rate, the three movies will take the length of six movies to watch, and the first only takes you to Chapter Seven of the book.

With that background, if you are a movie watcher who cannot name the wizard in the film or the main character, do not go.  If you are not a JRR Tolkien fan, the slow pacing, awkward graphics and lack of content will make your eyes bleed and you will beg for a restroom or popcorn break to end the monotony.  It is, unfortunately, a very poorly filmed movie; shot in 45 frames per second which makes it all look fake.  It is also a poorly written screenplay, bringing in details that are not needed to move the plot forward in any way.

If you are a crazed JRR Tolkien fan like I am, then you are willing to pay money and sit in a theater to watch scenes of Middle Earth, even if they are simply showing the grass grow, and locals walking about.  If you are a fan, you will go whether you read this or not, and you will enjoy seeing Middle Earth.  However, there are things you won’t like.  First, it is a prequel, so you already know what is going to happen.  Peter Jackson’s strength and weakness is his strict adherence to the canon.  So you know there won’t be any surprises.

Second, as a prequel, you know how characters such as Gandalf, Elrond, Lady Galadriel and Saruman will be later, so seeing them earlier and younger, they don’t act like you want them to.  These are the naive, weakling times for them.  The fight scenes will also disappoint you, whether it is Azog, The Goblin King, or Thorin’s ridiculous use of a chunk of wood, even after he could re-equip with a real shield.  Parts of the movie in the goblin lair make me think it was filmed to sell a later video game version.  The battle of the Storm Giants is stupid, unexplained, and should have been left out.  Tom Bombadil was left out of Lord of the Rings’ movies for the same reason – too strange.

The strengths are the wide vistas and beauty of Middle Earth, the acting of Martin Freeman as Bilbo and that of Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield.  Thankfully, only a brief scene with the whiny weakness of Elijah Wood as Frodo and none of the incessant crying of Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee.

Even for an avid Tolkien fan, you will be ready for this movie to end.  Another caution – although the original book was clearly child friendly, the movie is not.  It has many battle scenes, intense monsters and violence.  Leave the youngest ones at home or be prepared for some nightmares.

Les Miserables

les miz

Les Miserables (pronounced “lay Miz-er-rob”) is French for “The Miserables.”  It is set in the time period of upheaval in France where they threw off their monarchy in violence, reinstated it with violence, and repeated the process twice more.  Blood ran in the streets, people starved and justice swung back and forth between sides.  Victor Hugo wrote the novel Les Miserables in 1862 and it remains one of the longest novels ever written, topping the scales at 1,900 pages unabridged.  The original novel comprises five volumes, each volume divided into several books, and subdivided into chapters, for a total of 48 books and 365 chapters.  Legend has it that Hugo had himself locked in a room naked with nothing but pencil and paper so he could finish it.

In any case, critics at the time hated it, and the French government hated it so much that Hugo was banished to England for political crimes.  Since then, it has been considered a near perfect piece of literature.  It was remade into a musical screenplay and has had long runs both on and off Broadway.  With such popularity, it was inevitable that it would be made into a movie version.  The movie version is based on the musical play adaptation, so it is twice removed from the original book.

Starting in 1814 and ending around 1832 with the June Rebellion in France, Les Misérables is a mostly depressing look at the inhumanity of people, suffering, lost dreams, but also the triumph of the human spirit.  It strikes me as strange to put such often depressing themes to music.  Claude-Michel Schönberg composed the Tony Award winning score in 1980.  Though I am not a music fan, it is impossible to walk out of the movie without hearing the music in your head.  You even find yourself humming weeks later.  As I write this the music is going in my head, reminiscent of “It’s a Small World” at Disneyland, it sticks with you.

I talked to many others who went to this film for their perspective.  My lovely wife has seen Les Miz on Broadway and at the Gammage in Phoenix, but I had never gone.  Looking to pick up wife points during the holidays I suggested we go to see the movie.  I actually found the movie more entertaining than many of the “musical theater” aficionados.  I believe the reason is that the story, cinematography, sound, costuming and acting are all superb.

Hugh Jackman steals the show as the main protagonist Jean Valjean, a former convict who stole bread and changed his identity upon release.  A parole violator, he is hunted forever by the gendarme Javert played by Russell Crowe.  Valjean dedicates himself to good, only to find of a tragic event at his own business.  This leads to a long series of events that culminate in the end of his life.  The cast is amazing, with strong performances from Jackman, Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Samantha Sparks, Eddie Redmayne, and Aaron Tveit.

There were a few parts that I disliked and took me out of the moment.  Sasha Baron Cohen, of “Borat” fame, along with Helena Bonham Carter are put into the film as comic relief.  True, watching abject misery and injustice might need to be broken up by comedy, but the two of them do a terrible job in my opinion, acting as they do in every movie they have been cast in the last ten years.  Cohen did so-so in Hugo, but not here.  The other major distraction for me is that everyone speaks with a British accent, some with Cockney dialect, yet the film is about France.  Can no one speak normally, or even try a French accent?  The accents were as bad as John Wayne playing Genghis Khan.

The part that did not bother me was the often poor singing ability of the cast.  Hugh Jackman is no stranger to Broadway and sings quite well.  Anne Hathaway is either an awesome singer or had help because her songs are spot on.  Let’s be frank though; Russell Crowe is not a recording artist.  It sounded like he was in pain trying to reach past three comfortable notes.  My son and daughter are both former professional actors and singers (my daughter still performs professionally) and they were disturbed by the poor singing.  For myself, I preferred the outstanding acting over singing if I had to make a choice.

Les Miserable is long and noticeably so at 157 minutes, a good hour longer than most films.  It tells so much story that you are not bored, but you do start to wonder when it will end.  I would recommend anyone who has not seen or read Les Miz to go see the movie.  It is part of a well rounded education and it is certainly enjoyable.  If you care about the music more, skip the film and go see the performance of the live play.  There they pick singing first, acting second, and you will not cringe during certain songs.

R’Ha – The Movie of the Future

r'ha pic

R’Ha is not at your theaters, so no need to go looking at the listings.  It is part of the new breed of film making, the independently made, written and distributed film.  It is currently receiving an average of 100,000 hits per day.  The movie itself is just 6 minutes and 26 seconds long.  The average movie is 90 minutes, so the film is more like the action sequence at the beginning of a James Bond film.

In that short amount of time, filmmaker Kaleb Lechowski sets a scene, develops characters and a story arc, and fits in a twist leaving you wanting to see more.  The real shocker though is the seamless sound and video that makes some Hollywood films pale in comparison.  It begs the question if an independent filmmaker can do this on a limited budget, how long before others are making full length films, outside of traditional theater distribution, and publishing them online?  Music and books are already sold directly, why not movies as well?

You can watch R’ha at https://vimeo.com/57148705

It was written and directed by Kaleb Lechowski, sound by Hartmut Zeller, voice acting by Dave Masterson and work by Scott Glassgold of IAM Entertainment – Representation.  Whether this is a precursor to a dramatic shift in the production and distribution of films, or just the latest fad, either way R’ha is worth the six and a half minutes.  If nothing else, you will have a new conversation piece and be part of the “in the know” crowd.

Lincoln

Lincoln-Movie-Poster

One of the most heralded films of 2012 was Lincoln.  Lincoln has now received 12 Oscar nominations and is another hit by filmmaker Steven Spielberg.  At 150 minutes, it is an hour longer than a regular film, a trend for blockbuster budget films in 2012.  Lincoln is definitely superior in cinematography, costuming and production to most other films.  There is no doubt that it was well made.

However, the biggest surprise in the movie is that it is misnamed.  Abraham Lincoln is arguably among the top two people in all of American history, along with George Washington.  His history is so rich and intriguing that I was looking forward into deep insights, character development, struggles and challenges.  After all, in a 150 minute blockbuster film by Steven Spielberg, there would be time to examine subtle issues of character.  Instead, the film dwells on roughly a three month period and focuses almost exclusively on passage of the 13th Amendment.

If the movie had been called 13th Amendment it would be perfect.  Literally, the entire film is based on Lincoln’s effort to pass the amendment and others’ efforts to stop its passage.  It gives more insight into political dueling than it does into Lincoln himself.  Portraying Lincoln is Daniel Day-Lewis, one of the best actors in history.  His work in My Left Foot won him the Oscar for Best Actor, and he was nominated again for The Last of the Mohicans.  His un-likeable role in There Will Be Blood was also amazingly portrayed.  At 6’2″ he pulls off the look and feel of President Lincoln and has the country Illinois accent and mannerisms down well.

Unfortunately, Daniel Day-Lewis creates such a compelling picture of Lincoln at only one stage of his life that a generation of movie goers will accept that is the way Lincoln was, and always was.  There is no character arc in the film, only a snapshot.  I really did not get any new perspective on Lincoln at all.  I learned a great deal about passage of the 13th Amendment and the maneuvering that went on for its passage, but honestly I would not have gone to the movie knowing what it was about.

The surprisingly good performance was that of Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens.  Tommy Lee Jones is a fine character actor, but it has been a long time since I have seen him step out of his usual roles so much.  He is excellent.  The rest of the cast simply come in and out of the scenes with Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones.  Sally Field portrays a savvy and politically-wise Mary Todd Lincoln.  In reality, by that time in history, Mary Todd Lincoln was rarely lucid, heavily bi-polar, and spent most of her time in seclusion.  It was remarked upon at the time, that when sitting beside her shot husband, they were thankful that she had five minutes of clarity, before she reverted back to hysteria.  So Sally Field portrays a Mrs. Lincoln that never existed.

James Spader manages to stay relevant in his scenes, but barely so.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is totally miscast as Lincoln’s son Robert.  So soon after being the heir apparent as an upcoming Batman or Robin, his current pop culture image makes it hard to suspend belief and accept him as Lincoln’s son.

This is unpopular to say about a Spielberg film, with two fine actors, and the subject matter being Lincoln and the abolishment of slavery – but I found the film to be boring, overly long, and lacking in insights.  It was more like watching C-Span.  The old musical film 1776 is an example of how passing legislation, in that case the Declaration of Independence, can be made exciting and lively.  In Lincoln, other than the quiet moments where our President is telling a story to make a point, it is like watching politics.  Politics, like sausage-making, do not make for good movies.

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer – Book Versus Movie

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I will try not to have any spoilers here.  It is very important to know that the movie and the book are almost completely different stories, with the exception of Abraham Lincoln killing vampires.  As an author myself, my wife asked me how I would feel if someone made a movie about one of my books and changed everything like they did with his.  I responded I would be more famous, richer and would have to get over it.

Strengths of the Book – The book has tons of interesting historical back story on Lincoln as a child, growing up, his struggles to make money, friends, girlfriend, business, law and politics.  In the movie, almost all of this historical background with Lincoln is gone.  The book also has written journal entries from Lincoln that leave you wondering if he really wrote them and they were incorporated, or if they are simply made up.  The fight scenes are realistic.  Abraham Lincoln is a strong woodsmen, but not superhuman.  They have the vampires helping to win the First Battle of Bull Run, which matches the historical record of what happened at the battle.

Weaknesses of the Book – The first part is never revisited.  In the movie they threw out that start and I have to wonder why the book publisher did not do the same.  It is basically the same start as Call of Cthulhu and John Carter of Mars and so many other books which start with someone being handed a stack of old books and they start reading them.

Henry, the most important character, is not explained in the book, either where he comes from, why he works through human surrogates, or anything.  It jumps around, skipping huge chunks of time.  In the book, the vampires are about four times stronger than a man, but otherwise pretty easy to kill.  The ending leaves the vampires running around, so Abraham Lincoln was really only partially successful.  If you are looking for dramatic vampire abilities and fight scenes then the book will leave you feeling flat.  It is more alternative historical fiction using vampires as the one change to history as we know it.

Strengths of the Movie – The movie has great production values.  You get to see scenery from 1818 to 1865 which is very well done.  The movie has a great steampunk feel to it, where the book is simply historical vampire fiction.  The vampires are stronger and the fight scenes are much better as a result.  They can go invisible, etc.  I personally also think that the movie strikes a good balance between campy humor and taking it seriously.  People who read the book might like less drama over ten hours.  People seeing a movie want to see President Lincoln kicking vampire butt, which they accomplish well. The top strength of all – they drop the weak beginning, and actually explain a plausible back story for Henry.  I also think the movie strikes a balance between campy and serious that keeps it fun.

Weaknesses of the Movie – It takes out one of Lincoln’s two friends and replaces him with a former boyhood slave friend.  It makes the other friend seem unreliable.  It adds a super villain vampire named Adam that is not existent in the book.  There are a few scenes where Lincoln is wounded, that show wounds from earlier in the movie.  The make up folks or editors got some of the scenes in the wrong order.

The movie is mostly special effects and almost no character development.  In truth, you learn very little about Lincoln and the actor portraying him was better at looking like Lincoln than acting like him.  He feels like Captain America before the transformation. They also make Abraham Lincoln and his new slave sidekick look supernatural in their abilities.  Including, chopping down a tree over a foot thick with one blow.  Training is one thing, super powers another.

Historically, the movie gets many things wrong, while the book does not.  They add that vampires can only be killed with silver.  They inaccurately include Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.  They show vampires over-running federal troops with artillery on the first day of Gettysburg.  Only once, on the third day, did any Confederate troops overrun artillery, it was the famous Pickett’s charge, and then only for a few minutes before they were slaughtered.  They show the WashingtonMonument under construction.  In truth, construction of the monument began in 1848, but was halted from 1854 to 1877, after Lincoln’s death.  I could go on, but I won’t, the historical errors are rampant.

Movie Comment – The character Henry, played by Dominic Cooper steals the whole show, relegating Lincoln’s wooden acted character to second fiddle.  Henry is so well played the other performances suffer from, in my opinion, poor casting or acting.

Still, I recommend you both read the book and see the movie.  After all, it’s Abraham Lincoln killing vampires, you got to see that right?

 

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January 24, 2013 · 9:50 am

Rejection Letters to Famous Authors

Try, Try Again: Rejection Letters Received by Bestselling Authors

IMAGE CREDIT:

 

For writers, getting rejected can seem like a pastime. But don’t take my word for it, even though I’ve gotten my share of no-thank-yous. These best-selling authors were rejected, too, and some not very kindly. Editors, publishers and agents have made big errors in judgment, as evidenced by the list of unkind (and sometimes needlessly rude) rejections received by these famous writers.

1. GEORGE ORWELL

It seems Alfred Knopf didn’t always understand satire. Animal Farm, the famed dystopian allegory that later became an AP Reader standard and Retrospective Hugo Award winner, was turned down because it was “impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A.” A British publishing firm initially accepted and later rejected the work as well, arguing that “…the choice of pigs as the ruling caste will no doubt give offense to many people, and particularly to anyone who is a bit touchy, as undoubtedly the Russians are.”

2. GERTRUDE STEIN

Not much burns worse than mockery, and I would imagine Gertrude Stein was probably fuming when she received this letter from Arthur C. Fifield with her manuscript for Three Lives: “Being only one, having only one pair of eyes, having only one time, having only one life, I cannot read your MS three or four times. Not even one time. Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one. Hardly one.” Twenty years later, Stein’sThe Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas became her one and only best-seller.

3. STEPHEN KING

Most fans know that King’s big break came with Carrie, the story of a friendless, abused girl with secret telekinetic powers. Though one publishing house told him they were “not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias.  They do not sell,” Doubleday picked up the paperback rights to the novel and sold more than a million copies in its first year.

4. WILLIAM GOLDING

Though Lord of the Flies was one of my favorite books from high school, it seems some publishers disagreed. One unimpressed agent called the classic “an absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull.” To date, the book has been required reading in high schools for nearly fifty years, 14.5 million copies have been sold, and Golding’s work has been adapted for film twice.

5. JACK KEROUAC


It’s not incredibly surprising that Kerouac’s work was considered unpublishable in his time. After all, the guy wrote about drugs, sex, and the kind of general lawlessness that many people in the 1950s considered obscene. When shopping out his ubiquitous On the Road, Kerouac’s agent’s mail contained gems like, “His frenetic and scrambling prose perfectly express the feverish travels of the Beat Generation. But is that enough? I don’t think so” and even worse, “I don’t dig this one at all.”

6. MARY HIGGINS CLARK

Back in 1966, the young romance author was trying to sell a story she called “Journey Back to Love.” It didn’t go well, however; her submission to Redbook came back with a rejection from the editors, stating “We found the heroine as boring as her husband had.” Ouch! The piece was eventually run as a two-part serial in an English magazine, and Mary Higgins Clark currently boasts forty-two bestselling novels.

7. AYN RAND

When Rand sent her manuscript out for The Fountainhead, a request from Bobbs-Merrill for her next work-in-progress came back with a curt “Unsaleable and unpublishable.” Not to be deterred, the author called upon Hiram Haydn, newly appointed editor-in-chief of Random House. After an “infinite number” of questions and an assurance that Ms. Rand would not be censored, she signed on with Random House and, to date, has sold over 7 million copies in the U.S.

8. ERNEST HEMINGWAY

In a bid to remove himself from a contract with publishers Boni & Liveright, Hemingway penned The Torrents of Spring with the sole intention of being rejected. Horace Liveright turned it down, Hemingway’s contract was broken, and he moved on to find a new publisher. Of course, it didn’t go smoothly; one queried editor told the author that “It would be extremely rotten taste, to say nothing of being horribly cruel, should we want to publish this.” It all ended well, however. Papa Hemingway moved on to Scribner, who published all of his books from then on—each of which became a bestseller.

Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/26662/try-try-again-rejection-letters-received-bestselling-authors#ixzz2IsCcnvOj
–brought to you by mental_floss!

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January 13, 2013 · 11:18 pm

Anthology Submission Deadline – January 31st!! Just Two more weeks!!

You need to get me those submissions by January 31st!!!

For all of you writers or aspiring writers, each year I help publish an anthology on one subject.  Last year, we published Twisted History, and all the stories were alternative history.  It was “twisted” because we had comedy writers, fiction, non-fiction and other genre writers all writing alternative history.  This year, the topic is horror, and the working title is Twisted Nightmares.  Twisted History has sold thousands of copies, and we expect Twisted Nightmares to do even better.  It will be available on Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble Online, at several bookstores, and in printed form for your resale.

We accept any form of writing, poems, flash fiction, or short stories up to 5,000 words.  Your submissions are judged anonymously by a panel of writers and editors.  Selected submissions will then be professionally edited and returned to you for changes.  The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2013.  Expected publication date is March 1, 2013.  Here is a flyer which has more detail, and also has our cover, supplied to us by the original photographer for use.  (more on them later :-) )

Twisted Nightmares!

Horror Anthology

 Submissions Needed, 5,000 words or less, only horror themes.  WORD format preferred, only electronic submissions accepted.

Publishing by Michael Bradley, President, Eiverness Consulting Group, Ltd., An Arizona Corporation in Good Standing

Senior Editor – Andrew Terech

 

Blademouth

Submissions required by January 31, 2013.  Expected publication prior to May 2013 and published in Kindle format.

Please send inquiries and submissions to:

eiverness@cox.net

For the subject put:  Anthology Submission

This publication is designed to be an additional opportunity to highlight the talents of aspiring writers.  Those chosen for publication will receive two free copies of the printed version and will be able to buy printed copies at cost for their own use or sale.  All other profits and expenses, including electronic sales will be retained by the publisher.

Original Makeup and Character by: Kiera Von D – Blademouth (see more of Kiera’s work here:www.facebook.com/nytroxsfx)
Shared by: Jona Than

To see how pretty Blademouth is in real life and learn more:

http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/seattle-s-sweetheart-blade-mouth-aka-kiera-von-d-an-aspiring-special-effects-make-up-artist

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January 4, 2013 · 12:40 am

Why Nerd Conventions are Full

As a nerd myself, I am proud of my vast reading, viewing and gaming history.  I have played hundreds of video games, including Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) like Everquest, EQ2, Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, etc.  I have been and am, Guild Leader, officer, organizer of several.  In First Person Shooters (FPS) I have also been in clans and player associations, often ranking in the top 5 out of 500,000 players world-wide.  I have a comic book collection, I have every star wars and forgotten realms books ever published.  I was a Dungeon Master for D&D and played wargames before that, going back to the original Chainmail rules, and boxed sets.  I read Lord of The Rings in the first grade.  I made my own first computer and programmed on a cassette tape deck with a Commodore 20.  At one point, I held world records for Space Invaders, Robotron, and and Battletank.  I could go on, but let it suffice to say that I have been, and always will be, a super nerd.

Oddly enough, my first actual convention was in 2010, at Phoenix ComicCon.  As a child I wanted to go to GenCon in the worst way, but I was too poor.  As an adult, I had a wife, kids, and very demanding jobs.  I finally decided to go in March of 2010.  I was very nervous, being 47 at the time, that I would be the old man wondering around looking stupid, that I would not know how to do anything, that all my gaming knowledge was archaic.  Instead, after my initial nervousness, and having my at the time normal, non-nerd wife go, we had a blast.  Films, fun, games, great guests, great vendors, costumes and great people abounded.  My wife had more fun than I, starting her perilous descent into my world of imagination, fantasy and sci-fi.  She dressed up as an original crewman from Star Trek, and was hit on by people while I was standing protectively near her.  I will have to scan the picture and post of her and Lou Ferigno.  John Schneider got cozy with her, the kid who played Boba Fett in Star Wars was grown up, early 20s and asking her out – in front of me…  Almost had to take down the bounty hunter…

The point is, outsiders view conventions as a bunch of geeks and nerds doing stupid things, even today.  In fact, they are awesome fun.  The other thing that outsiders do not realize is the existence of “cosplayers.”  Cosplay is short for costume players.  It ranges from dressing up in a costume but not on Halloween, to entire lifestyles of dress and counter-culture.  This has spawned the existence of the dream girl for male nerds.  The geekgirl, the cyberchick, the cosplayer, the nerdgirl…  Lots of terms, but none do justice to these new mega-stars of the convention scene.  You might not know them, but they have hundreds of thousands of fans and are well known names among us science fiction fans.

Here are some examples of why young guys flock to conventions, other than the science fiction:

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December 30, 2012 · 12:30 am

First Edition of Steampunk Airship Crew Hiring

Ok, you have your brand new Steam-powered dirigible.  You can fight for honor and country, you can smuggle goods, you can commit air piracy, you can explore, or you can put into place your plans for world domination.  (I plan to do a series of these, I hope you like them.)  Yes, you are the Captain, or more accurately, the Admiral.  Your first ship is ready, one of many to come.  These are the first group of 22 pictures for people applying as crew.  You cannot take them all.  Who would YOU pick?  What will be the name of your first ship?

Lord Reginald Harcourt, one of the main characters in The Travelers’ Club series (written by yours truly) named his air yacht Jenny after his young niece.

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December 16, 2012 · 9:53 pm

19th Century Book Ads

These are all advertisements for books put out in the nineteenth century in France.

19th Century:
Book ads from 19th-century France

Ads for well-known French novels from the 19th century by Victor Hugo, Eugène Sue, and Emile Zola. Like most novels from this period, they were first published in serialized form.

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