Click on the video link below to hear and see the new clip advertising my novel – The Travelers’ Club and The Ghost Ship.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21227970/TravelersClub.wmv
Chris is a fellow author but also a graphics art designer and marketer extraordinaire. He will be launching his own new site soon to help aspiring writers – The Iron Quill. I will let you all know when IQ goes live.
Filed under Writing
I just watched the movie John Carter in that annoying 3D with my wife this weekend. I must say it was very entertaining and the special effects were oustanding. On the downside, the overall plot is muddled because it is a combination of three books, not one. This is a typical Hollywood problem as in Master and Commander which took liberally from 21 books by O’Brien, making a real sequel difficult, and confusing the storyline. There was also a problem with the casting of one of the good guys who looks just like the twin of the main bad guy. Luckily, most everthing else works, and the good guys and bad guys are clear and the love story is overwhelmingly clear, so the rest is not too bad. I love the new four armed creatures, and especially woola, who plays the Martian dog. Since I love dogs, he was my favorite character.
But the purpose of this post is not to review John Carter, but because of a comment my wife made after we saw it. She told me, “I didn’t realize Edgar Rice Burroughs did this.” Not only that, I pointed out, but he did it a LONG time ago. In fact, Princess of Mars was written in 1912! Burroughs was born in 1875 and died in 1950. He is one of the most prolific American sci-fi writers in history, and he did it back when things were running on steam. Electricity and gasoline were just being discovered. Flight was just being discovered. The man was amazing, truly up there with Jules Verne and HG Wells. So this is an homage to Burroughs, a man I hope to emulate in some small fashion with my own sci-fi adventure books. I think a list of his works will speak for themselves. Just remember when you watch John Carter – it was written by someone in 1912…
Barsoom series
Book Cover: Pirates of Venus
These three texts have been published by various houses in one or two volumes. Adding to the confusion, some editions have the original (significantly longer) introduction to Part I from the first publication as a magazine serial, and others have the shorter version from the first book publication, which included all three parts under the title The Moon Maid.[13]
As I said, what a body of work! Awesome job Edgar Rice Burroughs, you are still bringing joy and wonder to audiences a hundred years later. Well done indeed.
Filed under Humor and Observations, Writing
For those unfamiliar with steampunk, it is science fiction set during the Victorian Era, between 1830 and 1900 or so. It uses history and sci-fi like Jules Verne, HG Wells, the Wild Wild West, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc. This often involves Victorian or Wild West clothing, brass and steam contraptions and goggles. I have mixed Steampunk and politics in this post. First, a Steampunk Palin, surely scary to those on the modern left, and then a lot of Steampunk Lincoln, our first Republican President, and apparently a man with a secret steampunk life.
Filed under Uncategorized, Writing
Just started a Facebook advertisement for The Travelers’ Club and The Ghost Ship that will run until the end of March. Let me know here if you see it pop up on the right of your Facebook page! Wish me luck.
Filed under Writing
We completed a photo shoot with the ever so nice and friendly Cara Nicole yesterday. For a person with such fame and a busy schedule, I was very impressed with her down to Earth nice personality and her commitment to local charities and the local arts community. She will be appearing as a vampire on the cover of the anthology as one of the characters in the short story compilation. Expect the book out in early March. We also hope to be able to promote this and other works of the local community of writers in the upcoming conventions and in bookstores near you. Please give a warm thanks to Cara Nicole for her awesome support to our local author’s community! Thanks!
We are still finalizing the book name so if you have any ideas, post them here as a comment. This book is being published by Michael Bradley and has a wide variety of local authors participating. It will be available both in Kindle format and in print version.
For those few who don’t know about Cara Nicole already, here is a picture of her at Phoenix Comic Con in her AZ Power Girl outfit.
You will have to wait for the cover until the book comes out. Sorry everyone, it’s still in the edit phase.
Filed under Uncategorized, Writing
Thank you so much Bob Leeper for mentioning me in your article about local digital publishers. Here is a link to the story:
Many of you may know Bob Leeper as the owner of Evermore Nevermore or the organizer of Second Friday’s in Mesa. He is a great guy and was nice enough to include me and some of my fellow authors in the story. Thanks Bob!
Filed under Writing
Today at Next was good as I got to meet lots of interesting folks like Deborah, Emily, Alan and others. I also got to hang out with fellow authors Gale Leach and Vincent Alascia. Chris Wilke also stopped by and hung out with his son Connor. Unfortunately, traffic was light today, probably because it was so nice outside. Thanks to Next Coffee Shop for having us!
On the humorous side, I saw this picture of a lunchable for grown men. A bit different than the children’s version:
Filed under Humor and Observations, Writing
The Westside Wordsmiths, including yours truly, will be signing copies of our books at Next Coffee Shop this Sunday (two days from now). Hope to see you there.
Filed under Writing
The wonderful folks at LepreCon and Patti Hulstrand have included me in the schedule for the upcoming LepreCon! Thanks to this wonderful bunch! I hope you can all go and participate in this convention. Here is a link:
http://www.leprecon.org/lep38/Programming-Participants.php
I know, I have to get a new picture, but I haven’t settled on a look yet, in a wild stage now, shaving, growing beards, shaving, growing moustache, letting hair get long, cutting it all off…Second childhood I guess…
Filed under Writing
Imperial Outpost in Glendale, Arizona has joined the list of folks selling hard copies of my book, The Travelers’ Club and The Ghost Ship. They are a great group of people who sell a variety of gaming merchandise and regularly have live play at their store for fans. I have also discussed having myself and some fellow sci-fi genre authors do a book signing at an upcoming event. Here is their blogsite, and you can also friend them on Facebook:
http://imperialoutpostgames.blogspot.com/
Please support this store as there are too few cool places left in this economy. Comic books, sci-fi and gaming don’t pay well, so let’s all look out for each other. Also, please check out my Store, as I have new publications with my shorter work in them, including the latest Palo Verde Pages and the ConNotations NewZine. I regularly update that location for newly published items.
Filed under Writing
Michael Bradley - Time Traveler 