Circuit Riding

Speaking of buzz, Nate Ruegger does the necessary work to promote his film.

The Year in Fiction

Back in 2009 around this time I wrote a post in which I hoped to sell ten short stories in six months. (Note: the fire I mentioned finally went out and Colin Wells returned safely home from Afghanistan, got married and is completing his Army service.)

I have sold 4 stories—my sidebar tells the tale—out of 21 submissions with one story still out. I expanded a short story into a novella which I'm now expanding into a several hundred page novel.

For the last three years, animation writing has morphed into a maze consisting mostly of dead ends. That could change rapidly, but so far has resisted the impulse.

In any case, nothing gets finished by wishing and wanting, so on I go. Halloween is my deadline for finishing the novel's first draft. I hate and resent the novel. It's like a five-pound bee you can neither kill nor drive from your home.

October 31. Death to the bee!

Review: The Last Exorcism

Teen comedies aren't my first choice, but "The Last Exorcism" had me chuckling like a fat man in a dryer. This light-hearted spoof of religion, dating, and southern mores carried with it the bawdy overtones of American Beauty combined with the serio-comedic stylings of John Hughes' Breakfast Club. Director Daniel Stamm employed a first-person camera ala "Blair Witch" in this often touching tale of 16-year-old Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell) who finds she has a demon in her life and must grapple with maturing needs as well as those of an evil being from Hell who desires her degradation and destruction. Patrick Fabian portrays Cotton Marcus, a cynical preacher called upon to exorcise Nell at a remote Louisiana farm. Fabian captures the same hapless frustration as Jeffrey Jones' principal in "Ferris Bueller." Writers Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland weren't afraid to insert a little slapstick as Cotton Marcus and Iris Reisen (Iris Bahr) discover slaughtered cattle, then share a scene straight out of Johnny Puleo and the Harmonica Gang. Unknown Caleb Landry Jones steals the film as Nell's brother Caleb, exhibiting an innocent buffoonery reminiscent of beloved Mexican funny man Cantinflas. "Last Exorcism" hits all the right notes for a late-summer, light-hearted romp to take your mind off the heat and give the funny bone a good workout. (Rated 'R' for scenes of torture and mutilation.)

Thar She Blows!

They couldn't find a large enough jar of sleeping pills.
via Drudge Report

Bollywood Rocks

Another tedious gabby film from India

via Hot Air

Review: The Expendables

This classic European mood-piece featured long establishing shots, talky scenes inserted for tone, and searing close ups of tormented characters adrift in a world devoid of action, reduced to lashing out at each other with knives and guns which symbolized the clever, hurtful sarcasm that really wounds. Director Stallone's use of outer violence to mirror inner turmoil was well-intentioned but too subtle to be very effective. Giselle Iti's Sandra was the perfect post-modern, feminist heroine, isolated in a culture that saw her only in terms of gender: general's daughter, revolutionary, nation builder. In a pivotal role, Senyo Amoaku portrayed the Tall Pirate, the Every Man for our own inner tall pirate; that part of us who is always asking, bargaining, threatening hostages with machetes.

In general a thoughtful film to be discussed over espresso and macaroons. All I can say is: bring a hankie.

Link to Read Comics in Public Day

Geek O System alerts us to tomorrow: Read Comics in Public Day. I always thought comic book ads were tough to beat. They're an interesting piece to any business model.

Texas Freakazoid Shirts!

Combined with takineko exploring the wonders of Laptop Face.

Author Reading on a Hot Afternoon

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Bernadette organized a reading in a private home. About eight authors presented an eclectic mix of poetry and prose. My wife read a short story she's intending to send out. And, despite a five-minute time limit, I got a good response from "Dagon and Jill." (At least the portion I could read in five minutes.) Hot as the surface of Mercury outside, but the air conditioning worked and there were numerous fresh-baked goodies. We stole several small, easily pawnable items from our host but we're caught and asked to return them. This marred the event somewhat, but will make a nice story for the next one.

Fest Control

Belated congrats to director Nathan Ruegger whose film Another Life was accepted into the Temecula Valley International Film Festival. Follow his Hollywood journey at Another Life in Film.

Well Said, Don Roff

Over at Forces of Geek, author Roff offers sage advice on meeting the daily word count. I've encountered many of his pitfalls enroute to my own 1k a day.

My wife and I are away this afternoon to a gathering of fellow writers. There we'll each read a few pages from our various works. (I'll present about 5 minutes worth from the recently purchased "Dagon and Jill.") Nice people, good atmosphere, free food—everything a writer needs.