DreamWorks: Fine Animated Features and Real Estate Flips

Diversify is sound business advice and, according to Cartoon Brew, DreamWorks Animation has done just that:

"After announcing a quarterly loss of $263 million last February, DreamWorks sold its campus to SunTrust, and as Cartoon Brew reported in March, SunTrust began the process of flipping the property immediately after buying it, initially listing it for $250 million."

According to the article, DreamWorks has a profit-sharing deal that allows them to dine upon the proceeds of the resale.

Possibly Netflix hired all the 500 laid off employees.

My last time at the Glendale studio was in 2014 for a preview of Peabody and Sherman, which may've been the fat straw that broke the studios back. i09 combs through the film's wake.

Anyway, DreamWorks Glendale had a great breakfast buffet set up for the film with all these great little Danishes and coffee in cups.

And the free lunches were outstanding.

But now there's no longer any such thing as a free lunch.

Dunwich Almost Done and Webless Sunday

Azathoth: lucias faustus

Earth's saviour?     Image: Tara Bliss 

Three chapters remain in the seventh draft of the Dunwich Diversity Seminar. My first novel follows the adventures of a party girl grad student who must choose between saving the world from Lovecraftian horrors or knocking back mojitos at an Arkham Happy Hour. In June May, the project was stuck in neutral and seemed destined for The Great Pile of Semi-Finished Books. But perseverance paid off. And while various marketing projects require my attention this week—they do pay promptly—I hope to wrap up this Dunwich version by early August.

As a note, yesterday I spent a second Sunday without going online. I felt nervous, ill-at-ease, edgy, but managed to occupy myself on household projects, reading, and things I usually did for most of my life pre-Internet. Today, I feel refreshed and ready to write things pleasant and otherwise.

Amazon Follow Button Aids Authors

Busy Amazon.com has a new button on the left hand side of my Amazon Author Page. (And all author pages, for that matter.) Click upon this rectangular box and you will be notified when my next book, The Dunwich Diversity Seminar is available for sale in the world largest bookstore. Can a party girl grad student learn the information necessary to save the world from Lovecraftian horrors? Those who click the Follow button will find out first just in time for Halloween 2015.

For a bit more on Amazon publishing, including additional info on the Follow button, read this brief article from Digital Book World. In making a Follow Button available, Amazon has:

". . . increased the control they have of the book marketplace and highlighted once again that part of the ground they take is ground the publishers simply cede to them. Any publishers that is not helping authors engage with their readers and actively create their own email lists to alert the interested to new books is put on notice now that they are quite late."

How helpful? I will learn more in the next few months.

Fifty Shades of Zane Grey Snags Another 5-Star Review

Thanks go out to reader Roger E. for the following:

"Didn't read the original "50," didn't have to. "Fifty Shades of Zane Grey" stands on its own and delivers a prairie schooner full of chuckles, clever asides, and truly off-beat and funny wild west characters. Author JP Mac makes good use of western imagery and, as in his other books, his wordplay is masterful. This story is a quick, easy read and is well-worth checking out."

No doubt, Roger E. stopped by my Amazon Page or went directly to Fifty Shades of Zane Grey, now available in ebook or environmentally friendly paper formats. (I'm not sure about that last part, but green sells, so here's hoping.)

Anne Toole Writing Away

This is not Anne Toole. This is a Marvel character called Scribe. But it seemed to tie-in.

While at a Comic-con party my agency throws every year, I ran into a young lady looking for an outlet to recharge her phone. Anne Toole writes comics, TV animation, video games, articles and, if necessary, Wanted Posters. Check out her blog Anne Toole, Writer. Subscribe to her blog. Leave a comment. I'll bet she writes something back. Such is her way.
Image: ianniehil

Little Book Cracks Amazon Top 100

The Little Book of Big Enlightenment has surged into the top one hundred mash-ups on the world's largest online bookseller. For those curious, a "mash-up" is a work written in . . . oh, heck, here's the Google definition:

 In the case of Little Book, we have the treacly musings of a New Age guru who is forced to share authorship of his book with a brash marketing copy writer. They swap snark, barbs and privileged information about one another as they inform you about the hottest thing to hit the New Age market since Deepak Chopra thongs: "condensed enlightenment."

But in the course of their squabbles something extraordinary happens that forces the guru to question his own beliefs.

A fun, fast, fictional read, The Little Book of Big Enlightenment will, my production manager wife willing, soon be out in durable SOFT COVER. That means a physical book suitable for killing moths or reading, though I would prefer reading. Nevertheless, I'm not going to dictate my methods for disposing of annoying insects. You chose. But if you must use a book, use the Little Book of Big Enlightenment.

Click here for mirth. 

Happy Roswell Day!

Ghost Theory

What did they find in Roswell, New Mexico 68 years ago? A weather balloon? A crashed alien vessel with bodies onboard that were dissected in secret? (The film of the operation was finally shown on Fox in the 90s) A series concept by alien authors, later translated and sold by the military to Hollywood, that became the X-Files? I want them all to be true. I want mystery, the unexpected. But, sadly, it was probably the stinking weather balloon.

think aboutit

Yet a Third July 4 Running Post

Twice in the last eight years I've run the Santa Clarita 5k on Independence Day. Back in 2007 it was sizzling hot. Three years later, the temperature was overcast and mild, excellent for short-distance running.

The 2010 event was the last time I ran a race of any kind. That's the way it rolls when your health turns on you like a beaten dog. However, for old times sake, I walked around the Rose Bowl yesterday. Not fast, not even brisk, just a walk. It's been a few years, but the place looks pretty much the same. It took me 48:35 seconds to complete three miles, a distance I haven't even attempted in three years.

Enough sniffling nostalgia. Back to writing. Happy July 4th USA.

Skynet Becomes Aware

First casualty in the war against the machines. An accident? That's what they say. A barrier protected the worker from the machine—ominous enough—but the man violated safety procedures. (Or so they would have us believe.) Now that Skynet has tasted blood, where will it end? As if we didn't have enough troubles.

reddit

h/t: Ace of Spades

Happy Canada Day!

With dominions, provinces, and a House of Commons, our northern neighbor proudly celebrates the Constitution Act of 1867 when three provinces were linked to form one country. Read more here. In honor of their day, I present The 48th Highlanders of Canada Pipes and Drums playing "The Maple Leaf Forever." (Incidentally, this is an excellent song to blast when the neighbor kids crank up the rap too loud.)

Deconstructing Dac Encanto's Poetry

Originally published right here over five years ago.

Designs by CK

(The following verse by truculent poet Dac Encanto appears in the University of California Press anthology, Surly Postmodern Poems for Pre-Retro People. "Deuce Moon" explores Encanto's almost pathological hatred for the moon, a leitmotif critics have called "lunar hatred" or, in German, Mondblindheit meaning "moon blindness." I shall perform a short deconstruction, but no insight has yet surfaced to explain this Mondblindheit. Encanto will only spit in contempt if you ask.)

Deuce Moon 

 by Dac Encanto 

Round and bright, 

idiot face, 

planet wannabe, 

taking up space, 

(Encanto's lunar works always refer to the moon as full. Once, on a Danish talk show, he was informed the moon appeared in phases and sometimes, not at all. Encanto grew confused and sarcastic, storming off the set, taking with him a pen and a coffee mug.)

 Dumb ass satellite, 

so uncool, 

on your dusty surface, 

I'd drop a stool, 

(The threat of public defecation appears in many of Encanto's works. This was not an idle threat or a metaphor — as Duke Professor Gale Bogminder has suggested. If properly disturbed, Encanto will mete out a pooey punishment regardless of location or circumstance. The 2006 panel incident at the UCLA Book Fair is the reason all subsequent poet panels have been required to keep mobile screens and drums of disinfectant at the ready. Bogminder knows this.)

 But I can't, 

(I'd die), 

You lucked out, 

No lie, G.I. 

(Encanto's poems are peppered with pidgin-english phrases often associated with Asian prostitutes such as "You Numba 10," and "Souvenir me carton of Salems, baby." Context often provides a hazy explanation. As to the moon having "lucked out," this refers to an incident at the height of Mondblindheit when Encanto tried bribing NASA to have the moon killed. All charges were eventually dropped. However, Encanto did serve jail time for an incident that took place in court involving the prosecutor's briefcase.)