Aaron Allston Donation Fund

While writers do a lot of their work alone, we do belong to a community that includes those others out there sitting before their notebooks, typewriters, and keyboards, grinding out the fantastic for the enjoyment of others. We may not know them all and we may not see them, but we know they are there.

Our fans are also another community that do a lot to support us out there as well.

In times of adversity, whether we know the person or not, authors and fans come together. So I figured I would take some time and do my small bit as well.

FACT - the Fandom Association of Central Texas is having a Fundraiser Auction on 7/19 on behalf of science fiction author Aaron Allston for a medical fund. Donations of books have been taken from authors all over to hold an auction to help with the bills. There are also means to make direct donations to the fund if you can't make it out to Georgetown, TX.

All the info you might need can be found directly at the FACT website for location, time, and other means to help.

Let's show Aaron an overwhelming flood of support for all the years of fun he's given fandom!

Here's hoping for a super fast recovery as well!

Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles is a 2008 Dream Realm Awards Finalist!

It is now official!

Cross-eyed Dragon Troubles is a 2008 Dream Realm Awards Finalist in the Young Adult Category.

Woohoo!!!




"Harry Potter meets Dragon Riders of Pern"

"....this is a story that is sheet magic..." - Eternal Night Review



Talia didn’t want to be apprenticed, not even to the prestigious Dragon Knight’s Guild. She is taken to the school by a cross-eyed dragon and his partner, Kel. A dizzying, madcap ride leaves her less than eager to be a knight, but soon she finds out the guild has need of many types of people. Running into the dragon and squire again and again, she comes to realize the unlikely pair are outsiders in their own school—participants of the dragon-human pairing ritual, which in the end didn’t work quite as intended. They are stubborn loners who are determined to overcome the obstacles in their path and make a true pair. Or are they?

As Talia’s first year at the guild evolves, she must deal with the quirks of the Administrator, her lessons, the odd rules of the school, the students, the mystery of Clarence and Kel, and somewhere in there, possibly decide what it is she wants for her own future.

Gloria Oliver

Unveiling The Fantastic

www.gloriaoliver.com

The Monster Plant

A few years ago I read a manga (Japanese comics) that involved the spirit of a dead woman. In the story, the spirit hung around/was tied to a Wisteria plant. The plant she was attached to was part of a whole public garden of them. It was the type of Wisteria that’s vine like and can be grown on a trellis. I thought they were super beautiful and decided a trellis plant would be a neat thing to put in the side of the backyard.

Mind you, our back yard is like a win funnel so the very back tends to get hard breezes so we have plants that have lived and some that have died, including trees. The side yard though, for whatever reason, has killed off everything we’ve ever tried to put over there. Still, hubby and I are nothing if not stubborn. So we went and hunted down some Wisteria and a trellis and gave it a go.

With the large amount of shade that tended to shadow that side of the house, the Wisteria was happy and grew and grew. Ended up growing so much it started destroying the trellis it was on. So since our swing had bit the dust, we brought the frame on over and gave it that to play with and even strung wire from the roof to the fence for it to work along. It went nuts.
We had to replace our fence this year though. So the sucker got cut back a bunch so the work could be done and also as it was working its way on the roof, so it would not muck that up and create leaks. I wasn’t sure how it would take to this punishment. I shouldn’t have worried. The Monster Plant LIVES!

Here are some pics of the beast! Now if I could just catch it at the right time when it’s blooming.

Espresso Book Machine Pilot Progran

One of my publishers - Zumaya Publications - has now become a part of the Espresso Book Machine Pilot program! (Which means my books are too!) Here's some info on the project sent for us to spread around. Sounds cool!

Late in April, Zumaya Publications completed the paperwork that places all our titles currently being printed at Lightning Source into their pilot program with On-Demand Books, makers of the Espresso Book Machine. Other participating publishers are John Wiley & Sons, Hachette Book Group, McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster, Clements Publishing, Cosimo, E-Reads, Bibliolife, Information Age Publishing, Macmillan, University of California Press and W.W. Norton.

Through this program, our books will be available for printing at all facilities that have an Espresso. There are currently 12 EBMs operational worldwide, and my understanding is that this pilot program is the first phase of a marketing plan to place more of them in the next few years. The ones already in operation are located at:

World Bank InfoShop, Washington D.C. 
New York Public Library, New York, NY 
New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans, LA 
Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA 
University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor, MI 
Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT 
University of Alberta Bookstore, Edmonton, AB, Canada 
McMaster University Bookstore, Hamilton, ON, Canada 
Newsstand UK, London, England 
Library of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt 
Angus & Robertson Bookstore, Melbourne, Australia 
University of Waterloo Bookstore, ON, Canada 
Blackwell’s Bookstore, London, United Kingdom

Just about a decade ago, the first on-demand book printer came into being. The quality of the product, compared to the traditional printing methods, left a good deal to be desired; and the cost to print each copy was much too high for most book publishing uses. However, where only a limited number of copies—or a single one—was wanted, those early machines were both economical and sensible.

It was then that Random House editor Jason Epstein wrote Book Business, in which he stated that on-demand printing was the future of the industry. Epstein was one of the founders of On-Demand Books.

Since those early days, the quality of on-demand printing has grown exponentially, and today a digitally printed book is indistinguishable from its offset-printed counterpart with one exception: it will always have a glossy cover for technical reasons. By utilizing the improvements in digital printing technology, On-Demand was able to complete development of a compact machine that could revolutionize the way books are printed and sold.

The EBM, which costs $95,000 in its current incarnation, prints and binds a trade paperback book while you wait. Literally. In Blackwell’s bookstore, they’ve replaced the metal frame with glass so the buyer can watch as their book goes from digital file to finished product. You can view the process yourself at http://www.ondemandbooks.com/video2.htm.

The capability to print a book on-site in a bookstore or library means that shipping costs, both financial and environmental, are eliminated. Although no one has, as far as I know, calculated the environmental impact of the machine itself, it has to be borne in mind that the book would still need to be printed, yet that the now-standard print runs wouldn’t be necessary. Given 25-50% of those runs are returned and discarded, logic would suggest the EBM is a much more environmentally sound way of producing print books than any of the alternatives.

The benefits to independent booksellers in particular are clear. One of the biggest obstacles they currently experience trying to compete with superchain and online booksellers is their inability to offer a large range of titles. With an EBM, this would no longer be the case. They will be able to store the files for thousands of books and print off a copy when it’s wanted—and without paying fees to wholesalers and distributors.

In addition, they could, if provided with the proper files, print books for local people who may, for example, only want five or ten copies of a family history for personal use, thus providing an additional revenue stream.

The advantage for authors is that overseas sales will no longer be plagued by expensive shipping costs. This opens the whole world to the exchange of ideas through printed books in the way it has so far only been managed via ebooks.

We’re very excited about being part of this project, for all of these reasons. There’s something particularly exciting about being part of the future of an entire industry.

Movie Review - 17 Again

17 Again

Starring: Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Matthew Perry, Tyler Steelman, Allison Miller, Sterling Knight, Michelle Trachtenberg, and more…

Premise: Mike O’Donnell’s life is falling apart at the seams. He’s passed over for a promotion at work, his wife has kicked him out of the house and is pursuing a divorce, his kids don’t want to be around him. The only time he remembers being in control was high school. So he goes back and thinks of his glory days. A janitor at the school notices him and asks him if he had it to do all over again, would he? Not paying much attention to what he’s saying, he says yes. After trying to rescue the same old man at a bridge during a rain storm, Mike falls into a seeming vortex. When he gets home to his friend Ned’s house, he finds himself transformed back to 17.

Review: This movie looked like it would be an incredibly cute, feel good film and it delivered that and more. Zac Efron was adorable as the late 30 something man in a 17 year old body. The times when his adult brain and father tendencies shoot out to interfere with his 17 year old persona are hilarious. The comparisons between his high school life then and high school life now were way too fun. And the reactions of his children and soon to be ex-wife as he interacts with them are a total riot.

Yet what made this film so much more for me, was a totally unexpected side angle. While I was expecting the cuteness and feel good and life clashes, what I was not expecting was the fabulous use of Ned Gold, Mike’s best friend. Buddies since high school and possibly before, I’d seen the scenes where Ned, Mike’s geek friend, was forced to get involved to get him back into school. Ned’s house ROCKED! For all the Sci-Fi and gamin geeks out there, this man’s place was beyond awesome. Close to our geeky dream homes if we could ever afford such a thing. But there was more!

What I did not expect was the total awesomeness that followed Ned meeting the school principal and falling head over geek in love with her. Then all his hilarious attempts to woo the woman. But it all reached new heights of outrageous fun for me when he finally gets her to go out with him and we got the scene at the restaurant. I thought I was going to die! Lol. And the things which ensue after were total amounts of fun. (My inner geek was singing! Lol!)

So overall, this was an incredibly cute, “see what’s before your eyes and appreciate it” movie, with a side of mucho fun for geeks/gamers/Sci-Fi lovers everywhere. Definitely recommend it for a fun movie watching experience.

Movie Review - Dragonball: Evolution

Dragonball: Evolution

Staring - Justin Chatwin, Yun Chow Fat, James Masters, Emmy Rossum, Jamie Chung and more...

Premise: Based on the famous Japanese manga and anime series by Akira Toriyama, this live action rendition centers around Goku, a young martial artist, an ancient legend about an evil destructive alien named Piccolo, and seven Dragonballs that if gathered together would summon the dragon Shanglong (sp?) and grant the summoner one wish.

Review: I've followed Akira Toriyama's works for twenty plus years and have read/looked at all the Dragonball manga as well as watched the 200+ episodes of Dragonball and the 200+ episodes of Dragonball Z, even watched a chunk of Dragonball GT. I've also seen many anime turned into Live Action films and I've seen the mutations they go through and those not always pretty.

That being said, this wasn't half bad! While all the characters from the early Dragonball days did not make an appearance (basically all the non-humans except Piccolo and one other (which I won't mention as it would be a spoiler), they kept pretty much everyone else and even left them their names intact. No Pilaf, but we got his ship and Mai (dang she kicked ass!). Got the Dragonball Radar, though it looked more like PDA, even got Capsule Corp and a capsule or two, though these worked more like Transformers than encapsulated dimensional spaces.

The fight at the beginning between Goku and his grandfather Gohan was a blast. And the Dragonballs themselves were utterly wicked looking! Legends got tweaked, Piccolo's way of making minions altered (and sadly they made that part so dark you never could get a good look at those guys! and they were tall! lol), but the essence of everything was still there, which was fab.

Goku was way less naive and clueless than I was used to, which was a shock, but then he wasn't quite as isolated in the movie as in the series. Yun Chow Fat was awesome as Master Roshi though I wished they'd given him at least the glasses if not the turtle shell, but he did have the bright shirts and the lecherous attitude, so that was something.

The special effects and martial arts were decent. Some of the basic elements on the chi powers seemed to shift, but again nothing major. The Kamehame Ha was in there and that's the most important thing! :P And we do see Shanlong summoned - though theirs does not compare to the anime/manga's in scope or flashy theatrics.

Still, overall, it was a cute, fun little film. Lots of little details and bits from the characters and series the fans love, even the cities being made a little more futuristic to fit the manga Dragonball world. If you've not been exposed to DB at all, there's less to get in the way as all items are explained and explored sufficiently for the non-initiated.

There's even a nice Japanese song in the end credits. And make sure to sit through them as there's a little extra something at the very end.

Movie Review - My Name Is Bruce

My Name Is Bruce
Staring Bruce Campbell, Grace Thorsen, Taylor Sharpe, Ted Raimi and more!

Premise: A Chinese god, Guan-Di, has been released in the small town of Goldlick, and it is set on revenge for the death of some Chinese miners back in the 1800's. Not knowing what to do, the town kidnaps the down on his luck actor Bruce Campbell, hoping he will come and save the day. Except Bruce believes this is just a set up by his agent for his birthday. Things get ugly.

Review: Bruce Campbell is a hoot! He's always been a hoot and will probably always be a hoot! (Have much enjoyed following his career and he's a blast in person!) This is a film about making fun. And a lot of fun making does ensue. It pokes at the fans, it pokes at the industry, it pokes at Bruce, but most of all it pokes fun at itself.

A low budget film that makes the money go quite far. The years of experience from the crew and cast (a family affair of sorts as a lot of the old guard are friends of Bruce's from way way back or picked up along his career, while others are actual family (he get to shoot them!), and others up and coming local talent) shines forth in every frame, so you get the expected campiness we've come to love and expect from Bruce but in high form. The acting, especially from the townspeople and support is spot on, giving the film the right touch of reality/unreality for a story breaching the 4th wall in story telling. And Bruce is Bruce. Need I say more? (He's a hoot!)

Kudos to Guan-Di, which looked rather creepy. But mega kudos to the FX team as the lightning and sounds really added a lot to the atmosphere. And so much more for the super campiness of Cavealiens 2 (pronounce Kah-veliens per the tre-chic director - bit of fun in the extras on the DVD) Oh and major kudos to Ted Raimi as well. Poor thing had to play three characters in the film, and he was great! Loved his Mr. Wing. Heh heh.

There's even a catchy tune to haunt you in your sleep as well, with the lovely chorus of "Guan-you, Guan-me, Guan-Di."

Loads of extra stuff on the DVD like the "Heart of Dorkness" (no it's not a typo) a behind the scenes documentary on the filming of the film, love rumors, Kif, Bruce philosophies, and more. Some beautiful slices on the process of film making and what those poor people had to go through.

If you meet any of those who had anything to do with the film, just mention poison oak, or bees, and watch the reactions. Heh heh heh.

So if you enjoy Bruce Campbell and are looking for something light to laugh at and fill your evening, give "My Name is Bruce" a try. I think you'll be quite satisfied.