Debut author CD Coffelt tells us about Wilder Mage and why you should buy it first thing Friday.

I've got some blogger news I want to touch on this Monday. First off, my blogging friend Carol (known as C.D. Coffelt a.k.a. Huntress who runs the blog Spirit Called is putting out her very first book.

Huntress is a fantastic writer. I've followed herfor over a year now, and this debut offering looks exceptionally exciting. I can't wait to read it. So without further ado, here is what the book is about:

This cover is very exciting

Justus Aubre is a wilder: a mage unbound to the Imperium and therefore a dangerous wild card in their eyes. The Imperium wants him, wants his power, but Justus has hidden for many years and now has some semblance of a normal life. All that’s about to change when Sable Rounds walks through the door of his antique shop looking for work. Justus instantly knows what Sable is, he just doesn’t know the danger he’s in.

Alone, also on the run from the Imperium, Sable longs for a normal life. For somewhere to belong. She finds this when Justus hires her, but she knows it’s temporary and fragile, an illusion. Though she hates to think about it, she knows that one day she will have to move on.
The Imperium is always behind her, waiting. When they finally find Sable, they find Justus. And all hell’s about to break loose.

Doesn't that sound intriguing?

A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
My friend C.D. Coffelt lives outside Maryville, Missouri with a bemused husband and way too many cats. She adores all things fantasy with a special love for urban and epic.

With a passion for good writing and Doritos as companions, locating Middle-Earth on a dusty road in rural Missouri wasn’t difficult. All it took was a little Magic, hours of reading, and an overactive imagination.

"Wilder Mage" is due to be released this Friday (that's the actual day of my move to my new apartment). I unfortunately will be away from the internet as I'm canceling the one to set up the other. I want to get satellite television and go cable for my internet so there's probably going to be some downtime while I wait for that to happen.

Please check out CD Coffelt (Huntress) in the following areas:

Musa Publishing

Blog

GoodReads

Manic Reader

Book Trailer

I will be away from my computer until the September edition of the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Hopefully at that time, I'll be back online. I appreciate those of you who have sent me emails querying how things are going. As any of you who have moved, you know it's stressful. I've got 70% of my apartment all packed up and the big day is Friday. I just hope I don't forget to cancel anything and get all the addresses changed. Sigh...so much to remember.

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Party hard. I'll be back in September.

Lately I've been feeling a little crushed by life, so to help with that, I'm going to take a blogging break. I'll be back in September. In the meantime, I'll be visiting your blogs and commenting. I'm moving to another apartment this month and that is always very stressful. So barring any "out of this world" news that might crop up, my blog will be quiet.

Oh yeah...and I'm having a birthday, so party hard peeps!

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Dennis Rodman you are the new Jane Fonda. And that sir is not a compliment.

This is a rant.

For those of you who may not know, Jane Fonda toured North Vietnam in 1972. She cozied up to the enemy, posing for photo ops with communist troops, and broadcasted anti-American propoganda over Radio Hanoi.

She also participated in a staged press conference with American servicemen held captive by the Viet Cong, the purpose of which was to "prove" that the POWs were not being mistreated by their captors. Years later when the released POWs described the very real torture and degradation they suffered at the hands of the North Vietnamese, Fonda called them "hypocrites and liars."

"I deserve the Nobel Peace Prize." 

Her behavior at the time, considered treasonous by some, earned her the nickname "Hanoi Jane." I really do think that what she did was unforgivably idiotic and that she should be reminded of that every single day. Tried for treason though...I probably wouldn't go that far. However, I digress. I thought all of that could NEVER happen again.

But then, I underestimated Dennis Rodman.

Now admittedly, we are not in a "state of war" with North Korea, so the situation isn't exactly the same now as it was then. However, I view North Korea as a totalitarian dystopian society in the grip of an all-powerful despot who is definitely "not on friendly terms" with the United States. They recently had television commercials showing our president burning in flames. Make no mistake...this isn't flattering. It's meant to insult every single one of us because our president is the elected representative of the majority of the people in this country.

Sure, we make fun of them too. Just look at the movie "Team America." However, that's what you get when you're the one house at the end of the block that's chosen to surround itself in barbed wire and filled the rooms up with explosives so that you can threaten every other house on the block that you'll blow everything up if they don't bring free food to your door. That's what you get for being a crazy "nut bag" that no one likes.

Anyway, seeing Dennis Rodman over there in North Korea (and going again in August), calling Kim Jong Un a "friend for life", getting photo ops with him, and then inviting him to come and visit the U.S. (WTF?!?) at a time when their leader on a daily basis threatens "miserable destruction" is the most IDIOTIC THING SINCE JANE FONDA.

It really does gall me that he's going back again in August. Yes, you read that right. He's crossing the border once again to go and party it up with his bud in the palace where (I'm sure) there are lots of skinny Korean women waiting for him to have sex with in Kim's palace (some of them are probably there against their will).

Dennis Rodman you are the new Hanoi Jane. And that sir, is not a compliment. I just hope the Nobel committee has enough sense to never award Rodman the Nobel Peace Prize like he suggested in July of this year.

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How talk of Godzilla 2014 produced the nerdiest conversation this side of the internet

I don't know if I should even admit to this, but yes, I comment on io9 on some of the silliest topics and sometimes the conversations I get into with fellow nerds are nothing short of epic.

Ladies and gentlemen, what you see above is the tail of Godzilla as it will appear in the 2014 Hollywood reboot of the "king of all monsters." It debuted at this year's San Diego Comic Con: a celebration of nerds so huge that it holds entire industries hostage each time it starts. And of course, anything worth a nerdgasm or two is going to be hosted by this guy: Chris Hardwick.

You may recognize him from the television show, The Talking Dead, or another television show, The Nerdist. Yes, it's not just you. Both of those shows have nerd/geek written all over them. Well he was at the epicenter of the Godzilla panel as well. For the record I like Chris Hardwick.

So here's what io9 has to say. Pay attention, by the way, because it relates to my oh so intelligent comment that produced the nerdiest conversation this side of the internet:

There was tons of shots of disasters and people running and human characters, and more of that in a second. But the centerpiece of the footage was a sequence where a big monster is attacking an airport, shredding airplanes and trashing buildings. It looks sort of like the Cloverfield monster with a more of a beetle-like carapace and spindly insect legs. It looks massive and powerful.

Yesterday, director Gareth Edwards told us there would be other creatures in the film — and here's our first sight of one. It looks scary and huge.

And then Godzilla's foot comes down next to the creature. Godzilla's FOOT. Which is dwarfing this poor spindly little creature.

And then there's a massive hero shot of this previously big-looking creature looming over the airport, and then Godzilla rises up behind it, and it's like a skyscraper next to a hut. Godzilla is this ginormous dark scaly beast with a gaping maw and a mighty screaming roar, and the crowd basically lost its shit. Host Chris Hardwick made a joke about people having to change their pants, and this seemed totally accurate.

Those of you that know me probably realize I'm good for a comment or two. Here's what I wrote:

And lo and behold, here are the responses:

Click to EMBIGGEN in order to read.

OMG...I love nerds. My favorite answer from this batch is from Tim Smith. He took my question seriously (as should all people because anything I say is worth paying attention to), and I love how he broke down the issue of the kaiju scientifically. Not to be outdone, other nerds chimed in:

Click to EMBIGGEN in order to read.

My favorite response in this batch comes from "kewlball" although I do like the "throwdown" potential initiated by commenter igndk11r when he said, "Category 7. He'd atomize a Jaeger in a single atomic breath." I should reply, "Says you! But 'Gypsy Danger' has got some serious kung fu cred with Mako at the helm, and she'd sidestep your atomic breath to give your big Godzuki a shot of liquid nitro TO THE FACE! BAM! The 'King of all Monsters' just got his ass kicked by a leftover prop from Evangelion. How do you like them apples? Boo Yah!"

I dare you to point out which one of these is the female. THAT is the fun
of all Japanese anime, inventor of the original "twink badass."

As entertaining as that is, I do feel obligated to point out that I may have failed all of you by NOT asking a more important question: But...but...will Godzilla be able to fly in this new movie? Because this footage from a TOHO film (considered canon by kaiju lovers) clearly shows that Godzilla has jet powers:

I would have loved to have heard Chris Hardwick trying to answer my question. I'm sure he'd have all kinds of fun with it. But alas...there is so much to discuss about Godzilla that the questions are probably endless.

*DISCLAIMER: I am in fact jealous that I did not come up with the handle "Octopussoup." Names like that are the only way to get respect in the prestigious kaiju community forums. Sigh and *hangs head in shame.

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If a perceived threat is big enough do you think we'd ever be okay with surveillance from a giant robot with glowing orange eyes?

The NSA site right here in Utah where I live.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is tapping into the same viral marketing that propelled other successful movies into the black with a commercial for Trask Industries. If you don't have time to watch the commercial, it's done in the same tone as some of the Apple commercials that you see on t.v., you know...the ones with nice music playing in the background and video of people going about having fun and just loving life. The giant robot with glowing orange eyes at the end of the video is part of the Sentinel program which is the plot for the next X-Men movie. You kind of see a "hint" of this if you stay through the credits on "Wolverine," which came out this last weekend. Charles Xavier (yes he's somehow alive) and Magneto find Wolverine in the airport and tell him he needs to join them because the humans are doing something horrible to persecute their kind.

The "horrible" in this situation comes from the Sentinels. So instead of giant robots fighting kaiju, we get giant robots fighting humans with superpowers. I did love this summer's giant robots fighting kaiju story put out by del Toro and wish it had done better at the box office. I have no doubt that the latest Marvel offering will avoid a similar fate mostly because it's part of an existing franchise with a huge fan base.

This is one of the Sentinels protecting New York.

After I watched the video I did have one question that popped into my mind: if a perceived threat is big enough, do you think we'd ever be okay with surveillance from a giant robot with glowing orange eyes? The whole NSA thing has really blown up this year. I'm not sure why 2013 was the year of outrage, since Michael Moore has been blowing his horn on the NSA for years now. In Utah there's been a few protests staged outside the NSA's super facility that's located in the side of a mountain. An environmental impact statement indicated it would require 1.7 million gallons of water each day to keep the computers cool that will store all of "your" information. That statistic by itself is impressive.

And keep in mind that all of this is to "protect you" from terrorism.

So maybe this new X-Men offering is allegorically about our own decision to forego certain freedoms in order to feel safe. Maybe mutants have gotten so out of hand and destructive in this alternate reality, that the only way to live a normal life is under the perceived protection of a giant robot with glowing orange eyes.

What do you think? Would you ever be okay with something like this? How severe would the threats have to be before you thought, "Hey this is a great idea!" Oh dystopia...will your plots ever run out so we can have happy fun movies again? I'm kind of missing the days when we had offerings like Mary Poppins. However, this new X-Men plot does have me intrigued. 

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I'm totally not reviewing the Conjuring but I am interested in your phobias

This is Annabelle in the movie, "The Conjuring." It's a doll possessed by
a demon in the story. A guy keeps it in his house along with a hundred
other artifacts also containing demons. Why not? Right? There's no bad
that can come of doing that. It's just storage.

When I lived in Idaho Falls, Idaho some five or so years ago, my friend Melissa dragged me to every single scary movie that came out. She loves them (to date Melissa is the only person I've ever met that kept a copy of the Exorcist in her trunk, you know, for those occasions when the Exorcist is the perfect movie for any given social occasion). Melissa also LOVED black. Like, it's the only color she wore for years. And with regard to movies that she picked, it got so bad that I had to make deals with her. Deals like "Okay, Melissa, I've seen all these scary movies so now you have to see 'Dreamgirls,' because I want to see it." And she'd begrudgingly say, "Okay."

My friend Melissa thinks this movie is the most
appropriate selection for family "social gatherings."
I've seen this movie so many times, I really have
no interest in EVER seeing it again. Seriously.

Truthfully, I've never cared much for scary movies. I'm one of those people that screams and jumps in the movie theater, I cover my eyes with my shirt, and Melissa tells me that this is one of the reason she likes going to scary movies with me. I don't understand the attraction honestly.

So every time I go home to visit my parents, I always get together with Melissa. This happened last week, and as I looked at the movie listings I thought "Oh the Conjuring has been out for a little while so I bet Melissa has seen it, and I won't have to sit through it and we can go to Wolverine." Well it turns out that she hadn't seen it so yeah...I ended up at The Conjuring, and it scared me so bad that I had nightmares afterward. It's filled with creepy dolls, loud noises, and skillful editing that just draw you in. For the record, my mom collected dolls and she has hundreds of them around the house. She has some in fish tanks (that she converted to display cases) and in cupboards, and under the stairs. You can't go anywhere in my parent's house without seeing some emotionless and oddly disturbing doll staring you down.

I half expected some of their heads to start to turn in the middle of the night and say, "COME PLAY WITH ME." Umm yeah. No thanks. I'll pass.

Anyway, as I lay there thinking about The Conjuring I can't help but ask, what exactly is the allure in being afraid? If it were entirely up to me, the business would go bankrupt. I don't like being afraid nor do I condone paying good money to get someone or something to scare you. But fear is BIG business. So as a kind of social experiment, I'd like to ask you a few questions:

1) Do you pay for fear?
2) Do you like watching scary movies and if so, why?
3) What kinds of phobias do you have? Do you find dolls creepy? Are you afraid of the dark? And if you can answer this question, please tell me what happened that made you fear this very thing.
4) What are your favorite scary movies of all time?

5) Does the one minute short at the end of this post scare you?

That's all. Have a great Tuesday.

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I'm kind of excited about Star Wars Rebels. Okay I'm REALLY excited mostly because this new concept art totally channels Ralph McQuarrie

So I saw on io9 last night that Star Wars Celebration Europe had a big reveal: concept art for the follow-up series to the Clone Wars. If you weren't reading my blog in the spring, I did my whole A to Z challenge on the Clone Wars despite the fact that Cartoon Network had canceled it. I (like many Star Wars fans) have been in the dark up until now.

So here's some fantastic concept art that was shown and if you're a fan of Ralph McQuarrie, you should be able to see the artistic nod. In short: it looks awesome!

Cool logo

This picture looks like it could have been a module written by West End Games.

I wonder what planet this is. The action in just these stills looks promising though.

Scheduled to appear in fall of 2014, it is supposed to take place between episodes III and IV. Basically, it is after the Emperor has taken over and Yoda has fled Coruscant. So if this series features any Jedi at all, my guess is it will be Obi Wan or Yoda. Maybe they'll have the ghost of Qui-gon teaching Obi-Wan the ability to live beyond death. That would be really cool.

So are you excited for Star Wars Rebels?

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Michael di Gesu and Siv Ottem have some big news

Drum roll begins today and the Big Cover Reveal (or BCR for short) happens on Monday!

I'm still technically on blogger break, so I've disabled comments on this post. However, I was asked by Michael di Gesu if I could give a shout out for his blog post this Monday. And of course I'm incredibly honored to do so! In fact, seeing as Monday is a whole three days away...I'm kind of feeling like this (especially given the nature of this spectacular news)...

But the best things come to those who wait. Le sigh.

Michael, as it turns out, has many talents and one of them is art. So, it should be no surprise that he has done a fabulous job illustrating Siv Ottem's new book. If you want to see the artwork, it will be shown at the beginning of next week. I can hardly wait!

So, on Monday please go and visit In Time...located HERE
And stop by Siv Ottem's blog, Been There Done That, located HERE.

Have fun this weekend. As for me, I'm visiting mom and dad before the big move that takes place in August, so I've little time to do anything other than post this news. But I shall be visiting and reading your blogs soon. 

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Monarchy haters may want to imprison the royal family but that's because they don't do the math

I guess most of the world now knows that there's a new prince in Britain. For what it's worth, I don't understand the obsession most people have for this ancient organization that operates not as a meritocracy, but through strict nepotism and strategic alliances. That just seems like a relic of a bygone age, but hey, it's not my country.

Britain's royal family is literally the goose that laid the golden egg. Haters
of this institution are simply that and haven't bothered to do any of the math.

However, before I just blatantly condemn this millennia old institution, I decided to do some research and see what good the royal family does for Britain (you know...aside from existing as a family of "British Kardashians" that lives on luxurious estates making their number one responsibility to "look good" and sucking down a lavish lifestyle on the back of the taxpayer). The above video does a great job of explaining it. Hint: you should watch it.

In short (TL;DR):

Americans could compare the royal family to the Kardashians. But that
would be seriously insulting. The royal family makes the Brits a TON of
cash. The Kardashians make the U.S. a ton of embarrassment.

The Brits spend $40 million pounds a year maintaining them. However they make $160 million pounds off of their lands. This is enough to reduce the average taxpayer's burden by $2 pounds and 60 pence than it would otherwise be. I wish the president's family (Republican or Democrat) could say this about the impact of their family on the economy.

The golden goose tourists from America dump buckets of money on the UK every year to see the royals and everything they touch with magical "royal pixie" dust. It's a better attraction than Disneyland. Twelve million tourists spending $7000 million pounds is a good thing, right? Hell yes it is. In Chris Rocks words, that's a lotta money!

Cheap Pete from the 90's show, "In Living Color." He's best known for
saying "Good Lord that's a LOTTA MONEY!"

So how about you? Are you a hater of all things royal? Do you think this fabulously wealthy family sponges off the back of the people? If so, has the video changed your tune?

I (like the rest of the world) am curious as to the name of the new baby. I also kind of think it'd be cool if the prince was born gay. Wouldn't that be interesting? I wonder how the royals would react if their son said, "Um...I've been dating a guy that I met while playing polo..." William would probably look at Kate and say, "Why did you insist on wearing all that pink while you were pregnant? Sigh."

Oh my. The world would never be the same.

***** 

I'll be taking the rest of the week off. I'll see you guys next Monday.

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