Archive
Lifeforce
When alien vampires terrorize London, it’s up to a determined police inspector and an astronaut to stop them. American and British space travelers discover humanoids while exploring near Halley’s Comet. The astronauts bring three of these aliens aboard their spaceship and head back to earth. However, their guests turn out to be evil vampires who kill all but one of the astronauts — Carlsen. After the ship arrives in London, the monsters — led by a beautiful female — escape and wreak havoc throughout the city, transforming humans into zombies. Meanwhile, the surviving astronaut and Caine, a determined police inspector, frantically try to track down the creatures, and destroy them. But the “Space Girl” has a strange hold over Carlsen, and he has trouble fighting the urge to join her.
This movie used to play on TV all the time and I’m pretty sure I rented it at last once on video tape (yes video tape). The things I recall most about the movie are Patrick Stewart as the scientist and the naked “space girl” vampire.
What I did not know until tonight, this B-movie is based on a book, called you guessed it: The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson.
LOL! I had a tone of trouble trying to find a picture for this post that didn’t show off Mathilda May‘s breasts, or other more revealing lady bits…
Related articles
- Lifeforce (1985) [REVIEW] (thewolfmancometh.com)
- Transform Yourself with Vampire Makeup (anytimecostumes.com)
- Roundtable Review: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, “Space Vampire” (thiswastv.com)
Among Bright Stars… (Neo-human #2)
Humanity’s future, isn’t human…
Nadia Korelia, Falcanian queen, has spent the last three years assembling together her sibling Morningstars. Artificial people, who are in every way stronger, smarter and more beautiful. Among these Morningstars are Temujin Sardur, a Mongolian buccaneer, who raided pleasure boats in the Andaman Sea, Guillaume LaSalle, a Gascony spaceship Commander, who participated in bringing alien life to Earth, and Darius Noorani, the 12th Imam foretold by Islamic religion. Can Nadia unite her fellow Morningstars, even as the Falcanians use war, to broker for peace?
It’s finally here, Neo-human book 2!
A few thoughts. The book here is very different from the draft I began with, though the plot is largely the same, how it gets to where its going is somewhat different. Many of the changes came about because these first three Neo-human books were written as a single unit, not unlike LoTR, and the second book behaved too much like “the middle” of the novel than a story on its own. To be sure, the larger story arc needed to be, and is served here, though I made a point to connect the grander arc to the micro focus on Mornngstars and what they are. In fact doing so added another layer of meaning which I didn’t intend to touch on until further down the road in the series.
If “Starblade” was the story of Frederika learning about who, and what she is, then “Among Bright Stars…” is Nadia‘s story exploring she and Frederika‘s common Morningstar origins.
I’m going to forewarn you, there’s a little something for everyone to HATE in this book. It could be the whole Muslim messiah presented as both a Robot and a fierce Westernizer/reformer. After Benghazi, I made a special effort to tick up that plot a bit… Or, it could end up being Princess Sitara‘s life choice – Which will only seem radical depending upon your point of view on the matter – Though its sure to annoy some contingent who think science fiction‘s job is to support one particular party line. On that same note, I’m sure the whole Annunaki riff will grate a few people the wrong way as well. But, I don’t try to please everyone, or anyone but myself first and foremost when I write.
*A sharp eye will note, the Table of Contents (TOC) is different in the Amazon version compared to the Smashwords (aka all other retailers) TOC. That couldn’t be avoided. Kindle was being a pain and wouldn’t read the Table of Contents as it was formatted for Smashwords (which was odd as it had every other time) so I needed to build it a different way. Which is why the epigraph is displayed as it is on the Amazon book.
John Carter & David Lynch’s DUNE
Dejah Thoris, and Lynn Collins are the top search terms to this blog. Go figure?
What I am about to say, is meant as a compliment, Andrew Stanton‘s John Carter, is this generations David Lynch‘s DUNE. An imperfect adaption of a classic science fiction book finally realized for the cinema.
Like David Lynch’s DUNE, John Carter in its process began with another intended opening scene, as opposed to what we ended seeing on the big screen. Check this out, its good!
Now, in DUNE‘s case, the alternate opening was a long storyboard sequence which had been meant to help none Frank Herbert readers get to know the DUNE ‘Verse, that opening was replaced by the Princess Irulan filmbook narration, that many of us are familiar with. In the case of John Carter, the above opening with Princess Dejah Thoris simply got cut down, reshot, and I think reordered in the final film. It looks to me, this call was made so as to jump right into an action sequence…
I would have kept this as the opening, it provides a more solid sense of Barsoom. I think. I’d love for it to be completed, or perhaps sliced down a bit and restored to a new cut of the film. Will that take place? Not bloody likely, because Disney screwed up. I happen to think that John Carter has an honored place among such films as David Lynch’s DUNE, and Mike Hodge’s Flash Gordon – that is, not nearly as bad as their reputations claim, nor as deserving of the scorn some heap upon them.
John Carter is highly re-watchable! Certainly more so for me, than any of the Star Wars movies (old, or new…) or AVATAR – which has many, many story problems, yet it made tones of money, and will get sequels.
Related articles
- Putting the Kitsch in John Carter (lilywight.com)
- Sean Young’s video diaries take you behind-the-scenes on David Lynch’s Dune [Video] (io9.com)
- John Carter: An Epic Blast from the Past (bookblob.wordpress.com)
- John Carter (2012) (divxhunt.wordpress.com)
- ‘John Carter’: See the original opening scene criticized by Pixar’s brain trust – EXCLUSIVE VIDEO (insidemovies.ew.com)
A Giveaway: On the Forge of War & The First Technomancer
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/103412
Promotional price: $0.00
Coupon Code: JG88H
Expires: June 10, 2012
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/156938
Promotional price: $0.00
Coupon Code: XB34Z
Expires: June 10, 2012
The contest didn’t go smashingly well… no one played, and here I thought I came up with some challenging questions. I figure a straight giveaway might go better. So with these coupon codes, you can pick up your free copies of On the Forge of War, and The First Technomancer over at Smashwords.
Related articles
- GOLD TRAIN GIVEAWAY: Winners (ladaray.wordpress.com)
- PayPal reverses its ban on ‘obscene’ e-books (news.cnet.com)
- One Reader’s Perspective on Self Publishing (reflectionsinapuddle.wordpress.com)
- Baker & Taylor to Offer Smashwords ebooks in Blio eReading Application (teleread.com)
- Half the Battle Against DRM (mako.cc)
- Tor/Forge E-book Titles to Go DRM-Free (tor.com)
- Second Wind Publishing Newsletter (secondwindpub.wordpress.com)
Under A Raptor’s Wings – Book Cover Version 2.0
Version 2.0 of ‘Under A Raptor’s Wings’ book cover. I changed around some elements, made my name bigger, and placed it directly beneath the title. Narshin Thryak Palace is also closer/larger. This one also has cleaner, and sharper lines.
Related articles
- Prince William and Kate to move into larger apartment at Kensington Palace (cbsnews.com)
- My visit to the Palace of Versailles (littleyellowbear.wordpress.com)
- Prince ‘missed Diana at wedding’ (bbc.co.uk)
- What is to become of the book cover in the age of the e-book? (teleread.com)
- Hack the Cover (tapenoisediary.com)
- Rethinking the role of cover when the book is digital (RexBlog.com)
- Miyazaki’s films reimagined as dog-eared Penguin book covers [Concept Art] (kotaku.com)
- My Book Covers? (leajurock.wordpress.com)
- Making the goal visible: Self-Publishing, Book Covers and the Blurb (writermummy.wordpress.com)
- Plastic surgery for book covers (amymilesbooks.wordpress.com)
- You Can’t Judge a Book by its Cover (harperpages.wordpress.com)
- What my book cover reveals… (ahamin.wordpress.com)
- Book Magic (saxtonstudio.wordpress.com)
- How I Self-published A Book (millerbeachblog.com)
On the Forge of War – New Cover!
Augmented by Genetics and Cybernetics the Transhuman reign over the Globe. The year is 2030 and the planet rebuilds still in the wake of World War III, the “War on Terror“. The United States is no more, yet from its ashes arose the Imperium which seeks to rule all it surveys. For vengeance, and survival Imperator Romulus sends his newest space battleship: DSV Excalibur to seek dangerous allies to help him complete his dominance over the planet. If he succeeds no nation will be free from Julius Romulus Giovanni’s boot, in particular the small German Dukedom of Saxe-Coburg.
One woman is a well honed blade: Frederika von Gotha, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and a product of genetic engineering called a Morningstar, as a spy for her tiny nation she is given a mission, learn about the mysterious Falcanians and the secrets they keep hidden away on their artificial island. Once she steps foot on Vanguard, neither Frederika nor the world, again on the brink of chaos will ever be the same.
================================================================================
I do this sometimes, redo covers when the impulse strikes. The thing I’m not overly pleased with, is the city in the background. It’s supposed to be Vanguard Island – though it resembles Canada… 
This is actually a companion piece to this cover:
Sort of a beginning of the story, and end of the story. Want to guess which is which? You can only get the above cover on Amazon, as Smashwords won’t let me have multiple versions of one book up. I don’t get why we can’t put up new editions like that.
To celebrate the new cover, On the Forge of War is FREE at Smashwords until May 26.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/103412
Promotional price: $0.00
Coupon Code: DH32K
Expires: May 26, 2012
Related articles
- Character Profile: Arshira Hol (Frederika Gotha) (raptorsclaw.wordpress.com)
- War Zone #1 (comicsforge.com)
- First Footage of Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome! | Tor.com (monsterscifishow.wordpress.com)
- The BSG Viper Project for Maker Faire (makezine.com)
- After Action Report: BSG Campaign (blackcampbell.com)
- The Unfulfilled Promise of Gritty Space Opera [Space Opera] (io9.com)
- WonderCon 2012: ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and the science of fiction (herocomplex.latimes.com)
- ‘Battlestar Galactica’ fans, rejoice! A real-life Viper is in the works (news.cnet.com)
