Matthew Warner's Blog

Every holiday season, I predictably hear a whine coming from behind my Christmas tree.  No, it's not a faulty light about to burst into flames.  It's the whine of one or two Christians protesting as hypocrites those who celebrate Christmas without worshiping Christ.  As they say, the holiday is to celebrate the birth of Christ, after all.  How can all you heretics partake in the trappings of the holiday with a clean conscience?

Let's set aside for the moment the historical roots of the...

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As a writer, it's always instructive to watch a poorly written movie and to analyze what went wrong.

Oh, maybe I'm being too hard on last summer's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, a retelling of the cartoon I enjoyed as a kid, which itself was a rehash of an older entertainment franchise.  I mean, I did say to Deena, "Let's watch something mindless," and I got what I wanted.

Still, I can't help wondering if the movie makers intended for me to burst out laughing the first time the Baroness walks...

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Maine gave us Stephen King, so I didn't think it could be all that bad until I heard today's news: Maine Gay Marriage Law Repealed. Go ahead, follow the link. The ignorance on display is breathtaking.

I no more understand the anti-gays today than I did when they amended my own state's constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage three years ago.  (Actually, it was already against the law here, but amending the Virginia constitution just made it "illegaler".)  I think Will Ludwigsen summed it up b...

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So, I just got wind of a disturbing headline about Amazon.com: Changes Afoot at Amazon's Search Inside the Book? (9/11/09). It says that book publishers who want their works for sale on Amazon will soon be required to participate in this feature, and they may even be required to enroll their new titles in this program a month before publication.

In case you don't know what this is, Search Inside the Book (SIB) is a feature at Amazon.com that permits shoppers to view the scanned pages of a...

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My six-year-old nephew, Dorian, is a genius.  Last weekend, while meeting his cousin Owen for the first time, he spotted a flyer I'd left on the coffee table.  It was an invitation to a neighborhood block party scheduled for the same day Owen was born, so naturally we hadn't made it.

"What's that?" Dorian asked me.

"Why don't you read it?"

So, he picked it up, and in about ten seconds flat, read the whole thing.  Out loud.  Without hesitating.

Well, okay, he slowed on the word "neighborhood," but th

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Deena, Owen (1 week old), and me

After many years of planning, a new chapter has begun in my life.  Hopefully it will be a long one.

Remember the unborn baby FAQs?  The just-born baby FAQs have now begun.

1. Why did you name him Owen Edward Warner?

Owen is a name we both like and about which we have no negative associations.  This is no small feat when starting your family in your thirties. Owen is also the name of my maternal grand-uncle, and Edward is my maternal grandfather's middle name.

2.  Ho

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It sounds like the setup to a joke: a werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost all move in together . . .

Except, it's really the pitch to a new BBC television series, Being Human. And what's more, it's not a comedy.  It's a down-and-dirty urban fantasy that's quite dark — and quite welcome. Deena and I stumbled across it a couple weeks ago while cruising through the free on-demand offerings of our cable TV provider.  (Readers take note: yes, I actually just paid a compliment to Comcast.  It won't happen

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Deena's official due date is tomorrow, so it's kind of a horror enthusiast's requirement that we spent tonight viewing The Unborn.  It's a horror movie about a woman haunted by her twin, who died while they were in utero.

*Spoilers ahead*

This movie started off well with good acting, cinematography, and soundtrack.   It also had some neat scenes with ghost hauntings, like when the main character wakes up (in a dream, of course) to find herself pinned to her ceiling as she watches her ghost brother

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With baby Warner due any day now, Deena and I get a kick out of reading the daily horoscope for Leo.  Here's what today's paper has for him:

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Ever busy perfecting your image, you'll be delighted by a product that delivers as promised.  You strike upon just the thing that works to make you look and feel more attractive.

If you read the corresponding 38-week pregnancy calendar and its comment that "Baby's lungs continue to mature and her brain and nerve function are working bet

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The first-timers orientation at the RWA conference on Wednesday night.

The hell business does a horror writer have at a romance writers convention?  Plenty, if you want to reach a wider readership.  I don't know if it's because males are devolving into a bunch of illiterate, Xbox-playing coach potatoes (I know I am), but there are sure a lot more female than male readers these days.  Romance titles represent about 13 percent of all books sold.

So, I thought it a wise decision to write what I bel

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