Mario Acevedo's Blog, page 19

A Personal Day for Mario...

Photo Credit: Diego Azubel/EPA


Our friend Mario is attending a wedding out of state so while he's off sipping champagne and flirting with bridesmaids, we have to stumble along without him. I'm sure he'll be back next week with lots of stories we may or may not believe. In the meantime, Happy Year of the Dragon to you!!



Want to know more about the Dragon? Go here

I think I can, I think I can

Maybe it's because it's January, there are all sorts of blog posts and videos about motivation floating on the Internet. I'm as susceptible (or as neurotic) as the next but these two were pretty good. See if they don't light your fire.



From YouTube





From wimp.com

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Tuesday night Mario and the rest of our critique gang went to the debut book signing of Jason Heller's Taft 2012 at The Tattered Cover on Colfax. Jason was funny, charming and as erudite as one might expect. Can't wait to read his book and if you missed his book trailers, scroll down to BE Monday Jan. 8 and check them out. The best I've seen. Hell, I'd vote for Taft. BTW, I'm sure TC has signed copies if you're interested.

Three other pals of the Biting Edge have books out this week--

Cindi Myers -- The Woman Who Loved Jessee James



Carol Berg - The Daemon Prism



J. A. Kazimer - Curses! A A F&%#ed-Up Fairy Tale



All three authors have signings scheduled at the Broadway Book Mall:

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2:00 – Carol Berg will discuss and sign The Daemon Prism, the 3rd in her Collegia Magica series. Consumed with despair, the blind necromancer Dante seeks refuge in a magical puzzle -- a puzzle that supposedly fulfills one's utmost desires. But it's actually a seductive trap, threatening to unleash the very cataclysm he fears.

SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 3:00 –

Cindi Myers, The Woman Who Loved Jesse James - Jesse was a dangerous puzzle: a loving husband to Zee and a father who kept his "work" separate from his family, though Zee heard the lurid rumors of his career as a bank robber and worse. Still, she never gave up on him. And he earned her love, time and again.

J.A. Kazimer, Curses! A F&%#ed-Up Fairy Tale - Definitely "not" for baby's bedtime reading, this hilarious and irreverent take on classic fairy tales--think "Shrek" for grown-ups--combines humor, mystery, and characters only a fairy godmother could love.

And in other author news, our Seattle contingent, Richelle Mead, Mark Henry, and Kat Richardson (among others) find themselves in unfamiliar territory--they have snow!! Lots of snow. Snow that probably should be here. If your friends with them on FB or Twitter, you've already heard how they're coping. All I can say is...

better them than me.

That's it for me. Off to the gym. If you're wondering why this is posting so late or even if you're not...the fucking power has been off for two hours. No explanation. No weather problems. No construction in the area. Why would the power go off? You tell me.

One more editorial comment. I know the anti-piracy bill(s) may be flawed...but I have one question--when did stealing become acceptable or a right of free speech???? I just don't get it.

Back from the Big Apple

Mario here:

Late post because I spent the weekend in NYC to attend the Mystery Writers of America national board meeting as I'm the President of the Rocky Mountain Chapter. One of the perks of the job though the rest of the year they get their money's worth out of me.

Besides official business, it's a chance to reacquaint myself with old friends and meet new ones.


Among the reacquaintances:

The funny (and closeted pervy) Jess Lourey, one of my favorite writers and the author of the satirical Murder-by-Month cozy Mysteries featuring librarian amateur sleuth Mira James.








Gary Phillips, he of the booming voice, President of the Southern California Chapter, and all around pal of everybody in the mystery-writing business.









..and the new friends.

Greg Herren, President of the Southwest Chapter, a funny funny guy, and scourge of America's youth as a "gay pornographer." He and Jess spent an hour at Saturday's dinner critiquing New Orleans Mardi Gras costumes (and bodies) on his iPhone album.




Tim Broderick, president of the Midwest Chapter, another funny guy (humor helps in the noir murder business), and prolific graphic novelist.



And to pimp Jason Heller one more time before the book launch of Taft 2012 (Tue, Jan 17, Tattered Cover on Colfax), he got a plug by none other than the New York Post, who mentioned his book in Required Reading.








On Wednesday, January 18, I am one of the featured artists at The Lobby (2121 Arapahoe, Denver), exhibiting along with Greg Marquez and Zoe Tessier, Artists' Happy Hour, 5-7PM, curated by Art Pimp extraordinaire, Eric Matelski.

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Clean Desk/Sick Mind?

There is supposed to be a video here and I have no idea why it's not showing up...a blogger mystery!






Monday was National Clean Off Your Desk Week. So, how's your work space? Send us a picture (before and after if you'd like) and let's see who has the messiest desk and whose cleaned up best.

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Photo credit: National Western Stock Show Photos

Denver's holiday season extends well in January with The National Western Stock Show. The mutton-bustin event where little kids try their luck on little sheep is a favorite of everybody. I think even the sheep have fun with his one!

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Let's see--by now most of you have heard who has been cast as Lee Child's Jack Reacher in the upcoming movie. In case you haven't, follow this link to an article in the WSJ and tell us what you think. All I can say is...huh?????

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Ah, a puppy bookmark. Isn't he cute?
From Buzzfeed

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From Flavorwire : 25 Greatest Epigraph's in Literature


The epigraph is a funny literary convention: excerpting lines of someone else's work — or quotes, adages, lines of verse, lyrics, snippets of conversation, etc — to put before your own...They may seem a trivial part of the work they come attached to, but we think, if done properly, they can be very illuminating.

Here are my favorites:

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. — G.K. Chesterson
(from Coraline by Neil Gaiman)

Lawyers, I suppose, were children once. — Charles Lamb
(from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee)

Behind every great fortune there is a crime. — Balzac
(from The Godfather by Mario Puzo)

Have you ever used an epigraph in your writing? Want to share?

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What happens in a book store at night?
(I seem to have lost the credit for this one. I apologize.)

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Creative bookshelves:




More here at Crooked Brains.

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Let's finish off with one of my favorite funny men, author Mark Henry , the founding father of The League of Reluctant Adults. Here he expounds on his Goals for the Apocalypse.




Note to self: ask first if he grew them himself before eating vegetables at Mark's house.

On another note, here's the other Mark Henry... can hardly tell them apart.



Photo credit: World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

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And speaking of the League, two members have new books out you should check out:


Sins of the Demon by Diana Rowland

And

Silver Tongued Devil by Jaye Wells


That's it for me this week. How's your January going so far? Let me know what's up.





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A presidential retread and those pesky his and hers

Mario here:

Two years ago I had the good fortune of meeting fellow scribe, Jason Heller, who writes for the AV section of the local Onion and was a contributor to Westword. Heller's a long time critic and raconteur of popular music and culture in general and a thoroughly funny guy. So who better to pen the story of former-president William Howard Taft running for the White House (again)? Heller's novel, Taft 2012 is getting excellent notice and his publisher is sparking up the buzz with these super book trailers.






Catch Heller at his book launch at the LoDo Tattered Cover, Tuesday, January 17, 7:30pm.


Another FOBE (friend of Biting-Edge), J.A. Kazimer is sponsoring a Goodreads giveaway for an ARC of her newest book, Curses, A F*cked
Up Fairy Tale. It's a great parody of the paranormal mystery genre, and here's your chance to score a copy.




If anyone has a crystal ball for the publishing industry, it might be Hyperion CEO Ellen Archer. In this posting on Digital Book World she shares her thoughts about the state of the business, the impact of ebooks (expected to be more than half of Hyperion's revenue by 2015), author advances (shrinking), and the importance of social media to your writing career.


Fellow Leagurer Carolyn Crane expounded recently about Some writing/reading things that she thought she'd never do but now does all the time. She discusses how Twitter has forced her to LOL and ROFL. And her beloved Roget's Thesaurus has been displaced by online versions. Like her, my dogeared thesaurus gathers dust next to the recycle box. It's so much easier to google *word* synonym. But progress brought an unexpected treat--the Merriam-Webster online dictionary's videos.

You get to see and hear brainy (and easy-on-the-eyes) librarian types pontificate on topics such as the pronunciation of troublesome words, flat adverbs, and the stinkeye. A favorite video addresses the whole clunky his or her construct. If you've ever had your hand slapped for writing "Everyone must bring their coat" because it's supposedly more grammatically correct to write "Everyone must bring his or her coat" then guess what? Vengeance is yours. Don't let the pinheads bully your use of the indefinite pronoun. And this video tells you why.[image error]

Out With the Old...

Most everyone begins a new year with the goal to start fresh, reorganize, simplify. Here's one way to get rid of some dead wood...from Topless Robot : Ten Collecting Fads Worth Next to Nothing Today... good place to start. Time to get rid of all those Pogs, Beanie Babies, Homies and Cabbage Patch Kids.




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Coming January 20-- Kate Beckinsale has always been my secret favorite to play Anna on the big screen. What? I can fantasize, can't I?

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Johnny Depp talks Dark Shadows:





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From Shelf Awareness:

Author of the DIARY OF A WIMPY KID series Jeff Kinney filed a lawsuit Tuesday in a Boston federal court alleging that DIARY OF A ZOMBIE KID, published by Antarctic Press, "blatantly infringed [Kinney's] intellectual property and diluted its trademarks."











Ya think????










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Now here's a story that if you put it in a book, no one would believe it:

Train hopping couple buried alive:

A young couple hopping railroad cars across the country was found dead under a mound of coal at a Florida power plant.

As the AP reports, officials at the plant are not sure if the couple was sitting on top of the coal when another load dropped, or if they were in a railcar that was dropping its payload. But they do know that Artes died from asphyxiation--meaning that he was likely buried alive. Hendershot died from blunt force trauma to the mid-section, meaning that she likely died from falling or by having coal fall on her.

Hmmm....seems they should have seen this coming, right? And why ride on top of a car full of coal? Can't have been very comfortable. Am I being too critical? Am I missing something?

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Okay, I think that's it for this week. What's new with you? How is the beginning of the year treating you? It has been surprisingly easy to get back into a routine. In fact, I'm enjoying it. I just wish I wasn't so HUNGRY all the time!!!

For you writers, I like this blog: 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing (Right Fucking Now)
Despite the colorful title, a lot of good advice here . Check it out.

And pal Jeff Shelby, writing as Jeffrey Allen, has a new release: Stay at Home Dead.


Check it out here


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The Countdown of 2012

Mario here:
Happy New Year to you all.

I started 2012 with a bit of a scrape about the upcoming Apocalypse, which you can read about at The League of Reluctant Adults blog.

And I finally got off my duff and posted the official 2011 Hollow Fang newsletter. What was supposed to be a monthly, or at least quarterly, offering got preempted by this blog, MySpace (which croaked), and Facebook. This issue of the Hollow Fang provides updates on vampiric doings and some helpful ways to augment your cash flow.

You'll need those pennies as you count down to the Apocalypse, December 21, 2012. Not sure what it will be. Earthquakes, financial Armageddon, our favorite--zombies!--or the 1% clearing real estate by unleashing a Doomsday machine.



Happy fanging![image error]

HNY

The above photo was taken from Cindy Sue Goertz-Truman's Facebook profile pic. Seemed very appropriate for today.

It also seemed appropriate because at the end of this week, this year, the neighborhood bar and grill where my critique group has met for the last three years is closing. The Pearl Street Grill is being shuttered so the owners can refashion it into what I'm sure they hope will be a more profitable venture--an upscale restaurant situated smack between Sushi Den and India's Pearl. So gone will be the comfortable, atmospheric, friendly place with a great staff and great food. And now comes the bitterest cut of all--having to start all over again to find a spot that will let us sit in a corner for two or three hours, eating, drinking and talking about things not often spoken of in public--how to dispose of a body, how to kill vampires and werewolves, how best to write a sex scene, how many ways the word "fuck" can be used in a sentence. (I think I won that one--if you've seen Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth has a t-shirt that reads: Fuck off you fucking fuck.)

So, I guess the moral is, the tide bringeth and the tide taketh away.


RIP Pearl Street Grill

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I didn't get very far in my movie-going quest this week. Only saw two flicks so far, MI, which I give 3 1/2 stars (out of 5). There were some good stunts and plenty of action, but breaking a hole in the window at the top of a 130 floor sky scraper has got to result in something more than a gently hair lifting breeze. Dubai is very impressive, though.

The second is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--4 stars and will probably rate higher when I can HEAR the dialogue. Too much background noise and music (except at the beginning when Led Zep's Immigrant Song is played while the credits roll-rock on!) But it was a splendid adaptation. Craig and Mara gave top notch performances.

One of the treats of movie-going for me is always watching previews. This one in particular looks very good:



I may have shared this before, but it's worth a second look.

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So here we are at the end of another year. Time for reflection, for cleaning out the closets, for setting new goals. I don't make resolutions. They become just another weight to haul around. Instead, I take stock. Of what I accomplished this year, of what I didn't and why. And I look at the beginning of every new year as just that...a beginning. A clean slate. A chance to start again and get it right.

That's what I wish for you. A clean slate. A vast horizon of possibilities. New beginnings.

And peace to us all.

Happy New Year.

Merry Xmas

Mario here:

Happy holidays everyone.

Hope that your Christmas has been jolly and happy. Best wishes and we'll see you next week.
Wait, that's New Year's! Drink up and be healthy, happy, and safe.

Cheers![image error]

Peace on Earth

No matter what holiday you may be celebrating this season, this has got to put a smile on your face. Creative high schools students give a great rendition of silent monks doing the Halleluia chorus.




Youtube

Put me right in the spirit.

For anyone who has ever taken a writing class:

The Elements of Style from Jake Heller on Vimeo.

Cool....

Okay, that's it from me this week. I hope you are all safe and warm and happy. And my holiday wish for us all...said it in the subject line.

Peace.

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