Chris Braak's Blog, page 47

I Get It Now

OK? All you iPhone users I have been scolding and lecturing for fiddling with it while pretending to be paying attention to the social event you are physically, if not mentally, attending? I get it. Fiddling with the phone is…calming. I am now the proud owner of an LG Rumor Touch (aka, "The Phone Sprint [...]

Now I can blog from my phone

Hahahaha! Here is a picture of the bar where I will spend my time from HENCEFORTH! Filed under: Threat Quality

Philcon

Philcon is probably the least impressive of SF/Fantasy conventions, but it has the admirable merit of being conveniently located to the Threat Quality Press Global Stronghold, and while Holland and I work out the precise logistics of how to run a publishing imprint with a catalog of five books, it's on our shortlist for "hey, [...]

'Megamind'-related question

Checking reviews of Megamind (a solid B+, seems like!), got me wondering: Has there ever been a DC comics Elseworlds story where a) The Joker killed Batman and then had to figure out what to do next? b) Batman killed the Joker and dealt with the fallout from that? c) One character had to deal [...]

Now Available! Erin L. Snyder's "Facsimile"

In our ongoing effort to provide you, the READER!, with more books, Threat Quality Press has produced yet another book!  Facsimile, by TQP contributor Erin L. Snyder is now available for purchase. $8.99 at Amazon, $2.99 in the Kindle Store. "At AuroroTech, we record your actions and your words, then transform that data into a [...]

Armchair Screenwriter: 'Iron Man 3′

(Continuing our discussion from Tuesday about how to make likely IM3 villain the Mandarin a little less silly.) From a storytelling standpoint, Iron Man and Iron Man 2 lead into the Avengers movie. Tony Stark becomes a superhero (IM1), battles his own demons (IM2) to the point that he can join an organization that fights [...]

Fantasy, Pulp, and the Bechdel Test

Some days ago, a fellow named Brian Murphy wrote this article on the Black Gate blog, positing that Realms of Fantasy's fold had to do with a glut of fantasy-type stories on the market.  I'll admit that his argument is at least intuitive; the more I go into the bookstore, the more and more disenchanted [...]

Oh come ON

"Because last time I hit them gently and slowly and that didn't work out at ALL." Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi are listed as co-writers on "Brightest Day" #13, so unfortunately I can't say for sure who decided to start off an issue with one of the stupidest action-movie dialogue cliches in existence. But guys: [...]

The Mandarin Is Ridiculous

On Thursday, I'm gonna tell you about how Iron Man 3 should handle what will inevitably be its main villain: The Mandarin. But before that happens, I need you to understand why, despite his being inextricably tied to Iron Man in terms of "arch-nemesis," there are some very, VERY good reasons they didn't use him [...]

Why I Don't Like National Novel Writing Month

I don't like it.  Even though I did write The Translated Man after having read the first three chapters of Chris Baty's No Plot, No Problem while I was working in the bookstore. The problem that I have is that I want to be the only one who can write novels.  EVERYONE ELSE STOP DOING [...]