Michael Offutt's Blog, page 131

The Newsroom makes me wish I lived in New York City and was a part of something so much bigger than the banality of my very common life

Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy. He's basically the "Brian Williams" of this
show. One of my friends said she can't watch this show because she
associates Jeff with his role in "Dumb and Dumber." I wish she could get
past that because the two characters could not be more different, and it
shows Jeff's strength as a high-caliber actor.I enjoyed the first season of The Newsroom even though critics seemed to distance themselves choosing to be either 1) offended 2) confused or 3) disinterested. The "offense" was intentional as Will McAvoy at the center of this show believed in an America that was still great, but in his eye had lost its luster because politics had become both extreme and corrupt. He branded himself as a Republican, but there's no question that a lot of what he said in the show came out as "anti-conservative" especially when he compared the T.E.A. Party to the "American Taliban." That kind of analogy sounds as awful as it is, and I'm pleased that the waves from his statement (just like there would be in real life) are making things difficult for the little news network that could (meaning that they want to return the U.S. to a time where journalists were respected and not reviled by the public at large).

They changed the opening credits. Do you think it signifies a change in the writing?I honestly love the music to the opening credits. It's one of my favorites. If you haven't seen it, you should watch it.
I think the reason I like Aaron Sorkin's take on the news is because he cleverly sets up the season within the first episode. Last season, it was Will McAvoy's rant that set up everything he said and who he was as a person for the viewers that tuned in faithfully every Sunday night.

This time Aaron is playing with the events that unfolded in the wake of the Arab Spring in our country: the idea that Americans wanted a revolution and staged Occupy Wall Street to draw attention to income equality. Whether or not Occupy Wall Street actually accomplished anything I suppose is not the point. But talking about why bankers who made hundreds of millions of dollars while tax payers lost billions of dollars is worth looking at, and I think this is going to be one of several themes for this season. Or maybe to make this even simpler, the show is going to talk about inequality and how (as Americans) we actually encourage it...perhaps (dare I say) even revel in it?

In the premiere episode of season two called "First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" we have repercussions from the insult uttered by Will McAvoy when we see ACN ostracized during congressional hearings on SOPA (remember this one?). ACN wasn't even allowed to enter the building.

We see Jim (in the role of reporter) turned away from a ride on the Romney press bus, so he has to spend his own gas to cover the early stages of the presidential campaign.

And we see the whispers of a story that (according to previews) will blow up in the face of The Newsroom and provide the kind of drama we'd associate with these very real characters.

Yes, I find these points interesting because despite our culture's readiness to push for change, what usually ends up happening is change means that someone is going to come up with the short end of the stick. However, I have to say that what continues to draw me back to The Newsroom is how every single character can stand alone. They are very human. And just like I can relate to the single picture of the eyeball in the opening credits (as the person owning that eyeball contemplates the day's events), I can relate to the human struggles that these fictional characters undertake with admiration, bringing us the news with the same vigor as firefighters putting out flames and saving lives.

It's fascinating, heroic, and even tragic at times. There's a part of me that hopes I can breathe this kind of life into characters via whip smart dialogue (which is a trademark of Sorkin) and real life issues that transcend the material things to which we all cling. And there's a part of me that wishes I could live in New York City and be a part of something so much bigger than the banalities of my very common life.

Are you watching The Newsroom? If so, what did you think of Sunday night's premiere?

True Blood's Warlow is the most interesting vampire to come along since Eric Northman and yes, I only watch True Blood for the PLOT!

Okay True Blood, as of last night's episode, I'm totally engrossed in you. But there are days when I feel we are in a Bad Romance....
That's Warlow on top. And that's Sookie's "slay any vampire" power she's
holding to his head. If that isn't the best way to kill a vampire, I don't know
what is. And it's one of many reasons I like Warlow so much.This season of True Blood started out with me doing much head shaking. I didn't see the need for the "Billith cam" (where we got introduced to the way Billith sees the world) unless it was for priceless gifs like Sookie Stackhouse saying the word "Fuuucck" in slow motion. Last season wasn't that great either, so my expectations were maybe a wee bit low. We had the oldest fairy in the world who loved Ke$ha, we had five hundred characters, we had Sam and Luna running around naked in every episode, and there was hardly any Lafayette (and I love me some Lafayette), but this season has somehow pulled itself up by the bootstraps and given us some real interesting characters.
Okay, this gif really is amazing. You should download it to your phone and
text it to anyone that messages you. It's funny as hell to get their reaction.Now I'm freely admitting that I was deeply skeptical when I heard of Warlow. For those of you who don't know who Warlow is because you aren't watching the show (well I have no idea why you're even reading this if you aren't watching the show) but just to explain: Warlow is the vampire that killed Sookie's parents, and he's supposed to be very old and very powerful.
He killed Sookie's parents! But doesn't he have a nice smile? I guess if he
had a good reason to kill Sookie's parents it can't be all bad, right?Warlow's the reason why Jason Stackhouse completely lost it and said "Knowing my parents were killed by a vampire is the worst thing that's ever happened to me." And that's a pretty big statement since in one season of True Blood, a pard of were-panthers spent at least six episodes gang raping him over and over. So either Jason has a gift for ignoring anything that has to do with sex, is stupid, or he just really didn't like hearing that his parents had been killed by a vampire. I'm actually not sure which of those three applies, but it's True Blood so it's not like any of their problems get so bad that they just can't hump their way through them, right?
In a world filled with super-powered freaks, Jason Stackhouse's super-power
is the ability to hump his way through any problem that arises. Damn. I think
I'm jealous of that.Anyway, with regard to Warlow, I thought they were going for another kind of Russel Edgington-type character and I thought, "how unoriginal." But they aren't. Warlow is way more complex, and I love where this is going. And they're employing the same kinds of techniques that make Bill, Eric, and Pam interesting vampires, i.e. the flashback.

Now I know I just heard all you writers out there groaning, but the flashback really works in television (maybe not so much in writing). Last season with Eric, we flashed back to the time where he made Pam (think gas lamps and Victorian England and you've got the time perfectly). And with Bill, it's not been so much flashbacks as it's been surreal conversations with Lilith (the vampire goddess and perhaps the first vampire?) while being surrounded by bloody naked women strutting vagina first into the sun. And well...if you've got a nice body and are a feminist, I honestly can't blame you for strutting vagina first into the sun. It just might be the greatest meme ever.
Censorship courtesy of io9 :) Ladies, do you feel empowered yet?So we get introduced to Warlow who is a fairy that's crossed with a vampire and who's basically almost as old as Lilith. She made him in fact (and we're talking about prehistoric times here). The first flashback we got from Warlow read "3500 years ago..." That's pretty damn impressive. But it also turns out, he's not really a bad guy. He was a good husband that got turned into a vampire by Lilith while putting water in a jug by the river for his family. And now 3500 years later, he's come to marry Sookie Stackhouse, and it turns out he loves her and actually saved her from her parents who tried to kill her. Yeah...in a seance with Lafayette, Sookie found out her "loving parents" really didn't love her all that much. They feared her, thought she was weird, and pretty much just wanted to get rid of her. Warlow stopped all that.
In another season, Lafayette said, "I am not gmail for all you dead bitches." But for Sookie,
he IS gmail...and for the record, I love the way Lafayette says "bitch." It's more entertaining
than when Jesse Pinkman says "bitch!" and that means a lot. Don't believe me? Here are
my scientific findings to back up my hypothesis: Verdict: Lafayette wins!Warlow can walk in daylight, saved her brother, and sure...he's done some bad things like destroy an entire nightclub of fairies that worked as strippers and then stuck Sookie's grandfather "the King of the fairies" into the dimension he had to live in and survive for a long time, but Sookie's grandfather was weird anyway.

There's that word again..."weird" and I've used it multiple times here. Is "weird" really something that I should use to describe True Blood? Don't answer that, or the universe may possibly explode. Maybe my whole point to this utterly pointless post is this: Warlow is hawt, and I'm weird because I watch True Blood.

So yeah, I think True Blood's Warlow is the most interesting vampire to come along since Eric Northman. Anyone else agree?

If you haven't been paying attention to the Treyvon Martin case you should because the outcome could affect your life

Yesterday, the defense team of George Zimmerman made their closing arguments in the Treyvon Martin case and it's expected that the jury will begin deliberations as soon as Friday afternoon. I've been following this case (as has most of the nation) for a while now and the one thing that troubles me has to do with this thought:

If an aggressor goes out of their way to antagonize a defendant (who is doing no wrong) and a fight breaks out that goes badly for the aggressor to the point where they feel their life is in danger, do they actually have the right to kill that defendant and get off with no punishment?

To put it another way, is it okay to antagonize someone into a fight and if it gets out of hand, claim self defense and kill the other person? Because that's exactly what's going on in this Florida case. That's what the defense is arguing is "lawful," and depending on how this verdict goes down, I'm a little worried about what it means for the rest of us.

In states that support a self-defense law, it will be okay for enemies to stalk you and antagonize you into a fight in the hopes that they can justify that they "feared for their life" and had to put a bullet in your heart to stop you from killing them. Does anyone else have a problem with this? Does anyone else believe that it's wrong that an aggressor pay no legal penalty for setting deadly events in motion?

I don't think that this trial is just about what happened that fateful night in Florida. Nor is it about what you or I believe what happened and whether or not Treyvon was in the wrong and Zimmerman conversely in the right. The bigger picture is about how we can grant some citizens the right to kill on fear while systematically denying that right to others.

If you haven't been paying attention to the Treyvon Martin case, you should be. The ruling could very well be a matter of life and death for any one of us in the future if aggressors are emboldened by the knowledge they can face no legal punishment as long as they can claim self-defense, even if they started the fight.

***** 
I will be skipping my post tomorrow to enjoy a Pacific Rim weekend. I'm seeing it tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday. If you wonder where I'm at, just think "watching monsters and robots slug it out on the big screen."

Have a good weekend. I look forward to reading your comments on what I've said here and whether or not this thought occurred to you about the trial.

The best parts of Melissa Harris-Perry's commencement speech to Wellesley College graduates are truthful and worth listening to

Melissa Harris-PerryI like great commencement speeches, mostly because I never went to my commencement. I was actually ashamed that I got a degree in English because my father essentially said it was a worthless degree and that I was a failure for getting one. I'm not mad. It's just the truth. It's what he honestly believed, and seeing as I didn't have a job right when school finished, it's not like I could prove him wrong. It took a decade before I gathered enough work experience to have a career that can support me into retirement. Here's another truth: I don't feel like a failure anymore. I feel lucky to have my job with benefits and a pension, and I clawed for everything I've accomplished (tooth and nail) to get to where I am (firmly planted in the middle class). I also feel sorry for those who are entering the workforce today, because good jobs are drying up. America is not the land of opportunity it was forty years ago.

There's a lot of truth in my life (that's the one thing that has always come in crystal clear and 20/20) and all the people in it have never held back. I remember when my cousin came to visit and after she met me (eleven years old at the time) she asked grandma "Why is their family so ugly?" More truth I suppose; kids tell it like it is. Just recently someone I was helping asked me, "What is your degree?" (I assume they were impressed because I'm smart). I responded "English." They immediately said with disgust and contempt, "How did you get this job then?" I was amused because even a person that doesn't have a job can have contempt for me. But you know what? I am smart. I have an above-average IQ, and I'm thankful for it.

Maybe I could have gone to an Ivy League school. I'd like to think that had I been given the opportunity, I could have been on the Dean's List of my choice of major at Cornell. But I went to Sarah Palin's alma mater, i.e. the University of Idaho. And as soon as school was done, I packed up my things and just drove home to try and struggle with the big question of what to do with an English degree that my father said is useless? Well, I can say from experience that as useless as it was, living in Idaho Falls, Idaho (population 50,000) made it even more challenging to find work that wasn't minimum wage. It's a right-to-work state so there's no unions and the "job creators" there believe that profits should be made off the back of slaves. Because of living in Idaho Falls, Idaho, I will always be a democrat. I've seen economic injustice first-hand. I spent years working retail, sometimes holding three jobs, and trying to build a resume so chock full of experience that I could land a career.

But this post is not specifically about me or the challenges I have in my life. It's not supposed to be about whether or not someone chooses to mock me for trying to showcase credentials I feel I've earned through study, trial and error. Nor is it about how people misjudge me all the time because they think my life is easy when in fact it's the opposite, and I hide it really well.

This post is about Melissa Harris-Perry and what she had to say to graduates of Wellesley College in May of 2012, and it's every bit as great as what Steve Jobs had to say to Stanford grads before his death, because it holds nothing but truth. For those of you who don't know, Melissa Harris-Perry is a political scientist and MSNBC television host and she urged the crowd of students to be ignorant, silent, and thick. That sounds awful, right? Well, not so much.

Here are a few choice quotes:

"But even as you accept your hard won degree, I encourage you to embrace the reality that you know almost nothing."

I personally feel that I know almost nothing. I just wish others felt the same. I try to explain things that I do know and more often than not, I get cut off mid-sentence by someone who acts the expert and then the conversation is ended. Days later I find out they actually knew nothing and just didn't want to learn from the likes of me. In every single case, I want to point out that all of these people that cut me off have been men.

"Standing in a library reminds us of our own limitations. It encourages us to remember that we don't know everything, can't predict every outcome, and don't even know all the right questions to ask. I will never fill a cavity. It is pretty unlikely that I will ever speak Mandarin. I am certainly not going to decode anything in the DNA chain. But thankfully, graciously, the universe provides an interdependent web of other fantastic women who will. Remembering our ignorance, embracing our ignorance, allowing ourselves to accept a posture of ignorance compels us to keep learning."

"So remember, ignorance is not your enemy, only complacency with ignorance is to be resisted. Never become so enamored of your own smarts that you stop signing up for life's hard classes. Remember to keep forming hypotheses and gathering data. Keep your conclusions light and your curiosity ferocious. Keep groping in the darkness with ravenous desire."

I don't understand why people get to an age where they choose to stop learning. I've actually heard, "I know how the Earth came to be. This is what I believe and you're not going to ever change my mind." All I've got to say to that is "Wow. You learned everything before you were twenty and now all you want to know is how to save money for retirement and pop out some kids." I've never stopped learning. Each day I try to fill my mind with something else. I ravenously read newspapers, read science articles, and search out anything and everything about stocks and the financial market. I guess at the age of 41, I know enough to say in the humblest of ways "I actually know nothing, but I'm willing to learn if you teach me."

"Silence can help to soothe one of the voices that you would actually like to be quiet more frequently. It's what Jay-Smooth would call your 'internal hater.' That little hater...the hater sits on our shoulder and tells us, 'sit up straight,' 'omigod, you have a lisp,' and 'why are you talking?'

"Thick is the only thing worth being. Thick women make fools of themselves all the time because thin women stand on the sidelines. They're critical; they're removed; they're barely committed. Thick people pitch tents in a park with the belief that social action can change an entire international global system of economic injustice."

"Thin folks believe every critic is a 'hater.' Thick folks can hear critique without crumbling. Thin leaders stay the course no matter what the evidence sat. Thick leaders listen, learn, and correct."

"Thin women look great in bikinis. Thick women look terrific in history books."

I love that last line more than anything.

The shocking twists and turns of Defiance channel George R.R. Martin in a spectacular season finale. The lesson? Never meet an evil person in the woods. Like ever.

This scene ended the episode. It's the invasion of the Earth Republic
army taking over Defiance. It's a bad time for this sci-fi outpost.
Everything is indeed broken. Click to EMBIGGENThe culmination of an amazing season one ended last night with cliffhangers that made me realize, Defiance is not your run-of-the-mill "play it safe" and be predictable sci-fi series. I am thoroughly engrossed in this story, and I HATE the fact that I have to wait until June 2014 for more. SyFy channel built last week's episode as "the one everyone will be talking about." Although good, it had none of the shocking moments that Monday night's season finale called "Everything is Broken" had. And I just want to warn those who are following this series and haven't watched it yet, there are some major spoilers in this post.
Kenya had the upper hand on Stahma, but got outmaneuvered. R.I.P. Kenya.OMG they killed Kenya. She was like one of my favorite characters. And Kenya didn't die a useless death either. She was outmaneuvered in a game of chess and paid for it with her life. I really shouldn't be shocked, but I am. Kenya's demise was foreshadowed by the venomous and treacherous threats coming from the evil Stahma. "This will not end well for you," Stahma said to Kenya. I just didn't think Defiance had the cojones to go there. After last night's episode, I'll never say that again.

To be fair, I admire Stahma. She's got more layers than an onion and makes for a powerful villain. She's as ruthless, conniving, and clever as Cersei in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. But I thought Kenya could outwit her. In truth, I believed she had up until the end. I kept asking myself, what would I do if I were in Kenya's position? I don't know if I would have met Stahma in the woods, but I sure as hell wouldn't trust her...not after she back-stabbed her sister, Mayor Rosewater, to give Datak an edge in the election.
Meeting an evil person in the woods is never a good idea. Here Kenya
in back (she's the brunette) is meeting Stahma. This scene reminded me
in every way of the 1976 film "Omen 2" where Damien kills a blond boy in
the woods who suspects who he truly is, i.e., the Antichrist. See picture below. This scene gave me nightmares when I was a kid. The dark-haired boy is
pure evil. The blond kid in the background goes to the same military
academy and stumbled across Damien's secret, so he kills him with his
"powers." It's awful. Lesson: never meet an evil person in the woods. Ever.But as it turns out, Kenya did meet Stahma in the woods (NEVER DO THIS! NEVER EVER MEET AN EVIL PERSON IN THE WOODS PEOPLE!), and Stahma acted just like a spider, luring Kenya in by saying she was on the run from her monster husband. The only thing that makes this act even believable is that Datak is a monster. I suppose that Stahma said at least one thing that was correct: "You don't know Castithans." Kenya paid the price with her life by accepting a flask coated with poison. She was smart enough not to drink it, but just touching the surface of the flask was enough to kill her. It was a total turn around since Kenya had a gun to Stahma's head and seemed to have the upper hand. I'm still reeling from this surprise, and I thoroughly expect this to go down as one of the top ten shocking deaths in science fiction. It's right up there with Samuel L. Jackson's death in Deep Blue Sea.
One of the most shocking deaths in cinematic history.OMG they killed Nolan. What the hell is going on? I loved Nolan. We've been seeing Defiance through his eyes since day one. We started out with him in the pilot episode in a crawler with his daughter in tow making their way to Antarctica. Right from the start, he established himself as a rugged military man with a sense of honor and the ability to beat anyone up in a fight. Strong, cunning, with a "straight as an arrow" moral compass, and boom...taken out with a bullet fired from an Earth Republic surgeon that has a reputation for loving his work. This is a euphemism for "I like to cut people up on the operating table."
Noes! They killed Lawkeeper Nolan. To be fair, Nolan's fate is similar to Catelyn's Stark's: dead but then resurrected through magic (sorry if I'm spoiling A Game of Thrones here). But the resurrection comes at what price? Irisa  has essentially given herself over to being "The Devouring Mother" because she didn't want to lose her dad. She's now the weapon of Irzu, the goddess of the Irathients, and from the look of things, I think this means she's going to lose all of her identity and become a killing machine. Her body may survive the fall into the strange glowing pit deep within the mines, but all the things that make up Irisa can't possibly survive that. So in a sense, they've killed off Irisa too!

Major cast members have been dropping like flies in this season. Who OTHER than George R.R. Martin does that? Well okay...The Walking Dead does it too. I don't know if I really like that or not? I suppose I do because I'm completely hooked in this show.
The conniving and murderous Tarr family. As much as I'd like to see them
get justice for killing Kenya and hurting others, they are some great villains.OMG they killed Datak. Okay...we didn't see him get killed so he'll probably be back next season. But the fact is that he did kill the leader of the Earth Republic with a knife in his office and soldiers were pounding on the door. I just don't see how that could go over well? Hands covered in blood, dead body of the leader on the ground. I know if I'd been a soldier and saw that, I'd fill the dude full of bullet holes. All they wanted was access to the mines and they got that when Datak won the election. What further use is this Castithan to them? He's dead weight; a liability. And by the way the writers offed Kenya, I fully expect Datak to get executed along with Stahma in the season premiere.

Man oh man, the shocking twists and turns of Defiance channel George R.R. Martin in a spectacular season finale dripping with blood. Why does June of 2014 seem so far away?

The real world physics that could make the scenario of SyFy's Sharknado a distinct possibility and what you should do to protect yourself

Summer may be hot, but it isn't hot enough without flying shark eating
Tara Reid "OM NOM NOM NOM" ... Sharknado is an actual T.V. movie.Summers are getting really hot, and I'm not talking about six-pac abs and string bikini hot (although I guess I wouldn't mind being on the beach to see at least some of that). Just a year ago, we had the hottest month on record. Ever. And everyone from scientists who study climate change to insurance adjusters paying out claims is asking, "Is this normal?" Now, just to be clear, I'm not trying to start a political debate and ask what side of the climate change argument you are on. However, I do want to tell you about one super crazy idea that just may be a possibility in the near future (it's super scary when you consider it could create flying sharks!)

In a paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, physicist Rob Wood is proposing than an experiment be conducted on a small scale where marine stratocumulus clouds are seeded with a lot of tiny sea water particles. The effect they are looking for is to significantly enhance cloud droplet number concentration, and thereby cloud reflectivity and longevity. The result: a cooling effect. The proposed barge that could be used to seed clouds with sea water
to cool down the atmosphere. But unless there are filters to keep sharks out
we could totally be looking at a Sharknado scenario.Initially, the project would deploy sprayers like the one pictured above to ensure that enough salt water particulate can be blasted high enough into the sky. In turn, a plane equipped with sensors would monitor the physical and chemical characteristics of the particles and how they disperse. Cool, right? Well maybe not so much.
Here's my train of thought: sea water doesn't appear to be initially dangerous. However, when I bother to look deeper and start to think of their delivery system, and how it could possibly blast microscopic algae, bacteria, fungus, minerals...literally anything in ocean water...my imagination goes wild. Sure...the "reasonable" person in me says that this living stuff wouldn't survive the process.
BUT THE SCI-FI WRITER IN ME ASKS: WHAT HAPPENS TO THE SHARKS THAT GET SUCKED UP INTO THE MACHINE?  Cause the ocean totally has sharks in it and they nom nom nom on people ALL the time.
And I suddenly had this epiphany that "bold" font simply does not have the power to express but I shall give it the old college try: OMG..."SHARKNADO!"
Those brilliant guys at SyFy sooo saw this coming.... Here's the synopsis:

When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace. And when the high speed winds form tornadoes in the desert, nature's deadliest killer rules water, land, and air!

Starring Tara Reid (the Academy Award Winning [okay not really] actress from American Pie) and John Heard, Sharknado premieres on SyFy on Pacific Rim Eve (Thursday is now "Pacific Rim Eve" and Friday is "Pacific Rim Day").
But guys, after having read my explanation of how the cloud seeding works can't you see that there are real world physics that could make the scenario in Sharknado for reals? 
I know, it's terrifying right?
So let's go over the things you should do to protect yourself should a Sharknado happen for real in your home town:
1) Get yourself a suit of riot armor and don't go outside without it. Flying sharks don't like the taste of riot armor, and they will avoid eating you for someone who is plump and juicy (which describes most Americans).  2) Don't eat at Long John Silvers. Sharks can smell fish on you and if you've been eating there, chances are, they will consume you out of revenge. I know this is a fact because there's a movie called "Jaws the Revenge!" So it's totally real. According to NPR, this "heart attack on a hook" has 33 grams of fat, 1320
calories, and almost 3700 milligrams of sodium. Not to mention that kids
will call you "fatty" and sharks will want to eat you.3) Get a bigger gun. You know...something the NRA would approve of because flying sharks are dangerous.
Don't be frightened by its size. You can buy it without a background check
online thanks to Congress. Just get a couple of these babies and pack them
with you to the grocery store so in case the Sharknado hits, YOU ARE
PREPARED!4) Become a ninja. Ninjas can always beat sharks. Just look at the below picture as proof. And if you cannot become a ninja, then hire a ninja. I hear they work for food. You know you've got a successful one if you tell him where you live, and when you go home, all your stuff is gone. Ninjas are like that. They can be in and out like the wind.... 5) Dress up as Batman and buy a toy red lightsaber. Sharks are terrified of the Batman because of what happened the last time those two tangled:
And there you have it folks. Whew. Be safe everyone and remember my five rules even if you can't remember ANYTHING else. Trust me, they shall serve you well.

A revealing look at Murder Memories and Murder Madness by Yolanda Renee

Please welcome the mistress of murder. And that spider isn't real so don't be afraid...

Note: these are the first two books of a trilogy set in the states of Alaska and Washington, and Paris, France.
Murder, Madness & LoveAugust 5, 2013
Tagline:
After a gritty detective becomes involved with a beautiful widow suspected of murder, slander and obsession obstruct his quest for justice.
Synopsis:
A killer plays cat and mouse with a young widow against the snowy backdrop of an Alaskan winter. Branded a black widow after the suspicious death of her millionaire husband, Sarah Palmer flees Seattle for Anchorage. But the peace and quiet she hoped to enjoy in her hometown is soon shattered. The killer is murdering Sarah look-alikes on the 14th of each month, taunting Sarah with a valentine of evidence.

After her experiences in Seattle, Sarah is slow to go to the police. When she finally does, she finds Detective Steven Quaid. Called on to protect the beautiful widow from a stalker intent on her destruction, Steven is convinced he can solve Michael Palmer's murder and arrest the stalker. However, crime is never simple, and before long Sarah has Steven wound up tighter than barbed wire. Is Sarah a victim or a very skilled manipulator? With a killer on the loose and a climbing body count, Steven cannot afford to hedge his bets-or his life. Memories of MurderSeptember 5, 2013
Tagline:
 A man of pure evil, a dedicated detective, and a talented artist meet in a fight that defines good and evil, love and obsession, betrayal and forgiveness.
Synopsis:
After transferring to Seattle to repair his professional reputation, Detective Steven Quaid is unexpectedly demoted to the cold case squad. While helping a fellow officer he stumbles upon an unusual case–and an even more extraordinary foe. Unraveling the mystery gives him the case he is sure will right his stalled career, and brings him face to face with Luke Williams, aka Lucifer. An insidious man who delivers Quaid the ultimate choice: save his fiancée from an assassin’s bullet or stop the sacrifice of a young girl. Suddenly the effort to salvage his reputation pales in comparison to the loss of a future with the girl of his dreams.
About Renee:
Although a native Pennsylvanian, Yolanda Renée chose to follow her adventurous spirit, which led her to Alaska where the Detective Quaid Series is set. Renée loves books, reading them, writing them, owning them – they are 'her precious'! She is all about mystery, murder, and romance . . . writing it! She is adventurous, shy, and creative. She is a wife, a mother, and a dreamer with an unquenchable desire for knowledge and an idealistic belief in good - yet she writes evil - but that's only because she loves defeating it!
A former controller who still loves numbers and now works hard to tell her stories in as few words as possible. Winning Flash Fiction challenges is her hobby and publishing her Detective Quaid mystery series her quest! She currently resides in Central Pennsylvania, with her husband, two sons, and the boss, Patches, her Boston terrier.
You can learn more about Renée at http://www.yolandarenee.comhttp://www.yolandarenee.blogspot.com

***** 
I wish I was this productive. Have a great weekend. And Yolanda, your book covers are creepy but fantastic!!!

July and a question about insecurity

The Insecure Writer's Support Group is a monthly blog fest thought up by author, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

For this month's insecurity, I want to pose a question that relates to something I read online:

Would you agree that creative people are inherently insecure because they don't know if people like them, or are in awe of them?

I look forward to reading your answers.

I will be taking tomorrow off to celebrate Independence Day. Friday, I'm posting a cover reveal for author, Yolanda  Renee.

Will Godzilla be in Pacific Rim? Let's hope the superstar of kaiju movies puts in an appearance.

Shark kaiju looks angry.Over on io9, writer Meredith Woerner posted an exclusive video (CLICK HERE TO VIEW) that Warner Brothers sent to them explaining the background process that Guillermo and team went to in order to create the kaiju for Pacific Rim. I urge you to go and watch it because it is simply AWESOME.

My thoughts (after viewing the video like four times) start with this: Guillermo del Toro is doing to kaiju what Steven Spielberg did for dinosaurs when he created Jurassic Park more than twenty years ago. To borrow a term from Andrew Leon in a blog post he wrote, this is a "game changer." I still remember the lead up to Jurassic Park. The studios and test audiences were awed by the realism of the dinosaurs on screen, how their eyes would dilate, and how their skin would move over bones, all thanks to computer-aided graphics. And oh boy have we come a long way since then.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Guillermo del Toro (who dispels any notion in me that this movie will somehow NOT be the movie of the entire summer). Seriously, I know this is a bold claim, but I personally think I will see this movie every single day on its opening weekend.

"When I watched a monster movie, the big money shot for me was the monster. In kaiju movies, that's what it was about." 
This is a screen grab I made from the io9 featurette. How would you like
to be in that submarine. This moment in the film is totally what del Toro
is talking about when he refers to the monster as the money shot. del Toro is honoring kaijus that appeared in older Japanese films that were
cheesy but fun. Here is one that bears a remarkable similarity to the one
featured above. I like it when directors know their subject matter so well
it literally paints them as a fanboy of their own work.My thoughts: Guillermo totally gets this right. I've seen plenty of monster movies, and I always loved it when the monster showed up. Take King Kong...it wasn't interesting until Kong showed up and started wrestling with multiple T-Rexes.

"Kaijus in Japan have many forms. We wanted to stick to the basics...we tried to echo real animals. We tried to echo a gorilla. We tried to echo a shark."

My thoughts: I love this approach. It's basing a monster on something we are familiar with and making a chimaera: a creature that's got components of something familiar and already terrifying and doing drastic things with both its scale, its power, and its appearance.
In this screen grab from the io9 video, see the scale of the Jaeger robot as
compared to a jumbo jet and a T-Rex (the tiny lizard that doesn't even reach
to the kaiju's elbow. Scale is going to be one reason this show is made for IMAX."The moment you saw it [the kaiju] on the screen the first time, you knew they were deadly, and capable of destroying the jaeger. One of the rules I gave to the designers is to try and honor the spirit and feeling of the classical kaiju. Two-legged [just like in the old Japanese films] And once a week we would do an American idol and eliminate the silly ones."

My thoughts: I think American Idol style elimination for silliness is brilliant. George Lucas could have benefited from this by opening his prequels to criticism. And as writers, many of you will no doubt agree that critical input at just the right time can make or break a story.

Okay, so here's the big question I have for you oh kaiju fans. There's been no mention of Godzilla. But you know del Toro is a huge fan of Godzilla. So...do you think Godzilla will make an appearance in Pacific Rim? If so, I think it would be too awesome for words and would most likely come at the end. Here is your moment of zen:
Note that it's being made by "Legendary Pictures" which is the same studio bringing you "Pacific Rim." Tee hee I so want a Godzilla cameo.

This bittersweet gallery of concept art for the failed Akira movie is pretty damn cool

I loved Akira, so it may seem odd to hear me say I'm glad that Warner Brothers pulled the plug on the full-scale movie adaptation of Akira. I had my reasons though, mostly attributed to the fact that it was taking place in America and they were going to cast American actors in the roles. I spoke about that on a blog post located HERE.

Anyway, I present you with a bittersweet gallery of conceptual art I found online courtesy of Screen Crush. When I see this kind of stuff, I want the project to be alive again, only under the helm of a director that understands the importance of the incredible source material. I also wish that cyberpunk was a more popular genre, because these pictures are very exciting in much the same way Tron or Neuromancer excites me.







I know what you're thinking. This bittersweet gallery of concept art for the failed Akira movie is pretty damn cool, right? And if you're not thinking that, well...I never said I was psychic. But answer me this: why can't we get a genuinely awesome Akira movie instead of rebooting the Terminator franchise? And yes, in case you haven't heard, all new Terminator movies have been scrapped. Hollywood is returning to square one and rebooting Terminator and starting anew with a trilogy. This is my "grrr" face ==>
"GRRRR. WE DON'T NEED A TERMINATOR REBOOT!"Speaking of art (shameless self plug for attention) I finished a new painting. If you want to view it, click on the "My Artwork" tab above. It's the very top two pictures on the page. If you do take the time to go and look, be sure to shower me with compliments. I love compliments :)