Gerald Dean Rice's Blog, page 64
March 13, 2013
Another 5-Star Review for 30 Minute Plan http://amzn.to/zhXzfi
Thanks to Wally World for the awesome review of 30 Minute Plan on Kindle. Read on here:
First, let me say “30 Minute Plan” was a great read. I rarely find authors whose works I can flow through in one sitting, but the plot, action and dialogue was terrific. Fans of “The Walking Dead” will enjoy this one.
This novella is a zombie story, but it’s a fresh look into the genre so, as you’re reading, you don’t get this feeling that you’ve somehow read or seen this before. I appreciate that, the fact that you can bring a fresh angle to something that has been flipped over and over again.
A little bit about the plot: Danton is a former convict turned “dog” (a zombie-killing foot soldier, a.k.a. grunt) that goes out into the field to fight Ziggies (zombies) and execute tests created by the “brains” (human scientists). The dogs have a code of honor, never leave another dog to the ziggies. If a dog is bit, they’re put on the thirty minute plan, in which time they can either die honorably (a form of harakiri, except with a pistol instead of a blade to the belly like in samurai culture) or humanely (a fellow dog executes the infected).
Getting back to the storyline, on one expedition, the brains have them spraying strawberry and lemon scents at packs of zombies. One of the dog’s, Cargill, accidentally sprays himself with the lemon scented chemical. Once this is completed, the soldiers return to base, but all is not safe as a pack of lemon scented zombies bust into the compund and take Cargill away, mistaking him as one of their own.
Presumed dead, the dogs and the brains are surprised to hear from him days later, learning he is still alive and well in the pack that took him away. Some believe this is a trick to lure them out into the field, that Cargill is no longer a human being. They decide not to seek him out.
Danton, hellbent on preserving the code of the dog, decides he will go out and give Cargill a proper sendoff if he finds him to be a ziggy. Once Danton leaves the compound, the story takes some very cool twists and the action and flow of the plot takes the reader on a tour of hell as Danton sinks deeper and deeper into the quicksand adventure he has stumbled into.
This novella should not be free but, since it is, readers need to jump on it.
You can also download 3MP in the UK store here.
March 12, 2013
Jack Daniels #amreading
I’ve been devouring JA Konrath’s ‘Jack Daniels’ series on audio since January. Currently, I’m on Shaken and it’s just as good as all the rest. At first I was a little off-put by the two-person narration provided by Susie Breck and Dick Hill (I’d listened to Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead and the cast of voices left my head spinning), but the style quickly grew on me, particularly Hill’s ability to do three voices distinct enough from each other that you know who each character is.
But now I’m coming to a problem. I’m currently listening to Shaken and I’m on disc 5 of 6. I moved up the next one, Shot of Tequila, to be next, but someone else has it. Not only is it checked out, but it isn’t even due to be returned until April 20th. And Stirred, the collaboration between Konrath and Crouch, isn’t due back until May.
I just may have to listen to something else.
I don’t want to listen to anything else. I’d started the Dexter series around the same time and it quickly petered out after the disappointing Dexter in the Dark.
Why Would Someone Try to Hack My USPS Online Account?
Apparently, someone’s trying to get into it, but for what purpose is beyond me. Maybe they want to have my mail forwarded to some other address. Oh, where are all my bills? Whoa, it’s me!
Username: xxx
This email is being sent to inform you that someone has tried multiple times to
access your account on-line. Each access attempt has failed and for your protection,
your account will be locked or made unavailable for the next 24 hours.
Instead of waiting the 24 hours to have the account unlocked, you are welcome to use
the Forgot your Password function found at https://reg.usps.com/forgot. You will need to
provide your username and answer your secret question(s) before a new temporary password
will be provided.
March 11, 2013
RE: Writers Needed (Another Rip-off)
Are you looking for more experience as a writer? Look no further! Our publishing company is hiring writers! Must have excellent command of the English language. Compensation is $0.008 per word. You should be able to generate at least 2,500-4,000 words per day. Payments are made through PayPal once content is satisfactory. Looking for motivated self-starters who can research and write well on various topics. We also write a lot of product reviews. Reply with a sample article or product review that you have written.
Why would any writer waste his or her time with this? If you’ve read any of my blogs on these topics before, this one is obvious. $0.008 per word? Are you kidding me? I charge more to edit than that and they’re looking for original content that they more than likely want to own exclusively. They also pay ‘once content is satisfactory’ to ‘motivated self-starters’. What a rip-off. Satisfactory content is in the eye of the beholder and while I would never pay for crap if I were in the market to buy content, there’s a better way than this. First off, if they actually paid something worthwhile, they would attract better writers. But a desperate, unpublished writer will probably leap at this opportunity only to be sorely disappointed later.
March 10, 2013
Faceoff – #TheWalkingDead
Some interesting developments in tonight’s episode. How many times did you think the very thing that couldn’t have happened? That either Rick or the Governor would shoot the other person. There’s much too much that needs to happen before either man kills the other, but that eventuality shouldn’t have come as a surprise for a show that’s known for surprises. I do have to revise what I think is going to happen: the Governor is going to be killed by a woman, but the question is who?
Maggie- sexually assaulted by him, still seems to be in shock somewhat.
Michonne- the favorite as she probably would make it hurt the worst.
Andrea- she has the best chance considering she’s the only one who has any kind of window of opportunity that doesn’t involve a preceding hail of bullets.
If there’s justice, it’ll be Maggie. Michonne already got his eye and Andrea, although she’s seeing things a lot more clearly, needs to come off as wishy-washy still for the sake of the show. I think the war will happen, the crew that Rick kicked out the prison will be involved, and two to three core cast members will die. Maybe Hershel because he’s living on borrowed time anyway, right? Or Carol, I mean, now that she won’t be midwifing for anyone, what’s her purpose? We already had someone without survival skills get on a learning curve and that was Andrea. And if she dies, that leaves Darryl someone else to pine after and further drives a wedge between him and Merle (if Merle survives, that is–which he won’t).
But don’t be surprised if the Governor is still alive come the season finale. He may yet have more harm to do.
March 7, 2013
Peter and the Little Boy Eater
Every couple years I dust this story off and see if there’s anything I can do with it. I wrote Peter and the Little Boy Eater for a correspondence class I was taking (Children’s something or other) way back in ’98 or so. It’s gone through several iterations, including an almost complete rewrite after I lost the revision I was happy with.
But every time I sent it to an agent or a publisher, I always got a rejection. I never got a specific reason why, but it never went anywhere. Yesterday, while out with my ladies, we stopped at Barnes and Noble. We were in the children’s section and I was walking around with my daughter when I spotted the book, I Need My Monster. My wife and I both read it and the first thing that popped into my head was, ‘Hey, this might not be a bad place to submit my children’s story to’.
After getting home, I opened it, read it over a little, got on Flashlightpress.com’s website and looked over a few of their titles. Even though Monster seemed in the same vein, I wasn’t sure about mine because it’s a rhyming children’s story. But what do you know, they have a book titled, That Cat Can’t Stay and it’s told in rhyme! So I’ve already sent this off as of Sunday night and hopefully I’ll hear something positive in the next couple weeks.
March 6, 2013
#TheWalkingDead Interview with Chandler Riggs
March 4, 2013
Q&A – Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes)
Actor Chandler Riggs, who plays Carl Grimes on AMC’s The Walking Dead, talks about why he’s not allowed to go to the cast’s “death dinners” and his most gut-wrenching scene this year.
Q: Now that Madison Lintz (Sophia) is gone, what’s it like to be the only kid on set ?
A: Luckily, some of the actors act like kids, like Steven Yuen and Norman Reedus. So I hang out with them a lot. They’re really fun guys.
Q: Carl played a big part in Lori’s death this season. Was the material in that scene at all difficult for you to process?
A: I read the script and it was just horrifying. The whole scene felt like it took a week to shoot. It was dreadful, but you just gotta get over it and get on with it. There was no way to keep those days bright and happy.
Q: What’s it been like acting on the show without Sarah Wayne Callies, your on-screen mother, and Jon Bernthal, who was a bit like a second father for Carl?
A: It’s been hard having them gone — both of them — but I learned from them in the time I did have with them. When I signed on I knew that they would eventually get killed off, because I’d read the comics. Every now and then Sarah’s on the set again. It’s been cool to see her. Usually they have the death dinners that are at bars, so I can’t go! I don’t think [I've been to any.]
Q: You told us last year that because of Georgia’s laws you can’t hold a working gun on-set. This season Carl gets to use a weapon more. Has that been a welcome shift?
Continue reading “Q&A – Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes)” »
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March 3, 2013
#TheWalkingDead The Weak Shall Inherit #lonewolf
“You will be torn apart by bullets or teeth.”
Now if you don’t see the huge parallels between Rick and Morgan, then you’re not paying attention. Two fathers, two husbands, two men who should have kept their families safe, both failed or failing.
Morgan is Rick (he’s also the Governor, but more on that in a moment) which means he wears the weight of responsibility for the people around him. I imagine Rick would have been very much the same way had he lost Lori and Carl. He’s halfway to being like Morgan having only lost his wife. And it’s all so important to remember what Morgan said when he saw Rick’s face. You’re wearing a dead man’s face. That’s just another way of saying he’s seeing a ghost. Just like Rick currently is.
I have to amend my predictions a little here. Now that we know the shooter is Morgan, don’t expect they’re partying ways with tonight’s episode to be the last we see of him. Morgan is going to be the person who saves Rick. When he said that Rick would die, that the good guys die and the bad guys die, but weak people like him survive, that’s a bit of foreshadowing. Expect Morgan to play a part in the resolution of this season. With Morgans ability to make traps and his plethora of weapons, Rick’s group is going to be pinned down and just wanted looks like they are on the verge of being overwhelmed, Morgan will arrive.
He will save Rick from death and trade places with him. Morgan will either kill the Governor directly or setup the circumstance which results in his death.
The real question is, who will the Governor take with him?
February 28, 2013
I Got #Class
On June 3, I’ll be at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library teaching anyone who wants to self-publish how to do it on #kindle, #nook, and #smashwords. If you know somebody in the area who might be interested, let them know they are welcome to join. I became interested in doing this because of the publishing scams that charge a fee for doing something that is extremely easy to learn. These companies are profiting (if they’ve even made a dime) off technophobia and I want to give them a step-by-step guide to getting it done on their own.
Hopefully, I can turn this into a series and speak at libraries all across SE Michigan and beyond.
February 25, 2013
Zombie Curb Job #TheWalkingDead
That’s the most significant thing that actually happened. Rick’s group is still sweaty and hungry-looking, the Governor’s folk are clean and (relatively) happy. Oh, who will Andrea choose? Tonight’s episode just ratchets up the tension for what’s coming. I don’t know yet if any of my predictions need to be revised. Merle is kind of in the group, despite being locked away in a cell and Rick has temporarily put away the crazy. I have nothing to say about this journey with Rick, Carl, and Michonne. But this sniper character could add a new wrinkle. Was he with the Woodbury group or gas he had run-ins with them? As anyone could have predicted, Andrea chose relative safety over what she knew was right. Look for her to double-down on that bad decision after the two groups come to blows again.
