Kevin A. Ranson's Blog, page 17
October 18, 2012
NaNoWriMo 2012: The Matriarch
All righty, then, I’m all signed up for National Novel Writing Month this year.
Are you writing a book? Need a kick in the pants? Join us! Help yourself and all the rest of us by lighting a fire under under your fellow novelists and yourself. It’s a minimum of 50,000 words in one month’s time, just to crack the first draft out. Don’t edit; that’s for December.
Filed under: Creativity, Existentialism, Literarian Tagged: nanowrimo, the matriarch
September 17, 2012
Hopeful Not Mournful
Found out a cool young lady I started my training class at my current job with died this past weekend in a car wreck. She was young, full of life, and always happy to see everyone… and now she’s gone. Damn. Kinda depressed about it.
Some people know I dress up as the Grim Reaper for conventions, videos, and other stuff. I’ve always portrayed the Angel of Death as a being resolved to his fate and taking pride in his work. He isn’t evil, just the embodiment of a fear all mortals have of a natural, normal process. Like myself, he celebrates life in spite of it coming to an end, and I prefer to think of that as hopeful rather than mournful.
My friend, to me, was the kind of person everyone talks about being but rarely ever is, genuinely happy to see you and genuinely interested in your well being, happy for no reason and every reason. I’m keeping that as a way to remember her for when she was here, not only for myself but for anyone I happen upon; it’s the least I can do.
Goodbye, April.
Filed under: Acquaintances, Existentialism Tagged: death, depressed, grim, hopeful, reaper
August 26, 2012
The Reaper Rants Return!
Back a few years ago, I changed over the “horror host” for my movie review website, MovieCrypt.com, from the static “Crystal Lich” (a disembodied crystal skull with an attitude) to “Grim D. Reaper” (a gleeful Angel of Death that reviews movies when he’s not reaping souls). The response was wonderful, and even outside of his film critique venue, Grim’s popularity is obvious.
One of the big changes from the Lich to the Reaper was for making videos. These started out on the simplest of tools, Windows Movie Maker. I shot film, taught myself editing, learned how to improve the sound, and so forth. One thing that never made me happy was the limited space I had to create an actual lair for the character, something I’ve now fully realized at my home in Texas.
At-home tools for both capturing sound/video and editing it on a home computer have improved drastically, so I have put my new “Reaper Rants” video series into production and set up a YouTube channel for it. The micro-set was designed and lighted (thanks to my theater experience) to make it very easy to quickly shoot the baseline footage I need, and my custom-built editing suite (fortified with Sony Vegas editing software tools) enables me to assemble and polish videos on a whim.
Check out my YouTube channel and subscribe or follow MovieCrypt.com to catch all of the Reaper’s latest videos. With Halloween coming up very soon, who knows what mischief the Angel of Death is going to get into.
Filed under: Cosplaying, Creativity, Hollywood Tagged: angel, death, grim, horror host, moviecrypt, reaper
August 6, 2012
July 9, 2012
Come Out to the 2012 Ancient City Con, July 20-22!
Ancient City Con in Jacksonville, Florida is three days long this year, and I’m a guest! I’ll be on and/or running a few panels, have lots of Spooky Chronicles books for sale (and how you can get some for free), and Grim D. Reaper of MovieCrypt.com will be making a few appearances throughout the weekend (don’t mention his face lift, though; he’s kind of sensitive about getting work done). Come say hello and get your picture taken with Death…!
Filed under: Cosplaying, Existentialism, Literarian, Roleplaying Tagged: boy, horror, mystery, Paranormal, spooky, undead, zombie
May 27, 2012
The Spooky Chronicles: Year One
It was one year ago I launched The Spooky Chronicles with the The Crooked Man. I have released three more books since then, making it a real series. The next book, Greene Square Middle, has been the most difficult book I’ve had to write thus far but is coming together nicely.
To celebrate, I’m going to have a bit of a Memorial Day sale through Monday: through Smashwords, all three main books will be just 99 cents each while “book zero” will continue to be free (but maybe not for much longer). Be sure to use the correct coupon code (not case sensitive) on checkout to get your discount! Tell your friends!
The Crooked Man – Use $0.99 coupon code NA59M
The Terminal People – Use $0.99 coupon code UW75Y
Schoolhouse Number Five – Use $0.99 coupon code RD38H
Forget Me Nots – Still free (for now)
Filed under: Creativity, Literarian Tagged: chronicles, ebook, memorial day, sale, spooky
May 10, 2012
Just About the Scythe of It
Con season is upon us, and Grim D. Reaper is getting ready to make his rounds. I’ve been working on a few cosmetic upgrades this year, mostly in terms of paint and improvements to allow the costume to be worn better for longer periods of time. People ask to have their picture taken with Grim D. all the time, and I’d like those close-up shots to look as good as they can.
Believe it or not, there are hundreds of decisions that have gone into my Reaper cosplay outfit, from little things (did you know there are white Velcro strips on the top of the skull mask that pair up to black Velcro inside the hood so that the cowl moves with my head turns and keeps it in the right position without risk of falling off?) to big things (a fully collapsible scythe so that it slips easily into a gym bag). The scythe in particular has been an ongoing project to improve its look.
I wanted a more realistic look for the blade (since that’s where people’s eyes are drawn to when looking at the Reaper’s signature “farm tool of choice”) and initially painted it a metallic silver. It didn’t have the effect I wanted; it looked like poorly painted wood. I also wanted to reinforce the tang and ring assemble (the part that holds the blade onto the snath/staff) because the blade would bob a bit (making it look very fake), and I came up with a simple, light-weight way to do that. Over all, it looks very heavy (it isn’t) and very rigid. There is no actual blade edge, but you can’t tell from looking at it straight on; the illusion is complete.
The added bonus was filling the holes that I had to drill (to mount the assembly onto the blade) with bolts that reinforced the hold onto the snath but also made the entire blade look more realistic. Finally, I gave the entire rebuilt blade a few coats of coppery fleck paint to give it an oxidized look, and the finished product (mounted on the collapsible snath) is the product you see here. I think it turned out pretty good!
Filed under: Cosplaying, Creativity, Paranormal Tagged: cosplay, costume, grim, reaper, scythe
April 26, 2012
The Baltimore Poe House Plight (tell your friends!)
I recently had the opportunity to listen to author Orson Scott Card at the 2012 Teen Book Con in Houston, Texas. While the audience streamed into the auditorium before the keynote speech, Mr. Card intimated to the young adult crowd that Nathaniel Hawthorne was quite terrible as a American novelist (regardless of what teachers were teaching them). He further explained that the reason was due to a shortage of great writers in early America, and Americans put Hawthorne on a pedestal because they didn’t have anyone better.
Americans do, however, have Edgar Allan Poe.
According to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, Edgar was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19th, 1809, the son of two actors. He was briefly left in Baltimore, Maryland with his grandparents, then later taken in by John Allan following the untimely death of Poe’s mother and father in 1811 (this is the origin of Poe’s middle name ‘Allan’). After a childhood traveling to Scotland and London, England, it was 1820 when Edgar returned to America and was enrolled into the Richmond, Virginia school system. Young Edgar was discouraged from publishing his first book of poems while in school, although Poe was described as “a born poet” with “no love of mathematics.”
In 1831, Edgar was dismissed from West Point (for failing to follow orders and being genuinely disenchanted about receiving them) and eventually returned to Baltimore, moving in with his aunt in the Spring of 1833. By this time, Edgar had published three books of poems and numerous others in local periodicals but had received very little money in return. Poe was living poorly when he wrote what is generally accepted as his first tale of horror, an award-winning short story called “Berenice.”
Poe lived and wrote in other places (Philadelphia, for example), but it was in Baltimore that his known career began to emerge and, sadly, where he later died at the age of forty “after he was found in a tavern delirious and in distress, two years after the death of his young wife, Virginia, from tuberculosis.” (NY Times) The Baltimore Poe House was nearly destroyed seventy years ago when homes in the old neighborhood were being renovated, but it has since been declared a national landmark. While it is in no danger of being torn down, it may no longer remain open to the public since the Baltimore housing authority pulled their $85,000 annual operating budget; reserve funds may run out as early as this summer.
Why bring light to this now? The Raven, a film starring John Cusack as Poe himself, opens this weekend (and will likely be completely forgotten about by the time The Avengers comes out the following weekend). Could there be a more perfect time or event to call attention to the creator of the detective fiction genre, American gothic literature, and the namesake for the Edgar Allen Poe Awards of the Mystery Writers of America? I don’t think so.
What can you do about it? Glad you asked:
Make a donation to the Poe Bicentennial (The Baltimore Poe House Museum) Website
Sign the petition to ask the Mayor of Baltimore to keep the Poe House & Museum open and restore funding!
Read the Baltimore Sun article “Poe’s legacy in Baltimore at risk”
Read the NY Times Article About the Baltimore Poe House Closing
Any other ideas? Let’s hear ‘em!
Filed under: Creativity, Hollywood, Literarian Tagged: Edgar Allan Poe, John Cusack, Poe House and Museum, The Raven
The Baltimore Poe House Plight (Hawthorne bad, Poe good, tell your friends!)
I recently had the opportunity to listen to author Orson Scott Card at the 2012 Teen Book Con in Houston, Texas. While the audience streamed into the auditorium before the keynote speech, Mr. Card intimated to the young adult crowd that Nathaniel Hawthorne was quite terrible as a American novelist (regardless of what teachers were teaching them). He further explained that the reason was due to a shortage of great writers in early America, and Americans put Hawthorne on a pedestal because they didn’t have anyone better.
Americans do, however, have Edgar Allan Poe.
According to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, Edgar was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19th, 1809, the son of two actors. He was briefly left in Baltimore, Maryland with his grandparents, then later taken in by John Allan following the untimely death of Poe’s mother and father in 1811 (this is the origin of Poe’s middle name ‘Allan’). After a childhood traveling to Scotland and London, England, it was 1820 when Edgar returned to America and was enrolled into the Richmond, Virginia school system. Young Edgar was discouraged from publishing his first book of poems while in school, although Poe was described as “a born poet” with “no love of mathematics.”
In 1831, Edgar was dismissed from West Point (for failing to follow orders and being genuinely disenchanted about receiving them) and eventually returned to Baltimore, moving in with his aunt in the Spring of 1833. By this time, Edgar had published three books of poems and numerous others in local periodicals but had received very little money in return. Poe was living poorly when he wrote what is generally accepted as his first tale of horror, an award-winning short story called “Berenice.”
Poe lived and wrote in other places (Philadelphia, for example), but it was in Baltimore that his known career began to emerge and, sadly, where he later died at the age of forty “after he was found in a tavern delirious and in distress, two years after the death of his young wife, Virginia, from tuberculosis.” (NY Times) The Baltimore Poe House was nearly destroyed seventy years ago when homes in the old neighborhood were being renovated, but it has since been declared a national landmark. While it is in no danger of being torn down, it may no longer remain open to the public since the Baltimore housing authority pulled their $85,000 annual operating budget; reserve funds may run out as early as this summer.
Why bring light to this now? The Raven, a film starring John Cusack as Poe himself, opens this weekend (and will likely be completely forgotten about by the time The Avengers comes out the following weekend). Could there be a more perfect time or event to call attention to the creator of the detective fiction genre, American gothic literature, and the namesake for the Edgar Allen Poe Awards of the Mystery Writers of America? I don’t think so.
What can you do about it? Glad you asked:
Make a donation to the Poe Bicentennial (The Baltimore Poe House Museum) Website
Sign the petition to ask the Mayor of Baltimore to keep the Poe House & Museum open and restore funding!
Read the Baltimore Sun article “Poe’s legacy in Baltimore at risk”
Read the NY Times Article About the Baltimore Poe House Closing
Any other ideas? Let’s hear ‘em!
Filed under: Creativity, Hollywood, Literarian Tagged: Edgar Allan Poe, John Cusack, Poe House and Museum, The Raven
Couldn’t Be Much Busier or Much Happier Right Now
A little over a year ago, I pulled up stakes from my Jacksonville, Florida residence and made my new home in Houston, Texas. I arrived on April Fool’s Day 2011, which seemed appropriate since I resigned my previous job on the hope (and sheer will) that I could find another one that was as close to or better than the one I had in Jax. I was setting out on a new adventure into a new land, but I was also scared to death taking so many chances at once.
Within two months, I had that new job (whew!) and I’ll have been at that job for an entire year right around May 25th. That was the same day that, after spending half a day either looking for work, filling out applications, or interviewing, I was spending the other half putting in place the elements to officially launch my writing career. Sure, I’ve been writing critiques for almost fifteen years now, but most of that was honing my written “voice” while learning to break down plots and characters that would fuel my own stories. “The Spooky Chronicles: The Crooked Man” went live on Smashwords that day.
Of course, the real reason for all the life changes was to move in with my girlfriend (who became my fiancée on Christmas Eve of 2011). That’s three fairly significant life changes all for one year’s time, and each one has been hard work but wonderful nonetheless. This year, I launched my third and fourth Spooky Chronicles book, am revamping my MovieCrypt.com movie review website to take it up another notch, started bicycling again, worked my way up into a better paying position at my day job (right back up to about the same as the old job I left), and have been co-planning a wedding. We even found the perfect hotel for our honeymoon already.
Sigh. I don’t think I could be much busier or much happier right now.
Okay, back to work…!
Filed under: Creativity, Existentialism, Literarian Tagged: busier, happier, moviecrypt, Spooky Chronicles
