Carl Alves's Blog, page 57

Oz: The Great and Powerful

When dealing with an iconic movie like The Wizard of Oz, it’s always a good thing to tread lightly. Stray too far from the framework of the original story, and you are likely to get fans steaming mad. Disney decided to put their toes in the water by making a prequel to the original, which explains the origin of Oz and how he got to the land that bears his name.

The first thing that the fine folks at Disney did right was casting James Franco as Oz. Franco is a highly underrated and talented thespian that really brought life to the character. Mila Kunis, who plays Theodora, also did an excellent job. The story starts off in a comical manner as Oz, who has a bit of a womanizing streak and is a two-bit magician at a carnival, angers the strong man by putting the moves on his woman. To escape he gets on a hot air balloon. Apparently tornadoes are the only method of transportation to the land of Oz, which is where our hero finds himself.

Oz is a very bright and colorful place filled with CGI, flying monkeys and munchkins. Although it didn’t quite have the character as the original, it certainly did have a technological upgrade. Oz first meets with Theodora, the Wicked Witch of the West, who isn’t so wicked early on in the movie. The people of Oz believe he is the one prophesized to raise them out of oppression. They send him off to kill the witch responsible for their problems, who turns out to be Glinda, the good witch. Oz quickly sees that she isn’t bad and is coaxed to lead her people against the two sisters, who later become the Wicked Witch of the East and West. Oz is not a great wizard, but he is pretty good at subterfuge, and uses his illusionary skills to lead the good people of Oz against them.

Although not a great movie, Oz was an enjoyable movie. It didn’t always make sense and won’t make it as a classic, but there was a lot to like about it. The way Oz combats the evil witches was pretty well thought out and executed. The movie has your typical Disney ending where everything turns out good and people live happily ever after. Still, an enjoyable movie worth taking your kids to.

The Lost by Jack Ketchum

In this often times brutal and graphically violent novel set in the 1960s, Ray and two friends were out on a camping trip. While they were there, Ray shot and killed two women he thought to be lesbians at a neighboring campsite just to see what it would be like to kill them. Tim and Jennifer, the two friends, decided not to betray him, and there was not enough evidence for the police to nail Ray. Four years later, Ray is a drug dealer living large while working at his parents’ motel. Ray is basically a worm of a person, a small man who stuffs his cowboy boots to make himself look taller. He’s loathsome in almost every way possible, but yet remains a well-drawn character, not an easy feat to accomplish. The two cops investigating the case won’t let it go, and are determined to pin it on Ray. Much like many other Jack Ketchum novels, the writing is visceral and violent, but he employs the violence more effectively here than he has in other novels. The voice he uses is strong and the action flows at a strong pace. Ketchum’s writing is professional and enjoyable to read. The novel had some flaws but overall a solid piece of horror and suspense.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street

My Fearless Oscar Predictions

If you want to win your Oscar pool, then you'll want to pay close attention to my picks.

best picture: Lincoln - This is an upset pick with all of the sentiment going to Argo

best director: Stephen Spielberg - In what should be a rock solid night for Lincoln, Spielberg is a rock solid pick

best actor: Daniel Day Lewis - This is a stone cold, mortal lock. Bet the farm on it

best actress: Jennifer Lawrence - It could go to Jessica Chastain, but Jennifer Lawrence is my pick

best supporting actor: Tommy Lee Jones - chalk up another Oscar for the greatest president in US history

best supporting actress: Anne Hathaway - see Daniel Day Lewis

best original screenplay: Amour - this is a toss up

best adapted Screenplay: Lincoln - the former president takes another one

best cinematography: Life of Pi - look for Life of Pi to take a lot of the technical categories

best editing: Argo

best score: Life of Pi

best production design: Anna Karenina

best costume design: Anna Karenina

best makeup: The Hobbit - chalk this one of up for the little dudes

best visual effects: Life of Pi - this one should go to The Avengers

best sound editing: Zero Dark Thirty - this one's a toss up

best sound mixing: Les Miserables

best original song: Skyfall

best documentary: Searching for Sugar Man - lock this one up

best foreign film: Amour - this has no chance of losing

best animated: Wreck It Ralph - this is a four way toss up with Paranorman, Frankenweenie, and Brave. Any one of them could win

best short documentary: Open Heart

best animated short: Paperman

best live action short: Curfew

Death Mask by Graham Masterton

In Death Mask, the main protagonist Molly Sawyer, has a special artisitic talent. She helps the police in drawing sketches for them. Her mother-in-law Sissy has psychic talents and reads tarot cards. The story really kicks into high gear when a mysterious double murder occurs in the elevator of a building in Cincinatti. The killer wears a red mask, which Molly depicts in her artist sketch. When the brutal killings show no sign of letting up, Molly and her mother-in-law come to the conclusion that her art work is coming to life. All of a sudden, there is more than one killer for the police to deal with.
Death Mask gives the reader just about everything they could ask for in a horror novel. For starters, the writing is superb, which is precisely what I would expect from Graham Masterton. The man is simply a master craftsman. The buildup in tension and horror is flawlessly executed. The premise of the story is unique and intriguing. The tension builds to a crescendo. The characters come to life. Despite the horror that Molly feels for springing a killer to life, she and Sissy don’t back down in the face of danger. Although this isn’t Masterton’s best work, it’s not far off the mark. The book is terrific fun. If you’re a horror fan, this novel is a must read.

Blood Oath: The President's Vampire by Christopher Farnsworth

When I heard of the concept for this novel, I was immediately intrigued. A vampire who has given an oath to protect the president of the United States – cool idea. When a vampire protecting the president is the most believable aspect of this story, you have a hot mess on your hands. Where do I start? First off, the characters are awful and one-dimensional. Our vampire, Nathaniel Cade, has all of the personality of a dried apricot. There is so much a writer can do with vampires and Farnsworth chose to do as little as possible. His liaison, Zach, is an annoying weasel who would have benefited the novel if he had been killed off in the first few chapters. Konrad, the German scientist who serves as the book’s antagonist, is so poorly drawn he makes the other characters seem lively and three-dimensional.

There is no realism in any aspect of this novel – keeping in mind that I’m fully on board with the concept of a vampire serving the president of the United States. Everything else about the novel is completely ridiculous including the Frankenstein-like monsters that are unleashed upon the president. The writing is amateurish at best. I would like to find a redeemable aspect of this novel, but I can’t. Avoid it at all costs.

Movie Review: Warm Bodies

Who says zombies can feel love? Although I wouldn’t call Warm Bodies a comedy, it’s more of a light-hearted zombie movie. There is a good bit of gore along with a lot of action scenes, but they still manage to keep it light. In Warm Bodies, R is a zombie who’s a bit different from the rest. Yeah, he’s still hungry for human flesh, especially human brains, which allows him to relive the memories of the person he just ate, but he doesn’t want to do it. R wants to be like a real person. When a group of young people who live behind the wall led by Julie, played by Teresa Palmer go into the zombie zone for medical supplies, they are attacked by zombies, and R kills her boyfriend, thereby taking in all of his memories. When R saves her repeatedly from zombie attacks, it begins the start of their relationship.

There’s nothing too heavy or in depth about this movie. It’s light hearted and entertaining. It reminds me in certain ways of S.G. Browne’s Breathers, which is the best zombie novel I have ever read. Granted, the beginning of the movie is a bit cheesy, there are a couple of big plot holes, and the ending was a little hokie and sentimental, but in between all of that there’s a lot of fun and entertainment value. As R and Julie continue to develop their relationship, he becomes more human. The other zombies see this and begin to become more human as well. Of course, the movie would be too easy if there weren’t opposing forces. There are these skeletal beings that are like zombies on steroids – hyper fast and strong. Also, there are the narrow-minded humans led by Julie’s father, who think the only good zombie is a dead one. But will love prevail? If you’ve seen enough of these types of movies, I’m sure you can answer that question.

What an Aspiring Writer Should Look For in a Publisher

In today’s publishing environment, there are more ways than ever for a writer to get published. These different options have advantages and disadvantages. There are the highly coveted big publishing houses. The big houses have the advantage of having larger support staffs and better distribution channels. On the downside, you may wind up being a small fish in a large pond, and therefore get no attention.

These days, there are many medium and small presses as well as micro-presses. The advantage to these presses as opposed to self-publishing is professional editing of your novel as well as having a more professional presentation. However the aspiring writer must beware. I’ve heard more than my share of horror stories of small presses who give the writer no support at all and act in an unprofessional manner.

Self-publishing has never been easier especially in light of the digital revolution the publishing industry is going through. Self-publishing gives the writer complete control of their book, and also the ability to keep the bulk of profit from sales. However, I would highly discourage a newbie writer from going this route. For one thing there is a flood of self-published books from no name writers, and the chances of success are slim. Don’t get me wrong, there are writers out there who are having great success self-publishing eBooks. J.A. Konrath, Scott Nicholson and Joseph Nassise come to mind. But these writers usually have a history of books that have been published by traditional publishers and have already developed a following. Most self-published novels are unprofessional, unedited garbage that don’t deserve to be published. This reflects poorly to writers in general, and these books should never see the light of day.

So, what should a writer look for in a publisher? One thing is professional editing. This will immediately set your novel above the unprofessional self-published novels that are being released. Another is a great looking design and presentation of both print and digital books. A good publisher will partner with the writer in terms of promotion and publicity, areas that many writers struggle with. Having contacts for reviews and interviews and the like can prove valuable to the emerging writer. A publisher should be professional in every manner, meeting deadlines and running their press like a business. Finally a good publisher will have established strong distribution channels. There are many choices available to writers, so choose wisely.

10 Questions with JG Faherty

Where did you come up with the concept for The Burning Time?

cthulhu

**Actually, I got it from a song. For a long time, I'd wanted to do a story or novel that was a throwback to the old classics by Karl Edward Wagner and Manly Wade Wellman, a story about a simple country man who spends his days battling Evil. An homage to the stories I loved as a kid. But with a modern take. At the same time, though, I was kind of tired of supernatural detective stories. So I shelved the idea. And then one day I was listening to John Fogerty's "The Old Man Down the Road" and this story idea hit me – an old man coming down the road, bringing evil and mayhem to a town. The line "He makes the river call your lover," which I'd heard a million times over the years, suddenly sounded so creepy to me – what was in that river? And then I knew. In my story, there'd be a Cthulhulian demon, its tentacles waiting to grab innocent women. And from there the whole thing just took off.

2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?

**I guess a lot of classic writers. Wellman and Wagner, for sure. Bradbury. King. Allan Dean Foster, David Gerrold, Roger Zelazny, because of their humor. For modern writers, Brian Keene, Michael McBride, Jack Ketchum, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson. I think the one thing they all have in common is a more down home, friendly style that moves quickly but at the same time isn't simplistic. It's just not bogged down with pedantic content; they're not trying to impress anyone with their knowledge of the language or their vocabulary. It all flows smoothly.



3. Since your first novel, Carnival of Fear, how have you as a writer and your writing changed?

I've gotten slower and lost my attention span. That's no joke! Carnival of Fear was written in a frenzy, with the entire book, nearly word for word, sitting in my head. I wrote the whole thing long hand during lunch breaks from work and in the evenings I would type what I'd written that day. But I've never had a novel come complete to me like that again, so I've had to learn how to write slowly, map things out, outline, develop my plot twists and subplots. The nice thing about that is after the novel is done, I need only a couple of editing rewrites before it's ready to submit (Carnival of Fear was edited by me and others 6 times). The bad thing is it takes some of the jazz out of the writing, makes it more like work, and sometimes I get bored with a story or lose sight of where I'm going, and then I wander off to another project. That happened with The Burning Time. I was a little more than halfway through and I couldn't figure out how to get the main character to the final act. I struggled for days, and then finally went on to something else. It was a year later when I came back to it and sparked the idea by re-reading it from the beginning like it was new. Right now I have at least 5 novels in various states of completion for the same reason.



4.Who is your favorite writer?

**I don't know if I can answer that. I have so many writers I love reading, both old and new. How do I judge who's my favorite? How many times I've re-read their books? That would be King; he never gets old. Who I would still pay to read rather than wait for a freebie or a cheap e-book? Lots of people on that list. In some ways, the comparison isn't fair – King and Straub and McCammon and Koontz and Wilson have written dozens of books; newer writers haven't had the chance to catch up or perhaps even hit their stride yet. People like Benjamin Kane Ethridge or Shaun Jeffrey. Writers from the 80s and 90s who really aren't putting out a lot of new stuff today: PN Elrod, Scott Ciencin, Tracy Briery. Some writers who dabbled in horror, creating some good stuff, and then moved away from it, like Fred Saberhagen, or people who had a nice run of a series, such as Laurell Hamilton or Lee Killough.



5. What current writing projects are you working on?

**Woof! I've got a couple of novels I'm bouncing between, one is a dark adult horror and the other is a YA urban fantasy. I'm also doing my best to pitch three novels – two adult horror and one YA sci-fi – to publishers.



6. Is there an overall theme to your writing?

**No, I don't think so. I've done a lot of horror, some sci-fi and fantasy, some YA novels and short stories. I've bounced around between classic suspense-style and in-your-face graphic blood and guts. I've done traditional tropes and some stuff that's really out there. Supernatural and psychological. It's just whatever comes to me, I guess.



7. What made you start writing?

**I've always had a love of writing and desire to do it. In middle school, I wrote goofy short stories and risque, gross comics that I shared with classmates and family. In college, I tried my hand at writing a novel but it was the wrong time – I was 3 chapters into a story about a creature emerging from a lake and I realized I was doing a poor imitation of Stephen King. After that, I never did any fiction writing again for many years – until I was 39. Then I picked up a side job writing elementary school test preparation guides for The Princeton Review. Part of the assignment was creating fictional reading passages. I realized it was fun and not that hard, and then I tried my hand at writing a real horror short story. It came thisclose (last story rejected) for an anthology with a Van Helsing theme and the editor, Jeanne Cavelos, told me I should keep trying my hand at it because I had some talent. After that, I couldn't stop! It was two more years, though, before I made my first pro sale.



8. How do you use social media to promote your writing?

**In all the usual ways. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads, LibraryThing, AboutMe, guest blogging, etc. The only thing I don't have is my own blog. I simply don't have time to do 4-5 entries per week.



9. Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?

**Thematically, no. Fiction is fiction – if something is germane to the story, it shouldn't be taboo, whether it's a maniac who rapes and eats small children or a character who is racist or homophobic. But it needs to be germane to the story; shocking people just for the sake of shocking them is a cop out. It's weak writing. It means you don't have a good story or the ability to tell a good story. Now, this doesn't mean that I think you should write a story praising gay-bashing or pedophilia or the KKK. But that stuff does exist in our world, and things even more terrible, so if you want your protagonist chasing a serial killer who gets off on eating peoples' genitals, well, then go for it. It might not be right for me, it might not be something I would write or read, but that shouldn't mean it can't be written. Just don't expect me to praise your book if all it contains is 300 pages of intestines getting pulled out or babies being raped. Free speech doesn't necessarily equal good writing.



10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?

leonardo da vinci

**The ladies from the last Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue – not only would they not eat very much (cheap dinner party!!), but they'd be very easy on the eyes.

Seriously, let's think about that. Carl Kauffeld – he wrote a bunch of books about herpetology, which I studied in grad school, and he was the man who first got me interested in science, which is what I devoted my life to until I started my own business writing resumes in 1999. Stephen King – he's the only one of my writing heroes who is still alive that I haven't had a chance to meet yet. Leonardo DaVinci – I would love to pick his brain and find out how he came up with all those inventions, and finally get the answer to whether or not he was visited by aliens. Thor Heyerdahl – his tales of adventures would be fascinating. And Howard Stern – he's been entertaining me every morning since the 1980s, and we actually have a lot in common when it comes to interests in photography and movies. Plus, if the other guys get boring, we could make fun of them.

On second thought, those bikini babes are starting to seem like a better choice.

The Burning Time by J.G. Faherty

The Burning Time is a supernatural thriller set in a small town in New York. In an otherwise normal, ho-hum kind of town a preacher of sorts comes to town, and when he does all hell breaks loose. People start to die in horrific fashion. Otherwise normal folk lose their mind. The town is on the verge of complete chaos until a travelling mage comes to counteract the stranger. He and his ancestors have battled the stranger before. After befriending a woman and her younger brother, he must do everything in his power to prevent the stranger from creating a passageway to the Elder Gods and letting all hell loose on Earth.

The Burning Time combines strong elements of suspense and terror. Author JG Faherty uses a slow build, not making it clear what the characters intentions are. The story builds tension and makes the reader crave for more. What mostly impressed me is the progression and maturity that Faherty has made as a writer. The Burning Time shows a real mastery of the craft of writing with three dimensional characters that resonate. It reminds me in many ways of Stephen King’s Needful Things, one of the horror master’s greatest works. Although there are a few logic holes to get past in the plot, the story-telling is of high quality. This is a book that any reader will truly enjoy – a must read.

Movie Review: The Hobbit

I had very high expectations for The Hobbit because of the amazing job that Peter Jackson did with The Lord of the Ring trilogy, resulting in about eight million Oscars (a slight exaggeration). On the other hand, I read The Hobbit years back and I hated it. I’m not a fan of Tolkien, but I most certainly a fan of Peter Jackson. With these two opposing forces of good and evil at work, which one would prevail?

By and large, The Hobbit is a good movie. The first half of the movie moves rather slowly and made me wonder why they decided to make this a trilogy. Eventually the pace of the movie picks up as Bilbo Baggins and his band of dwarves plus the wizard Gandalf, brilliantly played by Ian McKellan, go on a journey where they have to face trolls, ogres, wolves, and goblins, a smorgasborg of mythical creatures. Gollum also makes his appearance in the fateful scene where the ring lands in Bilbo’s hands.

The source material is not as strong as that of the Lord of the Rings, so this trilogy of movies is never going to equal that one. Despite that, Peter Jackson does an amazing job of creating a compelling and believable fantasy world including the creatures that occupy this world. Although not to Lord of the Rings standards, The Hobbit is nonetheless a movie worth watching.