A. Lee Martinez's Blog, page 68

Danny Trejo, Thru the Looking Glass.

I know I haven't been blogging much lately because…well, who the hell knows why?  Sometimes, these things just pour out like a flood, and sometimes, I don't really feel like I have much of interest to say.  This is unfathomable to you, my loyal fans.  (Or A.Leeans as I like to call you and hope you will start calling yourselves because what good is a writer if he doesn't have a cult-like nickname for his fans?)

What can I say that I haven't said before?  What opinion can I offer that I...

Insert Clever Blog Title Here

Someone on Twitter recently remarked, "You have blogged in awhile, which is lame."

Well, far be it from me to allow lameness to gain a foothold in the universe, but I've been busy.  Doin' stuff and junk.  It's a hectic life, the adventures of a world-renowned novelologist, and really, sometimes I forget how wonderful it is to hear from me, how I enrich the lives of the little people, and how, just by being me, I spread sunshine and rainbows like leprechauns spread marshmallow cereal.

All...

The Gary Daniels Digression

Watched The Expendables.  Decent flick.  Not great, but not without its charms.  But it's guilty of one very big sin.  It's a sin that we can no longer ignore.

Why the hell does every action movie need to shake the camera like it's being filmed on the back of an old pickup truck being driven over a rocky dirt road?  And all the damn jump cuts.  Makes the action a chore to follow.  Call me crazy, but good direction doesn't put an obstacle between the audience and the medium.  It'd be like if I ...

The Scott Pilgrim Digression

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is an amazing movie.  A truly unique and fantastic film that should be seen by everyone.  Any movie where our hero headbutts someone so hard that they burst into coins is the definition of awesome.  But Scott Pilgrim is more than just clever sight gags and beautifully executed video game references.  It builds sympathetic and interesting characters, warts and all, and manages to make you care about them.  This movie is great, and it's just a shame that nostalgia...

Pretty on the Inside

Death's Excellent Vacation is debuting on the New York Times Bestseller List at #8 for Hardcover Fiction.  That's just awesome, and once again, I have to thank all the people involved in this anthology who thought of including me.  It's a great opportunity, and I just hope they know how much I appreciate it.

So what makes a likable character?  What makes an interesting character?  I've been thinking about this a lot lately because, more and more, I keep coming across reviews on my work that...

A Peacock Ready to Fly

The problem with government, especially government by the people, is that people tend to be jerks.  Not intentionally.  They just don't take the time to grasp that just because something isn't important to you that it might not be important to a lot of other people.  It's the limits of our own experience, the inability to see beyond our own doorstep, to villainize and trivialize those who dare to think differently than us, that is the real failing of American democracy.

Enough of that.  Let's ...

Incursion, Those Pesky Humans: A Couple of Game Reviews

It's been a while since I've reviewed any board games because it's been a while since I've bought any new board games.  When you own as many games as I do, there comes a point where something has to really jump out at you.  If it doesn't grab my attention, intrigue me, and, hopefully, fill a spot on my gaming shelf to make it worth my while, it probably is going to have a hard time getting me to buy it.

But, like any addiction, I can't always stop myself, even though I really could probably...

The Future Will Not Be Categorized

I really don't know what kind of writer I would like to be.  I honestly don't think about it too often.

If you read reviews online (and, really, there's no reason you should), I'm usually classified as a funny writer, a humor writer, wacky, zany, kooky.  It used to bother me, but I'm getting over that.  Still, the thing that comes up a lot is that I am not a terribly poetic writer.

I don't know how to respond to that.  I'm certainly not the kind of writer to pour over ever sentence and milk it ...

The Burden of the Smart Protagonist

I hate it that intelligence is usually portrated as a character flaw.  It just bugs the ever-livin' hell ouf of me.  For a country that prides itself on achievement and exceptionalism, the U.S. of A. sure seems to dislike smart people.  We bow down to athletes and actors like living gods, but smart people, they just make us uncomfortable.

The anti-intellectual thread runs all through American culture.  For example, Mr. Fantastic, the smartest guy in the Marvel Comics universe is usually...

Haven and the State of Urban Fantasy

Watched my third and final episode of Haven tonight.  There's nothing terribly wrong with the show, but there's nothing much right with it either.  It just seems like something I've seen before, and while it's not a bad show, I can't really get into it.

The story is about a town where special people live.  (Sanctuary meets Eureka).  The people aren't bad, but there was a time of "troubles" when the special people were persecuted for their specialness.  (X-Men).  And a pair of investigtors do t...