A. Lee Martinez's Blog, page 74

A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!! 2010

A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!! is rapidly approaching.  Are you as excited as I am?

Where does the time go?  Has it really been a year since Jan 12th, when all the people in all the world gather together, watch monster movies, play board games, and push great A. Lee Martinez novels on friends, family, and strangers?  You betcha!  And that means that once again, the second most wonderful time of the year is upon us.

(The most wonderful time of the year is, of course, Activation Day.  That...

Opinions Vary

Been a while.  You know how the holidays are.  Plus, I have my newest manuscript to work on, but blogging is part of my job.  And I know how you rely on me to fill your lives with joy and / or wisdom.  So here I am.

Recently, I read a pair of articles.  The first article was about how the writer didn't like Doctor Who.  The second article suggested that people who don't like Doctor Who should just not watch it and stop complaining about it.

But complaining is an important thing.  Complaining...

Yet Another Long Ghost Hunting Inspired Post

Wow.  I sat down just to write a short blog entry and ended up going crazy.  In brief, this started out as a post about ghost hunting and self-deception and then somewhere along the way got out of control.  But I wrote it, and I think it's interesting, and along being an award-winning, internationally renowned novelologist & board game afficianado, I'm a big skeptic, which is somewhat odd for a human being in general and a fantasy novelist in particular.

Bottom Line:  I wasted way too much...

Watch Out for Ewoks!

So Avatar came out in theaters.  Haven't seen it yet.  I've been put off by the length and the pretentious ads for it.  "Filmmaking will never be the same!"  Yeah, right.  I don't really understand how Avatar is groundbreaking.  Both animated films and cutting edge video games have demonstrated the power of computer animation to create elaborate, beautiful fantastic worlds.  Maybe 10 years ago, Avatar would've been spectacular, but now it's just par for the course.

As for the story, jeepers...

Goin' Hollywood

As you may or may not know, Gil's All Fright Diner was optioned by Dreamworks Animation for a possible movie adaptation, and now the creative story team behind Kung Fu Panda has been given the go ahead to do their thing.  This is fantastic news.

I'm really jazzed about this, gang.  While I think Dreamworks Animation has always been tops in the quality of their animation, it was really with Kung Fu Panda that I think they hit their stride.  I absolutely loved Kung Fu Panda, every bit as much...

Random Blog Entry

"If you see a book of matches move on its own then you're either drunk or it must be a ghost."  This is the kind of "logic" the frat boys of Ghost Adventures employ.  Is it any wonder I make fun of these ghost hunting reality shows?

Bought a new board game.  Twilight Imperium by Fantasy Flight Games.  It's a big galactic conquest board game.  How big?  I recently bought two six foot long folding tables and side-by-side, they have barely enough room for the whole setup.

I'm having some friends o...

Steal This Blog

Piracy!

Yaaar!  Tis a word that brings terror to the hearts of men.  I'm not talking about the piracy found on the high seas.  I'm referring to that dreaded scourge of electronic media!  That's right!  The horrid ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS!

I have a hard time taking this quite as seriously as most other artists.  It's true that with the invention of electronic media, file sharing, and the internet, piracy is easier than it's ever been.  There's no doubt that there are many a wicked soul out there who...

Self-Publishing

It's almost Friday and in keeping with my new Tuesday / Friday blog update schedule, I'm here to throw a little wisdom your way, kids, because I am nothing if not informative.

The hullaballoo about the new Harlequin Horizons self-publishing imprint gave me an excuse to post some thoughts on self-publishing in general.  You read right, gang.  This isn't a blog about Godzilla, board games, or the coolness of robots and cartoons.  Although I'm not promising that one or more of those topics might ...

Letter of Marque, Warhammer: Invasion (game reviews)

Hi.  Haven't been posting much lately.  Been kind of busy, but I've decided that the best thing to do is to create a schedule.  So let's make it Tuesdays and Fridays that I will add something to this site.  Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Tonight, I'd like to write a couple of game reviews.  I don't know this for certain, but I sometimes think I am among board and card games strongest celebrity afficianados.  Maybe not, but we'll just pretend like I am.

The first game I want to...

Time for a Time Out for Bigfoot

Jeepers, those wacky ghost hunters are at it again.  Why do I keep watching these shows?  I don't really know.  I don't watch them as much as I used to.  One can only watch people walking around in the dark for so long before a pattern emerges.  If shadow people, garbled recordings, and cold spots are enough to convince you the dead are haunting the land of the living, I guess that's your prerogative, but all I see is people who are easily fooled by their own imaginations.

The newest addition ...