R.A. McCandless's Blog, page 57

Hell is Coming

And you thought Del was angry before!Angels should be a human’s worst nightmare embodied.

Del didn’t think there was anything worse than angels, or their fallen kin, demons.  She and her partner Marrin Del, helped to keep the world safe from the horrors of escaped demons for generations.  But when her adopted daughter is kidnapped by a shadowy group, Del will find that the world is even more dangerous than she suspected.

There are worse things than angels and demons.
Hell Becomes Her....

Customer Disservice

We're not satisfied until you're not satisfied.Really Kaiser? Really!?

I accidentally selected a refill that I didn’t need, and yet cancelling it required three separate phone calls, eight transfers, all of which necessitated me repeating my personal information and need eight times, and then I was told nothing could be done because I hadn’t selected a pharmacy WHEN IT’S AN ONLINE PHARMACY.
WHY DO YOU EVEN LIST A HELP NUMBER IF NO ONE CAN HELP?
Scotch. Double. Neat.

It’s five o’clock somewhere!

Castles and Keeps and Fortresses and Bastions, Oh My!

That's no moon—it's a fortress!A competent commander knows that all-out battle is a two-edged sword—the thrill of victory and thebrutal sting of defeat are right there for the taking.  A good, or even just a mediocre general won’t engage unless there’s a compelling reason.  That is, no one fights a battle “just because”.  It’s nice for writers to have armies show up on a field and then throw down in a spectacular blood-fest of winner-take-all, but there still needs to be a reas...

Fascism in America?

You know who else liked dogs? Hitler!A few days ago, I was having a discussion with some friends and did some brushing up on Fascism.  No, seriously.

For the past few days, I’ve been haunted by this definition by Robert Paxton in his book The Anatomy of Fascism :
[A] form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist milita...

Are You Religious? Girl, I Am Tonight!

Were you expecting someone with a smaller chest?Love it or hate it, religion is a part of life and has been ever since Gorg got scared of lightening anddecided to make a deal with Grik-Grik the God of Bright Lights that Might Kill Me.  It doesn’t matter if Gorg made up Grik-Grik, or if Grik-Grik hisownself came down in a shower of fire and hail of rocks surrounded by a company of armored, busty, spearwomen.

The point is, religion was born!
Writers have the chance to right that wrong, or to...

Circling the Sun - Review

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain is a wonderfully paced story about the a woman’s complex journey of self-discovery during the middle days of Kenyan colonization.  When five year old Beryl’s mother leaves her and her father in Kenya to return to England, Beryl finds herself running wild in the African wilds.  She is raised by a loving but distant father and a local native Kipsigis tribe.  Her world is one where she has little and needs less, until she comes of age.  Social...

One Million Reasons to Protest

Recently, One Million Moms decided that the new show Luciferdeserved to be protested.  I can’t say Because Satan is worse than anything!enough good things about a group that suggests they have a million (or more) members, but in reality only have a few thousand, and use that imaginary clout to cow advertisers and networks into their bidding.

The wants of the few, or the one, truly do outweigh those of the many.
Having seen the light, I reached out to One Million Moms via Twitter and let the...

Hell Becomes Her — Another Excerpt

Break out the good Scotch my friends!  Hell Becomes Her has passed muster with my editor.  It is This is Marrin's BOOM STICK!now off to the proofers, and from there it will ride a winged-horse to the upper levels of Truth and Glorgy!  In honor of this moment, I offer you another excerpt from the book:

“There was some dabbling in the early days,” Marrin said. “Quite a few mythic creatures aren’t mythic at all.  Although most don’t exist anymore.  They’re extinct or nearl...

No Mr. Jones, We Expect You to Die!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Magical Refrigerator makes me into a big ole science geek.  Gut reaction to the famous “nuke the fridge” scene was immediately and, generally correct.  I’ve only ever run into one fan who claimed that the scene was wholly plausible for Indy to survive, let alone walk away from generally unscathed.  Here’s the scene for you to review:


There’s a punch line to all this, but stay with me here.  First, let’s review a few details about an atom...

CHAPPiE and AI

CHAPPiE is one of the latest in a slew of near science fiction films that explores the idea of artificial Do you want to play a game?intelligence (AI) and all the issues that go along with that.  What amazed me most about the film was not the portrayal of the titular character, CHAPPiE (Chappie) as an infant intelligence learning through direct exposure (although Neill Blomkamp certainly delivers on that score), but rather all the issues that the movie touches on, only to barrel right pas...