Gloria Oliver's Blog, page 124

MInd Sieve 6/13/11

Two conventions in two weeks means another rushed Mind Sieve. lol. (Thank goodness for pre-prepping!)





So cool! From Wizard World Got 10,000 Legos? Let's Build a Star Wars Sandcrawler.

AJ Walker speaks about Vampirism in Ancient Egypt. What fun!

This is totally cool! One less hurdle for long term space exploration and living. Rubbish-Dump Worms. Now they need to tackle bone density degradation. Woot!

FansOfMovies shared this article from Total Films on 50 Greatest Kung Fu Movies.

FanOfMovies shares the latest preview for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Looks fantastic!



Super 8 Clip for How To Be A Zombie.  She's really quite good! lol. Very much looking forward to this one as well!




Geek Furious not only gives us definitions for Nerd and Geek but also a Top 10 Geek Shows You Should Watch. (I don't agree with all these and some I've never heard of. But to each Geek his own!) :P







 Sacred Cow-Tipping: Why Writers Blogging About Writing is Bad by Kristen Lamb.

Tony Eldrige gives us 10 Truths About Self Marketing, Like It or Not. He's pretty much dead on the money as far as I can tell. This stuff is not for the faint of heart. :)

Jull Keremer shares 17 Simple Steps to Build a Fiction Platform.  Good stuff!

Kristem Lamb tackles the Power of Positive Tweeting on Twitter Tuesday!








Chuck Wendig talks about Why YA Rocks!  Which it does. :) (As always with Chuck - NSFW!)

25 Things You Should Know About Character by Chuck Wendig (NSFW - I think it might be a Chuck Sweep this week!)

Jenny Hansen shares a ton of books to help with writing on More Cowbell Monday! I've read two or three of these, but she way has me beat!

And Chuck Wendig puts it on the line when he spouts Six Signs It's High Time To Quit That Whole 'Writing' Thing. Big truths here, peeps - WORD.  (And still NSFW) :P
Till next time!
http://www.gloriaoliver.com/

A-kon 22 and The Ladies of Trade Town Debut!

Yeppers, this weekend will be chuck full of doings!

I'll have a table at A-kon at the Artist Alley on the second floor by thew Dealers' Room hocking the books and also sharing the table with Chibi Chains.

Artist Alley is open:
Friday 10am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 8pm
Sunday 10am - 6pm 


Though I am not part of the Writers' Track, the Ladies of Trade Town anthology authors will have several events on Saturday in which I will be participating which will be:

2:30pm - 3:30pm: "Meet The Ladies & Gentlemen of Trade Town" with Elizabeth Moon, Merlyn Finn, Jim Reader, Gloria Oliver, Rebecca McFarland Kyle, Brandie Tarvin, Melanie Fletcher, and Melinda LaFevers. The first of the Book Launch activities, wherein we'll introduce the contributors in attendance and talk a bit about how the anthology came to be.

4:00pm - 5:00pm: "Trade Town Mass Autographing". The first -- and probably best -- chance for con attendees to get a copy of the anthology signed by more than half of the contributors to the volume.

7:00pm - 11:00pm: "The Ladies of Trade Town Launch Party". Thanks to the folks at A-Kon, the anthology gets a gala evening kick-off, open to all attendees of the convention. Drop by, wish us luck, meet the authors, editor, and cover artist, get copies and autographs, and party!

Hope to see you all there! :)

Gloria
www.gloriaoliver.com

Picture Kaleidoscope 6/8/11 - The SoonerCon Edition

Oh yeah. Con last weekend. Which means I am chuck full of pics to share. Strap yourselves in for a ride! (Hey, I didn't take the real camera, so it won't be THAT bad. Heh heh)


This was the unescapable breakfast of DOOM. Had been having a craving as I'd been seeing the bloody things everywhere. So being at the airport super early gave me no excuse not to indulge. Even after they weren't ready and I had to wait. (*shifty*)Good thing though, because this helped keep me alert and from gnawing my arm off after we reached Oklahoma City and found out the airport was in the middle of a bomb scare. I did a quick (ipad - oh my the spelling issues!) write up that night you can read here.

Nifty art stuff outside of the OKC airport. Loved the glass pyramids.

The Doctor taking his leisure at the con. Taking a break from all that Time Traveling. :)

Theme of SoonerCon was Heroes and Villains. As Toastmaster, Selina Rosen took her role very seriously. In this photo you can see her Fat Ninja Persona disguise. Yes, those are Batman symbols on the short. *giggle*

The SoonerCon ConCom! Those to be thanked for setting up all the fun! Thanks ya'll - was a blast!!

Selina doing her Toastmaster bit as she regales us with tales of her Fat Ninja daring do! (The gentleman who's head I will keep photographing was also stuck at the airport and had to stay longer in his plane - ugh - Aaron Allston.)

A very bad picture of Mr. Tim Powers, the Guest of Honor. Got lucky and ended up on a panel with him on God, Faith, and Fantasy.

A not quite as bad picture of Darrell K Sweet, the Artist Guest of Honor. Got lucky enough that some Yard Doggies yanked me to eat dinner on Friday and then they yanked Darrell over to join us. Was a blast!

Jeffrey Turner and his super helper, Mary, starting to gear up to film a short for BOTA - Bubbas of the Apocalypse for Yard Dog Press. The Sheraton had a closed up mall area we got to use and it was also the site of the ConSuite and Green Room. (I was helping out as PA/Running Camera person - for Zombies!)

Just watch Mary concentrate. She was so cute!

Traci in her "acting" outfit. She did awesome.

Another look at the huge space Jeff was going to do all this in. Had to go to the opposite corner as the light plugs on this side did not work.

Props and more!

Setting up a scene. Traci will be seeing Yumbies (Yuppie Zombies) walking out in the street and try to alert the others there could be trouble.

Camera set up for scene as Traci practices.

El Director!

Scientist with a Clue and the Queen of the Flamingoes, waiting for their turn at movie magic!

Sherri Dean and Zombies! We were able to abscond with most of the Zombies from SoonerCon's Zombie walk to help out on part of the film. Great costumes!

The stage and those waiting as lighting is changed.

The indominable Sherri Dean! She does some mean gum chewing!

Bill Allen in costume or is he? I missed his part but he and I got to giggle a lot watching the others go at it.

There was music all over SoonerCon. Group set up in front of the Dealer's Room and also had several for lunch in the ConSuite. Quite nice!

Ryan the Zombie leader. He set up the Zombie Walk. Had really a kick ass costume. Wish the phone had done better on this one. Waaahhhh

Ms Tiddywump.  Oh yeah. She's hilarious. Need a profile picture next time to you can see how much more of her there is. Her telling of Jack and the Bean Stalk is hilarious! (Laura Underwood in disguise!)

The BORG! You shall be assimilated.

Resistance is futile!

Ah but then the Jedi's came! Woot!


And they were ready to boogie!

Yes, that's exactly what you think it looks like. Cracked me up. (Next to him is a Steampunk Leia Organa)

Han Solo ala Steampunk. So he has a blaster, you see. Heh

This cracked me up! An undead Scrat!

OKC's Jedi contingent peeps.

And last but not least, a cool sculpture at the airport.  Heh heh.
Until next time!

The Price of Mercy - Giveaways!

To try to make as big a splash as I can, there will be several giveaways for my latest title The Price of Mercy.


First in the Running is Goodreads:


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Goodreads Book Giveaway








The Price of Mercy


by Gloria Oliver



Giveaway ends July 06, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.




Enter to win

Also have a Giveaway at Face Book.

And another one over at LibraryThing. Though that one is still waiting for approval so only shows on the pending page at the moment.

If you don't mind, please help spread the word!

Mind Sieve 6/6/11

Have conventions two weekends in a row, but luckily I do prep these ahead of time. Let's see how much I can shove in here while still keeping myself sane. :P





FanofMovie found a clip talking about Jamie Campbell Bower lading the lead in "The Mortal Instruments" movies.

John Dep shared a link to Neatorama - 18 Seriously Cool Bookshelves. Some of these really are COOL!
John Picacio shares a sneak peek at the Hound from his 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar. He does gorgeous art, peeps!









TweetNewbie101 shared 5 Great Tips to Facebook Marketing Success! (Need to finish one of these now that the book is out!)

From Jami Gaold - Branding 101: Online Brand vs Author Brand. Really nice insights! And breaks it down if you've any confusion on the topic.

Reality Deficit Disorder - Is it you? Kristen Lamb speaks! (I have multiple blogs but they're all the same content so not sure I apply. Heh heh heh)





Chuck Wendig points out How to Tell if You're a Writer. (Mostly true, but definitely funny! I do not meet the alcohol requirement. Does that mean I am not one? Oh noes!!) (NSFW)

Discovering Your Characters - Kimberly Krey talks about a nice method to connect with your characters if it's not happening on its own.

Kristen Lamb uses the movie Finding Nemo to teach us about Scene Antagonists - The Making of a Hero.

In Defense of Keeping the Day Job by Jennifer Jabley. Makes a great case for why it might be better not to work full time.

3 Signs That You're Renovating A Condemned Novel (and how to try to fix it!) by WriteItSideways.

Rachelle Gardner encourages us to Write Your Truth. Very good points in here. The diversity she's talking about I've even seen in just a small crit group. Opinions can be varied and wide!

25 Things You Should Know About Story Telling from Chuck Wendig. Great list! (NSFW)

How to actually apply Write What You Know by Janice Hardy.

Nice back and forth on What's A Newbiew Novelist To Do by Randy Ingermanson. Covers traditional vs self -publishing if you're new. Excellent points and things to weigh on.

Laying It On The Lie: Commonly Misused Words by Janice Hardy.  Some nice ways to remember which is used with which too!


Okay, that should do some damage. :)  Until next time. Bwahahahahahaha!

Sooner Con Pre Game Madness!

Well, this weekend is Soonercon, which I'd been looking forward to for months. Had everything figured out. I'd drive myself to Lovefield, indulge in something sweet, get on the plane, get to Oklahoma City early enough to have loads of time to get myself set up at the hotel and get a bunch of little things done before my first panel at 3PM.

Well, as they say...the best laid plans...

Southwest flight made great time. Flight was mostly empty so everyone had plenty of elbow room. Life was good. Then we landed, and captain's voice came over the intercom.

"We've just been informed that an unattended bag has been found in the terminal and that part of the airport has been locked down and evacuated. So while we've arrived, we're not being allowed to deplane."

Definitely not your usual intercom announcement. So we sat and waited. The bomb squad was enroute from downtown. The Southwest staff served us more drinks and that's when the captain got on the com again. We'd been given the option to deplane as long as we proceeded quickly to another wing of the terminal with the food court but couldn't leave even if we had no baggage. (I did so it was moot either way for me.)

We got off and got waved down the hallway by TSA employees and police. Made the turn and there's a sea of people all behind a line. I wiggled through and after taking care of the necessities, went down to a farther area with seats. The flight on the gate across from me was suppposed to leave then but they were stuck as well.

After being there a while (main reason I try not to go anywhere without a book!) we got a new annoucement. In some ways it was so ludicrous it cracked me up.

"The police are following protocol and will be dealing with the problem presently. If you hear any loud sounds, do not be alarmed!"

She repeated this several times. I know that for some items they place them out of harm's way and then purposely blow them up, but it was the fact they weren't willing to explain what they were doing that pretty much made it sound worse than it should have.

After about 3 hours total, we finally got the all clear. I've never seen the baggage turnstyles move so fast! Took a lot longer though to get transportation out of there. They'd turned away all traffic during the crisis.

Fnally got to share a shuttle to the hotel. That was fun as the gentleman next to me was also goign to Sooner Con and had some great stories about his one other encounter with a possible bomb.

Totally had to change gears once I got to the hotel. Now the morning seems like it never happened. Not after the excitement of seeing all the great people at the convention and the charged Supernatural panel. Heh heh. Now just trying not to crash and burn. :P

Sooner Con Pre Game

Well, this weekend is Soonercon, which I'd been looking forward to for months. Had everything figured out. Drive myself to Lovefield, indulge on something sweet, get on the plane, get to Oklahoma City early enough to have loads of time to get myself set up at the hotel and get a bunch of little things done before my first panel at 3PM.

Well, as rhey say...the best laid plans...

Southwest flight made great time. Flight was mostly empty so everyone had plenty of elbow room. Life was good. Then we landed, and captain's voice came over the intercom.

"We've just beeni informed that an unattended bag has been found in the terminal and it has been locked down and evacuated. So while we've arrived, we're not being allowed to deplane."

Definitely not your usual intercom announcement. So we sit and wait. The bomb squad is enroute from downtown. The Southwest staff serve us more drinks and that's when the captain gets on the com again. We've been given the option to deplane as long as we proceed quickly to another wing of the terminal with the food court but can't leave even if e have no baggage.

We get off and get waved down the hallway by TSA employees and police. Make the turn and there's a sea of people all behind a line. I wiggled through and after teking care of the necessities, went down to a farther area with seats. The flight on the gate across from me was suppposed to leave then and they were stuck as well.

After being there a while (main reason I try not to go anywhere without a book!) we got a new annoucement. In some ways it was so ludicrous it cracked me up.

"The police are following protocol and will be dealing with the problem presently. If you hear any loud sounds, do not be alarmed!"

She repeated this several times. I know that for some items they place them out of harms way and then purposely blow them up, but it was the fact they weren't willing to explain what they were doing that pretty much made it sound worse than it should have.

After about 3hours total, we finally got the all clear. I've never seen the baggage turnstyles move so fast! Took a lot longer though to get transportation out of there. They'd turned away all traffic during the crisis.

Fnally got to share a shuttle to the hotel. That was fun asrhe gentleman next to me was also goign to Sooner Con and had some great stories about his one other encounter with a possible bomb.

Totally had to change gears once I got to the hotel. Now the morning seems like it never happened. Not after the excitement of seeing all the great people at the convention and the charged Supernatural panel. Heh heh. Now just trying not to crash and burn. :P

Picture Kaleidoscope 6/1/11

Utterly loved this strange Ying/Yang cloud formation around the sun. Sometimes it's amazing the things nature makes up for us to see!


There's a weird restauran/bar/antique shop called Obzeet.  The whole ceiling is filled with strings of light. I'd driven past this place for over ten years and it wasn't until my boss told me the food was awesome that I ever stopped there.  Loads of funky stuff from all over the world. Great sandwhiches and other food. Their poppy seed dressing is the BOMB! The also have salt lamps. And they have a huge selection of evil desserts!



They also have a large back area where you can eat outside. The pond is full of large goldfish. You can see one past the rail of the small bridge.





Had to go shopping for ankle boots. And I am so picky~! I know what I want but finding them is something else altogether. (I only own like 3 pairs of shoes. I'm not your usual girl?) Anyway, one of the places had this cool glass shoe chandelier. Too cute!



Finally stopped and checked out a new store by where I live called Blue Phoenix.  It's mainly a smoke shop, though my daughter checked it out and found out the had all sorts of stuff in there. The gentleman at the desk told me these are called bubblers. I'm thinking they're like a hookah. They had all sorts of these things. As you can see, some are mighty weird looking~! Heh heh


Next couple of weeks could prove very picture rich as I've conventions back to back. I'll see what I can cook up for ya'll!

Mind Sieve 5/30/11

Running late but hope I can get this up to show up on time.  Wheee!




From SoonerCon, new Batman video game announced - Gotham City Impostors. It'll be a downloadable 1st Person shooter. Sounds cool!

FansOfMovies shared all sorts of preview clips this week!
     Transformers 3 - Lt Colonel William Lennox
     Cars 2 Official Featurette - Back Into Cars
     Super 8 - Train Sequence 4 (I swear this yellow car with the black stripe is in everything! NCIS being the main place I recall. I know it's shown up elsewhere too?)
     TotalFilms shared - the first      A new Muppets movie!!!!  Wow that's been like forever. (Preview starts out weird, but wait for it!!! Muppet Domination!!!) SQUEEE!
     X-Men: First Class movie clip "Be Normal"

Mark Dougherty shared a breaking story about lost pyramids and ancient Egyptian cities being found from Space! Totally cool!

GalaxyDallas shared a link to How a Solar Sail might work. Spiffy stuff! (My inner geek is showing! Heh heh

JAFurtado shared a link to a tutorial for HTML5. Dang it! More code to learn. lol. (I can see revisions to the website sometime in my future. lol)






Kristen Lamb's Twitter Tuesday #17 - Branding: There Can Be Only One!

Tony Eldridge shares a list of Free Toys and Downloads - List 3

Blog post by Kristen Lamb on the proper use of # on Twitter. Twitter Tuesday #18 (I am so guilty of this one! lol. But I have been changing #'s on RT'd Tweets so I am only partially bad? :P)

Parick Thunstrom did an article to explain many of the settings for TweetDeck. Might be useful for newbies.

Nathan Bradford shows the correct way to How to Use the Twitter @Reply. (Really is an easy thing to misunderstand.)

Natalie Sisson tells us How to Build a Thriving Blog by Being Yourself. (Hah! If it could only be this easy! Must work at this! lol)

Pam Moore list 3 Easy Steps to Increase Sharing of Your Blog Posts! (I am woefully behind on this... *sniff*)






Jami Gold tells us What Disneyland Can Teach Us About World Building. (My only caveat on this is to make sure not to get carried away! No info dumps. A bit at a time.)

Kristen Lamb's series on writing books - this week Structure Part 2.

Rosemary Clemment-Moore shares a Perfect Writing Day - NOT!

Kristen Lamb tells us What "Finding Nemo" Can Teach Can Teach Us About Story Action.

Pat Hauldren shares - Log Lines What Are They?  (I use these for my table toppers. So mine are super short. Publisher asked for one for The Price of Mercy (a very short one) "Which is worse...the monster withing or without?" Totally encapsulates the book. :)

From Marcy Kennedy's blog - 6 Grammar Mistakes That Will Cost You Readers. 

Storyfix.com (Larry) has a post Part 2: A Deeper Understanding of Craft. Some deep thinking here folks!

How to Read a Contract - What's Not There from PassiveVoice.


That's it. Brain is BURNED! Took way longer than normal this week for some reason, but then there was like a TON of stuff this past week! Dang!

Movie Review - Kung Fu Panda 2

Kung Fu Panda 2


Starring: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Huffman, Gary Oldman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogers, Lucy Liu, David Cross, James Hong, Michelle Yeoh, Danny McBride, Denis Haysbert, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Victor Garber and more...

Directed by: Jennifer Yuh  Written by: Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger  Music by: John Powell and Hans Zimmer

Premise: A prince who'd been outcast from the kingdom after an act of atrocity comes back years later to take his revenge, and destroy kung fu, with the use of a new and mighty weapon.

Review:  Loved the original, loved the Christmas special, and utterly loved the sequel!

As anyone with eyes could see, yet never say, Po couldn't have been the birth child of Mr. Ping. We will see some of Po's past and how it is that he came to be the son of a bird. What's really neat is how they chose to do the flashbacks, history intro, and nightmare sequences. For some it was still pictures and minimal movement. For others it was straight animation in a slightly different style than the rest of the film. This later plays into a beautiful sequence where the past meets memory and acceptance towards the end of the film.

Everything is super detailed and some of the city scape, villages, and backgrounds are utterly breathtaking. With the 3D even more so. The 3D was used more for effect and contrast than the usual "at ya" gimmicks and worked incredibly well to give the whole story more depth visually and even in the telling. This is one of the first uses of regular 3D that really packs a punch in my opinion.

Lots of great fight scenes. And some awesome ones. You will see Radish Fu. You will see Peacock Fu. Warring Rickshaws! You'll also see the most hilarious take on a Chinese Festival Dragon EVER! I was laughing all over the place and I'm a hard one to make laugh out loud. (Crying is something else altogether and I did some of that too!)

The soothsayer was HILARIOUS! And Shen was both menacing, cold, hot, and utterly beautiful to watch. The story also has some nice twists and turns, which were great.  

All our favorite characters are back as Po learns another lesson and sets off to save China. Definitely a must see! They will even leave you a tantalizing cliffhanger bit right before the credits.  (Though nothing else is shown after the credits, do sit through part of them - a reenactment of Po's baby journey. Too cute!)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5! (Hubby's Rating: Would pay 3D full price again! This is his highest rating, by the way! heh heh)