David Lee Summers's Blog, page 23

Certain Dark Things

In recent weeks, I’ve been working on a story about Mexico and a couple of stories about vampires. In my reading and my search for inspiration, it’s perhaps not surprising that I should spend some time with Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novel Certain Dark Things.

The novel is set in a near-future Mexico City. A young man named Domingo makes a meager living collecting garbage from the streets and reselling the things that still have use and value as he can. One evening, in the subway, a vampire na...

Picard Seasons 2 and 3

Two weeks ago, I took my youngest child back to Northern Arizona University to start their senior year. It’s been a little challenging to process that soon I’ll have two children who are university graduates. Over the summer, my youngest and I took some time to catch up with the series Star Trek: Picard. We effectively binge watched both seasons back-to-back and compared notes.

In season 2 of Picard, the omniscient entity Q appears and says he’s going to challenge Admiral Picard to one fin...

Reaching for the Moon from Behind the Iron Curtain

I recently read Volume 5 of Keisuke Makino’s Japanese light novel series, Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut. As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, I discovered this series through the anime, which adapted volumes 1 and 2. Those first two volumes told the story of Irina Luminesk, a vampire who was captured to be a test subject for the Zirnitran space program. In this world, the Zirnitran Union closely parallels the Soviet Union. Cosmonaut Lev Leps, who strongly resembles the real life Yuri Gagarin, ...

There Be Dragons Here

Today finds me at Bubonicon in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you’re here in town, I hope you’ll drop by and visit me in the Bubonicon dealer’s room or see me on panels. Last weekend, I got to do a convention in my home town of Las Cruces. However, travel to conventions has advantages as well. When my wife and I traveled to Denver recently for Fan Expo, we had the opportunity to listen to the latest Space: 1999 release from Big Finish Productions entitled Dragon’s Domain. These audio dramas re-imag...

Bubonicon 54

Bubonicon 54 will be held this weekend from August 25 through 27 at the Albuquerque Marriott Uptown near the intersection of Louisiana Boulevard and I-10. Bubonicon is New Mexico’s longest-running Sci-Fi & Fantasy literary and arts convention, started in 1969. Join me in Albuquerque for a great weekend of fun! There will be panels and presentations featuring great authors, artists, and scientists, a costume contest, art show, dealer’s room, charity auctions, fan programming, and much more! This...

Picking Up Steam

This weekend, I’m at Las Cruces Comic Con. If you’re in town, I hope you’ll drop by and see me and Tamsin Silver at Booth 79 in the Exhibit Hall. Also happening right now is a Kickstarter campaign raising money to publish two anthologies featuring my stories plus a third, really awesome looking book.

The first of the three books is called A Cry of Hounds and it features works inspired by the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. The title is influenced by The Hound of the Baskervilles. The anthol...

Las Cruces Comic Con 2023

It’s time once again for our home town convention. Las Cruces Comic Con will take place at the Las Cruces, New Mexico Convention Center on August 19 and 20. The hours of operation are Saturday 10am-7pm and Sunday 10am-5pm. Las Cruces Comic Con is a community-based pop culture experience for all that reflects today’s fandom. At Las Cruces Comic Con you’ll get to indulge in all your favorite fantasy, sci-fi, and other pop culture genres, such as comics, games, film, television, books, and more...

Space Command

Back in 2020, I learned that author Marc Scott Zicree was crowdfunding a science fiction movie series called Space Command. I primarily knew him from the Star Trek Phase II fan project “World Enough and Time” starring George Takei. I’d seen it and had been impressed, so I took a closer look at Space Command. He attracted a solid cast of fan-favorite actors from various science fiction shows including Doug Jones, Mira Furlan, Robert Picardo, and Bill Mumy. I also noticed he’d cast some relative u...

Blood Alone

While browsing lists of recommended vampire manga and anime recently, one title I’d never read kept appearing: Blood Alone by Masayuki Takano. Its emphasis on how humans relate to one another along with its focus on mystery rather than violence appealed to me. Unfortunately, I soon discovered the manga’s English translations are out of print. However, because Seven Seas published a nice omnibus edition of the first three volumes a few years back, I was able to pick up a used copy in good condit...

Ultraman

Last year, one of my Patreon supporters surprised me by giving me the complete Ultraman series on Blu-ray. Ultraman was a so-called tokusatsu series that ran in Japan from July 1966 through April 1967. Tokusatsu is a Japanese term referring to television series that strongly rely on practical special effects. The series follows the adventures of the Science Patrol who battle alien and kaiju threats. Unknown to the Science Patrol, one of their members, Shin Hayata, can transform into the titular ...