Alan Baxter's Blog, page 115

Damn Wolfman movie ripping off Twilight

Yes, you read that right. One of the mailing groups I'm on was shocked by this recently, so I thought I'd share. A young Twilight fan wrote a letter to the website latinoreview.com. I had no idea there was a Latino Review site, but there you go.

This letter writer does nothing for the reputation of "young folk today". She's a die-hard Taylor Lautner fan and quite, quite dumb. Who the fuck is Taylor Lautner? Yeah, I wondered that too. Turns out he's the guy that plays the werewolf in Twilight. ...

RealmShift and MageSign acquired by Gryphonwood Press

I am extremely pleased to announce that my dark fantasy thriller novels, RealmShift and MageSign, have been acquired by Gryphonwood Press in the US. This marks a move from the books being indie published through my own press to being "traditionally" published by a small press in the US that is really going places. They have some great authors and books available, so check them out.

Apart from joining a great stable of authors, I'll also be eligible to apply for membership of the International...

Twitter sci fi geekery

I love Twitter. The things that happen there are great, especially when the big stars show themselves up to be geeks like the rest of us. A conversation between Simon Pegg and Nathan Fillion this morning cracked me up. For those not versed in geekery, Simon Pegg is the British comic genius behind TV shows like Spaced and movies like Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz. He was most recently in Star Trek, playing Scottie.

Nathan Fillion has been in numerous TV and movie roles, currently in Castle...

2010 Snapshot

I've been Snapshotted. Snapshat? There's a Snapshot of me. Whatever.

You can find it here.

Basically, it's an interview that was conducted as part of the 2010 Snapshot of Australian Speculative Fiction, blogging interviews with Aussie spec fic writers from Monday 15th February to Sunday 22nd February. They'll all be archived at ASif!: Australian SpecFic in Focus. You can read interviews throughout the week at:

http://random-alex.livejournal.com/
http://girliejones.livejournal.com/
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And you think spec fic nerds are weird

I followed this car into a car park the other day. It had two stickers on the back window. On the passanger side was this:

Likes as in "likes"? And on the driver's side was this one:

Weird, slightly religious train spotting nerds? Hornby model train nerds? Bizarre, whatever the truth. Makes Star Trek tragics seem relatively normal.

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Batman and Obama silliness

(Thanks to Lynn Viehl.) Batman and Robin have an age-old writerly argument, and I take on the Obama style of expressing how I feel.

From Batman Comic Generator and Obama Me.

So what, I'm in a silly mood. Normal service may resume at some point.

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Interview with Kate Forsyth

Kate Forsyth's new young adult fantasy novel, The Puzzle Ring, is a story rich in faerie lore, set in the wilds of Scotland. You can read my review of the book here. As part of her blog tour, I talked to Kate about the book, the process of writing it and her hopes for it.

AB – Hi Kate. Thanks for dropping by to talk about The Puzzle Ring.

KF – Hi, Alan. Thank you so much for having me!

AB – Firstly, the descriptions of Scotland are very vivid. I've spent a lot of time there myself and was...

The Puzzle Ring by Kate Forsyth – Review

The Puzzle Ring is the new young adult fantasy novel from Australian author Kate Forsyth. Kate has a well established set of credentials, already very successful with things like the Witches Of Eileanan series and the Chain Of Charms series for young adults.

The Puzzle Ring tells the story of Hannah, a twelve year old girl whose father disappeared when she was a baby in Scotland and whose mother took her away to grow up in Australia. A mysterious letter arrives one day that takes Hannah and...

Daybreakers – review

As usual, I'll keep this Daybreakers review spoiler free at the start. I'll warn you before I spoil anything.

So last night I went with Cat and Rob to see the sci-fi vampire flick, Daybreakers. It's one of those films that I was aware of but actually knew very little about. I'd seen the trailer, I knew it was an Australian production and that's about it. From the trailer it certainly looked good.

There's a bit of a heavy handed info dump over the credits at the very start of the movie, but...

Creative Penn book marketing and promotion

Joanna Penn runs a website called The Creative Penn, which is all about writing, publishing options, promotions and so on. I've mentioned her on this site before and you can find a blue print for her Author 2.0 Platform on the Links page.

She's just released a new podcast talking all about marketing and promoting your book. Whether you're a self-published newbie starting out or an established author, you will need to promote your book. The authors that can rely on their name for sales are few ...