Chasing Zany

Did you ever notice that nuclear bombs are either destroying the planet or saving it?  I watched a movie called Crack in the World recently, and a bomb starts a chain reaction that causes a (SPOILER ALERT) crack in the world.  It's only by exploding a bigger bomb that they can stop it from tearing the planet to pieces.

So there you have it.  Bombs.  The cause of / and solution to all of life's problems.

Been a while, hasn't it?  I've been working on a lot of stuff.  Important stuff.  Stuff I get paid for.  So you'll excuse me if blogging about dinosaurs and robots has taken a backseat lately.  It's not that I don't care.  It's that I've got bills to pay.  Speaking of which, Chasing the Moon is out in some stores now.  It's a good book, and I'm sure you'll like it.  So go ahead and buy a copy.  I'll thank you in advance, and you can thank me later.

The reviews have been pretty favorable so far, though they're the typical "Another wacky Martinez book" I tend to get.  It's my albatross to bear.  Except instead of being a curse, it means people like what I write.  So what if I don't quite agree with the reason?  Still, I'll admit my ego still stings a bit when any book I've written gets classified as fluff, brain candy, etc.

I've written before about how frustrating I find it that it's assumed something must be boring / depressing to be sophisticated.  And that if something is fun and brings a smile to your face then it must be empty of anything worthwhile.  But that's not going to change anytime soon.

It's the same sort of assumption that says video games make you stupid.  Or that education and self-improvement is such a rigid, specific process that there's only one way to do it.  The boring way.

I learned to catch by juggling.  It certainly wasn't easy, but it was a fun rewarding experience.  I learned to write by playing with toys, reading comic books, and watching cartoons.  I play board and card games almost like a religion because they continue to expand and hone my mind in new and startling ways.  These things shape and influence me and make me better every day.

I'm not going to say that reading Chasing the Moon will lead to a personal epiphany on the nature of the universe.  But I do know that, on a personal level, Moon means a hell of a lot to me.  It's enjoyable enough as a strange story about weird beasts from beyond, but I'd like to think it has more to it than that.  I doubt it'll change the world, or even have any real impact on the way we humans look at the world.  But I'd like to believe that at least one person might read it and say, "Hey, that's kind of a neat way of looking at things."

It might be an absurd ambition for a story featuring a giant green monster who wants to eat the universe and a purple hedgehog that can't stop reproducing, but where would we be if we were afraid to dream.

Fighting the good fight, Writing the good write,

Lee