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Below are the most recent 20 friends' journal entries.
| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
danceswthcobras
|
9:32p |
Dances with cobras (and rattlesnakes, and cottonmouths)
Field vet rounds at the Edisto Island Serpentarium today, with a double retained eyecap removal on an annoyed king cobra, lots of fecals and several assist feedings with oral meds. The handling and restraint procedures were filmed by a student who will be providing the edited footage for an online course I'll be putting together. Cooked dinner the other day for some guests in town who accompanied us down to the Serpentarium. It included things like charred Japanese eggplant with anchovy-caper-pine nut "pesto", daikon mock potato cake topped with salmon caviar and sour cream, blood sausage with spiced red cabbage and cranberries, pomegranate molasses painted Muscovy duck with a walnut-arugula-pomegranate stuffing, and buttered glazed baby turnips in venison demiglace. Mmmmtasty. Tomorrow it's on to some more holiday visiting of both serpents and people. Current Mood:  tired |
walkertxkitty
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2:03a |
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| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
jpsorrow
|
8:23p |
Book Review: "Zombie Raccoons and Killer Bunnies" edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Kerrie Hughes
I’ve finished Zombie Raccoons and Killer Bunnies, edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Kerrie Hughes and overall it was an OK anthology. A few stories stood out, and those I’ve denoted with bold titles. A few of the stories were disappointing, either with an ending that wasn’t as satisfactory as I would have liked, or with an ending that just didn’t make sense to me at all. There were some good chilling stories in here, along with some fun humorous takes on the theme, so a wide variety overall. If you like “creature of the night” stories, then you’ll find a couple of good reads in here, but in the end I was a little disappointed overall.
Table of Contents: Death Mask by Jody Lynn Nye: This was a zombie raccoon story, where the raccoons come up against a farmer who doesn’t agree with the idea that you need to commune with nature. It was an OK story, but I had a hard time getting used to the voice of the farmer character, which threw me off. BunRabs by Donald J. Bingle: And this was a killer bunny story . . . told from the POV of a chicken. *grin* The chicken’s POV of the world in general is hilarious, especially their take on modern day conveniences (and how they use them) and the mythology they’ve developed about rabbits and how they incorporate some of our own traditions into their worldview. A fun story. for lizzie by Anton Strout: A cute little story set in Anton’s “Simon Canderous” universe, although it doesn’t feature Simon as a character. The main character is an archivist, dealing with a certain lack of social skills when dealing with the opposite sex . . . along with a rather ferocious little book wyrm. Faith in Our Fathers by Alexander B. Potters: The idea here is that young child who can heal with his hands in upset because his pet cats keep disappearing. His father tells him it’s the fisher cats (who aren’t fishers or cats) that keep taking them, so the boy decides he wants to find these fisher cats and goes in search of them. He finds something more instead. It was an interesting story, written well, but at the end I wanted more. I wanted the story to do more, especially since there was so much potential for more in what was presented in the story. With that said, though, this is the best story in the anthology so far. Bone Whispers by Tim Waggoner: The creature in this story is a rather large and supernatural groundhog, haunting a cemetery. The story revolves around a man returning to the cemetery to confront the groundhog, who had a run-in with when he was twelve years old. I felt like this story needed a little more development, with the connection between the groundhog, the man, the boy, and the groundhog’s hole (and the cemetery) fleshed out more. It had a creepy ending though. Watching by Carrie Vaughn: And here we deal with pigeons. A man proposes to his girlfriend after taking her to Venice . . . only to have her say no. This sets the man’s life onto a whole new track as he sets out to backpack across Europe, discovering pigeons the entire step of the way. Only the pigeons aren’t exactly what they seem. The first half of the story was interesting, and the character drew me in, but then the story takes a hard sharp turn (perhaps even a hair-pin turn) in the middle and becomes a completely different kind of story altogether. This wasn’t a bad thing and the ending itself makes you smile, in a sort of funny/gruesome kind of way. The Things That Crawl by Richard Lee Byers: This story doesn’t single out one particular type of creature, it sort of deals with snakes, lizards, alligators, etc, in general. And this is the most well developed story in the anthology. I connected to the main character, a detective who has an alcohol problem, so has been demoted and has relocated to the coast of Florida where, after a hurricane passes through, discovers that the local wildlife isn’t behaving as usual. He picks up on this and puts the pieces together (he is a detective after all), but the conclusion is, of course, too supernatural for the average person to believe. He ends up being forced to deal with the situation himself. Again, a very well-written, cohesive story with a rounded plot, rounded character arc, and a beginning, middle, and end. The White Bull of Tara by Fiona Patton: This is a story centered around the White Bull of Tara. It begins interestingly enough—fairy cows are breaking through from the fairy realm to munch on the Druids’ garden and a pack of siblings/guards are tasked to stop the incursion. They figure out who’s causing the problem, and why . . . and then the story just kind of dies. They don’t really do much to stop the incursion from the fairy side, but the cows stop coming. Instead, the White Bull’s rival comes through and has his way with the local herd. It just felt like the story fell apart to me, or skewed off in a different direction from the first two-thirds of the story, and so the ending didn’t feel right. Dead Poets by John A. Pitts: I don’t think I understand this story at all. I REALLY, REALLY liked the idea introduced at the beginning: the main animal here is the shrike, a bird, which (I didn’t know this before reading the story) apparently captures its prey and impales it on thorns on hedges and such around its nest. A cool factoid in and of itself. When, in the course of the story, the main characters finds that the shrike pestering her garden has started impaling pixies as well as rodents and such, the story jumped into a whole new level of interest for me. I seriously thought this would be the coolest story in the anthology . . . but then it completely fell apart near the end. Great setup, great idea, great animal . . . but nothing is done with it in my opinion. It kind of just trails off. Super Squirrel to the Rescue by P.R. Frost: This story was cute, as the title suggests, with only a little touch of “evil creature from the night” to it. In this case, the evil creatures were crows, a whole murder of them, tormenting a neighborhood. Every attempt by the people to eliminate them was ignored and ridiculed with cawing. It required a rather supernatural squirrel to come to the rescue! Her Black Mood by Brenda Cooper: This time, the creature of the night was much darker, a black toad created by the main character who can paint wooden carved creatures to life. However, she’s in such a black mood due to her life that this toad, when she paints it alive, comes out rather evil, with teeth and a lust for blood. Brenda Cooper captures the black mood of the character perfectly (we’ve all felt like this at some point, I’m sure) and the toad comes across as evil indeed, but I felt the resolution of the story could have used a little more umph. It made sense (unlike some of the other stories in this anthology), but I felt that so much time was spent on creating the situation and background that there should have been a little more time spent on resolving it all. It took 10 pages for the setup and making the toad as evil as possible, but only 2 pages to resolve the entire situation. A little unbalanced, but definitely a good read. Ninja Rats on Harleys by Elizabeth A. Vaughan: The title pretty much says it all. *grin* A fun little story with evil rats and possums, a heroic mouse, and two flatulent dogs. Oh, plus a few humans. An interesting and enjoyable read, with just the right amount of humor thrown into the danger. But again this story felt unfinished. Unlike some previous stories in the anthology though, this one felt complete in and of itself, but also felt like the start of something much bigger. At least, I felt like I could have flipped the page and started another chapter when I reached the end. A good story overall though. Definitely entertaining. Bats in Thebayou by Steven H Silver: Alien bats, anyone? That’s the main creature in this story (plus mosquitoes). Earth has been invaded by alien bats . . . we just don’t know it yet. The story flips back and forth between an alien bat perspective and the human perspective of two campers in Thebayou. I’m not sure this was effective overall, since I was much more interested in the alien bat perspective and not interested at all in the human perspective. But again, the ending was unsatisfactory to me. And aside from the main creature being a bat, there wasn’t much in the way of “creature of the night” feeling to this story. Twilight Animals by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: This story was well-written, with a main character who could at this point in his life be labeled a “loser.” He’s hired to watch over his brother’s house while his brother and family tour Europe for a month. Since this guy’s in college, he decides to do some research on the neighborhood, ostensibly for a paper for school. Of course, he begins seeing things during his studies that just aren’t natural, in this case, a peculiarly large possum population. The ending is also peculiarly reminiscent of another story in this anthology, which is kind of bizarre. But overall a good story. The Ridges by Larry D. Sweazy: The last story is about foxes . . . sort of. I can’t say much about the storyline without ruining it, so I’ll just say that the storyline here was good and it didn’t end the way I thought it would as I read it. I had the right idea, in general, but the author twisted it around into something different than what I’d expected by the end. Not really a “creature of the night” story in true form, although it certainly fit the theme of the anthology |
jpsorrow
|
7:17p |
GAH! Part II
So I spent ANOTHER few hours today transcribing the student evaluations for my second semester at Oneonta. There were more evals this time, probably because it was the first time I'd taught a couple of the courses and I admit that my perception of what the students would be able to handle was skewed at the beginning. I adjusted as the semester went along, and most of the students complained about what I'd expected at the beginning, but also noted that things changed as the semester went along. So I think, overall, the evals were good ones. I've got two more semesters of evals to transcribe now, and when I return to classes in January, the Fall 2009 evals should be waiting for me to transcribe. But I say again, GAH, and ask, "What's the point?" I mean, I could copy the evals and put them if the administrators really do want to see them all, but I don't honestly think that they really do look at these things when they get together to discuss the portfolios. Sure, they may look at a few of them, but am I seriously expected to believe that they're going to look at the hundreds of evals I've gotten, when they probably have 50 other portfolios to look at after mine? In any case, here are some of the typos I found during this batch. And these are just errors in spelling. I'm not even attempting to take note of the grammar errors involved. The winner by far in the spelling wars was "quizes." I probably saw it spelled that way over 50 times. People just don't believe in z's anymore, apparently. The others, in no particular order: "reconize" "calculatos" "assesments" "metrial" "calculters" "calcalters" (This was on the same one as the previous word, so the student was trying to figure out how to spell it correctly.) "explination" "proffesor" "resonable" "suprises" "ridculously" "theroms" And may I add that, as a writer, it is EXTREMELY difficult to type those words spelled incorrectly into the computer? Both here and when I was typing up the evals. But I push onwards. Probably not until after the trip home for the holidays though. Tomorrow I'm hoping to write some on my own stuff. |
jpsorrow
|
10:08a |
Repost: Holiday Special Deals
OK, so holiday shopping is upon us, so I thought I'd reiterate some of the holiday deals I mentioned earlier this year. First, I thought I should remention that all three of the books are available on Kindle now, for all of the Kindle lovers out there. Here are the links to the kindle versions: The Skewed Throne, The Cracked Throne, and The Vacant Throne. All of the books are now, as far as I know, available in all other electronic formats as well. Go forth and download them! And now for the dead tree versions. I'm currently running a few holiday specials, one for hardcovers and one for paperbacks: Hardcover Deal: You can buy all three hardcovers of the books for a total of $30! That includes shipping. Paperback Deal: You can buy all three paperbacks of the books for a total of $20! That includes shipping as well. If you're interested in any of these deals, contact me at jpalmatier@sff.net and we can arrange payment and get address info, etc. Individual hardcovers and paperbacks are available as well at $15 and $8 respectively (shipping included). Just let me know what you're interested in! All prices are for the US shipping only. I can give you a quote for international shipping if you get in touch with me. Happy holiday shopping everyone! ********************* |
| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 |
jpsorrow
|
8:44a |
GAH! (Day job stress)
So, as part of my day job, and part of the tenure-track position I'm in, I have to submit a portfolio every couple of years to get rehired for another couple of years. One of the things they asked when I got my first packet back was that I include ALL of the written student evaluations (I'd assumed they couldn't possibly want ALL of them, so selected a few at random). At the time I shrugged and said, oh well. I'll just copy them all and stick them in. But no. Apparently this is not all that they want. What they want is the original copies in the Master portfolio and then in the subsequent 6 smaller folders that you must also submit, they want TYPEWRITTEN TRANSCRIBED copies of all of the evaluations. And not just all from the past year. They want them all SINCE YOU STARTED WORKING THERE. Now, in the normal course of events, a professor's classes at this college would consist of maybe 15 students each. But I don't teach normal classes. I teach math classes, and have taught the Gen Ed courses for the most part, which means my average class size is around 25. And generally these students don't just put down "great class" or "class sucked" as an evaluation. I somehow end up getting paragraphs for my evaluations. I generally view this as a good thing though, because it shows the students cared enough to say something about my class. And I like getting feedback. But . . . So now I have to go back and transcribe all of my previous evaluations for the past 4 semesters. That's about 14 classes. 25 evaluations per class. Paragraphs of words. You do the math (I'm on break). But I want to be hired for another 2 years, so today I broke out the evals and the word processor and began. I got through one semester (4 classes). It took me nearly 2 hours. My back hurts and I really wish that students would learn how to correctly spell "recammend" and "quizes" and "perfessor." (We have to transcribe them verbatim, errors and all.) So I'm putting the evals away for another day now and getting myself some chocolate, damn it! |
walkertxkitty
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1:36p |
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walkertxkitty
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2:04a |
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| Friday, December 18th, 2009 |
jpsorrow
|
10:17a |
Movie Review: "Avatar"
So, I won free tickets to see Avatar 3D, the midnight showing last night. Here's the obligatory review. First, the good stuff: the special effects and cinematography. This was a spectacular movie in this respect. The special effects for the world--and when I say the world, I mean the world--were stunning. This had nothing to do with the 3D aspects at all. You can tell that the team that created this world spent a TON of time on it, going into every little detail and making all of those little details work together to create an actual, realistic-feeling other world. And I mean it: the world felt completely and utterly real to me, to the point where when something from out world came on set it felt like an intrusion (which was the point) and made it seem like anything related to us as humans was out of place (also the point). In fact, it made it seem as if anything related to us WASN'T REAL, that we were the special effect in the movie, not the world that served as the setting for the entire movie. It was literally stunning--beautiful and engaging and above all believable in nearly every respect. Sure there were a few "glossed over" explanations, such as how the mountains actually float (they just called it the "flux" or something), but that glossing could be ignored. And as I said, I don't believe this had anything to do with the 3D aspects of this. One of the nice things about the creation of the world is that the special effects were NOT the central point of the movie. The world was there, and it served as a setting, but it was not the entirety of the movie. Same for the 3D aspects. There were no scenes where the entire "point" was the play with the 3D aspects to make the audience go "wow." Sure there were some "wow" scenes, but they weren't there JUST for that reason, except for when the newbies were seeing something spectacular for the first time, in which case the "wow" WAS the point, but for the character (not the audience). And these scenes were kept suitably short in my opinion. Same for the world in general: nothing was put into the movie for the sole purpose of the audience; it was there for the characters or for the plot. Too many SF and fantasy movie use the special effects just for the audience and don't let it serve exclusively for the plot or the characterization and the story. There were a few moments here and there where I thought a 3D effect went too far (such as one point where I wondered why we needed the ass shot and why it needed to be sticking out so far), but they were few and far between. Of those characters, strangely enough, the one that I loved and followed and connected to the most was the main female alien (whose name I don't recall). I was not as drawn to the main character, Jake, much. Sigourney Weaver was great, but mostly served as a side character and in the end didn't have a huge role (a significant role, but not a huge one). The fact that I connected better with the aliens than the humans should make the creative team feel great, but shouldn't I be connecting to both, especially the hero of the story? I'm not sure if this was because Jake was just not a character that I could sympathize with, or if it was because the acting wasn't great, or simply that he just wasn't interesting, even though he was the character with the most significant character change from beginning to end. But in the end, I loved the female lead alien more, so kudos to that actress for her role. So, some really good stuff going on in this movie: great worldbuilding, some good characterizations, especially of the aliens, and special effects used like they should be used in an SF movie. Now some of the not so good things: the plot. It wasn't that the plot was bad--there were some really good emotionally jarring and gut-twisting moments in here--but the plot wasn't . . . new. This is the standard "humans find new land with indigenous species but with a resource we desperately need, so we try to take what we want and the locals fight back" story. The main thread is "human wins trust of locals, becomes one with them, betrays his own people and fights with them to take back the human-ravaged land." James Cameron could have used this theme to make some serious, heavy-duty commentary about some of the hideous things humans have done against humans in this vein in the past, pretty much all over the world, but he didn't need to. That point is hammered home without him needing to thrust it in our faces here. He sticks to the characters and how they are affected, and that is the most effective thing about this movie. It's what draws you in and makes your heart ache when the plot begins to take hold and get serious. But in the end, James Cameron didn't do anything really original with the plot. The only difference between this and movies with similar themes is that this is an SF movie. It's basically "Dances with Wolves" in space, as my movie companion said. Another minor flaw is that the initial sequence--when we arrive on planet and the main character, Jake, is being introduced to the locals and slowly becoming an accepted part of their society--is a little too long. This section is extremely important to the movie: we get characterization, we get introduced to the world through Jake, we get a love interest, we get some very cool setup for events that happen later on in the plot. All of that was necessary and was there . . . but it still went on just a touch too long. At one point, the writer in me kicked in and said, "If he doesn't start the main plot sequence in the next 5 minutes, this movie is going to suck wind." I'd reached my limit of setup and worldbuilding and character building by that point. The fact that it pulled me out of the movie so much the writer kicked in DURING THE MOVIE is bad. So Cameron needed to find some small ways to cut that part of the movie back a little. I don't think it would have taken much--maybe cut 10 minutes overall from that section--and I wouldn't have had that writer moment. It would have made those scenes that much more effective in the end. This is a minor quibble as well, but I wished Cameron has spent just a touch more time on Jake's character and how much he is emotionally affected by the fact that in his real life he can't use his legs, but through the avatar he can run, walk, jump, etc. Cameron spends some time on this, but not enough by far. I think this is why I ended up not connecting so much to Jake, and yet why I did connect so much with the main female lead. We get her side of the story and her emotions at nearly every stage in the movie. Cameron starts doing that with Jake at the beginning, but then Jake's own personal motivations and emotions get set aside. I wish they hadn't. Jake had great potential as a character of extreme interest and emotional turmoil. It just wasn't used. So, in the end, what did I think? I loved the movie, even seeing it at midnight after a long day that started at 5:30am. I did not get sleepy at all during the showing (although my movie companion dozed out for a while *ahem*), so it completely engaged me. The worldbuilding was spectacular, but was not the point of the movie. Most of the characters were interesting and drew me in, although there were some lost opportunities with a few of the characters, namely Jake. There were some emotionally riveting and gut-wrenching parts. But the story fell a little flat simply because there wasn't anything new done with it. We've seen this type of story before (or read this type of story before) and it needed something else, some twist besides it being set on another planet, to take it up a level. That twist could have been drawing us in more to Jake's turmoil, driving home his desire to get his legs back and the choices he has--getting back his original legs by siding with the humans, or getting them back using the avatar--but Cameron didn't focus in on that enough. But it was still a good movie. In many aspects a spectacular movie. |
danceswthcobras
|
1:13a |
I swear, it was an accident
It just occurred to me that my total food intake today has been: Breakfast: Slices of leftover venison roast, medium rare, spiked with garlic and dipped in anchovy-caper mayonnaise. It was convenient to grab on the way out the door. Lunch: Raw venison. I was hungry while butchering a lovely fat doe carcass, and there it was. No reason to delay gratification. Venison carpaccio is better with white truffle oil, Parmesan shavings and cracked black pepper on crisp toast, but it's also pretty good without condiments. Dinner: Pan-seared venison. Rob wanted some food in a hurry since he didn't help himself to quite as much of the carcass as I did during the butchering. The obvious thing to do was to slice off some steaks and toss them in the skillet. I was still pretty full of raw Bambi, but I had a few nibbles. Okay, I think I really need to eat some vegetables now. Current Mood:  amused |
| Thursday, December 17th, 2009 |
jpsorrow
|
4:41p |
And So It Ends . . .
I have just now, moments ago, clicked the "submit" button and sent in the last grades for the Fall 2009 semester. Let me take a moment to sit back and savor . . . well, the moment. *sigh* Another semester done. It's exciting and thrilling and also a huge relief to have the grading done (as much a relief as it is to the students to have the finals finished I assume). A new semester approaches, of course, but for now it's time to chuck the backpack, notes, and books into the far corner of the writing room and forget them, break out some strong drink, and relax and recharge for a month. And part of the recharging is working on writing. I need to get a serious chunk of the next book written during this month, and having Christmas and New Years and a birthday in there doesn't help much with that. But the new book is due in August and right now I have . . . *licks fingers to count the pages* . . . one page written. (But I have a sizeable chunk of another book written--let's say a quarter. It's just that THAT book isn't due until AFTER this other one.) But for the immediate now, I prepare for cycling at the gym, followed by a writer's meeting, followed by a short break, before heading out to see AVATAR in 3D at MIDNIGHT, using the free tickets I won on Tuesday. It's going to be a long night. |
| Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 |
jpsorrow
|
8:24p |
Life
So today was interesting. I intended to get some writing done, and I did. Not much, but still some. Mostly what happened was that I ended up working on a bunch of small things for various writing projects. So it was productive in many aspects, just not the physical "words on page" aspect, which is what I REALLY need to get cracking on, since the next book is due in August (and today was the first day I actually wrote any words for it). Also of interest, while all of this various activity was going on, I ran across a post on Facebook about winning tickets to see Avatar on Thursday, midnight showing. I figured, what the hell? so I entered . . . and won. So I now have tickets for Avatar. On Thursday night. Midnight showing. And guess what I've discovered? All of my friends have day jobs and can't go! (Well, they could still and I'm trying to convince them of this, but so far it isn't working.) So we'll have to see what happens, whether I go or not, etc. If I do, I'll be sure to do a review. |
jpsorrow
|
8:43a |
Repost: Holiday Special Deals
OK, so holiday shopping is upon us, so I thought I'd reiterate some of the holiday deals I mentioned earlier this year. First, I thought I should remention that all three of the books are available on Kindle now, for all of the Kindle lovers out there. Here are the links to the kindle versions: The Skewed Throne, The Cracked Throne, and The Vacant Throne. All of the books are now, as far as I know, available in all other electronic formats as well. Go forth and download them! And now for the dead tree versions. I'm currently running a few holiday specials, one for hardcovers and one for paperbacks: Hardcover Deal: You can buy all three hardcovers of the books for a total of $30! That includes shipping. Paperback Deal: You can buy all three paperbacks of the books for a total of $20! That includes shipping as well. If you're interested in any of these deals, contact me at jpalmatier@sff.net and we can arrange payment and get address info, etc. Individual hardcovers and paperbacks are available as well at $15 and $8 respectively (shipping included). Just let me know what you're interested in! All prices are for the US shipping only. I can give you a quote for international shipping if you get in touch with me. Happy holiday shopping everyone! ********************* |
| Sunday, December 13th, 2009 |
danceswthcobras
|
9:26p |
Kitty and Dragon Can Cook Show: Entertaining Friends
Invited a few friends over for supper, and tossed some good eats together. The menu was: First course: Seared and oven finished goat chops served over daikon cakes, with ginger-sesame daikon and arugula greens Second course: Roasted duck breast with a Thai cranberry sauce (coconut, basil and Kaffir lime scented) Third course: Roasted leg of venison wrapped in bacon, medium rare, with buttered whiskey mashed carrots accented with nutmeg. Dessert: Lemon cake (not low carb; it was in the freezer from a friend's baking) and freshly roasted Ethiopian Sidamo coffee. Not as many people showed up as had originally planned, so there are leftovers. Mmmm, tasty leftovers. I'll be enjoying them for awhile, to be sure. Current Mood:  full |
jpsorrow
|
12:56p |
Book Review: "The Surrogates" by Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele
I decided to buy and read "The Surrogates" because, of course, the movie was coming out soon and it had Bruce Willis in it, and I've lately been drawn into the graphic novel universe. So I said, why not? I've read a few other graphic novels and the concepts presented in this one were interesting. First off, the graphic novel is significantly different from the movie, so you should probably read it even if you have already seen the movie. It starts off with the same initial setup--some surries get zapped and detectives are there to investigate--but pretty much from that moment on it diverges from the movie. Characters are the same, but they don't do what they did in the movie, tec. So read the novel, it's worth it. The storyline is definitely interesting and pulls you along, weaving the actual detective work together with the life of the main detective, Greer. You find out about his relationship with his wife and how the introduction of the surrogates--androids that the user controls and that pretty much act out everyone's daily life for safety reasons--has altered society and interpersonal relationships to a huge extent. The main idea of the surrogates is what kept me interested in the novel, although the plotline about who's zapping surrogates and why also drew me in. The ramifications on every aspect of society if we did ever reach a point where the majority of the population lived their lives through surrogates is . . . astounding. And that's why this graphic novel rocks. It's also why it's slightly disappointing. There are so many aspects of life that would change that what was presented in the novel seemed . . . limited. I loved the story and the novel, but when I was finished I felt that there was SO MUCH MORE to explore with this concept and I was disappointed that there wasn't more, a volume 2 or something. I know there's a prequel, and I will definitely read that, but I seriously hope that there will be more set in this world in the future because there is so much more left to explore. Since this is a graphic novel, I must also comment on the artwork: spectacular. The artwork was subtle and appropriate and a perfect amalgamation of art and photoshopping, especially regarding some of the SF elements that were incorporated into the artwork, such as realistic digital screens and such. At the same time, the artwork was extremely simple. The level of detail was appropriate and minimalistic, as well as the color palette. Some panels were sketchy and blocky, others were more finely detailed, and the ability of the artist to convey complex emotions through facial expression and such was astounding. So, overall a very good graphic novel, the only drawback being that the world created had SO MUCH potential that I felt there should have been much more done in this universe and with this plotline, so was disappointed when the novel ended. I'd love to see more from this pair, and even if you've seen the movie, I'd definitely suggest reading the novel. |
jpsorrow
|
12:16p |
Interview Posted
An interview has been posted over here regarding my Throne of Amenkor series and the release of the translated versions of the books in Germany. The link is to the English version, but there's a German translation of the interview posted at the same site as well. Check it out! |
| Saturday, December 12th, 2009 |
walkertxkitty
|
12:12p |
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| Friday, December 11th, 2009 |
danceswthcobras
|
7:44p |
Kitty And Dragon Can Cook Show, Vampire Edition
After doing two days straight on the farm processing five ducks and two goats, we were pretty exhausted, but we certainly came home with plenty of spoils. The two goats belonged to that nice local farmer lady whom we're splitting the duck flock with; we agreed to process them into nice little cuts for her freezer in exchange for a quarter of the meat plus all of the internal organs, hides, heads and incidentals. In this case, the incidental that really had me salivating was the fixings for blood sausage. For culinary barbarians, blood sausage is one of the great delicacies of European cuisine, and can be spiced in all kinds of absolutely lovely ways. The drawback is that it is fiddly to make and requires fresh blood that has immediately been mixed with salt, vinegar and/or wine. In short, like many of the best recipes, this one basically begins with "Kill one animal". So we did. The goat blood we spiced with unsweetened cocoa, aniseed, fennel, garlic, onion powder and cloves. In went a bit of cream, low carb breadcrumbs, diced pork fatback and a couple of freshly ground venison steaks for good measure. The mixture was piped into some natural hog casings. I admit that I cheated and sent Rob out to the farmer's market for casings. Processing intestines is No Fun, having been there done that before. The duck blood got the royal treatment with plenty of heavy cream, the duck livers and hearts ground fine, some breadcrumbs, tiny cubes of pork fatback and a diced Honeycrisp apple, and it was seasoned with cardamom, lavender, cloves, star anise, cinnamon and shallots. A liver and lights sausage followed, with the goat liver, lungs and heart coarsely ground and seasoned with herbs of Provence, garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper. The binding worked better after adding an egg and some breadcrumbs. All of the sausage strings were twisted and tied off (we actually used twist-ties as that was the most convenient) gently poached so as to hold their shape, and are now sitting to cool before being packed for the freezer or the fridge. We have company coming next week, so we wanted to lay in plenty of farm fresh goodies. The last duck is sitting on the counter in paraffin, in the hopes that plucking its persistent pinfeathers will be a bit easier that way. I'm not hugely sanguine about the results, but such is life. Its mates are in the freezer awaiting delicious dinners to come, and there is a lovely shoulder and brisket of goat sizzling in the oven. We're pretty tired, but it smells heavenly in here, and life is good. ( A shout out to Bastlynn ) Current Mood:  predatory |
walkertxkitty
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2:03a |
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| Thursday, December 10th, 2009 |
jpsorrow
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4:42p |
Holiday Special Offers
OK, so holiday shopping is upon us, so I thought I'd reiterate some of the holiday deals I mentioned earlier this year. First, I thought I should remention that all three of the books are available on Kindle now, for all of the Kindle lovers out there. Here are the links to the kindle versions: The Skewed Throne, The Cracked Throne, and The Vacant Throne. All of the books are now, as far as I know, available in all other electronic formats as well. Go forth and download them! And now for the dead tree versions. I'm currently running a few holiday specials, one for hardcovers and one for paperbacks: Hardcover Deal: You can buy all three hardcovers of the books for a total of $30! That includes shipping. Paperback Deal: You can buy all three paperbacks of the books for a total of $20! That includes shipping as well. If you're interested in any of these deals, contact me at jpalmatier@sff.net and we can arrange payment and get address info, etc. Individual hardcovers and paperbacks are available as well at $15 and $8 respectively (shipping included). Just let me know what you're interested in! All prices are for the US shipping only. I can give you a quote for international shipping if you get in touch with me. Happy holiday shopping everyone! ********************* |
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