Kibbles & Bits

Eragon
I have read both Eragon and Eldest so I was excited to rent the movie Eragon. The end result was disappointment. I thought the Urgals looked like bloated cooks and the Shade looked like he needed some chapstick. I thought Saphira the dragon and Brom were excellent but not enough to get a passing grade.

Book and the Movie
I just finished reading the Club Dumas and it was excellent. The movie based on this book was called The Ninth Gate and starred Johnny Depp. I thought they were both great but very different. It's rare that any movie is better than a book. There's too much in a large book that has to be squeezed into a 120 minute movie.

Stray Shopping Carts

Winner of Odd Book Title
The book Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America has won the Bookseller/Diagram prize for the oddest book title. This book is a hilarious view of random smashed and abandoned shopping carts with profiles of the styles and damages from trains, plows and rain. You can check it out by going to www.strayshoppingcart.com . Other titles up for consideration were Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan and How Green Were the Nazi's?. As a writer, I often struggle with the title of a novel I'm writing. Sometimes, when I'm browsing the local bookstore, I'll be sucked in by a title. That's how I discovered the fantastical Christopher Moore. I grabbed The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and have been hooked on him ever since. My next book to read is his newest release You Suck which is the follow up to the outstanding Bloodsucking Fiends.

Adirondack Noir

The Short Story
I just finished the first version of my short fiction mystery story for the Adirondack Noir mystery anthology. It's about a Bigfoot hunter found murdered in the Adirondack mountains. I had a lot of fun writing it but I'm ready to get back to novel writing. I'm used to spreading out a story and funneling the action to the end. I found it very difficult to do in 10,000 words.

Grindhouse
I went with my buddies Dave and Mike last night to see the new movie Grindhouse. It was fantastic! The first movie was Planet Terror and featured zombies getting blown to bits with the second movie Death Proof showing that Kurt Russell is the man! If you like gore, thrills, and gaping plot holes -this is the movie for you. It's a throw back to the B movies I loved in my youth.

The Road is the pick

Oprah
Was I surprised to see the latest book pick by Oprah. She chose The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I have said it was the best book I read last year. Steven King picked it as his number one book of 2006. I never thought I'd be in such great company. They're right that it's a fantastic book. Bleak, terrifying and emotional.

Cemetery Dance
I love this magazine. Bev Vincent's "From the Dead Zone" alone is worth the price yet its filled with great short stories, book reviews, movie reviews and general fun in the horror genre.

Borat
Why would I laugh at this movie? It was so wrong yet I pissed myself. People can say the dumbest things in front of a camera. There's nothing like making a horse's ass in front of millions of people.