robert.admin – Page 162 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

January 12, 2014

The Shelter (Review)

The Shelter is another one of those marketing uploads onto Amazon (hey, I’m thinking about it too), a short story that leads to a greater story. This one is for free. You’ll pay for the rest. It has some good things going for it. We open in an apartment in a failing urban setting where everything is falling apart. Little Sunni is garbed in her ballerina slippers, practicing her lessons while doper-mom Shannon wonders where the latest man in her life has run off to. With food riots cracking open the city, it’s a bad day to get evicted, but […]

January 11, 2014

ShowLog – Deland – 1/10-11/2015

ome math… When I ran a train through John’s scale speedometer, I tended to hit 33mph or so. Given that one slow train (mine) tends to set the pace for everyone on our Jacksonville mainline, we can assume ALL the trains were hitting that speed. Note that this, as well as all my other estimates, are low-ball. There was an average of 3-5 trains on the layout at any time. We’ll lowball with that and say 3. That means, every hour, our three trains clocking 33mph were running 100 scale miles. Or 550 scale miles each day, for a total […]

January 9, 2014

Life imitating art (DOG EAR)

I‘m a cyclist-commuter. Bicycles catch my eye. But none has better than the one a month or two back, a bright orange bike (and I do mean orange – wheels, chains, everything) ridden by an orange man (and I do mean orange – a full body stocking (how did he SEE in that thing???)). That was notable – I mentioned it to my wife. Strange. Then a few days later, going into a local fast food place, I saw another orange bike chained up outside. Now, the tire was flat and it didn’t look like it had been ridden in […]

January 5, 2014

A feast for Crows (Review)

So this is now, what? 2400 pages in? You know that most people don’t read 2400 pages of novels – total! – over their entire lives. And this is the fourth book of this massive series, The Game of Thrones. So far, Westeros is playing out like a game of Risk. It looks like House Lannister has finally won, but then someone gets three matching cards and suddenly forty armies pop onto the board. Now its the ironmen of the Greyjoys. And then the desertmen of Martell are back in (well, they haven’t moved yet, but they are like a […]

January 2, 2014

Rejection (DOG EAR)

(This was written a few weeks back, in the middle of the ‘overlord’ series. I’m mostly down off this, but still disappointed. However, I decided to post it up, just in case some other writer who feels the same way finds fellowship. And why would I want them to quit? I don’t want to be the only one who gets hammered like this.) I don’t feel like writing tonight. I got fucking rejected. A while back I got a request for stories from a publisher I’ve have contacts with before – a call for submissions. It had to be a historic piece. I thought about […]

December 29, 2013

Lords of the Stratosphere (Review)

So it’s another shorty this week, a novella from the 30’s by Arthur J. Banks in the golden (and wildly off scientifically) age of Scifi. Game of Thrones takes up so much of my time. But it’s not a bad little shorty, a tale of high (50,000 feet, which feels like we’re talking outer space in this age of Ford Trimotors) adventure. As usual, there are two toothy, swarthy, intellectual yet two-fisted heroes, these with the unlikely names of Lucian Jeter and Tema Eyer. And Tema and Lucian (I kept thinking of that movie) are going to go for a […]

December 26, 2013

The Perfect Gift (DOG EAR)

Okay, so this would have been a handy thing to post up a few weeks earlier, but I was in the midst of the Overlord series (and I didn’t think about it until now) so there. But Christmas gifts. Everyone worries about Christmas gifts. Why? If you follow this blog (and there are about 100 out there who do), you are a reader and perhaps a writer. You are someone who likely knows books and are interested in them. This being the case, you should have the makings of a wonderful gift for that loved one you are shopping for. […]

December 22, 2013

Free 5 (Review)

I‘m laboring through one of the Book of Throne tomes, those massive cinderblock-sized efforts that require weeks to get through. And this is a problem for someone who hosts a weekly book blog. As I’ve been thinking of just this thing (for marketing myself), I went onto Amazon and looked for free fiction, something short and sharp and clever that I could read in a setting or two, and was reviewable and enjoyable. Happily I found this in Free 5, a collection you can locate on Amazon without too much trouble. Paul Dail went after flash fiction here, very very […]

December 19, 2013

Being an Evil Overlord Part 5 (DOG EAR)

And here it is – the final set of silly, overused plot devices for winning against a villain. Yes, there were a total of 238 of them. Thanks again to Peter Anspach who holds copyright to this (does that mean every time one of these boners shows up in the late show, he gets money?). I don’t care if you try these tricks at home. Just don’t do them in your writing! All giant serpents acting as guardians in underground lakes will be fitted with sports goggles to prevent eye injuries. All crones with the ability to prophesy will […]

December 15, 2013

After the Golden Age (Review)

There is first-tier storytelling, which is where you tell a story that everyone knows, like about Superman or Spiderman. Then there is second-tier storytelling. In this case, it’s taking a first-tier story and expanding it in some new way. Like in The Incredibles, where we see domesticated superheroes dealing with modern life. After the Golden Age is then about 2.3, which is close to The Incredibles but perhaps just a touch more realistic. The story is told by Celia West, a mid-twenties accountant who is somewhat estranged from her parents, who just happen to form the core members of Commerce […]