robert.admin – Page 188 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

June 3, 2012

Footprints of Thunder (Review)

It was the cover that caught me in the used bookstore, of a dinosaur foot standing next to a sand castle – says a lot when you think about it. But it irked me that the footprints on the beach beyond were singular – what was this dino doing? Hopping? Footprints of Thunder had a couple of things that twitted me – not seriously, mind – I rather liked the book. For instance, it starts with a team of scientific hobbyist investigating strange occurrences – fish and flowers and corn which fall from the clear blue sky. However, it appears […]

May 31, 2012

Gotcha! (DOG EAR)

You know the movie – the cute babysitter hears a noise. She investigates. Opeeeeennnsss the dooooooor…. MEOW! Out runs… the cat. She and the audience breath a sigh or relief and then the killer rams an ice pick into her. Surprises, shock, and startlement go with the media of movies – very easy to do. But it’s possible to pull this off in writing – if one really crafts it well. My favorite shock comes from the book Mr American by George MacDonald Fraser, where the title character (once a desperado, now a English squire) has just been threatened by […]

May 26, 2012

Slow day at the con

Slow day at the sci-fi convention. 10am to 6pm, sold three books. Other sellers are making about the same rate of sales. Good point – well, besides those few sales, watching a guy manning a booth across from me read Early ReTyrement all day. Every now and then he’d laugh out loud, or call over to tell me what Mason was up to. This helped to get through the thanklessness of convention doldrums. Had a fan I didn’t even know stop by and tell me how much he liked it. Worth more than money. Also, got some leads on some […]

May 26, 2012

…Something I Could Quit (Review)

The wordy name for this book is I wish there was something that I could quit. What drew me to it (on the CD shop bookshelf) was the old drawing of a railroadman leaning out of a tower, pocket watch in hand, watching a set of 1950’s diesels blur past. The 50’s are great fodder nowadays; full of irony. So the story is about four young folks, Laura (a gloomy rock-throwing-at-military-trains nutcase), Aaron (the nutty-yet-earnest fellow living in his dead tour van in her driveway), Susan (the bartender seeking a strong man and…) Jemuel (her boyfriend, baby-weak yet organized to […]

May 24, 2012

Literary Setbacks (DOG EAR)

I’ll always remember the scene in The Muppet Movie (the first one, kiddies) where producer Orson Wells casts an imperial glare over the bedraggled muppets who have forced their way into his office, then intercoms his receptionist. “Bring me the ‘Rich and Famous’ contract.” Yeah, that’s what we want. Then there is the movie moment from Sideways where a would-be author stands on the empty loading dock behind a winery and listens as his agent tells him that “Some books can’t find a home”. Yes, after thinking he was going to be published, he’s getting dropped by his agency. And […]

May 23, 2012

OpsLog – LM&O – 5/23/2012

It’s a slow summer in the middle of a recession, both in the real world and the one outside the club. Seriously, attendance is down; vacations and whatnot. And with the recession, people are working other jobs, second-shift deals, even quitting the club altogether. And just like a real railroad, I have fewer crews, fewer trains, fewer cars getting to their docks. The new kid was supposed to work Zanesville while I did Mingo but something came up for him. And my usual local guy wasn’t here. So I’m just working Mingo by myself. Picked up the cars to shift to the […]

May 22, 2012

OASIS 25 appearance!

I’ll be at OASIS 25, the Orlando scifi convention at the Sheraton Orlando Downtown this weekend (May 25-27). Come by and get a book signed. If you don’t have a book, come by and buy a book and get it signed. If you have a signed copy, just come by and say hi! Looking forward to seeing all the crazy geeks all dressed up. Should be wacky and fun and interesting. Book review fans – the book will be in a little late sunday evening (but I’ll still get it to you). Got an interesting little indie one to look […]

May 20, 2012

God Bless America (Review)

Everyone remembers Deathwish, the suburban revenge-fantasy flick out of the last century where an angered father takes on street crime, doing that vigilante stuff that seemed so cool until the real world implications (i.e. Zimmermann/Martin) intruded. So much for escapism revenge fantasies. But now we have Deathwish for the new generation. God Bless America was assembled by Bobcat Goldthwait (yeah, that guy). Basically, its about middle-aged loser Frank, tuffed out of his job because he made a nice gesture of sending flowers to a receptionist (yet violated company policy in using her personal information (i.e. address) do do this nice […]

May 20, 2012

Echos of my speech

Saturday was the day of my speech at the local downtown library. I’ll admit that I’m a horrible speaker. That I hadn’t done a public speech since college and was not looking forward to this. But I took my speech and focused on it like it was a hard-punching chapter of a book, adding wit and twists and all that. And at a friend’s recomendation, I worked on a delievery more atuned to role-playing reffing (as I once did). And I practiced it, tuning it tight. I even stood on the back porch while the rain came down, giving it […]

May 20, 2012

Pandemonium: Smoke (Review)

I’ll remind you that while I was in London a few months ago, we visited the Tate Modern with its display of John Martin Paintings. I also picked up a hard back from the gift shop, Pandemonium, a series of short stories based on the paintings reviewed. I loved the paintings and really loved the book (limited edition – I snagged number 7 out of 100). I reviewed it HERE. With great expectations, I ordered Pandemonium: Stories of the Smoke, a book purportedly focused on London, mostly Dickens’ London, but London all the same. Got it and read it in […]