Hellgate #2 In Stores Now!

I picked up a copy in Wal-Mart yesterday, so I know they're out there. Based on the video game, the novels portray the adventures of three key players in the fight for London's survival against demon forces.

Simon Cross is a Templar, one of the legendary knights with cutting-edge armor and an on-board AI.

Leah Creasey is a Hunter, a tricked-out MI-6 agent whose blacksuit would make Q green with envy.

Warren Schimmer is a Cabalist, a young man who hovers between the Darkness and the Light, gifted with incredible arcane powers.

Apparently My Book Review Site Is Banned In Turkey!

This news just in from my good friend Don (http://atomiczebra7.blogspot.com/). He's currently over there on a work assignment and tried to check out the site only to discover this.

I don't know if this makes me a rock star or a target!

Bookhound Review Site Hits 10,000 Visitors!

Just wanted to share this news. My book review site at http://bookhound.wordpress.com/ just had it 10,000th visitor today!

Chilling & Vicious!

In addition to being a bestselling novelist and a noted award-winning short story writer, Joe Hill also happens to be the son of novelist Stephen King. I lead with that and I feel guilty about it at the same time. Hill created his own name in order to create his own identity, and as soon as we found out, we start telling each other. As I said, I feel guilty, but I also know that letting the cat out of the bag, again, will draw more people to this review and hopefully pump up Hill’s sales. He deserves to be read. He has an intriguing mind and a unique way of looking at the dark corners in life.

Despite his paternity, Hill has crafted an existence for himself that’s just starting to take off. His novel, Heart-Shaped Box (reviewed here) leapt onto bestseller lists and latched hold of horror fans’ psyches in wild, delicious ways. His collection of short stories, 20th Century Ghosts, has won the Bram Stoker Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the International Horror Guild Award.

Now, along with artist Gabriel Rodriguez, Hill has staked out the comics medium with a new series called Locke & Key. The launch is a page-turning suspense story full of surprises. According to information that’s been released by IDW Publishing, this is going to be at least a six-issue monthly series. Hill has plans for at 68 issues of Keyhouse.

I really like the idea behind the house and the series. It focuses on kids, and the house has doors they can pass through that will change them. The power of the doors can change their age, their race, and their sex, and has a tendency to push people toward the evil we all carry around inside us.



The first issue is stunning. When I saw the blood-red cover with the old key so prominent, I didn’t at first see the house in the background. Then when I saw the house I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I just sat there for a moment, frozen, thinking about all the possibilities of that key and that house and all those doors. I think that’s what still consumes me about the story.

The story begins quietly, almost innocently, but it quickly turns mean and hard-edged, which is one of the qualities of Hill’s writing. The story picks up with Sam Lesser and Al Grubb, two high school students that were counseled by Tyler Locke’s father, turning up at the Locke house. A single page of simple conversation with Mrs. Locke turns chilling when we see the weapons they’re packing.



On the next page, we get a full-page shot of a man and a woman lying dead in the back of a pickup truck. A bloody tarp barely covers them.



Hill plays with time in this first comic. He leaves us hanging, wanting desperately to turn the pages, but afraid of what we’re going to see at the same time. In four quick panels, we’re introduced to Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode Locke, who are evidently going to be our main characters throughout the comics.



Tyler is the brooding high school teen who resents his dad’s manipulation to get them out to help him paint the summerhouse. Kinsey is a pre-teen girl who seems to be the responsible one. Bode is the ever-curious and ever-daring kid who’s always getting into trouble and exploring. Rodriguez’s art is fantastic and really brings the characters and the environment around them to life while looking simple at the same time.

The panel of Mr. Locke coming home and surprising the teen killers is chilling. Then Hill cuts away to the funeral and we don’t know who’s dead. Afterwards, Tyler sits through unbearable visits from friends who are so disconnected from reality I wanted to scream at them. One guy can only talk about himself. Another can only talk about how famous Tyler is going to be. Writing about real people is one of Hill’s gifts. Apparently illustrating them is one of Rodriguez’s.



While sitting with his Uncle Duncan, Tyler remembers how his father planned for them to go live at Keyhouse if anything ever happened to him. Hill’s script is an economy of language. Every panel moves the story along and provides information as well as emotion. Rodriguez makes them all beautiful to look at.

Then the story plunges back to the day of the murders, when the teen killers were inside the Locke summer home. The next few pages are full of tension, suspense, and thrill-a-second pacing that had me flipping pages like a madman. The story turns chilling, then cuts off again, leaving me hanging once more. You know that Tyler survives, but you don’t know if anyone else does.

The next sequence introduces Keyhouse, and the layout of the grounds, the fact that it’s on a peninsula cut off from civilization, is at once intriguing. I know that the distance away from a populated area is going to be trouble.

Once the exploration of the house begins, which I was dying to see, Hill moves us back to the past again. The graphic panels Rodriguez presents had me once more hanging on as what happened that day of the killings is finally played out. It’s brutal and vicious, but that’s the only way it could have happened.

The true weirdness descends on the story in the next few pages. Bode is off exploring the weird house all on his own when he has an out-of-body-experience. And we learn that Sam Lesser, one of the teen killers, is still alive in juvenile lockup. Not only that, but he’s talking to a mysterious entity he can see in a sink full of water.

I’m totally jacked about this series. I think it’s going to be great. I can’t believe Hill decided to do it as a comic book instead of a novel, but in an interview I read he said he’d just always envisioned it as a comic book.

I love Rodriguez’s art, so that’s a bonus in addition to a great, macabre story with plenty of mystery and suspense. But the waiting over the next five months is going to test me to my limits. I expect I’m going to be daydreaming – or having nightmares – about Keyhouse and what’s really going on for some time now. If you’re a comics fan or a horror fan or a Joe Hill fan, you gotta check this one out.

Impulse Buy!

But with a cover like that, who can blame me? It's evidently a steampunk thriller (set in the late 19th century in London). I'm going to be really let down if the story doesn't live up to the cover.

If You Haven't Seen This Movie, You Seriously Have To!

Most people are going to remember comic actor John Astin for his role as Gomez Addams on The Addams Family television series. As Gomez, Astin swaggered onto the stage and delivered one-liners and off-beat dialogue with impeccable timing.

However, I remember him most vividly in the title role of Evil Roy Slade, a made-for-TV movie that came out back in 1972. On that first viewing, that movie became my favorite comedic Western, even outstripping James Garner’s Support Your Local Sheriff. It’s really unfair to group the two movies together in some respects. Support Your Local Sheriff tells a real story and Garner plays the character straight.

Some might want to throw Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles into the pot for consideration, and that’s fine. I just preferred the wit and quick turns of phrase and situation of my two personal favorites. I enjoyed Blazing Saddles, just not as much.

With Evil Roy Slade, the humor is over-the-top and moves at a purely frantic slapstick pace. If you don’t pay attention to Evil Roy Slade you’re going to miss a snappy comeback, an offhand remark that is delicious, or a bit of physical comedy mugging for the camera that is to die for.

Where else can you get math problems like:

Betsy: Evil Roy, if you had six apples and your neighbor took three of them, what would you have?

Evil Roy: A dead neighbor and all six apples.

Or:

Evil Roy: My definition of a nine-to-five job? Nine guys robbing five guys!

Or:

Poker Player: I got jacks with an ace.

Evil Roy: I got threes…with a gun.

Poker Player: You win! Wow, you are lucky!

The laughs are often deft puns and plays on words, with Astin mugging his way through them in true vaudevillian style. No one else could have played Evil Roy Slade.

Until the DVD arrived and I sat down to watch it with my son, I didn’t know that Garry Marshall and his long-time writing partner Jerry Belson had written the script. Looking back through the movie, it’s easy to see Marshall’s trademark of working with people he enjoys. He gave roles to his younger sister Penny Marshall (and later created Laverne & Shirley for her) and Pat Morita (and later cast him in the role of Arnold in Happy Days).

Anyone familiar with Marshall and Belson’s work (on The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, and the adaption of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple for television to name a few) will recognize the snappy patter and quick play on words. No one did it better than they did.

The movie has a familiar plot, bad guy falls in love with pretty woman who tries to make him turn good, but the unrelenting, quick pace of the humor transcends the rather staid storyline. Evil Roy Slade quite simply takes no prisoners.

Mickey Rooney plays Nelson Stool, the railroad tycoon chasing Evil Roy. Dick Shawn stars as Ding Bell, the singing cowboy marshal Stool sends for. Henry Gibson plays Stool's ne'ver-do-well nephew. Edie Adams stars as the woman scorned by Evil Roy. Milton Berle plays a shoe salesman who tried to help Evil Roy go straight. In a hilarious role, Dom Deluise stars as a psychiatrist. In an uncredited role, Ed Begley has a brief walk-on that's funny. This talented cast all add to the timing and pacing of the movie.

If the rejoinders or the wry observations don’t get you, then the visual gags or Astin’s constant preening and monologues will. The actors and actresses move like clockwork throughout the movie. Even when you get ahead of the plot and see something coming (like Evil Roy getting stuck riding a Shetland pony with his boots dragging the ground), the sight of it being played out is goofball hilarious.

This is one of the most perfect family movies I’ve seen in a long time. There’s no profanity, no nudity, no innuendo. It’s just slapstick comedy at its purest form.

If you haven’t seen Evil Roy Slade, you’re in for a treat. And if you have seen the movie, treat yourself to a return bout with the best comedic Western film ever made.

Rachel Vincent's Second Book Out In April!

I love these covers. When I saw the first one, Stray, it popped off the shelf and I bought it immediately. Now I've seen the second one, Rogue, and I know I'll be picking it up as well.

Vincent is an Oklahoma native, hailing from the same small towns that I came from. Funny how storytellers come from those places, isn't it?

Her series of paranormal adventures center on werecats and focus on a strong-willed and independent heroine. Check her out at: http://rachelvincent.com/.

Like To Draw Spaceships?

I just found out NASA is giving away (they call it funding) $175 million to the winner of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. The design (fancy word for drawing) is for the privately owned space program that's being launched (okay, I should be ashamed). Shades of Robert A. Heinlein and Ben Bova! That's what those two SF writers spent considerable time writing about.

Back in the 1960s, I was a child of the space race. My friends and I used to design spaceships that would take you to every part of the universe. Got in trouble for drawing them in class too.

But I coulda had 175 million bucks...



In other space news today, the USAF denies reports that the Air Force pursued UFOs over Ft. Worth, Texas.

Hmmmm, it took them two weeks to get around to admitting that. Where is Fox Mulder?



And in still other news: my ten year old Chandler seems to be as pun-loving and twist-loving as his father. I took him, my 18 year old, and my wife to dinner at Santa Fe Steakhouse tonight.

Chandler started in on the bucket of peanuts, then asked his brother why peanuts were like mysteries. (Chandler likes Scooby Doo.)

Shiloh said he didn't know how peanuts were like mysteries.

Chandler said because you have to crack them both.

Arrrrggggghhhhh!

Perfect for the Armchair Archeologist/Historian!



For three years, real-life survival expert and explorer Josh Bernstein had what I considered to be the coolest job on TV. I’m an avid historian, so probably a lot of people won’t award the same number of cool points to the job or Bernstein that I do, but I’m okay with that. When I was a kid, and even now, I dreamed of doing what Bernstein got to do on The History Channel’s Digging For The Truth.

As a kid, I grew up on the novels of H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and reprint pulp magazines of Doc Savage. All of those books, at one time or another, featured lost civilizations or historical conundrums that experts have argued over and wondered about for hundreds and thousands of years. Josh Bernstein got to saddle up horses, camels, motorcycles, and jeeps to ramble around the world in an effort to bring light to several of these puzzles. These explorations weren’t without peril, though. Bernstein risks his life through long, high climbs, flash floods, and the real threat of bandits.

I think part of what really makes Digging For the Truth work for me is Bernstein’s obvious enthusiasm for what he’s doing and what he’s working on. Even before The History Channel discovered him, Bernstein had been involved with survivalist schools and was a double major in anthropology and psychology. He worked his way up from a student at Boulder Outdoor Survival School (BOSS) to CEO.

Throughout all of the episodes, Bernstein remains eager and attentive, a teacher to the television audience as well as a student of the people he meets while researching a subject for the show. He is extremely intelligent, educated, and reachable. I always got the impression that if I ever met him, he’d sit down and talk and be just one of the guys. That’s the same quality that makes Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs, so appealing.

This first season DVD collection offers 13 adventures. As always, Bernstein sets up the question he wants to answer, ascertain, or illuminate for his audience. He doesn’t always get answers, but the journey is fun and a lot is learned along the way.

“Who Built Egypt’s Pyramids?” and “Nefertiti: The Mummy Returns” first aired on the same night. I wish they’d broken them up on the DVD set because they seem too similar in some ways. In fact, some of the people Bernstein talks to are the same people. It probably made sense to shoot them at the same time, or close to each other, and maybe sitting through them in a single sitting when the show was new was all right, but they do have a degree of sameness that may led uninitiated viewers into believing the shows are all going to be about the same. That’s a disservice to the DVD collection.

In “Who Built Egypt’s Pyramids?”, Bernstein travels to Egypt (and really strikes a chord for all the Indiana Jones fans out there, which I’m sure didn’t sit well with Bernstein) to speculate on the construction of the pyramids. A lot of the footage is breathtaking, and Bernstein gets permission to go to areas in the pyramids that aren’t open to the public and haven’t been seen in years. Seeing the history scrawled on the walls is amazing. He even brings in the extra-terrestrial angle, but that’s not touched on too much. The stone splitting bit was fascinating.

When I was a kid in school, we learned about Queen Nefertiti in history class. Tutankhamen hadn’t been found at that point (which, I suppose, dates me a little), so this famous Queen was the high point of the class. We even made makeup out of egg whites as I recall. But I didn’t know there was as big a mystery to her as there obviously was. Until Bernstein revealed that someone had tried to erase her history in the Egyptian culture, I hadn’t a clue. Then I was hooked on the mystery as he started chasing down clues.

“Pompeii Secrets Revealed” was beautiful and grotesque at the same time. The volcano looked wonderful, as did the caldera and the outlying lands. Bernstein’s historical facts were as interesting as ever, especially when I realized that this was where Pliny the Elder had gotten killed while his son watched. But the plaster casts that were made of the bodies of the people who’d burned to death were macabre. I enjoyed the recreation of what had been happening there the last few days before the volcano finally blew. I was also surprised to learn how the lava stone was used to construct the buildings, and that the underground could be gotten to through an opening inside a small grocery story. These are just some of the things I love about this series.

The episode “Hunt for the Lost Ark” sounds too familiar. But Bernstein’s real-life adventures are anything but. The climb up the side of the mountain to the monastery (where even the animals are only male) was dangerous, and Bernstein didn’t try to hide the fact that he struggled with the climb. I like his honesty. The idea of the bandits scaring them enough to try to get across a flash flood area added more suspense to the tale, even though I knew they had to get out alive. Bernstein traveled more in this episode than in any other.

“The Holy Grail” is another one of those historical objects that so much has been written about. Despite the fact that it was supposed to be the cup (or bowl) that Jesus Christ drank out of at the Last Supper, it was lost. Add to that the fact that it was supposed to be used to catch the blood of Christ as he hung dying on the cross, and you have a hard time believing anyone could misplace it. Even as much as I thought I knew about the Grail, Bernstein wrapped even more stories into the mix.

In “The Iceman Cometh”, Bernstein sets out to solve a 5000 year old mystery. The frozen man discovered in 1991 had been the object of much speculation – especially after it was discovered that he was probably murdered. The exploration of the Iceman’s clothing and weapons is awesome. Bernstein also had some hair-raising adventure along the way with the blizzard and near-crash of the helicopter.

H. Rider Haggard wasn’t the only author who was fascinated with the legendary lost mines of King Solomon. Edgar Rice Burroughs renamed it Opar and used it in a few of his Tarzan novels. “Quest for King Solomon’s Gold” brings up a lot of the history of Ophir (what is now – most experts agree – is Pakistan or India). Still, as Bernstein points out, a number of questions remain.

“The Lost Tribe of Israel” involves a lot of Biblical history and ends up merging with the – relatively – new science of DNA linked to the discovery of possible ancestors. Again, this is a topic fantasy and science fiction writers have played with for years. Bernstein’s search takes some unexpected turns which still has archeologists and historians arguing.

I have to admit, I either didn’t know about Nazca lines or I had forgotten. But once Bernstein started elaborating on the “Secrets of the Nazca Lines”, I was hooked. These people created huge, elaborate drawings of stones (geoglyphs) in the desert that no one at that time could really see. It was at least another 1200 years before the airplane was invented. Bernstein covers all the possible reasons, but his explanation of how the people of that time were able to create those lines was what really sucked me in.

El Dorado is another famous legend that’s been lost in history. In “The Search for El Dorado”, Bernstein looks for the lost city of gold. I didn’t know about the new document that Bernstein worked with, and the last I’d heard, everybody generally assumed El Dorado was somewhere in the United States. The search, and Bernstein’s conjectures, was fascinating as always. I’d really thought this episode would only cover stuff I was already familiar with, but Bernstein always ferrets out more information and legend.

“Giants of Easter Island” was great. I can remember looking at pictures of those giant statues (moai) when I was a kid and wondering what the people who’d made them had sculpted them for. The moai have a look like nothing else I’d seen before this program. Bernstein’s participation in the Birdman practices was awesome. I’d heard of them before, but there were supposed to be closed to outsiders.

“Mystery of the Anasazi” isn’t as interesting, to me, as most of the other episodes. Again, this was a mystery that too many people are familiar with. They’re also familiar with most of the theories about what happened to them. Still, Bernstein does a good job with the presentation and the landscapes were filmed beautifully.

One of the things that I like best about the DVD set is that my son can enjoy the shows as well. History is one of the most ill-treated subjects in the public school system. I never had a really good history teacher until I was in college. Bernstein is bringing history to life for my ten-year-old in ways that excite and thrill him, and leave him with questions and a desire to learn more. In the end, I believe that’s the mark Bernstein and The History Channel wanted to leave with this set, and they achieved it.

Digging For The Truth The Complete Season 1 is a great addition to the armchair archeologist’s collection. It’s also good to have on the shelves for home schools and for parents who want to expose their kids to history that’s not just found on the pages of books that don’t carry that same excitement and enthusiasm Bernstein brings.

If you're interested in getting a copy of your own, go here.

Why I Love Science!

Two articles caught my eye (yep, pun intended) and moved me (yep, another) to investigate further.

The first is about a new bionic contact lens that can be worn and will interface with computers, iPODS, and wireless networks. Virtual reality just got a lot closer.

Not only that, but the eye is the gateway to a lot of knowledge that's going on inside the human body. The biometric reading possibility alone is staggering.

I've talked to people a lot about the way wireless internets and cell phones have already thrust people into living dual-input lives. Rarely do you make a phone call these days when you or the person you're on the phone with isn't on the internet (and yep, they were on the television with the MUTE button employed before that, but television was a passive medium where the internet is interactive).

Can you imagine what it's going to be like to "see" an alternate reality to the real one around you at the same time? The possibilities are staggering. Of course, email spam will cloud your vision, and will it be long before someone figures out a way to rewire your neural network through your new lenses?

And suppose you don't have to get drunk in order for the person you're with to suddenly get better looking? Suppose you can have your new bionic lenses simply "edit" him/her into perfection?

And forget rose-colored glasses. These new contacts could change your view on the world.

This is the way a writer's mind works.

So far, I haven't seen a price tag mentioned on the contacts, but I bet they're not disposable.

Yet.

Read more here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22731631/wid/11915829?gt1=10841.



Also, scientists think they've solved the problem of powering nanobots around the human body. They're going to base the propulsion system on the same one used by sperm.

Sperm moves at 7 inches per hour, which is the same as a full-grown man swimming 3.7 miles in the same hour -- better than any record now standing. Also, since the nanobots are injectable, they can get anywhere in a hurry to deliver medicines and enzymes.

Read more about it here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22333518/wid/11915829/

The future is upon us and things are a lot stranger than any of the SF I read as a kid.

Dynamic, Intriguing Covers!

This are book covers that make you pick up books. I ordered them both after I saw them. Now I just hope they're as good (and as fun) as the covers.

These Are The Books You Should Be Giving To Kids Who Think They Don't Like Books!

The new Granpa & Wiley book comes out in May 2008, but I just found it and had to share. I'm totally stoked. These are books my son and I can read separately, or together. Or both. They're hilarious, filled with funny dialogue, improbable situations, and many drawings and sketches.

If you have a reluctant elementary reader, give one of these books to him or her and see if they don't ask for more.

(click on pic to enlarge and read page)

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja!

He's got a gorilla for a receptionist. Hangs out with Benjamin Franklin (yeah, that Benjamin Franklin) who invented a formula that keeps bringing him back from the dead. And he performs supernatural surgery -- like removing the ghost that's haunting this guy's ear.

Webcomics are all the rage! Get some.

You can find this one at http://drmcninja.com/.

Matt Price and Chris Borthick Comics Podcast!

Two of my friends are doing a comics podcast for The Daily Oklahoman. They discuss some of the topselling comics of the week on the weekly show. The above cover is for Booster Gold #6, written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz.

This week they also discuss Chuck Dixon's return to Robin with issue #170, Hulk #1, and the second issue in the controversial Spider-Man "Brand New Day" arc.

Here's your link:

http://downloads.newsok.com/podcasts/080117_comics1.mp3

It's in MP3 format, so you can listen to it on your computer or download it to your iPOD for on-the-go. Give 'em a listen, and if you're hooked on comics, drop in at:

http://downloads.newsok.com/podcasts

Enjoy!

Looks like the family cat is going overboard!

Too Funny!

I try not to make a habit of forwarding stuff to people, but after I got this group of pictures from a friend today, I just had to share this one. The thing that makes it funny is that usually something like this would only happen to me.

Wimpy Kid #2 Is On Shelves Now!

In his latest book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Jeff Kinney nearly put me into the hospital. That man is going to have serious medical bills to pay if this keeps up. I almost busted a gut laughing out loud and almost aspirated my Diet Dr Pepper on a few occasions. And, yes, I hold him completely responsible.

If not for Kinney’s dry wit, keen insight into the lives of elementary school boys (especially their rationalization for EVERYTHING), and fantastic line drawing on nearly every page, I wouldn’t have had so many close brushes with death in his latest book. But he put me there time and time again. Even when I thought I had things figured out (because I was once an elementary school boy with a wild imagination without a governor), Jeff would throw a wrinkle at me that I didn’t see coming. He ambushed me with regularity throughout the pages.

But it’s not just me that Jeff has his merciless sights on. He’s taking out EVERYBODY. My wife teaches elementary school and Jeff’s books are all the rage among the students. I have to admit to adding to that bonfire because I talk about his books all the time (and I have to admit that I haven’t quite become the responsible adult either, because I’ll rile my wife’s fourth grade class up and take my leave—taking her out to dinner usually gets me off the hook and my cool points go up with the kids).

Parents have become interested in the books and I’ve told them they need to keep up with what their kids are reading. After all, they’re supposed to be responsible parents. (I, myself, have been known to buy extra copies of Jeff’s books and give out as gifts – some parents have accused me of inciting subversion, but I point out that Jeff’s first book was a New York Times bestseller and that is a far better recommendation than I could ever make. Except the Times doesn’t give away Jeff’s books as gifts that I know of. That’s why they hold me more accountable.)

But when I recommend the books to parents, I issue a stern warning. I call it the PYP warning. I especially give it to pregnant mothers and people with weak bladders who read in public places. PYP is Pee Your Pants. The books are just that funny. You’re reading along, and the next thing you know, WHAM! -- you’re laughing so hard you’re peeing your pants.

The funniest thing about Jeff’s humor, and the life of his main character, Greg Heffley, is that everything in the book COULD BE COMPLETELY TRUE. Speaking from experience, a lot of what’s between those pages has been true. But I’m not going to incriminate myself now when I got away with those things all those years ago. And there should be some kind of time statute on most of them. I still don’t want my mom to know, however.

Greg is THE man when it comes to taking a boring day and turning it upside down. People who underestimate the creativity of a bored child are simply asking for trouble. Nuclear war pales by comparison.

And Greg has an excuse – or a rationalization – for everything he does. Worse than that, half the time I get sucked in and totally buy into his point of view. Because, upon occasion, that point of view has been mine as well (or at least my defense). That’s where Jeff’s magic truly lies: he’s never lost touch with his inner child. And boy, his wife must be mad and his kids must be terrified!

In this second book, I was totally blown away yet again. Greg is a middle kid, which means that his life is made miserable from both ends of the spectrum – from his older brother Rodrick and his younger brother Manny. Rodrick is the sulky teen with a band called Loded Diper. And their music stinks, so they’re appropriately named. Manny is three and gets into all of Greg’s stuff.

I love how Jeff sets something up in the books and continues to play off of it at appropriate times. His sense of pacing is fantastic. The work of “art” Manny creates out of toothpicks and aluminum foil is great, and I’ve seen that done, actually. Greg’s mom tells Greg he should keep it around and he does – until it impales Greg’s semi-best friend Rowley.

Another sequence in the book focuses on Greg’s ringleader abilities. Kids will follow anyone with a semi-great idea. Or at least one that will bring pain or embarrassment to another kid. See, Greg is NOT hero material. At least, not yet. He does show some potential, but it’s really far into the future.

One of those ideas involved making believe one of the other kids didn’t exist. Following Greg’s lead, the rest of the class pretends the kid doesn’t exist so much that Greg gets called into the principal’s office, then gets read the riot act by his parents.

I loved when Greg gets involved in the role-playing game Magic and Monsters and his mom becomes concerned. She decides to show up and play with them. And her rules don’t involve all the violence and bloodshed all the kids are used to enjoying. Worst of all, some of Greg’s friends start liking the way his mom plays!

Another instance is when the parents leave for a weekend trip and put Rodrick in charge. They’re no sooner gone than Rodrick is on the phone calling people over for a party. Madness ensues. A door gets painted with permanent marker. Rodrick gets Greg to help him change out doors so the parents don’t find out. Later, when they’re punished, Rodrick says he’s going to study the effects of decompression of the spine suffered by astronauts during prolonged weightlessness. He does this by sacking out on the couch and sleeping all the time while he’s grounded.

If you want, you can even read the books for free on the internet. Just go to http://www.funbrain.com to read them. One of the most interesting things about Jeff’s books is that they’re given away for free and STILL sold enough to make it to the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

You see, Jeff wants everyone to read his books that wants to. However, kids want books they can hold in their hands, share with friends, and put on a shelf. Plus, it’s kind of hard to take your computer and internet along when you’re stuck in the car on a family trip or out with a parent at a doctor’s appointment or a shopping spree.

One of the best features about Jeff’s books after you put them in your kids’ hands is that you don’t have to worry about batteries going dead. They’re kid powered: fueled by imagination and driven by humor. They’re good for the environment. Except for that whole PYP warning.

Jeff’s books are hilarious. I just can’t recommend them enough. Call me subversive if you want.

Bookhound Book Reviews Posts Record Day!

Yay for me! I set up the Bookhound Review site a little over a year ago to keep up with all the books I read. Then it started getting traffic. More and more traffic.

Today I got over 100 Visits! It's the little engine that could!

So I thought I'd post it here to celebrate, and to prove to others that -- at least in the blogging world -- if you build it, they will come!

You can visit it here. Do it and run my numbers up! Forward it to a friend!

Birthday Present!

Tomorrow is my wife's birthday. I'm giving her money because it's always the right color and always the right size. Also, she has one of those really cool birthdays right during all the inventory sales, so she always gets more bang for my bucks.

But today I stumbled across picture from last year on my hard drive. Sherry took Chandler to the zoo. I had to stay home and work. I do that a lot. I haven't been to the zoo with him in three years or so. (I'm taking my 18 year old to Dallas next month to the Delbert McClinton concert at Billy Bob's, so I do things with them. I just didn't do this.)

My first resolution was to take Chandler to the zoo this year because it hurt to see what I'd missed out on. He loves animals and I forgot just how much. But I try to provide for my family. They're just growing up before I get everything locked down.

However, I realized that Sherry has probably forgotten all about this picture. Chandler is having one of the best times of his life. You can tell by that grin. So, for her birthday, I'm going to Wal-Mart tonight, use my handy zip drive, and blow this sucker up to an 8 x 10 or an 11 x 14 and find a frame for her.

I think this picture will be a great birthday gift for a mom that stays incredibly busy too. She's gonna look at it and remember how happy her son was that day, and those memories get to be incredibly precious. (After all, I have all the memories of taking Chandler to the comics store and book store last year. And coaching him in baseball and basketball. We all have our provincial domains!)



I'm still gonna give her money, though. Didn't want you to think I was a conniving husband just looking for a way out of gifting cash! :)

This One Had Me At Robot Detective!

It's apparently set in a 1950s kind of future. Check out the flying car through the window.

Gil's All Fright Diner by the same author was great, but his second novel, In the Company of Ogres just didn't work for me.

But I'm gonna roll the dice on this one.

Wizards of the Coast Launches New Discoveries Line!

The new books don't have anything to do with the game worlds Wizards consistly delivers. They're standalone adventures in different genres.

This is the first of many to come.

Synopsis

A riveting supernatural mystery like you've never read before.

The prodigal son leaves the big city to return to his dearly departed parent's house in North Carolina only to find, now that he's home, that something is trying to make damn sure he stays there--even if it means burying him out back.

In a small town with dark secrets, one man struggles to find a way out before the spirit of the town can find a way in.

Marking the debut of our brand-new imprint dedicated to showcasing the best new voices in speculative fiction, Firefly Rain is one of the most chilling, unique ghost stories ever penned. Mystery lovers will devour the clues. Fantasy readers will be sucked in by the magical atmosphere. No one will be able to put it down--until the very last twist comes to light.