24:01 and other scary adventures

Did you watch the Twilight Zone as a kid? Or The Outer Limits, the Sixth Sense or maybe Alfred Hitchcock Presents? I enjoyed these as a kid. In fact, we kids would work hard to get the house cleaned on Saturday by three o'clock just so we could watch Alfred Hitchcock and later Beyond the Limits. BtL had made up stories based on real events, similar to Law and Order as in "stories ripped from the headlines", except BtL took stories from the  science realm instead of crime.  Many of the Twilight Zone shows were based on previously published stories by well known and not so well known authors. I have just finished reading a couple of books that could be used for such shows. I also have a short interview of Peggy Randall-Martin which fits right into the topic.

Do not adjust your computer. We control the light and sound. We control the horizontal....

First up 24:01 One Minute After.  Doesn't this just sound like a Twilight Zone - Outer Limits type of collection?

The Bamboo Mirror and other stories

      I was doing some research for one of my favorite authors yesterday who wanted to use the words of two songs in her newest book which requires getting a copyright release. Please take note out there, you can't publish even a fraction of the lyrics except for critical or teaching purposes without infringing on the copyright of the author. I know many of you are authors so I know how much you want to protect your work. We need to support and protect those rights. Songs written after 1902 rarely fall into public domain if they are popular, since the copyright laws have been changed several times in the last four decades to extend the life of the copyright. But occasionally people sell their copyrights without knowing how important they are. For instance, The Beatles' manager had them sell off the copy rights of their early songs. Maybe you remember when some of those copyrights went up for auction. Michael Jackson outbid Paul McCartney for those rights and now Paul can't sing one of his most widespread hits, Yesterday, without paying someone else for the right to do so!

     What I really learned doing this research is how prolific some of these lyricists were. You should see the list of songs under Gershwin or under McCartney. Well, it put me to shame, since I haven't posted for almost a week! It's not that I don't have some books to share and an interview or two as well. It's just that I let election work and convention stuff get in the way. Not to fear. I am back with a collection for you.

The Bamboo Mirror

By Faith Mortimer

Published by Topsails Charter

Length 164 pages

From Amazon: AN ANTHOLOGY OF SHORT MYSTERIES ~ suspense/ghost/romance

   Mystery-suspense-thriller writer, Faith Mortimer warmly welcomes you to her short story collection, “The Bamboo Mirror” (previously published as “Echoes of Life and Love”). In three of the stories the reader is introduced to sleuth, Diana Rivers who features in Faith’s mystery thriller series. In “The Bamboo Mirror” each story has a unique setting, always with a twist in the ending.

    

My Take:

     First, I want you to know that this is a collection of short stories and only 60% of the book is short stories. The last 40% is a collection of first chapters of Mortimer's longer works. Before you think you don't get your money's worth, let me remind you that we all pay well over two dollars for a magazine that might have one or two articles we want to read in it. In this small book you get six short stories. It also gives you a taste of what the author is like in terms of style and story.

    Second, the stories are well written but the tie up fell short for me. Awwww, but the writing is captivating! And, having read many short stories in magazines like Woman's World and First, I find the tie up must meet with the expectations of most people. Several of these are just like the short mystery and romance stories found in these magazines. And did I say the writing was good? What I mean is, while I didn't think so much of the resolution in the first story, which was a 'mystery' without real mystery, I couldn't stop myself from reading the second story which was by far the best of this book. And then I moved on to the third, fourth, and fifth and before I knew it, I was done. 

      Far and away, the second story, The Bamboo Mirror, is the best. It is about a young Diana Rivers' first day at boarding school where she mets two young friends who, not only get her in trouble, but are not all they seem to be. This story, while predictable, had strong writing and a solid finish. The images from the book will stay with me for a long while as the descriptions painted scenes in complete detail without going in each minute piece in agonizing detail. It takes a talented writer to be able to complete a vidid scene in less than 100 words where others would take 500 or more.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves good writing.

The Last Mountain Gorilla and other shorts

Short stories are amazing things.  An author gets a story told, a point made, or drives an image home in just a few pages, sometimes only one. Short stories vary in type and style, from those that tell the traditional story of setup, climax, resolution, to those whose sole purpose is to make you feel or think. I remember being disappointed and actually stopping my subscription to Science Fact and Fiction (commonly known as SF&F) when they began to publish what I termed psychological stories.  These stories were based solely on some obscure message about a person's thinking or feeling without a resolution of any sort. I missed the old conflict/resolution plots. However, sometimes, if they are written well and they hit home, 'psychological' stories can be exceptionally good. The best stories are either very strong conflict/resolution or psychological/resolution. We like to have some resolution. Then again, once in a great while you find books that have no solid resolution but are ultimately satisfying. If the image or emotion the story sets out to display hits home, the reader can sigh with satisfaction as well. Today's choice had me sighing all week.


The Last Mountain Gorilla
by Gary Ponzo
File Size: 126 KB
Print Length: 29 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

About the book:
There are three short stories in this little gem and well worth the money (less than a cup of coffee!).  The first is about a photographer trying to get a picture of a mountain gorilla during a civil war.  The second is about the

Science fiction or not?: 2030 by Albert Brooks

2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America

by Albert Brooks

St Martin's Press, NY,  May 2011

ISBN 978-0-312-58372-9

Available at Amazon 

It's science fiction, and it deals with the future, but it's not the far future.  For most of us it's our future, and we'll be living through it, and it's a perfect storm of all of our tendencies to put off until tomorrow what we could work on today rising up to bite us.

Albert Brooks (the writer, actor and director) has come up with an all too realistic vision of the America that's sitting out there only 18 years away.  The back cover tells us "its sooner than you think...it isn't what you imagine...it's already started, but you can't feel it yet...it's what happens to America."  And it's chilling.