Swords, Specters, & Stuff
Welcome to My World
I started this blog in January 2012 for one simple reason: I love to write. I named it “Swords, Specters, & Stuff” because I especially love to write about writing, about books and movies in my favorite genres, about authors that mean a great deal to me. But there’s more to it than that, which is why I included “Stuff” in the title. It is “Stuff” that gives me carte blanche to write about anything, which is why you’ll see stories about special trips to Cooperstown, Sedona, and other places; about getting older; about baseball; about the otherworldly way in which I met my soul mate; about the loss of good friends, and so much more. Enjoy! And feel free to leave a comment.
Guilty Pleasures: The Core
It is not for lack of box office that the 2003 sci-fi/disaster flick, The Core, is a guilty pleasure, because it supposedly made back its production budget, and then some. It was, however, a critical disaster, with crummy reviews panning everything from its plot “silliness” to its bad science. Regarding the latter, The Core was voted the worst science fiction film ever in a poll taken among a bunch of scientists.
My response: piss on ’em. I totally enjoy this film and will watch it every year or two until the Mother Ship arrives.
A New Website
I managed to nab the URL of mikesirota.com a long time ago, and ever since then it has connected people to my Mike Sirota Writing Services website. That time has come to an end, as I’ve officially retired from coaching writers, and evaluating/editing manuscripts. (Yay!)
Why now? Well, for starters, next year will be the last one in which I can still say I’m “in my sixties.”
Old Sci-Fi Film Still Shines
In a recent post about movie quotes I used the most familiar one from the 1951 classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Though I hadn’t seen the movie in a long time, I still remembered the alien catch-phrase from it: “Klaatu barada nikto.” So I decided the time had...
Let It Go
No, this post is not about a song from Frozen. (Great song, though.) I imagine you all know the old saying that begins, “If you love something, let it go.” Well, that’s exactly what I have just done with a historical novel, titled Stone Woman that—for me—has been a labor of love for thirty-plus years. Let me explain.
Write Well, Not Fast
Okay, this week I’m going to be a curmudgeon—something that I do quite well, actually. There are organizations, conferences, workshops—whatever—that stress sitting down with your laptops on fire and writing novels just as fast as you can. Write 5,000 words over a...
“…The Screaming Of The Lambs”
Fun time again with some memorable movie lines that span quite a few decades. Enjoy! “You still wake up sometimes, don’t you? You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs.” Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) has many notable lines in the 1991 Academy...
Guest Post: Circle Of Reign
Hello, my name is Writer Mike, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book. (Sorry Jacob, I couldn’t resist.) I must say, Jacob Cooper’s epic fantasy novel, Circle of Reign, IS quite amazing,
Short And Sweet II
Just got back from a short—but real sweet—trip to Idyllwild, a town over a mile high in Southern California’s imposing San Jacinto Mountains. Not that I ever need an excuse to go there, but in this case we made the trip to celebrate a significant birthday for my...
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
My dad, Murray Sirota, passed away at age fifty-nine in 1969, when I was just a mere slip of a lad—more or less. We knew it would happen; a couple of months earlier he’d been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, the end result of a lifetime of cigarette smoking, and...
Guest Post: The Hammer Of Witches
There is a disturbing true story behind the events depicted in The Hammer of Witches, a newly published historical novel by Basque scholar and good friend, Begoña Echeverria, one of my long-time writers. After a brief synopsis, I’ll have Begoña tell that story. In...
Latest Release
