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.
A Grand (Canyon) Mystery
Did the newlywed couple drown in the river and get washed out to sea? Were they murdered? Or did aliens abduct them right out of their boat? Nearly ninety years after Bessie and Glen Hyde set off down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, their disappearance remains shrouded in mystery.
Remembering Bill Paxton
A fine actor—and, from all I’ve ever heard about him, and even better person—Bill Paxton passed away a little over a month ago at the all-too-young age of sixty-one. A personal favorite of mine, Paxton played in quite a few of the fifty or sixty films that I include in my Top Ten. My way of remembering him is to look back at some of those roles.
Exploring The Planet Of The Apes: Part Four
If Rise of the Planet of the Apes was outstanding, then its sequel was even better. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes received a great deal of critical acclaim (90% on Rotten Tomatoes), and it took in over $700 million at the box office. Not bad for a franchise once thought moribund.
Exploring The Planet Of The Apes: Part Three
After the “craze” died down following BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES in 1973, not a whole lot happened for a long time regarding the series’ return to the big screen. Plans for a remake of the original began in the late ’80s but would wind up in “development hell.”
Exploring The Planet Of The Apes: Part Two
So how did the producers of the first two highly successful Apes films manage to get three more sequels out of the series—especially after the Earth was blown to space debris in the fortieth century at the end of the second movie?
Exploring The Planet Of The Apes: Part One
It began in 1963 as a slim novel, La Planète des Singes, written by Pierre Boulle, a Frenchman. Alternately translated as Monkey Planet or Planet of the Apes, it told the futuristic story of a world turned upside down, a place where apes were the dominant species, while humans had become mindless, speechless beasts. The concept just begged for a Hollywood adaptation, and thus began a film series that is still going strong to this day—the eighth installment scheduled to hit the big screen this summer.
The Bill Russell Syndrome
What does former National Basketball Association great Bill Russell have to do with leading classes and workshops about writing novels? I’ll tell you…shortly. But, first things first.
Guilty Pleasures: Armageddon
The 1998 sci-fi/disaster flick, ARMAGEDDON, grossed well over half a billion dollars—so why is it a Guilty Pleasure? Doubtless because its reviews were uniformly awful.
Guest Post: Tarzan, Jungle King Of Popular Culture
Author David Lemmo and I go way back to the early nineties, when he became one of the first writers to join a read & critique workshop that I facilitated in my home. David enjoyed reading—and writing—the same genres as I did and, given both his writing abilities and his offbeat personality, we really hit it off.
Films About Books: The Babadook
When William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist, proclaims, “I’ve never seen a more terrifying film,” you have to take notice. He was referring to the 2014 Australian psychological horror film, The Babadook, and I cannot disagree with his assessment. This one is designed to cause more than a few sleepless nights.
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