Mike Sirota's Blog – 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 so much more than that, hence the all-inclusive “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.
Throwback Thursday: Mr. Mankind Still Creeps Me Out
Growing up in the 1950s I got to experience first-hand the new wave of science fiction movies that defined the era. One of my absolute favorites, INVADERS FROM MARS (1953), had the distinction of being the first film to present aliens and their spacecraft in color…
Will The TITANIC Really Sail Again?
Last month I watched the much-honored 1997 film, TITANIC, for the first time in many years. It reminded me that I had heard a replica of the doomed ship was under construction and would sail the same route, from Southampton in England to New York City, possibly in 2022. Was this true?
Throwback Thursday: All That Glitters…
I’d like to share a creepy scene from THE BURNING GROUND, one of my four horror novels. This is the final scene in chapter one, which takes place in 1849. (The balance of the story is contemporary.) I first presented this post in 2017.
“I’m The King Of The World!”—Well-Known Movie Lines That Were Ad-Libbed
Film actors and actresses—especially the most creative ones—will deviate from a script more often than you’d think. Some of the most iconic movie lines were improvised. Here are a few of them.
Throwback Thursday: FREEDOM’S HAND—Let’s Hope It Never Comes To This
Sadly, this award-winning novel—about a brutal white supremacist group in the 1990s—continues to be relevant today, as it was in 2017, when I last presented this post.
What Are The Lincoln Canes?
Abe Lincoln, our 16th president, is remembered for a great many achievements. The commissioning of the Lincoln Canes is probably not one of them…but it should be.
Throwback Thursday: “They’re Coming To Get You…”—Lines From Classic Horror Movies
The dialogue in horror movies can range from outrageously humorous to super creepy. Here are just a few, all of the films prior to 1990. This post first ran in 2017.
Myths And Legends: The St. Augustine Lighthouse
The Florida city of St. Augustine, located on the Atlantic coast and founded in 1565 by explorers from Spain, is the oldest European-established and occupied settlement in the U.S. It is also home to one creepy old haunted lighthouse—if you can believe the legends.
Throwback Thursday: Along The River Of Lost Souls
Lots of amazing things to see in the Four Corners region. I first presented this post in 2017.
A Journey Across Time To Save An Empire
A reader in the UK, one of my 17 international fans, 😊 recently wrote me to say that his old copies of my Sword & Sorcery novels, BERBORA and FLIGHT FROM BERBORA, had disintegrated and blown away on a slight breeze. I advised him that I had rewritten and reissued those two gems as THE SWORD OF TYRON and THE QUEST OF TYRON, which pleased him no end.
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